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Removed the deletion proposal tag ("non-notable webzine"). Added to introduction and to "impact" sections attesting to notability. See additional information in the talk page.
A lizard (talk | contribs)
397 edits
→‎News announced in Polyglot: Added news item about Drag and Dungeon ceasing publication and the manner in which it was announced in Polyglot.
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*The January 26 2007 announcement that [[Gen Con]] So Cal was permanently canceled was announced in Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #25<ref>''Polyglot'' Volume #2 Issue #25 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue25_2007_02_06.pdf</ref>.
*The January 26 2007 announcement that [[Gen Con]] So Cal was permanently canceled was announced in Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #25<ref>''Polyglot'' Volume #2 Issue #25 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue25_2007_02_06.pdf</ref>.
*The April 6 2007 announcement that Matthews Simmons Marketing (MSM) was (Voluntarily) ceasing business activities, that ''Games Quarterly Magazine'' was ceasing its publishing operations, and that the ''Games Quarterly Catalog'' had changed ownership; was announced in Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #3<ref>''Polyglot'' Volume #3 Issue #3 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume3/polyglot_volume3_issue3_2007_04_08.pdf</ref>.
*The April 6 2007 announcement that Matthews Simmons Marketing (MSM) was (Voluntarily) ceasing business activities, that ''Games Quarterly Magazine'' was ceasing its publishing operations, and that the ''Games Quarterly Catalog'' had changed ownership; was announced in Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #3<ref>''Polyglot'' Volume #3 Issue #3 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume3/polyglot_volume3_issue3_2007_04_08.pdf</ref>.
*The April 19 2007 announcement that [[Paizo Publishing]]'s license to produce [[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]] and [[Dungeon (magazine)|Dungeon]] will end in September 2007 and will not be renewed, thus ending an era in the history of the game industry, was announced on the front page of Polyglot Volume #4 Issue #5<ref>"Paizo to Cease Publication of ''Dragon'' and ''Dungeon.''" ''Polyglot'' Volume #3 Issue #5. http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume3/polyglot_volume3_issue4_2007_04_19.pdf</ref>. One statement in the Polyglot article attributed to Scott Rouse of [[Wizards of the Coast]]<ref>Op Cit: "Rouse would not say what form the online content would take: 'We are keeping our cards close to our chest.' Further details will be announced in the coming months, however."</ref> did not appear in the press releases which appeared on either Paizo's<ref>http://paizo.com/transition</ref> or Wizards's<ref>"Paizo Publishing to Cease Publication of DRAGON and DUNGEON" http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/news/20070419a</ref> web sites, suggesting that original [[reporting]] was involved.


==Impact==
==Impact==

Revision as of 19:30, 6 May 2007

Template:Infobox Webzine Polyglot is a biweekly online newsletter about the game hobby industry. It contains official press releases put out by roleplaying game, board game, miniatures, card game, LARP, comic book, and computer game companies. It is published for free as a downloadable PDF. Polyglot is published by Polymancer Studios, Inc., a Canadian publisher that also prints Polymancer magazine.

In the second anniversary issue (the filename for which indicates it was placed on the company's server on March 8 2007), the publishers of Polyglot stated that there have been over 600,000 "unique downloads" of Polyglot since March 2005[1]. This was stated in the 53rd issue of the webzine (similar press releases have been made in other outlets[1][2]) which likely means that the statement was made about the previous 52 issues combined. This equates to roughly 11,538 downloads per issue.

Format

Polyglot's issues are numbered in a volume/issue format that is similar to how printed magazines are numbered; that is, not sequentially. For example, the 27th issue of Polyglot was not "Polyglot issue #27" but "Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #1."

Polyglot is formatted as a US letter size PDF. It is divided into two sections, one for "traditional" games (the term the company uses to described RPGs, card games, board games, miniatures, etc.) and one for "digital" games. Every page of Polyglot has a banner image of the top containing Polyglot's logo. There are two different logos, one for the "traditional" gaming section and one for the "digital" gaming section. The front page of each of the two sections has a slightly larger logo. The "traditional" gaming section's logo has the slogan "the language of gaming" and the digital section's logo simply says "digital section." In both sections, the logos have different colors on each page, repeated in sequence (there are 5 different colors for the "traditional" section" and 4 for the "electronic" section).

