the following was sent out in the december 17 newsletter of gamecrush.com, a videogame escort service. it’s a site where male players can pay money to arrange “playdates” of online games with woman players (users who posted on the site’s forums at the time of its launch suggesting the possibility of queer match-ups were banned). originally, “players” could request that their playmates be either “flirty” or “dirty”; now it seems as though these choices have been replaced with four “zones,” the fourth of which, “the edge,” sports a handcuff icon and the description, “this could get interesting. not for the faint of heart.” this advice column on dealing with “difficult players” is credited to an author named “lovelylisa”; i bolded the section i found the most problematic.
Talking to new Players is an important experience. They are checking out the site, deciding if they click with PlayDates and maybe they want to spend a little money. I know we all want them to come into our chat room with fistfuls of money! The ones who want to chat incessantly may get on our nerves, but if you take a deep breath and treat them well, you may just end up with a new regular! The rude & pushy Players can be hard to deal with as well, but there’s always a way to keep it positive. Here are some tips to handle the chatters & rude Players, as well as when it’s a good time to use the handy-dandy block feature:
1) Have patience, put yourself in the Player’s shoes. It’s a brand new site, and the Player might be on a tight budget or just isn’t sure about how much to spend, but still wants to talk to the bevy of beautiful and fun gamers GameCrush has to offer (can you blame them?!). Get to know the Players first by asking about their favorite games, favorite consoles, or what they do for fun. After all the niceties are out of the way, ask if they have played on the site before, or if they are new, make them feel welcome, and share about what the site has to offer. Set your own time limits for chatting. For some PlayDates it may be 30 minutes…for some, an hour. It’s whatever you’re comfortable with. Be creative, but try to afford anything resembling “gtfo”. Tempting, yes…but treat them well and you may have just found yourself a new GameCrush friend!
2) Try to handle rude Players by staying positive. I’ve found it to be very helpful if I avoid just saying the word “No” and address situations where I am uncomfortable in a more positive way. Negativity will only ruin the experience for everyone! Try to find creative ways to say no. For example, if a Player asks to see your boobs, say something like “I’m sorry, I don’t strip on cam, but I do love to spank…as in, I will spank you in Black Ops. Care to try to beat me?”. You can always suggest that Players check out the other three zones, or refer them to The Edge if they are being especially pushy: “I’m on here to have a great time and game with other cool gamers, but I think The Edge might be more to your liking. I hope you find the type of PlayDate you’re looking for!” I realize getting rude with rude Players can be hard NOT to do, but we are all representatives of GameCrush, and we want Players to love the site and to spend their credits playing games with us. Put a smile on your face (even if it IS through gritted teeth) and do your best to keep the experience positive.
3) Should I block a Player? First, if the Player’s attitude is more than you can tolerate, is out of your comfort zone, or if the Player just won’t leave, you should go ahead and block the Player and problem solved. Second, if Players says they will not be purchasing credits on GameCrush, or calls the site stupid, pointless, or a waste of money, and if you’ve tried your best to get the Player to move along in a nice way, use the block feature. Third, when Players come into your room & troll you by name-calling, IM bombing, or harassing other Players, blocking is the best solution. However, don’t get TOO block-happy! The feature is there to be used when a Player is too much to deal with and not a substitute for just asking them to leave. Hopefully the above tips will help you to stay focused on giving Players who visit the best experience possible, even when some can be difficult to deal with. Keep a smile on your face, stay as positive as positive, & focus on being your awesome self and the watch the credits start rolling in!
Hopefully the above tips will help you to stay focused on giving your Player the best experience possible, even when he’s difficult to deal with. Keep a smile on your face, stay as positive as possible, & focus on being your awesome self, so that you can create regulars and keep the credits rolling in!
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27 comments
YES
Could you please elaborate on why it is problematic?
so… essentially virtual prostitution, with pretty much the same reasons to avoid straightforward rejection?
sickening -_-
I wonder what kind of lame excuse, if any, they used to justify the heavy-handed heteronormativity enforcement.
this is a service in which men pay to solicit the attention of women, and in which the women are discouraged from saying “no.” this is especially problematic because of the ambiguous role sex has to play in all this. the way the site presents itself – “this could get interesting” alongside a pair of hand-cuffs – suggests that this could be a place for male players to solicit sexual services (“camwhoring,” cybersex, etc).
the women who are registered with the site have done so under the pretense that they’ll be paid just for playing games online with men. but, as this column (which was sent out in an official newsletter to all women registered on the site) seems to confirm, men are going to be spending money expecting sex (or nudity), and women’s paychecks depend on not refusing them outright. so that’s tremendous pressure on women users of the site to concede to the demands of men who use the site, regardless of whether sexual services are actually condoned by gamecrush (probably not publicly, though the above comes pretty close to an admission) or are actually tacitly going on in the background (my guess is that they are, and the site is certainly banking on lonely male players to believe they are).
