Polygon Long Form Articles Straight Crushing It

I have really been into what Polygon is doing lately. From layout to writing to content. It's all ace work recently. CBSi needs to open up the wallet a bit and let GB do their thing in thsi arena and hire a few more writers so Patrick can do this type of stuff.

While the site does look really pretty and all that does not make the content any better. Not to say that the content is bad, I honestly have not taken a look at it too deeply. Though content and usability is more important to me than a whole bunch of java scripts.

Got any examples?

@Milkman said:

Got any examples?

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/17/3882754/oswald-epic-mickey-disney This one is pretty great. Getting me interested in the development and story around a game I had zero interest in is pretty cool.

Yeah. They go a little too crazy with the layouts sometimes but I really enjoy reading their stuff.

in an ideal world we would have a site like GB that does things its way and a site like polygon that does things its way. that way we would have 2 different sites that were good in their own ways

that would be great

@Jayzilla: I will say this. I have some issues with navigating on Polygon but the articles are absolutely gorgeous. You're right though, I wish Giant Bomb did more stuff like this. But Patrick has his fair share of great pieces too, particularly the Faces of Death series and the Papo & Yo story.

I love Patrick's work. I think he has a lot less resources when it comes to what he can do though. Hopefully with the site overhaul and stuff he can actually do the stuff he said he wanted to do this year. For a while now, GB has been one of the only gaming sites I visit. Polygon is now more than on my radar for sure because of pieces like that one that have been popping up lately.

I really don't like Polygon's layout (it's unique, but accomplishes that at the expense of readability I think), but the articles are indeed fantastic. I love it! Kotaku has had some good long articles as well recently; the one about the Doom 3 source code was particularly cool to me (then again, I'm a programmer so go figure).

I had never been to polygon before and when I saw the site logo I immediately thought of the Zune logo... I don't know why.

Follow the money.

I like their articles but they cluster everything up. I feel claustrophobic when looking for new articles.

I really like Polygon as well. Its layout and general look is phenomenal. Giant Bomb is still my favorite, though.

@Jayzilla said:

@Milkman said:

Got any examples?

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/17/3882754/oswald-epic-mickey-disney This one is pretty great. Getting me interested in the development and story around a game I had zero interest in is pretty cool.

That article is amazing!

Agreed. I've read almost everything in their features section and they have set a really high bar for quality and consistency. Their stories do a superb job of getting you interested and invested on the subject at hand. I really wish there was a separate RSS feed just for their features section because I don't care about the rest of their stuff. I know a lot of people haven't given Polygon a chance (or maybe they have and just didn't like it), but I do recommend you browse their features section. Just really top notch stuff. GB can't really compete with them on this front because Patrick is the only dude who does long form editorial stuff like this, and he also has too many other duties to be able to focus solely on awesome stories. Some good articles off of the top of my heard is the one on the development of Homefront, the one about the Skylanders character designer, and this recent one on Ken Levine and Bioshock Infinite.

There are a few sites and writers that I really think 'got it'. Giant Bomb and Polygon are two sites that I'll never feel bad about keeping an eye on. They're very personal, and the articles they post actually mean something or are newsworthy. The bigger sites post too much stuff that just seems like fluff. This past month or so has been a dead giveaway with the lack of big news and game releases. I actually saw some sites post front page articles with screenshots. Screenshots. Even some of the slimmer articles Giant Bomb posts have some relevant news. Also, I'm not bashing those bigger sites' employees. There are some writers for those sites that I really, really like.

It's really hit and miss. I've read a few long articles on polygon that stood out to me but stuff like that Kevin Levine interview could have been a third to half it's size. It's not so much that the information may or may not be interesting but like any form of media, pacing is important. Stuff like that Kevin Levine interview lacks pacing.

@zyn said:

@Jayzilla said:

@Milkman said:

Got any examples?

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/17/3882754/oswald-epic-mickey-disney This one is pretty great. Getting me interested in the development and story around a game I had zero interest in is pretty cool.

That article is amazing!