The first 12 issues of Polyglot (i.e., Volume #1 Issues #1 to #12) did not have any images in them other than the Polyglot "traditional" section logos. Starting in Volume #1 Issue #13[2], images of games, game company logos, and convention photographs have appeared in the newsletter.

There was no "digital" section in Polyglot until Polyglot Volume #1 issue #25[3]. The first computer game press release appeared in the previous issue[4] alongside press releases for "traditional" games. A table of contents first appeared in Volume #1 Issue #25 as well, the first one with clickable internal hyperlinks was in Volume #2 Issue #4 [5].

Most URLs in Polyglot press releases are clickable. Many of the items that appear in the newsletter have contact information for the game company or the publicist who issued the press release. Often (but not always), the writers are attributed.

As of April 10 2007, the largest issue of Polyglot to date was Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #19[6] at 56 pages.

News announced in Polyglot

A few notable news items were announced in Polyglot, often on the front page. They are listed here in chronological order.

  • On April 6 2005[7], Grey Ghost Press, Carnivore Games, and Evil Hat Productions co-announced that the FUDGE RPG was to be released under the Open Gaming License (OGL).
  • On April 26 2005[8], Margaret Weis Productions announced they had obtained the license to produce the Serenity RPG.
  • On May 19 2005[9], Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman announced that they were beginning a new trilogy in the Dragonlance series.
  • The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) announced the Origins Awards winners in 2005[10] and 2006[11].
  • In April 2006[12], Palladium Books announced that they were close to bankrupcy and made an appeal to fans of Rifts and their other products to generate revenue for the troubled company through buying posters made for the occasion by Kevin Siembieda. As of April 9 2007, there was still an appeal on the company's website[13] for donations (through PayPal) to "save" the company.
  • The April 10 2006 death of John M. Ford was reported in Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #16, the obituary consisting partly of material from Wikipedia[14].
  • The October 25 2006 merger of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG to form OneBookShelf was reported in Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #18[15].
  • The November 11 2006 merger of White Wolf and CCP was reported in Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #19[16].
  • The December 23 2006 announcement that Margaret Weis Productions will be producing a Battlestar Galactica RPG appeared in Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #22[17].
  • The January 26 2007 announcement that Gen Con So Cal was permanently canceled was announced in Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #25[18].
  • The April 6 2007 announcement that Matthews Simmons Marketing (MSM) was (Voluntarily) ceasing business activities, that Games Quarterly Magazine was ceasing its publishing operations, and that the Games Quarterly Catalog had changed ownership; was announced in Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #3[19].
  • The April 19 2007 announcement that Paizo Publishing's license to produce Dragon and Dungeon will end in September 2007 and will not be renewed, thus ending an era in the history of the game industry, was announced on the front page of Polyglot Volume #4 Issue #5[20]. One statement in the Polyglot article attributed to Scott Rouse of Wizards of the Coast[21] did not appear in the press releases which appeared on either Paizo's[22] or Wizards's[23] web sites, suggesting that original reporting was involved.

Impact

Polyglot has grown over its history from a 3 page PDF of all text to as large as 56 pages with over 20 press releases and more than a dozen color images per issue. More than 100 companies (see below) have sent material to Polyglot over the course of the webzine's first 55 issues.

Stephen V Cole of Starfleet Games identified Polyglot as a one of the "People Who Will Contact You" in his online book about how to run a game company. He advises game companies to "ask them to tell you the kind of information they want... and give it to them."[24] (The reference is to "Polymancer" but this is incorrect, that being the name of a separate publication by the same company.)

Polymancer Studios has encouraged other companies in the game business to adopt professional press release writing techniques such as using the inverted pyramid in a style guide on their web site.[25] A press release by Polymancer Studios in Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #1 indicated that this has had the effect that the company intended[26].

