Are gamers really that pathetic?

[Incenjucar]

Having read the 'article' (you know you're dealing with a twit writer when they note that someone likes the idea of their article IN their article)...

1) Those aren't babes so much as 'we happen to be thin and have sizable breasts' gals. I saw mostly dead eyes and so-so faces. Suggests that, aside from money, the girls are trying to get some ego points for their bodies (and so all that work in the gym and getting just the right wonderbra were worth it). Alas, the audience that would actually be expecting 'babes' to be the main draw to a video game are people who aren't going to be looking at eyes and faces anyways. Heck, most of those cheesy auto magazines have better-faced gals most of the time. Of course, they also use digital touch-up... To me, to qualify for babe, they have to be able to be dressed in a loose-fitting sweater that hides pretty much everything, and just drown you in their eyes and the way they smile. But again, that's me.

2) Unfortunately, the video game community has been going as fast towards porn as possible. There was a video game that was mostly nude scenes that was out of a Heavy Metal Magazine (read: comic book porn mag) some time ago (and had horrid play according to the reviews, so you know what they were actually trying to sell), and not only is Leisure Suit Larry back, but now they have Playboy: The Mansion coming out. That and they have swimsuit issues for a number of video game magazines, etc.

3) This is the one good thing about WotC being owned by Hasbro, much less chance we'll be mucked down in porn-covered books and ads when people can't be bothered to make something good. I really don't want to see Mailee ala Tomb Raider poses. *gags*

 

[GravyFingerz]

I suppose I understand where the article is coming from. I had a little joke with a few of the other guys about doing a doc film about Gamers hitting on chicks. There was a specific incident which brought this up. But I can only laugh and poke fun because I am similarly dorky and such. But all in all I think that the article was a little skewed. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that she was famous and a celebrity more than the fact that she was pretty. I mean look at how 12 year olds react to seeing a Backstreet Boy. Can you imagine all the gamers screaming, crying, and shaking "It's the Beast Master, ohmy gawd, ohmy gawd *Faints*!"

So I don't know if I would shake when getting a picture with a hottie, I mean cmon I could walked down Illinois street and gotten a much better show

The Seraph of Earth and Stone

Thats a good point; you don't see any articles providing negative publicity on screaming crying 12 year old girls when they see N'Sync or whatever. Double standard and what not.

 

[Dr. Snafu]

Man, I'm shaking just reading this thread!

 

[fanboy2000]

There was a video game that was mostly nude scenes that was out of a Heavy Metal Magazine (read: comic book porn mag) some time ago

Off topic triva: the Publisher of Heavy Metal is Kevin Eastman, co-creater of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 

[Serps]

Yeah, well I'm shaking just thinking about reading this thread!

 

[Piratecat]

As people said, the article was about E3, which isn't RPGs. But think about it this way:

- Let's say one person in 200 is inappropriate
- Those girls pose for hundreds of people per day
- What do you think is going to stick out in their mind, all the normal folks or the few weird ones they're bound to have?

Look at it in that light, and it's not surprising or unexpected.

 

[Nisarg]

Thats a good point; you don't see any articles providing negative publicity on screaming crying 12 year old girls when they see N'Sync or whatever. Double standard and what not.

Well, no that's not a good point at all actually.. unless you're saying gamers have all the emotional and social maturity development of a 12 year old child?

The fact is that the average gamer is older than that, and should be held to higher standards of maturity.

The fact is also, sadly, gamers in north america tend to tolerate a much higher level of the socially retarded than is healthy for the hobby and the hobby's perception in the world at large. The socially unfit shouldn't be allowed to continue to be socially unfit in the gaming community, and thus become our "poster boys" to the world.

Interestingly, I've found down here in South America that this is not tolerated at all, and there are some interesting results:
1. You have no terminally antisocial or sociopathic people in gaming groups, which you do have in gaming in North America.

2. Most people down here live up to the social norms, in terms of standards for their age group (unlike in North America where in one gaming group I played in I was the ONLY one who had a job and was living independantly outside of his parent's house, when this was a group of 25 year old men.. I was also the only one who'd had a long-term relationship with a woman).

3. There are far more female gamers down here, I'd say about three or four times as many. This might be because they feel safe about coming to a gaming club knowing they won't be harassed by mouth-breathing social imbeciles that haven't bathed in a week, don't have a job, and live with their mom.

The gaming community needs to make a choice. Do we want more well-adjusted people, and more women, in our community; or do we want to hand over the entire hobby to the cat-piss men? Because we can't do both. And the longer we tolerate this sort of social retardation at our gaming tables the more socially functional people will associate that attitude with gaming and will leave the hobby. Its the industry equivalent of a death spiral, it happened to furry fandom and it could happen to us.

Nisarg

 

[MDSnowman]

Heh trust me, after four years at a private college filled with women so good looking that they could make a "normal" man freeze like a deer in headlights I don't expect a booth babe to provoke a similiar reaction. (I am not exageratting, there were so many beautiful women at my college that I went into withdrawl during the summer.)

Sure there will be that moment of thinking "Is she actually wearing that?" maybe a turned head, but that's it.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

"Is that situation so exciting as to make gamer guys shake?"

Given the right combination of stresses and stimulants, just about any situtation should be able to make even the slightest of maladjusted folks shake. I'm twitching right now as the last of my morning caffeine is wearing off...

The thing to keep in mind, though, is the other half of the quote from that lady: "They come up to me and they're shaking. At a show like this, they're all nice and polite."

Or, put another way, "at least the ones who are freaks aren't the creeps."

I have to also note that pretty much all of the interviewed booth babes all said they were having fun. Having timid little guys come up to you in shock and awe for three days straight to get pictures taken -- as opposed to waiting tables? That's not a job, that's a paid ego trip.

::Kaze (notes that women like ego trips, even after they're married)

 

[fanboy2000]

1. You have no terminally antisocial or sociopathic people in gaming groups, which you do have in gaming in North America.

Odd, I haven't found any terminally antisocial or sociopathic people in any gameing group from Panama on up. I used to work with a guy who travled around North and South America and he never saw any either.

2. Most people down here live up to the social norms, in terms of standards for their age group (unlike in North America where in one gaming group I played in I was the ONLY one who had a job and was living independantly outside of his parent's house, when this was a group of 25 year old men.. I was also the only one who'd had a long-term relationship with a woman).

I'd say most people here live up to their social norms. Of course social norms vary from Guatemala to Quebec, to place that have very diffrent socail customs.

3. There are far more female gamers down here, I'd say about three or four times as many. This might be because they feel safe about coming to a gaming club knowing they won't be harassed by mouth-breathing social imbeciles that haven't bathed in a week, don't have a job, and live with their mom.

Odd, I've played in groups where half the group was female. One of my oldest gaming friends just got married to his gaming girlfriend. They met on the internet, on an online game chat. I used to work with a woman who gamed, and so did her husband who worked in a game store also. Judging from my customers, I'd say gaming in North America was filled with woman. My girlfriend of 2 1/2 years also plays D&D, and video games, and board games, and well, you get the idea.