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Putting the Ly into Polygon, Crecente: "Oh, that I saw"

I usually just hide in the shadows--sniffing glue and thinking of new ways to take on Reginald Heuwurth, CPA--but this post, and its ilk, has pushed me to comment.

With my copious amount of free time, I’m usually wont to read every post of a thread, followed by pressing half-cooked pancakes to my bare chest… the goopy, puss-like pancake batter burning straight to my heart. It is literally the only way I can feel alive any more…

*sigh*

The universe.

Where was I?

Having read every post and considering every point and counterpoint, I think I have some advice for those of you in here who want to improve what is going on at Polyglotnal… Pimpernalgynal… Po-po-po-poooo… the interactive entertainment criticism teepee. Instead of getting too deep into this forum/twitter echo chamber, why not write to some people who will listen to interested, involved readers that are polite and articulate in their complaints? No, no—I’m not talking about writing to Waylon Jennings. He’s dead.

Writing to the executives at Vox Media (or any other company that has a lack of the professionalisms) and pointing out what is going on with some of their employees, in a very public place on the internet, will get some attention. Claiming that your views don’t represent the company while using the company's identity to represent yourself is not some wicked force field. Force fields are wicked on their own.

Anyway, the reason you do this--instead of starting at the EIC--is that the EIC at many of these “publications” is akin to a clueless manager at a PayLess ShoeSource. His employees are yelling “F-off, you dimpsy nerdburgers!” at customers, and he just tells them to quiet down because he can’t concentrate on sexting his girlfriend in Quebec. Shoes are called “chaussures” in French Canada, you know.

If you write something like “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms./Hyperion, I would like to bring to your attention some unprofessional behavior by your employees. I only have a month to live! Send rice. Godspeed!” these suits will likely take note, and at most—take ACTION. Not Schwarzenegger “Get to da choppa!” high action, but some action that will hopefully brush these guys back from the edge and plop them into whichever reality cashes their paychecks. Don’t demand anyone be fired. Don’t urge everyone to Wang Chung tonight. Just point out that this unprofessional behavior might be hurting their brand. Excluding governments, this method will often get someone’s attention.

That’s it really. I know my reply is long, but I have been sliding around in the dark corners for soooo long. And the pancakes, man... they don’t understand my needs.

Thanks for the entertaining threads!

Hey, Don Johnson! I’m looking for a heartbeat, too, buddy!

This one hell of a first post, and one that everybody should read. Quoted for justice.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
iDqwP2ZYbSAJx.gif


"I want my ten dollars."

Has anyone reminded him on twitter of the 10 dollar bet?
 

Zeliard

Member
there's a whole laundry list of ways it ruins discourse:

- allows user to "hold court" in public amongst only trusted peers and sycophants.
- viral tagging system serves as a shit beacon for anyone else allied by circumstance.
- zero room for articulation, depth or rationale; all that's left are vapid statements and aloof allusions.
- encourages grammar which would make an AIM tween blush.
- perfect battleground for passive aggressive snipefests where just about anyone can carve out 200 odd characters of abbreviated nothing, call it a day and sign off on only the most positive feedback.

it astonishes me that so many game journalists, who have long looked down on forums as a kind of base arena of plebeian brutality, have the hypocrisy to find refuge in the pestilent wasteland of fractured conversation that is twitter. have a little self respect.

I couldn't agree more with everything here. I've long been amazed at the willingness otherwise respectable people have to debase themselves by getting into an argument over Twitter.

Twitter is a great medium for disseminating information in a pithy fashion, and a terrible one for engaging in anything that requires even slight nuance.
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
I usually just hide in the shadows--sniffing glue and thinking of new ways to take on Reginald Heuwurth, CPA--but this post, and its ilk, has pushed me to comment.

With my copious amount of free time, I’m usually wont to read every post of a thread, followed by pressing half-cooked pancakes to my bare chest… the goopy, puss-like pancake batter burning straight to my heart. It is literally the only way I can feel alive any more…

*sigh*

The universe.

Where was I?

