Hey all!

Now that I'm all sobered up from my pre-lim celebrations, its time for my next installment of this weekly blog. Seeing how its the anniversary and birthday of the most awesome piece of the interwebs this weekend, I decided to discuss...

My Adventures in Videogame Media

For every hobby, there exist magazines that cover the latest trends in said hobby. I always think its cool when you browse someone's magazine racks and see their subscriptions of Outdoors or Cross-stiching Weekly....it really gives you a glimpse into the hobbies of someone without even having to ask, "Soooo....what do you like to do for fun?" For that reason, I proudly display my Game Informers on their rightful place....on top of my toilet bowl. <.< (You gotta read something!!)

I remember when I was younger, I totally had a subscription to Nintendo Power....the most awesomely biased and self-promoting magazine out there. Whenever those came in the mail, I would read it cover to cover, and tear out those folded up posters...One that I remember proudly displaying in my room was the overworld map for Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I also remember buying tons of Tips and Tricks magazine, while not as fun as Nintendo Power was to me, was a great resource whenever I rented different games from the nearby Blockbuster. Once more systems started coming out, I found it necessary to upgrade my magazines a bit.....seeing as there were awesome games coming out for non-Nintendo systems, and I really wanted to read about them....I traded in my NP for GamePro....


First issue....I hear Gumby tried to sue them :P

However, lets fast forward a bit....the world is older now, and instead of Tips and Tricks, people can get any information free of charge using a google search or Gamefaqs.com. As such, the Videogame journalism started to evolve and place lots of resources towards online efforts....I used to read IGN.com a lot. Don't know exactly why I visited that site more than gamespot.com (which I still, to this day have to think about when I say them name, so I dont say GameSTOP....two similar names....completely different businesses!) I wonder, if 2 years ago, these websites and magazines knew that they were all going to pale in comparison to the new era of online videogame "journalism".

Enter Destructoid. I honestly found this site cause someone had linked me to "videogame-related demotivational posters" for which an article had been written...I then started to peruse the site and found how down-to-earth the writing staff was. "Journalism" is placed in those quotations, due to Jim Sterling's insecurities being called a games journalist. The writing staff of Destructoid are biased, write about random topics, and are certainly a breath of fresh air from the corporate tones of other sites (IGN). Everytime I read an article on Dtoid, I know that its the true feelings of the editor...not scared to put themselves out there.....and knowing full well that the comments might be FLOODED with critiques or naysaying. Reading an article on this site is like talking to your close groups of friends about games....agree or disagree, its understood that you both LOVE games.


These human beings are my heroes....


And what other site has this community? Our members travel miles to play games together, write songs about games for the site, make awesome hats and T-shirts (I'm serious Rio! Send me one!! :-P), and generally are members of a family, the Dtoid Army, always ready to have a good time. This community blog system, that took a while to implement, was WELL worth it, cause I feel like its just expanded the voice that we have on this internets....I'm serious, the tubes that run Destructoid must be freaking LARGE TUBES for all the information exchanges that go on here.


The Dtoid Army....MAN, we work-out!

Who knows what the future will bring to videogame media? Whatever it is though, its hard to imagine it being much better than this.

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And with that, I'd just like to (AGAIN!) wish Niero a happy birthday, and congratulate Dtoid for being around for 2 years....Thanks to everyone on the Cblogs and Forums for being the coolest group of people around. Special thanks to Dexter, ceark, Charlie, Azereki, topgear, Dyson, Chad and Hamza for being so awesome when I met you guys and reminding me of how lucky I am to be a part of this epic piece of the internet!

What magazines did/do you subscribe to? Do you have any favorites? How did you guys learn about Destructoid? I cant wait to hear from you all in the comments!

Level up!