Companies whose press releases have been included in Polyglot

Many different companies in the game industry have had press releases, product announcements, and other items displayed in Polyglot. They are listed here alphabetically, divided into the "traditional" and "electronic" sections used in Polyglot.

"Traditional" game companies (RPG, miniatures, board, card, LARP, etc.)

  • Øone Games
  • 3 Boys Productions
  • 3J Games
  • AB Figures
  • Active Minds Solutions
  • Adiken
  • Alleged Enterprises
  • Alliance Game Distributors
  • Amarillo Design Bureau Inc (aka "Starfleet Games").
  • Arcana Studio
  • Arc Dream Publishing
  • Archaia Studios Press
  • Askari Miniatures
  • Atomic Sock Monkey Press
  • Avalanche Press
  • Baeg Tobar
  • Bards & Sages
  • Bastion Press
  • Battlefield Press
  • Beyond The Storm
  • Black Powder Games
  • BlackWyrm Games
  • Blue Devil Games
  • Blue Panther LLC
  • Briarpatch
  • BTRC
  • CaBill
  • Café Press
  • Carnivore Games
  • Charon Productions
  • ChimaeraCon
  • Columbia Games
  • Comstar Games
  • Contested Ground Studios
  • Conquest Miniatures
  • Copplestone Castings
  • Cumberland Games
  • Dark Sword Miniatures
  • Dead Ant Games
  • Diana Jones Awards
  • Dimension Games Software
  • Dreadnought Media
  • DriveThruRPG
  • DRPS PRoductions
  • DWItheGame.com
  • Dynatech Action Inc.
  • Eden Studios
  • Edge Of Reality
  • Eight Foot Llama
  • Empty Room Studios
  • Enchanted Isle
  • Eureka Figures
  • Evil Hat Productions
  • Fantasia Film Festival
  • Fantasy Flight Games
  • Fantasy Frontiers
  • Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival
  • Fear The Boot
  • Firefly Games
  • Forge World
  • Flying Buffalo
  • FreeRoleplay.org
  • Fun Again Games
  • Fun Factory Games
  • Galileo Games
  • GAMA
  • Game Publishers Association
  • Games Expo
  • Games Quarterly
  • Games Workshop
  • Gammazon
  • Goldbrick Games
  • Gorilla Games
  • Gotta Laugh Games
  • Green Ronin
  • Grey Ghost Press
  • GTM Guide
  • Guild of Blades
  • Have Games, Will Travel
  • Highmoon Media
  • Hutchison, Ron
  • Immanion Press
  • Impressions Advertising and Marketing
  • Impulse Creations
  • Indie Press Revolution
  • Inner City Games Designs/Heckaforge Productions
  • Innovatium, Inc.
  • Interactive Design Adventures
  • Iron Crown Enterprises
  • Jiggi Games
  • Justus Productions
  • Kunoichi
  • Laughing Pan Productions
  • Leisure Games
  • Le Montagnard
  • Lion Rampant Imports
  • Living Room Games
  • Malhavoc Press
  • Margaret Weis Productions
  • Matthews Simmons Marketing
  • Mayfair Games
  • Menneteau, François
  • Middle Earth Games
  • Mid-Ohio-Con
  • Mind Candy
  • Mithril Miniatures
  • Mongoose Publishing
  • Morrigan Press
  • MT Enterprises
  • Mystique Enterprises
  • National Games Week
  • NBM Publishing
  • NERO
  • Nexus Editrice
  • Old Glory15s
  • OneBookShelf
  • One Small Step
  • On The Line Game Company
  • Osprey Publishing
  • Palabra Enterprises
  • Paizo Publishing
  • Palladium Books
  • Paradox Entertainment
  • Pelgrane Press
  • Pied Piper Publishing
  • Polymancer Studios
  • Pony Trouble
  • Precis Intermedia (formerly Politically Incorrect Games)
  • Prince August
  • ProFantasy Software
  • Pulp Gamer
  • Random House
  • Rackham Miniatures
  • Rapid POD
  • Rattrap Productions
  • Real Deal Games
  • Reality Blurs
  • RedBrick Ltd.
  • Red Tag Games
  • Rogue Games
  • Rogues Hollow
  • Ronin Arts
  • RPGNow
  • Second Rat Games
  • Seraphim Guard
  • SSDC
  • Students of the Unusual
  • Synelix Games
  • Tabletop Adventures
  • Technomancer Press
  • The Impossible Dream
  • The Only Sheet
  • Thwaprs Company
  • Timeline Ltd.
  • Triskele Games
  • Troll Lord Games
  • Vajra Enterprises
  • Veritas Games
  • Visionary Entertainment Studio
  • WarWeb
  • White Silver Publishing
  • White Wolf
  • WizKids Games
  • YourGamesNow.com
  • Zeitgeist Games

