Press Reset - Episode 11: 'Booth Companions'

A note from Russ Frushtick, Senior Editor and Founding Editor of Polygon:

Video game trade shows are equal parts awesome and horrible.

Even after ten years of covering this business, I still get excited in the weeks leading up to a big show. There's still an element of mystery. Of unknown games being revealed. Of potential stories being covered. Every big name in the games industry is in the same building for a few days and, from that, unexpected things can happen. It's tremendously exciting.

The downside is that trade shows routinely make me physically ill. It's a draining week, filled with 18-hour work days. You're constantly surrounded by wet, smelly bodies and privacy is a pipe dream. The more you hammer away at stories, the more they keep coming in, a seemingly unending tide of interview transcriptions, new trailers and hands-on impressions. Catching the post-trade show flu is all but a certainty.

And yet, I would never want to give them up. Trade shows are important. They're landmarks. They allow the world to focus in on this industry. As journalists, it's our job to curate. To cut through the clutter of these insane weeks and tell you what you want to know and what you need to know. And we're happy to do it. So long as you give us a few days to recover afterwards.

- Russ Frushtick, Senior Editor and Founding Editor

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