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

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The whole existence of this documentary and the resulting reactions to it have given me far more entertainment than Polygon ever will.

The whole situation is fucking gold :lol
 
saw the full trailer, if they moved their family to DC I can see the sacrifice they were talking about


I'm actually curious to see the documentary series
 
Wario64 said:
Full trailer

http://mobile.theverge.com/gaming/2...s-reset-the-story-of-polygon-official-trailer
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It's funny. That trailer actually lays out exactly why this documentary exists. Justin McElroy says something about wanting to be proud of saying what he does for a living.

These guys are ashamed to be video game journalists, and this is their attempt to give it some importance, some gravitas. Unfortunately, I think it more just makes them look like a bunch of self-important people with inflated egos.

Hellsing321 said:
Trailer for a trailer? WHY
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First trailer was a teaser trailer.
 
I watched the full length trailer.

Dude's looking at screens, speaking hyperbole. There is only so much you can say about building a website and it's coming and they all say basically the same thing.


I know Polygon will be good but it's time for less chat more show.

Yeah they also don't need to prove the medium is worthy, that sets a bad tone for me and probably the people who would watch this. Makes them look as though they are going to try to be lofty and look for art and worth in games.
 
Dying @ Chris Grant's shorts though. and Crescente on the phone as a train roars past. hahahah
 
Weren't they saying that we shouldn't judge this project by the teaser trailer? Because the full trailer is even worse than the teaser. That "trivial existence" line is horrendous.
 
SolidSnakex said:
Weren't they saying that we shouldn't judge this project by the teaser trailer? Because the full trailer is even worse than the teaser. That "trivial existence" line is horrendous.
Click to expand...

To be fair, regurgitating press releases is a pretty trivial existence.

The scene of McElroy playing guitar to his wife/girlfriend was easily the most cringe inducing scene.
 
I think the big problem isn't pretentiousness - it's that they've seriously misjudged the percentage of potential readers/viewers who care at all about the behind-the-scenes workings of the websites they visit.

They're not being pretentious, they're just a little too tunnel visioned to realize that the pressure they feel is not felt by anyone else, and the ambition they have to achieve these goals they're setting for themselves (which is admirable) don't necessarily translate into anything useful to a viewer unless that viewer already has knowledge of the people behind the scenes.

Basically, even for inside baseball shit, this is some serious inside baseball shit. If this were being produced for other video game writers, I'd bet it'd play a lot better, as THEY might be the kind of people who can empathize with the worries/pressures they're consistently talking about in this promo stuff. But a guy who simply likes playing games is going to watch these people talk about making a website so they can write about video games and how revolutionary that might be (and it very well might be, if you're the kind of person familiar with how websites are made) is going to just shrug, or more than likely, find targets at which to start lobbing spitballs.

They've probably made a decent documentary and aimed it at the wrong audience with the wrong weapon, the result of which being that people who do watch this are now going to add the pressures of everyone on the team to their own ingrained skepticism. Instead of getting potential audience members onboard and rooting for them, all they've done is add about 10 extra feet to the measuring stick they were going to be standing in front of at launch.

edit: Yeah, the scene of McElroy playing acoustic guitar, coming right after a shot of a portrait w/ him and his wife - the whole thing married to his words essentially saying "I get embarrassed admitting what I do for a living to some people." - If you're aiming this documentary at the people you feel embarrassed around, that's bad aim. This documentary isn't going to change their minds, because they're likely never going to click on a documentary about a bunch of video game writers making a new website in the first place.
 
I think it's obvious now that all you jokers making fun of their trailer jumped the gun here.

There's so much more material to make fun of now.
 
I'm sure there must be proper discussions, debates, issues and situations that may actually be interesting to see how they resolve on how you operate a site, but this trailer still fails to show any of that.
 
I haven't watched the full trailer yet but it sounds like they didn't edit the tone. I'm glad. I want to see their original unaltered vision of this project. It has been hilarious so far.
 
FatboyRoberts said:
I think the big problem isn't pretentiousness - it's that they've seriously misjudged the percentage of potential readers/viewers who care at all about the behind-the-scenes workings of the websites they visit.

They're not being pretentious, they're just a little too tunnel visioned to realize that the pressure they feel is not felt by anyone else, and the ambition they have to achieve these goals they're setting for themselves (which is admirable) don't necessarily translate into anything useful to a viewer unless that viewer already has knowledge of the people behind the scenes.