Having read every post and considering every point and counterpoint, I think I have some advice for those of you in here who want to improve what is going on at Polyglotnal… Pimpernalgynal… Po-po-po-poooo… the interactive entertainment criticism teepee. Instead of getting too deep into this forum/twitter echo chamber, why not write to some people who will listen to interested, involved readers that are polite and articulate in their complaints? No, no—I’m not talking about writing to Waylon Jennings. He’s dead.

Writing to the executives at Vox Media (or any other company that has a lack of the professionalisms) and pointing out what is going on with some of their employees, in a very public place on the internet, will get some attention. Claiming that your views don’t represent the company while using the company's identity to represent yourself is not some wicked force field. Force fields are wicked on their own.

Anyway, the reason you do this--instead of starting at the EIC--is that the EIC at many of these “publications” is akin to a clueless manager at a PayLess ShoeSource. His employees are yelling “F-off, you dimpsy nerdburgers!” at customers, and he just tells them to quiet down because he can’t concentrate on sexting his girlfriend in Quebec. Shoes are called “chaussures” in French Canada, you know.

If you write something like “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms./Hyperion, I would like to bring to your attention some unprofessional behavior by your employees. I only have a month to live! Send rice. Godspeed!” these suits will likely take note, and at most—take ACTION. Not Schwarzenegger “Get to da choppa!” high action, but some action that will hopefully brush these guys back from the edge and plop them into whichever reality cashes their paychecks. Don’t demand anyone be fired. Don’t urge everyone to Wang Chung tonight. Just point out that this unprofessional behavior might be hurting their brand. Excluding governments, this method will often get someone’s attention.

That’s it really. I know my reply is long, but I have been sliding around in the dark corners for soooo long. And the pancakes, man... they don’t understand my needs.

Thanks for the entertaining threads!

Hey, Don Johnson! I’m looking for a heartbeat, too, buddy!

Let's have a beer sometime, you and I.
 

SystemBug

Member
I do hope Gies does get something coming his way from the higher ups. He needs to be put on a lease - at least for some time being.

He is one of the most pretentious video game writer I know about.
Always on about how things don't meet up to his level of quality.
He puts himself up on a pedestal and has a superiority complex - a holier-than-thou attitude if you will.

He's a pretty good artist though.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
let's keep quoting that huge post in its entirety guys, another half dozen times or so should do it

What, like this?

I usually just hide in the shadows--sniffing glue and thinking of new ways to take on Reginald Heuwurth, CPA--but this post, and its ilk, has pushed me to comment.

With my copious amount of free time, I’m usually wont to read every post of a thread, followed by pressing half-cooked pancakes to my bare chest… the goopy, puss-like pancake batter burning straight to my heart. It is literally the only way I can feel alive any more…

*sigh*

The universe.

Where was I?

Having read every post and considering every point and counterpoint, I think I have some advice for those of you in here who want to improve what is going on at Polyglotnal… Pimpernalgynal… Po-po-po-poooo… the interactive entertainment criticism teepee. Instead of getting too deep into this forum/twitter echo chamber, why not write to some people who will listen to interested, involved readers that are polite and articulate in their complaints? No, no—I’m not talking about writing to Waylon Jennings. He’s dead.

Writing to the executives at Vox Media (or any other company that has a lack of the professionalisms) and pointing out what is going on with some of their employees, in a very public place on the internet, will get some attention. Claiming that your views don’t represent the company while using the company's identity to represent yourself is not some wicked force field. Force fields are wicked on their own.

Anyway, the reason you do this--instead of starting at the EIC--is that the EIC at many of these “publications” is akin to a clueless manager at a PayLess ShoeSource. His employees are yelling “F-off, you dimpsy nerdburgers!” at customers, and he just tells them to quiet down because he can’t concentrate on sexting his girlfriend in Quebec. Shoes are called “chaussures” in French Canada, you know.

