As much as it's ridiculous that they're hyping themselves so much, I'll still watch the documentary and so will everyone else.
More behind the scenes is cool, that's why we like giant bomb. This'll work out because they'll get loads of hits from the fallout of this crazy hyping, the only way it won't work out is if they come across as douchebags in the thing.
Someone let me know when "Polygon.com" becomes a real site and not just a subsection of the the Verge and a "Coming Soon" image.
Then maybe I'll give a shit.
This, on top of letting me know when they eject Brian Crecente into the sun, because that's the signal I'll need to let me know I can take the site seriously.
Yeah, if he continues to post the kind of utter trash he often threw up on Kotaku, this is all just pure talk and absolutely no substance. We'll see.
The more stories I read over at Polygon the more I really like the site.. I really enjoyed the Arkane story, the long in depth stories that Patrick posts every once in a while..
I like documentaries and I watching a bunch of people try to build the best thing they can for the industry they love, I can dig that, I see no problem with the video
Andy McNamara, the editor of Game Informer (the former editor of Phil Kollar who switched to Polygon), seemed to find some negativity in the video.
Yeah and what's with all those fucking scumbags wearing "World's Greatest Dad" T-shirts? Isn't that kind of insulting to people who aren't the worlds greatest dad?
Andy McNamara, the editor of Game Informer (the former editor of Phil Kollar who switched to Polygon), seemed to find some negativity in the video.
Yeah and what's with all those fucking scumbags wearing "World's Greatest Dad" T-shirts? Isn't that kind of insulting to people who aren't the worlds greatest dad?
I want names!
@Khann said:
@Carryboy said:
Im out the loop, whats the big deal with this site?
There isn't one. Bunch of VG press writers that think their writing is revolutionary.
Ahh right ok, seems very pretentious, not interested.
Bah, not too keen on the first trailer video. They need to lighten up. Video games are about having fun so why are they acting all suit-wearing about it? I don't see what's wrong with what other games journalists are doing at the moment anyway. Will be interesting to find out why Polygon think they're the men in black (best of the best of the best, sir!), so will watch another video if I remember!
Also, love the Mad World parody. Not sure if it was by Ryan or Brad though!
The trailer is silly but all of the parodies that it has spawned have more than redeemed it in my eyes. They have some good stuff over on verge.com/gaming, though I don't get the hype about how yet another video game web sit is "revolutionary." I will probably watch the full documentary pending positive reviews from trusted sources.
I appreciate their stated goals at being intelligent, professional, and respectable as gaming journalists, and there are a few less-publicized sites that do that fairly well, I just think the writers that they've gathered are woefully ill-equipped for the job. Justin and Griffin are funny guys, but not the most insightful. Crecente and Gies are jokes.
I've been surprised by their output so far, to some degree, but I've yet to be impressed.
Andy McNamara, the editor of Game Informer (the former editor of Phil Kollar who switched to Polygon), seemed to find some negativity in the video.
Yeah and what's with all those fucking scumbags wearing "World's Greatest Dad" T-shirts? Isn't that kind of insulting to people who aren't the worlds greatest dad?
World's Greatest Dad T-shirts are not the same thing as a self-produced documentary declaring yourself nothing less than an industry savior before you've done anything to earn such accolades.
I went to the Polygon panel at PAX last year and I remain fairly unimpressed. There's a lot of talk about revolutionising game journalism, and having a team of industry elites, but so far I see nothing to support these claims - which makes the arrogance they are openly displaying fairly difficult to swallow. A lot of my opinions on the matter can be summed up here, though, here's a few choice quotes:
When the subjects themselves are the ones who decide the documentary should exist, well, that’s slightly different. And when it’s paid for (alongside some extremely uncomfortable Internet Explorer sponsorship) from the same massive pool of money that’s allowing a gaming website to take the best part of a year to build itself and hire a huge team of highly paid editorial staff, it starts to look like an act of vanity. Because – and I have to be extremely clear here – it IS an act of vanity.
It doesn’t matter how much money they’ve got on the line here – to the rest of the world they’re making a website about games, and they need to get to grips with that not being a big deal for everyone else. This po-faced attitude, and the utterly ridiculous statements of the severity and Earth-changing significance of what they’re doing, makes them just look silly.
The longer trailer’s content takes this to a new level, as the site they’ve not yet made public is described as being some sort of valhalla for the internet, a new-found promised land that will change everything, change the way we view the universe. It’s literally described as having been thought “impossible”, until they came along, until this group of maverick geniuses managed to solve the Internet’s Last Theorem and allow us to ascend as a people. It’s so ludicrously overblown, so unbelievable pompous, and it’s being presented with an utterly straight face and not even a glimmer of modesty or humour, let alone irony. And people are going to react to that.
