E3 'Booth Babe' Interviews Reveal Comedy, Tragedy

Thanks to GameCritics.com for its series of interviews with 'booth babes' at this year's E3 videogame show, discussing "the tales these women had to tell." A model promoting Saga Of Ryzom is asked "if she's comfortable with so many guys posing with her", and answers: "It's weird when they put their arms around me... but then I feel them shaking and I'm like, whatever, if it's so important to you... it's funny when guys come up to me and tell me that it's their first time touching a girl." Girls at the Nintendo booth are also interviewed, complaining of the trade-show melee: "It's funny that people act this way over little stuffed toys... there have been people attacking us for free stuff. People will walk up to us and just try to grab it."

Comments

Stumped for words.

[MindStalker]

Apparently slashdot is stumped for words. I guess the idea that booth babes can talk scared them into hiding under thier desk.

Re:Stumped for words.

[Alkaiser]

Please. This has more comments for a recently posted Games topic than most of the others I've seen lately.

I honestly can't believe anyone would have told the "talent" that this is their first time touching a girl. That's just a little too phenomenally stupid to believe, I'm sorry.

My first E3, I went around and took pictures of and with the women, after that, it was kind of...oh-kay, whatever. I just tried to do more interesting things. Like pose with them while holding a tube of Mentos. (That got a great reponse.)

The past couple years what I've noticed is how truly AWFUL some of these women look. For example, the Dual Screen Twins Nintendo hired. The most butt-ugly women at show. They were not a year under 40, and they were (as part of the presentation) trying to flirt up the voice of Mario, who looked to be about 65-70. The sad thing is, I think if they came on to him, he'd actually turn them down.

A lot of women just should NOT have been wearing those outfits they were putting on. I'm not of the "fat people should be shot" mentality, but I don't think you should be getting paid to traipse around in skimpy outfits when you are more likely to make people recoil than not.

This E3, which was kind of shocking, I dicovered that more and more of the employees and the show attendees are very attractive people. The girls working the booths without shedding their clothes were more prevalent, and better looking this year than any year in the past. So it was either, get in line to take a picture with a floozy who doesn't game, or strike up a conversation with a decent, attractive girl who does.

While this article was interesting, it didn't really show any dramatic insight or anything, in fact, that only piece of information I learned from it was that there were booth babes at the Total War booth, and that some of the women there were complaining their mouths hurting. (presumably from smiling the entire day.)

I think the most important line in the article is when the non-booth babe character tells the interviewer, "These women KNOW what they're doing with their bodies." If they didn't want to be hanging around in video game costume for hours, THEN FIND A REAL JOB! Yeah, they're people, people who are taking a job that basically demands they be objectified. If everyone talked to them about the games, they wouldn't have a freaking clue for the most part, and that would mean they didn't have a JOB either. So they can deal with it.

Appropriate Popup...

[White-out_On_Screen]

Somehow, it just seems fitting that I got a dating service popup when I followed this link...

From the article...

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps I have a dirty mind but this made me stop and wonder for a second why their booth was such a high volume spot:

This was another high volume spot, so I knew I would have to be brief. I approached Jessica, Kelia and Alicia and asked what it was like to sit there all day. "My mouth hurts," Jessica responded

Kind of makes you wonder...

Sterotype Battle! Objectification, I choose You!

[zipwow]

It's interesting to see one sterotype (women objectified by male-oriented games) discuss another (many gamers are male, lonely, and have no interaction with women). I'd hoped to hear some kind of positive comments as well, but I suppose when you're modeling, most people don't have long and involved coversations.

I notice at the article ends with, "Hey, why did she get a plushie?" I would've liked to hear the apparently female author give more discussion about what she personally thought about the situation. Clearly, some games objectify women. The racing game's "booth babes" seem to be a clear example. But what did she think about the woman dressed as the sword-wielding character? Was she affected differently than the horse jockeys that seemed to be nearly up for sale? And did she buy what the Swedish developer was saying about "just dressing up in a skintight outfit for fun"?

And why are all outfits in the future skin-tight anyway? :)

-Zipwow

IHRA Drag Racing 2005 girl quote

[hoferbr]

"My mouth hurts"
Out of context, that sounds kind of sexy...

Am I the Only One

[Cornflake917]

...that finds these girls, for the most part, unattractive? I suppose a few of them have good bodies. But none of them would make me "shake when I put my arms around them." I can't believe there are actaully guys who are that deprived. I think it's a very inaccurate stereotype that "nerds" don't get any action. I find that most girls are very attracted to intelligence and to guys with a passion for technology.

If you're one of these guys who goes to E3 conventions and freak out around girls that are halfway attractive. Do us slashdotters a favor and stop giving us a bad name by freaking out these poor women! At least pretend that you've touched a girl before or something.

Re:Shaking just to touch

[Descartes]

I don't think I've actually touched another human being in a couple years.

Seriously? I just don't understand this. Maybe it was the way I was raised but I often hug my friends male and female. I can't imagine not being able to touch other people. Although I'm not surprised at the E3 guys being a little nervous when they pose with the booth babes the line about having never touched a woman really surprises me. Maybe they just mean "I've never touched a hottie before".

The question is, what does one do about it?
Take a ballroom, swing, or salsa dancing class. Don't worry if you can't dance, that's why you take the class. As I said I've never been squeamish about touching other people, but I definately felt more comfortable with it after I took a couple dance classes in college. I also took a relaxation class where we gave eachother massages which was pretty good. and I got P.E. credits for all of them.

Fess up

[NanoGator]

" it's funny when guys come up to me and tell me that it's their first time touching a girl."

