Yeah except Polygon were the ones that did that circle jerk documentary about changing the gaming press and holding it to a higher standard.
Then when people are critical of their work he goes "lol, videogames." You don't get to have it both ways.
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Putting the Ly into Polygon, Crecente: "Oh, that I saw"
- Thread starter Pie and Beans
- Start date
Yeah except Polygon were the ones that did that circle jerk documentary about changing the gaming press and holding it to a higher standard.
Then when people are critical of their work he goes "lol, videogames." You don't get to have it both ways.
Damn.
Basically, the problem here is egotism. And it manifests in a variety of fun brands of narcissism (collect them all!).
The Suicidal Narcissist: Justin McElroy
Everytime someone says something remotely critical, Justin McElroy tweets things that make him sound like is going to cut himself like "Oh man, that really hurt my feelings" or "I'm really bummed out, I'm going for a walk." The problem here is that Justin acts like the pretty girl in school who is always complimented. Then one day somebody has the nerve to tell her that maybe she isn't so hot and she completely loses it.
The Myopic Narcissist: Arthur Gies
Gies reacts to criticism by doubling down on stupid things he has said before. Most of the time he does this by just strong arming any other opinions by bluntly stating "No" or "You're wrong." Or "that thinking is crap." The other way he deflects criticism is by just dismissing the topic as even worth his consideration. If someone disagrees with him, it is often over something incosequential that he doesn't care about and is not worth his time. But rarely if ever does he stop to second guess himself, walk back any opinion, or eat crow. Instead he'll just either write off critcism as dumb or the issue as unimportant.
The (Pretend?) Clueless Narcissist: Brian Crecente
Crecente just plays the "I don't know what you are talking about game" any time anybody criticizes his stuff. One someone criticized his interview tactics he pretended that it was because they wanted more "convential" interview styles. When someone critcized his characterization of Saints Row the 3 as "embarassing" he argued that they misunderstood what he was talking about. When John Walker pointed out that he was retreading the same ground as the story that Walker wrote, he pretends that he doesn't know what Walker is referring to.
It is really sad how accurate of a predictor that Polygon documentary turned out to be about how narcissistic much of the staff is.
The Suicidal Narcissist: Justin McElroy
Everytime someone says something remotely critical, Justin McElroy tweets things that make him sound like is going to cut himself like "Oh man, that really hurt my feelings" or "I'm really bummed out, I'm going for a walk." The problem here is that Justin acts like the pretty girl in school who is always complimented. Then one day somebody has the nerve to tell her that maybe she isn't so hot and she completely loses it.
The Myopic Narcissist: Arthur Gies
Gies reacts to criticism by doubling down on stupid things he has said before. Most of the time he does this by just strong arming any other opinions by bluntly stating "No" or "You're wrong." Or "that thinking is crap." The other way he deflects criticism is by just dismissing the topic as even worth his consideration. If someone disagrees with him, it is often over something incosequential that he doesn't care about and is not worth his time. But rarely if ever does he stop to second guess himself, walk back any opinion, or eat crow. Instead he'll just either write off critcism as dumb or the issue as unimportant.
The (Pretend?) Clueless Narcissist: Brian Crecente
Crecente just plays the "I don't know what you are talking about game" any time anybody criticizes his stuff. One someone criticized his interview tactics he pretended that it was because they wanted more "convential" interview styles. When someone critcized his characterization of Saints Row the 3 as "embarassing" he argued that they misunderstood what he was talking about. When John Walker pointed out that he was retreading the same ground as the story that Walker wrote, he pretends that he doesn't know what Walker is referring to.
It is really sad how accurate of a predictor that Polygon documentary turned out to be about how narcissistic much of the staff is.
Felix Lighter
Member
These twitter conversations are insane. How are they able to get anything done at Polygon?
Quadraphonic
Member
- Have a job as a game 'journalist'
- Go on Twitter where you talk about games
- Develop a fanbase consisting of people that take your word as gospel.
- Because you play games for a living and get free games and always have the latest games. This, to many people, is the ideal friend for someone to have, hence the desire to follow them on Twitter.
- Because of all the users that follow you, that always agree with you, you develop a sense of 'can do no wrong' since someone will always be there to say you are doing your job.
- Made WORSE by the fact that being a sucker like this has publishers flying you all over the country treating you like fucking royalty. So you have people eating out of your hand on both ends.
- So when you do colossally fuck up, you generally have another game released a week later, and people forget and move on, like so much of this fucking industry. Manufactured importance and anything older than a month is a terrible fucking game.
The key part, where this got exposed:
- But when something is big enough to get into local papers and the news, you're suddenly kept outside your comfort zone for too long and all your terrible flaws as a human are exposed and analyzed. Once no one realizes you can hold a conversation longer than 2 minutes, your world falls apart, but because you've spent so long living a lie, you don't know how to respond other than beating your chest and hoping they go away.
Ugh. Gies strikes again. What's the dude's problem?
But Crecente, too?
I was puzzled when I saw that the former Joystiq crew took Gies with them over to Polygon. He was always a tool, and I didn't understand why Chris Grant would go out of his way to recruit him. But now that Polygon is showing their true colors in this latest stink with Crecente, it all makes sad sense.
But Crecente, too?
I was puzzled when I saw that the former Joystiq crew took Gies with them over to Polygon. He was always a tool, and I didn't understand why Chris Grant would go out of his way to recruit him. But now that Polygon is showing their true colors in this latest stink with Crecente, it all makes sad sense.