They’re a talented bunch, and they’re attempting something they believe will be special. That’s great. But oh boy, you need to think about how you present yourself to others. And when it’s to tell people that you are incredible, that what you’re doing is unsurpassed, in a documentary about yourself that you’re making yourself – people are going to take the piss. Because that’s when taking the piss is needed.
Seems to me like these guys all watched indie game the movie about 15 times back to back and then decided they wanted in.
Maybe after watching it they did some additional research (perhaps even on these forums) realised how ridiculously popular navel-gazing, self-seriousness was with gaming communities and decided it was the best way to market the site?
The most surprising thing about the backlash surrounding this is that the people who loved Area 5 and Co-op are the most vocal against this. I don't understand why.
Someone let me know when "Polygon.com" becomes a real site and not just a subsection of the the Verge and a "Coming Soon" image.
Then maybe I'll give a shit.
This, on top of letting me know when they eject Brian Crecente into the sun, because that's the signal I'll need to let me know I can take the site seriously.
"I worry that as trivial as most video games are, that I may be living a trivial existence... and I think that's part of what this project is about, is trying to prove to ourselves that there is more substance..."
What? No, I totally get having a passion for what you do, but this is either a delusion or a statement from an unrelated video accidentally mashed into this one.
I think it's inarguable that the trailer is self-aggrandizing.
Also, when you release a trailer about your 'super-cool, high-quality website with the best writers in the industry etc.' and you don't back it up with your actual content, the dissonance between messaging and product is totally apparent. There is nothing substantive or essential about an article listing out the tracks on the Borderlands 2 soundtrack.
In spite of that, I will probably still check out the first episode to see what it's like.
I've browsed Polygon a few times and their articles don't really do anything for me, but their podcast is fun background noise and I think the things they're doing with freelance submissions are really great for aspiring writers.
Yeah, this is the fucking stupidest bull shit. I mean c'mon guys. Usually people don't make a "making of" documentary until they have actually MADE something that then went on to be extremely successful. Then you add to the fact they these guys are simply starting a Video Game website... and it kind of makes the whole thing seem like it's supposed to be ironic or satirical.
I think the whole Justin McElroy part where he talks about feeling like he is "leading a trivial life" really encapsulates the motives behind this whole thing. It's like they want so desperately to feel as though their jobs have a point that they are making it this gigantic deal, when in reality, the internet, blogging, and the availability of information is really making "video games critics" obsolete. That being said, I review games for a website, love to write about this stuff, and would love to one day get paid to do so, but I'm not trying to fool myself into thinking that a job like that wouldn't be fairly trivial.
I think that is the idea GB has based its entire site on. The idea that, "Hey guys, we know this job is kind of silly and ultimately trivial. So, why not have some fun while we do this shit." Now, I'm sure the GB guys don't want to hear that their jobs are pointless, because they aren't. These guys have provided me with entertainment and an amazing window into the video game world for years, and this site has actually impacted my life in extremely important ways. Though, at the same time, they realize they're simply providing people with unique, video game related entertainment.
In conclusion to all this, I do have my philosophies about how to make "game criticism" something that actually matters, and I do have my ideas dealing with how video game reviews as we know them need drastic changing, but even if I was making a site and trying to implement these ideas I think are awesome, I wouldn't be acting like I am some kind of revolutionary savior of all video game criticism. I'd have yet to achieve what I'd be setting out to achieve, so it'd be arrogant, stuck up, entitled, and offensively self righteous for me to act like I've already achieved something I have yet to even attempt.
The most surprising thing about the backlash surrounding this is that the people who loved Area 5 and Co-op are the most vocal against this. I don't understand why.
the 1up Show and 1up Yours were the first major site to incorporate podcasts and video with personality driven and insightful conversation to games journalism. Polygon, as of yet, have done nothing of the sort. So yeah, now you understand why..
I'd get if they wanted to do a "How to Build a Bomb" type of videos. If always cool to see the process behind things. Yet build a bomb was very low quality and not very serious. This seems a bit too serious. But that's just my personal taste. I like internet videos to be raw and more off the cuff.
Some of the reaction to this has been along the lines of "Come on, you're making a website about video games not curing AIDS, why take yourself so seriously?" To which I would respond, "Finally, somebody in the games press media is taking video games as seriously as movie critics do movies or music critics do music."
