Someone’s finally put their foot down about booth babes. Well, kind of.

This E3, Agetec, a game producer, has started a campaign to fight back against the shallowness and objectification of booth babe-dom and to put real gamers back in the spotlight. In an attempt to even the score, Agetec has refused the assistance of beautiful ladies; instead, they’re attracting E3-goers to their booth with the help of ten “unattractive” women and free granny panties.

That’ll show all those hotties who’s boss, right? Umm…

There are two ways of looking at this: One, as a publicity stunt. Two, as an earnest attempt to inject E3 with some equality. (Or three, which seems the most likely, a little bit of both). As publicity stunts go, this one’s in pretty bad taste, if not bad thinking. Booth babes, for a lot of guys, are one of the highlights of the expo. Agetec knows they’ll cause a stir by pitting themselves against the “girls of E3.” They’ll get attention. Of course, it’s attention at the expense of women, but that’s nothing new in the industry.

On the other hand, if this is an earnest attempt to knock some sense into booth babe-lovers, the idea has serious holes. Sure, it’s nice to see someone trying, but maybe they should have consulted actual women on this one. If they hate booth babes, why fight them with more booth babes, unattractive or not? If Agetec really wanted to put the E3 emphasis back on gaming, why didn’t they hire gamers to advertise the booth? And if we’re talking female equality, this thing definitely does not hold water. Putting women on display for being ugly is just as hurtful as putting them on display for being beautiful. By doing so, you turn women into spectacles, and by association label all things female as secondary to true gaming. Not cool. Definitely not cool.

Agetec, if you really want to turn the attention back on the gamers, but can’t get over needing girls to do the work for you, maybe you should seek out female gamers for your booth. Whether they’re cute or not, they know their stuff. And while they might not make a giant splash, their presence really could shift things at E3. In the end, that’s bound to last a heck of a lot longer than a pair of granny panties.

Last week the gaming world finally got the first official shots (and more) of the Xbox 360, and everyone’s pretty excited. Sure, it’s a new machine - new technology, new capabilities. But it’s also a whole new aesthetic. And for the moment, until E3-goers can let us in on the details of playable demos, that’s the one thing we can judge most clearly: Does it look appealing?

The answer, in my opinion, is “yes.”

The first Xbox, no matter what it’s capable of doing, always looks like a clunker up next to the Cube and the PS2 - an over-sized doorstop more than a console. It was designed to seem “hardcore,” in a very bulky, manly sort of way. And it succeeded: You have to be all of the above, hardcore, bulky and manly, to carry that thing around. The 360, in comparison, while not small, is slim and elegant; it appeals more to the design-conscious eye than to the typical, American gaming aesthetic. It’s got sleak, feminine curves. Alright, it’s downright sexy.

To put it simply, it looks like a mac.

We know each Xbox 360 will be powered by Apple technology, but apparently the contents are contagious. Macs hold a strange place in the world of technology fanboys. Those who love them love them - and thanks to more accessible products, like the ipod, that pool of supporters is growing. But there are still a lot of people out there who want nothing to do with Apple. In the gaming world, this is linked closely to purism and pride for PC gaming, which, as the name connotes, doesn’t lend itself so well to macs. Besides, mac users are “strange.” Their operating systems are unfamiliar and their computers, those made in the last decade at least, are just so darn pretty. Macs are not manly computers. They’re favored by artists and designers, those “effeminate” social peripherals. In short, they’re fabulous.

Why is mac teaming up Xbox? Sure, there’s the Microsoft/Apple connection (weird unto itself) that makes the two obvious conspirators. But Xbox, in the gaming industry, has a ideological reputation to uphold of being the all-American console, the kind of system you purchase before going out to play football or drink a round of beers with the guys. That’s what defined the Xbox’s original look. What will happen now that the designers have adapted the aesthetic of Microsoft’s girly (note the compliment) cousin?

So far I’ve heard mixed reactions. My designer and developer friends say the change is fantastic. My media and gamer friends/acquaintances think it’s an (some claim “gay”) abomination. More important though is what the consumers think when they reach for the $500 console on the shelf.

