E for All Expo? No seriously, what is it called?

IDG announced the official name for their new consumer-focused gaming convention: E for All Expo. No seriously, that's what it's called. Well, the full name is Entertainment for All Expo but the cool kids are going to shorten it to E for All Expo. This is, by the way, the ESA-blessed successor to the extravagance of E3.

Now before I rip into the name to tell you why it's horrible, I want to first say I feel bad about doing so. This is mostly because the name is consumer-generated since IDG held a competition to name the event. After 3,000 entries, they chose the above name (makes you wonder how horrible the other 2,999 were). I love consumer-generated stuff so regardless of the name quality, congrats to the winner. Way to go you! No matter what I say, you're still a winner.

To IDG, the name you picked sucks. I hate it... a lot. First, it's totally unoriginal. E3 was Electronic Entertainment Expo. There are 4 words in the new name and 2 of them you've borrowed from E3. C'mon now, you could have done better.

The name has terrible abbreviation options: EFAE or EAE. The latter makes me and Old McDonald want to sing along ala E I E I O. The former can be pronounced e-fay but that sounds like a cheesy rip-off of e-bay. The only thing I can come up with that's decent is to pronounce it like "Eff'ay", ala latino gangster: "Yo ess'say, you going to eff'ay?"

The name says nothing about games. Granted, neither did E3 but still, we should try to improve things in this world n'est pas? Entertainment for All Expo could very well be a music festival. Where's our identity as gamers showing through?

I take it back, it may obscurely reference games. E for All Expo is homophonically similar to "Free for All Expo". Unfortunately, that then makes it too damn FPS-centric. What about RTS'ers and MMO'ers. We're all gamers!

Can you imagine reading about the E for All Expo in actual news stories? If they don't abbreviate it to EAE (A quack quack here, a quack quack there), it's going to be an literal eyesore when coverage starts coming around. After a few times, I'm not even reading it anymore, just glancing over it.

It's too trendy. Yes, everyone loves the whole kumbaya of consumer participation but slathering it all over your name is just obnoxious obsequiousness. Yes, about as obnoxious as using the word obsequiousness. Can we just cowboy up and name the damn thing something cool rather than give our customers the courtesy reach around?

It's boring. Where's the fun? How is the vitality of our industry showing through here?

Anyways, hate the name. Can't wait to go though!

By the way, I just want to shamelessly bring to your attention that I totally called it back when the announcement of E3's death came around. I said the ESA would have to have strict rules to limit the participation in the new E3 (they did that) and when they do, someone else will come in to replace them as the big spectacle convention (our new beloved Eff'ay).