Taking yourself too seriously is a problem. Taking what you do seriously, having the courage to push back against the idea that all games can be are just toys (when appropriate), that's not a problem, that's refreshing. And if that's what Polygon wants to do, then I wish them nothing but the best.
To be honest Mcelroy always seemed to me nothing more than a scrofulous clown, so a documentary featuring him, the rebel fm dregs ( of the 1up dregs ) and the hardest working hairstyle in "games journalism" seems somewhat extraneous.
I wish them all the attention and success they deserve.
edit. also I make these things for a living, we call them corporate videos, a documentary is about a subject, not a self promoting corporate tool.
Man I kinda hope they keep escalating the pretentiousness of the documentary like beyond Waking Life levels. In seriousness though its a smart move from a marketing stand point, has the community talking about it and caring enough to remix videos about it.
I'm surprised it took this long for this thread. I thought about making it myself but was too lazy.
I really like a lot of the guys at Polygon. My love for the brother McElroy cannot be overstated. I'm also totally cool with a documentary about the making of the site. It's the tone of the whole thing that just...I dunno man. You're making a website. About videogames. There's a lot of them already, some of them real good. I dunno I'm gonna check it out but unless this site changes the way we perceive games journalism, the whole thing seems a bit serious.
The most surprising thing about the backlash surrounding this is that the people who loved Area 5 and Co-op are the most vocal against this. I don't understand why.
the 1up Show and 1up Yours were the first major site to incorporate podcasts and video with personality driven and insightful conversation to games journalism. Polygon, as of yet, have done nothing of the sort. So yeah, now you understand why..
Right, but most of the people responsible for this documentary ARE those people from 1up and Co-op.
I'm surprised it took this long for this thread. I thought about making it myself but was too lazy.
I really like a lot of the guys at Polygon. My love for the brother McElroy cannot be overstated. I'm also totally cool with a documentary about the making of the site. It's the tone of the whole thing that just...I dunno man. You're making a website. About videogames. There's a lot of them already, some of them real good. I dunno I'm gonna check it out but unless this site changes the way we perceive games journalism, the whole thing seems a bit serious.
I found Jim Sterlings response pretty funny
This was an amazing rebuttal.
That video is absolutely perfect. I wonder if any of the Polygon guys have seen it.
The most surprising thing about the backlash surrounding this is that the people who loved Area 5 and Co-op are the most vocal against this. I don't understand why.
the 1up Show and 1up Yours were the first major site to incorporate podcasts and video with personality driven and insightful conversation to games journalism. Polygon, as of yet, have done nothing of the sort. So yeah, now you understand why..
Right, but most of the people responsible for this documentary ARE those people from 1up and Co-op.
But most of the subjects are not. The reason those 1up shows were successful were the insightful and intelligent people working for the site. The 1UP Show would've sucked if it was Brian Crecente doing push-ups and Arthur Gies getting a tattoo while talking about how awesome those panty machines in Japan are.
Basically, most of these guys aren't the "cream of the crop" of the gaming industry. They are trying to better themselves, which is great, but for now, they are acting like pretenders to the throne.
I'm surprised it took this long for this thread. I thought about making it myself but was too lazy.
I really like a lot of the guys at Polygon. My love for the brother McElroy cannot be overstated. I'm also totally cool with a documentary about the making of the site. It's the tone of the whole thing that just...I dunno man. You're making a website. About videogames. There's a lot of them already, some of them real good. I dunno I'm gonna check it out but unless this site changes the way we perceive games journalism, the whole thing seems a bit serious.
I found Jim Sterlings response pretty funny
This was an amazing rebuttal.
That video is absolutely perfect. I wonder if any of the Polygon guys have seen it.
They probably haven't. It's gotta be hard to see anything when your head is so far up your own ass.
I've been reading their content since they started (even if they haven't officially launched yet) and it is pretty good but these promo videos aren't exactly helping them endear themselves to the gaming community.
Pretentious or not, Polygon are getting a huge amount publicity out of this. I like most of the writers they've employed and what they've produced so far is pretty good. It's just very hard to buy the idea that what they're going to produce will be anything different or better than what's come before. Joystiq, Game Informer, IGN, 1UP et al have all coped fine without these guys.
You know why?
Because every site more or less, follows the same tenets of operation - they all subsist on good relationships with publishers and developers, they all use a social media shell to encourage discussion and "build" a sense of community, they all unearth little tidbits of indie news that are novel and never heard of again. Polygon's staff has thus far done all of these things and what's most disappointing is that out of obligation their still tethered to Metacritic which means still having to give out scores (way too much money invested not to).
Who knows - maybe they'll surprise me and be different? I hope so, because I'm not one for schadenfreude.
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