i was on a BAFTA jury

I was on a jury for the 2023 BAFTA Game Awards! I was in the Multiplayer category, and I am absolutely ready to own the chaotic result. It’s exactly what I wanted to happen.

There’s more I want to say – about the game, and the actual process of being on the jury. Like, I really enjoyed being a juror and deliberating over these huge complicated games with professionals, learning their language, and thinking about what ‘multiplayer’ means when it’s at its best when multiplayer is the mode I’ve played in most over the years (and written the least about) /// you know, I came to that panel with about ten pages of notes, and I want to write more about Elden Ring so I can shape those thoughts into a review that does the game justice – bear with, because I’m not allowed to talk about what was said on the panel! /// but it was the first voluntary work I’d done in years, and it was a tonne of work for no pay – best suited to people like full time games journalists who are constantly playing games anyway and don’t have to scramble to get them played in time like I did. Full time and salaried so their time is sort of covered, not so much for freelancers like me. And after all that, there was no invite to the ceremony waiting as compensation, which sounds like trite or whiny (and I would have been too sick to go anyway) but it surprised me.

And then, having said all that, I’m still glad I did it. Nice to come into these spaces and see how it works on the inside, especially as I am about to begin jurying for the John Moores Painting Prize. Awards are weird! Always weird. Fun for some, sad sometimes for everyone else. Good for business. Good for marketing. Good for drama; it was good when Vampire Survivors won Game of the Year over God of War Ragnarök and the room gasped. Good for some stuff but there’s no time for explanation or vastness or depth or evenness when a single winner is announced… which is why I’m glad I was there for the deliberation. The deliberation was the most interesting part of it. It was great. I just don’t know if it’s something I would or could do again without renumeration.

My cousin saw someone comment this on twitch when Elden Ring was called:

haha, me :)