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Do Booth Babes Really Matter?
Gamecloud wonders out loud, in the wake of increased fines for 'inappropriate attire', if Booth Babes even matter in the grand scheme of E3. From the article: "By far the most vocal complaint about E3 from some quarters is the attention paid to the paid models that exhibitors bring to the show. Of course, most trade shows do have "booth models" or "booth babes" but at E3 the nature of the video and PC game industry and the fact that its being held in Los Angeles causes exhibitors to bring in tons of models and have them wear costumes and clothing that in some cases can be very sexually provocative. Despite the complaints these models are a distraction from the games and can even be offensive to some, web sites (including Gamecloud) do post galleries of booth model pictures at every E3 and they tend to be some of the most popular features of any web site's E3 coverage."
A resounding YES!
Global warming is a cube.
are more calluses on your gaming fingers...
Xaotik Designs
This is no longer news. They were banned in an attempt to make E3 an "industry" show again. We don't need to hear every pacing development. I mean, if you really miss boobies, you could go to CES. A very large adult entertainment expo was going on in the same hotel as part of CES at one point...
AS a female I have to say that while I do appreciate the amount of money these women are forcing all you boys to pay to see them what would truly impress me is to see booth babes who actually are gamers. I mean if they stand there loooking stupid and hot that's one thing but what if you could actually talk intelligently to one and still ogle her breasts? Hotness factor increases. But that's just my opinion.
Hits on Gamecloud "Do Booth Babes matter?" article : 19
Hits on Gamecloud Booth Babes gallery : 19,000,000
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
You know, while it may seem silly in some respects to ban the booth babes, they're really kinda silly anyway. At PAX there were occasionally booth babes. And they always seemed silly and out of place, especially since 99% of the attendees (yes, there were plenty of females around, I'd say at least 25%... check the pictures) were hardcore gamers. We're there for the games, and to game with other gamers. You don't need booth babes to attract us to your booth... just some interesting games. And maybe some swag.
E3 might be a different story, though, given the sheer banal idiocy of so many game journalists recently...
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Obviously it matters if that's one of the most popular aspects of E3. If the organizers want it to be taken seriously then cracking down on the use of boothbabes is a good idea. Of course, that's assuming that there's anything left of interest afterwards...
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
And people went to britney spears concerts for the music.
"...if Booth Babes even matter in the grand scheme of E3... By far the most vocal complaint about E3 from some quarters is the attention paid to the paid models that exhibitors bring to the show."
OK, radical concept:
Trade show. What's the point of this thing? Oh, yeah, to get attention.
If people were righteously interested in games for their quality and no other silly distracting factor, E3 would consist of a bunch of PCs and consoles on a line of tressle tables, simply running playable demos.
Now, back in the real world, once we all stop posturing about how it's an elevated art form and we don't look at breasts whilst talking to a woman (ever noticed how the people who claim that are the absolute worst at sneaking peeks when they think they won't get caught?), it's a trade show, its point is to do whatever flashy gimmickry gets the most journalist and buyer attention and gets the most column inches and space on store shelves.
There's one reason booth babes are there. The same reason there is a ton of junk handed out. The same reason some companies bring the Tumbler from Batman, a Bradley fighting vehicle, or have troops quick line from a Blackhawk. Journalists and buyers are impressed by such things and do respond to them, however much they may protest they're serious artistes and don't.
At the end of the day, if a company knows a damn hot booth babe they can hire for $1,000 for the week and a $100 piece of rolling luggage buys them a half page article in a magazine where the equivalent advertising would get ignored more and cost them $20,000, are they dumbing down E3 or intelligently playing the game?
We can protest all we like but all those companies are doing is accepting the reality of the system and playing it well.
It's like complaining that EA puts out sequels over new content. Of course they do, they're a business and their duty to their shareholders is to maximise profit. If we, as buyers, create a market where that's the reality, is it really EA's fault that, in doing their job correctly, they don't put out the arty innovation we claim to want?
In short: Hate the game, not the player.
Who do I make the ritual sacrifice out to in honor of that link?
Yes! Next question?
