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Company Takes Stand Against Booth Babes
Swank1 writes "At this year's E3 (May 17-20) Agetec will launch its Anti Booth Babe campaign. Believing that booth babes take attention away from the games, Agetec wants to change the focus back to where it should be. They plan on doing this not by refusing to have booth babes, but instead by hiring ten unattractive women to work their booth. Agetec, a producer of video games and hardware for console systems, has launched AntiBoothBabes.com to get their idea going. Right now the site is just a splash page and a sign-up form for a free T-shirt, but the real fun will come at the Expo. In Los Angeles, during the convention, Agetec's anti-babes will be handing out 'Granny Panties' with Agetec's logo on it. An article discribes the initiative at XYZ Computing."
Agreed on that point. There are many things wrong with the "Booth babe" culture surrounding e3: treating women as objects, drawing attention away from games (maybe on purpose), as well as the general downward spiral the games industry (even more so on consoles) is currently undertaking. I dunno, maybe its time a small house came out with a less powerful system that had nothing but GREAT games on it, and gaming could be geeky again.
Br sigh, i guess ill be getting more game information from mtv than current gaming websites soon.
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
That's not only an insult, it's also discrimination. How about just hiring people who are qualified for the job?
When I first saw booth-babes, I thought it were some sort of sex-industry show. I think this would NEVER happened in Norway, and I was a little disappointed when I realized that it was for real.
World, the time has come to stop using girls to attract attention!
they would have just not hired "ugly women" (their quote, not mine)
...... something for E3. Yay.
Actually, that's XYZ Computing's quote, not Agetec's quote. I can't find anything about what they're planning on Agetec's site.
In fact, they look like a practically dead company if you look at their press releases on their site. Over the past YEAR they've released ONE press release.
Trying Google News found this article. Not very helpful.
My guess is that they aren't looking for "ugly" women, but in fact old women (based on the "granny panties"). My guess would be that they're going to have women who are at least 50 years old acting as "booth babes".
But yeah, this is just a giant publicity stunt. Quick, name one game that Agetec has published!
Here, look over thier official discussion boards (hosted at ezboard.com - no, seriously, they are, it's linked from their web page). (And, no, you can't actually view the three "private" forums at the bottom.)
There's practically no activity on those forums.
It's a publicity stunt for a practically no-name publisher trying to get some attention. And it's worked. (Of course, what games are they hoping to hype? Clicking on "Coming Soon" comes up with one. "WILD ARMS Alter code: F". Which, according to a Google search, is a remake of an older RPG.)
So, yeah. Some small company that apparently hasn't really done much of anything for the past year is trying to hype up
Find 'booth babes'(tm) who actually know something about gaming! AMAZING! I have met a few (albiet not many) women who are avid gamers. Some are attractive. They exist, so why not spend a little more money on finding and hiring those who know the product.
If car shows didnt have reps who knew their shit, the company they worked for would be pumled by angry consumers, consumers who refused to purchase that product due to poor representation. Same should be done here.
"this is the gloaming"
radiohead
Hiring "unattractive" women doesn't necessarily mean anything. I mean, come on. Here's an idea. Hire actual geeks. Both men and women. A woman who can talk to me about the evolution of role-playing games is ten times more attractive to me than some test tube blonde with implants whose gaming knowledge extends to Ms. Pacman. Hell, she might even make me buy want to buy their game. Having a passionate developer manning (personing?) the booth would be even better.
Instead of beign an "anti" movement, they ought to be "for" something that is lacked by placing an emphasis on appearance. Otherwise, it's just a publicity stunt...like booth babes.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
However, last time I heard, she was doing web-design, so she may not have the time to become the stereotype breaking - Hot but Game Guru Girl....
R.