Mass Layoffs At Polygon, Major Gaming News Outlet

In what seems to be a recurring story these days, yet another gaming news outlet has hit rocky times. In 2023 iO9/Gizmodo shuttered its tabletop gaming coverage, and ComicBook.com follow suit last year, as did Dicebreaker. The latest in this list is Polygon, a site which--amongst many other things--covered a wide array of tabletop gaming news stories.

Polygon has been acquired by The Valnet Group, which owns outlets like Game Rant, Comic Book Resources, and others. Polygon founder Chris Plante posted on Bluesky -- "I'm no longer with Polygon. If you're hiring, please consider the many talented writers and editors now on the market. Every one of them deserves a spot on your staff. I won't be talking more about the sale because I wasn't involved. Going to hang out with my kid. Taking wins where I can."

Many Polygon staff members have publicly posted, saying that they have lost their jobs.

• “I’ll say more later, but I no longer have a job. I’m looking for work, as are so many of my amazing colleagues. I have lots of ideas and things I’d like to write. I’m really in shock.” - Nicole Carpenter, Senior Reporter.
• “I had a great time working at Polygon. Please let me know if you have any cool job openings!” - Michael McWherton, Senior Writer.

For those of us in the TTRPG industry, we'll be most familiar with the work of the senior editor for tabletop games, Charlie Hall, who said "I am no longer with Polygon, my home for nearly 13 years. I am proud of what my colleagues and I have accomplished over that period, and I am especially proud of the role the [Vox Media Union] and [Writer's Guild of America] played in it all. Organize. Now. I am immediately available for hire."

 

[MNblockhead]

EN World is the right mix of new and discussion forum. I usually spend most of my time on the side reading and sometime participating in discussion threads, but when things are busy, I'll still log in at least once a week to see what's going on in the TTRPG world. I also listen to the podcast, and when I'm really busy, I can still keep up with the weeks gaming news while doing chores or driving to/from work. I get enough gaming news here that I've never really felt a need to got to other sites.

 

[Jahydin]

It's very narrow in focus (OSR adventures), but if you're not listening to Between Two Cairns, you should be. Fantastic stuff and the only podcast where I don't want them to cut the banter by 50%.

I've never heard of it. Will certainly check it out, thanks!

 

[Retros_x]

olygon didn't understand that and countless other issues and so lost a large chunk of its audience irony from being out of tune with current tastes. Their idea of their audience and the reality increasingly drifted apart.

I think you are confused who the target audience of polygon was. Also what you describe was literally NOT the reason. They got bought and new owner strapped them because they probably just want use the brand so people click on some stock and AI generated articles.

I liked polygon. Sure, not every article was a hit, but that is normal for a lively team with different personalities. For me, culture journalism should be more like polygon with journalists that have personas and their own taste and their reviews reflect that and less like a technical review of washmashines that could be written by everyone. There is no objective journalism anyway, but even less in culture journalism. If some piece of art works for someone or not is a deeply subjective matter and its dumb to treat the debate about it differently.

Hope that everybody involved lands on their feet and I wish them their best luck.

Recent years prove me right to not work in the games industry, which was on my decision board a few years ago.

 

[Mournblade94]

Strange New Worlds season 2 shows how far Star Trek has come

The show better reflects 2023 than it does the roots of the sci-fi franchise

www.polygon.com

These kind of bad takes are why this sad kind of thing happened, the irony is that right now what the current year audience wants is more authentic and classic media, not excessive attempts to be contemporary.

Rick Berman once said that Star Trek was a period peice and not understanding that is why so much of what Kurtzman did failed.

Circling back to D&D, this is also a true point of D&D and it's setting, they too are in a sense period pieces, and trying to be excessively contemporary is a mistake, but one pushed by Polygon, and it lost its audience because it didn't understand it.

An example of this in the fantasy genre was the Willow series, folks found all the contemporary lingo in it jarring and unimmersive, and probably complained about that more than anything else. Don't get me wrong, you can take more liberties in fantasy then historical, FR is more sex positive and racially diverse then say Mideval Europe for example, but you have to do it in a way that respects the lore and the tone and the lingo of a place. Example instead of saying sex worker, coin lass, or coin lad.

Polygon didn't understand that and countless other issues and so lost a large chunk of its audience irony from being out of tune with current tastes. Their idea of their audience and the reality increasingly drifted apart.

For certain. Polygons problems were brought on by themselves. The "articles" they wrote were clickbait even before the clickbait mill bought them. The state of game journalism has been dire and this is not really a loss. Hence why so many are disappearing. Game journalism in general has been more awful editorial than providing any sort of service that is needed.

 

[Morrus]

For certain. Polygons problems were brought on by themselves. The "articles" they wrote were clickbait even before the clickbait mill bought them. The state of game journalism has been dire and this is not really a loss. Hence why so many are disappearing. Game journalism in general has been more awful editorial than providing any sort of service that is needed.

Whether or not that’s true, it’s certainly not why they’re disappearing. In fact, the opposite—crappy clickbait does gangbusters. Much more popular than actual journalism.

 

[Mournblade94]

I’m just a user like most everyone else on this site, however it is probably my most-visited site on the internet and definitely my major source of role-playing news, which I personally find very valuable.

In a world where good online spaces (of any kind) are becoming rarer, if you value ENWorld and can afford to contribute a little directly then I would encourage you to do that. I did after the last round of closing web sites and a realisation what a great site I personally find ENWorld to be.

I always check here for game news first. Its reliable. Always has been since end of AD&D days

 

[Longspeak]

Wait. This is a NEWS site???

Dagnabbit, I avoid news! Now I have to quit the site!

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: P

Edit. How do I make it stop replacing my ASCII smilies with graphic BS?

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

How do I make it stop replacing my ASCII smilies with graphic BS?

Backslash escapes?

 

[Longspeak]

Backslash escapes?

No... when I'm typing it presents the ASCII I type. When I save it becomes the graphic. frowny face

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

No... when I'm typing it preset the ASCII I type. When I save it becomes the graphic. frowny face

Yeah. Try backslash escapes.