Press Reset: The Story of Polygon - financed by Microsoft for $750,000

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though the line between advertising and editorial is murky in games as most adverts are from gaming companies, one of the first policies i'd introduce if i was starting a new gaming website and trying to do it right like with polygon's mission statement would be not to accept free stuff from gaming companies like the halo 3 loot microsoft threw around that can subconsciously influence the writers. a free documentary to help inflate our egoes from a company that we have to cover impartially though. yayayayay awesome.
 
EternalGamer said:
There is enough legitimate nonsense going on here that you don't need to invent conspiracy theories. There are Macs everywhere in those teasers.
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If MS are funding this documentary, is it that much of a stretch to assume they might want some product placement in there too?

Time to get Alex Jones on the case. We need to go deeper.
 
Empty said:
though the line between advertising and editorial is murky in games as most adverts are from gaming companies, one of the first policies i'd introduce if i was starting a new gaming website and trying to do it right like with polygon's mission statement would be not to accept free stuff from gaming companies like the halo 3 loot microsoft threw around that can subconsciously influence the writers. a free documentary to help inflate our egoes from a company that we have to cover impartially though. yayayayay awesome.
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Reinventing games journalism while immediately falling into the shameless traps of OG games journalism. Great. It's an issue that particularly annoys me, because it's so unconscionable in classic journalism. It really illustrates the divide between them and real journalists.
 
Just saw the extended trailer.

It's been said a ton already, but I can't believe how egotistical and arrogant these guys come off, and they don't seem to care about that at all.

They've just insulted all of their colleagues in video game reporting as being worse than them. They've already proclaimed that they are the best at what they do and their website is going to be the best.

That's all fine and good in private. It's important to get pumped up when launching a new thing, but is that the face you want to show to the outside world? You haven't yet proven yourself in the slightest and you're already telling people that you are important and someone who deserves everyone's attention? Not only that, but you think what you are doing is so monumentally important that you decide to document the journey and publicize your blatant arrogance to the world?

I don't understand how any of these guys didn't think to stop this. It's just so ridiculous.

Air Zombie Meat said:
40 million dollars huh? Those poor struggling souls. *buuurp*
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Seriously. You've got that guy relocating to D.C. and moving into a fucking mansion compared to most people's standards. Yeah, let's all feel sorry for him and his family and be impressed by the huge risk he's taking.
 
Kinda backfired. Also, as super-journalist, I can't believe they would be comfortable with the Internet Explorer sponsoring.

Also, this thread:

zEyVy.gif
 
Zefah said:
Just saw the extended trailer.

It's been said a ton already, but I can't believe how egotistical and arrogant these guys come off, and they don't seem to care about that at all.

They've just insulted all of their colleagues in video game reporting as being worse than them. They've already proclaimed that they are the best at what they do and their website is going to be the best.

That's all fine and good in private. It's important to get pumped up when launching a new thing, but is that the face you want to show to the outside world? You haven't yet proven yourself in the slightest and you're already telling people that you are important and someone who deserves everyone's attention? Not only that, but you think what you are doing is so monumentally important that you decide to document the journey and publicize your blatant arrogance to the world?

I don't understand how any of these guys didn't think to stop this. It's just so ridiculous.
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Um, calling yourself the best ever and claiming that you will reinvent a field as something with actual worth (unlike all those incompetent troglodytes toiling away at trivial bullshit who could and would never undertake such a labor) is just being passionate, man. Not pretentious at all.
 
Sblargh said:
My girlfriend asked to put the garbage outside, even though I am totally pleasing her with my sweet guitar skills, which left me confused and appalled. Am I just a guy in my underwear sitting on a videogame board on the middle of a week? Shouldn't I strive to be more? Shouldn't I want that all of us were better? Shouldn't we be using the amazing power of our hobbies to raise social awareness?

So I thought of this concept. Something that would grab NeoGAF's attention and, at the same time, not require me to abuse my limited vocabulary since english is clearly not my first language. YES! I would use my limitations as a third world citzen to bring the revolutionalization of the indústria de jogos de vídeo, as is to be called, if the medium should ever want to be taken serious by more than the vapid sexist white culture that has become this fine art.

The idea of the one word post comes from the schopenhauerian notion that art cannot exists in the abstract representations that form our concepts. It has to utterly desinterest you in order to grasp you away from the biological necessities of your individualizating body so you can see the world as it really is under the wrappings of the power struggles of the Natan Drakes and other white heterossexuals of videogaming world.

