1 – Stuart Campbell
The greatest games journalist ever, shunned by the industry he loves
2 – Dave Perry
The guy with the bandanna who’s not such a twat after all (maybe)
3 – Gary Cutlack aka Cmdr Zorg
The UK:Resistance bloke who’s funnier on the internet
4 – Kieron Gillen
Brilliant writer hobbled by NGJ
5/6/7 – The Triforce
Simon Byron, Ste Curran and the other one, trying to have fun
8 – Dominik Diamond
Ex-GamesMaster, ex-likeable guy
9 – Paul Rose aka Mr. Biffo
Creator of Digitiser whose talents have been recognised elsewhere
10 – Aleks Krotoski
American bird from Bits who writes boring stuff for the boring Guardian GamesBlog
Two has-beens, one never-was, a quitter, a legend, some guys we probably should have included as one place instead of three, a screenwriter, and one of the busiest games journalists around (not in that order). We tried to mix the old with the new, taking into consideration the longevity of the old-guard’s reputations and relevance against more recent names.
No other industry can claim to have journalists who are as well known as its creators. Can you name ten “celebrity” TV critics, or ten “celebrity” music critics? Games journos don’t have the gloss they once did any more, and we’ve got the internet to thank for that. Whether that’s a good thing or not is up to you, but we think it’s a shame.
Look out for our next update, where we’ll be naming the “also-ran” list of names for the Official Top 10, and why they didn’t make it, and naming who would have been included if we had made The TriForce take up just one place (which, with hindsight, was probably down to laziness on our part). We’ll also be asking all of the Official Top 10 “Celebrity” Games Journalists for their comments.
We bet Krotoski will ignore us, though.
26 October, 2005
The Top 10 “Celebrity” Games Journalists In Full
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I think you're wrong on the celeb-critic thing.
ReplyDeleteYou could do a music journalist one without trying: Paul Morley, Nick Kent, Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus are far more famous than anyone on the list, for example. If you grab people who no longer do it, as your list includes, you get people like Steve Lamaq, David Quantick, Cameron Crowe, etc. If you lob in a few legendary figures, you get Everrett True and Johnny Cigarettes and whoever. If you include people who started as a music journalist and became pop stars: you get people like Neil Tennant, Chrissy Hynde, Patti Smith, etc.
I don't even read much film journalism, but I think I could have a fair crack at a top 10 film critics too.
KG
Oh yeah: "Two has-beens, one never-was, a quitter, a legend, some guys we probably should have included as one place instead of three, a screenwriter, and one of the busiest games journalists around (not in that order)."
ReplyDeleteThat's nine people, man. You can't have people trying to work out which one's which if you don't give the missing logic-puzzle clue.
KG
no, it's 10. 2+1+1+1+3+1+1 = 10.
ReplyDeleteKG's NGM - New Games Mathematics.
ReplyDeleteLike the old Maths - but less useful/informative.
For some reason, my mind blanked the Screenwriter.*
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, my mind just blanks.
KG
*I'd even copied them all by hand into word to try and sort it out. I suck!
Now I don't want to be a spoilsport but I fear I have to interject at this point. This blog is starting to resemble a school playground, with Ram Raider acting out the part of the kid who smells a bit and makes people laugh by doing train/bird impressions at playtime.
ReplyDeleteJust recently he's made a real effort to be liked by putting all the people he admires - like The TriForce, KG and Stuart Campbell - into his top 10. But, despite the fact that you're all AWARE of him, and KG and Byron are even on the site commenting on the chart, none of you will actually ackowledge his existence on your own blog.
I think you're all mean. Kids have killed themselves because of bullying, remember?
Play nicely. And maybe just for once don't leave Ram Raider as the last blogger to be picked for the games industry's footy team.
Yup, having a forking laugh there with the music critics, most of the ex-NME staff are more famous just for appearing as rent a soundbites on those bloody Top 100 programmes on C4.
ReplyDeleteStuart Campbell 'shunned by the industry he loves'? From what I've read of his stuff, he seems to fucking hate the industry.
ReplyDeleteI've never met anyone so bitter and driven by utter hate and contempt. He's a funny, witty man, and should be a legend but don't glorify him. He's burned every bridge, even with people that actually like what he does and want people like him in the business.
ReplyDelete