Booth Babes

[Joose]

I've seen a lot of backlash in various game sites over how much of a focus booth babes get at E3, and whilst I agree with the sentiment that booth babes shouldn't be allowed, I see a practical issue with actually banning them: What exactly defines a booth babe?

Obviously, a scantily clad hot chick who's knowledge of the game she is promoting is limited to the name is clearly a booth babe, and a sweaty guy who smells of Doritos but has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game is clearly not a both babe, but where exactly should the line be drawn?

Take the faff that happened around Jessica Nigri at PAX for example. PAX doesn't allow booth babes, but does allow cosplayers dressing in skimpy outfits as long as they are in keeping with the game character they are dressing as. Nigri was hired to promote Lollipop Chainsaw, and got in to the news because her outfit was deemed *too* skimpy and she had to change. Now, the "being asked to change" bit aside, was she *really* not a booth babe? Technically she is a cosplayer, and that's allowed, but cosplayers are not usually hired by a company specifically to promote something, which moves her back into booth babe territory, but then she is actually a gamer and does know her subject matter, which pushes her back out of booth babe territory again, and...argh. I dunno.

If the definition of a booth babe is women hired for their looks who know nothing about the game, then would it be OK to have a hot woman promoting your game if she also happened to be the lead designer? If the problem with booth babes is the fact that they make the whole thing a bit sexist by just trying to attract the straight male interest, then no, the knowledge the woman has is irrelevant. For all we know, the booth babes at E3 could have all been avid gamers. They probably weren't, but you are not going to know that just by looking at pictures, and their looks is the primary reason for them being there. And the primary reason people are pissed.

But if you take the game knowledge aspect out of it, you are essentially saying that only men and ugly women can promote games. Which is retarded. What if the best person in your company to be the spokesperson for your game also happens to be a hot female? Are you not allowed to have someone who worked on the game man your stall just because they have good tits? By trying to make the thing appear less sexist, you are inadvertently being sexist.

Just to be clear, I am definitely against booth babes as they are now. I'm not offended by them personally, but I can totally understand why other people might be offended by them, and I don't want my favourite hobby to offend anyone for no good reason. Besides, I think games at these events should gain interest by being awesome, not by showing the most leg. I'm just not sure how you can make rules that are not either trivially easy to get around or so strict they have unintended consequences as bad as the thing they are supposed to prevent.

Anyway, I just wondered what you lot thought.

[buzzmong]

While I've not been to something like PAX or the like, I do go to the MCN Motorcycle Show every year at the NEC in Brum.
All the big motorbike manufacturers and the insurance firms tend to have booth babes flitting around in skimpy gear and personally, I'm there to look at motorbikes and related stuff, so they tend to get in the way.

There's also the fact they very much fall into the "bimbo" category you'd expect to see in nightclubs/trendy bars: thin, dressed tackily and too much makeup. Plus I find something uncomfortable with the "Oh, I'm in skimpy clothing! Look at me and my company!" type of attention grabbing. The best way I can decribe it is that it feels fake and designed to appeal to drongos.

[Dog Pants]

I don't think they should be banned. They don't do much harm, apart from maybe doing their bit for promoting gaming as a male dominated scene, and remember that these girls are trying to earn a living. However, I do see them as pointless advertising at best and uncomfortable at worst. I went to an information security conference a few months ago and I avoided the booth babes (yes, they had them even there). Generally being collared by one meant they'd either embarrass me for them by pretending they knew that a particular thing was really good, when clearly they didn't even know what it was, or they'd scan your card so that the company could spam you and ring you at work. I just felt a bit sorry for the girls really, they must have been bored shitless. Ultimately I think companies will cotton onto the fact that nobody really cares for that kind of advertising any more and it will die out.

[Roman Totale]

Sex sells - let's not kid ourselves that computer games are a higher art form that rises above crass commercialism.

[Mr. Johnson]

All the big motorbike manufacturers and the insurance firms tend to have booth babes flitting around in skimpy gear and personally, I'm there to look at motorbikes and related stuff, so they tend to get in the way.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXw6znXPfy4[/media]

[FatherJack]

I tend to view them in the same way as theme park mascots. I'm utterly terrified that they might come anywhere near me and I feel a kind of reflected shame for the person inside the costume regardless of whether they enjoy what they are doing.

[HereComesPete]

related stuff

Buzz goes for the leather.

[buzzmong]

Sex sells - let's not kid ourselves that computer games are a higher art form that rises above crass commercialism.

Yes, sex does sell. Alas, booth babes are pretty unsexy.

[Joose]

Sex sells - let's not kid ourselves that computer games are a higher art form that rises above crass commercialism.

Sex sells, sure. That doesn't mean you have to hang naked ladies off everything. You don't get skimpy outfit clad lovelies pointing at the broccoli in Tescos. No big boobed babes try to entice me into high street shops. And more on topic, although there are booth babes in non-gaming conventions, there tends not to be as high a concentration (other than in motoring events for some reason). In fact, I don't think I have ever seen pictures of booth babes at things like Comicon or any of the RPG based cons, and they have very similar target audiences to games cons. I've just done a few seconds of not very scientific research (google image the names of these conventions followed by "booth babe") and rather tellingly the few pictures that show proper booth babes rather than cosplayers are where they were promoting RPG computer games like AoC. Do the same search for E3 and its page after page of hired bimbos.

Computer games might not be rising above crass commercialism, but at the moment they are well below the average as far as this is concerned, and that's not ok.

[ProfHawking]

I don't see much harm in booth babes being there, apart from to enforce the stereotype that gamers are all nerdy guys who can't get their own girls

I used to work in the online gambling market, and it was the same sort of thing (if not worse - some times babes in nothing but body paint wandering around) at related conferences/conventions. My theory is that the organizers/exhibitors know in gaming or online stuff its going to be a cockfest, and they are never going to even it out on numbers so they bring in overly hot/scantily clad girls to try and address the balance somehow.

I wouldn't go as far as agreeing with a ban though, and murky rules just make it complicated. I don't think anyone is stupid enough not to realize that they are nothing more than decoration. I only very rarely saw them actually do any useful promoting or even talking. I think it should be up to the exhibitors if you ask me - they are the ones that are trying to promote their stuff, if they really think distraction-attack/awkwardly-out-of-place girls are the way to go...

[Jimmington]

Hmmm, I am going to have to be honest on this one. If there was a choice of seeing some dolly birds with their funbolas hanging out or no dolly birds just geeks in suits, it would have to be dolly birds. I also saw the girls at infosec, and i have to say it brightened my day as it was boring as Donald.
However, what I will say is, grade of Dolly does not persuade me to buy a certain product.