Booth Babes

As advertised proudly by the Gameplay website, a lot of stands had their own assortment of scantily clad women, known to the general public as booth babes. This, presumably, to attract a bigger audience. And there were quite a lot of these so called ‘booth babes’. So much even, that someone thought it fit to have a booth babe of the year contest, found here:

In contrast to last year, the place was filled to the brim with these near-naked women. Either handing out goodies or getting their pictures taken with over enthused nervous boys of all ages. I won’t comment on the fact that there were no booth men, it should be pretty obvious that the target audience is desperate male gamers. So while this is a feminist nightmare, does it work? Did these women help sell, and or promote games? While there were of course several drooling ‘no comments’ given, some people weren’t afraid to tell the world their opinion, albeit anonymously. There was even a surprisingly large amount of people that came especially to have their picture taken with these babes. While some said that this was a successful tactic, most gamers held the opinion that while having these booth babes was nice, they still needed good games. So apparently having women prancing around in bikini’s isn’t enough for these people, you need to make a good game too. That’s just plain needy.

And still, the numbers massed around these ladies speak for themselves. Whether or not they actually help sell games, at least they themselves are a success.

These are the kinds of things you remember, when you walk past a game and some fantasy nurse hands you some goodies, well that leaves an impression.

Some might argue that this is sexist and degrading for women, reducing them to lust objects for men. Well, I kind of have to agree, but on the other hand, no-one forced these women to take these jobs and be drooled over by nerds. They’re standing there by choice. You could also accuse the gamers doing the drooling that they’re being chauvinist pigs. You’d also have a point. But the audience consisted mostly of teenaged boys. And teenage boys enjoy scantily clad women, it’s nature. They can’t help themselves anymore than the marketing corporations can prevent themselves from taking advantage of that fact.

Join us again tomorrow, for the wrap up of Gameplay 2007. Until then, enjoy the antics of the Gaming Couch crew at Gameplay with this comic.

Dren Sokić
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