Next time just stick to “my top 10 favourite pie fillings”

It’ll save you a lot of bother

It was for people working in the UK, really. Colin’s a good example. He spends a lot of time in the US and Next-Gen’s an American site, really, but he’s still a UK journo as far as I’m concerned.

A good case in point is someone like Simon Carless, who heads up Gama and Game Developer in the US. He’s British, but I’d put him in an American list, as he’s based out there.

This list was for people working in the UK industry.

I do work in the trade (check my profile for my bias;)), though I don’t have nearly the same amount of experience you do. I’m a baby in this industry with less than two years full time under my belt.

Did you omit writers that are UK based but work chiefly on publications abroad (US etc)? I suppose, as mentioned elsewhere on this thread, Croshaw is another I would like to have seen. He may not be very up on formal journalistic statutes but he sure as hell has influence.

Point taken about Owain and Margaret - this conversation is wetting my appetite for a retrospective list…

That’s not what Kristan told us.

Slightly less embarrasing fawning over Ellie than running up to Tom at the Wii Launch event, completely hyper on sugar and saying “Wow, you’ve grown! I remember you when you were this high!” like an embarrasing uncle.

Now I know anecdotal evidence is pithy at best, but Ellie really was ‘the’ person to know and I’m glad she let me tag along for most of the 2 day event as I met a lot of people whom I would otherwise had missed.

To top it off, she’s down to earth, funny and … wait … I’m in love!

I did consider Margaret, but I wouldn’t really describe her as a “journalist” any more. There’s no doubt that she’s very well respected, but she appears to have moved off into the “media circuit” as opposed to reporting on games as such. So she wasn’t included.

Gama’s American: it’s based in San Francisco. Develop? Well I don’t agree with you, clearly. Owain left PocketGamer recently and I’m not entirely sure what he’s up to at the moment, so as to whether or not he currently has “influence” is debatable. Don’t get me wrong: I love the guy. But I’m not sure he belongs on this list.

As for Ellie. She certainly does have influence, and that’s why she was included. I have no idea if you work in the trade or not, but I worked with her for about three years and she’s both currently active as a UK journalist and very “involved” as to what happens on Eurogamer.

As I said to Mr Raider, opinion’s always arbitrary. you can argue the toss indefinitely. I do, however, stand by this list.

With all due respect, Ellie Gibson, Eurogamer deputy editor? Come on! I am sure she is very good at her job and a great writer but one of the UK’s most influential? I think not.

Also saying something to the effect of ‘this list is correct because I know what I am fucking talking about frankly’ in the comments is pretty much the kiss of death. How can anyone take an article like this seriously if the author takes that tone? And please don’t bother pretending that was sarcasm, it’s clear that wasn’t the intention of the comment.

As for who I would include, what about people like Margret Robertson, first female editor of Edge and currently a consultant who has the ear of the BBC and the Guardian, both of which are read by far more people in one day than a months total for Eurogamer, or any PS3 magazine you could care to mention.

There are countless others. What about Owain Bennallack or even just anyone from Develop or Gamasutra for that matter. Those sites may not be consumer facing, but they have a pretty profound influence on the industry at large I would say.

And I’ll take that as a compliment. Thanks. I’ll try to be better

Nobody would argue with the likes of Bramwell, Minkley and Gillen being praised, but they’re influential to other games journos because they’re great journos themselves.

To cut a long story short, everyone I know could name at least twenty other journos who should be on that list above practically everyone but the three I’ve mentioned.

Still, I was only saying to an editor colleague of mine - only yesterday, in fact - how good this website is. I guess I’m just a bit disappointed that a silly list like this has appeared when I know you can do so much better. And like I said, I know what I’m talking about when it comes to silly lists…

OE: The term “influential” here could have meant a lot of things, and I think I’ve been clear enough in my reasoning. I meant more in terms of trade influence, or “power”, as it were. I genuinely don’t believe that individuals within the IGN UK or Gamespot UK teams are as powerful as the people on this list.

I know a thing or two about throwing together arbitrary lists that have no basis in reality, but this one is in danger of feeding my delusion that I do quite a good job.

The editors of two PS mags? The ed of CVG? Come on…

Back in the 90s - when gaming was only just breaking out and was hardly a mainstream pastime - there was Rignall and Perry. On prime time TV.

It seems to me that as gaming has become more mainstream, the journos seem to be worlds apart from the vast majority of the audience.

Also, who is this top ten supposed to be actually influencing? Surely the sheer reach of IGN UK must be influencing more people than Campbell and all the print people on the list? What’s the Official PlayStation Mag’s ABC again?

you’re a filthy man pat