There are so many posts going up about who loved or hated E3 that the discussion over the show format is overshadowing coverage of the video games previewed in Los Angeles last week. The elegies for E3 are flowing throughout the Internet.

Industry agent Keith Boesky said people told him that the empty hallways were “post apocalyptic.” A telling moment for me: Tom Russo, former G4TV programming head, waved at me from a few hundred yards away, in the empty corridor, and yelled, “Dean, can you see me in the crowd?” John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, told the San Francisco Chronicle that “I hate E3 like this,” while Laurent De Toc, a Ubisoft executive, piled on, saying the show was more like a convention for pipe-fitters.

Even Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, interrupted his discussion of game industry stocks for his own mini-tirade. He wrote, “The show was small in scope, and the spectacle of E3 is dead. The Los Angeles Convention Center concourse was as quiet as a college library during summer, with little to attract media attention.  The main game display area was similar in size to a school cafeteria (as compared to filling the entire convention center), and the ‘fireworks effect’ of past shows was reserved for the evening parties.”

Everybody has an opinion on how to fix it. To recap, E3 drew more than 80,000 attendees in 2006, but big companies complained the costs were skyrocketing and the May show was causing them to pull engineers off their games just to spruce up their E3 demos. To show that it was industry’s best friend, Sony staged huge parties with thousands of guests on a hilltop near Dodger Stadium. The Entertainment Software Association, which sponsors the show, shifted the 2007 show to Santa Monica and carved back attendance to 5,000, mostly journalists. This year, the show stayed at 5,000 but was held in the cavernous Los Angeles Convention Center.

“The irony is that we have a cultural revolution, with more people enjoying interactive entertainment than at any other time in our history; the video game industry has never been better,” said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. “And you would think that we are going out of business here. We’ve lost the opportunity to stand up on our soap boxes and shout, look at me. The one thing the traditional E3 did was light the place up like a roman candle lit at both ends and focus the world’s media attention on us.”

Mike Gallagher, head of the ESA, told me before the show that the invitation-only event was centralized and designed to be very efficient for key opinion makers. But I’m fairly certain he was disappointed that fewer than 100 attendees showed up for his own keynote speech and less than 50 showed up for Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s speech. (I suggested they offer journalists free food if they attend, though I myself was perfectly happy to attend without that enticement).

Gallagher told the San Francisco Chronicle that the association would likely increase the numbers at next year’s show. Holly Rockwood, spokeswoman for EA, said many members of the ESA believe that the show can be improved next year by adding a consumer element.

The Tokyo Game Show should serve as a model, said Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association. That show, which will be held Oct. 9 to 12 this year, allows press exclusive access for a day and then opens the doors to the general public. The latter usually dress up and provide the