So you’ve probably heard of GameCrush. It’s been around the news circuit a few times, mostly because it’s got this crane-your-neck-at-a-highway-accident appeal to it: a mixture of garish sex appeal, forehead-slapping stereotypes, and ditzy chutzpah. Basically, it’s a service where gamers (mostly guys) pay per minute to play a video game with an attractive piece of meat. Er, woman. Well, they don’t really make that distinction, but we’ll be nice here. It’s pretty much the Girls Gone Wild model slapped into the video game scene, and they’re raking in the dough like crazy.
I mean, why not? No matter how much we pretend that gamers have advanced past the stereotypes of horny, lonely nerds who have to literally pay for a cute girl to look their way, obviously we haven’t come that far if horny, lonely nerds are literally paying cute girls to look their way. And from the employee’s perspectives, it’s a sweet gig — they don’t have to actually prostitute themselves, just play games, flip their hair and go, “Tee hee, you’ve got mad pwning skills, cutie!”
GameCrush has been making the convention circuit as of late, and yes, they were at PAX. They kept hovering around the media room doing one interview or the other, and I’d say that the journalists I observed either fell in the “look away, embarrassed for everyone involved” or “staring so hard at hot pants that they got eye strain.” We thought it was hilarious in a pathetic way, especially when the models would open their mouths and mangled English would spill out. When your spokesperson is “AmbiBambi23″, I guess we shouldn’t be expecting extraordinary oratory talent.
Honestly, I think they’re an operation that the media needs to ignore en masse, because everyone is demeaned when GameCrush is treated as anything but a complete joke. Take for example this writeup at MMORPG.com. It’s quite hilarious for what it is, a writer who is carefully dancing around saying anything too negative about an operation that needs a lot of negative things said about it. I guess it helps that it’s written by a girl, because a guy would just be “HOT PANTS HURR HURR HURRRR.”
Choice quotes:
“Imagine logging into a website and finding a photo of a pretty girl. You chat with her for a bit, and then decide that you’d like to play a video game with her. She accepts your offer to play, there is an exchange of money, then off you both go to engage in some virtual gaming entertainment. Sounds a bit strange, eh? I thought so, too.”
Wow! Just imagine that scenario! My mind is stretched to the point of breaking, I tells ya.
It doesn’t sound strange. Creepy and pathetic, maybe.
“Together they explained to us the “ins and outs” of this new website, and helped clear up some skeptical notions we had … and that some you are most likely already forming too.”
“INS AND OUTS HURR HURR”
“Instead, when asked, Amber said, “I’ve only seen one penis”. She immediately blocked him/it. We giggled about it and they assured me that it was nothing like Chat Roulette.”
We… giggled about it? Also, “him/it”?
“Private messages can be sent if a Play Date has been missed for a while and is wanted back in game.”
“But this is NOTHING like stalking!”
“I’m still not sure how I really feel about this site. On one hand, it sounds like a great place to make friends and possibly make some money. On the other hand, it sounds like could log in and see thing I don’t want to see.”
“Log in and see thing”? Man, that would be scary:
Anyway, I guess what rankles me isn’t so much that this sort of thing exists (and in the large scheme of nerd-sex ventures, it’s pretty tame), but that gaming media is giving it so much press. I guess we all still have a long way to go.
Crap. I just gave it press, didn’t I? Maybe I should become a PlayDate. Would any of you pay $0.60/minute to play Super Mario with me?
Hmmm…my woman games right next to me on the couch, and all it costs me is a dinner and a movie once in a while.
Those are the best gaming buddies of all.
They sound like they are being slightly coached in specific circumstances.
“Instead, when asked, Amber said, “I’ve only seen one penis”. She immediately blocked him/it. We giggled about it and they assured me that it was nothing like Chat Roulette.”
- This entirely developed by a marketing team, whether that is one person or many. Reassuring it’s not a destitute wasteland(ala Xbox video), showing that she “likes” it(giggle) and restating it’s not a destitute wasteland(ala Chat Roulette)
all I can say is, gimme a break /eyeroll
It’s those late night ads, on TV, about hot phone dating mixed with gaming.
Meh, it’s like the BNP here in the UK. If you just let them speak, rather than try and stop them, most people will come to the conclusion that it’s a pathetic failure.
Although, an example of this not working is Wolfshead. The fact that people agree with him…I can see why Hitler succeeded at the Nuremberg Rallies, now.
Syp, I’ll pay 60 cents a min to game with ya, as long as you don’t mind looking at my balls the whole time
See, I called out some gamers for still succumbing to stereotypical behavior, and I get nerd-raged at… yet this kind of site still exists for exactly the reasons you mention: some stereotypical behavior still exists.
When I see some blogs wonder why there is so much talk about feminism and gaming lately, I think of this “service” and immediately understand that there is a long way to go. Not only because it exists and is making money (how much is in question, I’m guessing whatever they are stating is marketing talk for “everyone else is going it, it’s ok for you to do it too”), but because, like you said, it is being so heavily covered in the gaming media.
But it shouldn’t be that surprising in an industry that still can’t figure out how to sell their games to the media with smothering them with “booth babes” at every convention…
As a female who has been gaming for fifteen years, I find it a step back to the Stone Age.
@Cedia: Not to be a prickly pear…but, well, to be a prickly pear: eh? There are whole countries, religions and beliefs that are in the “stone age.”
Given that I personally would not use this service. I don’t see this as any worse, or better, then going to an Auto Show or watching the cheerleaders at a sporting event. It is the common theme here at the heart of this in that sex sells and good looks (both male and female) are an advertiser’s tool.
I’d suggest that it is incredibly pathetic, and that it’s the internet so it fits right in. I’d also suggest that gaming is mainstream enough that this soft-core prostitution business is not tarring everyone who ever picked up a joystick.
I try not to dwell on it too much, because the contradictions make my head explode. Paying someone to play online games with you? Bad. Paying them to have sex with you? Good, and should be legalized.
Things like this? Bad because it portrays gamers as horny nerds. Things like 4chan and Rule 34? Gets press in the Wall Street Journal.
Honestly I get really tired of the irrationality of people.
…I think that entire can of Coke I was drinking went straight threw my nose when I read James’s comment.
It’s stupid, but men will do almost anything to spend time with a hot girl, all types of men, not just gaming nerds. This is no different than an escort service (the non-sex delivering kind), dating services, phone hotlines, etc. I’m sure there are plenty of single guys out there who’d pay to have a hot girl go with them to a baseball game. Or camping. Or to the races. Or sailing. Or whatever. Gamers just want hot girls to game with instead. *shrug*
It’s what men do, and it’s no more or less pathetic (or worthy of attention) than any other way in which men throw money away to get the attention of attractive females, however briefly.