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Maybe scream a little
On a Monday in early 2018, Adam Smith, Rock Paper Shotgun’s deputy editor at the time, handed in his notice. On Thursday that same week, I emailed Alice Bell, a person I’d never spoken to before, to ask if she would consider applying for the role.
Alice thought it over for a week, and then emailed her response: no.
Alice’s writing sounds like how I want RPS to sound: funny and smart, yes, but best of all able to be strongly critical while still unafraid to be a fan of a game she loves. These are a mixture of qualities that it’s almost impossible to find in a writer, and typically you get an imbalance towards one or t’other: too cynical, or too game-pilled, or funny but insubstantial, or thoughtful but so, so dry.
Yet the balance is present across Alice’s work for the site.TFI Friday. Announcing her love forgiant women. Recurring confusion at video game merch - frombath bombstotrainers. Coming up with the idea to commissiona tabletop RPG based on Rezzed, so readers could experience it when it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Conceiving of and delivering ourethnic minority work experience programme. HerRitual Of The Moon diary, about a game designed to be played for five minutes per day for 28 days. TheElectronic Wireless Show podcast, the only podcast you need in her opinion (which will return, with Alice still hosting). More reviews and shitposts than I can possibly link to.
I can’t properly articulate how angry and sad I am about this, and I won’t try. I know most of you reading this already feel the same way.
I’m confident that RPS will be fine, eventually, as it always has been when great people have left before. I’m confident that Alice will be better than fine; Alice is going to conquer the world, as former RPS writers often do. (You shouldbuyhernovels, if you haven’t already.)
This confidence doesn’t make me any less angry or sad. Instead, I’ll hold onto the fact I’m friends with Alice outside of work, where I get to experience the best of her: not the supportive, thoughtful colleague everyone describes below, but the funny, gossipy, gleefully mean friend who shares my love of four-hour YouTube videos and obscure internet drama.Thank god I was able to change your mind.
Ed:Back in the golden era of the office days, I remember Alice and I first bonded over Love Island when she heard my former work sidekick James and I talking a bit too loudly about it in our Metabomb corner (the esports site we used to work on). Every morning from then on she’d join us for a quick daily “DID YOU SEE LAST NIGHT” debrief. That’s when I knew we’d get along just fine.
Over the years she’d land on my work and dissect it in a way that I look back on and think, “Only Alice could’ve done that”. She’d sit with me and explain through clear, concise points how I could improve or rejig or think differently about things - to better my confidence.
I owe Alice a lot, to be honest. I wouldn’t be where I am without her fighting my corner, as she believed I could edit other people’s words when I ummed and ahhed over the step up. Later, she’d happily lend me advice on how to manipulate letters so they’d look nice on a page and read much betterer. I’m still working on how I relay those nuggets of word advice to those I work with, but Alice has instilled in me a lot of certainty I didn’t have previously. One thing I’ve taken away which she’d be pleased with: trust my gut when it rumbles.
I won’t launch into how much she’s done for the site itself and for so many others. It’s immeasurable, really. Just know that it has been a joy. And willcontinueto be a joy, as I pester her and distract her from the exciting projects she’ll be beavering away at otherwise.
When I did get this job, I was pleased to find that Alice truly did share snippets of my odd tastes, especially when it comes to underrated adventure games and schlocky movies. It’s rare to find a person who appreciates The Legend of Kyrandia 2:Hand of Fateand has actually spent time analysing the plot of Van Helsing, a movie that made the questionable decision of basing its storyline on Dracula’s eggs. This potent appreciation of weird is what made Alice such a great writer for this corner of the internet. She will be greatly missed, we are less without her, and next time I play a Frogwares game, I will do so in her honour.
Nic:Ah, but can we hire Alice’sclone? Alice didBooked For The Weekfor me on Sunday, read that please.
Ollie:When I arrived at the office on my very first day, Alice immediately made me about 70% less anxious, seemingly without even trying. For the next five years, in between consistently writing some of the best words on the site, she would continue to make RPS feel like a second home and a second family. Even if she did think I’m a lot posher than I am.
Kiera:I don’t need to tell you all how talented Alice B is, her work speaks for itself. What I will say though, is that in the somewhat short time I’ve been at RPS, Alice was one of the most genuine, funny people to work with. When freaking out over my first Game Club pick, Alice helped guide me through the process and provided invaluable feedback. Instead of giving my work a blind pass, she took the time to give me tailored, insightful suggestions to push my work further and out of my comfort zone. It’s a real pity to see her go. I think I could have learnt so much more from her boundless experience in the field. Hopefully, we’ll work together again at some point. Although, I’m positive someone very lucky will snap her up long before that. Good luck Alice.
Still, the cool thing about being as enviably talented as Alice Goddamn Bell is that we all know you’ll end up doing something great. Probably several, all at once. For now, I’ll just say thank you for making the site what it is, for countless good times on the podcast, and for being a pal. RPS will endure, but only because we’ve all become a bit more Alice-like from working with you.
Talk soon, yeah?
Brendan:The job of games journalist gets a few reactions. People recoil, or they say “cool”, or they have no idea what you mean. A select few, upon learning about this role, will deeply covet it. They will enlist in the career as if it is a war. When people tell Alice they want to be a games journalist because they love video games, she often gives them the following advice, the soundest, simplest counsel I have heard in our sickly trade: you may love to play games, trooper, but do you love to write?
Alice B, you contain and create immensities. You will shrug off the arbitrary terms of your departure and out-videogames-journalism us all, assuming you don’t level up and disappear triumphantly into another sphere. You’re the kind of writer I think the games media needs but probably doesn’t deserve – somebody with an appetite and imagination for things beyond games which can then be called upon to think about games differently, and who can draw in younger writers who are similarly adventurous. You are also incredibly funny, and a supportive, compassionate editor who has signed off on some of the least expected and most rewarding freelance pieces I’ve read.
