90% of the guys at Comic Con are perfectly normal. 10% have serious personal boundary issue. Every year, there are reports of female attendees being stalked, and booth babes being groped and rubbed against.
Who will this contest most appeal to?
The best part is that they explicitly say you can commit an ‘act of lust’ with any booth babe at Comic Con. Not just those at Dante Inferno, or other EA sites, where the women might be informed of the contest.
You’d think EAs legal department would quickly grasp how this is a bad idea.
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Ugh. I hate the booth babe tradition. It's puerile.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I play LoTRO with a woman who is proud to do the whole booth babe thing. The contest is a little creepy though...
I just object to the idea that you need women in tight shirts to sell video games. Even though we're seeing a greater numbers of female gamers these days, games are still almost entirely about male fantasy fulfillment. What's worse, big developers are only interested in making male fantasy fulfilment games. Will I ever see another King's Quest series? Probably not. What about No One Lives Forever? Cute female protagonist, humorous lines, and exploding robot kitty-bombs. Nope, the series has died. Even Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time was given a testosterone make-over. I'm just tired of these sorts of games, the ones with the brown and black palettes and the muscle-bound gun-toting army guys, but I don't see anything changing anytime soon. And the booth babes are just an extension of the male fantasy, to me.
I’ve done work for the Las Vegas Convention Center and known a number of young women who’ve been ‘booth babes’ for automotive shows, tech shows, etc. All of them have stories about inappropriate comments and touching. The majority of vendors or convention staff see this a just ‘part of the job.’
Ironically, I know a few strippers who work in strict no touching bars. No matter how horny and drunk the guy is or how hawt the girl is, people manage to control themselves if they know certain behaviors will get them tossed out.
Have you seen this?
http://brokentoys.org/2009/07/28/eafail/
Anyway...
"The majority of vendors or convention staff see this a just ‘part of the job.’"
Who are you referring to when you talk about the vendors and convention staff? The booth babes or the organizers of the booth (i.e. EA)? If it's the organizers, wow, really? That's dreadful. They're hiring people and then not taking steps to stop them from being inappropriately groped? Sigh. Maybe in a bar with strippers, it makes sense to protect the girls, because without them, you don't have a business. Maybe at a con, it's different, because even without the babes, you still have a product, and if letting a potential customer grope the babes grants you a sale, it's worth it.
Wish I knew where the "she's dressed up as [slutty char] from [game] and therefore I am allowed to touch her boobs" attitude comes from.
so hey who's in the running for this stupid contest, anyway?
http://gaygamer.net/2009/07/update_runnerup_for_lust_conte.html
good question.
It just goes to show just how insular, and out of touch with the wider world the gaming industry still is in many places. There's still a long way to go before gaming 'grows up' and stop's being such a frat-boy's club.