''Polygon'' is an American entertainment website covering video games and popular culture by
Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
. At its October 2012 launch as Vox Media's third property, ''Polygon'' sought to distinguish itself by focusing on the stories of the people behind games and
long-form magazine-style feature articles.
The site was built over the course of ten months, and its 16-person founding staff included the editors-in-chief of the gaming sites ''
Joystiq
''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...
'', ''
Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
History
...
'' and ''
The Escapist''. Vox Media produced a
documentary series on the founding of the site.
History
The gaming blog ''Polygon'' was launched on October 24, 2012, as
Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
's third property. The site grew from technology blog ''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...
'', which was launched a year earlier as an outgrowth of sports blog network ''
SB Nation
''SB Nation'' (an abbreviation for their full name ''SportsBlogs Nation'') is a sports blogging network owned by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Tyler Bleszinski, Markos Moulitsas, and Jerome Armstrong in 2005. The blog from which the network ...
'' before Vox Media was formed. Vox Media's
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
,
Jim Bankoff
James Philip Bankoff (born December 23, 1969) is an American businessman who is the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Vox Media. He previously worked for AOL and joined Vox Media's predecessor, '' SB Nation'', in 2009 ...
, approached ''
Joystiq
''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...
'' editor-in-chief Christopher Grant in early 2011 about starting a video game website.
Bankoff considered video games to be a logical
vertical market
A vertical market is a market in which vendors offer goods and services ''specific'' to an industry, trade, profession, or other group of customers with specialized needs. A horizontal market is a market in which a product or service meets a nee ...
for Vox, whose sites attracted an 18- to 49-year-old demographic.
He also saw games to be an expanding market in consideration of
mobile
Mobile may refer to:
Places
* Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city
* Mobile County, Alabama
* Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S.
* Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Mobile ( ...
and
social network game
A social network game (sometimes simply referred to as a social media game, social gaming, social video game or online social game) is a type of online game that is played through social networks or social media. They typically feature multiplayer ...
categories.
''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' described Bankoff's offer as a "serious commitment to online journalism" in an age of
content farms and disappearing print publications, but Grant did not trust the offer and declined.
Upon seeing the effort that Vox Media put into ''The Verge'', their Chorus
content management system
A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
, and the quality of their content and sponsorships, Grant changed his mind and returned to pitch Bankoff. Grant wanted the new site to compete with top gaming websites ''
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' and ''
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'', but still be able to run longform "magazine-style journalism" that could be of historic interest.
As part of the site's attempt to "redefine games journalism", Vox Media made a 13-part documentary series of the site's creation ("Press Reset") that tracked the site's creation from start to launch.
''Forbes'' described ''Polygon'' original 16-person staff as "star-studded" for including the editors-in-chief from three competing video game blogs.
Grant left ''Joystiq'' in January 2012 and brought the editors-in-chief of ''
Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
History
...
'' and ''
The Escapist'',
Brian Crecente
Brian Crecente (born July 28, 1970) is an American journalist and columnist. He founded '' Kotaku'', co-founded ''Polygon'', previously served as video games editor at ''Variety,'' and was in charge of game coverage at ''Rolling Stone''.
Car ...
and Russ Pitts.
Other staff included ''Joystiq'' managing editor
Justin McElroy
Justin Tyler McElroy ( , born November 8, 1980) is an American podcaster, comedian, and former video game journalist. He is known for his work on podcasts (such as ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'', ''The Adventure Zone'', and ''Sawbones'') and ...
as well as weekend editor
Griffin McElroy
Griffin Andrew McElroy ( , born April 17, 1987) is an American podcaster, actor, writer, composer, and former video game journalist. He is known for his work on podcasts such as ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'' and ''The Adventure Zone'', as we ...
,
and staff from
UGO
Ugo is the Italian form of Hugh, a widely used name of Germanic origin. Its diminutive form is Ugolino.
It is also a Nigerian Igbo first name.
It may refer to:
People
* Vgo (stonemason), medieval stonemason
* Ugo Bassi, a Roman Catholic priest ...
, ''IGN'',
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
, VideoGamer.com,
and ''
1UP.com
''1Up.com'' was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, ''1Up.com'' provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused conten ...
''.
Ben Kuchera joined the site after ''
The Penny Arcade Report
''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have establish ...
'' closed in November 2013.
The ''Polygon'' team includes
remote work
Remote work, also called work from home (WFH), work from anywhere, telework, remote job, mobile work, and distance work is an employment arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, ware ...
ers based in Philadelphia, Huntington, San Francisco, Sydney, London, and Austin, while Vox Media is headquartered in New York City and Washington, D.C.
The site was developed over the course of ten months, where the staff chose the site's name and set standards for their reporting
and review score scale.
''Polygon'' staff published on ''The Verge'' as "''Vox Games''" beginning in February 2012
and ending with their October launch.
The site's name was announced at a
PAX East
PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX was ...
panel in April.
It refers to a
polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
—"the basic visual building block of video games".
After raising money in a second round of funding in late 2013, Vox Media announced that they would be investing further in the site's video product, such that the site's experience would feel "as much like TV programming as magazine publishing".
''Polygon'' announced that it would run fewer features in June 2014, with the departure of features editor Russ Pitts, their video director, and video designer.
