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Doritos and dew it right12/8/2023 ![]() ![]() The trouble with games journalism is that there are no standards. They are hard to live up to, sure, but that's the point of them. The article otherwise remains as originally published. Eurogamer apologises for any distress caused to Ms Wainwright by the references to her. Editor's Noteįollowing receipt of a complaint from Lauren Wainwright, Eurogamer has removed part of this article (but without admission of any liability). And just in case we did use that image of Geoff Keighley, here's this week's Dark Souls repeat. At some point you will have to stop drinking that stuff and demand something better. ![]() It's a steady flow of Mountain Dew pouring from the hills of the money men, down through the fingers of the weary journos, down into your mouths. Everyone has a nice easy ride if the review scores stay decent and the content of the games are never challenged. Publishers are well aware that some of you go crazy if a new AAA title gets a crappy review score on a website, and they use that knowledge to keep the boat from rocking. Games publishers and games press sources are all trying to keep you happy, and it's much easier to do that if they work together. They have a powerful bond, though - held together by the pressures of playing to the same audience. This club, this weird club of pals and buddies that make up a fair proportion of games media, needs to be broken up somehow. And if they don't understand it, how can they love it? And if they don't love it, why are they playing at being it? I'm fascinated by these creatures because they are living one of the most strange existences - they are playing at being a thing that they don't understand. I won't name them here, because it's a horrible thing to do, but I'm sure some of you will know who they are. The ones who are at every PR launch event, the ones who tweet about all the freebies they get. I have a mental list of games journos who are the very worst of the bunch. I think the winners are now giving away their PS3s, but it's too late. Then a whole big argument happened, and other people who claim to be journalists claimed to see nothing wrong with what those so-called journalists had done. All piling in, opening a sharing bag of Doritos, tweeting the hashtag as instructed. There was a competition at those GMAs - tweet about our game and win a PS3. Just today, as I sat down to write this piece, I saw that there were games journalists winning PS3s on Twitter. If I was to accept any kind of bribe to promote a game, I'd take the bribe to promote the amazing Hotline Miami. But it's important to ask yourself who your peers are, and exactly what it is you feel a need to belong to. There is nothing wrong with wanting to belong, or wanting to be recognised by your peers. And I've been happy for people who have been nominated for GMAs in the past, because I've known how much they wanted to be accepted by that circle. I'm a writer who regularly writes about games, that's all. I've removed myself from those accusations somewhat by consistently making it clear that I'm not a games journalist. Whenever you criticise the GMAs, as I've done in the past, you face the accusation of being "bitter". PR people should be looking at games journos and thinking, "That person makes my job very challenging." Why are they all best buddies? What the hell is going on? By rights, that room should be full of people who feel uncomfortable in each other's company. Kieron Gillen was named an industry legend (and if anyone is a legend in games writing, he is) but he deserves a better platform for recognition than those GMAs. Games PR people and games journos voted for their favourite friends, and friends gave awards to friends, and everyone had a good night out. Recently, the Games Media Awards rolled around again, and games journos turned up to a thing to party with their friends in games PR. How many games journalists are sitting beside that table? As Executive Producer of the mindless, horrifying spectacle that is the Spike TV Video Game Awards he oversees the delivery of a televisual table full of junk, an entire festival of cultural Doritos. And in a sense, it is what he always was. He will be sitting there forever, in our minds. And there he sits, right there, beside a table of snacks. He is one of the most prominent games journalists in the world. Geoff Keighley is often described as an industry leader. This might be an image of Geoff Keighley if we're allowed to do that. I think we should all find it and study it. But I think that it is the most important image in games journalism today. It is an image of Geoff Keighley, a Canadian games journalist, sitting dead-eyed beside a garish Halo 4 poster and a table of Mountain Dew and Doritos. There is an image doing the rounds on the internet this week. ![]()
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