Can somone explain this "booth babe" thing to me?

Realitycrash

New member
Dec 12, 2010
2,779
0
0
Guys are pathetic, that's pretty much it. I know you think "No, really. People can't be THAT stupid, right?" yet, it works. For pretty much anything.
 

Colour Scientist

Troll the Respawn, Jeremy!
Jul 15, 2009
4,722
0
0
SckizoBoy said:
Yah, was 'enlightened' of its contextual definition here earlier... first time I'd heard them referred as such. -_-

Oh, the joy of homonyms in English...
Maybe there are strippers who use the other kind as underwear but that's probably for a very niche market.
 

SckizoBoy

Ineptly Chaotic
Legacy
Jan 6, 2011
8,681
199
68
A Hermit's Cave
Colour-Scientist said:
Maybe there are strippers who use the other kind as underwear but that's probably for a very niche market.
Hmmm... I can't imagine much by way of dancing acrobatics without a rapid rate of disintegration (of one sort or another)...(!) =P
 

tstilwell

New member
Oct 10, 2009
25
0
0
I know the ancient adage that sex sells, but I have always found it distasteful. I have thought the same when it is used as car shows, as well. Yes, both industries are dominated by males, but that is unfortunate if car manufacturers and game producers think so little of their consumers that they believe that the only way to attract their attention is to flash a woman's breasts at them. When I go shopping of a car, I want to know about the car. What are its features, what is its horsepower, what is the gas milage, etc etc. I don't go to a car because a pretty girl is standing next to it. The same it true about video gaming. I want to know the mechanics, the gameplay, the storyline, the subject matter, etc etc. I don't want a game because a half-naked version of Bayonetta is smiling at me. Don't get me wrong: I think there is nothing more beautiful in nature than the female form. Maybe it was the way I was raised, but that just doesn't sell me. It is a tawdry parlor trick intended to impress pubestent teens. That might have been a good selling tactic when gaming was the realm of that demographic, but gaming has evolved and gamers who were kids when Super Mario Brothers came out are now in their late 20s/early 30s. They are married and with kids of their own. We want substance, not flash.

The continued practice debases us as gamers and does not show us in a good light to outsiders and our critics.
 

DarthSka

New member
Mar 28, 2011
325
0
0
It's something that overall, I just respond with an, "eh." I know that most likely, they don't give a damn about the games they're advertising. I know I'm not going to get anything from them either, and personally, I'm fine with that. Things like that are something I'd prefer to get from my girlfriend.
 

StBishop

New member
Sep 22, 2009
3,251
0
0
Alphakirby said:
FPSMadPaul said:
Vault101 said:
FPSMadPaul said:
trollpwner said:
And no amount of breasts make a game better.
I disagree, The Saboteur Midnight Show.
I got that game second hand...so what exactally IS the midnight show?

anyway I supose I shouldnt think too much about a game thats opening shot is a pair of almost bare tits...its acutally kind of funny early on in the game when the charachters are captured/tortued by the natzis Im almost thinking

"hold on this is a Natzi base....whats that stripper doing there?...oh shes suposed to actually be a REAL natzi officer..could have fooled me"

and that english chick too....she would be arrested for showing that much cleavige (mabye just for wearing pants too)
Here you go. [http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-saboteurs-nude-code-before-and-after/a-2009120314187321063]
[snipped image]
What the fuck were they thinking!?
NUDE DLC!?

....
This is the kind of shit that makes me lose hope in humanity.
It's actually a good idea. You can simply not download it if you don't want boobies in the game.

OT: Meh, if they could hire disembodied breasts I'm sure they would. I don't think it's a problem, and if it is a problem, it's not only gaming cons that have it.
 

Belated

New member
Feb 2, 2011
586
0
0
Oh for Petesake. Be open-minded, people. If you've got a problem with scantily-clad beautiful women, I say you need to sort out your priorities. It doesn't matter if you're attracted to them or not. If you are, you have no reason to dislike them and every reason to like them. If you're not, let them be, because there's no need to ruin everybody else's fun with your complaints. I don't get pissed off about the half-naked dudes in Twilight. (Actually, I get pissed off about the bad writing in it.)

And no, liking scantily clad girls does not make one a "basement dwelling nerd" like several ignorant people have suggested. Liking scantily clad girls merely means you have a healthy libido, as evolution intended for you to have.(And the opposite is true for girls and half-naked men.) If evolution wants me to like attractive women, who am I to question it? Any straight men in this thread who claim booth babes only appeal to nerds, are lying through their teeth. You guys can deny it all you want, but I know you like them too.

