First, a disclaimer: we don’t think we’re going to win. We just think, perhaps, we should.
Sure, we’re biased. That much should be obvious – some of us have written for a few publications in the past on a freelance level (and been paid well, too, occasionally) but TSA’s family feeling and lovely community means that when we do writing stuff these days, it’s for free, for this site.
We’re not journalists. None of us are. We don’t have a fancy office, corporate backers or a magazine publisher for support. We all have other jobs and TSA is something we do because we love it. It’s hard to explain why exactly, but we feel that – just once – we should get some kind of recognition for all the hard work we do.
[drop2]Sure, there’re ads, but last time a cheque rolled in the money went on rent for a house for a week for the Eurogamer Expo, some podcasting hardware and a video camera. Apart from the basics, it’s all pushed back into the site, to make it better and to make our roles a little more fun.And so, tonight, is the Games Media Awards. We’ve been nominated for ‘Best Site’ which, thank you, was voted for by the general public (or at least those out there with more than a passing interest for gaming). Being nominated was lovely, it made us smile.
But we’re up against some stiff competition: CVG (with their “ballsy, uncompromising personality”); Eurogamer (the “largest independent games website in the UK”); GameSpot (“a market leader in its field with 4.6 million unique users in the UK”); IGN (with “the largest audience of gamers in the UK”) and VideoGamer.com, God is a Geek and Gaming Union.
We don’t get traffic like the big guys – but we do get more a day than the ABC figures of some gaming mags would suggest they do in a month. That’s not our only target, though, it’s recognition, acceptance into a frustratingly close-knit industry and to, just now and again, hear some nice things said about us and the work we do.
We won’t win, that’s for sure, but we won’t give up trying.
wonkey-willy
personally i think eurogamer is sh**e
messy and difficult to navigate.
their reviews are harsh and biased.
shame tsa didnt win.