Ah! I've been away for so long. Well, from the blog. I'm hardly away from Giant Bomb ;-) I thought I'd do a big old update about things going on and hopefully some of you care.

Daily Girl Attack Panic Super HD Remix is still going strong. I've been updating it since late 2009 and I'm really happy I'm still updating it. For those who don't know it's more of a random musings about games, culture and games journalism than a blog full of reviews and previews. I'd rather get paid for that other stuff ;-)

Work life is getting a lot better. I got my Tomb Raider feature front paged on IGN, which was a real treat. You can read The Redemption of Lara Croft here. I'm also working on a few projects with them and getting my work around a bit more.

I visited their offices while I was in San Fran the other week and after a really positive meeting I hope to be doing more pieces for them soon. Excited!

I've also started to contribute to English newspaper The Sun. For you US lot, it's the biggest selling tabloid in the UK so it's kind of a huge deal for me to be writin for them. My latest piece is a round up of the Xbox Spring Showcase that took place in San Francisco a few weeks ago. You can reed it here: The calm before the 720 storm

I'm also in more talks with another publisher about freelance and I'm also doing more consultancy work. My last consultancy job was on Final Fantasy XIII-2 for Square Enix. I was the first journalist to play through and finish the whole game. That was a really cool moment for me.

So yeah, life is pretty fun at the moment. I've only got two months left of university and I'm dreading leaving. Going full time freelance is such a scary prospect and something I really don't want to do. Hopefully a staff job will turn up somewhere and I'll be reporting from a big website.

Sorry for the weird boasty post ^^ Feel free to be mean to me in the comments.

You should advertise more. You seem interesting, yet I didn't know you existed. That could be my fault though.

atheistium

@Tarsier: Yes?

@MideonNViscera: Not sure how to advertise myself really ^^ I use twitter a lot.

@atheistium: its just a goofy word i wanted to say it

@Tarsier: Haha, I see!

Interesting, I'm going to check your stuff out when I get home from work tonight.

I have a bag of Doritos that need babysitting. Interested?

@MideonNViscera said:

You should advertise more.

Oh how ironic.... This bitch killed Independent Charles.

Damn necro threaders >.>

Oh no, they've found her...

I found this, was wondering how long it would be before it was brought up. For those who don't know, this is Lauren Wainwright, who caused Rab Florence to lose his job for naming her in a Eurogamer editorial as one of many gaming journalists with questionable ethics. She wound up complaining and accusing him of libel (a big deal in the UK) and allegedly lawsuits were threatened, so they edited Florence's article. Since he was being censored for doing nothing but quoting Wainwright and explaining why he found her comments dubious, he no longer felt safe there as a writer and left. NeoGAF and others dug up a whole bunch of other questionable shit on Wainwright for doing this to Florence, which she denied, and was proven to be lying about. She then started locking her twitter account, changing information, and deleting things that proved that her ethics as a writer should be questioned. Basically, she's part of the problem. She could have taken his comments as a learning tool on how to be more professional in the industry, but by complaining and acting like a child and costing him his job, she brought more scrutiny on herself. Scrutiny her reputation can't live up to. Hope she never works in the industry again and gains a bit of perspective.

EDIT: In this blog post, she talks about writing a story about Tomb Raider. She goes on to mention her work as a consultant for Square Enix, who are publishing the next Tomb Raider game. Conflict of interest evidence right here. I don't necessarily think her opinion was bought and paid for, but the implication of impropriety for a writer is just as bad as the impropriety itself. That was the point Florence was trying to make, and what Wainwright didn't get. Also, just in case she tries to delete this too, I'll quote it for safe measure.

@atheistium said:

Ah! I've been away for so long. Well, from the blog. I'm hardly away from Giant Bomb ;-) I thought I'd do a big old update about things going on and hopefully some of you care.