"Money", I would call it, as to bring attention that this industry, founded at the brink of the collapse of the berlim wall, is not just the dumb entertainment we have been led to believe, but the pinacle of burgeois culture and this can only logically means one thing: revoltuion is at hand, for now the virtual world stands in contrast to the real world and finally thesis and antithesis can finally become the synthesis that brings itself the ruins and, thus, the true beginning of history, thus proving that the russian revolution became fascist because it lacked this moment in time that we now experience.

Polygon with its high value documentary is the ideology of the burgeois laughing at the real problems of the poor while believing that the riding of a digitalized dragon is something worth spinning around in happiness instead of the very real touch of a woman. Meanwhile, somwhere in brazil, being actually touched by a woman in a deeply non-erottic way bnecause she does not understand why I must keep typing in an attempt to dupe her into taking the trash out herself, I am everything Polygon is not and thus the social irony reaches an end.

In lying about the revolution, they created it.
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the-rock-clapping.gif
 
newjeruse said:
Reinventing games journalism while immediately falling into the shameless traps of OG games journalism. Great. It's an issue that particularly annoys me, because it's so unconscionable in classic journalism. It really illustrates the divide between them and real journalists.
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Amen. Free 360s for everybody!
 
Just watched the extended trailer as well, and Justin really comes off looking like a complete jackass. I've never understood people who put down games like that. Who parades around like they're too cool for games, then becomes a games journalist? Who actually is ashamed of that position? It's frankly, insulting.

That complete lack of enthusiasm for gaming shows in a lot of games journalism; not just Polygon. That's why you see games like Dragon's Dogma, or Sleeping Dogs get average, or below average reviews, then normal gamers will view the game far more positively. The worst part of Polygon so far has been their shit scores for lots of great games. Their reviews have not at all led me to trust them in that area.

I still have some hope Polygon will be a good site. There really is no denying that their features are impressive. They have a few that are almost book size, and the layout is pretty slick. Crecente isn't bad at all, and I like Michael McWhertor. The guy went to bat for Demon's Souls time and time again, and that says a lot for me. I'm not really familiar with anyone else there except Justin, who is one of my least favorite and least trusted reviewers of all time after that NieR debacle.
 
EternalGamer said:
I just want to shake Justin and tell him the following:

You decided you wanted to write about videogames. Videogames are ENTERTAINMENT. Why in the fuck did you go into this career if you wanted to do something "important." Nobody
should go into writing about videogames because they want to do something "important."

[snip]
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I think there is important stuff to be written. But that stuff is about the business side. The multi-billion dollar industry side. Many thousands of people make their livings in that industry and reporting on what's going on that affects them is important. But, unfortunately, nobody in the video games press does this.

I think it's eye opening that game journalists refer to the business side of E3 as "secret E3" because none of them know anything about it. After all these years why is that still the case? Why isn't a game journalist digging into that stuff? Because A) it's not playing games and B) the video game press by and large exists to perform publisher advocacy.
 
FStop7 said:
I think there is important stuff to be written. But that stuff is about the business side. The multi-billion dollar industry side.

I think it's eye opening that game journalists refer to the business side of E3 as "secret E3" because none of them know anything about it. After all these years why is that still the case? Why isn't a game journalist digging into that stuff? Because A) it's not playing games and B) the video game press by and large exists to perform publisher advocacy.
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Probably because it doesn't draw clicks.
 
Pie and Beans said:
The mental disconnect you experience when you realise most of the ridiculousness here is staged and at no point did anyone think this was going too far:

"Hey, light of my life, can you look nice and scruffy yet loveable and indie for me? Then come into the home office, and sit on the exercise bike as the sun sets for perfect mood lighting and I will pretend to serenade you with a guitar and somebody films us?"

- "Sure thing honey. Whats it for?"

"A documentary about the intensely passionate struggle of coding in HTML5 and reviewing New Super Mario Bros 2 while getting paid a salary."
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The ironic thing being that she (J. McElroy's wife) is a doctor and probably does more "important" stuff in one day at her job than he will cumulatively do in his entire career.
 
FStop7 said:
I think there is important stuff to be written. But that stuff is about the business side. The multi-billion dollar industry side. Many thousands of people make their livings in that industry and reporting on what's going on that affects them is important. But, unfortunately, nobody in the video games press does this.

I think it's eye opening that game journalists refer to the business side of E3 as "secret E3" because none of them know anything about it. After all these years why is that still the case? Why isn't a game journalist digging into that stuff? Because A) it's not playing games and B) the video game press by and large exists to perform publisher advocacy.
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they don't have the background to cover it. i don't think there are many game journalists that can read, let alone understands financial statements to cover the business of games. it's an entertainment medium and they rely on the good graces of the publishers for their access to content. They aren't interested in anything else.
 
