e3-booth-babe posts

E3 2009 was not only a return to the big trade show event version of our favorite week of the year in games (we are still trying to forget those two horrible years of just media folks going to meeting rooms). It was also a return for the booth babes. Some people love to see them and other want this trade show tradition thrown out with the baby water. But they are definitely coming back for E3 2010.

G4TV had several booth babes at their E3 2009 exhibit hall space and this year they are asking potential female models and spokespeople to submit a video of themselves saying why they should be the official G4 booth babe. Submissions must be made by May 19. A group of judges will then pick a number of video submissions and post them on the G4 web site where readers can vote for their favorite booth babe from May 24-June 4. The top three vote getters then go through another G4 judging panel and they will pick the final winner. That woman will be flown to Los Angeles to be G4's booth babe at E3 2010. And it's likely we will take a picture of the winner. And it's likely you will look at it. Don't pretend you won't.

If some of you need proof that booth babes will be back at E3 2009 consider this new blog entry over at IGN for the upcoming first person shooter Wolfenstein. Kevin Long, the head artist at the game's developer Raven Software, talks about designing the look of the game's Elite Guard, the sexy female enemies that first appeared in the game series' previous entry Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

So what, you may ask? So this. It's also mentioned in the blog entry, "If you are interested in seeing real-world versions of these femme fatales, they will be at our booth at E3." Oh yes, we are very much interested in seeing them . . . maybe too interested.

Ok, forget we wrote that . . .we are just a little tired from packing to go to LA to cover E3 2009. Back to your regular programming.

Call them "booth babes", "booth models", "performers" or even "sexist", the fact is that in the past the Electronic Entertainment Expo has featured a large number of actors and models, mostly from the Los Angeles area, who have been hired to walk around the show floor or hang at specific exhibits to help companies promote their products at the video/PC game event. A few of the models have gone on to do much more higher profile work over the years.

When E3's owners, the Entertainment Software Association, decided to go for an invite-only conference meeting version of the show in 2007 and 2008, it seemed like the era of the E3 booth model was over. However with this week's announcement that E3 was returning to a larger event, the biggest question was, "Will booth babes return?" At the moment the answer seems to be that the ESA won't disallow models from the show floor but its ultimately up to the exhibitors to decide whether or not they will bring them to E3 2009.

Today we will look back at E3 over the years and highlight some of the trends in terms of booth model use at the show. Will we see these kinds of images next year at the show? It's still up in the air.

[Above photo credit: Firingsquad.com]

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