Well this is a pleasant surprise. We’ve only gone and won the UK game’s industry most prestigious award!

For those who don’t know, the GMAs (or Game Media Awards) are given out every year. People within the industry nominate from a whole host of different categories ranging from Best Website to Best Magazine and 150 judges eventually pick the short list finalists. It’s a huge event that draws a large number of press and this year the number of attending people was so large the event had to be moved to London’s swanky Bloomsbury Ballroom (previous functions were held at Jongleurs).

So anyway, there we were sitting at a table, munching on burgers and hot dogs and conversing with the lovely ladies of Sega Europe while the awards were being announced. We weren’t expecting too much, simply because we’ve been nominated for the last 3 years in a row and it’s always gone to either Edge or sister mag GamesTM. Imagine our surprise then when the amusing Stuart Francis – not the crush a grape one – finally managed to get around to announcing the winner of best magazine and it turned out to be us!

All I really remember is choking on my beer, excitedly punching the air – the charming Pat Garrett would later refer to us as ‘going bonkers’ on his live blog update – and rushing up onto the stage with Stuart and our editor in chief Rick Porter. Only to be hit by glaring lights and be rendered virtually speechless, which to anyone who knows me, doesn’t usually happen. Instead of giving a stirring heartfelt speech I managed to witter out something along the lines of “I was convinced PC Zone were going to win this” and about 25 thank yous until I was politely directed off the stage.

So with hindsight here’s what I would have said.
“I’m absolutely delighted that Retro Gamer has won this award. Stuart, Stephen and myself have worked incredibly hard over the past year and done everything we can to make Retro Gamer as enjoyable as possible. If it wasn’t for our loyal readership, who are never afraid to point out where we might be going wrong, or our crack team of freelancers who deliver so many great exclusives we wouldn’t be anywhere near the magazine we actually are and it’s a real honour that our humble little magazine has finally been recognised.”

On second thoughts maybe my first response was better…

Ultimately though, while this award belongs to Stuart, Steve and myself, it’s also your award, because without you guys we’d just be creating an amazing magazine that no one actually read.