From the Vault — originally published June 1, 2009. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.
After we left the Sony epic fail we headed to a Kotaku open bar mixer at an off the beaten path L.A. bar called the Golden Gopher. While we waited in line I observed this weird industry hierarchy here that I’m really not feeling. It seems like the upper epsilon of the gaming community doesn’t wait in lines! They just roll up to parties with their leather jackets on and transition lenses and hop right over the velvet rope while the rest of us common bloggers and game developers line up like kindergartners screaming things like “cheater, skipper, and cutter!” all the while hiding behind the taller person in front of us. I can’t front though it’s pretty entertaining to watch. The Golden Gopher (I love saying that name) was like a weird social experiment. Imagine placing approximately 300 people (7 of whom were chicks) all of which are used to staring at computer monitors and communicating through headsets in a bar environment with free booze and one topic on their mind, videogames! It was like reliving my junior high school prom complete with awkward moments of silence and scathing hatred for the cool kids.
On a scale of weak to dope…I give the Kotaku event a DOPE because the venue was cool, the drinks were free, and the music was on point (all the songs played were from game soundtracks). The one thing I thought was WEAK about the event was the obvious industry snobing that was going on outside the club. As I stumbled out of the Golden Gopher tipsy from a night of mixing my dark and light liquors I noticed that the staff from another large gaming website (competitors?) were getting the third degree treatment at the door. The bouncer even let another person walk in the club in front of them (mad disrespectful if you ask me). They had to stand outside for at least 15 minutes. If Kotaku were real G’s about their sh*t they would have gave their competition V.I.P. access and put them up in a booth with a complementary bottle of champagne. I’m just saying…that’s what a “G” would have done.
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