GMA 2011 FINALISTS: Specialist Print 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.

Jon Blyth – Official Xbox Magazine

After being freelance for a couple of years, Jon Blyth was forced to admit that he’s a retarded incompetent who can’t survive without a robot putting money into his bank every month. (He’s written the games column in Vice for three years, and he hasn’t been paid for that since 2009.) At 37 years old, he’s currently a staff writer at Official Xbox Magazine. By the time he’s 40 he hopes to get a paper round.

Matthew Castle – NGamer

The last award Matthew won was for ‘politest scout’ at summer camp ’98. Thirteen years later he remains just as polite, though his knot-tying isn’t what it used to be. When he isn’t writing for NGamer (well worth a vote in the ‘Best Games Magazine’ category, he claims), he writes short words for GamesMaster, rude words for Xbox World and words he doesn’t really understand for Edge. Winning would make him very happy, if only to get his mum off his back about getting a ‘real job’.

Christian Donlan – Freelance

Christian Donlan was born in Los Angeles, and writes about video games for magazines and websites. A regular contributor to Edge and Eurogamer, he is also the co-creator of the forthcoming animation series, Everybody Loves a Moose.

Steve Hogarty – Official Nintendo Magazine

Steve has been in the industry for six years, the first five of which were spent on PC Zone magazine. He started as a staff writer there at the age of foetus, before a sort of upwards job-vacuum hauled him into the position of editor. Despite this, PC Zone went on to win the Games Media Legend award at last year’s GMAs.

He had a brief stint as the UK editor-in-chief of GameReactor before returning to Future as deputy editor of the Official Nintendo Magazine, where he fills his days thinking of polite alternatives to crudeness, like darker than a badger’s knapsack”.

Chris Scullion – Official Nintendo Magazine

A Nintendo fan since the age of three, Chris’s love for gaming is matched only by his love for Irn Bru and Celtic Football Club. Now well into his fifth year at ONM, Chris is the longest-serving member of the mag’s editorial team. In that time he’s managed to amass a strong following of dedicated readers who eagerly await his every review, then ultimately call him biased and corrupt if it’s over 90 per cent. He is also the Future London games department’s token Scot, a role he accepts with a surprising degree of gusto.

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.