Losing Faith in Miss Video Game competition
Faith, of The Girl Gamer, has lost faith in the Miss Video Game competition and decided she can no longer be a part of the "farce and possible scam." After being an early supporter of the competition, which is billed as an event to raise the profile of female gamers, she began digging up information on the company involved and became concerned there were legal issues with the contest.
Faith describes that things were suspect from the beginning for the simple fact this competition has no contract or release to sign. Originally the contestants needed to be 18 and over, this rule apparently was ignored as contestants started showing up on the site who were under the age of majority. Faith could not find a business license for the company to operate, eventually she received one from Miss Video Game Inc. stating that the license was issued Nov. 29, 2006 -- two months after the contest began. MVG also informed her that a company called Titan Gaming would handle the online portion of the competition, no such company exists. When attempting to contact the company with the information MVG provided, the email bounced back.
The lengthy article goes on to describe increasing evidence that caused Faith to remove herself from the competition. The pageant doesn't require sponsors because they are "backed by a privately owned company that wishes to remain anonymous." She describes numerous problems with the MVG website itself and wonders how if this company can't coordinate a website, how's it going to run a live event? The questions surrounding the event are plenty and we here at Joystiq have also been researching our own concerns regarding the competition. Gamer girl beware.
