I wanted to link Dan Dormer’s deconstruction of MTV’s “Top Ten Video Game Blogs” and his reconstruction a much better list.
I don’t have a ton to add, I just wanted to say I agreed with pretty much everything that Dan said. It’s criminal that they didn’t include Game Politics. Horrible omission. I’m also not a huge fan of Destructoid but I recognize what they’ve built over there. They do their thing, which isn’t necessarily my thing, but they still do their thing very well. I commend them for their success, though. They have become pretty popular pretty quickly.
I’m not sure who else I’d add that Dan hasn’t already mentioned. I’m pretty partial to the bloggers I’ve got on my blogroll, though.
Thanks for linking to that post. I agreed with the points made about Destructoid and left a comment explaining why it bothers me – essentially saying that, as a woman and a gamer, it makes it difficult to enjoy the site when its writers constantly address the reader as male. To my surprise one of the Destructoid editors e-mailed me and said that he’d taken my comments on board and would discuss the issue in future with the editorial team. I was pretty impressed by that. Whether they actually make any changes is another matter!
Natasha – Here’s to hoping! They deliver great content, but their delivery is definitely aimed at males 18-30, no doubt about that.
Destructoid has at least one woman writer, and she also conforms to the Destructoid style of writing.
Natasha: It’s cool that they wrote to you. I don’t know how often editors take criticisms to heart. When a site is as popular as Destructoid, they can just ignore criticism because they still get loads of hits and advertising money.
Brinstar: Ironically, soon after that e-mail exchange with one of the editors they posted a porn video of a female video game character. I’m not arguing that people shouldn’t be allowed to do that if they want, but that it’s not a great idea if you want to make women gamers feel more included.
And yep, they do have a female writer, but funnily enough – as you said – they’ve hired a token female who writes exactly the same kind of stuff that the guys do.
Who knows – it could all be their approach to brand building. Joystiq is the more serious and authoritative, Kotaku is kinda like Empire magazine for games, and Destructoid is more like a lad’s mag for games. Despite promises of “looking at the issue in future” I don’t expect them to change at all – and perhaps it’s not profitable for them to do so.
🙁 i have no idea what u people are talking about… i giot an e-mail sayying u replied to my comment and the link brought me here (natasha replied it said) im 13, i don’t understand that much xD im not dumb but u guys type with HUGE words lol