Promoted from our community blogs!
[In May, somewhat in honor of Dtoid going to paper and also superhero flicks, we invited your friendly neighborhood Meanderbot to turn the recap team into superheroes. Additionally, members of the recap team and community will also be lending their voices to the monthly recaps from here on out. Will you one day join our pantheon of blogging heroes and heroines? There’s only one way to find out – start a cblog today! – Pixie The Fairy]
Welcome to the May cblog recap! Today, we’re breaking all the rules. Roll your sleeves up to your biceps so they hold a cigarette box or a playing card pack to your arms. Wear those tatty clothes with the holes in them and we’ll hang out on the corner under the streetlight, wearing our sunglasses at night as we talk about Destructoid with hip, new slang. When it’s too late, I’ll lift my sunglasses and only then you’ll know it’s not Pixie.
No, it’ll be me. Riobux.
May was an interesting month. There was a fascinating cblog trend where people asked the Destructoid community “What would you like to know?” and responded to as many questions as they could. There were twenty-one different blogs centered around the concept of community members wanting to share more about themselves – things they might not have thought to mention in a standard “X things about me” blog. Although, to be fair, not many people would think to answer questions you’d find at a job interview, such as “Where do you see yourself in five years?” or “What is the best day you recall having?” like Occams did to Jed Whitaker.
It’s possible I find sharing silly information like this fascinating because it’s like trading tales over a campfire and it allows people to become more connected with one another. Perhaps this is more important than ever in a society where, according toMcPherson, Smith-Lovin and Brashears(2006),Americans are showing increased rates of social isolation. This has been associated with general deviancy (the sociological term is “anomie,” not to be confused with cartoonishly general deviancy: “anime”), mental illness and suicide – although psychologists likely disagree on the last two.
There are people who don’t have family or friends to fall back on offline, so it is fantastic to witness a place where people bond with others or even just share something in common. An article byZeynep Tufekcisuggested that during this period of increased social isolation, those who used the internet fared better than those who did not. It’s great that, rather than socially falling through the cracks, so many brilliant personalities engage with each other here at Destructoid – even if sometimes the wisdom can seem like a crude fan-fiction ofA Serbian Film.
It is wonderful to watch the community get together and fling silly trivia; valued information such as the instinctive reaction to the sky raining cheeseburgers, the sensation of being a chicken in disguise while watching octopuses pose as human fathers and what is it about love that makes fools fall into it.
I had thought participate a few times and, funnily enough, it was just before the AMA trend really kicked off – but I am simply the worst at talking about myself. In the end, I had chickened out at the thought of the strange things some people would ask. You are all lovely folks, though, and you do make me laugh (often insurprise) – butdamnsometimes the conversations I see blossom into something H.R. Giger would be freaked out about!
Anyway, now that I’ve had my chance to talk about how fantastic it has been to experience the community without going full Mr. Rogers, let’s delve into the May blogs on display!
– Riobux
A question of character: Choose your fighterbyOrochiLeona
How videogames could learn from heavy metalbyXeo
The Dtoid community’s best blogs of April 2015!byCblogRecaps
In keeping with the idea of gaming magazines, this month’s “Blogger’s Wanted” prompt, “Papers, Please,” takes a look back at gaming magazines and other printed pastimes as they pertain to players and paper. Enjoy!
–Pixie The Fairy
Papers, Please: HindsightbyBardley
Papers, Please: I know a codebyTheDustinThomas
Papers, Please: The Official Irish Playstation MagazinebyKylerMurden
Papers, Please: Pravda powerbyLittlebadwolf
Papers, Please: Maybe enough papers – SevenIrreverentbySevenIrreverent
When “Band of Bloggers” was first conceived I don’t think any of us really expected it to take off as well as it did. Likewise, when I announced that due to the departure ofThe Scholarly Gamerthat I might not keep it up, I was equally surprised at the amount of people who wanted it to continue. At first, BoB was just something to help me feel like I was contributing to the site, but it quickly turned into a desire for me to influence others here to put their creative sides to work.
May’s “Thick as Thieves” theme has been no exception and people have gone out of their way to create some interesting pieces. From traditional looks at recent games such asInvisible, Inc.,to delving into the weird and fascinating mechanics ofDishonored. I can only hope that BoB continues to grow and convinces more people to contribute!
– Fenriff
Thick as Thieves: Invisible Inc.byAvtrSpirit
Thick as Thieves: Sailing under a Black FlagbyEl Dango
Thick As Thieves: Klepto-game-ia: Memoirs of a virtual thiefbyFenriff
Thick as Thieves: Grand Theft Auto III retrospectivebyNanashi
Thick as Thieves: The new order of KarrasbyRudorlf
Thick as Thieves: Have Heart, will travelbyWutangclam
Previous BoB Recap: From Software, With Love
As some of you around the community may have noticed, I have been hard at work bringing you guys an old staple of Destructoid known as “Comments of the Week.” This is a weekly community showcase where I scour the comments section looking for insightful, funny, or just weird things that members around the site have said.
Definitely check out some of the links above/ below, and if you like what you see,click hereand look for the chronological list to the right for older editions. If you want to see them as they get posted, head to the Cblog sections (hopefully) every week, usually Sundays or Mondays, to see the next edition. If you haven’t been to the Cblog section of the site, what’s the matter with you?
– Dreamweaver
Comments of the Week – Prototype Pt.2
Comments of the Week – It was just a Tuesday edition
Comments of the Week – What you’ve been waiting for
Comments of the Week – Monday surprise!
