And the award goes to…?

I felt a bit tender on Friday morning…Thursday night was the second annual Games Media Awards in Camden, London. The event is run by those brilliant chaps and chapettes at Intent Media, who publish the gaming trade paper MCV and Develop.The logo!

Each year, the event will recognise and award the journalists, websites, broadcasts, magazines and special people who help make video game journalism awesome and also gives them an excuse to cut loose and have a Friday off (unlike some poor souls who had to work, where’s their award?)

After some pretty generous, but totally ruinous pre-festivities hosted by the wonderful folks at Sega, the event kicked off across the canal at Jongleurs comedy club. The editorial team at Edge magazine, never ones for doing things in halves, arrived on a canal barge in impressive but painfully slow style, well played guys, the Simpsons sea captain would be proud!

Nibbles and more free drink were the order of the day and the host, riotously funny Canadian comedian Tom Stade, kept things fun flowing nicely for the full house of 300 guests. After what seemed like an age, the events kicked off, so here we go with the all-important winners…

Best Specialist Games Writer (online) – Ellie Gibson, Eurogamer

Best Rising Star (sponsored by Rising Star Games) – Simon Miller, X360

Best Games Website – Eurogamer

Best Games Broadcast – Games Night on Xleague.tv

Best National Newspaper Games Coverage – The Guardian

Best Regional Games Columnist – Dave Cook, The Scotsman

Best Mainstream Magazine Writer (sponsored by Ubisoft) – Simon Munk, FHM

Best Specialist Games Writer (print) – Tom Francis, PC Gamer

Best Games Magazine – Edge

Games Media Legend – Steve Jarratt

Special mention to Steve Jarratt, truly a tour de force of the games media industry. Steve started out at the ace Commodore 64 mag Zzap! and has since made his name at some of the most successful mags in the business including Edge and Official Playstation magazine and has helped launched several publications which have gone on to do very well indeed.

Zzap 64

Truly an excellent magazine which truly helped pave the way for British game journalism

Congrats Steve, you absolutely deserve it ๐Ÿ˜€

By the end of the awards, it was time for a bit of ‘networking’, which in no way means dancing like idiots to awful disco tunes (seriously). It was a great evening and it’s good to see the industry awarded in this way, particularly those working on small but hugely influential websites and publications, congratulations to all the winners!

Ann Scantlebury from radio show One Life Left steals my award to barter for some Haribo Starmix

Ann Scantlebury from ace gaming radio show One Life Left steals my award to barter for some Haribo Starmix – cheeky!

Roll on GMAs 2009!

Comments

5 responses to “And the award goes to…?”

  1. Tony avatar
    Tony

    A tiny little caption mentioning the fact that you won an award and nothing else? Well, Dave, if you’re not going to blow your own trumpet, I will.

    *deep breath*

    DAVE WON AN AWARD! DAVE WON AN AWARD!

    Well done, Dave!

  2. Laura avatar
    Laura

    It’s a very pretty award I must say, well done Dave!!!

  3. Ben avatar
    Ben

    Aye congrats on the award…stick it in the bathroom – that way everyone who comes around your house will eventually see it!

  4. Dave avatar
    Dave

    Thanks guys ๐Ÿ˜€ very much appreciated. The award is so heavy, its a slab of solid glass. Well worth the trip and crushing hangover ๐Ÿ˜›

Leave a Reply