Press Reset: The Story of Polygon - financed by Microsoft for $750,000
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MarshMellow96
Member
CoachKevin
Member
Just caught up on the latest part of the documentary.
Holy shit... I think the earlier stuff about Jeff Green saying they need to chill out and make it a little more relaxed and fun is dead on.
Straight up, I think Gies is just a negative person. He gives off a terrible impression. He is the reason I stopped listening to Rebel FM podcast back in the day. He needs to go on vacation and enjoying life a bit more.
I like Phil, I even liked the Joystiq guys' old podcast. Polygon is just not for me.
Holy shit... I think the earlier stuff about Jeff Green saying they need to chill out and make it a little more relaxed and fun is dead on.
Straight up, I think Gies is just a negative person. He gives off a terrible impression. He is the reason I stopped listening to Rebel FM podcast back in the day. He needs to go on vacation and enjoying life a bit more.
I like Phil, I even liked the Joystiq guys' old podcast. Polygon is just not for me.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
The only thing that can save Polygon is somehow moneyhatting Matt Casamavania to write again.
Jasper Avenue
Member
It's crazy but I really don't know a single person, besides myself, that actually reads game reviews. Most of the time they just catch a commercial and decide if they're going to pick it up or not. These aren't hardcore gamers but it still kind of goes against the belief that reviews are written for those that don't know any better.
It isn't the hubris and pretension that make that review bad. It's phrases like "precarious Icarus myth" that make it bad. A "myth" can't be "precarious." That's just bad writing. I can only assume he means "the myth of Icarus's precarious flight" since it is Icarus's flight that was "precarious," not the myth itself. Ugh.
And this is the dude in charge of editing other people's reviews?
OrangeYouGlad
Banned
C'MON! HE WENT TO SCHOOL! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM HIM!?
That was mentioned on the bombcast?
whalleywhat
Member
RED PEN
The entire Sony PR department in San Diego was let go. They handled the majority of Software PR for Sony. Brian Crescente had contacts with Sony's Foster City PR (Hardware) that he had to give to the guy so he could get a statement.
MiniBossBattle
Member
Just curious, does anyone actually like the faces(personlity/credentials) of the Polygon staff? The documentary was supposed to make me like them, right? Who is directing this documentary anyways?
Is this... is this serious? What is this?
Serious as a knife! Get it? Dangerous!
Backfoggen
Banned
Deep.
You weren't kidding. That's classic!
Not only is it a horribly mixed metaphor (hope is like the edge of a knife, which in turn is being wielded like a scalpel by BioWare who are themselves like a surgeon)...
...but it's also complete nonsense (the object of the metaphor (the knife) is missing from the sentence. Hope is the edge. BioWare is a surgeon. Where's the knife?).
Man, this guy is full of some real doozies.
Felix Lighter
Member
I think hope is the edge of the knife.
Ha. Fixed. So convoluted, he even had me confused.
So if I have it right, BioWare is wielding "hope" (which is like the "edge of a knife") like a surgeon? So, then, is "hope" ME3 or is the edge of ME3 like the hope that BioWare wields? And where is my surgeon?
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012...-bethesda-origin-crossing-deus-ex-arx-fatalis
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/14/3239295/blood-diamonds-nintendo-ds-rohrer
Look, I'm a competitor to Polygon, and I think the suggestion they don't do good work is completely unfair and silly. If you think the above features aren't representative of well written, well put together content, then I don't know what to tell you.
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/14/3239295/blood-diamonds-nintendo-ds-rohrer
Look, I'm a competitor to Polygon, and I think the suggestion they don't do good work is completely unfair and silly. If you think the above features aren't representative of well written, well put together content, then I don't know what to tell you.
This. Well done, Russ Pitts. Amazing read.
Apparently mixed metaphors are a specialty. A recent review of Dishonored:
"old-school PC gamers will feel the threads of familiarity strummed again and again"
What he's saying makes sense, but the obsessive editor in me cringes to read it.
Under Chris Grant's charge, Joystiq never did well with reviews (neither did Kotaku, for that matter). Chris treated them more like a necessary evil--especially once the site started giving scores. Maybe that same squeamishness has followed him as EIC at Polygon.
Lol.
Yeah I have high hopes for Polygon--but my only major worry is that Arthur Gies is literally the "voice" for all the reviews (since he's editor or something or other). So he's going to be setting the tone for their review section. Yikes.
Examples of great reviews editing:
This metaphor...what? So we have a cocktail dress, which obscures the "architecture" beneath (I guess the dress is giant-sized and draped over a building rather than a woman?) yet reveals a tantalizing amount of detail beneath (like... arm pit hairs?) - huh?
