My goal for E3 2005 was simple…I wanted to find a way in. You see, I am both a gamer and a girl, so when the ‘Christmas Holiday’ of gaming came up, I had to be there. Luckily for me, I had the chance to be a booth babe. I found that getting a way in wasn’t difficult through being a booth babe, but securing the best booth placement was a bit of luck.

In 2005, I got the spot I had been campaigning for at the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess booth for Nintendo. I suppose some girls would have preferred to be an idolized booth babe; you know, the half naked hotties who get paid out the wazoo, but I'll talk more about them in a just a second after I get my fun, geeky side out.

In the Zelda booth there were two other booth babes who were gamers too, so we were ecstatic. If you didn’t see it, you missed out on the coolest booth at E3! Nintendo recreated the environments of the game so that you could literally walk through them. The first room was made up of scattered three story high trees from Hyrule where you could play the demo of Link in the forest at one of the 15 kiosks. Then you walked across an interactive holographic bridge on the floor which had slats that disappeared with each step you took. You could also corral the fish images in the pond the bridge was hanging over. Next, you would meander through a castle hallway showing game sequences and would see what looked like a life-size model of a giant Stalfos Knight until he would come crashing into the bars holding him back from slicing you with his sword. The final room had 22 Gamecube kiosks of a forest dungeon and big boss demo, a huge overhead screen playing the sequence of Link turning into a wolf and a real animatronic wolf that would jump out from above a wall to startle you.

The best part happened in this room. If you were really lucky, like me, you got to talk with Shigeru Miyamoto. I just love him! This place must have been some sort of “Magnet for greatness vortex,” because I also got to meet the AMN god, “MadSkill” Ken.

I was floored to find out that some of the prettiest girls I knew, busting out of their tops and shorts all day couldn't get into the [after show] parties.

I also got to go above the whole scenario into the control room. It was a mezzanine platform full of computers and switchboards controlling the lighting and great musical accompaniment for the grand display. There were four people on the floor controlling the animatronic characters, two audio guys, and three others controlling everything else.

Behind the big Nintendo set was the lounge area complete with an old European coffee café and endless tables of catered food for the VIPs, special guests, and booth workers. All this was created to keep the posh delicate flowers (a.k.a. booth babes) happy during their breaks. I, however, opted for a Power Bar instead of resting in this room. Why? Well, you may not know this, but many of us booth girls only get two 15 minute breaks and an hour for lunch. So, I cleverly cached my short breaks, added them to my lunch break, and viola! I had some time to sprint to that crazed place, the West Hall, to quickly take in all I could.

Ok, back to booth babes. There are basically four categories of booth babes (pictured below) and within each of those categories there are two types of booth babes: cool and un-cool.


Specialty babes, like the Starcraft: Ghost chick…


Scantily clad features…


Decently dressed features…


And then just regular booth babes such as this.

I’m pretty sure you already know that 99.9% of booth babes would probably think a “console” is what you do for someone who is sad. They are generally clueless about gamers and the industry. This is due to game companies using recruiting firms that use promotional models who work all kinds of conventions from medical equipment to exterminator supplies.

Generally speaking, if a booth babe is a gamer, she will be fun and approachable because she is simply excited to be at E3. If she is dressed like she’s ready for a Maxim spread, she may be more apprehensive to talk up a storm because

There’s a line a mile long to meet her

She has been sweated on for a photo by a zillion guys putting their arm around her

She is basically paid to just stand there and smile.

So, if you find a booth babe who actually talks to you, just consider it a bonus.