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Arthur Gies leaves Polygon, semi-retiring from Video games

I used to think Gies lacked chill, but he's definitely more chill than every poster in this thread so I guess I should recalibrate.
 
Beat wishes on his new endeavor. I probably only agreed with him once a year if lucky and think Polygon will be better without him steering the editorial wheel. But you can't say he didn't put his all into polygon and steer it toward his vision.

What was his vision, turning himself and Polygon into the corn cob of video game journalism?

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So he can act like a i won't even say what, but people can't feel the same about him?

Nice, some of you are acting like he died or something.

I mean, you can, but don't act surprised that other people may see you as not that different from how you see him.

I didn't really follow his work at all, so I was never offended by anything he's done, and the examples given aren't the greatest to justify the posts I'm seeing.

I'm not a mod, though, I'm just sharing my thoughts. Feel free to ignore me and say whatever you want.
 
Good news for Polygon and the gaming journalism, I think now I may consider to read it. Good luck in his new career.
 
I'm out of the loop. Can someone quickly explain to me with bullet points, why he is so much hated?
Prefers Xbox and thought it would turn out more powerful than the PS4 lost a bet with a Gaf user when he said find a post with me saying secret sauce. (Tbf I think he was being ironic in the quoted example)

He disliked the over the top character design in bayonetta and found it sexist or exploitative.

Polygon had a documentary funded by Microsoft featuring him getting a tattoo.

He defended sim city being online only because he believed it had to be or was lying.

I think that's it really he's over critical of games in general and when neogaf darlings like the souls series or Nintendo games or Japanese games get in his crosshairs it rubs people the wrong way.
 
Cool, wish him the best of luck with his art endeavors. He has a promising start based on his Instagram. 👍
 
Peace out. Glad to see he's dropping it to pursue art. Also glad Rebel will still be a thing. I'm still hurting from the loss of Tyler so long ago.
 
Considering the way Polygon has gone, probably better to jump out now, and if he has more passion for something else...seems like a great reason if you can make a decent living.

Can't say I'll particularly miss him, but that's just because I don't visit Polygon for review coverage.

Now if Ben Kuchera leaves, only improvement can happen to Polygon.
 
Too bad, I was already anticipating his Cyberpunk 2077 review. But who knows, maybe he'll return before the game comes out.
 
Prefers Xbox and thought it would turn out more powerful than the PS4 lost a bet with a Gaf user when he said find a post with me saying secret sauce. (Tbf I think he was being ironic in the quoted example)

He disliked the over the top character design in bayonetta and found it sexist or exploitative.

Polygon had a documentary funded by Microsoft featuring him getting a tattoo.

He defended sim city being online only because he believed it had to be or was lying.

I think that's it really he's over critical of games in general and when neogaf darlings like the souls series or Nintendo games or Japanese games get in his crosshairs it rubs people the wrong way.

He claims that there's a conspiracy between reviewers to inflate the scores of Japanese games

He kept insisting, despite having no evidence for it and lots of evidence to the contrary, the recent Spider-man demo wasn't live

He always chooses to die on weird hills for no reason, is usually super wrong, but never backs down, and is generally pretty toxic about it

There are few others journalists whose news of quitting the industry would garner this kind of reaction. This isn't gaf being reactionary or something. If you're a toxic person you will cultivate that kind of response.
 
I mean, savor that for a moment. Let it sink in. Three quarters of a million, donated by one of the corporations they are supposed to report fairly on, to make a documentary about a website. A website so far its own ass it decided such a documentary was of such value to the world as to invest $750000. A website reportedly created with the god given purpose of elevating games journalism to the next level, yet saw absolutely nothing wrong, no conflict of interest, in accepting a $750000 donation from Microsoft. A website that then proceeded to unanimously defend decisions so universally popular as the XBone's original used game policy, and regularly shit on Sony and Nintendo.

It's such a perfect web of fully interconnected bullshit, if you saw it in fiction you would think it hilariously cartoony.
 