If you write something like “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms./Hyperion, I would like to bring to your attention some unprofessional behavior by your employees. I only have a month to live! Send rice. Godspeed!” these suits will likely take note, and at most—take ACTION. Not Schwarzenegger “Get to da choppa!” high action, but some action that will hopefully brush these guys back from the edge and plop them into whichever reality cashes their paychecks. Don’t demand anyone be fired. Don’t urge everyone to Wang Chung tonight. Just point out that this unprofessional behavior might be hurting their brand. Excluding governments, this method will often get someone’s attention.

That’s it really. I know my reply is long, but I have been sliding around in the dark corners for soooo long. And the pancakes, man... they don’t understand my needs.

Thanks for the entertaining threads!

Hey, Don Johnson! I’m looking for a heartbeat, too, buddy!
 

_woLf

Member
I'm sure that's all true and not hyperbole in the least...

Do you follow Aegies on twitter at all? He always is like that. "Look at all the fucks I give!" as a reaction to just about every piece of criticism for his work. Plus, he had practically nothing positive to say about the folks who were struggling to keep TeamXbox alive after he left -- I was on that team, and know first hand how much of a pain in the ass it was having to fight with IGN just for the smallest shit. He can go fuck himself.
 

wiggleb0t

Banned
Well one example I can give for twitter is when developers use it as their main communication for their game, and this applies to reddit as well, and forget about their official forums for discussion. I've seen devs ask for input on reddit and twitter, but no posts from them on their official forums. SOE is a prime example of this with Planetside 2 for example. All about getting those "trends" up. They also try to say "on reddit ppl can tell me to eat shit and be honest, but they can't do that on our own forums". When patch notes, news, and input is taken from those sites but can't be even found on their own official forums and you have to follow team members on twitter for info on a game you like it's frustrating as hell.

Perfect!
It's counterproductive use has been abused for too long with obscure bullshit.

There has been instances of it being useful for people that use it, fire alerts, emergencies etc. update announcements on patches/fixes/issues. However it's abbreviated vague 'communication' is the lowest form of expression. It's not a chat/forums/facebook it's this stupid thing called 'tweets'???? wtf is wrong with people? The way some of these professional ADULTS act/perform on there is embarrassing.
 
Polygon continues to be an overwrought, disjointed, disappointment. I've generally been really disappointed in most of what is coming out of Vox these days. A lot of people claiming integrity when they're really just being self important assholes.

It's a shame because while I don't like what they've become, there are at least a few people there I actually like. Yet they being tarnished by all this too.
 
I just feel sorry for the feature article writers. Their good work is drowned in the muck by this turgid turd-speckled snowball. Rob Zacny's feature on Kaos, Tracey Lien's work on Middle Eastern development...all good stuff.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
Why doesn't someone higher up at Polygon wander over to Gies' desk and ask him what the fuck he thinks he's doing with these Twitter wars? He's single-handedly making the entire website look terrible.

His complete inability to admit he's ever wrong is one of the most obnoxious things I have ever seen in games journalism. Come on, son.
 
I usually just hide in the shadows--sniffing glue and thinking of new ways to take on Reginald Heuwurth, CPA--but this post, and its ilk, has pushed me to comment.

With my copious amount of free time, I’m usually wont to read every post of a thread, followed by pressing half-cooked pancakes to my bare chest… the goopy, puss-like pancake batter burning straight to my heart. It is literally the only way I can feel alive any more…

*sigh*

The universe.

Where was I?

Having read every post and considering every point and counterpoint, I think I have some advice for those of you in here who want to improve what is going on at Polyglotnal… Pimpernalgynal… Po-po-po-poooo… the interactive entertainment criticism teepee. Instead of getting too deep into this forum/twitter echo chamber, why not write to some people who will listen to interested, involved readers that are polite and articulate in their complaints? No, no—I’m not talking about writing to Waylon Jennings. He’s dead.

Writing to the executives at Vox Media (or any other company that has a lack of the professionalisms) and pointing out what is going on with some of their employees, in a very public place on the internet, will get some attention. Claiming that your views don’t represent the company while using the company's identity to represent yourself is not some wicked force field. Force fields are wicked on their own.

