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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.
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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."
Downloads
Photos
of Mr. Destructoid
Community
Photos
Destructoid
high res logo
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