E3 is a noisy place, but even amidst the din of a thousand flashing screens and booming speakers, I could make out the rowdy hooting and hollering at Tecmo's Gallop Racer 2004 display. A giant television screen showed racehorses at a starting gate, and betting chits were being handed out that corresponded to one of the horses on the screen. As the horses raced, onlookers cheered wildly in anticipation of the prize: a chance to pose with one of the provocative horse-jocky booth babes who strutted around the stage.

I noticed a conspicuous figure standing off to one side observing the raucous spectacle. She wore skin-tight futuristic garb with ridged, spiky shoulders pads and a wig of straight white hair. I approached her and did my usual spiel, to which she

Sayah talks about her MMORPG called Project-Entropia

fixed a chilly gaze on me. "I'm not a booth babe. I actually work with a product. I'm a news reporter character in a virtual world, and I thought it would be fun if I dressed up as the character."

"I'm covered up," she continues, gesturing over her elegant costume. "So I think I'm more cool than sexy. I feel very offended when people think I'm a booth babe. These women know exactly what they're doing with their bodies."

Sayah continues to tell me about her product, a MMORPG called Project-Entropia which is being demoed at the Swedish Pavilion nearby. She speaks in an elegant European accent, and the coldness with which she met my initial questions begins to soften as she tells me about traveling to Australia and Asia as a pro ice skater before her current work.

"This is our first show outside of Sweden, and it's my first time away from our booth. I decided to walk around and look at some of the other booths, and I've been trying to find out what American men like." She casts a dismissive gaze over Gallop Racer 2004, where a booth babe named "Coco Butter" is currently straddling a wooden horse-head stick and cracking her whip like a jockey-dominatrix.

"American men seem to like totally fake people. Big boobs and mouths. I don't understand it," she declares. I tell her I'm Canadian and that Los Angeles is a bit of a culture-shock for me as well. She smiles and invites me to the Swedish Pavilion to see her game.

By this time E3 is fast winding down, and I decide to spend my last minutes at Nintendo's booth. There's a special sort of tension that comes into the air during the closing minutes of E3, as exhibitors begin to strip down their booths and unload as

Jessica talks about the darker side of Pokémon plushies giveaways Nintendo fan demands a plushie Pokémon doll

much as they can—BradyGames and Prima hand out their display guidebooks, Logitec gives away peripherals, and press-only demo discs and swag are now tossed out indiscriminately. Everyone's on the hunt for those last bits of free stuff, and the hordes sniff out hot spots and congregate there like jackals around a zebra in its death-throes.

One such hot spot is Nintendo's Pokémon desk, where a gaggle of pushy E3 patrons were trying to persuade the girls behind the desk to hand out the last of the Pokémon plushies which were reserved for those had received a Pokémon token after waiting in line to see the DS. "If you don't have a token, you won't get a plushie. I repeat. If you don't have a token, you won't get a plushie!" yelled one of the girls who seemed to have things well under control.

"It's funny that people act this way over little stuffed toys," I say to another of the girls, Jessica, who is standing a few paces away. She smiles and nods in agreement. "I've been handing out buttons, screen-cleaners, and all kinds of things, and there have been people attacking us for free stuff. People will walk up to us and just try to grab it."

Jessica tells me how she spent a lot of time learning about the games, gets free ice cream from Nintendo, and is allowed to wear comfortable shoes. "Sorry if I'm a little distracted," she says. As she talks, her eyes are constantly darting back and forth between two nearby Game Boy Advance stations. "I'm on theft patrol here."

As we wrap up our conversation, I snap a picture of Jessica and thank her for speaking with me. She calls over to her frazzled companion at the plushie desk, who tosses over a mini Squirdle. Jessica hands it to me. I walk out of Nintendo's booth in the dying seconds of E3 clutching my notebook in one hand and the Squirdle in the other, and hear some of the guys clustered around the desk muttering, "so why did she get a plushie?"

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