Polygon & Games for Change conflict of interest cases

***UPDATE 1 – 2016-06-25 – 01:57:55 CEST***

Polygon has disclosed their “Guns, games and violence: The real questions you should be asking” article:

“Disclosure: Earlier this week, the author was added as a volunteer member to Games For Change’s advisory board”. – Polygon

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Less than one hour ago it came to my knowledge that there seems to be a conflict of interest case between Polygon and Games for Change. And funny enough, just recently Gamers joked about that it doesn´t mean all that much to have an ethics statement (or ethics policies) if you don´t intend to follow the policy rules which you have created. And why is that funny? Because Polygon updated their ethics policies about one year ago. And even so, Polygon doesn´t seem to bother all that much about following those rules. And thus the recent conflict of interest events with Polygon and Games for Change:

polygon feminist fequency calls out gamings straight male status quo

This is just one out of a handful of supposed conflict of interest cases between Polygon and Games for change (this post was written by Allegra Frank).

Brian Crecente is both the founding editor, executive editor for Polygon, and an advisory board member for Games for change.

polygon in the shadow of e3 conflict of interest

In Brian Crecente´s “In the shadow of E3” there is another COI case with Games for change.

In the matter of fact, at this very time, there appears to be not one, not two but FOUR conflict of interest cases between Polygon and Games for Change:

polygon brian crecente games for change conflict of interest two

Polygon´s Brain Crecente failed to disclose that his a member of Games for Change’s advisory board in his “Guns, games and violence: The real questions you should be asking” article.

polygon civilization is heading to the classroom conflict of interest

Yet another COI case between Polygon and Games for change (this time by Allegra Frank).

And I have looked through the following evidence just now (thank you Honkimus Maximus!):

Summary of First COI:
In Polygon’s article “Feminist Frequency editor calls out gaming’s straight male status quo at Games for Change” by Allegra Frank, Polygon fails to mention that Polygon’s founding editor and executive editor, Brian Crecente, is also a member of Games for Change’s advisory board. There is no disclosure of this in the article.

Article in question:
Feminist Frequency editor calls out gaming’s straight male status quo at Games for Change

Summary of Second COI:
In Polygon’s article “Guns, games and violence: The real questions you should be asking” by Brain Crecente, Polygon talks about the latest Games for Change festival. He fails to mention that he is also a member of Games for Change’s advisory board.

Article in question:
Guns, games and violence: The real questions you should be asking

Summary of Third COI:
In Polygon’s article “In the shadow of E3, this other festival gathers to discuss the impact of gaming” by Brain Crecente, Polygon talks about the latest Games for Change festival. He fails to mention that he is also a member of Games for Change’s advisory board.

Article in question:
In the shadow of E3, this other festival gathers to discuss the impact of gaming

Summary of Fourth COI:
In Polygon’s article “Civilization is heading to the classroom with new educational edition (update)” by Allegra Frank, Polygon fails to mention that Polygon’s founding editor and executive editor, Brian Crecente, is also a member of Games for Change’s advisory board. There is no disclosure of this in the article.

Article in question:
Civilization is heading to the classroom with new educational edition

Evidence of Brian Crecente being a member of Games for Change’s advisory board:
[http://archive.is/y4mhx]
[http://archive.is/JZIcE]

Evidence of Brian Crecente being Polygon’s executive editor:
[http://archive.is/vDEa6]

And in my opinion, it´s quite clear that there are at least four conflict of interest cases between Polygon and Games for Change at this time. So it remains to be seen if Polygon and Games for change will make a public statement about all of this. And “if” Polygon will update the COI posts in question.

With that said, what´s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Credit:
Honkimus Maximus
Lyle Yiannopoulos

Source:
KotakuInAction
Conflict of Interest Between Polygon and Games for Change
Guns, games and violence: The real questions you should be asking
Feminist Frequency editor calls out gaming’s straight male status quo at Games for Change

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

***Disclosure***
I´m not a fan nor a reader of Polygon.

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround