Polygon: Indie TTRPG Companies are "sitting in their own little corners of the internet and wringing their hands"

[Waller]

In a weird article, Polygon, which covers D&D extensively, has suddenly turned on Wizard of the Coast AND the indie RPG community.

It’s time for independent tabletop role-playing games to get loud

The dragon is wounded, and it’s time to throw yourselves into the breach

www.polygon.com

This has of course exploded on social media with small TTRPG companies saying things like "We have sent you [Polygon] 50 emails over the last 5 years asking for coverage of our games and you've ignored them every time in favor of the latest pointless D&D fluff piece and now you're saying it's OUR fault that we aren't heard?"

The article about indie TTRPGs mentions D&D about a dozen times, and... count them... one indie game (Mothership).

Irony, you have a name, and it is Polygon.

 

[Christian Hoffer]

Polygon's TTRPG coverage has increased significantly in recent weeks, as they brought on Rowan Zeoli, who also co-runs Rascal, for at least a temporary stint.

Generally speaking, it's very hard to justify coverage about indie TTRPGs on larger sites like Polygon. I had access to my previous employer's traffic metrics and it was heartbreaking to see how much of a drop-off there was between D&D and just about everything else. I had some success with early Stormlight RPG coverage and could usually gimmick some of the more recent D&D competitors to draw in a smidge of D&D traffic, but the reality is that the audience isn't there to write about indie TTRPGs extensively....at least not if you're trying to rely primarily on traffic ad revenue to keep your site's lights on.

I've had to explain to a lot of game makers - both TTRPG and board game makers - that if I couldn't write 400 words about your game and explain to a bunch of people who didn't know what "TTRPG" meant why they should be interested in their game, their article wan't happening.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Rascal has a very strong point of view, including a strong "why the hell isn't the world run the way, I, a world-weary 23 year old, sees that it clearly ought to be?"

I do not know if anyone at Rascal is actually 23, but that's very much the vibe running through their (nearly all excellent) work.

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

Poly used to be here with great news and commentary but now Polygon.

But more seriously why does this article specify a constrained and exact measurement of success through BackerKit? It seems a strange way (possibly calculated) to overlook ongoing success from several different publishers and authors.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Poly used to be here with great news and commentary but now Polygon.

Whut?

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

Whut?

Was my jest to weird? I don’t really mean anything but grouchy grumbling.

 

[Alzrius]

Is anyone surprised that Polygon had a poor take on a topic? Because as far as I'm aware, that's made them a punchline for years now. Just ask Penny Arcade:

 

[MichaelSomething]

So Enworld is entering the "Trash Polygon" arc?

 

[TiQuinn]

Polygon's TTRPG coverage has increased significantly in recent weeks, as they brought on Rowan Zeoli, who also co-runs Rascal, for at least a temporary stint.

Generally speaking, it's very hard to justify coverage about indie TTRPGs on larger sites like Polygon. I had access to my previous employer's traffic metrics and it was heartbreaking to see how much of a drop-off there was between D&D and just about everything else. I had some success with early Stormlight RPG coverage and could usually gimmick some of the more recent D&D competitors to draw in a smidge of D&D traffic, but the reality is that the audience isn't there to write about indie TTRPGs extensively....at least not if you're trying to rely primarily on traffic ad revenue to keep your site's lights on.

I've had to explain to a lot of game makers - both TTRPG and board game makers - that if I couldn't write 400 words about your game and explain to a bunch of people who didn't know what "TTRPG" meant why they should be interested in their game, their article wan't happening.

Given what you stated above, I don’t think this was a very fair statement by Charlie Hall:

Rather than sitting in their own little corners of the internet and wringing their hands, creatives who want to thrive in the TTRPG space need to come together and fight for the recognition that they deserve.

It’s also pretty two-faced to be writing about the rising “enshittification” of the game when he’s also written glowing reviews of their last two products.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So Enworld is entering the "Trash Polygon" arc?

I don't think anyone on this thread is doing so.