Creeeeeeeepy. If someone asked to see me naked I wouldn’t be like, “Sorry, I don’t currently offer that service at this time.”
qhahsagfsgf
you wrote an article about a “videogame escort service” and your complaint is the intricacies of how they run their website and not the fact that a “videogame escort service” exists
keep up the good work dess
That’s just… urgh.
I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOUD STOP COMMENTING ALEX YOU RETARD THIS IS A TINY THING AND ITS JUST A SMALL PIECE OF HOW TERRIBLE IT IS it has nothing to do with the way the site is run
nice job missing the point
and nice job BREAKING PROMISES STOPPPP COMMENTINNGGGGG
“I wonder what kind of lame excuse, if any, they used to justify the heavy-handed heteronormativity enforcement.”
Any whiff of homo-cooties would frighten away their clientele.
I am certainly not going anywhere near this site to check, but I’m guessing that it went down like this: queer matchups were proposed; a great outpouring of homophobic venom took place; the admins banned the original posters for “disruption” (or with no explanation at all).
This reminds me a bit of back when I used to pick up extra cash via a terrible, terrible phone-text service. They were paying to send us texts so we could lie to them (bigtime) and we were similarly encouraged to string them along and entice them to keep using the service even if we clearly couldn’t offer what they wanted (real-world hookups).
It was supposed to be a non-adult service anyway, and most of the users were simply seeking companionship, but I quit because the pay was ridiculously bad AND the promised suicide support service didn’t actually exist. (That is, our training manual claimed supervisors would be able to handle users making suicide threats. It turned out the supervisors had no clue what to do.)
Also, it’s a lot easier to stay cheery and redirect people when you’re communicating text-only, and can pass the buck to another worker without the sap noticing…
I’m surprised that there’s any ambiguity at all. I mean, I’ve never actually visited the site, but I’ve heard of it and without ever seeing it pretty much assumed it was an exploitative sex service targeting a demographic that needs a pretence for it. Kind of the internet equivalent of a creepy Japanese club where boys too timid for real GFE pay by the half hour to put their head on a girl’s lap.
Actually, those places advertise girls playing video games with you too, so I wouldn’t even be surprised if that was the direct inspiration for this model.
It’s okay that I’m speaking from a position of complete ignorance because this is the internet.
also daphgny that is a knarly shirt
This has to be one of the saddest things I have ever heard of.
I’m not sure I understand this post; doesn’t the very set-up of women being paid to play with men who pay to play with them imply this structure? It’s a service that’s being provided, this just seems the horrific logical conclusion of a set-up that’s very questionable as is. Did you feel surprised?
I don’t know whether to laugh at the fact that this site exists or feel bad the women on it. I think I’ll laugh, because the hilarity of both the ambiguity and the fact that they’re outright pulling the strings of the “lonely, nerdy manchild” demographic is hilarious.
Everything written above are helpful in everyday situations. It’s an extremely effective sales or negotiation tactic to never say no, in order to keep things positive. As soon as you say “no” to someone, they won’t be as open with you and they will perceive you as focusing on the negatives. I don’t see how this is problematic at all! We all could use some positivity.
more like penny PINCHER
Maybe I’m a horrible man or something, but I don’t really feel bad for the women, assuming that they go into it knowing the kind of site they’re dealing with.
BUT THEY DON’T
THAT’S THE PROBLEM
MAYBE I’M A HORRIBLE MAN
NO JUST A HORRIBLE READER
That shirt is pretty rad.
no ma’am this is a great fucking view of how we’re all easily corruptible and horrible
men adn women alike
it shows how we’re both disgusting creatures and no one is safe from judgement
and how we must TRANSCEND THESE SHITTY CHEAP OUTLETS FOR PERSONAL GAIN and become better people
I’m kind of having trouble seeing anything in the post that indicates that they don’t know what’s going on. Perhaps I could actually go look at the site, but it’s not something that actually interests me enough to do so.
Sorry if I came off rude…totally not my intention.
sean are you blocking me or something i totally got you covered
I find the bolded section disturbing for another reason. The intent of the section is to train the women “escorts” to extend the amount of time they keep their “john” playing… and paying. Saying “no” would end the session quickly.
You read the clause incorrectly. It’s not telling the women they can’t say “no” at all. The women can turn down requests they don’t wish to comply with. The site operators prefer them to do it in a “creative way.”
After reviewing the recent content on your blog, the material has gone from enjoyable to off-putting. You come across as a woman who feels victimized, directly and by proxy, for various reasons and you make an issue of it. And when someone posts something that doesn’t support your opinions, you and/or your girlfriend become combative. It’s best to keep those things in an offline journal, if you can’t handle the criticism.
Dude, you wanna have your mind blown? Many women feel victimized by the dismissal and minimization of their experiences or unsolicited condescending advice from random guys. Which, you know, might include things like denying that they have a right to argue aggressively or suggesting they keep their objectionable thoughts to themselves. But hey! Silly girls and their silly feelings, amirite?
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