Comments of the Week – Kick that candy bar, I got a bounty for y’all
Every blog, comment or fap you make throughout a month, along with other things, are talliedin order to gauge the current state of the community blogs in terms of user activity. In “Cblog Analytics,” you’ll get to know just how many blogs were posted, who wrote the most number of blogs, which one was the most upvoted, what was the most/least liveliest day and other such details that might be of interest to you.
After skipping out on this for the previous month, I decided to reevaluate my entire process of creating these and have come up with a new scheme which takes significantly less time and effort. For instance, it only took around two nights to create not only last month’s analytics, but also April’s, together with the new file I use to record data and generate results.
–Luna Sy
Community Blog Analytics for April 2015!
Community Blog Analytics for May 2015!
If you’re looking for hours of listening enjoyment, brought to you straight from the hearts and minds of Destructoid community members, “Podgasms” recaps the entire month’s worth for you. Every community-based podcast (which has a cblog) lies within this community cblog feature. Our state-of-the-art searchers are hard at work every month for you to make sure that not a single community podcast misses themonthly “Podgasms.” Check it out if you want some high-quality listenings!
– Nanashi
The Dead Pixels Podcast 18: Shadow the Hedgehog feat. Laura Kate
Error Machine Podcast 51: Luke’s burning bra
Error Machine Podcast 52: Mohawk guns and gun mohawks
PStoid Episode 22: Losing our loco
PStoid Episode 23: Coffee and schnapps
Scary Granules Episode 29: Ultimate Edition
As Riobux said, the cblogs were dense with “AMA” activity in May and there were some “10 Things” blogs as well! Whenever there is a persistent, trending topic in the cblogs that the community just runs with, we like to highlight it!What will June bring? You’ll decide that!
– Pixie The Fairy
Pixie The Fairy’s AMA/10 Things
SeymourDuncan17’s AMA/(7 Things),
ShadeOfLight answered questions before you asked them.
Hyper Lemon Buster Cannon’s AMA
We begin withAgent9taking a look at how small developers arefilling the gapswith spiritual successors andAdam Pgives usan in-depthXenoblade Chroniclesreview.Anystrom0talks about howOCDaffects his gaming experience andCaltySlitorousshares a somewhat NSFW list often thingshe’s enjoying right now.
Cannibal Stevenreturns with anotherphoto albumfromXeno ClashandChumble Fuzzlyshares his experience withCFS, ME and gaming.Dreamweaverhas moresplat for some toonsand, yeah, we’re already back at another NSFW warning. Meanwhile,Dr. Melshareswhat he would like to see in aSilent Hillgame. You know, provided Konami lets us have another one.
El Dangostokes up the E3 hype, shares what hehopes to seethis year and then explains what hedidn’t likeaboutDishonored.Fevokishares a little about himself and hisfond memoriesofHalo 3.Fenrifflooks back in his blogging career so far andrates himselfrather highly.FlanxLycanthtells us what he does whenthe internet is downandSteven Hansenlooks backon his time at Destructoid thus far.
Isay IsayreviewsBroken AgePart 2,Kesskuronlooks at whyPokémonhas such awide appealand Kragg takes a look back a that timezombies devoured the people living next door.KylerMurdentalks about games forhangovers(don’t leave your dog with his girlfriend) andKingSigylooks at hownostalgiaaffects our gaming experiences… or not.
Long Johngets existential and ponderslife’s meaningwhileLord Spencershares somelessons we learnfrom games..Kyle MacGregorGardevoirs about Gardevoir.Gardevoir?Gardevoir!
n0signalgoesBerserkonDark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin.Oculingets equipped andquickwithAzure Striker GunvoltandOoktarshares somefan arthe picked up from Fanimecon.OrochiLeonashares achromakey knightmarewhileOverlordZettatalks aboutsex and equalityinChroma Squadand ponders the future of Nintendo with theNX … kinda.
Pixie The Fairytalks aboutcharacter creation, customization and the reasoning behind herFreedom Warscharacters, Ripley Crecent and Ruby Nyx!Preposterous Whiteydebuts theSaturday Stuporcadewith theSuper Mario Bros. Super Show!RedHeadPeaktake another look at thehistorical accuracyofThe WitcherandRetrofractioncalls on community artists for help on hisDtoid documentary.
Riobuxreviewsreviewersand looks atlovein games.SeymourDuncan17predicts howBethesdawill close out their E3 presentation and his mom tells us whogaming’s sexiest menare.ShadeOfLightalso goessplatforSplatoon, which is to say we have yet another NSFW blog about this game. You guys just had to make this weird.
SpeilerDadthanks Sega for theanatomical addtionsthey made to sharks.Titanneltakes alook backat the days when Konami hadn’t completely lost their marbles andJed Whitaker begins hisweight lossjourney with Kinect.Wutangclantells us not only why weshouldn’t wanta newTony Hawkgame, but also thegood thingsthat happen in bad games, He also shares why he thinksMLB 15: The Showis anRPGand how the gaming industry is cutting outcheat codes.
Finally,Xtravisagewants to tell you why this monkey rap is one of gaming’sbest tutorialsandZen100explains whySplatoon‘slaststress testand its problems are a good thing. ThatSplatoonpost is work safe for kids and squids, by the way, and that’s all she wrote for May!
See you next time and a huge thanks toMeanderbotfor sharing his talents with us this month!
– The Recap Team
