GMA 2011 FINALISTS: Specialist Online Writer

Tomorrow is the biggest night of the year for the UK’s games media. In the run-up to the big event on Wednesday October 26th at Vinopolis, we’re providing a series of features profiling those media brands and individuals in the running for an award.

Gwynne Dixon – Total Video Games

Thanks to a ‘scare-easy attitude’ and the slow advancement of genetic modification, Gwynne’s initial dreams of becoming a fighter-pilot and/or Thundercat proved unattainable. And so, at the angsty age of 14, he started combining his love of video games and writing to build a games journalism career. If you want to do it enough, you’ll find a place that accepts your work for free until a staff member emigrates/has a family and leaves a vacant spot,” he says (that place being TVG, where he is now the Deputy Editor, having started there in 2006).

Jane Douglas – GameSpot UK

Jane Douglas was appointed GameSpot UK section editor in May 2010 on the strength of never having asked which section. She has been knee-deep in news, previews, reviews and video scripts ever since and occasionally neck-deep in industry events coverage. She joined Team GameSpot after a spell as technology editor for MSN UK, partly spent moonlighting at Inside Xbox. Also, she turns out a monthly games column for science and technology magazine BBC Focus, ostensibly combining her games journalist experience and scientific academic background but mostly not really.

Keza MacDonald – IGN

Since arriving on the scene as a 16 year-old staff writer at Games ™ in 2005, Keza quickly established herself as one of the brightest young videogame journalists in Britain. After a successful freelance career brought stints at Eurogamer, Edge and The Observer, IGN UK recently hired her as its latest games editor. She lives in London, and dreams of owning cats.

Gillen McAllister – Game Reactor

Even while hurtling towards the start of his seventh year in the industry, Gillen’s still enthusiastically spreading the word of gaming’s finest to the world in his own unique style – now taking the fight across Europe and beyond as Gamereactor’s UK Editor-in-Chief and GRTV host. Be it more light-hearted fair such as looking at gaming’s doomed romances, or tackling cultural differences online with an international guide to gaming etiquette, to quizzing the industry’s best on what makes them tick, Gillen offers an impassioned voice that captures the spirit of this global culture.

Wesley Yin-Poole – Eurogamer

Wesley Yin-Poole’s journalism career began at the Mail on Sunday, where he hacked phones and handed police brown envelopes. After graduating he worked for United Business Media on trade magazines including The Publican, Chemist and Druggist, and Cabinet Maker. That last one has nothing to do with politics. In 2007 he joined VideoGamer.com as deputy editor, and managed to convince a lady at Argos to sell him Halo 3 before its official street date. In 2010 he joined Eurogamer.

Mark Walton – GameSpot UK

Since joining in 2009 as a production assistant, Mark has gone from strength to strength at GameSpot UK. He has covered events such as Gamescom, appeared regularly on video show Start/Select, and taken over hosting and producing duties on The GameSpot UK Podcast along with presenting mobile gaming show Appetite for Distraction. He has also written high-profile reviews for British indie games such as Blue Toad Murder Files and LostWinds, taken on previews for big hitting titles such as Final Fantasy XIII and Heavy Rain.

The Games Media Awards 2011, in association with Grainger Games, take place on Wednesday October 26th at the super chic Vinopolis venue near Borough Market. Greg Davies, top stand-up and star of The Inbetweeners, will be the host for the evening.

Grainger Games has signed up as headline sponsor of the event, with other sponsors already signed up including Microsoft, Codemasters, EA, Sony, Ubisoft, Nintendo, OnLive, Namco Bandai, Trion Worlds, Gamescom, Nordic Games, Konami, Sega, NC Soft, Rising Star Games, Green Man Gaming, Games Tribe, 2K Games and Venatus Media.