Polygon.com is live. What do you guys think?

@MariachiMacabre said:

The mobile site seems pretty well designed.

Yeah, one of the best mobile sites I've seen for video games for sure.

@Deusx said:

@MiniPato: You and I have very different issues with the site so I'm not going to continue that path with you. Also, when did I use insults? I said "Maybe you guys should stop using Opera/IE and living in the 90's." and I also apologized later. You are the one saying "fuck your condescending tone and fuck you too". So yeah, calm your fucking tits down and stop being such a baby.

Yeah, I guess you apologized by admitting you're a dick. And then immediately after saying "Everyone who says the design is bad can go fuck themselves, that site is fucking perfect." Me saying "fuck you too" is my catharsis much like I assume your quoted statement is, so I have calmed down. Equilibrium has been struck.

I'm a vengeful person, so be prepared to go into a prolonged internet argument over some petty shit.

I like it alot. Joystiq used to be my go to site to browse news. But after some of the guys split and set up shop on The Verge, i went there, so naturally Polygon.com will now become my go to for video game news.

Too serious for my liking. I might visit the site if someone posts a link to an interesting article or something.

@C_Rakestraw said:

@LiquidPrince said:

What the hell is Polygon.com and why is everyone talking about it?

It's a game website run by a bunch of popular game journalists from around the industry.

It also has Brian Crecente, who's a total douchebag. I wouldn't bother visiting. It also looks like garbage.

I will inevitably click on some of their twitter links because they will break stories before other gaming outlets, but I won't be using their website as a one-stop-shop. I caught Justin McElroy arguing with Patrick months back about using Instapaper to view their hideous reviews (I think it was Lollipop Chainsaw) and he was all up in arms about using the internet like that on sites that make their living on metrics that involve you lingering on their pages. If I don't want to linger on your site, I won't, and I'm not gonna. Since then I've been detemined to hate the site and I consider it a successful launch in that regard.

Just ran through their review scores since they started. Man, they are a generous bunch:

SSX - 9

Journey - 10

Mass Effect 3 - 10

Max Payne 3 - 9

Diablo 3 - 10

Spelunky - 10

Darksiders 2 - 9

Transformers: FoC - 9

Dishonored - 9

I nominate Polygon for "most time to reach the bottom of the website possible".

Personally, while the content is good, I don't like the site overall. Everything on the front page is so incredibly jumbled. It reminds me of when you put in the wrong website address and you get taken to a page where someone is selling the domain name. It's just kind of "here, we've got all this shit, throw it on the front page...SPLAT".

As for their sub-menus...which took me a whole second to find, I think some of them are handled well. The reviews page is tight and concise, but the rest of it...well, seems like a direct rip-off of the current Giant Bomb layout, how the news/features/etc pages look. Sure, a lot of HTML5 sites look like that, but it's just...interesting...to see that almost the same exact style was replicated. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Oh well. It's an alright site. I just hate that you can scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and never find the bottom of the website. It feels like their front page is literally just a dump site for all their content, offering no honest front space to their newest content other than just assuming it's all the shit closer to the top.

@Rasmoss:

Pretty much all I need to know. I think I'll be avoiding this site.

I think the design looks alright, I agree with @Gill that those giant images are annoying. I'll probably only visit the site for Phil Kollar, cuz I love that guy.

Some quirks of the site designs: looks appealing from a visual standpoint, but is not functional at all. I felt disoriented using the site because the content was so dispersed; it's the same feeling you get from a smaller FOV numbers. It just feels like it's basking in visual artistry rather than giving me an efficient and concise presentation of the content. I can't see myself using the site until these design issues are resolved. It's a severely unpleasant experience, regardless of the quality journalism behind it.

There's an article where the headline talks about risk assessment, data entry and playtesting of Halo 4. God, so exciting, how can one resist reading and article about such things?