And the fact is, most gamers still ARE male. It's not a stereotype, it's a statistic. There's a difference. Stereotypes are based on truth, while statistics are the truth. Tell you what. When I can join a random game in Halo Reach, and expect half of my teammates to be female, THEN I'll believe that gamers have an equal gender ratio. But by all means feel free to add booth hunks to any gaming convention. I think that's a great idea too. Sexuality doesn't have to be such a personal, taboo thing.
 
Sep 13, 2009
1,589
0
0
Guitarmasterx7 said:
As someone who's been to E3, I can tell you first hand that it does get you to check out games that you otherwise would not give the time of day. Not even because I'm some socially depraved nerd who freaks out around boobies, but rather because a really hot girl with a giant scythe in full bondage gear naturally evokes curiosity. I mean there is a certain level of eye magnetism involved, and that's probably most of it, but that's not really enough to actually pay attention to what she's selling unless it's something you're already interested in. If her slut costume is elaborate and confusing enough though it'll definitely spark your interest.
If it's just a matter of getting attention, my curiosity would be equally evoked if it was a girl/guy with a giant scythe and an awesome costume. Actually, no, I would be much MORE interested. Not to mention that I wouldn't feel awkward about going to the stand.

If you haven't noticed, I'm not a fan of Booth Babes. It's a really shallow and cheap way of trying to grab attention. Plus I'm sure it does a lot to deter many clothed, female gamers who might otherwise come to the stand, people I'd much rather talk to.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
Vault101 said:
so first of all I dont know much about this or if its even commone anymore

so Im GUESSING that its attractive scantiliy clad women at game conventions and such used to promote..uh games I guess?

so what Im asking is how do you feel about it?

is it just innocent promotion...like no one complains when you have the same thing at car shows? AND it is true that gaming is still very male orientated...

OR do you find it off putting? and think it really needs to go if we are ever going to be taken seriously?

The issue, as far as there is one, is less to do with sexism as that the so called "booth babes" rarely seem to have any knowlege of, or interest in, their product. There are of course exceptions, but I believe it gets attention more than other spokesmodels, because a lot of the girls hired for this kind of thing have a tendency to come accross as being at least vaguely embarassed to be there.

It's sort of like how if you've read some of the reviews/commentary on the Spike video game awards, and how they are trying to create something equivilent to an Oscars for gaming, yet the ladies there including some fairly well known models and such as oftentimes as not seem like they can't believe they are there for these shows.

If you do some searching for "gamer girls" and such, I think you'll find that there are some cuties out there who are interested in the medium, this is to say nothing of a lot of the girls who cosplay at cons and so on on their own. I think the issue with the booth babes is that a lot of them are probably hired through modeling agencies and such, have no real interest in the product or industry, and are quite obviously acting out of tolerance and sheer professionalism no matter what kind of smile they might plaster on.

It's a tough racket to find people who are both professionals, and also "into" their job. To be honest I think Ubisoft was a bit ahead of their time with the whole "frag dolls" idea. Companies might benefit due to recruiting their models and booth babes for a full time job, and the reputation wouldn't be what it is now if you weren't dealing with a bunch of one-job wonders who waffle between strained professionalism, embarassment, and a pathological fear of nerd drool. :)
 

tobyornottoby

New member
Jan 2, 2008
517
0
0
Supply and demand, over time games will mature and we'll have different kinds of game shows for different genres and audiences.

As others have said, the female body has been developing itself as a male magnet for millions of years, that's just how it is =)
 

JET1971

New member
Apr 7, 2011
836
0
0
binnsyboy said:
Kind of annoys me when people pull the superiority "well actually I find it quite disgusting." Then again, a lot of surface behavior is done with the intent of giving the best outward appearance. Get over yourselves, it's just a base marketing ploy, no different from any other advertisement strategy. It doesn't affect your decision it's just for eye catching purposes. And they've chosen to do it. It's just something that's somewhat pleasant to look at in some way, so get off your pedestal.
I agree with you. the "Babes" choose to do it. they are the only ones who have the right to feel degraded because they are the ones standing there handing out flyers or a trinket with sexy clothes on trying to get people into the booth to see what the product is. Anyone else complaining about it is being self serving.

I have worked at a con before and the booth babes that I talked to at lunch or on the floor were having fun for the most part. the only major complaint was the shoes and getting sore feet. They laugh and make fun of the guys that have a conversation or staring contest with the "twins" because they are a very small minority of attendees and are usualy very old, young, or the stereotypical basement dwelling nerd. They dont feel offended by this because it happens regardless of standing at a booth wearing a mini skirt, high heels and a bit of cloth covering the boobs, or wearing a smart outfit to the office that they normaly do.

