When people say "video game journalism" I squirm a little. It sounds like sending a vegan dietary nutritionist into the kitchen to fix you a delicious greasy hamburger. Good luck with that.

Personally, I like to hear video game discussion from the average guy, like me. He's not going to wax poetic, he doesn't answer to an editor in chief, and he's not going to pull a punch so the advertising sales team has a fit. He's going to tell it like it is and save me $55 and a trip to the game store if all the hype and spin around a blockbuster game is ultimately crap. This is valuable to me, and I know I'm not alone. But can you imagine that this is threatening to some?

After attending a few events, I've met a few old-school industry people that act like they're going to win a Pulitzer for writing about Princess Peach. That's great for those that feel they need a journalism degree to justify their video game jobs to their golf buddies, but what about the rest of us bored of reading stale gaming editorial paraphrased from press releases? I saw it happen right in front of me. There are a dozen "professional" cookie cutter video games sites out there.  Where's the humor?  Where's the passion?  If you're as sick of it as we are, you might appreciate what we are doing at our company.

Its no secret that many industries would prefer to gently suppress the critical voice of the consumer, and gaming is no different. You've heard about all the politics that involve video game review scores --  your timely opinion is not welcomed. They're not going to facilitate it, because they are in the business of selling software. We respect that, but conversation about these products needs to open up. Canned gaming editorial is dead. The internet is about social media and gamers are getting more involved in the conversation, like it or not.  Destructoid is here to ensure that this continues to happen from an independent standpoint.

WHAT WE HOPE TO DO

Destructoid is an independently-owned community site dedicated to gaming, written by people who love love love love love love video games and like to write about them. We don't claim to be professionals, but we take what we do very seriously.  Our staff updates Destructoid multiple times every day, cite our news sources, and work directly with gaming companies to bring you an unfiltered view of the things we find exciting ... and what isn't worth your money. I've pulled together some of the best and most outspoken critics from around the web and as a collective, and like the mighty power of Voltron, we come together to form Destructoid.  

Destructoid editors aside, we also invite our readers to blog about video games.  Everyone can become part of Destructoid and make it better.  We're also not unlike a big family and our the power of the Destructoid Army (our faithful readers) is a force to be reckonned with. That's the difference. You are here to sit on our virtual sofas and shoot the shit about gaming, deep down in the trenches with average joes -- hardcore gamers from all over the world.

We are advocates, defensive of our hobby.  We want to see good games succeed and spend our money on them.  We want to praise innovation.  At the same token, we want to bury crap and all the marketing that goes with it. Above all, we aim to entertain our readers and make Destructoid a fun social gaming site that will hopefully one day provide for the people that put their heart and souls into what is has become.

WHY IS IT CALLED DESTRUCTOID?

It fits. We like robots, but more than anything the name is fitting -- the first articles ever published on the site were scathing criticisms of the stuffy game industry as we saw it.  We wanted to change things, destroy and rebuild, make the industry take note that we were here to make noise and try things differently. Besides, there's enough companies called SuperGameZoneNews. We're also known as "Dtoid" for short.

SO ABOUT YOUR HELMET...

I made it from household parts from scratch. I'm a community college art school dropout, that's just the kind of thing we do. Our logo is based on the classic 50's Japanese toy "The smoking robot". It is also extremely handy in the clutter of press events, as having a gigantic helmet makes it easy for our community can find us in the mob.

ADVERTISING POLICY

Having learned from the pitfalls of other gaming sites, we've decided to let another external company handle it. Talk to these guys.

Accountability is very important to us, so we cite all of our sources or label rumors as they are.  However, you'll find that we always write from the heart -- uncut and unfiltered. We've also been called an (insert any console) fanboy site, but it couldn't be farther from the truth -- we hate everybody equally. At the end of the day, we're all about good games and don't really care about the industry's bottom line or publishing every minutia of press releases and problems. We like to keep it simple.

PRESS JUNKETS

I know other sites try to market themselves as real journalism types by not accepting press junkets, etc. The reality of this is that it is a hilarious spin on the truth. Rarely do corporate gaming site editors pay their way to go to events.  They save every receipt and bill it right back to AOL, Gawker, IGN, GameSpot, CVG, etc etc. Employees of those companies don't feel it in the pocket, so it makes no difference to the editor anyway since they're not picking up the bill. They are doing their jobs and being reimbursed for their expenses like any company whether its on the publisher's tab or not. Either way it has nothing to do with editorial integrity. So what does?

Destructoid believes honest, open relationships. Talking to us about your game will give you a very good idea of how core gamers will react.  If you value that, contact us. If you don't and just want a good review, there are plenty of other gaming publications that will sell you good, cheap PR under the guise of serious editorial. News plugs and advertorials are absolutely not for sale.

Honestly, we're just trying to take over the world. We're sick of how stale and stuffy editorial on the internet has become on hobby sites like gaming, toys, tech, and so on. ModernMethod would essentially like to shove everyone that's doing it wrong into the ocean. That's all you need to know for now.

HISTORY & BUSINESS

For more information about Destructoid's history visit ModernMethod.com