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Destructoid.com, the story
"This is one of those mythical Internet stories, and it all started in ...high-tech Hialeah, FL."

Destructoid.com is a social phenomenon for gaming fans, reaching millions of people every month offline and springing in-person meet-ups across cities around the world. What was once one man's hobby blog has grown into one of the top 5 most respected gaming blogs in the world (source: Cnet), taking home four Webby Nominees in the gaming category since the site's inception in 2006.

Very, very early company history

Yanier Gonzalez is a first-generation Cuban immigrant who arrived in the US back in 1984 with his parents to start a new life in Miami. As a child Yanier's favorite hobby was playing games, so it was not long before his dream to run his own video gamer's club. Of course, there was no internet back then. All he could do at the time was draw and write on paper, so he filled dozens of memo pads and journals with drawings of all the strategies, codes, and secrets he could get his hands on and then would recruit school kids to submit material to his club. He somehow still has a few of them - check out the memo pads.

Game career aspirations in hibernation

As a teen Yanier aspired to move to Redmond, Washington and answer phones for Nintendo's now-defunct cheat code toll phone number. He attended Hialeah schools, continuing to draw and plot, ultimately graduating from Miami Springs in 1997 as a Miami Herald Silver Knight and Ford Scholarship winner while continuing to stay on tabs with the gaming world. But the reality was often echoed by parents and friends: Who would hire him in the gaming industry when nobody in town is making games, he lacked the education to create them, wasn't a journalist, and didn't have the courage to move west? He gave up the dream and poured his efforts into art and computers instead, working as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. Eventually his consultancy was absorbed by Miami-based ad agency World Media where Yanier would learn about the online advertising, working as the online creative director to Spirit Airlines in Fort Lauderdale and international hotel chains like Sol Melia and Intercontintental Hotel Group; building big travel web sites.

Despite growing up and getting a "real job" he never grew out of gaming: Yanier never stopped collecting and today owns almost every mainstream gaming system made and scouting eBay for deals. "People would always stuff like 'he's a gaming freak' which was alienating. I always felt a little out of place. I longed for a community of people like me, so I set out to make one." One day a unique opportunity presented itself.

The chance of a lifetime

A friend made an offhand comment during a usual evening session of gaming. "Why don't you go to E3, the video game convention in Los Angeles?" With nothing to lose Yanier applied but was promptly rejected, as E3 was press-only event. This would not end here: They let bloggers go and you're a good web designer -- so a plan was formulated to build a gaming site and reapply. On the eve of his birthday Destructoid was born. The name was completely random: it was the first available brand name he thought of for it, and it just sounded like robototic, and it was made so. The next problem was building a readership, which Yanier would have to use all his ad agency experience to try to get the Internet audience's attention. "Gamers can becynical. They know BS. I had to be brutal to get across." Concerned that a launching a game critic persona may create ripples with his day job Yanier used "Niero" as his pen name, a childhood nickname.

Blogginer as Niero, Yanier wrote over 2000 articles in his first year in business, waking up early before work and into the night as his blog needed to compete with international news outlets run by AOL, IGN, Gawker, and C|Net to stand a chance. He focused on hard-hitting criticisms of misleading/doctored videos and photos that were rampantly spread during the launch of the HD consoles by irresponsible PR firms. He also criticized PC manufacturers of inflating their pricing and showed gamers how to build their own computers and save money and appeared at E3 wearing a robot costume (inspired by the Burger King commercials of the time), angering the then-president of the Electronic Software Association which only created a divide in the game journalism community. Yanier made his first version of the helmet by bolting together air conditioner and car parts (pictured below) and chasing controversy, trying to be the first to break news despite limited resources. "The web levels the playing field. I can react faster than AOL, and so I did."

Note: The helmet was later replaced with a professional costume created by a special effects company, as seen below in green.

Many said this stunt had crossed the line, including GamePolitics.com who spread the story to all the major gaming press and caused quite a debate. Was Destructoid too juvenile or was game journalism taking itself too seriously? The independent no-nonsense voice of the site soon drew many fans and volunteers, and traffic soared. When advertisers started calling Yanier knew he had a chance of a lifetime to make it a business. He sold his car, sold his house, and quit the agency to use the seed money to hire high school friends to improve the code on the web site and and hire an expanded editorial staff and also cover travel costs. Juggling credit cards and braving late media checks the unlikely company dared to wobble forward. Yanier: "It was either now or never -- I had nothing to lose but the disappointment of dying knowing that I didn't give it everything I had when the opportunity was right there. I was going to fail with or make it, but I wasn't going to let myself and everyone down easily so I sold everything and haven't looked back."

Destructoid Today

After a site redesign and hiring a video team he began picking up clients like Electronic Arts and Intel, so the web site flourished and expanded to over 1,000 news stories every month. The rest is history. Destructoid remains independent -- a raw, uncut and uncensored look at the gaming world as authored by over 30 authors from around the world and countless contributions uploaded by the community. The site has progressively grown month to month and continues to soar in popularity. We've done everything from chase sensationalist politicians and lawyers that attack video game news with misinformation to old-school media experts that believe blogging is an invalid form of press, or that video games are not a significant form of art or entertainment. "We love this industry and we defend it to the teeth." Yanier also launched an anime and collectible toy site to complement Destructoid under the publishing umbrella ModernMethod.com with his business partner and high school best friend Thomas Lackner, a Miami Springs, Florida native.

Appearances


Destructoid writers are present at all major gaming industry events and often moonlight as game critics on MTV, G4, Gametrailers, and SpikeTV. Destructoid's iconic robot is also a licensed playable character in the best-selling Xbox Live Arcade game of 2008: Hudson Entertainment's Bomberman Live, marking the first appearance of a gaming web log within a popular video game as well as on the PlayStation 3 release of Bomberman Ultra. "More appeareances in video games have been negotiated since -- it's a win/win for Destructoid's brand team and game developers who want turnkey audience appeal.", says Gonzalez.

Check ModernMethod's press page for all news happenings.

 

 

Founder Yanier Gonzalez (fourth from right next to the robot) says its less about playing games and all about connecting like-minded people:

"What we do at Destructoid is very social. Video games are just the common thread, the conversation starter. Just look at any of our community photos -- people have made best friends and fallen in love through our site. I've traveled the world and met all kinds of people myself -- and this is my job. I play video games for a living. This is what my team and I call living the dream."

 

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