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The Games Media Awards held in London last month caused quite a stir when the public found out journalists were tweeting PR-prompted hashtags in return for a chance to win free gear.

The news got out of hand quickly, and video-game journalists and fans are still talking about it. The image above, of journalist Geoff Keighley forcibly surrounded by junk food as part of an interview, became emblematic of the issue (though not Keighley's fault).

Well, Bitmob is all about games writing. It's in our blood, and it's the purpose of our site. So when an issue like this grabs the attention of our community, we want to hear what you have to say.

We've already front-paged a couple of your articles on this topic, and our own Jason Lomberg has shared his opinion as well. But we thought it made sense to round all your thoughts up into one hub. So check out the article summaries below, and see what you think.

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Let me guess. You like video games, and you hate your day job?

You’re not alone. I think everyone would rather get paid to play big-time titles all day than do anything else.

A dangerous misconception exists regarding these dream jobs, however. They're not an excuse to play all day. They're work.

And life is about doing something meaningful.

Does that make sense?

Work makes life worthwhile. To throw your body, mind, and soul at a meaningful task is a human being's source of satisfaction.

To be utterly spent, exhausted, and bloodied while knowing that you’ve accomplished something great is the sweetest feeling.

Now let’s examine the dream of being a games journalist.

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I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Sonic the Hedgehog fan (at least of everything before the horrible 2006 game), but I have to shamefully admit to not knowing a single one of the interesting facts in Did You Know Gaming's newest video.

For instance, apparently Sega originally designed Dr. Robotnik (I refuse to call him Dr. Eggman) as a hero for another game. Also, Sonic originally had a human love interest called Madonna. That idea was thankfully scrapped by Sega of America for being too "Japanese."

You can learn more bizarre Sonic trivia by watching the video after the break.

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The Community Spotlight features some of the best unedited articles that didn't quite make the front page. This week, we examine how PlayStation All-Stars tries to shed the "Smash Bros. clone" tag, discuss David Jaffe's thoughts on video-game storytelling, and wonder why we still get so many sequels. Join us!

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PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is trying to separate itself
By Ethan Clevenger

"If you were hoping to play Smash Bros. with PlayStation characters," Ethan writes, "you'll be sorely disappointed. While the general concept is there, the game as a whole is far from a carbon copy, which may be a good or bad thing." I do love some Smash, but I'm looking forward to trying a different style of fight.

Jaffe, you so crazy (or not): Storytelling in video games
By Javy Gwaltney

Javy breaks down Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe's comments on how storytelling "stunts the growth of video games." Javy writes: "What Jaffe is missing out on is the fact that games aren’t trying to be movies but are instead trying to achieve a happy medium that offers interactivity and a cinematic experience." What do you think?

The never-ending year of sequels
By Thomas Bobyn

If it seems like every year could be called the "year of sequels," well, Thomas says you're probably right. He says that sequels are safe bets for publishers trying to turn a profit. But that doesn't mean we have to complain, Thomas argues: "Rather than fighting the barrage of sequels that comes at us 12 months a year, we as a gaming community should learn to minimize the pre-determined bias we have about sequels."

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No respect, I'm telling ya ... the Wii U gets no respect at all.

Sure, retail preorders for Nintendo's new console (releasing November 18 in the U.S.) sold out and now the grey market's gouging a few suckers for all they can, but I just don't sense much excitement around the Wii U. Nobody I personally know burns to possess one for anything other than business purposes. That's not a commentary on the quality of Nintendo's new machine, either. I've logged plenty of hours on a Wii U, and I know it's a solid platform with real potential for creating amazing experiences. But in a rapid-fire release season -- new Halo, Hitman, Assassin's Creed, and Call of Duty titles all drop within weeks or days of each other -- nobody's focused too hard on hardware.

And that's the thing. Some of those games arrive on the Wii U, too, but that's largely an afterthought. Call of Duty: Black Ops II releases on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 ... oh, and Wii U. A few days later. If you don't mind waiting.

That's fairly standard for Wii U releases. If feels like second-class treatment, and I suspect that's led to a (likely undeserved) second-class perception. Why aren't more people frothing at the mouth for a Wii U? What must the Wii U do to be the hardcore platform it wants to be and get the respect back?

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Pokemon means a lot of things to different people. For those of us who broke into the RPG genre playing Pokemon, we're always looking for more. Perhaps it's time for a change.

The Pokemon franchise has been going strong for close to 15 years, and in that time, has never dipped in popularity -- despite the fact that the intellectual property was marked as nothing more than a shiny marketing ploy. From the fires of the first Pokemon titles, consumers have seen card games, television shows, toys of various sizes, and even pocket-monster-shaped food.

I wholeheartedly believe that the franchise is due for some changes in order to stay fresh and survive.

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Warning: The following contains major and minor spoilers for Resident Evil: Damnation.

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Resident Evil: Damnation is extremely faithful to the famed survival-horror franchise. And that’s the problem: It’s too similar. And the reflection in the mirror isn’t very flattering.  

The movie’s slavish devotion to the games manifests itself in cringe-worthy dialogue, contrived situations, and characters that behave like teenagers in a slasher flick. This is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Resident Evil.

Ever since #4, Resident Evil has slowly morphed from a campy throwback to classic horror films into a formulaic third-person shooter, more akin to Gears of War than Alone in the Dark.

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So we now have about a week and a half to go until Halloween, and if you’re a fan of horror games, chances are that you will be spending a lot of your time on the couch or at the computer, with the lights off and volume cranked up, playing some of your favorites.

