PAX was created as a con for gamers, by gamers. It was meant to be an inclusive place where all gamers would feel comfortable and have a good time. While game company presence has always been part of PAX (gamers love demos of unreleased games, after all!), we were always told that PAX was not supposed to be another E3. A major part of creating the desired atmosphere is PAX' "no booth babes" policy. The gamers of PAX were surveyed, and by a large margin decided that "booth babes" were not something they wanted to see at PAX events. Their presences creates an environment that excludes all but the one particular type of gamer, a minority of PAX attendees by the results of the survey, who enjoy seeing women paid to prance around as walking advertisements that have nothing to do with the games being promoted. For the most part, the game companies attending PAX have honored this policy, much to their credit. However, we the undersigned feel that 2K Games, with their Duke Nukem booth, have flagrantly violated the spirit of the PAX "no booth babes" policy, regardless of the official statement by PAX organizers that the exhibitors there satisfy the letter of that policy. In short, we the undersigned feel that if PAX exhibitor policies allow exhibitors to set up booths like the DNF booth, then those exhibitor policies must be revised to be more restrictive. In particular, we request that PAX organizers in the future err on the side of caution when judging what is and is not a "booth babe". Despite the official judgment that the DNF babes met the policy, that there we're enough complaints to necessitate an official response indicates that many PAX attendees disagree with that judgment, and ultimately it's the opinion of the attendees that matters.

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