I first met Stephanie Palermo during the summer of 2009 at an XSEED media event. As I was getting my game on with Little King’s Story, she saddled up next to me and asked my opinion of the title. After a lively exchange regarding the game at hand and the industry as whole, I assumed her a public relations representative. Stephanie quickly whipped out a business card detailing her credentials as co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of Spawn Kill. A year later, after many press events, PAX East 2010, and other randomness, we’re still good friends, so I thought it prime time to tap her brain for through on video games and two of the most controversial gaming-related websites: Metacritic and N4G. I hope you enjoy.

For the uninitiated, tell the readers a bit about Spawn Kill. How did it get started, and how long has it been up and running?

Well I met with my co-owner Brittany on a random internet escapade and was invited to start a website with a group of ladies. Some pulled their weight in putting the site together, some let their souls dwindle away in World of Warcraft, so the site never really came to fruition. Brittany and I decided to start our own grassroots venture as two independent women without the hashtag of touting our gender for the site. Most people that visit Spawn Kill probably haven’t a clue that two women run it, I’d bet you! We were familiar with sites that got attention for being pink and whatnot and we wanted to establish ourselves as a reputable gaming publication–and we go hard!

There are a million and one video game sites on the Web, a few good, most horrid. How does Spawn Kill separate itself from the pack?

I take a lot of pride in the Spawn Kill staff and all of our work. We have some fun new features in which the authors and the community both participate which I think is really important. I’ve had comments before saying “Wow, the author of this post actually replied in the comment thread? I’ve never seen that before.” And we always make an effort to bridge the author to reader gap. Some sites like the gap and feel some sort of elitism, but I feel like it’s truly in vain if all it does is negate the possibility to grow and shelter a community.

Oh and one other thing! It kills me at some sites when people who aren’t even remotely interested in a genre (i.e. a reviewer with no fighting game knowledge reviews Super Street Fighter IV) handles a review – we stay away from that at all costs. We have a sports writer who knows every technical in and out of sports and we have those who are thoroughly versed in action games review action titles. It seems like it should be obvious, but it happens the wrong way more often than you think at even the biggest of sites!

Desert island question: If you can bring only three games with you, what would you take with you?

Intense. Well, I guess we’re assuming this is the perfect ideal well-lit and on electricity, so… It’d have to be games you can play for life. Tetris, because I never get tired of it, Zelda: A Link to the Past because that is my just all-time favorite, and maybe a little Dragon Age just to be able to still have pseudo-social interactions… And a boyfriend who gives you roses… Oh, Alistair.

I can ask you this as I know you personally. As someone who runs a gaming site and aspires to be a gaming PR rep, what do you think is the biggest disconnect between PR and gaming journies?

Sadly, the front running offender in this is something I didn’t expect before I entered the industry… The first is that a lot of journalists from major publications are extremely elitist and worse than that, are hardly even interested in the game industry. That might be a whole ‘nother issue in itself but that fact and also the PR representatives who are completely uninterested in the industry really disheartens me more than you could ever imagine. I’ve actually had just a regular conversation with some reps before who I’ve asked, “Oh hey have you gotten to try out XXX upcoming game you’re working on?” and had the response, “Oh, I actually think that game looks like crap, I don’t even really follow this stuff.” I’m word for wording you here and sighing as I tell you this. So with that, what I’d like to see fixed is to see more sweet, sweet PASSION injected into the business side (both writing and PR representation).

Here at 2D-X we’re all about the 2D games. What are some of your favorite 2D games of all time?

That is a super omega easy question – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is my all-time favorite game, so definitely that. I’m also a big lover of Street Fighter and love for Super Mario RPG. I had a lot of fun with games like Total Carnage and my beloved three Donkey Kong Country games on the SNES. I’m also omega excited for Konami’s upcoming remake of Rocket Knight!

What are you looking forward to at E3 2010? What are some of your predictions?

Oh man. I am no Michael Pachter, I hate making predictions, it ruins the fun and surprise! But as for what I’m looking forward to – pretty much anything and everything BioWare wants to inject into my veins. I want to know what’ll be new in Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2. I’m curious about the new Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games and to be quite honest, whatever portion of my soul is leftover after BioWare is through with it, Atlus is welcome to have if they’ll divulge anything on their plans for Persona 5. This whole generation has really sucked me back into the RPG groove I’ve realized… BUT WAIT. I know this will never happen, but I think what would both surprise and excite me more than anything would be Funcom announcing the slightest, smallest inkling of an update on Dreamfall: Chapters. I’m probably fairly alone in this boat, but it’d make my year the best one yet!

What’s your opinion of N4G? Excellent website, necessary evil, or gamer hell?

I mean, site owners think it’s great, but it only brings a quick fix worth of attention to your content. It’s really difficult to establish a community when you are first starting so it definitely helps as a necessary evil in that case, but it’s full of trolls and negative fanboyism that you probably won’t want when raising a fun community at your own site.

At PAX East 2010, Adam Sessler made a comment that we as gaming journalists need to abolish the number grading system in order to make the consumer read the review before making a snap judgment. As someone that rates games on a 10 point scale, what’s your response to that?

I would never want to abolish review scores. To me it’s kind of selfish to demand readers to pore through the entire review to see if it’s good or bad. Yes, we work hard on our reviews and want people to read them but there are all kinds of users and gamers on the internet. There are those that want to suck up every detail about a game before they form some thoughts or opinions, and those who want to skim and latch onto the conclusion section with a score that backs it up. Scores are also a big talking point for gamers in conversation, it gives people a way to get a point or idea across easily to others.