Gamers have to be thankful for the fair amount of contributions to the horror genre available to them, but of course, like everything else, a few of those titles always manage to stand out from the rest due to their originality and innovation. Even those that are years -- even decades -- old still manage to just plain scare the living Hell out of us.

So, if you’re one of those longtime horror fans or if you’re looking to try your hand at the genre for the fist time, here’s a short list of 5 games that are most commonly considered among the best and why you should play them.

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Before you roll your eyes at me, thinking that I’m going to bash Nintendo’s acclaimed franchise, I want to make it clear; I’ve been a fan of The Legend of Zelda since the original Nintendo Entertainment System release. I had the gold cartridge, the instruction booklet with the flip-out-map poster. you name it.

But here I am today, more than 20 years later, about to challenge the almighty Nintendo -- and its most loyal Zelda fans.

I can’t help but feel that Zelda needs to move on. Like Bitmob staffer Jasmine Rea stated in her recent Resident Evil article, I think it’s time for a reboot. 

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The Community Spotlight features some of the best unedited articles that didn't quite make the front page. This week, we express frustration at Syndicate, wage war on the ending of 999, tell a silent story in Kairo, and explain why multiplayer doesn't always work. Read on!

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My biggest gaming disappointment of 2012, or: How Starbreeze Studios broke my little black heart
By Javy Gwaltney

Based on his time with developer Starbreeze's prior projects The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Javy expected to adore Syndicate. That...didn't happen. Javy explains why, and why he feels his complaints went unheard.

My war against the ending of 999
By Nathaniel Ray

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a Japanese adventure game with a really long title. Apparently, it also has a hell of a twist ending, one that Nathaniel feels didn't fit the rest of the game. "I'm no professional game writer, of course," he writes, "but I do take issue when a writer creates a plot point that isn't supported with his previous writing."

Telling a story with no words: An interview with Richard Perrin, creator of Kairo
By Rory McCarty

Haven't heard of Kairo? Neither had I. But after reading Rory's interview with the man behind the game, I'm pretty curious. If you're into the indie adventure-puzzle genre, you'll want to read up on the designer's interesting philosophy.

Multiplayer doesn't work in every game genre
By Alexander Kraus

Seems like single-player-only titles are getting rarer and rarer, as publishers try to shoehorn in unnecessary multiplayer modes. Alexander's had enough of that. He writes: "Stapling some network code to games that were primarily single-player tend to harm both campaigns instead of enhance both experiences."

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I've been thinking a lot about the sexism and bigotry in video games that has been popping up in the news, lately.

You can't swing a dead cat nowadays without hitting some kind of cookie-cutter war-based first-person shooter. Whether they're space marines, colonial marines or United States Marines, the armed forces are very popular in video games today, and it doesn't take rocket science to explain why: They bring in tons of money. If they didn't, we wouldn't be inundated with a new Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Halo or Battlefield nearly every single year.

But, if my word isn’t enough to convince you, the ESA recently released their 2012 report of the video game industry, and of the 20 most popular console games of 2011, four of them (that's 20 percent) were war-based shooters -- all of which were in the top 10 for the year. With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sitting pretty in first, Battlefield 3 in fifth, Black Ops in sixth and Gears of War 3 in eighth, that genre commands the top of the list with sports, dance, and adventure games sprinkled in between.

Now, numbers are never set in stone, and even developers realize that sales can change in an instant. But, when you consider the demographics of gaming, there's a comfort zone for the makers of these games. The ESA report says that 53 percent of gamers out there last year were male, whereas 47 percent were female. I worry that the developers out there rely too much on that (barely) larger majority for easy mass appeal.

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Here at Bitmob, we like to write. We know you do, too. In fact, you guys pump out so much great content that some of it gets lost in the abyssal depths of the Mobfeed. And it's scary down there. (Seriously, I think I saw a sasquatch in there once.)

So to save you the trouble and from a possible horrific death, we bring these valuable articles to you in a feature called Hidden Gems. Similar to our weekly Spotlights, these are unedited stories that didn't quite make the front page but are worth highlighting...but perhaps these have fallen between the cracks after some time.

In this edition of Hidden Gems, since Assassin's Creed 3 is about to drop later this month, we're featuring older articles about Altair, Ezio, and the fight against Abstergo. Check 'em out below. Or take your chances with the sasquatch.

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What bothers me about the Assassin's Creed franchise
By Thomas Isbell

Thomas likes the AC series, but he argues that yearly installments are causing the gameplay to get stale. "The release of Revelations," he writes, "dampened my hopes for a top-tier masterpiece ever coming to light in the AC universe." I wonder if Thomas feels differently now that a new, main entry in the series is nigh.

Blood is thicker than water: An Assassin's Creed: Revelations prologue
By Matt Polen

Matt scripts out a fictional preview to Revelations, the most recent entry in the series. He really captures the tone of the story and characters, especially protagonist Ezio. I'd read a whole book in this vein, Matt.

A few florins short -- Assassin's Creed 2 review
By Michael Wenzel

If you've been on the fence about jumping into the Assassin's Creed series, Michael's thorough review might help. He's pretty tough on the game, though -- do you agree with his criticisms?

What I hate about Assassin's Creed
By Toby Highfill

Toby is less ambivalent in his thoughts on the original Assassin's Creed. His biggest beef? He can't get past the science-fictional Animus machine, which connects present-day Desmond to the memories of his ancestors. "DNA is an owner's manual for your body, not a written family history," Toby says. "Since AC does not take place in a fantasy setting, this should not be possible." What do you think?

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