EQ2: Antonia Bayle finalists- Good Luck, Teresa!

I have previously mentioned the contest to find a model to represent EQ2’s main heroine, Antonia Bayle. I also think I made my preference for the woman to represent the Queen of Qeynos fairly clear.

Well, the finalists have been announced, and Teresa Noreen has made it past the first hurdle. All five of the finalists are definitely attractive women, and several have a reasonable resemblance to Antonia Bayle. Only one of them appears to have actually played the game- Teresa. Teresa also made her own “Antonia” costume (the photo of which seems to have mysteriously disappeared from the Quest for Antonia site, although you can still see it on Teresa’s own site…perhaps others felt it was unfair competition?).

The likelihood of a hardcore EQ2 player ever making it to the finals in a “beauty” contest is incredibly small. This isn’t a slam against EQ2 players, male and female: we as a society just have a skewed idea of how common beauty really is, so to start with out of any 400,000 humans, there might only be 1,000 or so who are “beautiful”. Add to that the lifestyle of most hardcore EQ2 gamers, and that probably cuts the odds by a factor of 10. So, lets say 100 beautiful people play EQ2. How many are female, and how many have any interest in a beauty contest? Yeah…right.

As an aside- when I say “beautiful”, I’m talking pure physical beauty that is obvious in a photograph. Far more people are “beautiful” if you take any time to know them: their thoughts, the way they move, how they smile, the things they do for other people. And lots of people with purely physical beauty are “ugly” if you get to know them.

Teresa is not a hardcore EQ2 gamer, at least I doubt greatly that she is. But the fact that she has tried the game at all, and spent the time to become familiar enough with the Antonia character to create a convincing costume…well, that adds a bunch to my rating of her. I also like the fact that, unlike 3 out of 5 of the finalists, she at least pretends to be more interested in the gaming “culture” and EQ2 than in the chance to be on the cover of Stuff.

The winner will be announced on the weekend of August 12/13. Congratulations on making it to the finals, and good luck, Teresa!

12 thoughts on “EQ2: Antonia Bayle finalists- Good Luck, Teresa!”

  1. Well, I will giver her this: her answer is far and above the “I’m pretty and like to party” single sentence utterances from the other contestants.

    The whole thing does get one wondering though about the sociology and psychology of real life flesh and blood people wanting to represent computer animated figures in a game. It all seems slightly bizarre.

    On the other hand, at least this is a beauty contest where the fantasy ideal is clearly just that, as opposed to the regular pageants like Miss America where the “ideal” all the women are supposed to represent is equally an object of unrealistic fantasy… only not acknowleged as such.

    ( of course all the above is the brain speaking. The above not withstanding I am a guy and guys like looking at pretty women. So it’s not all bad 😉

  2. I think a lot of what is attracting the contestents is that, in addition to representing Antonia Bayle, they’ll get a photoshoot with “Stuff” magazine. Apparently, thats exposure with a capital “E”: kind of like being in Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. If you read the comments in the top five, I suspect some of them never heard of EQ before this- what got them interested was the Stuff angle.

  3. You already know my thoughts on this, but I did find her one comment completely hilarious.

    “”While offers abound to perform modeling in the adult industry, I have declined most of them while continuing my search to represent that type of person or product who mirrors who I am and what I believe in.”

    – Teresa Noreen”

    Yeah, the picture below is hardly adult…/boggle

    http://tnoreen.com/images/TNJMP5.jpg

  4. Typical? Of course not. Even if she was a hardened veteran with a dozen level 50 characters, her physical appearance would make her unusual.

    I’m not sure, but I suspect there are some pretty hardcore gamers that look better than you and I 🙂 And like I say, I’d rather have someone representing the game who at least made the effort to understand what its about. Sort of like an actor playing a fighter jet pilot- they aren’t a pilot, but if they take the time to sit in a jet and talk to some real pilots, they do their job better.

  5. Thanks for the support, Kelly! Here’s a link for ya! http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=994

    And Shane, let’s not miss a single word in the “hilarious” sentence. 😀

    While offers abound to perform modeling in the adult industry, I have declined most of them while continuing my search to represent that type of person or product who mirrors who I am and what I believe in.

    No offense taken! But those are artistic nudes (hardly considered “adult” material, rather it’s considered art), not the full-on porn (or adult material) she has been HEAVILY solicited for. In 98% of her artistic nudes, in fact, you cannot see her face.

    And she’s played the game, too. “I’m patiently working to build upon my low level characters Graison and Tantris. Graison is a level 6 High-Elf Mage playing on the Antonia Bayle server and Tantris is a level 4 Half-Elf Mage on the Qeynos Oasis server. I recently created Graison to join a group of players
    in the Council of Silver Griffons guild: http://cosg.eq2guilds.org/onepage.vm?columnId=51299. As a full-time student, a model and a real-estate investor, I have little “free” time to dedicate to my online quests. But I steal time when I can!” http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=994

    By comparison, Carin has this out there http://static.onemodelplace.com/html/out%5Fof%5Ffocus/ Just scroll down to “OOF #9 Playboy Shoot Part 1” and click your connection speed.

    Gotta love Holly:
    “IGN Babes: … what are your feelings on guys that play videogames?

    Holly: I think they better use that amazing finger dexterity on me first, before spending too much time with their games.”
    http://babes.entertainment.ign.com/articles/622/622525p2.html

    The others, as has been pointed out, have “single-line uterrances” that make it impossible to get to know them. I believe that’s another reason why Teresa has garnered so much support.

  6. Welcome back, Husband of Teresa…sorry to refer to you indirectly, but I don’t have an actual name to use 😉

    I agree with what you are saying regarding the difference between Teresa’s entry and the others in the list of finalists. So you know, Shane is my nephew (he’s only six years younger than me), and we argue all the time. Lord knows why we bring our disagreements to the World Wide Web: we give each other a hard time in person, on the phone, and while playing EQ2 enough already 🙂 Although I disagree with him about Teresa, his cynicism is well founded.

    Who knows? Maybe I’m being naive, but I believe Teresa would make a better Antonia Bayle than the other finalists mostly because she has an active interest in what the game and her role would be about.

    Once again, pass on my best wishes to her!

  7. Sorry – it’s James. 😀 I’ve spent my career working behind the scenes, so identity has never been important, if you know what I mean. You know what I Mean! It’s like when you’re watching a movie, you’re not focusing on who the stunt double is for Angeline Jolie – you’re focusing on other things.

    Family feuds on the WWW – who’d have thought? At least you guys maintain an HONEST dialogue. 😉

    I’ve conveyed the well wishes. She really appreciates the support. It’s coming in from everywhere – she even has international fans… We’re working very hard to ensure that she’s prepared for this weekend’s event.

  8. Heya James. First off, I hope your wife does well in the competition. I do think she should win, based a lot on her attitude, and on her
    very good looks.

    Secondly, in my opinion, saying a nude is “artistic” doesn’t give it some sort of exemption from being adult. Regardless of whether or
    not you can see the models face. Does someone posing nude offend me? not at all.

    And yes, of course there is a difference between what goes on in the actual adult industry and the types of pictures that are on
    your website. But in my opinion, nudity does still equal being adult. Artistic or not.

    Anyways, best of luck to you and your wife, I am sure she will do well in the competition.

  9. Thanks Shane! We appreciate your support, too.

    Just keep in mind, nudity is only an “adult” subject in the Puritanical minds of most Americans. The rest of the world does not view artistic nudes, or nudity, for that matter, as adult.

    We’re funny that way! LOL!!!

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