Do they matter? Of course they matter. If they didn't matter we wouldn't have had 3 topics on slashdot about the same issue in a week. But we did, and you know why?, because we not only like to LOOK at booth babes, we like to discuss them. If it didn't matter this wouldn't have been an issue in the first place. Personally, I like to see a little ass being flaunted around; I'm just not shallow enough to think it is anything more than it is. You got a hot chick with big knockers and your both then hell yeah I'm going to stop by. Everyone wants to be PC about the shit but the truth is it does matter and booth babes do attract people to booths. The only thing banning them does is prevent us from oggling booth babes!
Who else just scrolled through the article, did not read a single word, and just looked at all of the pictures?
They matter because they generate traffic and interest to an exhibitor's area. They don't mean anything regarding the actual quality of the game but its part of the marketing.
Does a fancy box for a game make the game better? No but it helps market the game better which equals more sales.
If you don't like it, ignore them. If you like them, ogle away they know what they are in for. But please don't say they don't do anything. That's simply not true.
B O R I N G
that in all of those pictures, the Playboy booth babe was the most modestly dressed...
There were booth babes, there were really there just to get attention, and then there were booth models. The one they had for Laura Croft a few years ago, was Perfect. She was a model, and actress, portraying a character. She had the looks, and the "attitude". There was also ones for the DOA models, Bloodrayne, and others. I, personally, think they add to the atmosphere, and do not have a problem with them. On the other side, though, you have the "booth babes". They use flesh to get people to come over. They usually look bored, or harried, and really do not add any content to the booth. When I was covering games, I wanted to find out what the game was, what it was about, the meat. The models, well, you went around them to find the PR people that usually had something of a clue. If you were LUCKY, you would find a developer, and have a really good conversation about their game. I remember SEVERAL years ago, seeing a poor, lone guy, flying around in space. I went over and talked to him, and found out that he was one of the developers of the B5 flight sim. He got really into showing me these technical details that I didn't fully comprehend, but thought looked awesome. The gentleman was kind, and very informative. Those are the few gems you truely find at E3.
A resounding NO!
E3, while special to gamers, is no different than any trade show. I'd say at least 50% of the attendees like booth babe's being there and at least 10% cite it as being a strong influence in their decision to attend.
Articles about these "models/babes" keep coming, but no links to judge by ourself. Here's a few from Gamecloud: one, two, and three.
keyboard not found! press any key to continue...
I found 90% of the so-called booth babes a distraction because they had no clue what they were selling besides their dignity. They seemed to have this aura of sadness behind their fake smiles.
Then again, the other 10% were having a great time and probably highly effective at exposing lesser known games to industry representatives.
A couple of my friends had a great time getting their picture taken with the ladies...THAT I will never understand.
Do they matter inside E3? Yes, although marginally at best.
Do they matter outside of E3? No, but us nerds will continue to find..."uses" for them, and so the answer is, again, yes.
I'm not scared of anonymous cowards.
where am I supposed to go if I want to meet and talk to beautiful and surgically enhanced women?!
For reasons already elaborated above.
However, I hope they were removed for the right reasons, and not for some silly puritanical reason. Also, I hope that the rule about people not being fully clothed applies to *both* sexes.
The booth babes are the closest some nerds will come to some really hot girl..
even sadder... the booth babes don't give a rats behind about the nerds, or the games or the event for that matter
Come one.. most of these girls are basically cheer leaders from HS that were never really good for anything except looking pretty. The never really cared about you in HS, and I doubt they really care about you now.
Don't fool yourself, try improving your social/speaking skill and then go out and get your mack on.. you don't need those booth babes...
The booth babes are there to represent the female characters present in the game. Underwhelmingly, I might add. If those top-heavy characters were adequately portrayed, they'd have a hard time remaining vertical.
They have games there too?
My script don't crash! She crashes, you crashed her!
Oh and before you feel all superior as a geek girl with brains who is not reduced to a blittering idiot at the mere hint of boobs. Look! Over there it is actor XXXX XXXXXXX.
I did some rigging during an erotica convention and the one thing sadder then males lusting after the naked female performers was the females lusting after the naked male performers. The moment women stop throwing their panties at every good looking actor/popstar is the moment you can comment on us males.