FStop7 said:
The ironic thing being that she (J. McElroy's wife) is a doctor and probably does more "important" stuff in one day at her job than he will cumulatively do in his entire career.
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Didn't know that but oh all the pieces just suddenly fucking click now don't they. I like it when the jigsaw puzzle of someone's deeply personal psyche and motivations come into terrifyingly clear focus.


iammeiam said:
So his life is basically this?
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So so perfect.
 
FStop7 said:
I think there is important stuff to be written. But that stuff is about the business side. The multi-billion dollar industry side. Many thousands of people make their livings in that industry and reporting on what's going on that affects them is important. But, unfortunately, nobody in the video games press does this.
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Well, Gamasutra has a business section. Maybe it's not as in-depth and comprehensive as business sections in other, "real" outlets and newspapers, but it's not nothing.
 
The Ion Storm comparison really hit home.

A bunch of big names, given tens of millions of dollars in backing, all get together to celebrate their career choice and promise to reinvent the field and make people take them seriously. They're stunned once someone points out that they haven't actually done anything yet that's significantly better or different than anybody else.
 
Mabase said:
Well, Gamasutra has a business section. Maybe it's not as in-depth and comprehensive as business sections in other, "real" outlets and newspapers, but it's not nothing.
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I definitely see Gamasutra as one of the more 'serious' websites on games and the game industry.
 
I realize that much of the hate is aimed squarely at the trailer but I'm a little shocked that so many people are just now realizing that MS is paying for promotion and actually watched the clips, noticed "NO SONY CONTROLLERS" and now see some huge conspiracy.
 
A lot of the articles on the site look like what I'd find on any other blog.

They have a lot of work to do if they want to set themselves apart from what is already present on the internet.

Eurogamer's Digital Foundry is an example of what I'd like to see more websites doing.
 
Disregarding any specific cases of backlash or response to the backlash that occured, I'm honestly shocked that internet-savvy people such as these games journalists wouldn't have the slighest inkling about how their work would be received. It really baffles me.

Then again, I'm sure some of the staff of Polygon are a little bit more aware then that, I'm thinking specifically about the people absent from the trailer (e.g. Phili Kollar).
 
Cassius said:
A lot of the articles on the site look like what I'd find on any other blog.

They have a lot of work to do if they want to set themselves apart from what is already present on the internet.

Eurogamer's Digital Foundry is an example of what I'd like to see more websites doing.
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I think some of their stuff is really good, honestly.
and DF is a highly specialized part of a gaming site, that's not really comparable.
 
FStop7 said:
I think there is important stuff to be written. But that stuff is about the business side. The multi-billion dollar industry side. Many thousands of people make their livings in that industry and reporting on what's going on that affects them is important. But, unfortunately, nobody in the video games press does this.

I think it's eye opening that game journalists refer to the business side of E3 as "secret E3" because none of them know anything about it. After all these years why is that still the case? Why isn't a game journalist digging into that stuff? Because A) it's not playing games and B) the video game press by and large exists to perform publisher advocacy.
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MCV?
GamesIndustry.biz?

Yes, it happens less on major websites, but when they are consumer focused, should we be surprised? Not all sites should go for all audiences.

But yes, there's tons more that could and should be done in this area. But to say nobody is a bit over the top.
 
Basicly all they did was to take people with a name in the industry and launch a website. People only know this website because of those who work for.

If they had some new comers in the industry no one here would give a damn about this website.

Personnaly i dont like the website and i think most of the people are swell head... Like crecente.
 
Funny how self-aware these buffoons are around the camera.

"Oh shit, we're rolling... say something revolutionary."

And did he just belittle the entire industry by calling videogames "trivial"?
 
BurnOutBrighter said:
Funny how self-aware these buffoons are around the camera.

"Oh shit, we're rolling... say something revolutionary."

And did he just belittle the entire industry by calling videogames "trivial"?
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Besides making a docu about themselves, that's the big thing I really have a problem with.
 
MC Safety said:
Anyone remember Crispy Gamer? Apparently that was the best video game site ever and plus it had integrity and the elite of the game journalism field.

(Disclosure: I was, too)

http://web.archive.org/web/201002082...urned?page=0,0

This sort of nonsense is fairly common. A lot of people want to make the stuff they do seem more important than it really is/was.
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Oh man, I remember Crispy Gamer. How that ended was pretty sad.
 
derFeef said:
I think some of their stuff is really good, honestly.
and DF is a highly specialized part of a gaming site, that's not really comparable.
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Actually I think they are, because they do what are important parts of "good" journalism in my eyes:

they do their research, they put in the care and time, they write non-sensationalist articles and don't deem their audience to be stupid.

And nobody says that good game journalism can't be specialized on certain aspects of the industry.
 
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