Destructoid

Destructoid is a video game-focused blog that was founded in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez. In addition to being part of the GameJournoPros group and participating in the Gamers are Dead effort, they have engaged in the firing and blacklisting of Allistair Pinsof and Holly Green on questionable grounds.

Role In GamerGate
Destructoid's first activity related to GamerGate was participating in the coordinated Gamers are Dead campaign. When accused of breaches of journalistic ethics, site owner Yanier Gonzalez responded with "nowhere on my site does it say we are journalists."

Most important is the uncovering of evidence that suggests the owner of the website, Yanier "Neiro" Gonzalez, fired Allistair Pinsof in a manner that may have been illegal. Leaked emails show evidence of collusion and possible blacklisting. Later investigation revealed this was not the first time that someone had been fired under suspicious circumstances, as Holly Green, another former Destructoid employee, was fired under similar circumstances. In addition, her previous works and bylines were deleted by site staff.

On 20 October 2014, two days after the first article concerning the illegal firings was published, the editor-in-chief of Destructoid, Dale North, announced that he was leaving the company due to disagreements with the management, saying:

"Without going into details, I feel certain actions taken and statements made by Destructoid management have not accurately reflected my feelings or taken my input as Editor-in-chief into account. I’m no longer comfortable having my name attached to the continued engagement with former staff. I love Destructoid. It has been at the center of my life for just short of a decade. It was one hell of a ride, and I’ll miss it and its people dearly."

- Dale North

Firing of Allistair Pinsof
Destructoid fired features editor Allistair Pinsof on May 17, 2013.

Pinsof was investigating a potential case of fraud involving an IndieGoGo campaign that sprung up back in early April, 2013 ...

On May 17th, 2013 Yanier “Niero” Gonzalez took to the GameJournoPros group e-mails to consult with other editors, managers and site owners to see how they would handle the situation.

William Usher alleges that Gonzales conspired to blacklist Pinsof from the gaming journalism industry in violation of Florida title 31, chapter 448, section 045.

Pinsof alleges that Gonzales threatened to delete his work from Destructoid or change his byline to "WORST EMPLOYEE EVER DO NOT HIRE!" if Pinsof ever talked about the circumstances of his firing.

Holly Green accusation
Destructoid writer Holly Green accused Destructoid of firing her, erasing her work, and ignoring her allegations of sexual misconduct. The owner of Destructoid and co-founder of Modern Method, Yanier “Niero” Gonzalez, commented that Green was "a handful" and "[s]he became increasingly outspoken for certain triggers and would rail against staff."

“When I decided to let her go (a calm very emotional 2 hour conversation) there was no “chance” to give because she hadn't made one specific mistake — she was just scary to work with for months. My team was on pins and needles as to not set her off. [sic]”

Borderlands DLC reviews
The following tweet was published by Borderlands developer Anthony Burch, on 3 September 2014: "2 BL2 DLCs I wrote got pretty good reviews from Destructoid writers who I was friends with. This has never been mentioned by #gamergate once"

Following an investigation into the matter, it was discovered that Borderland's Captain Scarlett DLC had received an 8 out of 10 rating in a Destructoid article, which was published by Joseph Leray on 16 October 2012. Another review for the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC was published by Destructoid by Chris Carter on 25 June 2013, which received a rating of 9 out of 10. Numerous tweets show both Leray and Carter to be close to Burch. Moreover, Burch was a writer for Destructoid between January 2008 and May 2010.

No disclosure was added to either article about these close personal relationships and former professional relationships.

Zoe Quinn
Jonathan Holmes wrote three favourable articles about Zoe Quinn, published on 10 November 2012, 16 February 2013 and 17 November 2013. Numerous tweets show a personal relationship before and during this period of time. This includes Jonathan Holmes offering Zoe Quinn to make games, offering to assist with a Let's Play series, multiple comments on hanging out or a desire to hang out and a statement on worrying about being "zoe-biased". Holmes failed to disclose this conflict of interest in all three articles.

Possible Improvement
In September, Darren Nakamura announced a new disclosure policy that became "effective immediately" regarding reporting on former Destructoid employees who now work for game companies.

Recently, both Max Scoville, who left for IGN to replace their video team, and Hamza Aziz, the Destructoid CEO, left the company.

GameJournoPros Members

 * Alex Rubens - Former Contributer


 * Dale North- Former Editor-in-Chief


 * Yanier Gonzalez - Site Owner


 * Samit Sarkar - Formerly at Destructoid, currently at Polygon


 * Sam Prell - Formerly at Destructoid and G4, currently at Joystiq