Basically, even for inside baseball shit, this is some serious inside baseball shit. If this were being produced for other video game writers, I'd bet it'd play a lot better, as THEY might be the kind of people who can empathize with the worries/pressures they're consistently talking about in this promo stuff. But a guy who simply likes playing games is going to watch these people talk about making a website so they can write about video games and how revolutionary that might be (and it very well might be, if you're the kind of person familiar with how websites are made) is going to just shrug, or more than likely, find targets at which to start lobbing spitballs.

They've probably made a decent documentary and aimed it at the wrong audience with the wrong weapon, the result of which being that people who do watch this are now going to add the pressures of everyone on the team to their own ingrained skepticism. Instead of getting potential audience members onboard and rooting for them, all they've done is add about 10 extra feet to the measuring stick they were going to be standing in front of at launch.
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pre·ten·tious   [pri-ten-shuhs]
adjective
1.
full of pretense or pretension.
2.
characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.
3.
making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious.

How is this not the epitome of the second and third definitions of pretentious?
 
This is an honest question that I'd like an answer to:

What is the difference between Kotaku and Polygon? How are they different? What amazing vision do they have? These are real questions I promise.
 
Patryn said:
These guys are ashamed to be video game journalists, and this is their attempt to give it some importance, some gravitas. Unfortunately, I think it more just makes them look like a bunch of self-important people with inflated egos.
Click to expand...

can you blame him? gaming journalism is generally shitted here on GAF and not even respected by real journalists, so I get where he's coming from in trying to bring cred to it. But they are going about it the wrong way with trying to make stars out of themselves, no one gives a shit, just give us good content and we will respect you.
 
I...did not realize that first thing was a TEASER. For the Trailer. For the documentary. For the launch. Of the website.

Good lord, what a bunch of egomaniacs.
 
SolidSnakex said:
Weren't they saying that we shouldn't judge this project by the teaser trailer? Because the full trailer is even worse than the teaser. That "trivial existence" line is horrendous.
Click to expand...

I was struck by the hope that "video games" would grow to the point that he could be taken seriously--nothing about journalists/journalism in the industry needing to grow up, just the industry. Sort of gives the impression that Polygon will be too advanced/mature for the content it covers.

Pretension in spades.
 
Ken Masters said:
can you blame him? gaming journalism is generally shitted here on GAF and not even respected by real journalists, so I get where he's coming from in trying to bring cred to it. But they are going about it the wrong way with trying to make stars out of themselves, no one gives a shit, just give us good content and we will respect you.
Click to expand...

There's a zillion ways to help bring credibility to games journalism, but judging from the Polygon party at E3, they're not taking the first steps.
 
Holy Wars said:
This is an honest question that I'd like an answer to:

What is the difference between Kotaku and Polygon? How are they different? What amazing vision do they have? These are real questions I promise.
Click to expand...

The proof will, hopefully, be in the pudding. No top ten lists, more of a focus on writing itself, etc.
 
polygon1.jpg
 
I watched the trailer and I've gone through the thread, can some one break down the issue to me? Because I am not seeing what the big deal is. looks like marketing to establish a brand. While it seems a little on the serious side of things for a website that is about video games, I think the reaction to it is even sillier. Unless I'm missing something and these guys a totally fucking something up.
 
Red UFO said:
Chuckling along with the full trailer.

"My job is dumb and I want people to take me seriously!!!!!!!"
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I wouldn't go that far - I mean, there's a legitimate reason to want your job to be respected in some form, to be something people look at in a credible way. There's no shame in that.

The shame is wearing sweatpants to interviews, swearing often, attacking people via Twitter, and being crappy to fellow enthusiasts.

On the plus side it looks like someone in charge over at Polygon managed to get all their people snapped back to reality regarding Tweeting, as the whole crew is a lot better behaved right now, which should have happened the instant the negativity for the teaser had released.
 
Patryn said:
pre·ten·tious   [pri-ten-shuhs]
adjective
1.
full of pretense or pretension.
2.
characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.
3.
making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious.

How is this not the epitome of the second and third definitions of pretentious?
Click to expand...

Okay, the third definition probably encapsulates making a miniseries documentary about your fledgling video game website :) But I think this whole thing coming more from a place of misguided earnestness, more than anything. They really, really want this to work, and have chosen maybe the most wrongheaded way to engender sympathy/anticipation for their endeavor.

Again, I find most people levy the charge of "pretentious!" as a means of using a smart-sounding word to get across the real idea they want to convey, which is "Oh, you think you all smart and shit, huh? you smarter than ME, is THAT it?"

Words I'd more freely use to describe these two glimpses at their documentary: Twee. Earnest. Cloying. Eager. Needy. Repetitive. Hollow.
 
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