A service called GameCrush started humbly, posting on Craigslist, asking for women who enjoyed playing games and wouldn’t mind getting paid for it to respond. In response, around 1200 girls signed up for the service, so GameCrush is opening its doors at 2pm Eastern to begin the flood. But what is it?
The premise
GameCrush is, essentially, a gaming version of the ubiquitous “sexy singles near you” organizations. Women sign up for the service, and GameCrush’s users then browse the service, check profiles, and eventually settle on a dame they’d like to play a game with… or more. Let’s put it this way: the girls’ mood options are “flirty” or “dirty.”
So let’s say you settle on a lady of your choice. You then have two options: play a casual game online at the GameCrush site with her (checkers, pool, Battleship), or play something on Xbox Live (Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Halo 3 supported). Support is claimed to be forthcoming for the PS3, Wii, and World of Warcraft. Playing the Flash games on the site jumps you into an instant game with video chat, so you and your new friend can trade barbs (or more) live during the game. If you’re playing via XBL right now, you’ll have to get your invite accepted on GameCrush, then find your PlayDate and send them another invite over XBL.
The fine print
Fine print the first: any girl can sign up to be a PlayDate. Nobody checks these ladies out, so in theory, some of them may not even… be ladies. Keep your senses alert, young ones. Fine print the second: it’s a microtransaction world. The low, low price of $8.25 will net you 500 points (hooray silly conversion schemes!), with a standard game costing 400 points—conveniently leaving you 100 points with which to tip your girl. What will that get you? 6 to 10 minutes of game time.
No jokes: Flash games played at GameCrush.com will last 6 minutes, presumably because of the availability of video chat. If you’re gaming via XBL, you’ll get 10 minutes with the lady. And, to make sure their women are protected, GameCrush gives their PlayDates the ability to immediately block anybody that they’re playing with for any reason. They do, however, receive 60% of the funds spent to game with them, and GameCrush is looking to make its most popular ladies famous, creating a FragDoll-like group they call JaneCrush and featuring the most highly-ranked PlayDates prominently through content and features. How they’re rated comes from the users—all Players can grade their PlayDates after the session on criteria like gaming skill and attractiveness.
GameCrush is hoping people will see the service similarly to going out on the town; they structured the prices, they say, to mimic buying a girl a drink at a bar. Whether gamers will consider $8.25 to meet a random gamer girl a compelling proposition is yet to be seen, but at least they now have that option.
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