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Polygon posts ad/re-worded press release as 'News' & deletes user comments [Removed]

M

Mooreberg

Member
What a ridiculous response to a pretty straightforward comment from a reader. This is the busiest release season of the year, nobody needed this "news" on a site that is supposed to be of a higher standard.

"Journalism" like this is why I stick to videos, podcasts, and this forum for gaming information.
 
F

FStop7

Banned
Cerebral Assassin said:
Lucky we have people like yourself who think that breaching their own ethical standards is not thread worthy isn't it?
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I never said that it wasn't thread worthy, I said that it's blown out of proportion.

There's been at least one accusation of plagiarism, which is about as serious a 'crime' that a writer can commit.
 
D

Deitus

Member
FStop7 said:
I never said that it wasn't thread worthy, I said that it's blown out of proportion.

There's been at least one accusation of plagiarism, which is about as serious a 'crime' that a writer can commit.
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Well to be fair, they teach you in grade school that taking someone else's words, paraphrasing them, and passing them off as your own is still plagiarism.

The difference here being that press releases are designed for the expressed purpose of being paraphrased by media, so no one's work has been infringed on. In this case it's just lazy and shitty writing, instead of criminal.
 
K

K.Sabot

Member
Is this really happening?

3204840swsw.gif
 
F

FStop7

Banned
Thanasis Deitus said:
Well to be fair, they teach you in grade school that taking someone else's words, paraphrasing them, and passing them off as your own is still plagiarism.

The difference here being that press releases are designed for the expressed purpose of being paraphrased by media, so no one's work has been infringed on. In this case it's just lazy and shitty writing, instead of criminal.
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I just want to see the press release that they cut and pasted. Nobody seems to have it.
 
O

ozhenson

Member
So, I was just taking a look at the article on Polygon with regards to Hotline Miami creator Jonatan Soderstrom assisting users with tech issues on pirated copies of his game(which seems to be the same story I have read on several sites over the past two days) and I noticed that within the story they actually link to the pirate bay page for the pirated copy of the game.

Am I simply making something out of nothing, or is there something SERIOUSLY wrong with this?
 
L

lefantome

Member
That's so sad.

Polygon is now on mymblacklist just after few days. I was already cautious about the, after the documentary story
 
B

bluemax

Banned
chrisgrant said:
Mostly because it wasn't the appropriate resolution for the site and looked blurry.

Look, do I think it was the best, most useful post we've ever run? No, I don't. Do I see any malice in running it? Nope!

This smells like a witch hunt to me — all we're doing is keeping the comments thread clear and on-topic. Since that was going to require a lot of maintenance, we just turned comments off.

We've spent a lot of money creating great gaming content that I think goes beyond what many of our peers have. I hope you look to that when you decide to dismiss the entire site based on one contest post. Here's a story from today!
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I visited your site for the first and last time today. Games enthusiast media still fails to present itself as a serious entity worthy of my time.
 
K

Kinyou

Member
Gannd said:
Polygon has no one to blame but themselves. They stated that they were going to "change everything" and that they were the great white hope of game journalism. The truth of the matter is that they are the same as any other gaming blog just with x2 the pretension. They like to have it both ways: we are different! Games matter! THIS IS MY REAL LIFE! and then when they face criticism, HEY MAN! IT IS JUST VIDEO GAMES.

You cannot have it both ways.
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Reading the youtube description of the documentaries trailer again is just so....

We believe the time is right for a media revolution. Audiences have fragmented. Advertising has changed. Technology has evolved. We believe we can fix what's broken, and we've risked everything to prove it. We're building Polygon and we've invited you to watch.
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P

phantomspiker

Member
We believe the time is right for a media revolution. Audiences have fragmented. Advertising has changed. Technology has evolved. We believe we can fix what's broken, and we've risked everything to prove it. We're building Polygon and we've invited you to watch.
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nailed it
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
jesus game "journalists"

is this seriously how you want to be known working in your chosen field? I mean, seriously.

This is why I don't trust any reviews or previews from any website and genuinely laugh at anyone who tries to show me one to persuade me about a game. I select a few neoGAFers I know are trustworthy and articulate opinions I can trust and just go from there.

This shit is sickening at this point. I know you guys read neoGAF so really, if you have any self-respect left, fix some shit
 
B

bigdaddygamebot

Member
ozhenson said:
So, I was just taking a look at the article on Polygon with regards to Hotline Miami creator Jonatan Soderstrom assisting users with tech issues on pirated copies of his game(which seems to be the same story I have read on several sites over the past two days) and I noticed that within the story they actually link to the pirate bay page for the pirated copy of the game.

Am I simply making something out of nothing, or is there something SERIOUSLY wrong with this?
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It's fucked.
 
E

eznark

Banned
Why isn't something like this just labeled a press release and stuck in its own corner? Is there any part of that "news story" that read like it was written by anyone other than a PR flak?
 
