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GameCrush Matches Men With Dream Game Dates

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Legend has it that just as generations of "football widows" have lost their men to weekend gridiron contest, we now have girlfriends and wives abandoned by their boys who prefer mangling their video game toys to grabbing their ladies. Well, that myth presumes that there are any game-obsessed dudes out there who ever managed to get a girlfriend in the first place. Have you been to GameStop lately? Sorry to further enduring bad stereotypes of gamers ... but I know some of these hardcore guys. It is hard to imagine most of them coming up for air from World of Warcraft long enough to go on a date.

However right or wrong the stereotypes may be around poorly socialized and lonely game addicts, the newly launched GameCrush site will only exacerbate the myths. Here male gamers can find women who will go on a video game "PlayDate" with them online. The gaming sessions include two-way video, text chat and a full console of multiplayer casual games that you and your dream date can play. You can also use the Web cam feature to see each other and interact while you and your "date" play console games.

You can purchase credits to exchange for PlayDate sessions or you can try to make money by becoming a PlayDate that attracts others. Technically, guys can sign up to be approached by members, but the catalog of PlayDates is pretty much all filled with women who've taken provocative names like JoyButton and KinkyartGirl. Most sport knowing looks and a lot of cleavage. Players pay 60-cents a minute, while the PlayDates themselves can earn up to $20 an hour for playing in a video or text-chat game.

For non-gamers there is a lot of creepy entertainment value here. And I do mean creepy. One young lady was being chatted up by a prospective player and asked for a few minutes to go brush her hair before the two started playing. I felt as if I should scold myself for overhearing any of this. Most of the profiles are stocked with even more provocative images of the girls, and many stay on-call and ready to drop into a chat. The line between good clean casual gaming fun and adult personals gets pretty fuzzy here.

The company has already raised over $700,000 in funding, according to Michael Arrington at TechCrush. The co-founder Eric Strasser told Arrington last month that even when the site was in invite-only beta they had already seen players drop over $10,000. Some guys just don't know when to put down the controller. Explain that credit card bill to the girlfriend.

 

1 comment about "GameCrush Matches Men With Dream Game Dates".
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  1. Jeffrey Burke from Marketing, October 4, 2010 at 2:39 p.m.

    Epic fail.

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