ADVERTISING POLICY

Advertisers have no access to our editors. As publisher I'm dead-serious about separation of church and state.  Destructoid has no interest in having an in-house sales team, nor is ad-selling part of our culture or process. We simply receive a life support check in the mail, as we outsource ad sales to GorillaNation. Go talk to them. If sponsors throw giveaway products at us we're quick to turn them around as giveaways to our readers, and are clearly marked as such.

We're keen to offer an ad-free version of our site because our readers block ads, and that's fine. Hopefully you'll support us with a membership if you enjoy the site so we can stay afloat without having to compromise this manifesto.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Accountability is very important to us, so we cite all of our sources or label rumors as they are.  However, you'll find that we always write from the heart -- uncut and unfiltered. We've also been called an (insert any console) fanboy site, but it couldn't be farther from the truth -- we hate everybody equally. At the end of the day, we're all about good games and don't really care about the industry's bottom line or publishing every minutia of press releases and problems. We like to keep it simple.

PRESS JUNKETS

I know other sites try to market themselves as real journalism types by not accepting press junkets, etc. This is the cheapest attempt at feigning credibility in our industry.

99% of editors who say they "don't accept junkets" are passing their receipts to their employer.  That editor doesn't "feel" that travel bill out of pocket. Regardless of who paid the bill, you'll find all of these guys drunk at the first available happy hour together. C'mon. They just are doing their jobs and being reimbursed for their expenses by their publisher or the gaming company. Either way it has nothing to do with editorial integrity. So what does?

Destructoid believes in honest, open relationships. Whether we foot the bill or you do, it doesn't mean the person attending the event will review the game -- or that you'll ultimately see a positive review. We know PR junkets hope to affect review scores by half a point, and we make it that much harder for that not to happen by not attending "review events," period.

Talking to us about your game will give you a very good idea of how core gamers will react when it hits store shelves.  If you value that, contact us. If you don't and just want a good review, there are plenty of other gaming publications that will sell you good, cheap PR under the guise of serious editorial. This is Destructoid. We don't do that here.

WHY IS IT CALLED DESTRUCTOID?

I made it up. The name is fitting; the first articles ever published on the site were scathing criticisms of the stuffy game industry as we saw it.  We wanted to change things, destroy and rebuild, make the industry take note that we were here to make noise and try things differently. Besides, there's enough companies called SuperGameZoneNews. We're also known as "Dtoid" for short.

SO ABOUT YOUR HELMET...

The original helmet was made by me.  I made it from household parts from scratch; the most useful thing I've ever done with my art education. Our logo is based on the classic 50's Japanese toy "The Smoking Robot." It is also extremely handy in the clutter of press events, as having a gigantic helmet makes it easy for our community can find us in the mob. Later versions were commissioned to Volpin Props, by the talented Harrison Krix.

HISTORY & BUSINESS

For more information about Destructoid and our other websites, visit ModernMethod.com