Okay, time to come clean. Which one of you was it?

Re:Shaking just to touch

[NanoGator]

"The question is, what does one do about it?"

Sadly, society isn't very nice to us geeks. So we're down on ourselves. It doesn't help that we think women are attracted to blond

haired blue eyed athletic gits. Combine low-self esteem with a misunderstanding of what women are attracted to, and you've got

yourself two people who'll never hook up.

What can you do about it?

a.) Don't approach a woman like she's the most precious thing on the planet. They hate that. Besides making them feel

not-so-special, it also feels like talking to you isn't possible without strings attached. Chicks dun wanna hurt your feelings.

b,) Don't draw attention to what a loser you are by telling them that you haven't had many girlfriends. I don't mean lie. Instead,

resist the temptation to tell them your sad story. They dun like damaged goods.

c.) A date is about having fun, not about showing the girl how nice you are. There's no need to pull a chair out for her. Put yoru

energy into being entertaining.

d.) Don't talk about Star Trek, Slashdot, Linux, or quote Monty Python. They don't have the slightest interest in any of those topics

so it's not like they can interact with what you're saying.

e.) It's okay to have a cheeky sexual side. Resist the temptation to hide the fact that you're interested in sex. (Don't hump her

leg, either.)

f.) It's okay to have your own opinions. If she asks if you like Ricky Martin, the answer is NO, not "well I guess he's okay".

Chicks dun like yes-men.

g.) If you have to fart near her, make a show of it. I don't know why this works. (Note: Do not aim at her more than once.)

h.) Don't give her your phone number without getting hers. DO yourself a favor and avoid the whole "I'll call you" brush off.

i.) It's okay to OCCASIONALLY tell a woman she's pretty, but never ever EVER say "not as pretty as you".

j.) If they ask for an honest opinion that you know will get you into trouble, say "Yeah right, I know better." Telling them what they want to hear won't get them closer to you, niether will telling them their ass looks big.

k.) It's okay to have passion, but it's not okay to be fanatical.

I could keep going, but these are the big ones. The most most most important one is to treat her like a friend, not like you're applying for the job of boyfriend.

Foot in mouth...

[km790816]

I went to the GDC in San Jose in 2002. Almost every booth had a beautiful woman that would approach me when I walked by, give her little 30 second schpeel and then bring me to someone who "really" knew what they were talking about.

I started getting cocking as I figured out how this worked (it was my first conference.)

Late in the day I was looking through some literature at a booth and another beautiful woman approached me asking if I had any questions. I said that if I had any questions I'd find someone who "really" knows what they are talking about.

Her reply: "Um, I'm the vice president."

Ooops...

Re:Foot in mouth...

[Chester K]

another beautiful woman approached me asking if I had any questions. I said that if I had any questions I'd find someone who "really" knows what they are talking about. Her reply: "Um, I'm the vice president."

First J. Edgar Hoover, and now Dick Cheney. What's this world coming to? :(

I read Slashdot for the articles!

[phamlen]

Alright, fess up!

How many of us read the article just to see the pictures of the booth babes?

Re:Sterotype Battle! Objectification, I choose You

[LehiNephi]

I, too, didn't realize that the author of the article is female until the "why did she get a plushie" line. I suspect being female helped the booth babes open up more willingly.

I wonder if/why so many of the attendees were lonely males? And why they shake when getting close to touching a woman? The last time I was playing video games with other people, it was with four other males. All of whom are married.

Personally, I might also be shaking, but that's because I don't feel comfortable being in close physical contact with any scantily-clad woman who is not my wife. Perhaps the reason the babes had such a strong impression of pale-skinned, shaking nerds was because all the happily-married men weren't clambering for a photo op.

What's your proof that women dig intelligence?

[GuyMannDude]

I find that most girls are very attracted to intelligence and to guys with a passion for technology.

Would you mind tell us how you came to this determination? I'm not being an ass; I really want to know. I've never found any indication that this is true of "most girls" like you suggest. Oh sure, I find lots of women who claim they are attracted to intelligence. But I think many say this because it sounds a lot better than stating that they are attracted to good-looking morons. There's also a question of what they mean by "intelligence". Many people (not just women) seem to think that those people on Jeopardy who have crammed tons of useless trivia into their heads and can regurgitate it at will are intelligent.

While I am not a techie, I am a mathematician. And you know what? When I tell women that I'm a mathematician, they give me an obligatory "ooh" or something along like that before starting to tell me about how much they suck at math or hate math or didn't understand math. That's pretty much where the conversation ends. Sometimes, I'll get someone who still wants to know more about what I'm working on. But even that conversation doesn't go on for very long.

I'm sure some here will argue that it's unfair to expect a non-scientist to ask too many questions of a mathematician they are meeting socially because there is such a large barrier to entry in the field. I disagree. Hell, I don't know shit about marketing but when some woman tells me that she works in marketing I can ask enough questions to keep the converstation going. Hell, even generic questions like "Can you describe for me what a typical day at work for you entails?" or "How much interaction do you have with coworkers/bosses/customers?" or "How much stress is involved?" It's hard to take their lack-of-questioning to be an indication that they are secretly attracted to my intelligence.

Again, I'd really like to hear how you came to the conclusion that women are "very attracted to intelligence and to guys with a passion for technology." I haven't really seen any clear evidence of that. I think the women are mostly looking for someone who is (a) kind, (b) stable, and (c) fun to be with. I don't think your IQ or ability to recompile your linux kernal really enters their decision process to any signficant degree.

GMD