Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including new additions to Microsoft’s Azure cloud service and how some guideline-defying ‘booth babes’ ended up at PAX Australia.
- The July update to Windows Azure includes new traffic management features, support for extra SQL options and added AutoScale featuress. Check out Microsoft’s blog post for the full details.
- At Kotaku, Junglist investigated why some exhibitors decided to feature ‘booth babes’ at PAX Australia, despite that being against conference rules. A good read.
- Seeking out a bargain action cam? Kogan has started selling a range of discount HD cams and accessories.
Comments
4 responses to “Briefly: Windows Azure July Updates,The PAX Booth Babes Scandal”
Is Junglist on staff now? Would be awesome news!
I disagree though that booth babes is a real ‘problem’ as such.. Not sure how you would find it if someone said “because you’re an [attractive] man who likes to wear short shorts, you can’t be involved in journalism”..
I get that it’s against the rules in an official capacity.. But what, for example, would happen if a beautiful girl in a miniskirt who just happened to choose to dress that way, got a job at one of the booths because she WAS a hardcore gamer? Prejudice is prejudice – either for something, or against it. Just let people do what they want to do, I say.
Well, since she would be representing her employer, presumably they could ask her to wear something other than the miniskirt. It’s not a ban on pretty employees.
We might not see it as a problem, but men have the luxury of booth babes being appealing to us.
Half the gaming community is female, so why does the industry keep ignoring them, and keep pandering to the other half of the community ?
I might not be against booth babes, but if my partner and I were at an expo, and she kept getting approached by mini mobs of buff booth boys, I’d soon start to lose my patience with the gimmick.
What we are seeing here is a community voluntarily choosing to be mature, and not alienate the women who choose to enjoy the same passions as us.
As a comparison, the car industry still hasn’t managed to do that in over 60 years.
I take your point, but the car industry is doing quite well at marketing and now designing certain car models for women.
Game companies that hide behind this old culture are not being strategically smart. The ‘traditional’ gaming space is saturated and very competitive. The opportunities lie in the non-traditional gaming niches.
Also, I was around at (near) the start of computer gaming in the 80’s. I don’t remember it being super-sexist, although it was mostly boys playing the games. It must have been in the 90’s where sexism emerged in the game content and attitudes of gamers.
Based on these comments above and as a female person gaming, I will continue avoiding PAX like the plague. The issues surrounding women and gaming and hostile environments are not limited to booth babes, they’re one aspect of an overall toxic and frustrating situation. There is a bucket load of information that’s been written by some very insightful people if you can stand to realise that while it may seem silly on the surface, it’s not a surface issue, it’s deeply insidious and awful. Do some googling on the subject – check out the geek feminism wiki for a start, and maybe comments ignorant of issues like this can become a thing of the past.
(yes I’m annoyed and no it’s not my responsibility to educate you and explain why, do some googling).