Like last year, Will Wright was front and center at E3 2006 talking about his latest masterpiece Spore as well as his take on women and gaming and the next generation of consoles. With regards to how the industry is trying to grow their female clientele Will Wright told NPR that he believes simply that game companies need to recruit more women to make the games and market them. He has a team of about 70 people working on his brainchild Spore which is due out in April or early May of 2007.

PMS Clan, E3 2006

Booth Babes: Will you miss em?

After quickly realizing that booth babes weren’t going anywhere this year I decided that I would go and interview some of the guys walking around to determine that if the booth babes did disappear whether they would be missed. Perhaps it was the fact the NPR reporter and I are both women, but the overwhelming response that we received was “It is all about the games! The booth babes just distract”. We decided to adopt a different strategy. We were going to find someone who had just finished a photo op with a group of especially salacious booth babes and ask him. “Ummmmm….I could care less if there weren’t any booth babes…”, he says stuttering. Then with more force, “I am really here for the games”. I smile. “Then why are you taking the time to pose for pictures with the past three sets of booth babes that we past in the hall?” <Long uncomfortable pause as the NPR reporter nudges her microphone closer to his trembling lips.>

Conclusion

Like last year, I left E3 with a smile. The changes in the industry that I observed last year are gaining speed this year. There is more and more interest towards what the casual gamer wants, towards what women want and towards more inclusiveness in general. Sure there were still booth babes, and yes there was plenty of gratuitous sex and violence... but executives in game companies are paying attention to the bigger picture. My next article will cover the event that presented the budding and new game companies on the block In my opinion, this is where one can really get a feel for where the industry is heading as a whole.

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