Anyway, the reason you do this--instead of starting at the EIC--is that the EIC at many of these “publications” is akin to a clueless manager at a PayLess ShoeSource. His employees are yelling “F-off, you dimpsy nerdburgers!” at customers, and he just tells them to quiet down because he can’t concentrate on sexting his girlfriend in Quebec. Shoes are called “chaussures” in French Canada, you know.

If you write something like “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms./Hyperion, I would like to bring to your attention some unprofessional behavior by your employees. I only have a month to live! Send rice. Godspeed!” these suits will likely take note, and at most—take ACTION. Not Schwarzenegger “Get to da choppa!” high action, but some action that will hopefully brush these guys back from the edge and plop them into whichever reality cashes their paychecks. Don’t demand anyone be fired. Don’t urge everyone to Wang Chung tonight. Just point out that this unprofessional behavior might be hurting their brand. Excluding governments, this method will often get someone’s attention.

That’s it really. I know my reply is long, but I have been sliding around in the dark corners for soooo long. And the pancakes, man... they don’t understand my needs.

Thanks for the entertaining threads!

Hey, Don Johnson! I’m looking for a heartbeat, too, buddy!
This should be instant graduation from junior IMO.
 
Why doesn't someone higher up at Polygon wander over to Gies' desk and ask him what the fuck he thinks he's doing with these Twitter wars? He's single-handedly making the entire website look terrible.

Nah polygon.com makes the whole site look terrible. Gies just makes it obvious that they are also a bunch of manchildren.
 

Haunted

Member
Twitter is probably one of the worst thing to happen to Polygon. Well, worst and best.

Worst if they're looking to keep up a facade of credibility, and create that story of a bunch of likable guys doing something great in the world of videogame reporting with that MS-sponsored web series.

Best if they want to drum up and get as many controversial tweets out there as possible so people know the name Polygon (at least they know about it, who cares about associating it with something good).


I mean, there's a difference between doing PR for your site and engaging with your community as an active Twitter guy and just making a fool of yourself by creating these unsavoury strings of comments and moving away from actual discussions into petty twitter feuds and circle-jerking with your buddies.

Was Foliorum Viridum permed?
When keeping it real goes wrong.
 

RobbieH

Member
A summary of the Walker / Crecente stuff for those who hate or cannot read Twitter.

9th March

12th March
  • Kotaku discovered the ability to play SimCity offline for 19 minutes.
  • John Walker of RockPaperShotgun originally broke the story citing a Maxis insider who said the EA servers don’t really do anything: "The servers are not handling any of the computation done to simulate the city you are playing. They are still acting as servers, doing some amount of computation to route messages of various types between both players and cities. As well, they’re doing cloud storage of save games, interfacing with Origin, and all of that. But for the game itself? No, they’re not doing anything." Eurogamer, GameSpot, Kotaku and others ran with the story.

13th March

14th March

16th March
  • Walker posted an interview with Azzer who confirmed the claims of the Maxis insider: "The SimCity servers are not doing any calculations that could not be done on your PC, even for an entire region single player offline mode, let alone just the city you are in...All the server sends to your client, is some very basic data about each city...they are trying to handle all of the saving server side ("the cloud") which is bogging them down constantly."

17th March
  • Brian Crecente of Polygon posted a link to the RPS interview and said he was in the process of reading the interview and Azzer’s YouTube notes. He then sent both EA and Azzer questions based on the RPS findings.

