Can We Get Serious About Securing Gaming Events, Please?
In case you missed it, yet another unoriginal moron seeking his five minutes of fame interrupted Gamescom’s opening night yesterday – and of course Twitter is eating it up.
During Geoff Keighley’s closing statements post-Starfield previews, the guy up in the header image above jumped on stage, and attempted to yell into the mic. This time, it was about how “Bill Clinton wants GTA VI” (???) and once again, next to nothing was done to get the guy offstage except for some other random guy trying to shoo him away and create space between the troll and Geoff Keighley.
For those who might’ve lived under a rock last year, the same thing more or less happened at The Game Awards just a few months ago.
The TGAs were interrupted by a YouTube “prankster” by the name of Matan Even, and the imitator from last night seems to be trying to make this “a thing” at yet another Geoff Keighley-hosted event. Apparently this guy is no stranger to rushing the stage at events in Germany either, as Twitter users have dug up clips of him doing the same routine to other unsuspecting hosts.
Listen, I’m all for a good laugh. And you guys know we’re probably the last people to take anything super seriously and love parody as much as the next person, but this is just fucking obnoxious. Not only is this now a repeat incident which is going to (hopefully not) inspire more imitators, but it’s laying bare the lack of security at gaming industry events, and will only led to less devs wanting to get involved. I know nothing serious happened, nobody was hurt, nobody was hurling slurs or hate speech or anything like that, but the fact that anybody can just sprint up onstage and get within inches of anyone hosting, presenting, or trying to keep the show moving is a horrendous look.
I’m not trying to get my briefs in a bunch here and do my best to be the complete opposite of a wet blanket whenever possible, but I know I’m not alone in this. Geoff Keighley has done a lot to elevate gaming as an art form, mainly through events like this. But events in every other medium have security, standards, and established boundaries. It’s clear that we’re still pretty far behind in that regard.
So, my ask to the industry I love is – can we get real about having security at these events, please? You already know that the majority of people on the internet aren’t serious people, so an overabundance of caution is most likely necessary to prevent these incidents from happening in the future.
That’s all, rant over, I gotta refill my coffee. Have a great one.
