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E3 2005 Booth Babe Hall of Shame
DanAckerman writes "GameGal.com offers some of the out-of-control examples of Booth Babe excess seen every year (five years running) at E3 in their annual Hall of Shame gallery." From the article: "They're smiling on the outside, but three days of snapping Poloroids with sweaty game geeks leads these girls to swear off Guild Wars forever."
What article? It's a web page with five photos. Doesn't "article" insinuate some text and story?
I imagine very few attendees are under the illusion that these women are doing this for anything but money. Yes, there are better jobs, but with so many people having dreams of being an actor/actress, and relatively few positions to fill, this certainly isn't the worst gig available. Better than strip clubs and Valtrex commercials anyway.
I imagine very few attendees are under the illusion that these women are doing this for anything but money. Yes, there are better jobs, but with so many people having dreams of being an actor/actress, and relatively few positions to fill, this certainly isn't the worst gig available. Better than strip clubs and Valtrex commercials anyway.
Why? Why is this better than a job at a strip club? I'd be interested in hearing your reasoning on this. I would think that wearing some idiotic wizard bikini and letting sweaty geeks snuggle up to you for hours on end for a pitiful amount of money would be much worse than dancing up on stage -- safely away from the sweat and blubber of the fans -- for a few minutes a night and much more money.
Once again, we Americans are showing our puritanical roots, with the old credo, "Violence is ok, but anything to do with sex or sexuality is very shameful and bad!" So the companies use good looking women to attract attention to their products, wow, such crimes against humanity should not be allowed to persist in our "enlightened" society. Oh, by the way, pass me another beer while I watch a bunch of foreigners get blown up by our precision guided 500 pound bombs on CNN.
Sorry, but I think there are a lot of things to be upset about in this country of ours and booth babes are waaaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of the list.
From what I can tell, they're not even smiling on the outside. And I doubt their Guild Wars plans were very intense before swearing it off forever.
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If this was a car show I could see booth babes being around, but video games? Wtf? If this is the kind of perception gaming developers and producers have of gamers its no wonder Nintendo is constantly cranking out award winning games and capturing a loyal audience. Kids don't care about booth babes. Casual gamers don't care about booth babes. Hardcore gamers may stare for a little bit but even they know that it all comes down to gameplay. What kind of jobless losers are these developers try to attract with booth babes?
Attractive women getting paid to stand around and draw attention to thier clients' booths? Appalling!
Next thing you know, they'll start paying strong, athletic people just to play sports, or they'll pay introverted, academic types to research new technologies! Oh, the humanity!
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Ya, the presence of and gawking over booth babes is sexist and objectifies women. Now, why am I supposed to care? I'm sorry ladies, but guys are very simple creatures, we like looking at semi-naked, good looking, women. If they happen to be in a costume that reflects a particular interest of ours, then all the better.
There is sort of a catch-22 going on at shows like this one. Gaming has usually been the domain of males. Because gaming has been primarilly the domian of males, the advertising is aimed at males. Since the advertising and games are aimed primarilly at males, the industry attracts a mostly male audience, goto 10.
Booth babes are going to be a part of gaming for a long time to come, and I doubt they will ever disappear entirely. Once the industry matures (no pun intended) we should see that sort of advertising toned down a bit, but it will still be there. At the end of the day, it's still easy to sell a guy on sex, so advertisers will still be doing it for years to come. Look at the music industry, do you really think Britney Spears would have done so well if she had dressed respectfully?
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
At least strippers don't have to pose next to a fat bald guy so he can show the pictures to his friends as proof of his story that he made out with a hot chick.
No, instead they get to give the bald fat guy a lap dance, and feel his dick getting hard as they grind against it in a sexual manner. Honestly, if I was a female, it'd take far less money to convince me to pose with a bunch of geeks for pictures than it would to convince me to rub myself all over those same geeks.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
What I am confused about is, although those booth babes are being horribly mistreated and exploited, I haven't heard one of them complain.....
I wonder why that is.....
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1. "but three days of snapping Poloroids with sweaty game geeks leads these girls to swear off Guild Wars forever." -- How many were considering Guild Wars before?
2. How much of the motivation for these women's presence came from the marketing dept trying to convince their own developers to come to the show?
3. Usually frills like these are a good indicator of an oversaturated, undergrowing market. And again, the indicator is proven true.
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Give me a normal looking person in jeans and a t-shirt who clearly feels comfortable and enjoys where they are and has something honest and interesting to say ANYDAY over a stupidly-clad smile-bot who's only interest is in getting a paycheck.
Really, why don't they just get someone who adds real value to staff the booth as opposed to just stand around and be animate furniture? Or, hell - just admit that they're playing on the sex urges and hire escorts, giving away a free romp every hour?
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Thes people can frankly piss off, for all I care. Nothing bad was going on here. I've seen far skimpier outfits at the beach. FAR skimpier. And these women were basically playing characters from the games. The vast majority of them probably don't give a rats ass either, especially if the money is good.
Men are attracted to women. And people have been using this fact to sell things for years. Why is it a crime now? These critics need to get over themselves, stat.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
The mass media mocks and laughs at the video game industry. Booth babes in a 'media only' show? What kind of -professional- reporter fall for that kind of trick? (Bribes? Future blackmail?) Its this kind of attitude that created this news report in the first place. We have video game reporters posing for pictures with no-name, "I don't a damned clue what the hell this company is trying to sell but I'm all dressed up/down" women and the public is supposed to take us seriously?
IF E3 was an open to the public show, fine I could see this happening. Say its a bunch of overzealous fanboys cosplaying. But companies hiring these obviously uninterested women to stand around looking pretty doesn't do very much towards video game development.
How would these women lure nerds over to their booths? Aren't most nerds intimidated by beautiful women?
You really think that people treat "booth babes" the same way they treat other women? I doubt it, here is why.
If you have sold yourself to someone (your looks, your body), so they can then sell me a product, I have no respect for you. Your tits are for my pleasure, to leer at if I wish, that is WHY you got hired, remember. Same with your ass, and any other part of yourself that you are using to "attract" my attention. That is why you got hired. You sold yourself, and more properly, your sexuality, to a third party, to get me to purchase a product.
Does that mean I would leer at a woman in public, of course not. Does that mean I think that women are nothing more than a loose collection of body parts, that are solely for my enjoyment, of course not. Does that mean that I disprespect women? Of course not.
But hey, if you want your tits to be selling that new funky gadget, then be prepared to be stared at, and spoken to like your not really there. Do I care if you have any thoughts on the subject, no, I don't. You are the hired tits, so stand there showing your tits, and shut up. If I want more information on the subject, I will ask the person who is NOT dressed like a cheap whore.
You can not demand respect from others, when you don't respect yourself first. If you think pimping out your tits to the highest bidder at a trade show is the first step to self respect, then you are terribly mistaken.
Does that mean that I disrespect all women who do trade shows? Of course not. I am sure that you are all bright women, with wonderful futures. But when you are filling the role of "attention getter", you will get no more respect from me, than a life sized poster would in the same situation.
Having sexy women around to attract people is not sexist and does not objectify women. Plain and simple. If anything I imagine it's empowering and I'm sure they do well financially.
There's nothing sexist about looking at an attractive woman for any reason.
You sound like a self important teenager who can't get a date. Shut up and listen up. The women are in control. They have what you want and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. While you struggle desperately to get laid once a year they need merely bend over. And that fucking kills you doesn't it?? Get over the fact you weren't born female and get a grip. These women aren't selling themselves, they're making a quick buck, dating eight guys at once on the side, and laughing at guys like you as they do it.
Yeah, I bet that's what prostitutes tell themselves too.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.