SteveWinwood
Member
Polygon took it down so who knows!
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Polygon posts ad/re-worded press release as 'News' & deletes user comments [Removed]
- Thread starter Gowans
- Start date
ThusZarathustra
Member
If I had any faith in the idea that incidents such as these would cause any change whatsoever to Polygon's editorial approach going forward, I'd laud Chris Grant to the ends of the earth. But I have none of that faith and every bit of editorial behavior displayed today has done nothing to help build it. Polygon will continue to operate as it has displayed itslef operating: in the same way as 99% of all other enthusiast media sites.
They are nothing special or interesting as they claim.
And that really is too bad, because that's entirely counter to what the industry actually needs right now.
But you know what? Fuck it! PIZZA HUT AND HALO SKINS FOR EVERYONE!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Essentially this.
Lord_Nergal
Member
i doubt there's much to that. it's incredibly common to add people on facebook that you met a bit at a party or here more likely a games event you're both attending and the uk games industry seems quite small.
It's still up on their news section. They just took it off their front page.
zing
I can almost feel his orgasm from here.
Agreed, Polygon hasn't proven to be best-of-industry in my eyes. It's just another Kotaku.
That's kinda creepy, dude. Anybody can be anybody's "friend" on Facebook. Emily should probably get a talking-to from the editors, but it's kind of outside GAF's concerns.
grimshawish
Banned
So Polygon see Kotaku go down and decide to steal their readers?
YOU LEAVE KOTAKU ALONE!
YOU LEAVE KOTAKU ALONE!
Barbacoatl
Banned
Microsoft bought it for them.
I am a little hesitant to give credit to Polygon for pulling the piece because.....it conveniently silences the critics from commenting.
Where are the critical comments going to go?
To an unrelated piece? Polygon can then easily go "off-topic, deleted, send us an email instead" which means the comments will not be seen by others.
This is a rather clever way to do damage control. Cynically, this may be their best option at stemming the tide of criticism.
Where are the critical comments going to go?
To an unrelated piece? Polygon can then easily go "off-topic, deleted, send us an email instead" which means the comments will not be seen by others.
This is a rather clever way to do damage control. Cynically, this may be their best option at stemming the tide of criticism.
Labial?
You guys realize that you have to bring this up every time they talk about a press release now, right? Sure, it's easy to attack a lazy Pizza Hut promotion article, but what about when it's about the newest release you're trying to find info about? I'm all for tighter, better journalism, and I agree that we need these kinds of discussions, but to attack a site for writing about a press release is a taaaaad ridiculous. Just keep it rational and stick to the bigger picture. Keep your own biases in mind. I think some people here are just attacking polygon because they don't like polygon and never will. If you want journalists to do good reporting, do good reporting when calling them out.
...yep, and it takes fucking AGES.
gaming_noob
Member
Hyper entitled, one might say.
That's definitely Gabe Newell's face :lol
Graphics Horse
Member
Can people make critical comments on Polygons site related to this incident?
Or is it private email only now?
ThusZarathustra
Member
They tried to take to the moral high-ground at the last minute and they were quick enough that some folks will forgive them.
The folks whose critical faculties are actually operating will see this as yet another bit of weasel behavior.
Cerebral Assassin
Member
People are free to be friends with whomever they want, it shouldn't be used as a stick to beat them with(her links to notoriously dodgy site Videogamer.com where she "travelled across the world to major trade events to interview top developers while maintaining tight-knit relationships with PR throughout Europe and North America" would probably be interesting).
timetokill
Banned
The funniest thing to me is, if you believe Polygon guy on here:
- Polygon gets a piece of PR and says, "yes, our readers would love this! publish it!"
- Readers instead say "actually we'd love an article on this hot-button issue as opposed to hearing about halo and pizza"
- Polygon shuts down comments for basically being critical of Polygon
- Polygon guy comes on here and says "there is no controversy, we published it because we felt our readers would be interested in it. We're always looking to do stories on things our readers are interested in."