Shit.... this makes me feel old as hell.

I remember when he first came on the scene and rebel FM and shit.

Jesus.

Jesus christ I have become old.
 
I disagreed with him on Twitter once, very politely, he blocked me. I was even trying to have a dialogue, like adults.

It was about their Fluid Review Policy and how they (supposedly) go back to edit reviews and change scores as games change/get updated/improve.


Hopefully, he is able to be a bit more professional and mature in his new profession and life.
 
From the little I have seen of his writing, I am not a fan of Gies's work. However, it takes a complete badass to quit your job and pursue your passion. That is a truly inspiring move. Good luck to this guy, I hope he kills it.
 
I'm out of the loop. Can someone quickly explain to me with bullet points, why he is so much hated?

I've listened to rebelfm from the start and early on Sony fanboys didn't like him due to the podcast and area5 show. So even before he became known to most gamers the view on him was tainted. When he got into games media these fanboys claimed it was because rode on the shoulders of his journalist friends and so the witch hunts began. Then when the ultra pc and feminist stuff just started he jumped on in a big way which added a new layer to hate on as there were times he tried to turn molehills into mountains and that was quite grating. Thankfully he checked himself and over time has become a lot more level when topics like that appear.

Anthony has said Arthur is a straight up guy and one of the few he would put full trust in. If you've followed Anthony over his career/podcasts and have a general idea what kind of dude he is then you know that's a solid endorsement. Sure Xbox is arthurs console of choice but he praises Sony for their success and it's not like he won't admit when Microsoft fucks up. I think he gets a lot of undeserved shit because early haters poisoned his character before having a chance and that's become the norm.

If you've kept up with rebelfm you could tell he still loves games but was getting worn out covering them and social media was taking its toll. While I didn't always agree with his views, I never hated him for expressing his own. Not everything needs to validate your own opinions. I hope his pursuit of art lets him decompress and reflect and that he becomes happy again.
 
Your little vendetta in this thread is fucking embarassing.

This. He's literally been attacking anyone who has anything remotely positive to say about the guy or his work. Disliking his output is fine, hell I disliked it, but being a dick to others for enjoying it or lamenting it's end is just fucking childish.
 
I'm out of the loop. Can someone quickly explain to me with bullet points, why he is so much hated?

He was overly thinned skinned and was completely and utterly incapable of taking constructive criticism or having a conversation with someone who thought differently than he. 3 years ago he reviewed a game and one of the major reasons for dinging it was logically flawed, so I asked him about it on twitter. There was no swearing, not attacking him, nothing, literally just a question and he blocked me. He was 10000% not built for the gaming media of this age where you don't just throw your point out and be done with it. People are going to want to dialogue (people who just curse at, threaten or berate need to be blocked)
 
All of this hate is utterly absurd. You may disagree with his opinions on things (heck, I know I have), but personally attacking someone is so dumb.

I've had the pleasure of meeting him in person many years ago. It was at a PAX, right before he moved to Joystiq. I recognized him at the Halo Fest area and struck up a casual conversation. He was extremely nice and seemed like an overall good person.

Thank you, Arthur.

Tldr: if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.
 
I've never tweeted an insult at someone on twitter before but he's the only non politician that has made me want to stoop to that level. Twitter got so much better once I couldn't see his trash from people retweeting it.

Good riddance to one if the biggest liars in the games industry.

Tldr: if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.

No, shitheels deserved to be called out as such. This thread is about him leaving polygon not getting brain cancer.
 
Can't say I'm a big fan of you cheerleading the original XBone vision and SimCity online requirements, and a lot of other opinions I STRONGLY disagreed with. So I won't miss you. That said, good luck with your future endeavors
 
I think when you arent even able to beat Star Fox Zero despite getting a review copy then yeah its time to retire from video game coverage.

He couldnt beat a 2-3 hour long game which i probably hate more than he does.
 
came to post this - please take kuchera with you,
Are we really rooting for people to lose their jobs now?

