E3 booth babe Hall of Shame
by Steve Parsons 
{ May 25th 2005 at 8:00AM }
Are we an enlightened society? I occasionally
delude myself into believing we are. Large quantites often help. Yet the software industry feels it still needs to have
scantily clad women to pimp their wares at E3 and other shows.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love scantily clad women as much as the next guy, assuming the next guy likes scantily clad
women, but the whole booth babe thing is just getting silly. Instead of being a progressive industry, the software
industry seems to follow the worst examples of other industries. We already have cookie cutter games with no real
innovation almost without exception. Thanks, Hollywood. It seems at the big shows like E3, the industry looks to car
industry and thinks "If sprawling a model all over a new car gets Porsche attention, it'll work for our first person
shooter!"
So hold Gamegal's hand, and take a walk through the hall of shame. (Which has a little something for the ladies,
too.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Isn't the buff guy the host of G4's Arena?
Tesla @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
This is a quickly hashed up (and terrible) article that surprisingly is probably the biggest genrator of traffic to that site to date. Irony? Heck yes. News? Heck no.
Booth Babes are a staple of E3. Nothing new here so lets move along and talk about actual games.
steven @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
I have to agree with your summary. To see what G4 TV has become (ruining everything associated with TechTV), makes me sick.
It seems every show has to feature boobs or half dressed women and the hosts drooling over them and making dim-witted jokes. Grow up you morons.
I always hated the 'booth babes' since they have nothing to contribute to video games. They probably have no clue about anything in the video game world. They just get paid to stand there and look 'pretty.'
I'm sure all you pre-teen boys will hate this comment, but once you grow up, you'll see what I'm talking about.
hyawatha15 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
you guys are sounding gay rite now, but they really should talk more about games.
Jason @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Steven...I'm almost 30 and thing that G4 should dedicate 30 minutes daily to the girl who shakes her ass in the Street Fury spots the run every break.
Sex sells and it always will.
Carl Olsen @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
steven look like your married and your wife doesn't allow you to go to E3 because of booth babes it seem ;) Thats must be frustrating !
Myria @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
You know, I wouldn't mind 'booth babes', or the plethora of video game sites filled with low rent soft porn (take a good look at IGN sometime, or the Team Xbox forums, just to name two), or games filled with polygonal T&A (Lady Grey couldn't have been more pathetic if they'd put a flashing neon sign over her head saying "T&A here!"), or the apparent inability of game designers to write a credible female character and treat her as such consistently (Even my beloved Morrowind screwed this up, with letters from the Emperor referring to your character as 'he' regardless of your character's sex. Then again 'Lord Revan' sure sounds male to me. Those are minor compared to games like Champions Of Norath where every female character in the game tries to come on to you regardless of your character's sex... And they aren't wearing any flannel, if you know what I mean)...
I wouldn't mind any of the myriad ways the gaming industry acts like a particularly immature frat boy (at least 'The Guy Game' tanked, there is some hope) who has only ever seen women at a distance (and, at that, only paid 'booth babes' who otherwise wouldn't give them the time of day), if it wasn't that these jerks then turn around and have the unmitigated gall to ask why there aren't more women in gaming. And then, to add insult to injury, they salve their own stupidity by convincing themselves that it's because all women want are Barbie games and The Sims, or it's because women just aren't '1337 enough. Pathetically self-serving answers that allow the industry to ignore the real problems.
The gaming industry either needs to grow up -- in some ways, literally -- or learn to accept its status as a niche entertainment market. Frankly I expect it will do neither, instead preferring to continue to whine and wonder why no one takes it seriously. That is, after all, the wont of most emotionally twelve year old boys.
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Sounds like GameGal was pretty upset the men were paying more attention to booth babes than her. ;)
In other news, guys4cosmetics.com wrote up an angry opinion piece on the fact that at the latest estee lauder trade show, there was absolutely no new products for men. For shame!
Myria @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
"In other news, guys4cosmetics.com wrote up an angry opinion piece on the fact that at the latest estee lauder trade show, there was absolutely no new products for men. For shame!"
Except that Estee Lauder in fact has several product lines targeted at men...
http://www.esteelauder.com/templates/products/supercat.tmpl?CATEGORY_ID=CATEGORY5728
That, and are you seriously suggesting that gaming in general and E3 in particular is supposed to be only for men?
medeasin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
When people say the gaming industry should grow up, they almost always mean:
- "I am a woman and I don't want to see that."
- "I am a man and my testosterone levels have dropped to the point that I don't want to see that."
Neither viewpoint is wrong in any way, but "growing up" has nothing to do with not wanting to see nubile scantily-clad women. Males aged 14 to 99 still like the ladies. While individual serum testosterone levels may vary (shown to decrease with age and after having children, per the New England Journal of Medicine), it's a simple fact of human male biology, and human history -- men like looking at women.
Better than walking into a video game sausage fest, anyways.
Jason @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
This is not specific to gaming conventions.
My father's company deals in trade show exhibits and booth girls show up at every show. He just got back from a dairy show in Nebraska, guess what...booth girls. http://www.spoonexhibits.com
Using this to form a debate over sexism in gaming doesn't make much sense to me.
Jason
http://www.xboxsoftmods.com
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
"Except that Estee Lauder in fact has several product lines targeted at men..."
Sweet, excuse the rough math but after scrolling through that "Browse Category" dropmenu but is it safe to assume these For Him products make up for about 5% of Estee Lauder's product line, which means the other 95% is for wimmin?
Men, we have work to do!
Now that we're done splitting hairs, my point is let the free market decide. Just like Estee Lauder spends most of its developing products that women use, marketing their products to women and ensuring that mostly women are happy with their products opposed to men, where's the big surprise that video game industry does the exact same thing but reverse the genders?
