Image credit: Eurogamer
I think there’s a hope we all have on the Eurogamer team that the things we do here, the articles we write or the videos we record, will mean something to the people who watch or read them. They don’t have to elicit a ground-shaking reaction; it might simply be enough to make someone giggle with a wonderfully rubbish strapline – or to impress them with a genuinely clever one (have we ever had one of those?). Whatever it is we’re trying to do – to inform you, to entertain you, to tell you a story – I think I speak for all of us here when I say there’s a deep-seated hope it’ll resonate enough to be memorable. And what you’ve done by responding to the ‘memories of Eurogamer’ piece in such abundance proves that yes, overwhelmingly, that happens, and I can’t tell you how much that means to see. Thank you.
I’ve been reading through the 300-something responses today and my heart has been well and truly warmed, as it has this entire Eurogamer 25 week. It’s incredibly validating to see how valued Eurogamer is among you and how long some of you have been coming back here, through staff changes, through console eras, through changing internet landscapes. Through OnLive – remember that? Some of you do. It’s no small feat reaching 25 years, and your comments highlight just how much has happened in them. You’ve also provided me, and us, with a strong reminder about what you want from the site and what you like about it, so thank you again.
I particularly like seeing comments about people discovering games on Eurogamer they hadn’t heard of before, and they since went on to love, and it’s nice to see people praise the honesty – the sometimes brutal honesty – of our reviews and the deeper stories we’ve told. We try, and it’s nice to see that it lands sometimes. It’s also nice to see people enjoy the goofier side of Eurogamer, like the puns and the long-running Oranges gag, or Martin’s legendary live reports. Though if I had to single out any one repeatedly remarked upon favourite memory as far as laughter is concerned, it would have to be, simply, Ellie Gibson. Ellie joined us for the editors podcast I recorded for EG25 this week and it’s a brilliant reminder of how funny she is.
People recalled Tom Bramwell’s searing editorials, they praised Christian Donlan’s incredible writing, they repeatedly referred to Johnny and Aoife’s friendly series of Let’s Plays, and they cheered for the arrival of Digital Foundry on the site, many moons ago. There’s love for the old-old podcast hosted by EGX legend Tom Champion, as there is love for the many EGX events he – and David and Matt and Rachel – organised. Quite a few of you remember Keza’s original Demon’s Souls import review; I do too – I remember how excited Keza was about this game no one else had heard of, and evidently she’s got great taste. Some of you were even kind enough to recall the time I completely biffed up and reported that there would be Camaros in Battlefield 3. But it’s also like many of you said: there are just just too many things to mention. Those names I highlighted are but a few you did, and there are many and more responsible for making Eurogamer what it is.
A lot of you simply thanked the community spirit which is embodied in the weekly What We’ve Been Playing series, and in how a seemingly innocuous article took on a life of its own. That has nothing to do with us by the way! You did that, with your emergent bold formatting and general encouragement. We just shepherd it along. Or perhaps we roll it along – that’s a reference to Stephen’s Sausage Roll and the meme-like back and forth we had with you, culminating in a special festive review of the game. And it’s true by the way – you do make this a nice place to be. You, collectively, are as much a part of Eurogamer as we are, and we never lose sight of that, even if we do jettison a forum from time to time.
There are a few specific comments that stood out though. Joseph Cardle saying they got kicked out of their school library for laughing so hard at the Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon review is exactly the kind of response I can imagine Ellie Gibson was after when she wrote it, and I smiled when RandolphScott recalled a scathing review for a game they worked on, not because they were angry about it, but because the specific part of the game they made was praised. Silver linings and all that! It’s always nice to know the industry is watching.
Knowing that Mr Bison’s daughter has the middle name Zelda partially because they won tickets to a Zelda symphony concert through Eurogamer is a nice reminder of the unexpected effect seemingly small things can have. Similarly, hearing how McMurphy discovered Eurogamer while being severely struck down by Swine Flu was touching, too. “Now, I’m not saying you saved my life,” they said, “that was the antibiotics, but I discovered everything about modern video games through EG and its community. After fifteen years, I’m still enjoying the puns, the comments, and the recommendations.”
Hughroberts’ entire twisting tale is worth reading and involves an Xbox 360 design-related event in London that they travelled from Liverpool down to – after reading an article on Eurogamer about it that same day – and where they saw behind-the-scenes prototypes and ate free canapes, before realising they hadn’t entirely thought their plan through and were somewhat stranded. But it all worked out in the end, though the part about being seized by the police for breaking into Buckingham Palace is a heck of a cliff-hanger to end it on!
We have randomly selected a winner to receive the Switch OLED, by the way, but it feels like a footnote in what the real value of the piece is. It’s a reminder of all we’ve been through on Eurogamer over 25 years, and why we do the things we do. Writers come and go and things change around us, but there’s a uniqueness to what we have here that’s worth remembering, as you – I’m very pleased to say – do.
Have a lovely weekend and thanks for all the memories.
