For many gamers, the highlight of attending E3 is the glut of freebies they can take home. Otherwise known as swag, it can include anything from a lanyard to a T-shirt to a stuffed Pikachu, and is often highly coveted. Procuring one's swag can be a dangerous endeavor at E3, where one risks the possibility of injury caused by the frantic flailings of mad fanboys trying to grab that flying T-shirt before one has the chance to grab it. Indeed, gamers can be a rude and fierce race, a quality that is shown rarely with the same intensity as during a swag free-for-all. However, to cut down on the amount of crowd-related injuries and possibly to also encourage gamers to play the games shown at the expo, many game companies this year decided to try something new and make gamers work for their free junk. While we weren't able to nab everything, here are some of the cooler things we picked up at E3 and what we had to do to get them.

Most people do come to E3 to check out the new games, but some want the free stuff pronto without having to waste time playing a game they feel they might not truly enjoy. Well, many companies decided this year that in order to get the cute freebie, you'd have to play the baby game that you might otherwise waste your time on. Who knows, you may actually end up liking it.

Pokemon XD - If you were patient enough to stand in line to wait to play Pokemon (don't worry, we won't tell your tough Xbox fanboy buddies if you did), you could receive a moderately-sized stuffed Pikachu or adorable plush Plus or Minus (pictured at left) from the game.

Nintendogs - Tough guys probably claim that they wouldn't want to waste their time playing with adorable puppies, but they sure came flocking to try out Nintendogs on the Nintendo DS when it became known they were giving out Mario Kart styluses and cute mini-plushes of the dogs in the game. The stylus you got immediately when you planted your butt in the chair, but getting the dog required you to make your on-screen pup perform some tricks. I couldn't get the dog to do a darn thing I told it to, but was given the toy anyways so I'd leave/not complain.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King- A jaunt over the Square-Enix booth back in the day used to mean free slimes for all (okay, most), but in recent years it was not so. So, it came to our delighted surprise that Square-Enix was once again giving out squishy little figurines of everyone's favorite vacuous, joyful monster. That is, if you were willing to play the demo.

Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII- Now, it's not often you hear us talking about playing mobile phone games. Sure, we're all about games, but usually you don't get the same experience playing a game that was originally meant to be a time-waster while folks in Japan waited for their train to arrive at the station as you do playing a regular console game. Well, Before Crisis - FFVII turned out to actually be as close to a replica of FFVII's gameplay (with a different story of course--it's about Reno and Rude) as you manage on a cellular phone. I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't the least bit frustrating, but I did get a free phone strap with a screen cleaner even though my character died after fighting only 3 Shinra soldiers.

Pac-Mania - Again, it's rare to hear me raving about a mobile phone title, but Pac-Mania is definitely something I would consider getting for my phone. Of course, I might have walked right by the display if it weren't for the folks standing beside it wearing Pac-Man plush helmets that caught my eye. Pac-Mania is basically just another 3-D version of Pac-Man, but it's much cuter and true to the original in style than many of the other 3-D Pac-Man titles. Also, as a bonus for playing, I walked away with a tiny, cute Pac-Man plastic figurine.

Another way to get nice swag without the work of playing a demo (oh, the humanity!) is waiting in line to get something for free. E3 is full of lines, and most of them are of folks lined up to get a glimpse of some stellar new console or game, but some of them are just genuinely there for the freebies. I suppose there's the suspense of wondering whether or not they'll run out of whatever special item you're waiting for...

Age of Conan - Though I hadn't the patience to wait in line for an inflatable sword, Steve Dove did, and walked away with a nifty inflatable promo item for Funcom's Age of Conan MMORPG. Which I'm sure he promptly deflated to avoid looking like a geek. Right, Steve?

G4TV - Heading to our booth, I automatically assumed the crowd gathered outside was waiting to get Morgan Webb's autograph or to scope out the booth babes, but it turned out that our T-shirt bar was phenomenally popular. After all, we were giving out free shirts with your choice of size and design, which was probably not negotiable anywhere else.

To avoid running out of their precious freebies during the first hour of the first day of the show, many companies this year required attendees to work for their swag. Of course, there were many different ways of varying difficulty, but the bottom line remained that you couldn't be the laziest person ever and still walk away with bags of stuff.

We (Heart) Katamari - If you stopped staring at the stage at Namco's booth for any length of time, you probably noticed the human-being sized ball of junk on the right-hand side. What you may not have known was that if you stopped by the ball at the right time, you could contribute something of your own to the ball in exchange for an awesome Katamari mousepad. I brought a cool seashell that was in my car, but some folks brought trash and still got a mousepad.

Sega Booth - Remember the person yelling "SEGA!!" loud and fast at the end of the old Sega Genesis commercials? Well, if you could out-scream your spouse or your friend at the Sega booth, you just might have walked away with a T-shirt that said 'GAMER' on it in the Sega script.

Every time a crowd gathers in front of a stage at E3, there's likely to be free stuff thrown into the crowd after the performance. Of course, I can say from experience that being in the middle of that crowd when the swag-throwing starts is about as safe as being a baby in a mosh pit, but for those of you who really want a T-shirt it might be worth it.

Shirt Throwing - I'm not going to list this out by booth since basically the same thing happened at every booth. Here's how it goes: booth babes or dancers come out and put on a brief show to gather a crowd, then throw T-shirts or some other form of swag into the crowd after the show, and the crowd goes wild. Literally. You don't stand a chance of nabbing a shirt unless you have spectacularly long arms or are at least six feet tall, because the frenzy of a shirt-throwing cancels out any manners these gamers might have on a regular day and turns them into hunters of bounty.

Swag Swarming - Every now and then, someone will dump a bunch of freebies on a table and let the gamers go at it. I'm ashamed to say I was there at the Square-Enix booth when they just opened a pallet of Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia posters and watched as my hand flew for the stack along with two or three dozen equally grubby, grabby hands. To my surprise, I walked away with two posters and a lot of shame.

Though this year marked my fourth E3, it was the first time I was ever able to go with both business cards and a media badge, and though there were probably fewer times than ever when it mattered, let me tell you that it felt pretty good. In years past, there were many occasions where there were loads of cool things that you could only get with a media badge. In addition, there were tons of even cooler things that would require both a media badge and a business card. This year, it seemed that the really cool stuff was just handed out at random to any gamer, but there were a few times when I was just handed the goods without having to work for it.

Capcom Booth - Ever see a giant ice coffee machine with Viewtiful Joe on it? Probably not, unless you were at the Capcom booth this year, where they were giving away cans of Mr. Brown Ice Coffee emblazoned with the images of Viewtiful Joe and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney. I'm not real sure what everyone else had to do to get one, but the booth guys handed me one immediately after seeing my media badge. Sweet.

Conquer Online - I had never, ever before heard of Conquer Online before this year's E3, but when I most needed a pen, there was a table full of the fabulous glowing pens on tie-dyed lanyards. Okay, so they weren't the most exciting thing ever, but I was asked to give them my business card before they would hand it over. The best part is, I've not got one piece of spam yet from them.

Press kits--NOT swag!

Press Kits - Available at most booths to members of the media, press kits usually contain digital media including artwork and screenshots from the games that a company brings to E3. Press kits aren't swag at all, though sometimes they're considered as hot to the collectors as the real thing, as evidenced by the brisk business some folks were doing on eBay last week selling such items as the Metal Gear Solid 4 promotional booklet.

Well, that's all for this year, folks. Remember, sore feet and sunburn are always free.