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/1/10/3853198/ken-levine-bioshock-infinite-vgas This is pretty good as well. I am digging their written stuff as well. I could give two shits about their reviews, but the random articles and some of their video content is really great.

It's so unfortunate their site is over designed and ugly. If it wasn't Web 2.0 gone horribly wrong, I'd really like their site.

If it's not a video or a podcast I don't care.

Interesting as some of those articles are - I bet they don't generate huge traffic. 1up had some great features, Matt Leone often at both outlets, and it didn't help them any.

Venture Capital companies are a Faustian Pact. Polygon is spending a ton of money - even after shill sponsorship jobs like that Internet Explorer thing - and sooner or later they are going to have to monetize it.

I still cant get behind that layout regardless of how good the content may be. Maby if there was some sort of black equivalent? I dont know...

Eh, they're OK. I hate their layout.

I enjoy the articles, but I feel that the articles might be just a little too long.

@JCGamer said:

I enjoy the articles, but I feel that the articles might be just a little too long.

I agree. I read the Ken Levine article recently and while it was a good read it took me forever to get through and makes me hesitant to tackle another. Maybe its just something I need to get used to again. Been eating tiny internet bites for so long that a full meal is daunting.

@Jayzilla: Giantbomb has been doing it's thing while Polygon has been doing it's own thing. No sense is trying to copy one another.

They have great stuff, and those features are SPEC-FUCKING-TACULAR, but they're missing the friendly, warm personalities that this site has.

@BillyTheKid said:

While the site does look really pretty and all that does not make the content any better. Not to say that the content is bad, I honestly have not taken a look at it too deeply. Though content and usability is more important to me than a whole bunch of java scripts.

So, basically, since you don't have any argument to counter what the OP said, you'd just like to put it out there that there is a scenario in which he could be wrong, hypothetically?

I'm not a fan of their formatting, which I think often distracts from the story, but the actual content of these long form pieces has been fantastic. I greatly applaud their efforts.

@Jayzilla said:

I have really been into what Polygon is doing lately. From layout to writing to content. It's all ace work recently. CBSi needs to open up the wallet a bit and let GB do their thing in thsi arena and hire a few more writers so Patrick can do this type of stuff.

I think any major format changes will be put on hold until the new site launches. Once that is done Im sure we'll see things evolve on the site or at least hopefully as there ARE a lot of changes coming down the pipeline.

Giantbomb  was not created to do "investigated"  long-form articles/features. Giantbomb is all about the video... Polygon's features may be great but they are really bad at taking every fucking press release they can find and add a couple sentences and publish a "news" story. 

They're killing it for sure.

It think they are great in terms of content.

@SSully said:

@zyn said:

@Jayzilla said:

@Milkman said:

Got any examples?

http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/17/3882754/oswald-epic-mickey-disney This one is pretty great. Getting me interested in the development and story around a game I had zero interest in is pretty cool.

That article is amazing!

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/1/10/3853198/ken-levine-bioshock-infinite-vgas This is pretty good as well. I am digging their written stuff as well. I could give two shits about their reviews, but the random articles and some of their video content is really great.

I want to read the Levine article as I find him an intelligent and interesting person, but that writing style chosen by the author is one which I abhor and has, in my opinion, no place in games journalism. Not to say I don't appreciate the writing prowess of the author, as he paints quite a vivid picture with each sentence. But at some point I just want to read a quote blurb instead of having each and every sentence punctuated with overly dramatic depictions of Levines hand mannerisms, stretching out a decidedly short bit of information into a bloated paragraph.

@Humanity: To be fair, Ken is a pretty darn expressive guy. I might focus a little too much on his mannerisms, too...

If their site wasn't so grating to my eyes and I didn't think so many of their staffers are absolute morons, I would probably be super excited about Polygon.

Polygon's layout is one the ugliest things I have ever seen; it looks like I am viewing a mobile optimised site on my desktop. I don't care for any of the writers either to be honest.

@JZ said:

If it's not a video or a podcast I don't care.

Yeah, call me lazy but I prefer GB's focus on video. Polygon seems designed for reading on a tablet. Since I don't have a tablet, I'd rather watch a video. When I do read something, a 3 paragraph blurb is enough before I move on to the next story.

