The XboxGameZone team awoke Thursday morning to some rather unexpected news. If you’ve been following the Games Media Award nominations you will already know XGZ is among those nominated in the Games blog category, furthermore we were very proud to learn our own Escoblades has also been nominated in the Rising Star section.
As always the nominations have sparked some strong opinions from various quarters and while I’m personally not aware of any upset over our nomination, I did want to take a moment to share my thoughts.
XboxGameZone launched in summer 2004 in fact we’re 7 years old this month! Woop Happy Birthday to us!!
Setting up, launching and running XboxGameZone has been one of the greatest things I’ve had the privilege to be involved with, and during those seven years we’ve been through some great times (and hopefully have many more to come). But just as many other non-profit community sites we’ve also been through some very challenging times… and, well frankly I’d be lying if I said I’d never contemplated throwing in the towel. But we didn’t, and as you can see we’re still very much here.
One of the greatest criticisms I’ve seen placed upon awards such as the GMA’s over the years has not been towards those nominated, but the omissions within the nominations and I would have to say for that I wholeheartedly agree. In my seven years on XGZ I have had the pleasure to meet some very talented people, people I have come to know of as friends… who dedicate their time freely in an effort to give something back to a community they hold dear. People whose work for the community within the sites they run truly deserves recognition.
Why these people and their community game sites have not received this recognition through such awards is frankly beyond me. Perhaps the source of the problem is as human nature dictates we’re all so very good at pointing out when something is wrong but not so quick to give credit where it’s due. Maybe we don’t take the time to acknowledge those among us we genuinely respect, whose work deserves such credit. I know I am as guilty as the next person for not taking the time to submit nominations for persons and websites I feel deserving, and as my thank you to you all for taking the time to do exactly that for XboxGameZone I am making a promise to ensure I do submit my own nominations for others beyond XGZ next year, and each year after that.
However until then I would just like to take a moment to give a shout out to those dedicated people among the UK community that have been with XGZ since the beginning, who have all helped in one way or another with advice and support whenever it’s been needed regardless of their own demanding schedules. I can only hope that in some small way I’ve been able to return the favour.
Shouts go out to…
- Ken Barnes aka @Kinectronic – http://www.kinectronic.com/
- Helene Wilson aka @Mush_xx - http://www.xboxliveaddicts.co.uk/
- Joe Anderson aka @_wotta - http://www.shoptonews.net/
One last thing before I leave you all in peace…a huge thank you to the team at XGZ, the GMA nomination is thanks to their hard work and dedication! Thanks Guys… You’re all Awesome :)
Congratulations, you guys! And thanks for the mention! :) :)
No thanks required, more than deserved :)