19th March
  • Crecente posted an interview with Azzer who confirmed the claims of the Maxis insider: "It's not possible that EA servers are 'offloading' calculations (simulations) for your city, which it works out, and then sends to your client… Not at all. Your client simulates your city, and your client simulates all of the 'fire trucks from another city' type stuff too. Your client does that all. EA servers do not do any processing that your client is incapable of because our 'computers aren't powerful enough." The articles were kinda similar.
  • In a number of deleted comments Crecente said the original source of the story was the Lucy Bradshaw interview from a week and a half ago despite posting no original article in the meantime. He also said this story was entirely original and took 3 days of fact-finding to prepare.
  • Crecente said he had no knowledge of either RPS article and the source of the story was actually the Reddit post, not RPS, but that "I'll have to go check them out" and Walker was "doing good work".
  • When shown the article that originally broke the story – the one from the 12th – he said "oh, that I saw" but maintained Reddit as the source, not the story from the 16th which he didn't see. He said he started working on his story on Sunday, the day after RPS posted it and the day he read it.
  • All comments on the Polygon article either citing RPS as the source of the story or criticising Gies for attempting to discredit the RPS story that Polygon were now running were deleted. Polygon then added a link at the bottom of their story to the one from RPS on the 16th.
  • Folk on Twitter accused Crecente of plagiarism. Walker defended him.
  • After things calmed down Crecente maintained he didn’t lie. When shown his link to the RPS story he said he "only scanned it", but it inspired him to contact Azzer.
  • Walker has since been made aware of the tweets and various posts on GAF and responded to Crecente by saying "Brian, you lied at long and painful length, making me look like a fool. I'm too angry to discuss this tonight."

tl;dr: RPS posted everything first, Polygon rubbished it, Crecente saw the story and posted the same story with the same interview with the same source 3 days later, lied about the original source of the story and never seeing the RPS articles, was found out, kept lying, was found out again, changed his story, was found out again and changed his story again.
 

unbias

Member
A summary of the Walker / Crecente stuff for those who hate or cannot read Twitter.

9th March

12th March
  • Kotaku discovered the ability to play SimCity offline for 19 minutes.
  • John Walker of RockPaperShotgun originally broke the story citing a Maxis insider who said the EA servers don’t really do anything: "The servers are not handling any of the computation done to simulate the city you are playing. They are still acting as servers, doing some amount of computation to route messages of various types between both players and cities. As well, they’re doing cloud storage of save games, interfacing with Origin, and all of that. But for the game itself? No, they’re not doing anything." Eurogamer, GameSpot, Kotaku and others ran with the story.

13th March

14th March

16th March
  • Walker posted an interview with Azzer who confirmed the claims of the Maxis insider: "The SimCity servers are not doing any calculations that could not be done on your PC, even for an entire region single player offline mode, let alone just the city you are in...All the server sends to your client, is some very basic data about each city...they are trying to handle all of the saving server side ("the cloud") which is bogging them down constantly."

17th March
  • Brian Crecente of Polygon posted a link to the RPS interview and said he was in the process of reading the interview and Azzer’s YouTube notes. He then sent both EA and Azzer questions based on the RPS findings.

19th March
  • Crecente posted an interview with Azzer who confirmed the claims of the Maxis insider: "It's not possible that EA servers are 'offloading' calculations (simulations) for your city, which it works out, and then sends to your client… Not at all. Your client simulates your city, and your client simulates all of the 'fire trucks from another city' type stuff too. Your client does that all. EA servers do not do any processing that your client is incapable of because our 'computers aren't powerful enough." The articles were kinda similar.
  • In a number of deleted comments Crecente said the original source of the story was the Lucy Bradshaw interview from a week and a half ago despite posting no original article in the meantime. He also said this story was entirely original and took 3 days of fact-finding to prepare.
  • Crecente said he had no knowledge of either RPS article and the source of the story was actually the Reddit post, not RPS, but that "I'll have to go check them out" and Walker was "doing good work".
  • When shown the article that originally broke the story – the one from the 12th – he said "oh, that I saw" but maintained Reddit as the source, not the story from the 16th which he didn't see. He said he started working on his story on Sunday, the day after RPS posted it and the day he read it.
  • All comments on the Polygon article either citing RPS as the source of the story or criticising Gies for attempting to discredit the RPS story that Polygon were now running were deleted. Polygon then added a link at the bottom of their story to the one from RPS on the 16th.
  • Folk on Twitter accused Crecente of plagiarism. Walker defended him.
  • After things calmed down Crecente maintained he didn’t lie. When shown his link to the RPS story he said he "only scanned it", but it inspired him to contact Azzer.

tl;dr: RPS posted everything first, Polygon rubbished it, Crecente saw the story and posted the same story with the same interview with the same source 3 days later, lied about the original source of the story and never seeing the RPS articles, was found out, kept lying, was found out again, changed his story, was found out again and changed his story again.

