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E3

Do Booth Babes Really Matter? 110

Posted by Zonk from the imho-no dept.
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."
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Do Booth Babes Really Matter? More

Do Booth Babes Really Matter?

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  • Answer (Score:5, Funny)

    by giorgiofr ( 887762 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:12PM (#14570039)
    A resounding YES!

  • All they cause (Score:4, Funny)

    by Xaoswolf ( 524554 ) * <Xaoswolf@nospAm.gmail.com> on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:14PM (#14570064) Homepage Journal
    are more calluses on your gaming fingers...
  • 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...

  • Bring on the Game Booth Boy Babes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SpacialCoogs ( 946601 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:16PM (#14570090)
    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.

  • Gamecloud server stats (Score:5, Funny)

    by El_Smack ( 267329 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:19PM (#14570146)
    Hits on Gamecloud "Do Booth Babes matter?" article : 19
    Hits on Gamecloud Booth Babes gallery : 19,000,000

  • PAX (Score:4, Interesting)

    by oGMo ( 379 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:24PM (#14570220)

    You know, while it may seem silly in some respects to ban the booth babes, they're really kinda silly anyway. At PAX [penny-arcade.com] 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...

    • This is true, especially since alot of these people have to pay to get into this show, so its not like they are there to look at the women, they are there to look at the games. There geeks that payed for a ticket, or are in the industry, and could careless about the loud flashy music and the pretty women. Maybe if they were digital women..then yes. qI vote for huge displays showing dancing digital women.

  • Obviously... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HunterZ ( 20035 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:24PM (#14570223) Journal
    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...

  • No (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    And people went to britney spears concerts for the music.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Yes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by meggito ( 516763 ) <npt23@drexel.edu> on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:31PM (#14570309) Homepage
    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?

  • Yes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by devilsadvoc8 ( 548238 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:33PM (#14570340)
    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.

    • If you don't like it, ignore them. If you like them, ogle away they know what they are in for.

      Awesome line of thinking. "I don't like drugs, so I'll ignore them, even though little Jimmy down the street is addicted to crystal meth and robbing stores to pay for more drugs!"

      Booth Babes are a way to get attention, yes, but for an overwhelmingly majority of the games, they're completely unrelated to anything in the game. (DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball might be an exception.) It's a shallow marketing tac

  • 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 ov

  • you mean like these ones? (Score:4, Informative)

    by swatthatfly ( 808033 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:37PM (#14570417)
    Articles about these "models/babes" keep coming, but no links to judge by ourself. Here's a few from Gamecloud: one [gamecloud.com], two [gamecloud.com], and three [gamecloud.com].
    • I knew if I scrolled long enough someone would post links to pictures. I means, that's why this article is on /., right? Just like the religion/evolution articles are there so we can have the same flamewar as last month?

      Cheers,
      Matt
    • I'd worry about disease just being in the same room with those worn out skanks. Seriously, if this is the best the game industry can do, maybe getting rid of booth babes isn't an altogether bad idea.

      It's sad that a girl that hires herself out for this kind of event seems to be on an even lower rung of life than a stripper.

  • Having been to E3... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DeadPrez ( 129998 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:37PM (#14570424) Homepage
    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.
    • They seemed to have this aura of sadness behind their fake smiles.

      Does this come as a suprise to you? They know that they are being slapped in bikinis to sexually attract men of whom 90% of the time they would actively try to sexually shun. I guess in a certain sense they might feel like "soft core" prostitutes... so yeah I can totally understand the "sadness" behind a fake smile. Most probably don't know what they're selling, they just know they've been paid and they have to do it.

      • Re:Having been to E3... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by syberanarchy ( 683968 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @02:49PM (#14571420) Journal
        Aw, let's feel bad for the whores.

        Give me a break. They're being paid thousands of dollars a day just to stand around and look pretty. They ought to be glad they live in a society where being worthless can get you a payday that nice as long as you have big cans.

        So yeah, they should be smiling.
        • I'm not arguing the morality of it nor was I trying to garner sympathy from your generous well of humanity. I was merely offering a possible explanation for the parent poster's observaton.
  • 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.

  • tell me then (Score:3, Funny)

    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:39PM (#14570442)
    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.

  • Kind of sad (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rac3r5 ( 804639 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @01:55PM (#14570644)
    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.
  • 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 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 othe

  • Heh (Score:2, Interesting)

    by HalAtWork ( 926717 )
    The people in charge of putting the booth babes there in the first place were probably just the type of people impressed by that kind of thing in the first place. To me, if the games aren't impressive enough, you've already lost. I guess they hope that with chicks there nobody will notice? But what about the female audience/reporters? Are booth hunks next? Wtf...

    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

  • 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.
  • 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

  • Hell yes! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sakusha ( 441986 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @03:24PM (#14571977)
    Booth Babes are a cultural institution. [blogspot.com]
  • 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 ri
  • They help my divining rod point in the right direction... :)

  • sex sells (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pintomp3 ( 882811 ) on Thursday January 26, 2006 @03:56PM (#14572434)
    do babes in beer commercials matter? advertisers will always appeal to that primal instinct, regardless of whether it has to do with the product.
  • 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
    • Also, they should ban Sony, seeing as they always start exaggerating and lying. Remember the fantastic PS2 that never delivered what they promised at E3? PS3 looks to be the same. Sony shows some pre-rendered crap and pretends that it's PlayStation. Gamer press goes nuts. Sony releases console a while later, and people found that it was a lie. Yet they buy the thing. And the cycle continues the next time.
      • 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 i

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