Sean Ridgeley

Polygon was sold to another media giant and the majority of staff/writers let go. I hope they find a new home. Layoffs suck for people no matter what. But more broadly I've often posted about how terrible modern gaming journalism has been. I don't recall exactly when it shifted but I think it was a couple years before 2010. The sites all shifted towards other priorities than just loving and reviewing games. Chasing social issues and clout. Shitting on and judging devs all the time. Running investigative reports on developers. Some of this is fine and I don't mean to suggest developers should be unassailable. But it got ridiculous and everyone saw it. And it polarized people into "us vs them". That is never good. That is poison. Basically every AAA developer and studio (and I know a lot!) actively disliked modern gaming press and would refuse to talk to them due to lots of examples of cherry picking quotes and flipping them to make that developer look bad. Or leaking game assets and information or cancelling developers. It was an ongoing pattern. Gone were the days of the late 80s and 90s when game journalists were all uber fans of gaming, loved gaming and just wanted to spread gaming. A neutral party who would give you a fair shake but also call you out on your bullshit if the game was bad. Now you had a new breed that was out to get gaming/gamers at every opportunity as they focused on everything but the game design. I would be sad to see that return but very glad to see it go and have a reversion to the mean on game press sites. I don't expect a bunch of kiss asses who never report on a bad game or bad preview or hold developers accountable for "fun". I don't want to hear about unions and DEI and other issues that became the leading focus on many modern gaming sites. Cover all issues but in proportion and remembering that at the core these sites should exist to be evangelists for gaming and to spread gaming, not to attack developers over game content or social issues and sit in judgment over them. Some will call this "criticism" and yes, some is good, but it went too far. And in part at least, it's led to less readership and results like layoffs and sales. I myself have not read Polygon, Kotaku or some others in over 15 years. It would be fun to return. I look forward to a brighter future. I largely reject what has come before and I think most of the gaming audience has as well. But also, it could be the overall end of mainstream gaming sites online as more and more people move to following influencers online for their opinions. We shall see what the future holds. I am an optimist. Sorry for the rambling post. Just thoughts off the top of my head.