C

Coxy

Member
The thing about rewording press releases is it's very easy to take a pice of the press release that they probably would struggle to reword and google it

take this gamasutra copy of a mountain dew press release
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/press..._with_an_explosivepartnership_with_Halo_4.php

The big sites try to reword
http://ie.ign.com/articles/2012/10/18/get-your-hands-on-halo-4-before-anyone-else

others just copy/paste
http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases...-an-explosive-partnership-with-halo-4/0104395

http://www.gamezbox.ie/article/halo-4-promo-in-partnership-with-mountain-dew-energy

http://www.haloathon.com/mountain-dew-energy-fuels-gamers-with-an-explosive-partnership-with-halo-4/
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Shurs said:
Nah, they're happy to selectively choose to dislike one group of people doing the same thing as another group of people.
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Giantbomb has been around for five years and they've never deleted critical comments to silence discussion. It took Polygon what, like a week? to cross that line.

That said, I think the GB people are just as affected by PR tactics as anyone else, additional layers of snark won't change that. How could they not be for as long as the core team has been around making connections in this industry.

The thing is, they are not acting as if they're above all that, they're not positioning themselves as the new voice of games journalism (although their personality-driven video-content pushing style is the direction we're going to see more of in the future as far as I'm concerned) - they're just as candid and honest as possible about everything. And that does mean a lot. I know what you're getting at and people shouldn't be so defensive when GB comes up, it's a good reminder not to treat them as unassailable when we're talking psychological tricks and close relationships between PR and press - but you're not stupid Shurs, so I know you're aware of the difference to Polygon's approach (and execution).


edit: For this case, it's the difference between copy-pasting a press release and writing a short blurb about what the press release says (compare the GTA V release date news). Also note that GB has chosen not to publish the Pizza Hut advertisement this thread is about.
 
S

StreetsAhead

Member
It may not 'matter', however, they are due for critisism. Don't pretend to be 'something revolutionary' and then do exactly what everyone else does. Don't get caught. Don't try to cover that up with censorship. Especially when you're a week old.

Modern journalism, in general, is a lot about publishing press releases but that doesn't excuse this sort of childish, smug behavior from their writers. They set up the expectations and 'myth' around them, all on their own. They have to deal with the consequences of not meeting those expectations.

Where is ShockingAlberto when you need him...
 
J

JDSN

Banned
This is why I knew Polygon was gonna have a shitty reputation from day 1, they should have started small by listing their A-team (lol) of journalist and let the fans do the talking, maybe some small updates about the behind the scenes stuff of the site. Instead they made a documentary about how nothing is gonna be the same and that they are hot shit. If you claim to be the king of the hill you are gonna be measured as such.

They are no different from Kotaku, which they mock aparently.
 
D

DTKT

Member
To be honest, without that documentary or that "WE WILL DO THINGS DIFFERENT", no one would have reacted to this.

I guess it's all about managing expectations.
 
A

akidnamededdy

Banned
DTKT said:
To be honest, without that documentary or that "WE WILL DO THINGS DIFFERENT", no one would have reacted to this.

I guess it's all about managing expectations.
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Pretty much this. They got people pumped, raised that bar,tripped and rolled right under it, then told us not to read it if we don't like it.
 
E

EternalGamer

Banned
akidnamededdy said:
Pretty much this. They got people pumped, raised that bar,tripped and rolled right under it, then told us not to read it if we don't like it.
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But then, in a way, good on them, right? They RAISED people's expectations. Then, of course they didn't meet them. But then people called their bluff and they reacted appropriated. Well... eventually anyway.

Alot of their other content is still very questionable (especially some of their reviews). But they get credit for the way they dealt with that one story anyway. At least they do in my book. I mean, that same "news" story was run by a lot of sites. How many of them retracted it?
 
G

grimshawish

Banned
JDSN said:
They are no different from Kotaku, which they mock aparently.
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This is why I can't understand their existence. They have no added value to anyone.
The worst thing is they supposedly got this news hot off the press yet proper news is taking taking them sometimes a day to post about.

I don't see what Polygon's place in the actually is. If they really were 'different' they might have a place but as it stands their kotaku but shitter (and they can't even do that right) and pretended to be something new/special. Least Kotaku have somethings of interest; Polygon from what I've seen have nothing, everything behind the site seems very poorly thought out.
 
E

EternalGamer

Banned
GarthVaderUK said:
It's not - the LittleEnglishHaloBlog guy is simply a Halo mega-fan, not claiming to be a journo whatsoever.
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No but it is related to the commercialism and cross promotion of Halo, which is a franchise that seems to be whored out to no end these days and nary a professional critic anywhere even mentions it.

Now when Disney did the same thing with The Lorax, you coudn't check your e-mail without a reference to all the stupid cross promotional unnecessary product placement being mentioned.

This Halo 4 promotional stuff has gotten pretty goddamn absurd. Buy Moutain Dew and Dorrotos to gain exp? A Pizza Hut Halo 4 pizza? This is spreading your brand as thin as possible and calling anyone's bluff that want's to challenge it's integrity. Can anyone point me to a single games media outlet that discusses that?

Let's take another example. Does anyone think 2k Boston would get this pass if there were Bioshock TacoBell Chalupas?*




*Please Ken and Shawn, for the love of God let it never be so.
 
