I remember seeing this
blog post back in 2013 and said "I wanna to go E3!" and applied and got in October that year.
I applied up to go to E3 2014 and didn't get selected and was super disappointed but I was able to get E3 passes last year through the program. It was awesome to get to do the thing I dreamed of doing as a kid reading EGM. With stuff like PAX and PSX you don't really need to go to E3 anymore but it was still awesome get to do it.
Now I can say I was at the keynote where Square announced FFVII PC Port and And the E3 press conference they announced FFVII *The actual thing we want* Remake. That's a pretty hilarious club to be part of.
At the beginning there was lots of stuff to do. A couple people got to go to the PS4 Launch party, one MVP got to go to a UFC game press event at a UFC card in Vegas, we got to give feedback on potential box art and collectors editions of games, we would be asked for feedback on games and systems(not even exclusively Sony). I think Sony also used to help people who did Wiki's and trophy guides and stuff too. There was a wide variety of things to do and there was a wide variety of MVP's with various skill sets and backgrounds.
It was fun.
Then the community manager left and a new person took over and they went all in on "We will give you free game codes in exchange for social media promotion". Problem was, pretty much nobody in the MVP program had any skill in that regard. Our metrics were garbage. You'd think they would do another round of recruiting and pick some people who actually had some skill in this regard but nope. Months upon months of terrible ROI and then slowly less and less time being given to the program until 3 months of dead silence before they finally decided to tell us what we already knew.
Not that better social media metrics would have likely changed the programs fate. Who knows.
I knew things were starting to go downhill when the minors who lied about their age when they applied would openly admit how old they were and nothing would happen. You legally can't agree to the NDA to be a member and we often get free codes for M rated games. A) why are you not smart enough hide your age and B) How are you not insta booted for doing so?
All the MVP's I met at the two PSX's and E3 last year were all cool and in the end what I got out of the program was worth what I put in.
Good. Sony needs constructive criticism, not adulation.
Not everyone in the program was like that.
Yes there were people who would defend everything because they thought they were supposed to, thought they could curry favor, thought they would get punished if they didn't toe the line or whatever.
But there was also people who would never hold back any criticism.
There was more than one MVP Gaf person. Not all of us took such a "public" approach to the position. Several Gaffers actually.
I remember that gaf poster helping out. I never read the official forums or seen any others on GAF.
GAF probably had 100 MVP's. Several dozen who were active both places too.
LOL What kind of access do you think we had?
