Forget boybands, girlgamers are the new cash cow!

Hot on the heels of last years Ubisoft PR creation, the Fragdolls, who game and blog and look great doing it, as long as it's Ubisoft games, comes another femme clan: Les Sueles from Sweden. This counterstrike clan will be touring on a telly near you soon, as the production company Reveille just signed to produce 12 episodes with the ladies.
Ben Silverman CEO at Reveille said to Resumé: "The series Play Us will make these girls rock stars within gaming."
See more about the show at Play Us tv and the girl gamers at Les Sueles own website.

"In French their name means 'The Outsiders'. But in the world of "Counterstrike", a first person shooter PC game, Les Seules have moved to the forefront, thanks to their virtual machine gun and grenade wielding techniques, and, well, their good looks" ABC News.

The similarities between the Frag dolls and Les Sueles is simply that they are both 'arranged' girl game clans - both teams play for real, or at least say they do and there's no reason to doubt that. The Frag Dolls were put together by Ubisoft and the Swedish production company Bringiton found the Swedish gaming gals.

The Frag Dolls tour of the web had mixed reactions, while people like Brain Blenders thought the ad pitch was so transparent that is was obvious, gamers (presumably the target market, no?) all over were kinda pissed about the tactic.
FFWD's Simon didn't like the way they were announced at BoingBoing as if they were an "organic girlgamer get-together" rather than a "clan formed specifically by Ubisoft (Monkees-style)", TextURL's two cents likened them to "planted amazon reviewers, but with a heavy dose of sex", and over at the Guardian read the debate going on in the comments to get a feel for how they were received by the gaming community at large.

While girl game clans are nothing new - there's PMS clan UK, girlzclan and so on out there - having them tour in the name of your software company or TV show might be. The arguments that making clans according to gender is really backwards because in games you are not you, your regular social status, your gender or physical limitations but only your skillz, and that is half the fun, are running high in the Guardian blogpost. I agree with that, years ago when I was interviewed by the TV show "sajber" as I attended HIP97 about why the net and networks games were so attractive I explained: "Because on the net you are not meat, just brains". This might be the key as to why people are pissed about the pretty girl gamers - their looks are irrelevant to their skills. Since clans are a bit like sports teams, picture creating teams with football players that are "presentable", as the Fragdolls UK advertised for new members. Amsterdam hot shop John Doe did this when they launched FC Gorgeous.

Personally, I'm kicking myself for not getting a manager back in my 24/7 gaming days like those Les Sueles girls did. I kicked bootay in my time, ask anyone who encountered me (except R.A.T. as he kicked mine). Who knew it could have become a career!