E3. The proverbial Mecca of the gaming industry, as a friend of mine put it several years ago. I simultaneously look forward to and dread this event. On the one hand, it was one of my first events when I started working in the gaming industry. On the other hand, it still seems less like an industry showcase and more like a circus spectacle that simultaneously brings out the best and worst in my gaming compatriots. It kind of reminds me of San Diego Comic Con, only slightly smaller and all about video games and not at all about shopping.
I’ve been fortunate enough to escape having to work my company’s booth for the past few years (it’s exhausting and thankless work, so please be kind to the beleaguered staff you see in company shirts toughing it out; they’ve probably been on their feet for hours with only a half hour lunch and MAYBE one or two 15-minute breaks and precious little sleep). However, I always feel like I’m entering the proverbial lion’s den whenever I don my badge and pass the scowling security guards looming at every entrance.
I happen to occupy a space which is a plethora of minorities and gamer stereotypes:
- Female
- Single
- Overweight
- Gay
- Masculine-identifying butch (now complete with shaggy sideburns)
- Socially awkward
- Out of my 20s
Most, if not all, of these bullet points tend to be targets for negative attention and scorn. I have the fortune to have never been hit on at a gaming event or mistaken for a “booth babe”, though I attribute this to not even remotely approaching mainstream standards of “attractiveness”. I have, however, been occasionally roundly ignored when lining up to demo a product, and skipped when booth staff (especially “booth babes”, oddly enough) are handing out fliers and pamphlets. The flip-side to unwanted attention, I suppose, is the complete lack of attention–though I admit, it seems better to me than the alternative. However, being an industry-exclusive event, and myself having logged over seven years working in the industry, dammit, I’d like to see a modicum of the respect my male cohorts receive.
It’s tempting to also fill this space with my thoughts on “booth babes”. I find myself in a VERY awkward space when this subject is broached. On the one hand, I suppose I appreciate an attractive female body dressed up like an appealing game character as much as the next guy (or other queer female). However…I don’t attend E3 to get turned on. I certainly don’t attend with the desire to see ANY member of my sex (or either sex, to be honest) dressed up and put on display to attract the male gaze. I attend for information. For game demos. For technology demos. To find out what the hell is going on in the industry. And maybe to do some networking…if networking were really at all possible in the crushing throng and bustle of moving as many people through each demo station as quickly as possible.
At the end of it all, I really just wish it was possible for any woman working as booth staff in any capacity to be treated with respect. Just because a woman is attractive doesn’t mean she’s a “booth babe”. Just because a woman is working as a “booth babe” doesn’t mean she’s clueless about games or the product she’s representing, and it certainly doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be respected. I also wish women attending were treated with respect, and not as prey objects or invisible phantoms lurking at the edges of everyone’s peripheral vision. I want to be visible, and I want to be respected. I wish that didn’t feel like I was asking too much.