The Games Media Awards Night, organised by Intent Media, the new owners of Music Week, (and now organisers of the Music Week Awards), was obviously a night to forget:
From the guy who now owns Music Week...
GMAs & Grainger Games: A statement, by Stuart Dinsey, MD, Intent Media
At last night's Games Media Awards, many friends and partners of Intent Media were, quite understandably, upset and offended by the behaviour of the event's headline sponsor, Grainger Games.
I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise wholeheartedly for this - and to make it very clear that Grainger will not be welcome back in any capacity to the GMAs, or any Intent Media events.
I'd also like to give you a little background, without in any way ducking the fundamental point that, as event organiser, we take ultimate responsibility.
Grainger approached us a few months ago and explained that their intention, through association with the GMAs, was to get closer to the games media. What they have done, in spectacular fashion, is alienate the entire games media in one night. Good work, guys.
I'd especially like to apologise to the nominees and winners whose big night may have been soured; to our host, Greg Davies, who battled through manfully (and spoke for all of us, I think, when he told Grainger Games exactly what he thought of them); and to our sponsors, old and new, who year after year provide the funds and support to make the GMAs such a great event but who, last night, justifiably, were angry and horrified to find their names associated with such shoddy behaviour.
We have, as you might have guessed, received a number of complaints last night and this morning.
We have listened to every single one of them and accept all points made. And we're happy (well, maybe not 'happy', but certainly 'willing' and 'expecting') to hear more.
In fact, whilst I hate to sound like one of those pompous voiceovers that comes after a particularly harrowing episode of Eastenders, if you were affected by any of the incidents that took place, do feel free to get in touch with me directly, vent your spleen and get a heartfelt personal apology. My email is
Stuart.Dinsey@intentmedia.co.uk.
What annoys me most, perhaps, is that the GMA team here at Intent Media, headed by Lisa Carter and Kathryn Humphrey, and our great friends at Indigo Pearl, lead brilliantly by Caroline Miller, put months of work and a whole lot of love into staging the Games Media Awards.
People really care who wins and are genuinely pleased for colleagues and even rivals when they get approbation from their peers. The GMAs are special. They celebrate talent from The Guardian and BBC to specialist media, blogs and cub writers.
Grainger Games' behaviour and attitude was the antithesis of what the GMAs are about. Next year we will give the event back to the media and work only with partners we know understand what the event is about.
I quite often feel terrible after the Games Media Awards. I'm sure a lot of you do as well. But this morning I just feel a bit embarrassed and extremely apologetic. I really do hope to see everyone who came last night back again next year. Well, nearly everyone.
Yours sincerely,
Stuart Dinsey
Managing Director
Intent Media
AND HERE IS A REPORT OF THE NIGHT....
After being repeatedly asked what it was that actually transpired at last night’s Gaming Media Awards, I figured it would be easiest to simply whack it up here.
Grainger Games - a retail company mainly based in the North of England - decided they fancied the idea of getting closer to the country’s gaming media, and plumped up the cash to become this year’s main sponsors for the annual awards. Previously little more than a small indie chain, their recent successes have seen the brand pumped full of cash by a variety of investors: An attempt no doubt to fatten the goose for a potential sale to prospective buyers like the US company Gamestop.
Bringing their unique flavour of Toon-army charm to London for the night, the first impressions weren’t exactly perfect. Greeted by a bright orange Hummer filled with dwarves and barely-clothed equally orange promo girls, Grainger’s iconic lack of taste wasn’t initially much of a surprise.
Sitting down at a dinner table scattered with Grainger-branded condoms, eyebrows began to rise to more substantial levels: The gender ratio in the games industry isn’t exactly a well-kept secret, so at first this gesture was merely confusing. Should we all be scrambling across the tables for a chance to stick it in one of the barely-legal promo girls, or bumming each other to bits with the aid of condiments hidden beneath this pointless spatter of contraceptives?
When the awards kicked off, things started to get ugly. Heckling the comedian seemed like fair game, but it quickly became evident it wasn’t stopping there: Shouting loudly over the top of each and every award and speech, the lack of respect escalated from irritating to infuriating. Some kindly described the behaviour as heckling, but I’m pretty sure what you’re saying has be either amusing or decipherable for that distinction to be technically valid.
Expertly alternating between shouting whilst sitting down and shouting whilst standing up, at one of the particularly coked-up chaps even decided to jump up on stage and start thrusting his pelvis towards the audience. I think it might have been the award for Rock Paper Shotgun. I’m a big fan too, but still.
It’s hard to pinpoint any one moment of the evening that really hit the bell at the top of the twat-o-meter, but the sentiments throughout the industry were clearly homogeneous: Who the fuck are these clowns, and what are they doing at our party. It was the equivalent of the bride’s father thinking it’ll be alright to punch the groom in the face because he’d paid for the booze and catering.
Hardly the end of the world - but for a company that clearly needs to pitch itself to the big boys as a respectable future investment, it was nothing short of a PR disaster. Having said that, I felt ill and left the party at about 10. FUCK knows what they got up to after that.
Otherwise though, it was a bloody brilliant night and loads of lovely people won some shiny bits of plastic. Excellent work, GMA peeps.
EDIT: I’ve since been informed that after I left, some of the G-crew were caught doing coke in the toilet by security, whilst others were seen to be physically intimidating some of the gaming media’s most prominent figures. Lordy.
Also - I wish to make it clear that I have no negative sentiments towards Newcastle or the north: I lived up there for most of my life.
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