Polygon posts ad/re-worded press release as 'News' & deletes user comments [Removed]

chrisgrant said:
Look, do I think it was the best, most useful post we've ever run? No, I don't. Do I see any malice in running it? Nope!

This smells like a witch hunt to me — all we're doing is keeping the comments thread clear and on-topic. Since that was going to require a lot of maintenance, we just turned comments off.
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Here's my bad analogy.

If I'd had an affair, weathered the fury of my wife finding out that I was a piece of filth scumbag then the last thing I would be doing in the weeks after the shitstorm would be piss arsing around in a perfume shop on my way home.

Some thought on how stuff is perceived by the wider watching world would go a long way.
 
The idea of posting a press release about Halo 4 and Pizza Hut isn't all that terrible. It's not really news but I doubt it was paid for or anything nefarious. But the response to this has been really bad. Deleting negative comments and now closing off all comments, and pointing people to an email address for criticisms, it's really no way to build a sense of trust or community.
 
Advertisements? Geoff Keighly would love to work at Polygon now.

kLHUo.png
 
oneils said:
Can't answer the other questions, but this one is pretty straightforward. They are not getting paid for this. They are simply passing along details of a contest. From what I can tell they are not getting compensated for it.

Seems to be standard procedure for pretty much every gaming site out there. I guess the recent doings at Eurogamer has everyone being super hyper-vigilant. I doubt we would have seen this reaction a month ago.
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New Games Journalism: It's games journalism!
 
Dismissing the work of an entire site based off one essentially audience-manufactured slipup is beyond insane. Feel like the documentary series is self-aggrandizing, that's fine, but the assertion that they are in "Microsoft's pocket" is laughable. Justin gave Fable:The Journey a 4.5 and Phil gave Forza a 6 in the past two weeks alone.
 
What's sad is that a lot of people will continue to visit the Verge, Polygon, and other sites that get caught red-handed doing unethical and idiotic stuff, or when the next "exclusive" comes to those sites, this drama will all be forgotten.
 
If Polygon guys are reading this thread(at least one of them is) and they can see the huge negativity and criticism, a 5 page thread full of both, not long after posting the story, why the hell haven't they taken down the story and issued some apology for not labeling the "news" story for what it was. It could do wonders for your site's image. At the very least it would show that what your readers think actually matters. When the reaction on the worlds biggest gaming site is almost 100% negative, surely that's a sign that something was a bad idea...
 
oneils said:
Can't answer the other questions, but this one is pretty straightforward. They are not getting paid for this. They are simply passing along details of a contest. From what I can tell they are not getting compensated for it.

Seems to be standard procedure for pretty much every gaming site out there. I guess the recent doings at Eurogamer has everyone being super hyper-vigilant. I doubt we would have seen this reaction a month ago.
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Deleting comments always sets off alarm bells.
 
pizzaroll said:
No, you're just trying to end discussion by ridiculing those opposed to what you say because you have no real argument against anything the "conspiracy theorists" are saying.
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There is no argument against any "conspiracy theory" because they are illogical and just "theories" (ie. not based on any evidence). How can you argue against a comment like "cash isn't the only form of payment for advertising" without getting into purely speculative argument based on nothing other than his word against mine. I'm not trying to end the discussion...there is just no discussion to be had.
 
misfeasor said:
The idea of posting a press release about Halo 4 and Pizza Hut isn't all that terrible. It's not really news but I doubt it was paid for or anything nefarious. But the response to this has been really bad. Deleting negative comments and now closing off all comments, and pointing people to an email address for criticisms, it's really no way to build a sense of trust or community.
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I agree completely.
 
Goldenroad said:
Every article about every video game would be an advertorial for that game then, right? So, you're saying that they shouldn't post any articles about any items that may be bought or sold on the free market, as that would constitute "advertising" for that product.
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There's kind of a stark difference between press releases and original content.

Gamasutra has a clear demarcation, for example:

http://www.gamasutra.com/pressreleases/

They label it clearly, shove it in its own section of the site, and post the exact, unedited press release. Why do you think it is they do that?
 
Cat Party said:
This is fascinating to me. Literally suggesting that if you're not going along with the group, you must be biased. And people took exception at my "mob mentality" comment, lol.
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It's not that he's not going along with the group, it's that he's making dumb strawman arguments that have popped up repeatedly among game jingoists.
 
For a second there I really thought Polygon was about raising the bar for professionalism in the gaming media. Guess I was wrong.

Also, glad to see that we already have the "Witch Hunt", "Our Readers want this" and the "conspiracy theorists" excuses to not take an honest look at your work ethics and professionalism.
Now we wait for my favorite- the "I'm not a journalist" excuse.
 
oneils said:
Can't answer the other questions, but this one is pretty straightforward. They are not getting paid for this. They are simply passing along details of a contest. From what I can tell they are not getting compensated for it.
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But surely doing this free advertising for Microsoft and Pizza Hut can't hurt their future......relationship.....with these companies?

We all need friends! Especially friends with US$ 750,000!
 
Couple of things.

1. Speaking literally for a second, this isn't advertorial. Advertorial means that they were paid by that company to write it.

