Hi Destructoid Community. Nice to meet you.

This is my first blog here, so I thought I'd do something sort of introductory. I'm going to tell you the story of how I met Destructoid, tracing as far back as my gaming memory will take me. It might be a bumpy ride, and you'll probably think to yourself 'where is this asshole going with all this?' but just trust me, it all links together and the end result is Destructoid. Buckle up.


The story starts with Dance Dance Revolution. I started playing, oh, about six or so years ago, and I got pretty good. So good, in fact, that I started thinking maybe DDR wasn't challenging enough. That's when infamous DDR knock-off In The Groove took off. It offered the same addictive gameplay of DDR, but prettier, louder, and most importantly, harder. The difficulty of the uppermost level of songs went far beyond any DDR player's wildest dreams. I was hooked of course, and it just so happened that two of the songs on ITG's songlist were from an artist named MC Frontalot. While simplistic, I found his two entries on the game completely addicting. Laughing along with the lyrics as I danced like an idiot, I started to wonder if this guy did anything else I could listen to. I ravaged his website for any and all of his free MP3's, and before long his first CD was in my mailbox. Browsing around his site for more hilarious tidbits, I came across recommendations for various webcomics. No stranger to the world of internet hilarity, I was already familiar with most of the comics he mentioned.

One stuck out though, with a particularly glowing recommendation and a name I was only vaguely familiar with. Penny Arcade. "Ah!" I thought to myself. "Could this be the mysterious namesake behind Frontalot's PA Theme? I could never turn away the Front's advice, so I took to reading PA immediately. I know, right? Being introduced to PA by Front? I can guarantee that almost 95% of the time that process runs in reverse. But I digress. In the following months I went through the painstaking process of learning to appreciate Tycho's writing. It worked, eventually, and now I can't put the stuff down, but it took some doing. During that time, I noticed that he would frequently link me to videos on Gametrailers.com when he had a specific game to talk about. After watching a few of these videos, I decided to see what else this mysterious new website had to offer, and before long it became a favorite bookmark. I started watching videos on GT almost daily, including their original programs like the Bonus Round.

Now think back to about... One year ago. Okay, it might have been closer to about one year and two days, but try not to be so nitpicky. Do you remember if Destructoid and the Bonus Round had some sort of interaction? I'll give you a hint. The Bonus Round ran an episode focused on the gaming blogosphere, and one of their guests for the episode was none other than Ron Workman. His flippant manner, vulgar vocabulary and frequently hilarious one-liners really made an impression on me. (Missed that episode? Don't worry, I got you covered.)

"Jesus God!" I thought to myself, "This is exactly what I've been looking for in someone to report hardcore gaming news to me! Whilikers!"
Immediately thereafter I was here. If you've been keeping track, that would place my first visit to Dtoid somewhere in the vicinity of July 23, 2007. Ever since then I've been relying on Destructoid as my very first source of hardcore gaming news. After a full year of lurking, I've taken the plunge to become a real live C-Blogger.

It feels good, Destructoid. Feels real good.