Ya, great wrap-up. Looks like if what it appears, is true, this will dwarf anything Arthur did. Unfortunately for Polygon it is another employee from there.
 

Patapwn

Member
Are any of the other people at polygon pissed at what their co-workers are doing to the site? Or is it just one big clusterfuck over there? I don't hate any of them, but Arthur and Brian are completely fucking up and in a bad, bad way.

Somebody needs to take them aside and 'correct' them.
 

IrishNinja

Member
it's been like a dozen posts since someone quoted that massive jr post from last page, but ive got faith it'll show its legs

for real though, that's an excellent summary back there, i missed the bits before about all the stuff being deleted...this whole thing is quite damming.
 

DodgerSan

Member
it's been like a dozen posts since someone quoted that massive jr post from last page, but ive got faith it'll show its legs

for real though, that's an excellent summary back there, i missed the bits before about all the stuff being deleted...this whole thing is quite damming.

You do know every time you mention it, it exponentionally increases the likelihood of some wag reposting it again, yes?
 
We're approaching a Dyack event, I think.

At least Dyack had the balls to stick around and defend his work. And while I've disagreed with Kotaku here and there, the fact that Stephen and Jason regularly visit and chat with us bottom-feeding non-game-writers makes me respect them and their work.
 
The shameless stealing of article (idea) and then trying to take credit for it is far more interesting than Gies being a complete idiot. I wish people would focus on that. Polygon deserve to raked over the coals for being so shameless.

"I only scanned it." Total scum.
 

RobbieH

Member
i dont understand, why would walker defend Crencete? wasn't he plagarising walker's article.

By that point all Walker had to go on was that Crecente posted a (very) similar story and never saw his. I didn't have time to put in the last point in the summary before I left this morning which is:

  • Walker has since been made aware of the tweets and various posts on GAF and responded to Crecente by saying "Brian, you lied at long and painful length, making me look like a fool. I'm too angry to discuss this tonight."

The shameless stealing of article (idea) and then trying to take credit for it is far more interesting than Gies being a complete idiot. I wish people would focus on that. Polygon deserve to raked over the coals for being so shameless.

Agreed.
 
The current "conversation" Gies is having with someone on Twitter is a perfect example of what's wrong with the service. He's been tweeted at by an idiot who opens with:

"I just don't get why I should take your opinions seriously when you hate yourself for being white?"

So, instead of ignoring this, blocking him or replying and shutting it down, what he does is retweet it - making it visible to all of his followers - then "replies" to it by making a couple of open tweets:

"man, if that's the person i'm bothering, then fuck. fffffffuuuucccck."

"any chance i have to antagonize a white ultra-nationalist who supports anders brevik, well ... i'm only human."

Twitter is perfect for people of Gies' temperament. Instead of having to create their own strawmen, they have an endless supply of people who will volunteer for the position who they can then highlight to their followers - "See, this is the kind of person who doesn't agree with my position!"
 
I didn't like Polygon's writing and I knew some of the staff were really bleh people. Their idea of making a documentary about themselves and how they're changing the gaming journalism was bad.

But that's just... Damn.
 

choodi

Banned
This was an interesting Twitter exchange I remember...


It was in relation to this article that Crecente posted on polygon about the Zynga Head Game Designer leaving the company.

While it is not as damning as stealing a story and lying to cover it up, to me it gives a great insight into his "skills" as a journalist.

He has a lead on a great story about the Zynga Head Game Designer leaving a company that has been in serious financial and creative difficulty, and despite the fact that he has "three sources" he doesn't run the story because the company denied that it was true.

He then gets on Twitter to boast that he could have posted the story two days prior, probably expecting some sort of adulation and hero worship from us non-game-journalists.

Really? This is what is classed as a "leading" gaming press website?
 
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