"Booth babes?" Topic

Looking up info on Smooth & Rifled skirmish rules and came across this from Dadi & Biombo's site: dadiepiombo.it

Can that be a thing anymore? It seems like even suggesting the idea would get you escorted out of the room.

It is ironic that politically, it's exploitative, yet pop music and entertainment is nothing but exploitative with lyrics about loving someone else's body and various parts, lingering shots on healthy, scantily clad coeds. And don't get me started on the objectification, that I hear from reliable sources, goes on in the world of pornography. Smooth and rifled, indeed.

I am sure they are discussing the advantages and disadvantages of columns vs. reinforced lines in the assault. Aren't Europeans less offended by this sort of thing?

Interestingly if you click on the little British flag and to go to the English version they disappear from the front page. So maybe it's an Italian thing.

Yep. It's an Italian thing. They still do stuff that others stopped doing some time ago!

I would not want to play against them- they are using psychological warfare to their advantage…

they could sell me on a system I would normally not be into

Ah yes, standard ad man tactic … Sex Sells !

SWAT team.

The table looks great!

That might be the only thing that could get me to play DBx.

This picture is a couple of years old, still timeless though.

Buck215:
"I would not want to play against them- they are using psychological warfare to their advantage…"

Nah, I'd have no problem: they're too skinny to distract me.
Although Mrs. Carp might have a quibble. Or was that quiver (of arrows)?

The table looks great!

What table ? ? ? :)

Another reason why I am happy to live on the Continent.

Sorry Flashman got thrown in the slammer though.

Nah, I'd have no problem: they're too skinny to distract me.

They'll be devastated to hear that

DBDD

Dude, it's definitely an Italian thing. It's everywhere over there. :)

Dan

Interesting.
So you're saying that Italian guys like looking at, and talking to pretty girls?
Who would have thought ??

Can that be a thing anymore? It seems like even suggesting the idea would get you escorted out of the room.

You've obviously never been to a convention or a trade show in Las Vegas.
This is pale in comparison.

Back in the mid 2000's the booth babes for shows in Vegas got so *ahem* NSFW, (and so many of them on the floor), that some trade shows looked like adult cinema expo shows.
They finally had to actually make local laws and rules about "booth babes". And in Vegas for crying out loud.

The last GTS I went to, had them walking around in outfits that looked like they were ready to do some X-rated Gen Con bump-n-grind dancing. They just kind of pranced around the floor and handed out flyers for game companies. I asked one of them "What's this game about?" and she just said to me "I dunno. I was hired to just hand these things out."

Yeah…

Lots of the booths have 1-3 of them just sitting or standing around to reel in the lonely sucke….errr….potential clients to look at their boo…errr…I mean the company's products….

Tin Dictator: "Interesting. So you're saying that Italian guys like looking at, and talking to pretty girls? Who would have thought ??"

All straight guys do! The difference is that over there (Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, etc) the risqué images are available everywhere, even in what we would think were supposed to be family magazines and channels.

Same thing happens with album covers and concert posters in many Latin American countries.

So just having a couple of fully dressed girls to sell any product or bring attention to a booth at an event is not a problem whatsoever. :)

Dan
PS. When in Rome … do as the Romans do.
And when no longer in Rome … still bring along a little bit of Rome. Once you've had a taste, it's very hard to let go. :)

I support booth babes.

You new bees are sad. Booth babes have been around since I got into the show side of the business in the 1980s.
Several but not only examples are in 1983, a face painter at Biloxi painted several young ladies face for free, including one wearing nothing but a mail poncho top, and had then walk around and tell others to go see him.
One distributor of dice had a largely endowed female stand behind the dice trays and bend over to get the dice for buyers.
Several well known companies of the time had playboy bunnies at their booth at major shows. Ne game manufacturer still in business today at a Gencon had belly dancers start a routine every 15 minutes or so at the registration booth, dance through the dealer hall and finish in front of his booth. He always had quite a following.
I have Ben had ‘visits' from well known cosplayer ladies on Saturday at the Orlando Florida shows.
Anyway it is an American tradition not only Italian.

Rudy, I don't think anyone is saying it is not an American tradition or just an Italian one.

The point is that having young women in revealing clothes on a sales stand is seen in a very negative light these days. It is therefore unusual to see it in the modern world.

The point about Italy is that the photo is from an Italian company's website. Italy also has something of a reputation for being a touch outdated with regard to social attitudes to women.

That is a very strange criterion for what makes up the "modern world."

Technology is great. We can go into another country's web site, even if it's another language that we can't read, move the images into our web sites, and then judge and condemn them because they're not like us. I've lived in Europe for 13 years…they do things differently there.

Oh, and stay off the beaches!!!!