A wise teacher I had once said "If you get offended by something its because you dont like something about yourself and it reminds you of that." -R. Paulette.
 

Matt9102

New member
Aug 14, 2011
37
0
0
Slayer_2 said:
99% of gamers are male
That is a lie. That may be true for online games (though very unlikely) but women play offline games. I'd say its closer to 70-80% of gamers are men.
 

AngloDoom

New member
Aug 2, 2008
2,461
0
0
ravensheart18 said:
AngloDoom said:
I think it doesn't help the view that most people into games are immature basement-dwelling men with sweaty fat-rolls.

I'm not sure how valid this next bit is considering I'm male, but I imagine it sort of gives a "No girls allowed" atmosphere when it's so very much orientated toward heterosexual men.

Overall it gives me the same sense of facepalm I get when I women leans over in any film and suddenly saxophones. Everywhere.
Girls like looking at pretty girls too. You ever seen a magazine geared towards women?
That's undeniable, men won't buy a fashion magazine or a magazine that features a less attractive man because you don't want to be buying into that 'ugliness' you perceive.

We're not talking 'pretty' girls, though. When we talk of booth girls, we think of highly sexualised sluttily-dressed girls. Would you buy a magazine with a front-cover that showed a man looking saucy in a leather jock-strap?
 

tobyornottoby

New member
Jan 2, 2008
517
0
0
AngloDoom said:
We're not talking 'pretty' girls, though. When we talk of booth girls, we think of highly sexualised sluttily-dressed girls. Would you buy a magazine with a front-cover that showed a man looking saucy in a leather jock-strap?
Gay men would.

Men are women on avarage are not working in the same way so some things like these can't be ported from woman -> man to man -> woman
 

AngloDoom

New member
Aug 2, 2008
2,461
0
0
tobyornottoby said:
AngloDoom said:
We're not talking 'pretty' girls, though. When we talk of booth girls, we think of highly sexualised sluttily-dressed girls. Would you buy a magazine with a front-cover that showed a man looking saucy in a leather jock-strap?
Gay men would.

Men are women on avarage are not working in the same way so some things like these can't be ported from woman -> man to man -> woman
Yes, of course some gay men would - but I was referring to the majority of men who are (as far as I am aware) swaying more towards heterosexual.

I'm sorry but I don't understand your point beyond that- are you saying women don't look at men as sexual objects or don't enjoy some eye-candy?
 

tobyornottoby

New member
Jan 2, 2008
517
0
0
AngloDoom said:
I'm sorry but I don't understand your point beyond that- are you saying women don't look at men as sexual objects or don't enjoy some eye-candy?
Short answer: indeed. That's why the female equivalent of playboy, porn, boothbabes, etc are nowhere near as popular as the male-targeted ones. (Again, they do have a gay men audience)

Sexual attraction is very different for men and women. The male body has been developed to be a "strength-signaling device", meaning the things a woman finds attractive in a man show his strength, as a nest-defender etc. The female body has been developed to be a "fertility-signaling device", as a child-bearer etc, so yeah in that sense that's more of a "sexual object" than the first.

Men are also more visually-oriented than women when it comes to this, so eye-candy will indeed matter less to women relatively.

EDIT: you're right that there's a huge difference between attractive and sexual, I do think there's a certain "no girls allowed" atmosphere as you were saying, although it would seem girls are more tolerant than men with these kind of things.
 

Son of a Mitch

New member
Aug 7, 2011
109
0
0
I personally haven't been to any conventions with booth babes (yet), but I really don't find them all that attractive. I'm really only attracted to women that are more the shy, quiet type, and the flirty, scantily clad women don't really seem like it fits that description to me.
 

Slayer_2

New member
Jul 28, 2008
2,475
0
0
Matt9102 said:
Slayer_2 said:
99% of gamers are male
That is a lie. That may be true for online games (though very unlikely) but women play offline games. I'd say its closer to 70-80% of gamers are men.
Well, it depends on your definition of a gamer. I'm excluding facebook, guitar hero, and iPhone apps. Yes, those are technically games, but if you think that playing those once a week makes someone a gamer, then about 70% of the worlds population are gamers.

I mean someone who actually plays full-on games for at least 10-20 hours a week on a semi-regular basis. If you think the number of women who are actual gamers is above 5%, you're insane.

EDIT: Even assuming you're right, and 30% of gamers are female:

A) How many are going to be nerdy enough to go to a convention?

B) Even if the convention ends up being 30/70, then statistically, booth babes are still a good idea.