GAMES MEDIA AWARDS: Keza MacDonald named Games Writer of the Year

Keza MacDonald was the inaugural winner of the Games Media Awards’ new Games Writer of the Year accolade last night.

A new award for 2012, this prize invited journalists from all fields invited to submit a piece of work written over the past year. The Games Writer of the Year prize was sponsored by Sega.

MacDonald won for her piece ‘Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business‘, which was selected by the award’s judge, Guardian columnist and award-winning author Tim Lott.

Lott read through a variety of submissions blind to pick the winner.

Lott had this to say about the winning piece:

This is a piece that could stand alone in a mainstream media outlet. The story it tells is totally fascinating not only from a gamer’s perspective, but for an ordinary reader.

The idea of a game that transcends games and becomes a kind of reality is profoundly provoking and the stories of the culture – the kidnapping of Mirial, the blowing up of the virtual monument leading to a revision of CCP’s monetizing strategy – take me into a reality I never guessed might exist.

The piece is excellently written and gripping from the start. I still don’t understand Eve, but of all the pieces I read, it was the only one that had me googling to find out more.I’m thinking now of buying a spaceship.”