I like the McElroy brothers, but they don't seem to pop up all that often. I don't give a shit about, or actively dislike just about everyone else there, so I don't spend very much time on their site. I also like videos and podcasts a lot more for content, and I'm not fond of their layout. As for their long form acticles, I kind of which they would do them almost episodically. Imagine if Patrick did his Faces of Death series as a single piece...shit that long is a chore to read through.

I feel Giantbomb staff are generally too lazy to do something like that.

I only end up at Polygon when somewhere else links an article.

When I get there I find the site design ugly and difficult to follow.

So I don't go back and if there is a fair bit of good stuff they make it too hard to find.

If I wanted to read a book disguised as a games related journalism article I'd read something by Tim Rogers.
 
If I wanted to read a book disguised as a games related journalism article made for iPads that's tripping over itself I'd read Polygon.

@project343 said:

They have great stuff, and those features are SPEC-FUCKING-TACULAR, but they're missing the friendly, warm personalities that this site has.

They have them they just dont surface them as well. The brothers McElroy are as if not more lovable than any GB member

@HatKing said:

There are a few sites and writers that I really think 'got it'. Giant Bomb and Polygon are two sites that I'll never feel bad about keeping an eye on. They're very personal, and the articles they post actually mean something or are newsworthy. The bigger sites post too much stuff that just seems like fluff. This past month or so has been a dead giveaway with the lack of big news and game releases. I actually saw some sites post front page articles with screenshots. Screenshots. Even some of the slimmer articles Giant Bomb posts have some relevant news. Also, I'm not bashing those bigger sites' employees. There are some writers for those sites that I really, really like.

This, exactly.

@doobie: Thank you for being the first sane answer in this forum. I'm sure there's another one or two down the line, but yours is the first and I thank you.

I find the layout to be way to heavy on form over function. Almost as if they want to emulate a coffetable magazine. I understand there might be a place for that among gaming sites but as it is I have no personal interest in it. I'm probaly not they right person to judge that anyway since I don't even find it all that pretty or appealing either. So far there also aren't strong personalities I feel the urge to latch on to. Which isn't neccessarily a huge deal but they still lean a fair bit into the 'modern gaming website style' of personality driven content. Therefore it takes away a good bit of my interest.

I gave a couple of the podcasts a shot and those are fine but nowhere near my established favorites either. I wouldn't switch the Bombcast, GamersWithJobs, ThreeMovesAhead, 8-4 Play or the still solid Weekend Confirmed for the Besties as a new regular.

Some of their long, magazin-style articles are very good. The best so far in my opinion is the Homefront development piece that has already been mentioned. But that one's written by the freelancer Rob Zacny, a writer I respect a great deal to begin with, and not one of their regular staff which may be a little telling. On a side note, someone should really hire that guy as a regular staffer if that's something he's even interested in. But with Polygon's site navigation being what it is I'd rather scout for the occasional gem in these forums than put up with their own site. I'd rather check Rock, Paper, Shotgun as a text-focussed regular companion and balancing force for GB since there's almost always something interesting for me there. Their editorial voice is outstanding and enjoyable in itself as well, the personalities are strong, especially John Walker in my opinion.

Polygon is fine, certainly not really bad by any stretch of the imagination, has good ideas and might go places in the future but for now it doesn't beat any of my favorites at their game at all.

@JZ said:

If it's not a video or a podcast I don't care.

I read the Ken Levine piece the other day and kinda lost interest about halfway through. I am yet to see anything that makes Polygon stand out from other gaming websites.

I have the exact opposite feeling, I dont even go to polygon anymore cause all I want to do is scroll through the article and leave a TL/DR at the bottom.  
To me videogames are fun and interesting, but not so interesting that I want to spend my days reading about them.

Why would I want to read a fucking novella on Oswald's voice? Are there any articles that are actually interesting?

I've never seen so many kids afraid of having to read. "I ONLY WATCH VIDEOS OR LISTEN TO PODCASTS"...what the fuck? What, like your life is so action packed you can't take 3 or 4 minutes to read an article?