Daily Girl Attack Panic Super HD Remix is still going strong. I've been updating it since late 2009 and I'm really happy I'm still updating it. For those who don't know it's more of a random musings about games, culture and games journalism than a blog full of reviews and previews. I'd rather get paid for that other stuff ;-)

Work life is getting a lot better. I got my Tomb Raider feature front paged on IGN, which was a real treat. You can read The Redemption of Lara Croft here. I'm also working on a few projects with them and getting my work around a bit more.

I visited their offices while I was in San Fran the other week and after a really positive meeting I hope to be doing more pieces for them soon. Excited!

I've also started to contribute to English newspaper The Sun. For you US lot, it's the biggest selling tabloid in the UK so it's kind of a huge deal for me to be writin for them. My latest piece is a round up of the Xbox Spring Showcase that took place in San Francisco a few weeks ago. You can reed it here: The calm before the 720 storm

I'm also in more talks with another publisher about freelance and I'm also doing more consultancy work. My last consultancy job was on Final Fantasy XIII-2 for Square Enix. I was the first journalist to play through and finish the whole game. That was a really cool moment for me.

So yeah, life is pretty fun at the moment. I've only got two months left of university and I'm dreading leaving. Going full time freelance is such a scary prospect and something I really don't want to do. Hopefully a staff job will turn up somewhere and I'll be reporting from a big website.

Sorry for the weird boasty post ^^ Feel free to be mean to me in the comments.

Bernard has something to say about the Sun.

The funny thing is, the story wasn't even about her. She made it about her.

Off her website, for Americans, slag means "slut":

Swag Slag: Alan Wake
Posted January 28, 2010
Love the Alan Wake swag we got. A signed poster, 2 t-shirts and a Alan Wake flash light for all my …. flash light needs. Anyway, arrived back in the UK at around 9:30am and I am so hung over. TheRemedy guys sure know how to treat us to a night out. We all were taken out for some Finish cuisine. I had Reindeer for the first time and it was delicious! I also had 3 large glasses of wine and some super cold vodka shots. Then, after the restaurant, I had some weird black vodka shots. Of course, we ended up in some ice bar later on and when I arrived back I pretty much stayed away until we had to leave to get our plane at 5:30 in the morning!
So keep your eye on Consolemonster.com for the preview which should hit mid Feb. I Met some fantastic people at the event. I usually do a lot of community events or smaller press events, so this time it was nice to hang out with some of the bigger sites/publications and chat to them. ♥ Neon – videogamer.com ♥ Tam - incgamers.com ♥ Nick – telegraph.co.uk ♥ to name a few!
I’ve found business cards from people at MTV, IGN and Remedy as well. So whole trip was a real experience for me and had got me thinking about a few things career wise as well. Need more confidence in myself!

@Wrighteous86 said:

The funny thing is, the story wasn't even about her. She made it about her.

And keeps digging a deeper hole by trying to hide things.

@Wong_Fei_Hung said:

@Wrighteous86:

Flagging your shit drivel.

Sorry, feel like elaborating?

Also, while Lauren is an easy scapegoat, I hope that everyone remembers the main point of Rab's article; how MANY in this industry don't understand the importance of implication of impropriety, and separating oneself from the industry they are covering. Using Twitter to promote something in order to win a free PS3 is gross, and even if Twitter isn't your "workplace outlet" you sure as hell use it as a platform to promote your work and your opinions. Twitter is a tool that you use for your job. If you use it to promote a product that you are covering with the goal to win a contest, you are sacrificing your credibility.

@Wong_Fei_Hung said:

@Wrighteous86:

Flagging your shit drivel.

How is providing evidence to back up a point "shit drivel"?

@jmood88 said:

@Wrighteous86 said:

The funny thing is, the story wasn't even about her. She made it about her.

And keeps digging a deeper hole by trying to hide things.

Yep. Get called out on your bullshit and threaten to sue.

In the interests of pragmatism, let's keep all discussion regarding this issue in a single thread instead of rooting up a 7 month old blog. Thanks.