The layout is horrific. Sure, it looks nice, but I don't need my entire screen filled with screenshots from the game they're reviewing, with text placed around it. That works for a physical magazine, not for something you read on a screen.

I watched one of their videos, noticed that they censor curse words, closed the tab.

Does anyone else find their articles to be rather long? I mean, I'm all for a good read, but I don't have the patience to read a novel: http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/24/3538296/data-entry-risk-management-and-tacos-inside-halo-4s-playtest-labs

However, unlike most here, I really enjoy the layout of the site. I think it's "different", and it's just another site to put up in my bookmarks below my searchbar :)

@GiveUpNed said:

As the title states, what do you guys think? I've noticed similarities between their game database and Giantbomb's. Chiefly the option to have a discussion forum for the game. That said the design is completely different. I'm pretty impressed with their Medal of Honor Warfighter review. http://www.polygon.com/game/medal-of-honor-warfighter/2686

Very little of it shows in the final product. Medal of Honor Warfighter fails in almost every regard. Warfighter’s campaign is a jumble of flashy parts that Danger Close unsuccessfully tries to glue together, and the solid foundation of its multiplayer is buried under a broken interface, small maps and poor interface design.

Either the interface is really bad or that's some pretty quality writing.

Site's got potential, looking forward to seeing where it goes. Just hoping it doesn't feel too sterile since people are spread out all over. Could be hard defining an identity over Skype meetings.

@Gill said:

I don't know. That MOH review is a little hard to read with those giant images breaking up the pacing of the text.

100% agree with you. The design is nice but it does not create a better reading experience. It's still best for me to save the article to Instapaper.

The website is light years better that many others (I'm looking at you Kotaku, Destructoid)

Well.

I like it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Not a big fan of the layout, but I wasn't really planning on reading Polygon regardless. I get what I need from the sites that I read already.

@Deusx: I'm not totally hating on it or anything, but if design truly isn't subjective, and is either good or bad, the one thing it should be expected to be is efficient. If it is inefficient for the sake of style, we're then getting into areas that could be judged subjectively. There is no way this can be considered well designed, efficient use of space.

That review is horribly formatted. The scrolling is so jumpy I get disorientated trying to navigate the page. I see what they're trying to do making the webpage look more like a magazine spread but shit they need to introduce a better way to navigate pages.

EDIT: Is it me or is the general performance of their site really poor? I have a beefy PC and 100MBit download speed and it lags noticeably scrolling up and down the page...

I go to websites for the staff personalities and personally Polygon has no one on staff that interests me. At least their site doesn't look bad.

@VicRattlehead said:

so are they sponsored by instagram then?

Hey guys, all the pictures have bad filters that make them look like old shitty photopaper, but it's actually on a website! Aren't we hip and cool?

Really though, I like most of the writers on that site, so I wish them the best. Fucking instagram though, ugh.

Does this mean that every other gaming website should start shutting down now?

@Colourful_Hippie said:

Does this mean that every other gaming website should start shutting down now?

I don't think so. They've said it's "a video game website" and not "the video game website".

its the best website that ever lived

I am not digging the layout of the reviews for Polygon at all. It seems all over the place but I do like the section in the Dishonored review where it spotlights some of the game's influences.

@JasonR86 said:

@Colourful_Hippie said:

Does this mean that every other gaming website should start shutting down now?

I don't think so. They've said it's "a video game website" and not "the video game website".

Just as along as they don't add "it's a website about video games" otherwise the GB guys are going to have to grab a hold of legal on the line.

awful design. looks like a massive wall of text with over sized images thrown about here and there.

The site design is aesthetically pleasing. Their article layouts makes for an immersive reading experience with nice integration of images between paragraphs. From the presentation standpoint alone the site is a joy to browse through. But I wonder how this site is going to look like months from now when they eventually decide to move in the direction of inserting banner ads in order to make money.

For the next site redesign GB should consider borrowing some of polygon's article layout ideas and implementing it here.

