Russ Pitts:

There will be those cynical few who consider my departure an admission of some kind of failure that they, watching from the sidelines, predicted long ago. They will say, “I told you so.” And that’s OK. They’re right. They did tell us so. But that was the easy part.

Throwing rocks from the gallery at those who are trying to do something ambitious is no great accomplishment. I’d rather be the one who rolls up his sleeves and tries to accomplish something inspiring, even if it may fail. Even if it won’t last.

But there is no failure here, just change. I’ll never be ashamed of the ambitious dreams we built at Polygon, and I’ll never be afraid to try again. Hopefully my modest successes will inspire others to do their own great, ambitious things and build their own dreams.

There is a sinking feeling in my gut. No sooner had I posted this, I learn of Russ Pitts’ departure from Polygon. For those unfamiliar with Pitts, his work on Operation Supply Drop and GlassLab are nothing short of earth-shattering. There is only a bright future for such a talented writer. Godspeed.

Lorne Lanning, creator of Oddworld in an interview with Polygon:

I’m a kid who learned how to read from Sesame Street, not from school, so I believe in the power of media to make a better world.

I had an eerily similar thought this morning. I’m a kid who learned how to type from AIM, not from school, so I believe in the power of experiential learning to make a better world. This is something I believe to be at the heart of video games.

ScienceDirect:

We found support for the hypothesis that, in general, women would gain more compliance with friend requests than men. We also found support for the hypothesis that women making positive utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than women making negative utterances, whereas men making negative utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than men making positive utterances.

This sounds in-line with Rosalind Wiseman and Ashly Burch’s findings.

Griffin McElroy, senior editor at Polygon in an interview with The Indoor Kids:

When we founded Polygon, it was based on the idea that there are games writers who are out there who are really bright and really good at what they do. We wanted it to be a little bit more personality based, not entirely about us but I think there is some value to, “I have writers that I adore, I’m going to value them higher.” There’s not a lot of demand for that.

I used to follow IGN incessantly. At times I felt like an addict, continually refreshing their page for the more news. I began contributing blog posts in the hopes of offering more content, one of which was featured.

Then I stumbled upon Polygon. At first glance, there was promise; however, based on prior viewing habits, I was disappointed by the content. While I was initially attracted to their modern design, I looked at the abundance of larger features and opinions as pretentious… Until I decided focus on their writers.

Polygon is now my go-to games site. I constantly find myself scrolling through their feed, scanning for new pieces from Chris Plante, The Brothers McElroy, or Grumpa Kuchera. My Twitter feed is littered with the likes of Danielle Riendeau and Phil Kollar. On occasion, a piece from Brian Crecente will spark curiosity. Last year I deemed Tracey Lien “Journalist of the Year.” I will go as far as to say that the work of the Polygon team inspired me to read… inspired me to write.

That’s not to say I dislike IGN’s features. Justin Davis continually pulls at my nostalgic heartstrings, and I don’t think I ever read a piece by Keza MacDonald (now of Kotaku UK) I didn’t agree with. The problem is that most of the content feels like the voice of IGN, not the voice of the writer.

Baseball diehards can tell you the subtleties in team dynamics. There can be diversity under the same umbrella. Many more sites need to embrace the privilege of instant educated opinion. If the games community cannot foster intelligent conversation on its own, someone must lead the way.

Generally, if I dislike a highly anticipated album upon first listen, it ends up becoming one of my favorites. I hated Cursive’s “The Ugly Organ,” anything by Mark Kozelek, and The Beatles; now I can’t stop listening. I felt the same about Polygon; now I can’t stop reading.

Luke Karmali, IGN:

The NPD Group’s video game sales report for the month reveals that console sales jumped up a massive 95 percent year-on-year to $586 million, with console software sales also climbing 57 percent to $274 million.

Titles singled out for praise on the games front include Watch Dogs and Mario Kart 8, with the latter being largely responsible for Wii U sales jumping up 85 percent despite only being on sale for two days of the month. Despite this, the Wii U was edged out by Nintendo’s 3DS handheld, which took second place behind Sony’s PS4 in terms of the best-selling hardware of the month.

Software sells hardware. This is impressive for all systems considering the spike occurred before E3. I’m really looking forward to June’s figures. My money is on Wii U. Hail Mario.