Men and women aren't all that different really.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's kind of sad that the only way these publishers and developers are attracting people to their booths is with hotties.
Now I'm not gay or anything. I love hotties. But E3's about the games. Press shouldn't be there going "Whoa, look at the rack on Antonia Bayle! And oh, something about EQ2."
Is the industry circling the drain that much that the games no longer can attract people to booths? Why is it the biggest news right now about E3 is the fact that booth babes have becmoe an issue with organizers?
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
I'm willing to bet I wasn't the only one that clicked through just to see the pictures.
I know, it took us decades to properly research this but we finally can proudly announce that men are attracted to sexy females. Especially if those females know they are not going to get paid if they mace any geek coming within a 100 meters of them.
It is not new, go to a carshow sometime. Boatshow? Yeah sure, that shipyard employees a dozen young women as its builders.
Sex sells. Well not really but it certainly works in getting eyeballs on your stand and then the selling can start. There are a 100th other booths there all competing for attention and a bit of skin is the cheapest way to attract a male audience.
I frankly don't see the problem. The girls get a fat paycheck, we get to see some skin, game execs get their eyeballs on the stand, everybody is happy.
Well except for some puritans but what the fuck are they doing at E3 anyway? Aren't games sinfull? Go back to your farm. This is the big city.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Do they matter? What the hell *matters* at a GAMING conference? Nothing, in the world-peace manner of the term. What's this world coming to when a man can't openly and honestly admit to, and endulge in, being a pig?
It's like people who enjoy cars, they don't go to the car shows for the chicks. They're just there to keep your friends entertained while you're busy checking out specs etc. I guess this just shows how much of a consumer show E3 has become.
Twinstiq, game news
Grandparent: ...breasts...
Parent:"we either see boobies OR we talk intelligently... If your really a female you should know this... then males... Look! Over there it is actor"
Corrections:
you're
than
Look over there, it is actor!
QED.
Goldstein: This movie makes no sense. She's possessed, she's not possessed... that rack had better be stacked. OH! TITS! Those aren't real. Yes, they are!
Later on..
Kumar: How were Katie Holmes' tits?
Goldstein: You know the Holocaust?
Kumar: Yeah?
Goldstein: Picture the opposite of that!
Kumar: Nice!
"It ain't a war against drugs.it's a war against personal freedom" --Bill Hicks
I really don't understand the magnitude of the problem. Could someone please post a link to pictures of some of the most offensive booth babe offenders?
I'll review them after my wife's asleep.
--
$tar -xvf
This kind of shit really does sadden me as a gamer. We have a medium that sets itself apart from every other medium on earth in hundreds of different, subtle ways; and yet what does our beloved industry do? They pull the same shit gimmicks that the film and music guys do. LOL HEY HUGE PARTIES AND SLUTS AND HEY CONCERTS and uh... yeah, the product is over there, if you want to look...
It's always great when I see my fellow game journalists write about how gaming isn't "taken seriously" by the mainstream media. Of course, these same people then write a review about Need For Speed Most Wanted where they spend more time making childish sexual puns about Josie Maran than covering the actual game. Then, they'll make a 30-40 page special feature about E3, with only 10 or so pages of game coverage, the rest devoted to shit like multi-page spreads of booth skanks or HEY SONY THREW A PARTY AT A HOTEL AND 50 CENT PERFORMED LOL or OMG TOM CRUISE WAS AT E3.
Lovely, really. And by lovely, I mean fucking pathetic. Sadly, I might be in the minority here, but when I pick up a feature piece on E3, I don't care about vapid celebrities whoring for print space or brainless models dressed up like Bloodrayne. I care about the fucking games, you sods. I have the Internet; if I wanted beat off material, I'd go to empornium, not EB's newsstand. If I ever actually wanted to know what Paris Hilton is doing, the idiot box is sitting in the corner of my room, and it gets E!
If this is the attitude gamers, gaming press and game companies alike have, then truly, we don't deserve any respect at all. Or dates, for that matter.
Developers/publishers: If you need dozens of women and a rap concert and an open bar to sell your game, then that makes me think there's probably something lacking in your actual product and thus makes me less likely to want to go anywhere near it.
