LOS ANGELES -- For everyone in town for E3, the video-game industry's annual extravapalooza, there were few better places for seeing and being seen than the Figueroa Hotel.
Just a block from the Los Angeles Convention Center, where the convention is being held, the hotel was swarming Tuesday night with hotshot gamers and industry executives, almost everyone in an expansive, intoxicated mood.
Wednesday, however, was not E3 at its best. Even as the hordes jammed into the convention center, much of the building's power was out, and huge numbers of people waited hours to get their badges.
"Maybe they can start a new expo with board games," said Stephan Persoons, the editor in chief of Fragland.net. "The fact that it takes hours to repair a broken circuit says a lot about how well they're set up."
With the air conditioning out, it was hot inside. As attendees waited anxiously for the show floor to open, sweaty people abounded. Yet, the mood was upbeat. Cheers and shouts rang out and the excited chatter of thousands of gamers about to enter their ultimate candy store filled the entrance hall.
This appears to be the biggest E3 ever. Whether it is anticipation for next-generation consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo isn't clear, but regardless, it's wall-to-wall people throughout the convention center.
And while the booming noise and explosive visuals of the hundreds of company booths inside the exhibit hall are what most people are here for, there are some unexpected surprises outside.
Not far away, outside the convention center's south hall, dozens of demonstrators argued that the voice-over talent in games should get a bigger piece of the pie.
"We're saying we would like to receive residual compensation," said Chris Edgerly, an actor who has done voice-over work for games such as Halo 2, Call of Duty, Lord of the Rings and more.
Actor James Cromwell, the national secretary and treasurer of the Screen Actors Guild, exhorted the demonstrators to stand up for the right to share in the success of a hugely profitable industry.
"What they will reduce us to is sweatshop workers," Cromwell told Wired News. "When you stifle the creators, what you get is shitty products."
Inside the conference center, though, the mood is unabashedly pro-industry.
As is the norm, attractive young women in suggestive outfits are everywhere, hawking this product or that service. The so-called booth babes are hired by agencies and brought to E3 from all over the country.
Kelly Backer, who is wearing a skimpy skirt with playing cards covering her breasts, is touting Yahoo Games' new poker offering. She stops handing out promotional cards every few seconds to pose for photos with her cohorts, and says she enjoys wearing such unusual attire.
"I guess it's not something we'd walk around (in public) with," said Backer, who usually works as a personal assistant in Decatur, Georgia.
Meanwhile, countless gamers are walking around, playing demos -- or waiting to play demos, or waiting to have their picture taken with a booth babe.
With so many war games on display, it isn't surprising to see real soldiers walking around the convention center. They're here promoting America's Army, a game that claims to give players a nice, safe look at what it's like to be in the military.
"It's also a good informational tool for family members, who have a nephew or niece that's in the military," said soldier Daryl Conrad. "They can get into the game and see what's going on."
What's going on at E3 is that thousands of people have come to see the latest and greatest the video-game industry has to offer. The hall isn't as loud this year as in the past, but the enthusiasm may be greater.
"It's exciting just to see everything new, and see all the stuff that's going to be coming out in the next year," said Johnnie Nebrich, who works for Target in Arizona but who paid his own way to E3. "It's going to be amazing."
