In this episode of Dialogue Tree, Eric Brasure interviews Chris Grant, previously editor-in-chief of Joystiq, now editor-in-chief of upcoming gaming site Polygon. In this interview, Chris discusses traffic chasing, the definition of videogame news, the role of advertising and also the earlier kerfuffle over the lack of women in the Polygon editorial team.
(Originally broadcast Jan 23, 2012 through Second Quest. At the time this interview was recorded, Polygon was still provisionally labelled “Vox Games”.)
Contents
03:50 “The strategy was expensive.”
04:20 “Our strategy from the beginning was always to go big.”
10:10 “The intimation is… that removal might signal something larger.”
11:20 “Even when Activision was trying to be transparent with its own customers, people criticised them.”
14:40 “I won’t ever apologise for trying to get page views on a commercial website…”
16:10 “The people who stand behind some kind of safety shield of ‘blogger’ and suggest that they’re not journalists… also wrong.”
22:50 “Advertising is so far from a consideration…”
27:10 “When I first started, when Joystiq had literally no editorial structure…”
28:40 “Longform journalism, it doesn’t happen with any consistency…”
32:00 “I think Kill Screen’s great. I don’t know how viable Kill Screen is as a commercial product.”
36:40 “There was one. And she wasn’t interested.”
37:10 “In terms of women, the reality is there aren’t that many in the entire industry.”
43:30 “…we got almost no female applicants and none of them were very good.”
44:20 “It’s not as simple as just saying ‘hire the best writers’.”
48:50 “Maybe I guess… I am now? I never thought of myself as ‘old guard’.”
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References
- Featured music: The Hidden Cameras – “Death of a Tune” (Outside Music)
- Rebranding of Vox Games as Polygon (video)
- Polygon
- “Press Reset” documentary on Polygon (episode one)
- Joystiq story on The Last Guardian being dropped from GameStop
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Aww, at first I’d hoped this was fresh and contained grilling on account of the ridiculous documentary. A bit sad now.
Hah, sorry about that Ketchua! I think it’s still interesting nonetheless for some insight into how the bigger game sites are run. There’s some stuff in there about writer burnout too which I didn’t get a decent quote for.
I’ll definitely take a look (hear?) later, though my feelings on Polygon are quite mixed.
Oh I think it’s more interesting if your feelings on Polygon – like mine – are mixed.