2. They are called press releases for a reason. Press is the main way to spread the word about something. How is a gaming website supposed to know what's going on if they don't get press releases? Go to another gaming web... wait no... they wouldn't have the press release either. If this was valve putting out a press release announcing Half Life 3, no one here would really be flipping out to the same degree. Just because it's, god forbid, a pizza restaurant, everyone's up in arms.

3. All this being said, I do think it's pathetic and lazy to just ctrl+c a press release and call it a day. It's lazy and reflects poorly to your readership. Entertainment is one of the key elements of a gaming website, and if I can just go anywhere to get a copypasta press release, then there's no point in going to THAT one. "Press Restart" indeed.

4. Unless there's actual offensive content, like racism or sexism, or any other type of insults, there's NEVER any reason to shut down a comments section. Even if the comments are unreasonable and mob like, it's still a huge pile of disrespect to shut down the conversation. Conversations are the main reason that web 2.0 exists, and shutting that down is missing the point.
 
Goldenroad said:
Took even shorter for the conspiracy theorists to show up. I was just calling 'em out.
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There's no conspiracy.

The same week of their official launch and touting how forward-thinking they will be and how transparent they will be; (and during an epic backlash against gaming media) they released a "Dude! Pizza and Halo 4" advertisement as something newsworthy and a C&P'd GTA V press release.

When called on it in their comment section...they started deleting comments and then closed it down entirely.

There's no conspiracy other than the fact that the staff of Polygon.com are already in over their fucking heads and they're lying to each other saying it'll be okay.
 
Goldenroad said:
There is no argument against any "conspiracy theory" because they are illogical and just "theories" (ie. not based on any evidence). How can you argue against a comment like "cash isn't the only form of payment for advertising" without getting into purely speculative argument based on nothing other than his word against mine. I'm not trying to end the discussion...there is just no discussion to be had.
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See, you're doing it again. You're trying to justify your lack of actual arguments by saying there's no argument and justify your attempt at ending the discussion by saying there was no discussion in the first place.

Hilarious, and transparent.
 
What the fuck is journalism in the context of the entertainment industry, much less one on a 24/7 news and advertising cycle? They do interviews with developers, who are essentially PR with more technical knowledge. They review games based on their own opinion rather than a testament of truth.

Why the expectation of integrity with 'games journalism' when they never do any investigations? They never ask the hard questions from publishers (whom they inherently rely on for revenue). It just seems like a very niche market for teenagers who are gushing for screenshots and video of an unreleased title.

When Rockstar make a press release, how is the author of Polygon or any other site meant to transform that into an interesting and provocative piece? He can't say anything other than "oh, hi guys, R* have announced the date". There is nothing to write about, so they just paste the PR. Who would do different?

The Pizza Hut piece. Oh, you were hoping for some hard hitting piece about working conditions at 343 or something? They don't have that. They only have what they are given, in other words, what the publishers and devs want to share. And heck, gamers like Pizza and this is relating to a big game, so they might as well. I see no harm in that -- it isn't any lesser than 99% of the stuff on these sites anyway
 
Gaming journalism is hard, guys. It's hell on earth. Who has time to write stories when you need to be on twitter all day?
 
Please read our Community Guidelines here – we reserve every right to delete comments that aren't helpful or on-topic. If you want to criticize us, you're welcome to send us an email to feedback@polygon.com. If you want to make a new account – which all the detractors here have done – and come here to rile up negativity, we're going to stop you.
We're closing this thread for now and will reconsider opening it later.

Newgamingjournalisttattodouchebag.gif

This reminds me of Tony Amazon guy completely ignoring the issue and posting a proposal to make PR OTs, the thing is, Tony is fucking PR, these are suppose to be journalist.
 
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
When Rockstar make a press release, how is the author of Polygon or any other site meant to transform that into an interesting and provocative piece? He can't say anything other than "oh, hi guys, R* have announced the date". There is nothing to write about, so they just paste the PR. Who would do different?
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Someone has *already* provided an example of another writer (Patrick Klepek) doing exactly that. I promise you, it's possible to post a news story from a different perspective than just passing along a press release. Have you even read this thread?
 
Coconut said:
What's the big deal here? Seems nice that they are giving a heads up to something that's free.
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I will break it down for you:

1. Polygon claims to be ushering in a new era of serious games journalism.
2. They proceed to be a mouthpiece for PR, copying and pasting portions of a press release with minimal changes.
3. Other websites, EGMNOW and Videogamer, basically do the same, further highlighting the fact that Polygon is no different than other blogs.
4. Trusted, respected website Giantbomb takes the time to write a unique take on the same article, proving yet again why they win.
 
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
What the fuck is journalism in the context of the entertainment industry, much less one on a 24/7 news and advertising cycle? They do interviews with developers, who are essentially PR with more technical knowledge. They review games based on their own opinion rather than a testament of truth.

Why the expectation of integrity with 'games journalism' when they never do any investigations? They never ask the hard questions from publishers (whom they inherently rely on for revenue). It just seems like a very niche market for teenagers who are gushing for screenshots and video of an unreleased title.

