So today I went to my first Wired Nextfest. It's a convention by Wired magazine that shows off future and developmental technologies in space, science, entertainment, eco-friendly stuff, and so on.
Although not necessarily game-related, near the end of my stay my eye caught some Pikachu. Upon closer inspection, there was a a demonstration of an "attraction" that was based on the Safari Zone areas in Pokémon games.
Essentially, there's life-sized Pokéballs in an easter egg hunt. (The balls are HUGE. A child's two hands could possibly only cover a hemisphere on it.) The Pokéballs have some sensor that let you play some sort of hot-and-cold sort of thing where they'd blink and sound louder the closer you are (though you don't have some device on you).
The Pokéballs can't be opened though, which is quite weird. They also have other things in them, like motion sensors and
wireless connectivity. The overall goal is to collect 6 Pokéballs, bring them over to the counter or park patron managing the attraction and put them on a base where you can find out what Pokémon happened to be in them. Oddly enough, I don't recall there being any speakers on the balls so that you can't even hear what
could be inside.
I honestly have no idea what the prize is. There was a demonstration video that showed "Pal Points" that could be earned. Maybe this attraction already exists.
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If anybody was curious about what NextFest is like, it's kinda...underwhelming. I think it takes up the biggest main hall of the L.A. Convention Center where E3 is hosted at. The hall was actually two halls together...but there's no real border to differentiate.
Also, it's actually really not that big for a 4-day convention. You can actually see everything in
an hour and a half. Right. Admission is $20 but if you're a student, you can knock off $5. I highly suggest you view who's going to be there and show off what or you're going to feel ripped off. Seeing all the robots were neat though. They even had that "femenine" one that's like 1-foot tall.
If you're expecting something game-related, prepare to be disappointed. The only thing I saw was some motion-sensitive unicorn racing game that was rendered poorly. Not even game hardware or a computer device. Well, there was this very compact DESKTOP PC......
I think I was more surprised at how the main E3 hall managed to get in there. I assure you, if you ever visit, E3 is fucking cramped because there's a shitton they put in there. It will EASILY get hot in there.
Also:
YouTube - KillaCycle Crash LA Wired NextFest
Unusual Pokémon attraction (also a NextFest thread) 
