Well that was a fun few weeks for journalism. 

Right off the bat, my intention here is to cast as little judgement as possible; I have had my say on the matters and everyone whose opinion I concern myself with knows how I feel. I simply believe that it is important, as journalists and quite frankly, as human beings, to reflect upon especially polemic events, pick them apart and learn from them. 

So, what have I learned?

1. Integrity is an opinion.

More than anything else, I have seen the gaming community polarised by this month's events in a number of ways. Foremost, the tweeting 'scandal' that took place at this year's GMAs has aroused much anger on various forums around the world. If nothing else, it seems to have driven a wedge between a portion of the journalistic community and its readers at large. 

On one side of the fence, we have the writers who composed the tweets and their ardent supporters in the writing community, who are defending the controversial competition. The gentleman that won the PS3 competition, Dave Cook could be seen commenting on a wildly contentious article by Rab Florence, trying to clear his name with varying levels of success and inevitably he drew in a lot more castigation that I am sure he had intended.

Soon enough, a myriad of support flew in to defend the actions of those journalists at the GMAs from the pitchforks and torches of the world wide web, and I read a many number of reasons why they believed it to be okay. I was generally unaffected by any of these posts and soon became very disturbed at how many journalists were rationalising the actions for an expansive number of reasons. Regardless, some readers believed it was wrong; some journalists believed it was right.

But on this side of the fence, where us as consumers often sit cross-legged, mouths and hands open, eager to guzzle down whatever PR-dictated tripe websites are force-feeding us that day, it seemed we'd had our fill. The massive fallout was echoing through twitter, being smeared across facebook and Bitmob was also alight with outrage. There is no doubt in my mind that the community is quite fed-up with being treated like fools. It is relatively difficult to not question the legitimacy of an opinion when there are advertisements plastered all around that article. I am not suggesting that the opinion is biased or PR people are playing puppet-masters just that it makes it difficult not to question.

2. "It's the one who is different that gets left out in the cold".

I like Rob Flornece. I don't always agree with him, but I respect him for what he's wrritten (not just in the last month). If you are unaware, Rab Florence is no longer writing for eurogamer.net and it is speculated that this is because he named Lauren Wainwright in an opinion piece. Ms Wainwright allegedly threatened with legal action and Rab's article was edited with Lauren's (and Dave Cook's) name removed. 

Whether you believe Lauren Wainwright was ethically right or wrong in demanding her name removed, or whether it is appropriate for Rab to be naming names, you cannot argue that he (and many other journalists) put themselves in the line of fire when they challenge the herd. The swift 'retribution' that was dealt to Rab (and John Walker) from other writers was immediate and brutal. 

It makes me uncomfortable to see that a community of journalists can be so incestuous that they would openly attack another, one who doesn't even declare himself a games journalist, merely because he is criticising the way in which certain journalists conduct themselves and their unusually close relationships with PR. The act of one 'journalist' silencing another is a toxic hipocracy that would impress even Nixon.

To the core, it worries me as an aspiring journalist, that one day I may be facing a society of journalists that have sunk into a refuse of failing morals. And if I choose not to succumb, will I be stripped and flailed as well? The gaming industry and let's face it, many industries in the world, run on a system of back-scratching, but I don't want to be a part of it. I really don't. Yet I see pictures of Geoff Keighley sitting beside Doritos and Mountain Dew and think "Maybe that is the way forward?" But I understand that in reality, it is the way downward. 

Objectivity and passion. These are two things that must always be in balance if you are to create thoughtful and respectable written pieces. Too much passion and you're setting yourself up to become a fanboy, cheering at press conferences while PR reps harvest your soul to add flavour to John Ricitiello's evening soup. If you distance yourself from everything external and allow no heart into what you do, you end up making Duke Nukem Forever. 

I write this because I understand how difficult it is to operate ethically when you need to immerse yourself in the subject. In the case of writing about games, oftentimes interacting with PR and publishers is necessary but from the events that have so recently unfolded, this has to be done so carefully and transparently.

3. I want to write about games.

It would be easy to get discouraged, what with the harrowing picture of gaming journalism being painted all-around the internet, but now more than ever do I feel the industry needs honest, hard working commentators. Don't get me wrong, I haven't had a crystallising moment in which I feel a reinvigorated sense of duty, far from it. In reality, all I've ever wanted to do is write and talk about video games, but somehow politics and bureaucratics found its way into mine and many other's favourite past time. Games should be at the center of everything gaming journalism, not publishers, not competitions and certainly not Doritos. 

There is a famous quote: "No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for the good he seeks". I don't believe that there are many gaming journalists on a company's payroll and I certainly don't believe the mistakes made over the last month were intentionally malicious. But they were mistakes and because of it, an honest writer lost his job. I would urge everyone to take pause and learn from these events so that you can use them to shape what sort of writer you intend to be.