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The letter opens nicely enough, but soon enters "written with a sneer" territory. Here it is in full:
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Howard Stern and his staff for their production of a comedy bit about gamers. The exposure that his May 9th, 2011 radio show has generated for TooManyGames far surpasses anything we could have hoped to achieve this year. Not only did Mr. Stern highlight TooManyGames, but several large gaming news sites and blogs also picked up on the story, which only increased the exposure TooManyGames received. It is unfortunate that Mr. Stern and his team chose to highlight a few of our attendees who may have social shortcomings in order to make his bit more humorous.
Any modern gamer listening to this recent show will realize that Howard Stern hasn’t been in touch with the video game industry in years, still latching on to the tired stereotypes of past years and trying to find a joke in a kid with a speech problem. We don’t expect a radio personality to research (especially one who is there for shock value), but Mr. Stern might be shocked to realize video games are no longer the small past time of cellar dwellers but a multi-billion dollar industry! Games are played by people of all ages from kids to grandparents and everything in-between. With a little editing and selective interviews he presents the scenario that all gamers have no jobs and no aspirations in life; which all gamers know is vastly untrue. We work hard so we can have time to enjoy our games and a lucky few of us actually get to make and play games for a living.
So, to help Mr. Stern get a new grasp on this industry (and perhaps connect with the inner nerd he has selectively forgotten about) we at TooManyGames would like to offer him VIP Passes to our 2012 show. Our director of public relations, Adelle Starr, will gladly give him and his guests a personal tour of the show and introduce him to some of the wonders of modern gaming and gaming culture. In his segment he remarked that he couldn’t understand what some of the people were talking about. However when you interrupt someone in the middle of a tournament of course they won’t be able to explain in detail! So she can make sure he always has someone around to help translate the modern jargon of gaming.
We would be pleased to host you Mr. Stern! Come on down and check out what you are missing! Release your inner nerd!
Capitalizing on Stern's recent diatribe against gamers is a smart marketing move for TooManyGames, however, the odds of him accepting the invite to 2012's expo are extremely low. This is a guy who bitches about having to make any public appearance, let alone ones where he's already pissed off a majority of the guests. If he or any of his Wack Packers do take up the offer, it will only be to harass TooManyGames from the inside. Then again, any publicity is good publicity. We'll let you know if Stern takes the bait.
May 24, 2011
Perma-cranky media mogul lays into TooManyGames attendees
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Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.
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