Follow Friday: Ben Gilbert @BigBossBgilbert

If you’re a Twitter user, then I’m sure by now you’ve seen the weekly #ff hashtag show up.  The tag, which is a shortened form of #followfriday, indicates the Tweeter’s (Twitterer? Tweetist?) showcase of recommended people to follow.  Our team at SideQuesting follows several great people in the gaming industry, from journalists to developers, critics to other gamers, and we’d love to share these folks with you.

Each week, we’ll plan on selecting one interesting person in the industry to follow on Twitter for a variety of reasons.  Consider this the ultimate highest honor for an individual who tweets about how much the love Lady GaGa, or how they’re #Winning with #Tigerblood in their veins — the f*ckin rock stars that they are.  Either way, it’s a classy reflection on society.  Consider coming back each Friday to see who gets the award.

This week’s award, and ONLY the FOURTH-EVER recipient, is… Joystiq’s Ben Gilbert.


Ben, or “Hey, can you get me a coffee” as he’s lovingly known to his ‘Stiqmates, is living the dream.  He’s gone from being an enthusiast to actually writing about games for a  living for one of the most popular videogame sites on the planet.  He’s known for his opinions: he’ll tell you straight away if he likes a game or not, and doesn’t fall into the “I have to like a game because everyone else likes it” club.

But you know what really makes Ben a great person to follow? He’s as fucking down to earth as they get.

Even though this has been a fast-paced GDC week that’s seen him not only attend nearly every panel and appear on every podcast at the event, Ben hasn’t skipped a beat in connecting with his followers and friends.  In fact, he replies to everyone as if he’s known them for years, never shying from giving (or getting) advice and criticism.

This week, his tweets have been great to follow, almost as if one of our good friends was at an event that we couldn’t attend. Wait… he WAS! Ben informed us that we “shouldn’t respond to people on twitter while drinking” and that we shouldn’t “stand outside the press room talking loudly about your drunk friends.”  He even made us crave burritos.

Ben Gilbert’s a great guy to follow, always replying when he can and dropping great nuggets of gaming opinion.  Many of us are living vicariously through him.

Ben, congratulations on becoming this week’s SideQuesting Follow Friday. Point to the clouds and scream out “I’m the best, bitches!”

You can follow Ben at twitter.com/BigBossBgilbert