- Readers: "Hey yeah, that whole games journalism issue? We still want an article about that."
- Polygon: "lol no"
What's funny is that Kotaku/Totilo were basically doing the exact same thing, but seemed to have realized at some point that hey, maybe people ARE interested in this topic even if the journalists aren't. So - shock and awe - they might have to investigate something THEY ARE NOT PERSONALLY INTERESTED IN because their readers ARE.
But hey, Polygon is a NEW site. They're gonna change it up. Change the game. Instead of doing articles on what the readers want, instead we're gonna do it on what we think they should want, rather than what they actually want! And we'll tell them when there's a controversy or not! WE REPORT, WE DECIDE!
- Polygon gets a piece of PR and says, "yes, our readers would love this! publish it!"
- Readers instead say "actually we'd love an article on this hot-button issue as opposed to hearing about halo and pizza"
- Polygon shuts down comments for basically being critical of Polygon
- Polygon guy comes on here and says "there is no controversy, we published it because we felt our readers would be interested in it. We're always looking to do stories on things our readers are interested in."
- Readers: "Hey yeah, that whole games journalism issue? We still want an article about that."
- Polygon: "lol no"
What's funny is that Kotaku/Totilo were basically doing the exact same thing, but seemed to have realized at some point that hey, maybe people ARE interested in this topic even if the journalists aren't. So - shock and awe - they might have to investigate something THEY ARE NOT PERSONALLY INTERESTED IN because their readers ARE.
But hey, Polygon is a NEW site. They're gonna change it up. Change the game. Instead of doing articles on what the readers want, instead we're gonna do it on what we think they should want, rather than what they actually want! And we'll tell them when there's a controversy or not! WE REPORT, WE DECIDE!
wastedyears
Member
Giant Bomb?!? You like their site, that's fine, but I hope you aren't suggesting that they don't shill just as much as any of the other video game enthusiast press sites.
Lord_Nergal
Member
I'm trying to figure out where to even address it in their forums. It seems they're hyper-vigilant on comments.
They didnt write about a press release, they published a press release as their own words.
I have no problem in principal with a separate section titled "Press Releases".
If you are going to run with information this is basically PR, write your own version and clearly state that this is based on a press release and no original journalistic reporting was done.
Just pointing out that there might be a conflict of interest for their senior editor.
Of course they can be friends with whoever they want. I'm just pointing out that she probably shouldn't speak out on matters where she might have a conflict of interest.
timetokill
Banned
The funniest thing to me is, if you believe Polygon guy on here:
- Polygon gets a piece of PR and says, "yes, our readers would love this! publish it!"
- Readers instead say "actually we'd love an article on this hot-button issue as opposed to hearing about halo and pizza"
- Polygon shuts down comments for basically being critical of Polygon
- Polygon guy comes on here and says "there is no controversy, we published it because we felt our readers would be interested in it. We're always looking to do stories on things our readers are interested in."
- Readers: "Hey yeah, that whole games journalism issue? We wanna talk about that. How about it?"
- Polygon: "lol no"
What's funny is that Kotaku/Totilo were basically doing the exact same thing, but seemed to have realized at some point that hey, maybe people ARE interested in this topic even if the journalists aren't. So - shock and awe - they might have to investigate something THEY ARE NOT PERSONALLY INTERESTED IN because their readers ARE.
But hey, Polygon is a NEW site. They're gonna change it up. Change the game. Instead of doing articles on what the readers want, instead we're gonna do it on what we think they should want, rather than what they actually want! And we'll tell them when there's a controversy or not! WE REPORT, WE DECIDE!
- Polygon gets a piece of PR and says, "yes, our readers would love this! publish it!"
- Readers instead say "actually we'd love an article on this hot-button issue as opposed to hearing about halo and pizza"
- Polygon shuts down comments for basically being critical of Polygon
- Polygon guy comes on here and says "there is no controversy, we published it because we felt our readers would be interested in it. We're always looking to do stories on things our readers are interested in."
