So much stuff
Destructoid was hit with a one-two punch in the past week. One of our oldest and most beloved staff members, Hamza “Cybernetic Tiger Z” Aziz, has retired his mantle of sidekick to Dtoid founder Niero Gonzalez and is off on his own path.
We also lost our one and only video warlock, Max Scoville, who has taken up shop at one of the more fun videogame mega-blogs down the street. I wish I was surprised to see him snatched up by a big friendly baby and taken for a wild ride in the woods, but I knighted him for a reason. He’s pretty good at that sort of thing.
Max has been the center of Dtoid’s video content for a long time now. In fact, some of you may not have know that Dtoid did video before Max came along, back when the likes of Jim Sterling and Anthony Burch called the Dtoid YouTube channel their home.
With Max off on a new adventure, we’re going to try dialing the channel back to the kind of thinking that birthed the Jimquisition and Hey Ash Watcha Playin’ way back when. The plan is to pool ideas from all of the Dtoid front-page staff, and work to make YouTube more of an extension of the front page, as opposed to a connected-but-different entity.
If we’re lucky, we’ll also get a few new features from alumni like Tony Ponce. You may have also seen that Dtoid legend Conrad Zimmerman is on the front page doing news. He and Tony may not be the only former staff members set to make return appearances this year.
On top of that, Niero has taken back the helm as CEO, and I think the effects of his return have already started to show. It was his idea to let the badger out of the cage a few weeks ago. Don’t be surprised to see more of those kinds of brash, love-it-or-hate-it decisions in the months to come.
All in all, we’re currently working on about eight new YouTube/Twitch shows (thanks in large part to the continuing hard work of warlock’s apprentice Bill Zoeker), at least one new podcast, and several new essay/feature series, one of which will (mostly likely) launch this Saturday. The badger should be back by month’s end as well.
In summary, we are lucky bastards. We get to play videogames, talk about them, and then call that process “a job.” Moving forward, we’re going to do our best to make you a larger part of that process. Destructoid was built on a family structure, and the happiest families are the ones where openness is the norm and everyone feels included. While we won’t be telling you all of our plans, or showing you every aspect of how the sausage is made, the overall push is to “level the playing field” at Dtoid in 2015.
Don’t be shy about giving us feedback on how we’re doing at that, and how you think we can best achieve that goal. Not that I’d ever actually worry about you being shy, but that’s just part of why I love you.
