MSI booth babe competittion for Dreamhack sparks flame war

Dreamhack is one of, if not the largest BYOC LAN-parties in the world, held 2 times/year in Sweden with around 10-15 thousand visitors to each event. As you can probably guess, this is a perfect time for PC-component manufacturers to get their PR going with a special hall dedicated for this specific need.

Ever thought you, or someone you know would make a far better booth babe than the girls at past events? Then put your stuff to the test and apply to be the next MSI Computersbooth babe and go to DreamHack Winter.
To be eligible to enter, you must speak English and bet between the ages of 18 and 25. Preference goes to girls who already reside in Scandinavia but all other European countries are eligible as well.
- Follow MSI Europe on Facebook
- Post your BEST photo of you in a bikini/mini-skirt/hot-pants on the MSI Europe Facebook wall with the comment: “MSI Booth Babe”
- Get as many people you can to LIKE your photo
The top FIVE liked photos will be judged based on looks, character and creativity. In the end only one girl will be chosen to go and represent MSI Computers at DreamHack Winter in November 24-27 so make sure you give it all you’ve got.
The lucky winner will receive an MSI Laptop, and will become the MSI cover girl for all MSI campaigns as well as be flown to DreamHack Winter with all expenses paid.
This year however, it seems that MSI Europe took a wrong turn in their marketing strategy by starting a booth babe competition for this years party:

http://gaming.msi.com/news/msi-computers-is-searching-for-the-next-hottest-booth-babe

Seeing as Dreamhack has for the last 3-4 years seen a growing amount of female gamers joining in, this has sparked somewhat of a flame war on their facebook page, blogpost and on twitter with people saying they'll boycott MSI-hardware.

Dreamhack has had a designated hall for exhibitors for quite some time now, but booth babes have not yet ever been present (from what I recall). Instead, manufacturers have chosen to put their female pro gamers on stage with public ladder games etc. Showing off the trolls who probably've never seen a girl play CS or whatever it may be. Which IMO is probably the best way to handle this.

What are you guy's opinion about this?

The best comparisons our Dreamhack is probably a mixture between PAX and QuakeCon; what are your experiences with booth babes there?

I should attend these events. Not because of the crappy booth chics, but because I miss LAN parties.

Man that has to be one crazy lan party. Some guy talks shit to you in CS well go kick his ass hes only 3 rows away from you.

How do yo even network that many people

Wow. 

They should just have half naked men standing next to every half naked girl. Just because 99.999% of the people going are guys doesn't mean they are all straight guys. Plus this way all the fem nazi's will have to find something else to bitch and moan about.

I think w/e on boothbabe no boothbabe thing in general. But in this case, it sounds like Dreamhack already found a good strategy using gamer girls and if they actually promoted them on stage and everything.... who the hell retired there at their PR that they decide to go in exactly the opposite direction. I say Backtrack as fast as possible.

i must say , for a second there i thought i was reading one of Patrick's articles...

@Dagbiker: Here's a whitepaper on it http://dreamhack.biz/info/docs/dhs-net-stkj-eng-2.0.pdf It's a bit old, but the same principals still remains. The biggest difference from the latest events is the WAN-connections and core routers, which now boasts a 40Gb/s fiber connection straight in to the hall.

And here's a more commercial-like youtube video:

The grubby marketers lost me at "1. - Follow MSI Europe on Facebook"

Fuck off.

Offensive, Retarded, Sexist, Stupid.

I think booth babes should remain, but there should also be a shirtless Taylor Lautner looking guy to compensate.

(the problem is is that a male booth babe would appear in a subservient position, and women aren't turned on by that)

I think it stinks and is only going to stop more women from getting into games. I mean what as a male gamer would you prefer? One woman up on stage in hot pants and 15,000 guys on the floor or 7,500 women on the floor, enjoying what you do, that you know, you can talk to and stuff.

Until the gaming world escapes from the cage of the teenage bedroom there are going to be lots of lonely young, and old, gamers out there.

Also is anyone really going to buy one computer over another because they have a hot babe in their booth? (No right? Right?........oh man:( )

I kind of dislike the whole concept of booth babes. I mean it only enforces the already established stigma that surrounds video games and gamers in general.

Sounds like a great way for some girl to get herself a whole throng of stalkers.

Seems like an odd step backwards.

Seems like MSI realized their mistake and closed the competition, deleted their flooded facebook update and announced a winner:

MSI Europe Congratulations Mikael!
You were brave (and crazy!) enough to participate in our contest and since a certain part of the community doesn't want people to have this experience, we're awarding you with a nicely filled goody bag!
Check your personal messages!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150881747880385&set=o.111253142247639&type=1&ref=nf

They can do what they want. I imagine that as far as their motives are concerned though, they'd be better off hiring hot chicks to do sales. I've been talked into letting my nail get buffed in a product demonstration by this hot Israeli chick at the mall even though it was a mostly humiliating experience. Same thing, really.

@Azteck said:

I kind of dislike the whole concept of booth babes. I mean it only enforces the already established stigma that surrounds video games and gamers in general.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Of course they're allowed to do whatever they want with their LAN party but if you're going to do something this involved with your community you have to know who your community are, and if your community is a group of people with a lot of women in it then you're going to piss them off, and if your community is full of guys who find this kind of pushy female objectification patronising then you're going to piss them off too. This kind of stuff also helps perpetuate the negative stereotype that the people passionate about games are all just dudebro-basement dweller hybrids who can't go five minutes without drooling over big explosions and girls in mini-skirts. As shitty as some of this stuff may have been though, I must say it's good to see some gamers stand up and say this kind of thing is dumb and out-dated.

They can do whatever they want but I find it to be a fail.

As another poster said: I would prefer 7,500+ girls on the floor gaming with me. There must be at least one that is attractive..right...right?!

I guess it's easier for lazy marketers to target their perceived current audience than attempt to embrace the growing population of ladies who play games. It seems shortsighted.

@SeriouslyNow said:

Offensive, Retarded, Sexist, Stupid.

I agree. Dont we have enough objectification of women as it is?

Dreamhack, I am disappoint >:{

There are games, like DNF, where booth babes are totally fine. Even dancing games and stuff like that. But overall I think it's cheap and tasteless.

lol

I like how the only two pictures sent are of a quite fat chick and a black guy.