To the untrained spectator the Tokyo Game Show looks and feels like a quiet and simple event with simple people and not much hype. I wasn’t really sure what to think, but I had a feeling the events would be big, but not this quiet so far.

The first two days of the event are for businesses only, but the crowd (aside from the train ride over) were not tremendous. Very polite businessmen, press and different media organizations took their photos and video of the event and that is exactly how it was. Big business it seemed as far as press, were in attendance, but did not overpower the show. Media crews were plentiful, but the glamor and presence were not overpowering.

To me, the Tokyo Game Show is turning out to be much more hands on than an E3 was, and much more appreciative to the community. Regardless if it is the actual culture of the Japanese people to be more inviting, or their approach on how to get user involvement is different than the American, but overall, from the booth babes to the actually exhibitors seemed like they wanted to be there and cared about what they were doing. They were not just hired help to guide you along with your experience, but they were people who care about this industry just as much as the people who are in it.

Some say that the E3 failed because corporate sponsors were spending too much money on enormous booths and shows, and saw little return from it. I would add that they failed because they did not have the heart. It is not easy to hire people who really care, all the time and really enjoy what they’re doing. Whereas the TGS seemed to have that feeling in every person that I encountered.

Another fun note to notice about the TGS is that the booth babes are mainly demonstrating most of the product and games. I recall in LA, where they would invite you in and some tall lanky kid would go over the games, but not here. These gals are showing and playing this games with you. Sure that makes the games overall look and feel a bit more attractive, but again, the heart was there the entire time.

Knowing and respecting your audience in my opinion has come a long way to gain my buy in to the purpose of this show. Although there are some announcements made, I did appreciate much more hands on activity with most of the games. Although Nintendo was a no show (as known), it seems like they did actually have to be there, since every publisher and their mother has impressive interactive Wii and DS games to show off.

From the 2nd day (1st for us visiting), I have been impressed. With a small crew of GotFrag faitful (Stu “rockstar” Grubbs [Executive Editor, FPS Labs] and Andrew “blind” Yamaguchi [HTML Head, Coverage, DPAD]) on my arms, the start was just the beginning.

Related: Tokyo Game Show Preview