I want to preface this by saying I am no longer involved in the local “industry”. I do not stand to gain, nor lose, and I am solely doing this to expose what I believe is another example of corruption rife in a business and industry that is plagued by manipulation by people benefitting for their own financial gain.

In early 2009 I started my quest to become a “games journalist”. I started, like most, with a shitty blog, which then grew and evolved into something larger. I went on to write for a number of larger publications, both in Australia and America, which saw me attend E3 for a number of years. I built relationships with all of the major publishers in Australia (including but not limited to: THQ, Konami, EA, Activision, Blizzard, Square Enix, etc.), and was regularly receiving preview/review code on a daily basis.

As with a lot of employment fields, it’s who you know, not what you know. I used my relationships with these people both online and in person, to forward my career and create more opportunities (the largest of which saw me end up working for a major publisher in Australia). The Australian industry is very small. Ridiculously small. There is a large community and hobbyist environment, but very few publishments ever reach a status where they would be considered unique or impactful.

Because of this, it’s common for experienced employees to move between numerous different companies. For example, a male I knew went from working at Konami, to Square Enix, to EA. People would get jobs through their friendships quite often. There were very few legitimate processes or roles for people to obtain. IT was based on living in Sydney, and being involved in a very small “clique” I would liken to the Knights of the Round Table.

This friendship group is arguably the “power circle” of the Australian media scene. With writers and editors from AusGamers, Game Arena, and more, they regularly go out and get drunk together, attend conferences together, and have personal lives outside of their professional relationships. This would normally be fine, but the lines blur very heavily in some circumstances.

For example, one of the major Public Relations managers for EA Australia is married to (and has a child with) the main Editor of AusGamers (self-described as Australia's largest gaming website). This is mentioned nowhere, nor are there any disclaimers of this relationship.

Another example. The owner and Editor of a prominent community site in Australia is regularly flown out to EA-sponsored events in America. This wouldn’t be such a dilemma if he didn’t regularly fly to Sydney and spend one-on-one time with the Regional Manager of EA Australia, and didn’t regularly write promotional pieces for their products.

Former Editor of Game Arena, Joab Gilroy, is close friends with the Editor of AusGamers, all of the major PR workers in Sydney, and regularly attends events overseas, sponsored by these companies. These relationships are never disclosed, despite obviously being huge conflicts of interest.

During my tenure at a large publisher, our community forum was hacked, and the information of over 40,000 members (including names, and email addresses) was downloaded and stolen. The publisher suppressed this information. When my contract had expired I approached a writer about this, and he declined to publish the story because he was close friends with people who work at this publisher and the publisher’s local office.

Writers and content creators in the local industry regularly accept gifts valued in the hundreds, and flights internationally (including accommodation), but never disclose their non-professional relationships, despite them obviously gaining them the “perks” they now receive.

EDIT: Currently chatting on Rizon Chat Network if anyone is interested.

EDIT 2: I also wanted to include another undisclosed, and equally flammatory relationships between the Editor of Game Planet, and a PR manager for Bethesda.

Additionally, the Editor of Game Planet is also involved and has close personal ties with industry-website MCV Pacific, for which he has written an article, and has a close personal investment in, being close friends with the Editor of MCV Pacific.