Also it's instantly obvious what goes where (the arm of a woman connects to the shoulder!) and also it has a lot of layers - you know, like a cocktail dress, a dress known for having a lot of layers that you can independently remove!
But wait, there's more!
Holy god, this is the opening of the review! Hey guys, remember that time on Gaf someone said reviewers don't have a lot of space so they can't address stuff like mechanics and level design? Maybe this is why.
Not only is this three paragraphs of self-indulgent analogy, it's not even a good analogy - something the AUTHOR CALLS OUT.
So this game is like Marley in that both are things that would be fun if they could escape their chains, except that actually only describes Fable, as Marley was chained as punishment for not being fun.
So the common point of this analogy is...what again? Something something chains!
And you know, if you absolutely most use an analogy, is it that hard to think of something else that would be fun if not marred by execution issues? Especially when writing about, you know, motion control games? Fable seems like it could be fun but suffers from imprecise controls - oh you mean like BASICALLY EVERY NON-DANCE KINECT GAME IN EXISTENCE? Nope, gotta go with the ghost of Marley!
This is awful writing and awful editing for allowing it to go through.
This metaphor...what? So we have a cocktail dress, which obscures the "architecture" beneath (I guess the dress is giant-sized and draped over a building rather than a woman?) yet reveals a tantalizing amount of detail beneath (like... arm pit hairs?) - huh?
Also it's instantly obvious what goes where (the arm of a woman connects to the shoulder!) and also it has a lot of layers - you know, like a cocktail dress, a dress known for having a lot of layers that you can independently remove!
But wait, there's more!
Holy god, this is the opening of the review! Hey guys, remember that time on Gaf someone said reviewers don't have a lot of space so they can't address stuff like mechanics and level design? Maybe this is why.
Not only is this three paragraphs of self-indulgent analogy, it's not even a good analogy - something the AUTHOR CALLS OUT.
So this game is like Marley in that both are things that would be fun if they could escape their chains, except that actually only describes Fable, as Marley was chained as punishment for not being fun.
So the common point of this analogy is...what again? Something something chains!
And you know, if you absolutely most use an analogy, is it that hard to think of something else that would be fun if not marred by execution issues? Especially when writing about, you know, motion control games? Fable seems like it could be fun but suffers from imprecise controls - oh you mean like BASICALLY EVERY NON-DANCE KINECT GAME IN EXISTENCE? Nope, gotta go with the ghost of Marley!
This is awful writing and awful editing for allowing it to go through.
MOAR!
As others have pointed out, the myth is not precarious, but even if he meant the flight path "precarious" is a poor fit.
But beyond that...Eidos is cast as Daedalus giving wings to Deus Ex. Daedalus gave wings to himself and to Icarus. So if Eidos is Daedalus and is giving wings to someone else that someone else is...Icarus? Those are the only two people in the myth! So...Deux Ex :HR is Icarus?
Ok...hold on...let's say that Daedalus is Eidos but is also somehow Deus Ex and is giving wings to itself. In the myth the problem with Icarus wasn't defective wings, it was defective judgement. Icarus had the same damn wings!
Other than trying and failing to sound smart WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS HORRIBLE ANALOGY? "Deus Ex 2 was bad and this isn't." Is that it? (Let's not even get into how the sun apparently represents negative opinions of Deus Ex 2 or angry reviewers or something and that "beyond all rhyme and reason" seems to imply that Deus Ex 2 criticism was not deserved...also let's not get into what exactly the "hype machine" is in this analogy - I would say the hype machine is the wings that can let you take off but can also be dangerous if mis-used, but the wings appear to be the design of the game, not the marketing...)
Isn't Icarus the design and execution of Deus Ex 2, which had the tools to succeed and did not because of judgement errors, while Deus Ex: HR is Daedalus, who exhibited better judgement? It still doesn't make much sense, but it at least makes more sense.
How about this one instead: Coke, New Coke and Coke Classic. Bam. An analogy that makes sense and almost instantly communicates the path of the Deus Ex series in a way that is both accurate and familiar.
Edit: This reminds me of the time I took a creative writing class, wrote a sentence like "she saw a vision of a wonderful..." and I got back a note saying "you always see a vision." I was stringing together words to create something I thought read well and was impressive without thinking about what my words meant.
This stuff reads like the kind of thing you see up for those "Dark and Stormy Night" worst writing of the year awards. The idea that this is good writing and editing is almost offensive.
As others have pointed out, the myth is not precarious, but even if he meant the flight path "precarious" is a poor fit.