SteveDaWonder
Neo Member
I guess I am honestly frustrated by Polygon as a whole. I really love loving things, and I enjoy visitng their site and really enjoy some of the video content and unique non-news or review related posts they put out. What can we do to get these folks to change, or consider what they are doing hurts their reputation? Wish I could make people like Arthur and Brian care. I guess I am just not cynical enough to be on NeoGaf. I can't stand it when people like Brian won't take the high road and just say, "Dude, I made a mistake and I am sorry!" and move on. Life is a lot easier when we just admit to mistakes and attempt to become better.
Horse Armour
Member
The gaming industry would have been a better place if Gies had stepped down this week instead of Riccitiello.
When your reviews aren't fully researched and your critical articles are plagiarized, you have plenty of time to dick around on the internet.
legacyzero
Banned
I dont know much about this Gies guy, but damn, everything I see with him attached just makes him look like a gigantic asshole.
Uh, I'm aware of that followup. It doesn't change anything I said. It's not solely based on that tweet, it's more of a "this explains a lot" thing -- what really motivates what I wrote is what their actual reviews are like.
partyphone
Banned
Most of the polygon staff have hilariously fragile egos. But they make it worse by circling the wagons on twitter and acting like petty fanboys. Reinventing video games journalism indeed.
Gies was also fearful of getting his neck wringed by John Walker according to Arthur Gies.
You know I was joking?
The real problem is people keep trying to treat the internet like it's a motherfucking rap beef.
bernardobri
Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
Ehm, I can see his timeline at this moment and I'm not following him.
paperboywriter
Member
sry, to dumb to post on neogaf
partyphone
Banned
Twitter is acting weird. I think he locked it down but it's taking awhile for his public tweets to disappear.
edit: oh. he blocked my account. so I have to log out to see things. XD
paperboywriter
Member
What the hell.
Art Teitlebaum
Member
Wow, these Poliegon dudes really seem to be quite scummy. And they seem to have lost track of their Twitter output. Funny and sad at the same time.
Quadraphonic
Member
A Comcast email address.
Wow.
That speaks volumes.
For his job... he actually uses an ISP-provided email address.
Ace Harding
Member
I love that a meta-discussion in another thread which should have ended there spiraled into needing its own thread. All they had to do was keep quiet. And the funny thing is in their mind they've done nothing wrong. The Internet decided to randomly pick on them this week.
We're at a point where the people covering a story have become the story.
We're at a point where the people covering a story have become the story.
That is hands down one of the stupidest things someone who (supposedly) criticizes games for a living could have ever said.
Poohblaster
Member
I believe it was the other way around. I could be wrong though.
airmangataosenai
Member
Does anyone have a counter of how many times Gies has either been owned or self-owned? The dude seems to be a walking embarrassment.
chickdigger802
Banned
speaking of crescente, that dude demoted my kotaku account way back when, and when i emailed him why, he said he forgot.
:/
:/
RedAssedApe
Banned
Dick move but I'll admit I laughed at his reply.
People would get demoted or banned for really stupid things on that site. Stock answer... "this is a blog not a news site"... yes indeed.
Yeah, Walker is the hypocrite here. These people are unbelievable.
I still think quoting his tweet and then directly following it with 'He's essentially saying that reviews should just be descriptions of a game' is misrepresenting his opinion.
But as that specific tweet wasn't what motivated your post, I guess it's not very important. However, I can't help but feel that a lot of people are misrepresenting what Gies said.
Yeah. I messed that up.
I know I'm way behind, but why is everyone hating on Gies? Wasn't he just giving Maxis the benefit of the doubt? I mean, he made that statement before people found the 20 minute offline shut off line of code, right? So all he was saying was that anyone guessing or assuming that Sim City could be played offline perfectly fine literally did not know that it could be, because they had yet broken down the code to absolutely know. I mean, he ended up being wrong, but I don't think it's sleazy for him to believe what Maxis reps outright stated. The blame should be aimed towards the reps, not the people that couldn't have known they were lying.
Quadraphonic
Member
... yes. The only complaints with SimCity are related to server issues.
Jesus Fuck.
He JUST (38 minutes ago) literally said the only complaints with SimCity are because of server issues. Nothing with path finding, small cities, overpriced DLC, DRM, lies about DRM, etc.
partyphone
Banned
yup. that's exactly what it is. I logged out of twitter and had no problem seeing everything.
and all I did was retweet one of his stupider tweets. I never actually tweeted at him.
what hilariously thin skin.
RedNumberFive
Banned
We pretty much knew that this site was going to implode the second the "talent" was announced, right guys?
paperboywriter
Member
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
Except he doubled down on his stance even after the discoveries.
Lord_Nergal
Member
Gies hasn't locked down his twitter account, at least from my end.
Oh, no, he's just started blocking people. Considering he's not adult enough to log off for a few days, they'll be plenty more.
SteveWinwood
Member
This thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=469341 is pretty funny now.
Stuff like this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=36714632&postcount=94 and this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=36736694&postcount=135 make me laugh.
Treythalomew
Member
Yeah I see everything even logged out so he must just be blocking people.
partyphone
Banned
he's blocking anyone who has been even a little bit critical of him
Yeah, it's 100% working. Last time I checked, conversations are only hidden if you're blocked.
Now this will come in handy.