Joystiq lives on

[MrEco]

This news comes just two weeks after Joystiq announced they were no longer putting scores on reviews. That's a real bummer. I don't follow any game reviewers, but the whole industry would be improved if they stopped using numerical scores as short hand for whether a game is good or not. I was hoping that Joystiq was the beginning of some good change, but it seems like that'll never happen now.

[dsheinem]

I personally follow Polygon, as my tastes when it comes to news are what games are coming out and then if there's a game I wasn't instabuy on I like to hear thoughts on it. As long as a score isn't abysmal (5 or less) I let the text of the review do the talking. I've found that the Polygon reviewers do a good job of explaining the things they like and the things they don't; the only disconnect that you sometimes see is in translating the text into a single number. I've certainly read reviews where they talk about a lot of things that sound really great and have problems with some things I don't care about and then give it a low score. But for me that doesn't matter, as I've made my mind up based on the qualitative impressions rather than the raw score.

Polygon is great and has, of course, long been the spiritual successor to what Joystiq used to be. That's because Chris Grant left as EIC of Joystiq to become EIC of Polygon at its inception.

Also, he was interviewed for my book and we hung out for the day in Philly. He has some really nice kittehs. He also put me in touch with Dave Tach who writes for them, and he's guested for me in my games class a couple of times now. So yeah: Polygon is awesome.

[noiseredux]

Polygon IS awesome. I don't think they have their own podcast, but Danielle Reindeaux (butchered her last name I think?) is on Idle Thumbs nowadays and fits in great w/ that crew.

[noiseredux]

This news comes just two weeks after Joystiq announced they were no longer putting scores on reviews. That's a real bummer. I don't follow any game reviewers, but the whole industry would be improved if they stopped using numerical scores as short hand for whether a game is good or not. I was hoping that Joystiq was the beginning of some good change, but it seems like that'll never happen now.

I thought of this too and bummed me out as well. I really liked that they were going in that direction.

[Xeogred]

Won't even notice. Joystiq, Kotaku, and Destructoid have all lost it to me... and it's been awhile.

I like Siliconera (mostly Japanese) and Rock Paper Shotgun (mostly PC) thesedays.

I'll have to check out Polygon.

[MrPopo]

Also, he was interviewed for my book and we hung out for the day in Philly. He has some really nice kittehs.

This automatically makes Polygon awesome.

[J T]

No, don't you see Dave? At one point or another a game journalist spoke with a game developer casually. This is proof that all game journalists are secretly in the pockets of game developers (both metaphorically and literally).

Also, he was interviewed for my book and we hung out for the day in Philly.

OMG Dsh cahooted with Polygon! How deep does this media bias run? Academics are cahooting with games journalists who are cahooting with game developers! And Zoe Quinn is a woman! GAH!

[the7k]

Polygon? Really?

Didn't think you guys were Microsoft fans.

Anyway, sorry to see Joystiq go, I guess. I never really went there for anything, but I suppose it was better than the usual click-bait suspects. I spent the past five or so years almost exclusively with Destructoid until recently.

[Exhuminator]

Not trying to pee on anybody's parade, but I don't care for Polygon. I've seen some really clickbaity articles on that site, definitely a strong Microsoft slant at times, and a penchant for pushing drama in the medium. I mean I just went to the main site and the first thing I see is Anita Sarkeesian staring at me. Really haven't we had enough of that yet? And right next to that is an article sanctioning DLC based on sales. So I scroll down and I see an article titled Can gaming's great women characters be written by men? Yet another clickbaity thread based on the feminism scare going on in gaming right now. Right above that is an article saying The all-women Ghostbusters film now has a cast, along with another article showing the cast... okay, Polygon is all for feminism, I get it. I think I'll go read USGamer now though because you know games.

I'll say the "Life in Japan" column looks mildly interesting at least.

[Sarge]

I concur with Exhuminator on that number.

Honestly, if there's anything that I've learned about journalism as a whole (well, "journalism" in this case), it's that almost all involved have a pretty hard slant to the political left. Doesn't matter if it's gaming, sports, or news. This used to not be the case as much with the gaming side, but you can see a lot of them trying to slide more into the social crusader mantle from time to time. And I have no problem with them covering that sort of stuff! Just... try to exhibit a little balance from time to time, eh?

Oh, by the way, Exhuminator, USGamer isn't above those sorts of articles, too, although they seem to be a little more thoughtful when they address the bigger issues. I know most of those guys and gals skew left-of-center, too, but they seem to at least try to be somewhat balanced.