- Readers: "Hey yeah, that whole games journalism issue? We wanna talk about that. How about it?"
- Polygon: "lol no"
What's funny is that Kotaku/Totilo were basically doing the exact same thing, but seemed to have realized at some point that hey, maybe people ARE interested in this topic even if the journalists aren't. So - shock and awe - they might have to investigate something THEY ARE NOT PERSONALLY INTERESTED IN because their readers ARE.
But hey, Polygon is a NEW site. They're gonna change it up. Change the game. Instead of doing articles on what the readers want, instead we're gonna do it on what we think they should want, rather than what they actually want! And we'll tell them when there's a controversy or not! WE REPORT, WE DECIDE!
Ken Masters
Banned
welcome to gaming "journalism"
I'm confused, if this is "an article vetted by the team as something of interest to readers", and not an advertorial why is it worded identically the press release they sent to multiple sites? Don't you have to acutally write something for it to be an article?
And please don't say you weren't paid to do it. That's irrelevant. Advertising can be free and the fact that it didn't occur to you to put a stop on this highlights how overly close you are with PR.
And why delete comments instead of just locking the comment section. You don't seem to delete comments for other rule breaches. Funny how you decided to hide comments that pointed out your lack of integrity.
And please don't say you weren't paid to do it. That's irrelevant. Advertising can be free and the fact that it didn't occur to you to put a stop on this highlights how overly close you are with PR.
And why delete comments instead of just locking the comment section. You don't seem to delete comments for other rule breaches. Funny how you decided to hide comments that pointed out your lack of integrity.
It's not like it's in the games press' best interests to promote this shit for free anyway. If I had my way, this kind of thing would be:
1) Sponsored posts, clearly marked as such.
2) An actual advert banner on the site.
Games PR has got so good at deciding what's news and what's advertising, it's actually costing the games press potential revenue, since they're posting a lot of it for free. If someone had sent me this press release, I'd have politely given them the contact information for ad sales and left it at that. I don't see what value this adds for any readers which couldn't have be gleaned by MS/Pizza Hut paying to have it on a banner ad.
1) Sponsored posts, clearly marked as such.
2) An actual advert banner on the site.
Games PR has got so good at deciding what's news and what's advertising, it's actually costing the games press potential revenue, since they're posting a lot of it for free. If someone had sent me this press release, I'd have politely given them the contact information for ad sales and left it at that. I don't see what value this adds for any readers which couldn't have be gleaned by MS/Pizza Hut paying to have it on a banner ad.
SteveWinwood
Member
Yeah but they admit it and are completely transparent about it.
They've straight up said we are not journalists we are enthusiast press. Well maybe Patrick didn't but still.
Exactly. Its not just bad journalism, its bad business.
Their British Pizza Hut eatin', Halo lovin', rootin tootin' costume wearing demo is extraordinarily high.
This piece is actually very much line with their unique readership.... that..... they've had for like a week or something.
Cerebral Assassin
Member
This is true, they are being treated like chumps if they post things like this for free( although it probably falls under the old "you scratch my back..." scenario).
RedNumberFive
Banned
So it's ok being completely unethical, as long as you're up front about it? I'm glad we cleared that up.
Cerebral Assassin
Member
How are they unethical? Because they know PR people?
Because most sites don't have an ethics statement that claims that adverts should be clearly marked as such.
Because Polygon touted themselves as holier than thou through all the self-indulgent videos and promotion in the run-up to the site's launch.
Barbacoatl
Banned
Because of their high standards, which we can see exemplified in their documentary funded by microsoft.
This has been addressed already. Because Polygon claimed to be better and more serious than other sites.
Lord_Nergal
Member
Have any other sites locked down commenting and called any questioning of their process 'negativity'?
(Honest question)
SteveWinwood
Member
I don't believe what they're doing is unethical?