J

JDSN

Banned
EternalGamer said:
No but it is related to the commercialism and cross promotion of Halo, which is a franchise that seems to be whored out to no end these days and nary a professional critic anywhere even mentions it.

Now when Disney did th same thing with The Lorax, you coudn't check your e-mail without a reference to all the stupid cross promotion, unnecessary product placement being mentioned.

This Halo 4 promotional stuff has gotten pretty goddamn absurd. Buy Moutain Dew and Dorrotos to gain exp. A Pizza Hut Halo 4 pizza. This is spreading your brand as thin as possible and calling anyone's bluff that want's to challenge it. Can anyone point me to a single games media outlet that discusses that?

Let's take another example. Does anyone think Bioshock would get this pass if there were Bioshock TacoBell Chalupas?*




*Please Shawn, for the love of God let it never be so.
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I don't think it's a pretty important story. I think it's the same tired nonsense about games journalism that some folks love to carry on endlessly about. If we had more clear facts about whether one journalism outlet or journalist is suddenly not delivering on their absurd vague promises made in a pretentious series of videos, then maybe we'd have a small story. But that would take reporting to find it out, and I just don't care enough about the latest supposed media scandal that Polygon is copy and pasting press releases and passing them as their own to ask my reporters to look into it.

You know what's important? Doing good games journalism, which is what we did this week.
 
A

A Link to the Past

Banned
So 1UP.com kinda sucks, but just saying, they made a point of ditching a traditional video game website model by not doing news reports, because everyone else already did, and therefore, they existed no market for them to do that in. Basically, they became an opinion blog.

At no point would I say that 1UP.com is a groundbreaking video games journalism website, but so far, I see nothing to say that Polygon is any better. Hell, even worse. They're liars. Polygon said that they would be a new wave for games journalism, but in what way are they? To me, a new wave would ignore press releases, a new wave would never do anything to advertise, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a product, unless it's through a review. At its base, Polygon has no value. The writers aren't particularly good - I can't say how good because I don't really know the quality of anyone on the site. The mission statement is entirely inaccurate. They are ironically so by-the-books that several websites that they would group in as being by-the-books are actually less by-the-books than they are. Perhaps something like comment deletion has happened at another website before, but that such censorship happened so unashamedly by an entity calling themselves different from everyone else is pitiful.
 
R

RyougaSaotome

Member
A Link to the Snitch said:
So 1UP.com kinda sucks, but just saying, they made a point of ditching a traditional video game website model by not doing news reports, because everyone else already did, and therefore, they existed no market for them to do that in. Basically, they became an opinion blog.

At no point would I say that 1UP.com is a groundbreaking video games journalism website, but so far, I see nothing to say that Polygon is any better. Hell, even worse. They're liars. Polygon said that they would be a new wave for games journalism, but in what way are they? To me, a new wave would ignore press releases, a new wave would never do anything to advertise, whether intentionally or unintentionally, a product, unless it's through a review. At its base, Polygon has no value. The writers aren't particularly good - I can't say how good because I don't really know the quality of anyone on the site. The mission statement is entirely inaccurate. They are ironically so by-the-books that several websites that they would group in as being by-the-books are actually less by-the-books than they are. Perhaps something like comment deletion has happened at another website before, but that such censorship happened so unashamedly by an entity calling themselves different from everyone else is pitiful.
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While 1up isn't a one stop kind of site anymore, I've been really loving their cover stories. There's been some fantastic content going up since they switched over. It's different and it isn't all-encompassing, but it has certainly got me going back.
 
A

A Link to the Past

Banned
RyougaSaotome said:
While 1up isn't a one stop kind of site anymore, I've been really loving their cover stories. There's been some fantastic content going up since they switched over. It's different and it isn't all-encompassing, but its certainly got me going back.
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Perhaps sucks wasn't a great word; in hindsight I pretty much wanted to say that they were still in the same class of games journalism as other sites.
 
D

danwarb

Member
Newspapers are ~90% advertorials and press releases. Gaming journalism is really not worse.

Being outraged about ads and shit articles is not good for you. Just turn off and don't support it if you don't like it.
 
G

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Amir0x said:
jesus game "journalists"

is this seriously how you want to be known working in your chosen field? I mean, seriously.

This is why I don't trust any reviews or previews from any website and genuinely laugh at anyone who tries to show me one to persuade me about a game. I select a few neoGAFers I know are trustworthy and articulate opinions I can trust and just go from there.

This shit is sickening at this point. I know you guys read neoGAF so really, if you have any self-respect left, fix some shit
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What you're describing is personal recommendations from friends, family or anyone else in your social circle.

This has always carried more weight with consumers than product reviews from a critic or publication.
 
R

RedSwirl

Junior Member
A long time ago I talked with someone who proposed the idea of a gaming site run entirely by a bot that just automatically published press releases as soon as they came in. Wonder how viable that would be.

GDJustin said:
What you're describing is personal recommendations from friends, family or anyone else in your social circle.

This has always carried more weight with consumers than product reviews from a critic or publication.
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Most definitely. I just wish the people running elections realized that. But whatever.
 
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