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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."

23 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. So what? by etymxris · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  2. Booth babes by secolactico · · Score: 5, Funny

    Boothbabes faking a sleepover party? WTF! Now I'm embarrased of being a gamer...

    At least there was a pillow fight, right? Everybody knows no babe sleepover is complete without a pillow fight.

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  3. You mean the geeks, right? by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oh god, if some of those men could only see how fucking stupid they look when they come across booth babe they might get a sense of WHY it is that they can never get a girlfriend.

  4. Re:Why? by QuantumRiff · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mom,
    I told you to stop posting to slashdot! Please keep our family life out of this!

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    What are we going to do tonight Brain?
  5. America the Puritanical by witchman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:America the Puritanical by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 4, Insightful
      You'ld find it less than comfortable. The girls are just pointing out the same thing.
      No, they're just trying to drive up traffic to their website by posting pictures of half-naked women. Just like the booth babe employers.

      If there was... iduno... content to the hall of shame aside from said photos, I might feel differently. But there isn't and I don't. The booth babe interviews from previous years are much more interesting and better at humanizing the issue (however much or little an issue it is).
      --

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    2. Re:America the Puritanical by Guppy06 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Violence is ok, but anything to do with sex or sexuality is very shameful and bad!"

      Look, I like tits and ass as much as the next guy, but there's a time and a place for everything, and I get sick of T&A being over-used to hit that lowest common denominator in advertising.

      "So the companies use good looking women to attract attention to their products,"

      Whatever happened to using the products themselves? Or are they simply not good enough to stand on their own two feet? Another issue I have with the concept of booth babes is the way publishers rely on them and their digital counterparts in the games to move product instead of, say, making a good game.

      Your argument about how the US is pro-violence and anti-sex is ultmately a straw man argument here, anyway. I didn't see anything in TFA about blowing stuff up, and at least I personally think the concept of over-relying on cleavage to sell a game is just lame in and of its own right. How about countering my argument instead of the usual collection of anti-American soundbites?

  6. Not what I see... by Reorax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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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  7. Where else can you find boothbabes? by MMaestro · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The issue isn't about making women into sex objects this way, the issue is WHY here in video gaming? This isn't the movie industry where the females are always the 'damsel in distress', no this is the video game industry where the women can sometimes kick ass better than the males (Samus from Metroid? MMO games? Garnet/Dagger from FFIX who runs away from home/gets 'kidnapped'?)

    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?

    1. Re:Where else can you find boothbabes? by DAldredge · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because Men and Women like looking at attractive females. Just pick up a womans magazine and see how many barely dressed women advertize products that women buy.

    2. Re:Where else can you find boothbabes? by Lisandro · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because they're women, man, and they have tits :)

      Seriously, is the same reason they put beautiful women in every single commercial oriented to males. We just love to see them. It's simple.

    3. Re:Where else can you find boothbabes? by witchman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I understand your question; "why here?" but I think you're missing the point. Booth babes are just a small part of the larger phenomenon in American advertising, which is, "sex sells". You can see that in everything and everywhere, ads, TV shows, clothing, food, etc. I also happen to agree that it's a waste of advertising dollars, or maybe even development dollars, to spend money on the sex sells advertising campaign, but as long as Americans are "sex starved", I mean you can't even see any nudity on TV here, but you can see people getting killed (how wrong is that?), then you'll continue to see a glut of sex-based advertising.

      What I dislike about the article, if you can actually call it that, is that it (too me at least) implies that there is something wrong with enjoying the sight of scantily clad women, which I don't happen to think that there is, whatever the reason.

  8. Oh by Konster · · Score: 5, Funny

    This...this is how nerds would dress up their women...if only they had women.

    And names? If nerds could name their women?

    Grepina! The goddess of search!

  9. booth babe insight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    As someone who is dating a "boothbabe" who was working at e3, I can share a few things that can tell you how they relate to the show and guys.

    1) Majority of the girls that they hire hate or don't care about video games. Surprisingly enough, some of the girls take to video games after the show, but that is usually only if they are stationed around a fun for everybody game. Which means not the blood and guts shooting games that tend to make up the majority of the show.

    2) These girls know exactly what to expect from guys there. Afterall, these guys are not *just* at e3, they are at movie theaters, malls, streets, etc. They know how guys respond to them and how to fake smile well. An extra bonus they even have a section in their training manual about dealing with "problem" guys.

    3) They get paid well. Most girls can work two days and make enough to pay their bills for a month. Plus, we are talking LA where the cost of living is quite high so that is real good money. These girls are usually all "models" and are usually contracted through an agency or agent.

    4) A lot of these girls are quite smart and just do this to make some extra money on the side. A lot are "wannabe actresses" of course, but if you have the goods, why not use it right?

    5) I'm a gamer, I work in the biz, I did e3 and I'm dating a "booth babe." So use that for whatever hope you want :P (though I did meet her before e3 started).

    1. Re:booth babe insight by Loualbano2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Does she have friends?

      Can you hook me up?

      -ft

    2. Re:booth babe insight by nacturation · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sorry, all her friends ae busy at a sleepover right now.

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  10. Shame? by TopShelf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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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  11. Re:Ok, so it's sexist by Yosho · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sorry ladies, but guys are very simple creatures, we like looking at semi-naked, good looking, women.

    Want to know a secret? Girls like looking at good-looking naked guys, too. The fact that you believe they don't is why they're capable of controlling you.

    --
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  12. Answer: Everywhere. by Westacular · · Score: 4, Funny

    Have you ever been to an Auto Show? Or a football game?

    Oh, wait, those are only for low-life shmucks who aren't ashamed of being attracted to women and aren't smart enough to spend all their time toying with computers.

    A modern, refined individual, such as one whose declared hobby is 'video games' surely cannot indulge in such vulgar interests.

  13. Re:What Shame? by emilng · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who's really being exploited?
    EA workers who are being managed by the fat bald guy?

  14. Welcome to the United States of the Offended by DesScorp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  15. Re:Sacred and private? Funny! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And in my mind, going to a strip club isn't about getting your rocks off. It's about finding just how much you can embarass a girl with a dollar.

    Perhaps you just have a very warped mind. I've been to several strip clubs in my town. The customers aren't allowed to touch the girls and don't get any closer than the girls want to let them. While I'm sure there's the occaisional smelly customer, most of the guys I see in the places are dressed pretty well and the worst smell you get is from the guys that wear too much cologne. My brother worked at a strip club for a couple years and dated a few of the strippers as well. They made good money, had a relatively easy job, and could afford to go to college. All in all, they're doing better than a lot of people I know. No idea why people don't seem to have much problem with women in bikinis at the beach, but feel that you're a slut or whore with no dignity if you show your nipples. What a fucked up country this is.

  16. Check out this crazy wanker! by antdude · · Score: 5, Funny

    I cannot believe this shot Hahaha!

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