When Rockstar make a press release, how is the author of Polygon or any other site meant to transform that into an interesting and provocative piece? He can't say anything other than "oh, hi guys, R* have announced the date". There is nothing to write about, so they just paste the PR. Who would do different?

The Pizza Hut piece. Oh, you were hoping for some hard hitting piece about working conditions at 343 or something? They don't have that. They only have what they are given, in other words, what the publishers and devs want to share. And heck, gamers like Pizza and this is relating to a big game, so they might as well. I see no harm in that -- it isn't any lesser than 99% of the stuff on these sites anyway
Click to expand...

My question is kind of the same why does this stuff exist when you can sign up for newsletters and see pretty much the same same thing games journos see.
 
the stuff about microsoft paying off is just snark, what this is about is the influence of pr. without thinking about an angle or how worthy it is or how not to make it an advert but instead editorial, they just pasted this press release because microsoft sent it over. it's this uncritical interaction with pr that leads to all the problems the games journalism scandal thread has been talking about. why polygon are being targeted for a standard thing? timing so soon after the eurogamer stuff broke as people want to make it clear that this is unacceptable and because of their own documentary and ethics statement bigging themselves up as a new dawn for games journalism.
 
To everyone missing the point it's about the accepted norms and the appearance of impropriety. No one is really suggesting the news post is some huge Polygon conspiracy. And yes, it's no different to what other sites do but thats the point.
 
I don't get why people think I'm here defending Polygon. I could care a less if people go to that site or not. I just find it ludicrous that people think that Polygon was paid to post this press release. I agree, they probably shouldn't have closed the comments section, but hell, my local Newspaper does that 9 times out of 10 whenever the comment section for an article becomes any longer or deeper than the article being commented on. I'm not saying there is anything right about it, but I don't think that Polygon are the first ones to do this.


Regardless...I'm out. Hate all you want. I know it is all a lot of people have going for them. I pretty much only check GAF for my gaming news anyway. I'm just gonna go back to reading about all the games coming out right now. Anyone seen any reviews for Lego LOTR yet?
 
chrisgrant said:
Mostly because it wasn't the appropriate resolution for the site and looked blurry.

Look, do I think it was the best, most useful post we've ever run? No, I don't. Do I see any malice in running it? Nope!

This smells like a witch hunt to me — all we're doing is keeping the comments thread clear and on-topic. Since that was going to require a lot of maintenance, we just turned comments off.

We've spent a lot of money creating great gaming content that I think goes beyond what many of our peers have. I hope you look to that when you decide to dismiss the entire site based on one contest post. Here's a story from today!
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So keeping on topic = no criticism allowed? Good to know. As I said before, laughable. What a way to build a community.
 
Vyse The Legend said:
I will break it down for you:

1. Polygon claims to be ushering in a new era of serious games journalism.
2. They proceed to be a mouthpiece for PR, copying and pasting portions of a press release with minimal changes.
3. Other websites, EGMNOW and Videogamer, basically do the same, further highlighting the fact that Polygon is no different than other blogs.
4. Trusted, respected website Giantbomb takes the time to write a unique take on the same article, proving yet again why they win.
Click to expand...

Wiser than thou.
 
Look if you want to take all advertising out of game journalism then you are pretty much limited to reviews. To talk of the larger industry, partnerships, sponserships, PR or any of that is essentially letting forms of advertising in. It would be a pretty useless website if they couldn't do that.
 
Cat Party said:
The mob mentality in this thread is quite stunning. This is a complete non-issue. But someone makes a thread with SCREENSHOTS and all of the sudden its a full on controversy.
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Comments like this are infuriating

What is the need to put up this advert which we plainly all can see it is just that and pass it off as editorial? Why give free advertising to Pizza Hut and Microsoft? What would be the reasoning behind this? It's shameless and should be called out as such

This post brought to you by Pizza Hut
 
Vyse The Legend said:
I will break it down for you:

1. Polygon claims to be ushering in a new era of serious games journalism.
2. They proceed to be a mouthpiece for PR, copying and pasting portions of a press release with minimal changes.
3. Other websites, EGMNOW and Videogamer, basically do the same, further highlighting the fact that Polygon is no different than other blogs.
4. Trusted, respected website Giantbomb takes the time to write a unique take on the same article, proving yet again why they win.
Click to expand...

How does this simple article dismiss the fact that they've already put up a number of well thought up, lengthy features? I one of those people who wouldn't bother even reading a post like that upon seeing the headline, but I guess Polygon is under the microscope.
 
Vyse The Legend said:
I will break it down for you:

1. Polygon claims to be ushering in a new era of serious games journalism.
2. They proceed to be a mouthpiece for PR, copying and pasting portions of a press release with minimal changes.
3. Other websites, EGMNOW and Videogamer, basically do the same, further highlighting the fact that Polygon is no different than other blogs.
4. Trusted, respected website Giantbomb takes the time to write a unique take on the same article, proving yet again why they win.
Click to expand...

Quote for truth. The flipping out about "getting paid" and "racketeering" needs to stop, though. Polygon has proven so far that they really aren't that different than other blogs, and therefore lack real value. That's the only real thing here.
 
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