Maybe this is a step in the right direction for video games: Feminine aesthetics have entered the gaming world, and they might just succeed there. On the other hand, this could have nothing to do with appealing to a changing gaming community. As many people have pointed out, the Xbox 360 is a new kind of system, designed not for gamers but for a much wider market, for the average American. Don’t believe it? Look at the MTV release. Perhaps this seeming innovation is just Microsoft’s attempt to cash in on the popularity of the mac aesthetic that placed an ipod in millions of pockets across the country, or the “acceptance” of unconventional gender roles that drove the Queer Eye coffee table book up the bestseller charts.

Either way, for the first time, gamers will rush out to buy a distinctly feminine-looking system. And maybe, slowly, they’ll start to wonder: Is “girly” such a bad thing?

Just how gay is that little green prince?

IâEURTMve spent an unhealthy amount of time over the last twenty-four hours in forums, roaming, inciting trouble, putting together research on how American gamers react toward distinctively Japanese games. What makes a game distinctively Japanese? In the eyes of American consumers, two things, âEURoequirkinessâEUR and âEURoecuteness.âEUR Katamari Damacy is something of an exception to the rule, since, as we all know, itâEURTMs amazing, and, while gamers definitely recognize it as Japanese, it almost transcends stereotyping and national stigmas in itâEURTMs amazing-ness. Almost. There are still a surprising number of people (or at least forum-goers) out there who donâEURTMt know what to do with a game that doesnâEURTMt involve shooting hookers. These guys are quick to banish Katamari (along with a slew of other quality âEURoegirlyâEUR games) to the video game wasteland, a dumping ground for those supposedly peripheral gamers: children, women and homosexuals.

âEURoeKatamari Damacy,âEUR they so insightfully insist, âEURoeis gay.âEUR

Really, what does that mean? Sure, the word âEURoegay,âEUR in less intelligent circles, has taken on a mundane, almost thoughtless translation; itâEURTMs come to mean something simply akin to âEURoeuncoolâEUR or âEURoestupid.âEUR But thereâEURTMs more going on. What these (first of all, homophobic) people are implying isnâEURTMt just that Katamari is bad, but that it has some innate quality that links it to the feminine, and that makes men who play it less masculine, therefore âEURoegay.âEUR Essentially, theyâEURTMre saying, âEURoeThis game is girly. And if youâEURTMre a guy who plays it, then youâEURTMre girly too.âEUR

Like thatâEURTMs a bad thing.

WhatâEURTMs wrong with this picture? In a broad sense, weâEURTMre talking about a wide-spread social problem: America is so saturated with hegemonic gender expectations that labeling someone as a man who doesnâEURTMt fit within the traditional, patriotic mold is a no-brainer, automatic insult: âEURoeDude, you are so gay.âEUR Beyond the obvious inconsideration it shows for men and women who are actually gay (and the way that the growing negative connotation serves as a constant blow to the ego of an already underappreciated, self-conscious community), it reveals our inability as a culture to open our minds to new things, things that donâEURTMt necessarily jive with the masculine power structure.

The same is true on a smaller scale, in the gaming industry. The video game business is run by and for men. Anything feminine (as in not normally considered manly) is demonized, called âEURoegirlyâEUR or âEURoegay.âEUR WeâEURTMre not willing to consider that whatâEURTMs âEURoegirlyâEUR for us might not have a gender connotation in Japan; instead, we call Japanese men, and American guys who play their games, effeminate - and we honestly think thatâEURTMs an insult.

Katamari, as I mentioned, is something of an exception. They are plenty of âEURoehardcoreâEUR male gamers who are totally willing to push around a ball of stuff for a couple of hours, all the while being represented on-screen by a tiny green prince (Who, by the way, seems pretty asexual to me. His father on the other hand… ThereâEURTMs just something about that crotch bulge). But these guys arenâEURTMt playing because theyâEURTMre comfortable with their gender identities, because of KatamariâEURTMs âEURoecuteness,âEUR theyâEURTMre playing in spite of it. The game itself has won them over. Something in its quality (which, in the gaming world, is associated when men) has made it once again masculine, acceptable, no longer âEURoegay.âEUR

What does it say about the gamers of America when we think femininity is bad, homosexuality is stupid, and it takes a game as good as Katamari to make us reconsider?