You ask me, it's all of the above. E3 that magical time of year when the developers tell us whether we were right or wrong about our guesses and we get to see how far off our guesses were. The booth babes and the parties and the silly camera crews from the cable news networks are honestly just trimming in my opinion. Furthermore, it's been my opinion that the booth-babe factor has lessened in recent years. People honestly seem to care less about them, and in some ways, people in the industry are more embarassed about them.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say the booth babes and parties act as a way to hide the fact that developers rarely introduce new products at the show. I mean, honestly, the companies that have nothing special to show usually have the most babes while the companies like Sony with PSP or Nintendo with DS are going with their product.

So, E3 boils down to companies reminding us of upcoming products we know about, revealing products we've guessed at, and trying to persuade us that everything is going to be gravy.

Then again, I'm an idiot.

>>Booth babes are a ploy held over from back when videogames were just a boys' club.

I was in a game shop yesterday with my teenage son and we were looking at the stand that held the top ten PC games. Apart from a Harry Potter game, the rest of the top ten consisted of war-based games and sports games. It's still a boys' club, unfortunately.

I desperately want to write games that have a much broader appeal by drawing on richer facets of humanity. Will the marketing climate ever enable me to do so?

It doesn't matter if it's a boy's club or not. As long as men buy anything, you can use a woman to sell it.

I can't tell you the true meaning of E3 - although I'm tempted to say 42. However I think the whole booth babe phenomenon really points towards the fact that the gaming industry still has a lot of skeletons in the closet when it comes to its perception and depiction of women.

The industry claims to be wanting to make games which can be interesting to women. The usual arguments we hear are 'Women like social/friendly/non-violent games'. I.e. online doll-houses. But most female gamers we talk to and hear voice their opinions on this here world wide internetweb sing a completely different tune.

Just as Steve says the marketing climate is pathetic when it comes to thinking about gender issues. And yet I've seen posts that claim that many women are involved in the marketing of games. When it all boils down it seems to me that the industry wants to be politically correct and say the right thing to appeal to female non-gamers, but when it comes down to acting upon the fine words they're lagging behind.

The usual arguments we hear are 'Women like social/friendly/non-violent games'. I.e. online doll-houses. But most female gamers we talk to and hear voice their opinions on this here world wide internetweb sing a completely different tune.

The online voices you hear are just the vocal ones. Take a look on the train/bus on the way to work and observe what women play. Watch what women play at work. The bulk of what women play are what would be called puzzle games: solitaire, Bejeweled, etc. I've seen Palm Pilots with Solitaire tap wear patterns right over they'd have to tap to flip cards over on their screens.

Greetings:
Booth babes at E3 have nothing to do with games and everything to do with trade shows. For a mixed-value discussion of the topic, I recommend:
http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11884

I would also like to point out that there is a significant difference between "wanting to make games that appeal to female gamers (and non-gamers)" and "embracing a feminist consciousness of gender". Pretty much every game company wants to do the former, since it's financially in their best interests. Practically no game company has a clue what the latter is.

Whether the latter is a necessary condition for the former is highly debatable, but seems to be a claim that unspokenly underpins many of the arguments made here.

Eyejinx.

The online voices you hear are just the vocal ones. Take a look on the train/bus on the way to work and observe what women play.

Sure the online voices are the vocal ones. They're also the ones who've been introduced to gaming at an early age and despite social stigmata have continued to play. Many feminists would argue that the reason women do not play games is that from an early age girls were not encouraged to use computers. This may be changing a little, but a recent survey here in Denmark shows about 30% of girls between the ages 13-18 have a Playstation in their room vs. 60% of the boys.

But you do have a valid point in that we have to look at how the gamers actually play, not just how they say they play.

Eyejinx, thanks for pointing to the discussion of the Gamecritic's article. I read it the other day, and I must say I was hoping for the author to probe a bit deeper than she did. But nonetheless it showed a different media perpective on booth babes.

One thing to consider is that it's the booth babes that is the problem, not so much the portrayal of girls in games. When I talk to my girl-gamer friends, they find many of the men in games just as attractive as men find the girls. It seems to me that games universally use exhaggerated characters, dashing, daring, and attractive characters of both genders.

It's just that the industry marketing machine tends to make the girls more apparent than the guys.

When you think about it, gaming and ogling women have some things in common. Both, to some degree, are guilty pleasures. As a married guy with a family, I have to limit both activities. From what I can tell, E3 provides its (mostly male) attendees with an escapist, Vegas-style environment. Instead of slot machines and cabaret girls, we have MMORPGS and the booth babes. It's cheesy, and it's all about attracting attention and generating hype. Remembering the Bloodrayne girl equals remembering the game. Get your photo taken with her, and you have a personalized advertisement that you'll be inclined to show your friends, etc.

Great blog, by the way. I've added a link to your site on my own blog at http://_render_.blogspot.com. My new site covers similar topics--mostly games and game culture. Stop by if you like.

Ups. Never post when you're tired. The numbers above refer to consoles not Playstations. My bad.

" Get your photo taken with her, and you have a personalized advertisement that you'll be inclined to show your friends, etc."

Wow. So, if I was married, I'd sure looove to have a gameboy stud around. Dressed in a thong, with muscles, looking all smoothchalicious. He'd be my escapist and I'd bring the pictures home to my husband. He'd be thrilled. It would all be so cheesy and fun.

It's still a boys' club, unfortunately. I desperately want to write games that have a much broader appeal by drawing on richer facets of humanity. Will the marketing climate ever enable me to do so?

The implication that it's the "marketing climate" preventing you from your lofty goal of "drawing on richer facets of humanity" is ridiculous. Last time I checked, Maxis' nontraditional offerings were in NPD's top ten, and Popcap was making its millions appealing to an audience of men and women of all ages.

Since Maxis describes a success in the retail market, and Popcap describes a success in the online market, I can't imagine it's the "marketing climate" keeping you from achieving anything.

Since Maxis describes a success in the retail market, and Popcap describes a success in the online market, I can't imagine it's the "marketing climate" keeping you from achieving anything.

Popcap and Maxies are developing for a common market of men and women. Most game developers are catering to a very male audience. It's what they know and it's what they excell at doing.

My business is men's adult entertainment. I find that for my business great looking women who take off their clothes for the camera help me make tons of money. Hot naked oiled up men doesn't seem to work so well.

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