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Booth Babes: An Ongoing Controversy
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posted by: Shawn Rider
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date posted: 02:28 PM Thu Jan 26th, 2006
last revision: 02:31 PM Thu Jan 26th, 2006



Click to read.The Electronic Software Association (ESA) announced yesterday that they would enforce a stricter rule about \"booth babes\" at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2006. The changes implement a $5000 fine for violating existing guidelines about appropriate attire for models hired to promote companies during the show.

Many companies hire models of both sexes to dress up like game characters and attract attendees to spend time in their booths. Some companies take it a step further and dress up pretty ladies like their most scantily-clad characters (Galadriel in a mostly see-through gown to promote a Lord of the Rings game? Please! Give us Aragorn or any hobbit or dwarf.)

Some companies go even further, hiring pretty ladies to stand around in their underwear or bikinis and take photos with guys who walk by. These are the \"booth babes\" targeted by the ESA\'s regulation: bikini bottoms, underwear, and other sexually suggestive clothing will be banned, and that ban will be enforced in 2006.

We have yet to see how (or if) this will affect E3 2006, but with two new consoles and a whole sea of next-gen gaming, we don\'t plan to spend much time talking to anyone who doesn\'t have a controller in their hand for us to pick up.

But the news got us nostalgic for years gone by, and we decided to re-encode our \"classic\" (well, \"old\") 2001 documentary, Booth Babes. This has consistently been one of the most popular files available on the site since we posted it in June 2001. It was shot during E3 2001, May 17-19, at the LA Convention Center. We had already noticed a steady decline in booth babe presence, and we\'d say that booth babes have become more and more rare since GF! began attending E3 in 1999.

Booth Babes: A Short Documentary was a stab towards a more multimedia-oriented GF! that we\'re always striving for. Matt Blackburn, who used to review PC games for us is the interviewer. It was directed by Sarah Wichlacz, who also shot the video. Shawn Rider handled the editing, using stills from then-editor Al Wildey. DJ Funken Wagnalls provided the music.

Download Booth Babes: A Short Documentary

Get Booth Babes formatted for iPod (.m4v file, 39MB)

Get the original Booth Babes (.asf file)
Download broadband version (17MB)
Download narrowband version (7MB)

.Torrent Link for the biggest Booth Babes: Hi-res AVI file (~138MB) available when the seeds are up.

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