Destructoid Staff & Contributors
Following our infamous creation we have notoriously has recruited from within our own community. Why the hell not? This is one of the many ways we work to keep a fresh, varied, and trusted voice in the video game world. Destructoid is truly a site written by gamers.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding member, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, and photographic tools.
Yanier "Niero" Gonzalez is Destructoid's founder, publisher, and
guy-in-the-helmet. After 2,000+ stories posted and years of starting trouble on the front page he's now busy behind the scenes building the future of Destructoid. His story is our motto:
"Living The Dream". Likes things in twos: Mega man 2, Phantasy Star II, Double Dragon 2, and Street Fighter II.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes:
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, and Dynasty Warriors 3.
Hamza Aziz, Destructoid's Community Director, has been here since day one. He was born when a tiger coughed up a hairball into a pool of ooze. He was one of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before budget cuts. Hamza works as a previews editor and manages a team in San Francisco. To date he has given away tens of thousands of dollars in prizes to readers. What a dick. Actually, Hamza is as kind as he is hairy.
Likes:
Super Mario RPG, Halo, iPhone, Videogame cover bands, Super Nintendo
Tara Long is a co-host of
The Destructoid Show and a previews editor in San Francisco. Tara spontaneously moved to SF in search of adventure after graduating with a degree in Mathematics from Texas, where she went on to pursue a career in the field of scientific research.
Likes:
She is a staunch proponent of kittens, sudoku, Kurt Vonnegut, hip hop music, unrelentless humor, and any game ever made for Sega Genesis. Dtoid aside, Tara spends 95% of her remaining life on Reddit.
Chad Concelmo is Destructoid's features editor. He loves hanging out with awesome people. That's why Destructoid makes him so happy, since it is full of THE MOST AWESOME PEOPLE OF ALL TIME! Also, dolphins.
Likes:
Chad enjoys punching old ladies in the face, Super Metroid, Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES (best system ever!), Final Fantasy VI, Day of the Tentacle, Shadow of the Colossus, Mother 3, Beyond Good & Evil, Contra III, Valkyria Chronicles, Punch-Out!!, Half-Life 2, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Jordan Devore is Destructoid's PC gaming manager and founding ginger editor. He is said to be easy to love but difficult to know. When Samit inquired about his curious bio photo Jordan simply replied:
"bitches love sandcastles" ... yet, there is no sandcastle in that photo. We may never truly understand his ways.
Likes:
Platformers, Pixel-based graphics, Stickerbrush Symphony, Pokemon, Leaderboards
Max Scoville is the co-host of The Destructoid Show on Revision 3 and left-leg component of the original Megazord. Born in France, raised in Connecticut, and while he studied painting & drawing at the SF Art Institute his true passion is entertaining others.
Likes:
The intro to Super Metroid, Uppercutting somebody in Mortal Kombat, Lucasarts 1989-1998, The "!" noise in Metal Gear Solid, Duke Nukem 3D's puerile sense of humor, Frank Zappa, Steve Martin, and William Gibson.
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
Likes:
Mega Man 2, Arcade Games, Books about games, Board games, and having cultural interests that aren't games.
Tony Ponce (aka megaStryke) is a culturally confused, Canadian-born Puerto Rican who grew up in Japan and South Florida ... yet can only speak English. He specializes in writing features and maintaining an immaculate goatee. Likes: Any and all things related to Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania, 2D, PB&J sandwiches, applesauce, and candy corn.
Samit Sarkar is a founding Destructoid editor and go-to Sports guy. Samit was the son of the Duke of Knees, rescued from a burning village in the afghan desert by a golden condor. He is an ace Backgammon player and lost both legs in a whaling tour. He lives for free in a nursery in Scotland where he teaches monks how to capture butterflies without hurting them.
Likes:
Confuse Ray,
Feel My Blade
A Mabari War Hound,
Snot,
Spiral Arrow,
Argo,
Dan Smith's critical hit bark,
Rolling things up into my life
Jesse Cortez is Destructoid's San Francisco community manager and oversees
Fight.Destructoid.com and FNF activities. As a Ph. D. chemist from UC Berkeley, he supplements his gaming hobby using SCIENCE!
Likes:
An avid performer, he is drawn to games such as Rock Band, Lips, and Dance Central, but his real passion is the Fighting Game genre. Inspirations: Jason Mraz, Neil Patrick Harris, Yakko Warner
Jonathan Holmes is the most lovable Associate Editor on Destructoid. Catch him on videos, original editorials, and on back episodes of the Destructoid Show and MTV's Road Rules. Jonathan is a retro gamer's gamer.
Likes:
Mega Man 2, Resident Evil, Katamari Damacy, Bit.Trip, Metal Slug 3
Jonathan Ross is an Associate Editor in Los Angeles who is obsessed with capybaras. Like, seriously, obsessed. If he's not playing Team Fortress 2 or getting into arguments about why PC gaming is superior, he's either off having a fancy dinner with lots of expensive wine, or sitting on the Destructoid IRC complaining that's he's not off having a fancy dinner.
Likes: Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter, Steam, everything Blizzard and Valve have ever made, playing Angry Birds on the toilet.
Maurice Tan Maurice Tan does his Associate Editing from The Netherlands in a reality-shattering time zone. After working as a university lecturer in Psychology and Communications teaching game studies and the merits of Keyboard Cat, he now spends most of his time posting news, previews, reviews, and features about industry stuff or all things PC and strategy. He is also a connoisseur of licensed games, as long as they have achievements. Likes
Deus Ex, Colonization, Mass Effect, TIE Fighter, and his iPod Touch.
Josh Tolentino is Destructoid's associate editor, specializing in Japanese video games. He is also a contributing editor to
Japanator.com
Joseph Leray is a founding Destructoid editor and lives in Nashville with his girlfriend, cats, and Final Fantasy XII obsession. He speaks French and plays a mean coronet. His favorite games are Pokemon, Final Fantasy IX, Dragon Age: Origins, Killer 7, and Katamari Damacy.
Likes:
Confuse Ray,
Feel My Blade
A Mabari War Hound,
Snot,
Spiral Arrow,
Argo,
Dan Smith's critical hit bark,
Rolling things up into his life.
Everyone else and Thank You!
Ok, like a billion people work for/with Destructoid. We will try to add all of them here eventually. In the meantime we'd also like to thank Joanna and Aaron from Forums, ModernMethod co-founder and CTO Thomas Lackner, Senior engineers Mario Kuroir and James Sanders, Feature Editors like Sean Daisy, Spencer the super community intern, Zac our show producer, Bill from our JTV crew, the people that make it so we don't have to do our own ad sales at GorillaNation, Kevin and everyone over at Justin.tv, the lady I sat next to on the BART one time that gave me chocolate on the way to GDC, and the millions of people who have come through our doors. We're lucky to be doing this, thanks everyone for the support!
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