Games, New Media & More

The past few weeks Thom Stokkel and myself were busy planning and organising a special event – the first joint operation between Xi Online and Bashers: a discussion night about game journalism in The Netherlands.

The main purpose of this night is to explore the current state of affairs concerning game journalism in The Netherlands, as well as discussing what game journalism ought to be. Key points such as the relationship between public relations and the press and what distinguishes professional game journalists from amateurs shall be touched upon. The goal is to create an honest, critical discussion and hopefully the outcome will contribute to the general debate about game journalism.

Of course, organizing a succesful debate means inviting good speakers. Therefore I am proud to announce that a few major players in the Dutch gaming scene will be part of the debate:

• Jan Meijroos (probably the most well-known Dutch journalist; Gameking and editor at Power Unlimited)
• David B. Nieborg (Dutch PhD-candidate, game expert and former game journalist)
• Niels ‘t Hooft (owner of Bashers, experienced game journalist and allround game expert)
• Jurrie Hobers (vice-president marketing and sales Codemasters Central North region)

The debate will take place at Crea Theater Amsterdam, on December 9th from 20.00 – 22.00. If you cannot make it there, don’t worry: there will be a live feed to keep you up to date during the entire debate. Afterwards it can be replayed at any time.

To join the live feed or replay the entire debate:

Or, if you can’t see the window: Click Here for a pop-up version.

Update: both De Volskrant and Het Financieel Dagblad (two major newspapers in The Netherlands) wrote about the debate. Besides providing Xi, Bashers and myself with some welcome publicity, it illustrates some of the problems mentioned in the debate, such as the lack of in-depth writing.