GameCrush - for those lonely guy gamers out there

Are you tired of playing your Xbox or PC online games alone or with just your guy friends? Weary of killing zombies with the same old lame male companions?

And, most importantly, do you have some money?

Many single gaming geeks dream of playing their game online with some hot chick. Of course, you may be doing so anyway and she's just not talking, but I would hazard a guess that the majority of online gamers are male (I'm not talking games like Farmville, but *real* games). These types of women would be wildly out of these guys' league anyway, so it's not like they're missing anything.

But what if you could combine the best of both of these worlds?

Soon, you will be able to. For a price. GameCrush is a new service that will allow gamers to play an online game with a babe, but only for a fee. It was in beta in March, and now is VIP Invite only. I'm not sure when it's supposed to actually launch.

Of course, when I say "babe" and "male gamer," that's not 100% true. The Escapist managed to capture a couple of profiles during the beta before it ended,and they did include one guy's profile, so there will be guys out there for you girl gamers as well!

Basically, the site works like this. You can register as either a "Player" or a "PlayDate" (most women will be PlayDates, I would imagine). Registration is free, but what costs a Player are the gaming sessions themselves. Say you're wanting to play some social game with a PlayDate. Taken from the GameCrush FAQ:

"Players can browse PlayDate profiles and chat for free. Credits are used to challenge a Player in a one-on-one gaming session. 60 credits cost a buck with discounts given for larger purchases. A typical game session lasts between eight to ten minutes and costs 400 credits.

PlayDates get paid to play – PlayDates make a minimum of 400 credits for a game plus an opportunity to earn tips. Now break out your calculators, 400 PlayDate credits = $4. If you join as a PlayDate you will get the full scoop on how to get paid."

Sounds like a great deal, doesn't it! According to Escapist (so this may have changed, as the pricing doesn't exactly match what's on the GameCrush FAQ):

"For $8.25, you will get to play a game with a woman (or 2!) over Xbox Live and you can choose to interact with them using a webcam and a microphone. Xbox live games typically last 10 minutes while browser games are charged by the minute (8 min. minimum). PlayDates state whether they are in a "Dirty" mood or merely "Flirty" and you can search for profiles based on that designation in addition to what game they want to play and ratings."

I can just imagine how some of those game sessions might go, especially with the "dirty" ones.

Would I have done this if it were available when I was single (and if I had been playing games back then, of course)? I don't know. I might have tried it out. It's not really *that* much money (the equivalent of buying a woman a drink at a club). However, I can see it becoming as addictive as any of those chat lines where you pay $3.99 a minute to talk dirty to some other hot babe ("hot babe" in Fantasyland, anyway). It might get really expensive, really fast.

On the other hand, given the fact that it's video chat, at least the Phone Sex operator stereotype of the beleaguered housewife in curlers, smoking a cig and taking care of the baby while talking dirty to the caller, wouldn't apply.

Also, you're playing one of your favourite games while you're talking, too. So it's kind of a win-win when you look at it like that.

Of course, there's nothing surprising about this. In fact, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before now. So many people worry about the sex contained *inside* the video games. It was only a matter of time until it invaded the other side of the game controller.

And is that a bad thing? What do you think?

(h/t: Dan Americh's Formspring, where he answered a question about this)