Polygon isn't a great site all around, but there are a good chunk of people there that create some great content, both on the journalistic side and entertainment end.
 
I'm out of the loop. Can someone quickly explain to me with bullet points, why he is so much hated?

I'll give it a go:
- Super Xbox fanboy. Once claimed that the 360 won last gen because Japan doesn't count.
- Accused Notch of hiring attractive women to appear at a Mojang party. Turns out that was bullshit.
- Even after the above was proven to be bullshit, he retweeted someone who said it was Notch's fault that anyone thought he'd hired attractive women.
- Ran to the defence of Microsoft in the midst of their Always Online DRM extravaganza in 2013, attacking the people who were against it.
- Ran to the defence of SimCity, attacking people who argued against the Always Online DRM because it "needed" to connect to EA's servers to work properly. The DRM was later patched out of the game.
- Tried to discredit the reports that stated SimCity barely even did anything online.

I listened to Rebel FM after 1UP was basically killed, knowing he was a big Xbox and Halo fan (Rebel FM was literally hosted on Arthur's old Halo fansite at first) but willing to give him a chance. That lasted a few months before he drove me away. Dude is obnoxious as hell and has said a lot of stupid shit over the years but when called out, almost never owns up to it, he instead either doubles down or tucks tail and runs. Oh and then there's the fanboy bullshit.

Regardless, I wish him well in his future endeavours. I may think he's a dick but giving up everything he's done for years to do something he's passionate about is admirable. That plus he could've been worse, he could've been Colin Moriarty.
 
Oh, this is the guy that tells people who said people who insisted that Sim City cannot be played offline knows nothing about video games, right?

Only for the game itself to be playable offline afterwards, right? Lol.

What did he say about that? Did he lick his own spit after that?
 
I'll give it a go:
- Super Xbox fanboy. Once claimed that the 360 won last gen because Japan doesn't count.
- Accused Notch of hiring attractive women to appear at a Mojang party. Turns out that was bullshit.
- Even after the above was proven to be bullshit, he retweeted someone who said it was Notch's fault that anyone thought he'd hired attractive women.
- Ran to the defence of Microsoft in the midst of their Always Online DRM extravaganza in 2013, attacking the people who were against it.
- Ran to the defence of SimCity, attacking people who argued against the Always Online DRM because it "needed" to connect to EA's servers to work properly. The DRM was later patched out of the game.
- Tried to discredit the reports that stated SimCity barely even did anything online.

I listened to Rebel FM after 1UP was basically killed, knowing he was a big Xbox and Halo fan (Rebel FM was literally hosted on Arthur's old Halo fansite at first) but willing to give him a chance. That lasted a few months before he drove me away. Dude is obnoxious as hell and has said a lot of stupid shit over the years but when called out, almost never owns up to it, he instead either doubles down or tucks tail and runs. Oh and then there's the fanboy bullshit.

Regardless, I wish him well in his future endeavours. I may think he's a dick but giving up everything he's done for years to do something he's passionate about is admirable. That plus he could've been worse, he could've been Colin Moriarty.
He's also a really terrible writer who tries to use flowery language which results in spectacular self-inflected failure.
 
Good riddance, Polygon and games journalism in general will be better off. I don't particularly wish him well or ill in his future endeavors, I'll just be glad not to hear anything about him anymore.
 
I guess that video of him playing doom took a toll.

Ooooh it was him? Daaaaamn it was ridiculous, clear that the guy didn't give a fuck about video games at all in real life. I never saw someone playing like that, it's like when your mom touch a controller for the 1st time.
 
Ooooh it was him? Daaaaamn it was ridiculous, clear that the guy didn't give a fuck about video games at all in real life. I never saw someone playing like that, it's like when your mom touch a controller for the 1st time.

It wasn't him playing doom. I can't remember exactly who it was but i believe it was proven to be an intern getting footage though capture kit with heavy delay. Some people will spin anything possible into ammo to shoot down those that don't felate their own prerogative.
 
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