Since the Zoe Post went live months ago, a large microscope has been placed on the realm of gaming journalism. Ethical concerns have been raised, sites have altered their policies with the new climate, and others have shirked their responsibilities in defiance. Ultimately, we live in a world where certain relationships and ties to one another within the video game industry will be closely examined by the readers if the websites will not do it themselves. Thus, we are brought to today, where a possible romantic link between Anne Marie Lewis of Ubisoft and Tyler Wilde of PC Gamer (who penned the recent “Let’s stop calling ourselves the PC Master Race” article).

As a short aside, you can read Techraptor’s response to said article here.

Information was sent to me via email by Twitter user TheFartRises (whose real name will be kept from record), and was sent to him via an anonymous source. I’ve reviewed the images and have come to the conclusion that the picture on Wilde’s Facebook page is indeed Anne Marie Lewis. Wilde’s names have been attached to many news stories in regards to Ubisoft releases, such as Farcry 4 and Assassin’s Creed Unity. Now, to be fair to Wilde, he did not review a single one of those games listed. He has been seen on Twitter recommending Farcry 4, but whether he is promoting the game for his significant other or legitimately enjoys it is up for interpretation. The links that will follow are all archived from Tyler Wilde’s Facebook page and the respective Twitter.

At one point, Tyler was open about his relationship with Anne Marie. You can see in this archive that that features the two together on Wilde’s Facebook page. It seems that when folks started to make connections, Wilde abruptly changed the picture. Their language via Twitter exchanges also is quite playful. If they are not in a relationship, it is rather obvious that they are at least friends. Friends on two sides of the industry from one another. Though Anne’s Linkedin profile shows she was once a game journalist, those days have ended, and thus it was Wilde’s responsibility as a journalist to report the relationship and disclose it. That has not happened. Once again, we find a member of the gaming press doing a favor for a friend.

What’s even more odd is that it is difficult to find PC Gamer’s ethical standards. It is possible that the site does not list them to the public. Either way, it seems that if such a code exists, it seems to be very loose in regards to what information the reader is going to know about the mindset of the journalist. The reader is left in the dark in regards to non disclosure agreements, embargoes, sponsorships, and other information that a reader needs to process how much weight they give to what they read. It is essential to any journalistic effort. It seems PC Gamer’s dedication to such may be lacking, considering their editor in chief knew about the relationship!

As it stands, evidence of this relationship is now made to the public. On a personal level, I do not fault two human beings caring for one another, because it’s part of who we are as people. At the same time, to err is also human, and Wilde has done such in not disclosing the relationship to his readership.

Addendum: As of January 15th, PC Gamer has released a statement in regard to the situation.