Jim Sterling sees the world through a particular set of lenses. He does his job from the perspective of a gamer that is qualifying his opinion about how a game plays, for gamers.

He analyzes every important aspect of a game playing experience and critiques each aspect as to its potential, and how it is implemented in practice.

As you read his articles you get a better understanding as to who he is and why he thinks the way that he does, because he committed his opinion to writing. That's what a writer does.

When you have an opinion, controversy inevitably follows. These are not cold hard facts that he is working with that can be tested through scientific analysis to come up with a black and white conclusion. Everyone has a choice, and they can either agree or disagree with Jim's opinion.

I recommend that anyone read Jim's review of Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. That particular article exemplifies how Jim Sterling is an exceptional reviewer. I believe that those readers who have a difficult time with Jim's reviews only read the 'high profile' game reviews, which Jim's position entitles him to write. He does a good job and should be respected for it.

Keep up the good fight Jim.

Here is the story of what prompted me to post my first blog, to make the leap from reader of Destructoid to writer:

My twin brother introduced me to Destructoid half a year ago, and got me hooked by playing RetroForceGo podcasts whenever I was with him. Simply awesome stuff. Systematically, I started to read more and more of what Destructoid had to offer. I start my work day a half hour early so that I can check out things that interest me on the web, and as a creature of habit, I visit various websites in a particular order. IGN got me into following gaming news, and I have read that site for years. After I explore everything new there, I go to Wired and read their various blogs that interest me. Destructoid being my latest addition, I check that out last, if I have time (within that 30 minute span). Destructoid has been slowly trying to move up my queue with engaging features, timely news, and generally interesting articles/blogs/opinions. It didn't take long for it to beat Wired in my preferrential order. A few days ago, something happened that made me decide to a) start with Destructoid first forever more, and more importantly b) start writing a blog.

This week has been very slow for updates, what with the Christmas season. As such, there have been no updates on IGN, aside from one article on their PS3 site by a guy named Mike Thomsen. You may be familiar with that name from a certain 'Metroid Kane' article and television interview that he wrote/gave. Whatever your opinions on that might be, Anthony Burch wrote an equisite response, which is far more insightful than I could hope to attempt. Mr. Thomsen's new article was his opinion on why Assassin's Creed II isn't that great of a game, and after reading this article, I was quite sickened by the state of IGN, not due to his opinion, but because of how his article was written.

I pride myself on my spelling, grammar, and vocabulary abilities, but I cannot for the life of me stand the pretentious tripe that this guy writes. His hyper sophisticated barrage of terms leaves me completely unable to understand anything that he is saying. When writing something for other people to consume, you have to take into account the audience that you are writing for. Does anyone know off the top of their heads what "parkour" means? How about "tactical economy real communication"? "Swampy morrass" perhaps? What about who "Chaucer and Goichi Suda" are? Actually Suda is pretty obvious, but only because I read Destructoid.

My point is that I like what Destructoid has to offer, and sometimes true appreciation can only come from better understanding about what we do not appreciate. I like the way real people on Destructoid talk and think and write. I like the various personalities at play. I don't like having to not trust a review because the site or writer doesn't give it to me straight. I don't like having to use wikipedia and a dictionary to understand an article. I feel very strongly about this, and decided to stop thinking and start writing.

I will give Mike Thomsen some points though because it seems like he didn't like Assassin's Creed II (almost) as much as Jim Sterling didn't like it. And Jim Sterling is awesome.