TIME-BASED CONTEXT CHANGES
Events often have blocks of schedules that aren't uniformly times on the hour or half hour. They also don't typically run 24 hours a day, so there will be states when there's nothing currently going on or soon to happen.
Some events also have unique transitions. E3 regularly has press conferences from developers and publishers in the days leading up to the actual event, causing two distinct portions of content that users anticipate.
LIMITED SPACE
While displaying a schedule of current and future content is important for events, it needs to be balanced with the content being published and displayed. A similar consideration is how it can be added into the existing interface of the homepage without disrupting the existing visual hierarchy.
Major events are a critical part of coverage for GameSpot, meaning that most of the staff is wholly focused on creating content and other aspects of the business. The goal was to create a module that had as little overhead as possible to avoid adding extra work to any team or individual contributor.