It's ok. I see a lot of complaints here on the design...but it's a lot better than what Kotaku and those other Gawker sites have become.

Heh, 20 19 point review scales. How silly.

I think design wise it's definitely interesting. Though I think dialing back a little on the amount of graphics used would be better.

It's very lengthy. That's about it.

@Hitchenson said:

Heh, 20 point review scales. How silly.

It's 10 point isn't it?

@Milkman said:

@benpicko

People are complaining about the design of another website on Giant Bomb? HAHAHAAHAHAA.

What's wrong with that?

Giant Bomb's current design is horrible

The huge images are terrible.

@benpicko said:

@Milkman said:

@benpicko

People are complaining about the design of another website on Giant Bomb? HAHAHAAHAHAA.

What's wrong with that?

Giant Bomb's current design is horrible

How so?

@Deusx: I think you're talking about design too narrowly and focusing on the function side, either way you can't "make someone like it" you can merely ease their acceptance. The way you talk about design makes it seem like a world where there's no such thing as bad design, there's always bad design out there and people will have different tastes, if it was just as easy as designing something and then making people like it then everyone would be a graphic designer.

We seem to have very different views on this either way and I will admit that I tend towards an illustrative bent so I will always favour look over function. Arguing about taste is something neither ofus can win anyway so we'll have to agree to disagree. For the record I quite like their layout, the images breaking some of the borders I'm not too fond of but pretty slick and enjoyable to look at in my opinion.

I liked what I read but I hate the design. I don't see myself going back.

@kishinfoulux: As one of those 'haters,' I'm going to agree: it looks spectacular, but the content is way too spaced out. It's fucking disorienting and terribly impractical. I've spent a good hour or so with the site now and the forums are great, their features are unbelievable, and the reviews seem top-notch... but that goddamn design is brain-melting in the poorest way possible.

@Azteris said:

It looks way too much like the revisions that they made to Kotaku to make it even uglier than it's always kind of been.

My very first impression as well.

There must be some designers out there who are claiming this is the future of internet design, despite constant user backlash.

@JasonR86 said:

@Hitchenson said:

Heh, 20 point review scales. How silly.

It's 10 point isn't it?

It's got decimals too. Wait... that's a 19 point scale then.

Link to page that talks about their take on review scoring.

"Polygon uses a "20-point" review scale. Specifically, we rate games from 1-10, with half point intervals."

Its smarmy and pretentious, but in the other hand they have some interesting articles. Again, I just wish they tone down their hipster douche vibe a little bit.

"Polygon uses a "20-point" review scale. Specifically, we rate games from 1-10, with half point intervals."

also.. yeah this is still stooopid as its ever been.

it looks like they had a site with text and just decided to start randomly throwing images of all sizes in random spots. just so inconsistent that i don't even want to look at it.

I'll stick with Giantbomb. People who work here are to good to really like anything else. I just don't get the drive to visit any other sites like I do coming here.

Better question. When will Gonpoly the Russian rip off site show up? 

EVERYTHING IS SO HUGE AND IN MY FACE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

(read: I don't dig it.)

I have a 1080p monitor... Everything doesn't NEED TO BE SO BIG.

I like design but it still needs a heck of a lot of refinement. Images really do not need to be as big as they are. If anything the design looks best on a phone but on a 1080p monitor, the images take up my entire screen for no reason other than to visually break up the text but it's too much. I feel like they made a lot of noise about their design but at the end of the day it will be a blog about video game news with some interesting articles here and there but it will be the place I go to for news as that's an area where GB falls short but it was never intended to be that. It's a much richer site with a great community. I think the whole wiki idea really helped GB stand out as a site along with the people that run it and a community that support it. Polygon is still theverge.com/gaming as it's the gaming side to the verge where you have these well known journalists in the same place just covering different things. I love what i've seen from the GB re-design and this site offers a lot more than just games.