It's called capitalism.
In other news, gamers4girlpower.com complained about the superficial waif-thin big breasted sex kittens in the latest generic street fighter for Playstation 2 but were mysteriously silent on the male fighters featuring perfect skin, rippling muscles, washboard abs, long rich locks of Italian blond hair and Owen Wilson's nose.
NewXBoxGamer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
MMMMM, scantily clad booth babes. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, the only thing better than scantily clad booth babes is that redhead scantily clad booth babe on the left. Yummy.
Now, where is that sock I've got hidden in the bathroom. Gotta do something to tie myself over until the girlfriend gets over this weekend ;)
Myria @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
"[...] is it safe to assume these For Him products make up for about 5% of Estee Lauder's product line, [...]"
If that high, but Estee Lauder (and MAC, and Clinique, and every other cosmetics manufacturer) certainly wishes it were otherwise. All men would have to do in order to get Estee Lauder to increase their male-oriented lines is to buy more products. Frankly I doubt that, as things stand, the sales of the 'For Him' line really justify the line's existence, the line is more a matter of wishful thinking on Estee Lauder's part.
The question, as I asked previously, is are you seriously suggesting that gaming is or should be similar to the cosmetics market? Do you think that it is or should be just for guys? Do you honestly believe that the number of games bought by women is in any way comparable, as a percentage of the market, to the sales of Estee Lauder 'For Him' products?
"Now that we're done splitting hairs, my point is let the free market decide."
How was I splitting hairs? You clearly were unaware that Estee Lauder (as it happens, my cosmetic counter of choice) even made a line for men, something that put more than a bit of a hole in the comparison you were trying to draw.
"Just like Estee Lauder spends most of its developing products that women use, marketing their products to women and ensuring that mostly women are happy with their products opposed to men, where's the big surprise that video game industry does the exact same thing but reverse the genders?"
Two rather major problems with that. First, as I said in my original comment, I would not find the terminal immaturity of the video gaming industry nearly so insufferable if it wasn't for the periodic bouts of faux navel gazing as they wonder where the female gamers are, then generally come up with self-serving and excruciatingly insulting reasons why there aren't more women in gaming.
Problem two is that women are far more of the game buying market than men are of the cosmetics market. Depending on which survey you listen to, women are somewhere around 40% or better, with women over 30 being somewhere around 25% of the market. That the gaming market, which in so many ways tries so hard to denigrate women, manages to attract a substantial number of them is telling. Women like to play games nearly as much, in some instances even more so, than men do.
The gaming industry is limiting itself in myriad ways. It is not unaware of this -- note the recent Game Dev bitch-a-thon ("Burning Down The House") -- but in general it seems to be depressingly unable to see where some of the true problems lay. One of those problems -- a major one, but by no means the only one -- is its views on women.
"It's called capitalism."
As an anachro-libertarian, I believe I've heard tell of the concept once or twice :).
Capitalism is rarely nearly so neat nor pretty in reality as it is on paper, it is an active, adversarial, and ever evolving process. Change in an industry is rarely easy, but hopefully the gaming industry is coming to a point where it understands that it needs to change. As a consumer, die-hard gamer, and occasional writer, I'm merely offering my ideas on how, why, and where the gaming industry needs to change if it wishes to advance.
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Welp, I'm off to work but I definitely want to reply back to your post, Myria.
Stay tuned.
Tesla @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Does anyone else find it highly disturbing that there are people here discussing Estee Lauder products for men?
Dan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
It's pretty funny watching guys get all worked up over this, debating capitalism vs. feminism, etc. If anyone bothered to read the Hall of Shame article, you'd see it's pretty tongue-in-cheek, and not serious at all.
Codejoy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
"periodic bouts of faux navel gazing as they wonder where the female gamers are"
How about the fragdolls? It would be nice to think theya re trying to change the stereotype, but then you realize all of them are generally quite sexy and yes again, its just the same ol story.
I do wonder where the women gamers are, perhaps if companies should make controllers in the shape of broom handles, iron handles, mop handles and then we should see more women gamers :P
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
What I gathered from that article wasn't so much about the immaturity in the games industry but damnit, guys get their booth babes, where the hell is our booth hunks?
The caption for the last picture pretty much confirms that for me.
Hence my sarcastic comments ending each post -- just trying to point out what I saw as hypocrisy.
"Problem two is that women are far more of the game buying market than men are of the cosmetics market. Depending on which survey you listen to, women are somewhere around 40% or better, with women over 30 being somewhere around 25% of the market."
I'm sorry but I'm highly skeptical of those stats without a reference to the study that you're quoting them from.
I'd love to see what they define "games" and to what questions they asked the women. All of my female friends play games... on pogo.com or games.yahoo.com.
The rare one that does play games on a PC, is playing, you guessed it, The Sims.
Gdeveloper @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Half naked booth babes are sending a blatant message to society. Most people are too numb to understand how dehumanizing it is, I know. Just another step down for human culture in its single minded pursuit of lust and money, and it doesn't bring happiness.
Ben Hourigan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Since there's no space for comments on GameGal, where this belongs, here goes:
I just wish that people (men and women both) would stop spouting tired feminist rubbish and doing things like making "halls of shame" that make it seem like some terrible crime is being committed every time a guy looks desirously at a woman, or every time a woman puts on a bikini. That's just biology. And there's nobody being oppressed here, either, which seems to be the implication any time anyone objects to the "objectification" of women. Every one of those booth-babes, I'm pretty sure, made a choice that they'd enter into a contract with an employer to put on a costume and prance around E3 in exchange for a fee. So long as they're not being forced, GameGal, you ought not to have a problem with it. Unless of course you like prohibiting people from making their own choices…
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:46PM
Hear, hear, Ben.