Well said raylev.
Been here twenty years and wouldn´t go back for all the farms in Cuba. And yes, the beaches are quite lovely, except in the Baltic.

In the USA today to have pretty gals at wargaming events hocking toys would not be very P.C.

You guys ought to know by now … it would appear as "objectifying" females …

And besides most gamers know that they'd have as much of a chance of "scoring" with those gals as they would winning the lottery …

Maybe less !

A quibble or two about booth babes at miniatures cons:
If we are making an effort to bring families into the gaming fold, babes would tend to bely that assertation.
And, except for Historicon, most Pennsylvania early spring and late winter weather woild cause unsightly goosebumps on the soft, curvy skin of said bikinied boorlth babes.

What Legion 4 said….x infinity….

Rudy:

Don't forget the girls from Ral Partha in rabbit-skin bikinis.

I find them annoying. Booth babes, I mean. If they're going to jack their cleavage up in my face, then sure, I'll look at it. I'm a guy, after all.

But seriously? Do gaming companies need to resort to this kind of thing to sell games TO GAMERS? You're at a gaming convention. You have a captive audience. You're preaching to the choir, dude. Most gamers who go to conventions are planning on spending money on stuff that, deep down, they know they will never get to play/paint/whatever. Let your product stand or fall on its own merits. I'm not buying a piece of crap game just because a girl in a Vampirella costume shakes her thing(s).

At Gen Con 2012. I saw a few booth babes. Except for a notable crowd of mouth-breathers taking selfies, most of us gamers just walked on by.

Also at Gen Con 2012, I played a demo of Firestorm Armada with a woman from The War Store, who was not dressed like Nicky Minaj, and who actually knew how to play the game, how to answer rules questions and how to engage in conversation without being a vapid ditz. She was cool, and she represented her employer well. (She didn't work for Spartan, she worked for Neal.)

Sure, it's not PC to have booth babes. But it's also just dumb. No one even pretends to believe booth babes give a crap about the games they sell.

"Sure, it's not PC to have booth babes. But it's also just dumb. No one even pretends to believe booth babes give a crap about the games they sell."

For the WIN!!!!!
Well said. I am too busy trying to find someone who CAN actually tell me about the rules, etc….. I am a HUGE nerd after all!

I'm not buying a piece of crap game just because a girl in a Vampirella costume shakes her thing(s).

Well if it's a piece of crap game, you probably aren't going to buy it in the first place…however there will be dozens of guys that WILL fork over the money for the piece of crap game because a girl dressed in a Vampirella costume shakes her things.
Heck, guys slip 1 dollar bills in G-strings for less…

"In the USA today to have pretty gals at wargaming events hocking toys would not be very P.C." Maybe but that did not stop wargames factory (or whatever it was called before it was sold) From employing one for a couple years at Historicon, no she was not wearing a bikini, just a skin tight dress.

Ad Man's mantra … "Sex Sells" …

* [Note whenever I say something like "not PC", or PC in general it is definitely hyperbole, sarcasm, irony, attempt at humor, etc.]

A vendor, who shall remain nameless, had a very attractive woman manning their booth at a con some years back. She was dressed sort of dinner party'esque. The sense I got from the gamers walking by was that they found her intimidating. Sort of a backfire reaction.

dapeters/kpinder

My booth was right across from WF.
My staff would bet on the color of her dress each morning.

There were certainly a lot of gamers stopping there so I am not sure of the backfire reaction comment.

MMV, but my gut on gamers is that a vendor will do far better with a free rack of Hostess Twinkies than he ever could with the unattainable rack of a twinky hostess.

Just my take.

I remember a historicon many years ago. There was a gal selling terrain in the dealer hall. Just dressed in a normal business suit. She always had a line of customers.

Kpinder, put it that way, "gut on gamers" and "Twinkies" is pretty closely associated.

LOL my recollection was despite the fact most of us are middle age, many that went to "shop" at said both, were channeling their inner adolescent in all of their awkward glory.

Back in the mid-1980s when I had a store in Auburn, I got a newsletter from a manufacturing association included in a stock shipment.
One of the articles was on the advantages and drawbacks of having booth babes. A very good article. Talked about the increase in sales based on the target group of the convention. Sales more than doubled when at shows with most males 25 and under. Even a slight but noticeable increase at historical shows with a 40+ target group. So sales increases are based in part on the type of show .

I should point out that this is not the norm, even for Italian wargames. The organisers were just expecting Berlusconi to turn up.

Historigiggity

I'm going to Italy, Avante!!!!
Cheers,
JB

Pass the word and I'm with you, Serente!

Anyone else remember the Dragontooth booth babes from back in the day…

I'm not sure I'd want to hit on a girl who was holding a measuring tape and smiling.