But beyond that...Eidos is cast as Daedalus giving wings to Deus Ex. Daedalus gave wings to himself and to Icarus. So if Eidos is Daedalus and is giving wings to someone else that someone else is...Icarus? Those are the only two people in the myth! So...Deux Ex :HR is Icarus?
Ok...hold on...let's say that Daedalus is Eidos but is also somehow Deus Ex and is giving wings to itself. In the myth the problem with Icarus wasn't defective wings, it was defective judgement. Icarus had the same damn wings!
Other than trying and failing to sound smart WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS HORRIBLE ANALOGY? "Deus Ex 2 was bad and this isn't." Is that it? (Let's not even get into how the sun apparently represents negative opinions of Deus Ex 2 or angry reviewers or something and that "beyond all rhyme and reason" seems to imply that Deus Ex 2 criticism was not deserved...also let's not get into what exactly the "hype machine" is in this analogy - I would say the hype machine is the wings that can let you take off but can also be dangerous if mis-used, but the wings appear to be the design of the game, not the marketing...)
Isn't Icarus the design and execution of Deus Ex 2, which had the tools to succeed and did not because of judgement errors, while Deus Ex: HR is Daedalus, who exhibited better judgement? It still doesn't make much sense, but it at least makes more sense.
How about this one instead: Coke, New Coke and Coke Classic. Bam. An analogy that makes sense and almost instantly communicates the path of the Deus Ex series in a way that is both accurate and familiar.
Edit: This reminds me of the time I took a creative writing class, wrote a sentence like "she saw a vision of a wonderful..." and I got back a note saying "you always see a vision." I was stringing together words to create something I thought read well and was impressive without thinking about what my words meant.
This stuff reads like the kind of thing you see up for those "Dark and Stormy Night" worst writing of the year awards. The idea that this is good writing and editing is almost offensive.
Alex Connolly
Member
It's quite telling to read something like the review you just scarified and then roll on over to the wit-merchants at RPS in their Wot I Think articles. They can be word and, yeah, quite indulgent, but there's a natural artistry to most of their columns. Nothing feels forced.
Felix Lighter
Member
They also manage to make very informative articles and answer the real questions I have about games, while maintaining a tone that fits the products they are covering.
j0hnny_385
Member
Why is that a bad thing? Ever since DSLRs got 1080p video recording it's been used extensively in TV and movie production (House, M.D. used it a lot in the later seasons) as well as The Avengers
If you're gonna throw poop at this documentary, don't do it because it's a "DSLR documentary". NHF, just saying.
Anton Sugar
Member
I think he's just surprised at the price. What is the $750k distributed into? Because yeah, can't really see much from the documentary that justifies the cost.
j0hnny_385
Member
Sure. That's understandable. I'm not "seeing" 750k here. But then again, they've been filming in NYC, then in Austin, California, etc. ... first class business tickets + 5 star hotels?
I'm kidding
...or am I? seriousface.gif
Did he read over your Forza Horizons review? In addition to a few typos (which happen), you have an obvious issue with subject/verb agreement in one spot. "Incredible" editors would catch those at a glance, let alone with "time and care."
BruiserBear
Banned
You're right man. They should have considered your situation before talking about their own situations on a film about the website they were starting up. It's not like they have lives, or mortgages, or kids to feed. I'm sure if Polygon goes down in a ball of flames things will carry on just fine for all of them, because you know, start up money and all that should take care of them for life. /sarcasm
The next time you're really upset about something in your life, consider that there are starving people in Africa right now, and then you should stop being upset about whatever you were upset about, because you know, someone else has it harder than you.
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
If there's one thing that I am jealous of it's all the proof-reading that Polygon's reviews have been getting thus far. It means they're actually getting read and that's way more than what can be said about my work.
Then again I always fuck up analogies so I never use them. Maybe that's what is missing.
Then again I always fuck up analogies so I never use them. Maybe that's what is missing.
I have no problem with the criticism of poor metaphors and analogies, but I find it very common in journalism as a whole, not just Geis or game's journalism.
James Taranto over at the WSJ has an entire section of his daily column devoted to bad metaphors and there are some very famous names that get mentioned all the time. David Brooks is a repeat offender.
I guess my point is blame our education system.
James Taranto over at the WSJ has an entire section of his daily column devoted to bad metaphors and there are some very famous names that get mentioned all the time. David Brooks is a repeat offender.
I guess my point is blame our education system.
Felix Lighter
Member
It may be nitpicking but they put themselves on pedestal so their going to be scrutinized. I'm actually starting to feel bad because I don't typically like to pile on.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
How much of the 750k did they send to you?
BruiserBear
Banned
Would you like to defend the logic of Gannd's post?
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