John Walker's Electronic House

Game Media Awards – Results

by on Oct.12, 2007, under The Rest

So those Game Media Awards really went out of their way to prove me wrong.

In awards sponsored by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, the following won:

Best PlayStation Magazine

Winner: Official PlayStation Magazine (Future)

Best Xbox Magazine

Winner: Official Xbox 360 Magazine (Future)

Best Nintendo Magazine

Winner: Official Nintendo Magazine (Future)

Gadzooks. The magazines from which the sponsors make a profit turned out to be the best! You might argue that the other mags are weaker without the licenses, and hence lose out critically, but that falls apart with the merest comparison of NGamer and Official Nintendo.

Elsewhere, I’m really pleased that Tom and Kieron got recognition for being great writers. Because they are both exceptionally good. (I’d love to have seen Log getting the recognition he deserves too, but I wouldn’t like to have chosen between him and Kieron – both inspire my writing). Both Kieron and Tom stand up as bastions of morality in the industry, and fight for games and people’s enjoyment of games, over the wishes of PRs and publishers. They are the opposite of what these awards seemed to represent. I do wish they would have both turned down their awards. (Hey, perhaps now I’ve publically criticised them, I’ll get a nomination for next year : ) But I genuinely congratulate them.

It does rather spoil things when you realise that one of the nominations in Kieron’s category wasn’t even working on the magazine he was nominated for over the last year, let alone writing in it. And that Steve Boxer won anything.

MCV – next year – how about an awards ceremony voted for by people who play games and read magazines?


4 Comments for this entry

  • Leo

    Steve did thank Kat when he accepted his award, so it’s not like he’s the culprit here.

    I particularly like how uncomfortable Kieron looked from the moment he heard his name till the moment he left.

    Also, Mark Cale had the biggest boos, which took some of the shine off Gary Penn’s award :(

    Anyway, Tom fucking won, so it’s all good. I did want Log to win and not Kieron, but mostly because Log’s the underdog and Kieron is already an international star. It’s got nothing to do with Log threatening to kill me because he suspected I didn’t vote for him.

    I’m pretty sure I said this already, but John, you have the “voted for by gamers” awards already – the Golden Joysticks. And all that proves is that people just pick their favourite game and then tick any box that it appears in. Note to the public – Pro Evo is not the best game made, year in year out.

    It’s Virtua Fighter.

  • John

    Um, Leo. How does the Golden Joysticks give awards to writers? (And being owned by Future, that would be a little inappropriate).

    If there was an award where people put a tick next to their favourite writer, then I think it might work. Imperfectly, but it would be better than deciding on who shares the most coke.

  • Leo

    Obviously I was talking about awards in general and not awards about writers. I mean, who even MENTIONED writers? Not me.

    Anyway, fuck all that, this is what’s important – five years later, Half Life 2 is fucking SHIT. You can’t say that about Virtua FIghter (4 onwards).

    Also, only one of these awards was for writers.

    I’m losing, aren’t I? YEAH WELL I COULD BEAT YOU UP.

  • Leo

    Also, I RESENT the coke reference. I’ve been offered much more coke by journos than PRs (honestly true).

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