News: "Gaming Enthusiast Press Awards" Launches

 “Gaming Enthusiast Press Awards”

Seeks to Recognize Exceptional Game Industry Writing

Vancouver, BC – January 1, 2013 –  The Armchair Empire is pleased to announce the official launch of the Gaming Enthusiast Press Awards (http://www.gepressawards.com/), which seeks to draw attention to exceptional writing about video games and the game industry.

“Over the last year it has become readily apparent that the gaming enthusiast press is often viewed as a half-step removed from the game publishers’ PR and Marketing departments, especially when it comes to game reviews,” Aaron Simmer, head writer and co-founder of the Armchair Empire noted. “There are talented writers out there – some of them writing features for major publications and websites, others toiling on their blogs for the pure enjoyment of it – and there’s not nearly enough recognition of those writers.”

Editorial: A Compromising Position

Have you ever been offered money under the table to write a favorable review?
No. Never. Thank god. But if someone ever did, not only would I chew them out big time, but I’d probably write about it in the magazine. Or threaten to at least.

- Interview with Jeff Green, September 4, 2000

Over the last number of days there's been quite a bit of arm-flapping and finger-pointing in regard to "games journalism" and alleged collusion between those in the gaming press and people in the marketing and PR departments of game publishers.

There have been broad-brush generalizations, accusations of elaborate Mafioso alliances that would have made Mario Puzo's brain melt (never mind my own), and just about everything between those two points. The thread on NeoGAF batting this around appears to have "leveled off" slightly with repeated calls for the big sites like IGN, Kotaku, GameSpot, etc. to come out swinging and make some kind of hard-hitting, kick-to-the-balls ethics statement about the relationship between the gaming press and PR/Marketing departments of game publishers, and that a lack of response indicates the enthusiast press' tacit approval and wagon circling for the press/publisher relationship as it stands.

Why the Obsession with Reviews?

Before taking another step, I should say that I don't have an answer to this question.  I'm not trying to tackle this from some sort of authoritative position on high.  It's just something that I've often seen over the years, and want to articulate my own thoughts on it while also hopefully engaging whomever stumbles across this article, generating a little bit of discussion in the process.

But yeah, reviews.

It would seem that a lot of gamers really care about these things.  REALLY care about these things.  Of course, reviews are important in helping us determine whether something is worth investing our time, money, or llamas in.  Even I check reviews before deciding whether I want to buy a game, see a movie, read a book, or whatever.  It's just nice to have some basic idea of what to expect from the thing in terms of its quality.  However, in the realm of gaming this seems to be the central focus of so many.  Game X comes out, there's the Day One Reviews, and people flock to them.

Raving Rant: The Outsider

It sits there on Metacritic's page like a baleful and accusing eye.  It's the only one of its kind on that page, as of the time of this writing, a red square with a number "45" on it, and the name "Armchair Empire" next to that.  It is the review I submitted for Diablo III.  Right now, it's probably the most viewed page on our site.  I remember the email that Jeff Nash sent me after the review went up while I was at E3.  "Should be interesting to see how people react to the score. I suspect some hilarious comments will be forthcoming."

In this respect, our fearless leader was not wrong.