You might not know me, but I sure know you.

You see, I'm what those annoying radio callers refer to as a "first time, long time."

I've been a fan of Destructoid since around the Autumn 2006. Some other game blog (Kotaku, perhaps?) linked to a video of a fellow South Florida native speeding through the streets of Miami in order to reach the courthouse in time to cover a Jack Thompson hearing.

I later learned that the reckless, soft spoken fellow behind the wheel was none other than site founder Niero. I gave the guy props for taking the time off of work to bring the gaming community an inside look at Jack Thompson's legal proceedings. He did us a great service by brining it directly to us. I sometimes reflect on why we haven't seen any since. Perhaps he got banned from the courthouse for not silencing his phone during a legal hearing. Oh well. Cest la vie.

So, ever since then, I've visited Destructoid on a daily basis. I listened to the Podtoids intently during those first few episodes. This provided a much-needed distraction during some rough times, particularly during when my father's health had succumbed to cancer.

I hate to admit it, but I began to lose some interest in the Podtoids due to the irritating attitudes of two former D-toid staff members. I can respectfully disagree with many site contributers, but these two simply turned me off to the podcasts. From that point on, I still checked the site frequently, but wasn't as enthralled as before.

Then RetroForceGo! came along and rocked my world to the core. I'm a HUGE RFGO fan. Dyson, Topher, Chad, and Colette all seem to be around the same age as me (30), so many their personal recollections mirror my own experiences with gaming in the 80's and 90's. The huge exception being that I never owned an SNES. (That's a long story that belongs in another blog post.)

Now I'm a fan of all three podcasts, each for their own special reasons. I'm particularly thankful that each one has a regular female contributer that helps balance the testosterone found on other gaming podcasts. And also Tiff Chow's voice is like music to my ears.

I've always wanted to show my appreciation to Destructoid for acting as a beacon to my gaming obsession. I've always found comfort in knowing that the site is home to the type of person that appreciates gaming outside of the mainstream. It's about time that I actually register as an official D-toider. I hope to make the best of it.

What finally inspired me to register was hearing about a Destructoid Panel at Florida International University's annual anime convention, Yasumicon. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to meet the robot in person along with a couple of other members of the gang. Then at least I can tell them that I'm a real D-toider and not just another passive observer.

Cheers!