Press: You're not goddamned maxim, fhm, or any other of those shit rags - stop taking photos of ever harpy dressed like a game character you see and start putting in more screenshots. Use the space you clear up by trimming down on celebrity shit to put in more things like developer interviews and the like.
And finally, for my gaming brethren, yes, women have breasts. Get over it.
Fuck.
Booth Babes are a cultural institution.
Booth babes are geared specifically towards men, and are very sexist. to even things out in todays "I'm ok you're ok" world we need "Booth Studs".
but that would be unfair to others. We need "booth Lesbians" and "Booth Gay guy". But that would offend people still because we'd be forgetting the Bi-sexual community, so we need "Bi Booth Guy" and "Bi Booth Babe"
So there's 6 models we need to hire to apeal to the majority. "Booth Sheep" for the more exotic tastes out there.
Waaaay too complex. How about we get rid of Booth babes and offend no one. Bleh, there goes my reason to go.
They help my divining rod point in the right direction... :)
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
do babes in beer commercials matter? advertisers will always appeal to that primal instinct, regardless of whether it has to do with the product.
I have to say that there are men out there who can have an intelligent conversation without losing all brain power at the sight of any cleavage I choose to show. It's a refreshing and lovely experience. I have no interest in actor XXXX XXXXX. For me it's more about someone as a person than surface looks. Afterall the better you know a person the better looking they become. I agree that women can be just as bad if not worse than men when it comes to the ogling. We can get away with things that would get men arrested. A double standard I agree.
Exposed skin is an issue? Fine... Cover 'em neck-to-toe in spandex, if you want to... It's the shape, not the skin, that appeals to my eye, and attracts me to the booth.
It was meant in a funny way (making fun out of us males who _are_ petrified when they see boobies).
Except for those genitals.
Fact is, publishers use all sorts of methods to attract crowds - loud noise, bright lights, trinkets, 'exclusive' movies, etc. Sex is simply part of that equation. Singling out sex is purely a political move. If there's one thing they should regulate at E3, it's the noise! Turn down the volume please! And the rationale is that they want gaming to be taken seriously is absurd. By definition, games aren't serious - it's entertainment. Also, I don't see how taking away booth babes changes a single thing. It's a $10 billion business. With that kind of serious cash, retailers and the media can not "take it seriously" at their own peril.
Pics!!
"We can get away with things that would get men arrested. A double standard I agree."
:p. AFAIK it wasn't because she was trying to get my butt out of the way ;).
;).
Well I guess it's because we are different.(I'm a guy).
In high school a pretty lady teacher did pat my butt a fair bit more than once, and I sure didn't mind
I sure wasn't going to scream or report harassment to Mr Principal or Mom and Dad. For one I definitely didn't feel harassed...
Even if a below average looking girl patted my butt I wouldn't be too bothered. I think I'd only mind if she was behaving really weird though - I mean like potential danger to life/limb sort of weird. I guess it's the perceived motive/thought behind the action, or the perceived consequences.
So I guess I might mind if a guy teacher did that. Anyway it seems that most girls would mind too. So tough luck for guys, but I guess that's what comes from guys being responsible for most crimes...
Still, I'm curious if most girls would mind a guy they find attractive doing that? Not threatening or overt sexual stuff I mean. Maybe there are double standards in more ways than one.
After all, I've heard ladies complaining about guys trying to chat them up. But I find that quite strange. Given that far fewer girls try to chat up guys, and seems so many girls prefer to "wait for the guy", what do they expect the guys to do then? Sure I know some girls do try to give hints etc, but face it, most guys aren't very good at hints and mind-reading
Worst - I heard some girls "play hard to get". In this day and age perhaps guys should just skip those... After all: No means no and all that.
That's not a very good solution. A far better one would be to just let the market work. If Sony decides to pull such stunts, and it annoys enough people, then their future revenue (and hence their profits) will decrease as people opt not to buy products from Sony. But apparently people are still buying Sony's products, so they feel what happened was acceptable.
To ban what is considered widely acceptable is not a very good idea. It will be costly to enforce the ban, and even then it just won't be effective in stopping what it was intended to stop.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.