''Polygon'' hired Susana Polo, founder of ''
The Mary Sue
Daniel Abrams (born May 20, 1966) is an American media entrepreneur, television host, legal commentator, and author. He is currently the host of the prime-time show ''Dan Abrams Live'' on NewsNation, ''On Patrol: Live'' on Reelz and ''The Dan Abr ...
'', in 2015, which marked a transition in the site's scope to add pop culture and entertainment alongside their video game coverage.
''
GamesIndustry'' added that the hire marked a changing cultural sensibility in game and tech media towards the acceptance of progressive, feminist principles in the wake of
Gamergate
Gamergate may refer to:
* Gamergate (ant), a worker ant that can store sperm and reproduce sexually
* Gamergate (harassment campaign), targeting women in the video game industry
* Lt. Gamergate, a character in the ''Adventure Time'' episode " Den ...
.
Vox Media later created several sites dedicated to specific video games with editorial staff from ''Polygon'' and ''SB Nation'': ''The Rift Herald'' (for ''
League of Legends
''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...
'') in March 2016,
and ''The Flying Courier'' (for ''
Dota 2
''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota 2' ...
'') and ''Heroes Never Die'' (for ''
Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: ''Overwatch'' released in 2016, and ''Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games fea ...
'') in June 2017.
Brian Crecente left ''Polygon'' for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' gaming website ''Glixel'' in July 2017,
and Chris Plante replaced him as Executive Editor.
''Polygon'' video producer Nick Robinson left ''Polygon'' in August 2017, following allegations of inappropriate online sexual advances.
Video producers Brian David Gilbert and Jenna Stoeber were hired soon after. In 2018, Griffin and Justin McElroy announced their departure from ''Polygon'', in order to focus on their podcasting and families.
In July 2019, Editor-in-Chief Christoper Grant was elevated to the position of Senior Vice President of ''Polygon'' and ''The Verge'' by Vox Media.
Grant was replaced as Editor-in-Chief by Christopher Plante.
On December 28, 2020, Brian David Gilbert announced he was leaving ''Polygon'' via Twitter and his final Unraveled video, saying he left "because it feels like the right time!".
Content
''Polygon'' publishes video game news, entertainment, reviews, and video.
They sought to set their content apart from other games journalism outlets by focusing on the people making and playing the games rather than the games alone.
At the site's outset, ''Polygon'' planned to run multiple longform feature articles weekly, which they intended to be comparable in intent to the cover stories of magazines.
They also decided to allow their game review scores to be updated as the games were updated,
so as to more adequately reflect games that had changed with
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
and updates since their original release.
The site received criticism for its comparatively low review score given to ''
The Last of Us
''The Last of Us'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. ' ...
'',
which was later increased with the game's remastered edition.
In consideration of games that may differ in quality before and after release, ''Polygon'' later began to mark pre-release reviews as "provisional" to defer final scoring until after their public release.
Starting in September 2018, the site opted to drop scored reviews for games, as to let their reviewers have more freedom in how they review a game; they will substitute their scoring system for a "Polygon Recommends", a game that the reviewer, having played enough of the game to make a determination, can stand behind and support for the site. These Recommended titles subsequently will serve as the basis of selection of "Polygon Essentials", games that the site feels everyone should play.
''Polygon'' emphasis on video production expanded in late 2013,
and waned in mid-2014 with the loss of video staff and the editorial decision to run fewer feature articles.
By 2015, the site began to shift from games-only coverage to pop culture coverage, similar to the scope of rival sites ''IGN'' and ''Kotaku''.
''Polygon'' ''Minimap'' podcast was named among iTunes's best of 2015,
and ''
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
'' praised the site's ''Car Boys'' web series.
The website's flagship podcast, called ''The Polygon Show'', launched in 2017 and discusses gaming and culture.
It was named one of the "10 gaming podcasts every gaming nerd should know" by ''
The Daily Dot
''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown ...
'' in 2018.
In May 2018, ''Polygon'' launched the YouTube series "Brand Slam", in which brand mascots battle against one another.
Design
The site uses a pink color palette
and emulates the magazine-style layout of ''The Verge''.
The site was programmed to use
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
standards with a
responsive design that adapts to the screen dimensions of laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
This is partially to remove need for a separate mobile version.
Their longform journalism was optimized for reading on tablets.
Business
The site uses a "direct content sponsorship" model of online advertising used by ''SB Nation'' and ''The Verge''.
For example, a video series sponsorship pairs brands with specific editorial content. ''Forbes'' wrote that Vox Media's avoidance of content farm and news aggregator tactics, and interest shown in building communities is desirable to "magazine-quality advertisers".
The site pitched its longform journalism to advertisers as an indicator of high-quality content.
The site's founding sponsors included
Geico
The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, and
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
.
In June 2014, ''Polygon'' ranked fourth among games sites by
Comscore web traffic data, behind ''IGN'', ''GameSpot'', and ''Kotaku''.
The same month, Grant reported that the previous month had been their most popular.
Criticism
VentureBeat
''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos.
History
The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, a ...
criticized the site for accepting $750,000 in sponsorship from
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
to make documentary ''Press Reset'' in 2014. Polygon released a gameplay video of
2016's ''Doom'', which was ridiculed online for being played by someone who appeared to be a
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
novice. The game's creative director expressed in a 2020 interview that they found the video valuable.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Polygon'' (website)
American gaming websites
Internet properties established in 2012
Video game blogs
Video game Internet forums
Vox Media
Video game news websites
McElroy family