An open letter to the Destructoid staff and community, or something

Earlier today I made a comment on the final post in Destructoid's "50 best games of the decade" feature. It dawned on me that the message I had intended for the editor's, and subsequently Destructoid on a whole to see, might get lost in the fray. Now here I am, bedraggled from a sleep schedule gone haywire and a total lack of anything better to do, writing my first blog in over a month, knowing full well that the potential for flames is possibly through the roof.

The following is an open letter to the Destructoid community, the Destructoid staff, and any gamer who happens to find his way to my small, hardly updated blog.



When the first article went up last Monday, I only glanced through the first ten games. I ignored the comments, as I'm apt to do with any article that might cause controversy, and I quietly left the room. I did the same on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday. It was until this morning that I actually took the time to the time to read through each article, in order, and the nearly four hundred comments on the last article.

To the staff, thank you. This five part series was a reminder of why I fell in love with Destructoid's editors and its unique way of doing things in the first place. It's clear that this list wasn't an afterthought, that it's something which each and every one of you deliberated, discussed, and mulled over for more than enough time in order to post it with confidence. Though there were moments where my own personal tastes differed from the overall consensus of the staff, I managed to put aside my greivances just long enough to see what this list really was; a reminder of how good we have it as gamers, as well as a reminder that the staff of Destructoid loves video games just as much as we do.

In my experience, most video game sites compile these lists with the sole intention of garnering pageviews and pandering to their audience. Regardless of whether or not Destructoid is guilty of making a post just for profit, this five day series is one of the few "best of" lists I've ever seen Destructoid take part in, adding at least a little validity to the claim that they're not just doing this for the money. I'm going to cut that off there- I don't want to stir up controversy that doesn't exist.



Where am I going with this? Ah, right.

So, Game (A) wasn't in the right spot or Game (B) didn't make the list. It's unfortunate, sure, but that's not the point. Sometimes I think we, as gamers and Dtoiders, forget that the people behind this site are gamers too. To my knowledge, no one person on the staff agrees with each game being in each position on the list, in the same way that no community member agrees with the list entirely. Part of the magic of our hobby is born out of individual experiences, while one person could hate a game, another might absolutely love it.

I've done enough stating the obvious in blog already, the point I want to make is this:

The motto, "For gamers, by gamers", isn't just something that Niero slapped on his business to garner more attention or loyalty, it's the downright truth. After reading through nearly four hundred comments of discussion, rage, and passion, I'm reminded that the people I share bandwith with are a tough crowd to please, newcomers not understanding the utter loyalty some of us oldfags have, and many of the people from BACK IN TEH DAY disillusioned with Destructoid's shift to maintaining a cashflow with the growing site numbers.

I don't really know why I'm writing all this. Perhaps what I'm trying to say is, "As much as things change, they stay the same," who knows. Could be that I'm trying to thank the staff for bucking the industry standard for list posts, maybe I'm trying to explain to you just why I appreciate Destructoid. Maybe I'm just rambling.

It's probably a combination of all three.

THE POINT IS, TL;DR

I love Destructoid, I love its staff, and I love each and every community member who has taken the time to talk to me, get to know me, and loves video games as much as I do. Keep on rockin' baby, long live our robot overlords, etc.

Also, cocks?

P.S. How awesome is my avatar? I mean, seriously.

P.P.S. What the fuck did I just write.

P.P.P.S. There's probably some horrible unintended irony in here.

P.P.P.P.S. Mother 3 is awesome.