Today I have been active with Dtoid one whole year of my life. I really don’t know what to say about it. This is a thank you and a love letter to the community. It will not be wonderfully and eloquently wrote, but it will be wrote from the heart.

It has been said before by many other Dtoiders before me: “Destructoid has changed my life.” I will say it in those exact words once more, and with just as much sincerity as the last guy.

Destructoid has changed my life.

I have friends in real life that I love dearly. Some of these friends are even gamers to some extent. One thing that I have never been able to relate with them on though is the full on culture of videogames. None of them know what a Miyamoto, Nobuo, Suda 51, or a Cliffy B is. If I mentioned these names to anybody on the street I would probably get an awkward stare. Not many people in the common public can communicate with a hardcore gamer. When it comes to games, we can’t communicate with the general public the way we would like to. Perhaps you can meet people like this in the educational system in places like High School or College, but I didn’t have much of a high school career, and before that I moved entirely too much to meet anyone. Even in my short time in college I didn’t meet many people who were amongst the hardest of the hardcore gamer.

Then I found Destructoid.

I first heard of Destructoid from gametrailers.com. It was on the episode of the Bonus Round where Workman made an appearance. I watched the whole episode and still didn’t visit the site. It was HAWP that drew me here. HAWP is one the tiny handful of game related comedy series that actually make me laugh. I was kind of shocked at how good it was, and how odd the humor was. Gametrailers didn’t seem to think so. The community hated it at the time. I loved it. I would message Anthony on gametrailers occasionally to let him know that there are people who do indeed enjoy it. I finally decided to do what could have been such a simple task long ago and clicked the link to the site.

When I got here I heard rumblings of a recent event called PAX and how it had changed so many people lives and outlooks on the community. Community? What exactly do these kids mean? Digging further I found the Cblogs. I noticed how well the community seemed to know each other from the interactions of characters like Mr. Sadistic, King3vbo, Mxyzptlk, Dexter345, Y0j1mb0, Blehman, and many others. Not only did they seem like they knew each other; they seemed to know the staff. The staff seemed to know them. Whoa. Seriously, what the hell is this? At that time I thought I wanted to get into game journalism. So I decided that these Cblawgs would be just the thing to practice with. That is a thing of the past now. I honestly do not see how you guys do it, but thank you.

Anyways, I write my first blog and I remember making a comment on it that got screwed up during the sending process. I ended up repeating my self in an awkward fashion. Blehman probably doesn’t remember this, but he commented on my first blog in response to my screwy comment. It was something along the lines of: “Confirmed: John’s a robot”. I lol’d.

Little did I know that one year later I would be waking up in a hotel bed with the guy, thanks to him and some other Dtoiders letting me crash at their hotel for the night at PAX.

What. The. Fuck.

How does this happen? How did this happen? In the course of a year I have gone from only knowing people in the south-east of the US; to knowing people in Australia, Texas, Canada, Washington, Virgina, Iowa, New York, LA, San Fran, Miami, Atlanta, Baltimore, etc. A huge portion of these people would let me stay with them if I were to come and visit the city. Who has that? I would have never dreamed I would have that. I never intended to have a career that would grant me this. Hell, I would think that a career like that is rare anyways. The people here at Dtoid are amazing. I have met people who I intend to communicate with until one of us draws a last breath. That is something. That is something profound.

I would like to thank every Dtoider individually, but I don’t think that is possible. This blog is already long enough as it is.

I will just thank you guys as you come to my head. If I leave you out, I am sorry.

Bushofghosts: Thank you for coming to this community and giving so much to it. You are fucking rad.

Krytinite: Dude, I really do hope that Superman game gets released. If it does… I will be at that launch party with you. Mark my words.

Tdiddy: You are awesome, man. Thanks to you, I am able to download any PS2/PSone save file I need for my PS3. You were the first Dtoider to simply send me something for free. You did so without any second thought. Hopefully we can meet at an event in Florida sometime in the future.

Funktastic:Do you ever not smile? That’s not a bad thing!

Blehman: Thanks for being incredible.

Coonskin05: One of these days I will make it to Texas. I promise! You’re awesome.

Itemforty: It was great meeting you, man. Hopefully I can make it to the next Texas NARP.

Walkyourpath: If Red Dead Redemption has an actual awesome co-op or multiplayer (unlike GTAIV)… Me and you, man. Me and you.

Counting Conflict: Seriously, I love you Texas mother fuckers.

Prof Pew: You are a man after my own heart when it comes to TV shows. The Wire, Stargate, LOST. Fuck yes, man.

mid3vol: It was great meeting you. You are as cool as they come.

RiotMonster: Come BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Nihontiger90: Thanks for your devotion to the community.

Sam Spectre, Serpentish, Banj, Brigg, Ron, Craineum, digtastik, Technophile, Riot, Minxx, CG(RIP), nebones, ArcticFox, Zombutler, DMS, Dexter345: I love the forums. Translation: I love you fuckers. I hope I didn’t forget anyone…

Krow: I have some incredible conversations with you. I look further to many more.

Kiranio: Prog Rock for life, brother.

Half Left, Bunnyrabbit2, Gandysampras, Simmy, Hollie, McSnow and all of you other brits were some of the nicest people I have ever met. I cant wait for next PAX.

Necros, Kacie, the Golden Avatar, Wex, Knives, Vexed Alex, Chooly, analoge, detry, BPG, CrocBox, all the other IRC members I have mentioned, and all of the ones I have forgot right now; you guys are incredible. It’s awesome having somewhere to go to have an immediate conversation about any game topic. Even though it’s rarely about games in there…

Also, tGA. GO TO PAX EAST!

All of the guys over at MediaWhore: King3vbo, Excremento, Nikmonroe, Ryan, and everyone else. Thanks for the site.

Tactix: Team Fedora. Team SCIENCE! You are a leader among men it seems.

IronPikeman, SantanaClaus89, Takeshi and the rest of the PS3 crew: I fucking love gaming with you guys.

Grumpy Turtle: Thank you for the drawing! You are awesome!

Mikey: It was great finally getting to meet you as well. I knew your talent would benefit Dtoid from the first time I laid eyes on it.

deBLOO, Char Aznable, RAB: I swear when I get a better controller for the 360(fuck that dpad) I will be down for some more serious matches. You guys have some incredible skill on the neon green side of the online gaming spectrum.

Bulletmagnet: Words can’t describe how awesome you are. That is, unless you described it yourself. Because you would use every word in the English language in just one blog.

Storyr: Thank you sooo much for everything, dude!

Hoygeit: It was awesome meeting you at PAX. Thanks for giving me your spot in the hotel for the night. That was the second best sleep I had on the trip.

Mr Sadistic: I’m sorry I left you handcuffed at the Best Western. I needed the money really bad.

Y0j1mb0: A very special thank you to you for the countless Street Fighter matches. I had always played fighting games but never had anyone to actually play against. You taught me how to fight. Thanks, sensei.

RevAnt: Thanks for HAWP. It led me here.

Dtoid Editors: You guys are one of the most varied group of writers on the web. Keep doing what you’re doing and don’t be afraid to venture into new territory. I disagree with you guys often, but for every disagreement there is something that we click on perfectly.

Hamza: You’re a great community leader. It’s been a learning process for you, I’m sure, but you have done a fine job so far.

Niero: Thanks.

I know I forgot a whole lot of you, and I am sorry. I would be here for days thinking about everyone.

Most people would kill for what we have here. That is, if they could even realize that something like this exist. Here’s to another year.











Also, cocks.