"Electronic" (Computer, Console, etc.)

Notes

  1. ^ Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #1 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume3/polyglot_volume3_issue1_2007_03_08.pdf
  2. ^ Polyglot Volume #1 Issue #13 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume1/polyglot_volume1_issue13_2005_08_20.pdf
  3. ^ Polyglot Volume #1 Issue #25 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume1/polyglot_volume1_issue25_2006_02_04.pdf
  4. ^ Polyglot Volume #1 Issue #24 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume1/polyglot_volume1_issue24_2006_01_21.pdf
  5. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #4 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue4_2006_04_17.pdf
  6. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #19 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue19_2006_11_13.pdf
  7. ^ Polyglot Volume #1 Issue #4 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume1/polyglot_volume1_issue4_2005_04_16.pdf
  8. ^ Polyglot Volume #1 Issue #5 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume1/polyglot_volume1_issue5_2005_04_29.pdf
  9. ^ Polyglot Volume #1 Issue #7 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume1/polyglot_volume1_issue7_2005_05_28.pdf
  10. ^ Polyglot Volume #1 Issue #10 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume1/polyglot_volume1_issue10_2005_07_09.pdf
  11. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #10 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue10_2006_07_10.pdf
  12. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #5 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue5_2006_04_30.pdf
  13. ^ "Please Help Save Palladium Books" http://www.palladiumbooks.com/
  14. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 issue #16 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue16_2006_10_03.pdf
  15. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #18 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue18_2006_11_01.pdf
  16. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #19 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue19_2006_11_13.pdf
  17. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #22 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue22_2006_12_23.pdf
  18. ^ Polyglot Volume #2 Issue #25 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume2/polyglot_volume2_issue25_2007_02_06.pdf
  19. ^ Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #3 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume3/polyglot_volume3_issue3_2007_04_08.pdf
  20. ^ "Paizo to Cease Publication of Dragon and Dungeon." Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #5. http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume3/polyglot_volume3_issue4_2007_04_19.pdf
  21. ^ Op Cit: "Rouse would not say what form the online content would take: 'We are keeping our cards close to our chest.' Further details will be announced in the coming months, however."
  22. ^ http://paizo.com/transition
  23. ^ "Paizo Publishing to Cease Publication of DRAGON and DUNGEON" http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/news/20070419a
  24. ^ Cole, Stephen V. Stephen Cole's Running a Game Publishing Company. Amarillo, TX: Amarillo Design Bureau. December 16 2006. http://www.starfleetgames.com/book/2-the_company.pdf Accessed April 10 2007.
  25. ^ Polymancer Studios, Inc. "The Polyglot Guide to Press Release Writing for Gaming Professionals" Montreal: Polymancer Studios, Inc. http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/polyglot/HOWTO_Press_Release.pdf Accessed April 10 2007.
  26. ^ Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #1 http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polyglot/volume3/polyglot_volume3_issue1_2007_03_08.pdf page 37: "Not only are we getting more material to put into Polyglot, we are also getting better material because game companies are sending us better press releases with each passing week." (Emphasis as in original.)

External Links

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polyglot_%28webzine%29&diff=128719104&oldid=122808610

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