Polyglot (webzine)
Encyclopedia
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
.
It was announced on July 19, 2007, that Polyglot would include editorials and product reviews
. The webzine's publisher has not previously endorsed the inclusion of original or editorial content.
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. This was stated in the 53rd issue of the webzine (similar press releases have been made in other outletshttp://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=189044http://www.gamingreport.com/print.php?sid=23206) which likely means that the statement was made about the previous 52 issues combined. This equates to roughly 11,538 downloads per issue.
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, 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. The first computer game press release appeared in the previous issue 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 .
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 November 1, 2007, the largest issue of Polyglot to date was Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #9 at 65 pages.
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." (The reference is to "Polymancer" but this is incorrect, that being the name of a separate publication by the same company.) Mr. Cole has also stated in his blog that "If you really want to know what's going on in the adventure game industry, you can't do better than" reading Polyglot.
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. A press release by Polymancer Studios in Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #1 indicated that this has had the effect that the company intended.
Polyglot has been distributed freely on other game companies' websites.
and marketing
consultants. More than 100 companies have sent material to Polyglot since it first went online in March 2005 and as a result a full list of contributors would be long. The companies named below are a partial list.
Roleplaying game companies that have had material posted in Polyglot include Wizards of the Coast
, White Wolf
, Mongoose Publishing
, Columbia Games
, Eden Studios
, Paizo Publishing
, and a large number of smaller "independent" game companies. Polyglot also regularly has had marketing and publicity material from Mayfair Games
(known for Settlers of Catan) and other German game companies. Several miniatures companies also send to Polyglot (usually including color photos of their products) including Games Workshop
and Rackham Miniatures
. Traditional wargame companies like Amarillo Design Bureau
and Avalanche Press
also have sent product announcements on a regular basis. Some toy
companies (e.g. Briarpatch), conventions
(e.g. Gen Con
), game industry professional associations (e.g. GAMA, and film festivals (e.g. Fantasia
) have also had marketing material appear in Polyglot's "Traditional" gaming section.
The various computer games that have been featured in Polyglot include Activision
, id Software
, Electronic Arts
, MTV
(who have a game studio), Ubisoft
, and numerous smaller companies. Activision is the most frequent contributor, generally having several press releases, product announcements, and pages of screenshots or video stills placed in every issue of Polyglot (see various issues in the Notes below for examples of this).
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
, miniatures, card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
, LARP, comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
, 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
Polymancer magazine
Polymancer is a magazine covering roleplaying games and related hobbies such as miniatures, wargaming, and LARPs. The magazine is published in Canada; its first issue was published in 2004.- Nature of Magazine and Content :...
.
It was announced on July 19, 2007, that Polyglot would include editorials and product reviews
Review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, a product or a service, such as a movie , video game, musical composition , book ; a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer; or an event or performance, such as a live music concert, a play, musical theater show or dance show...
. The webzine's publisher has not previously endorsed the inclusion of original or editorial content.
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. This was stated in the 53rd issue of the webzine (similar press releases have been made in other outletshttp://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=189044http://www.gamingreport.com/print.php?sid=23206) 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
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
. 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, 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. The first computer game press release appeared in the previous issue alongside press releases for "traditional" games. A table of contents
Table of contents
A table of contents, usually headed simply "Contents" and abbreviated informally as TOC, is a list of the parts of a book or document organized in the order in which the parts appear...
first appeared in Volume #1 Issue #25 as well, the first one with clickable internal hyperlinks was in Volume #2 Issue #4 .
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
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
who issued the press release. Often (but not always), the writers are attributed
Attribution
Attribution may refer to:Something, such as a quality or characteristic, that is related to a particular possessor; an attribute.*Attribution , concept in copyright law requiring an author to be credited...
.
As of November 1, 2007, the largest issue of Polyglot to date was Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #9 at 65 pages.
Impact
Polyglot has grown over its history from a 3 page PDF of all text to as large as 65 pages with over 50 press releases and as many as 91 images in Volume #3 Issue #9; the PDF's file size ranges was 5.3 megabytes. 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
Amarillo Design Bureau Inc.
Amarillo Design Bureau is a company which specializes in tactical and strategic board wargames. The company is a successor to Task Force Games, and is owned and operated by Steve and Leanna Cole, with partner Steve Petrick, and based in Amarillo, Texas...
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." (The reference is to "Polymancer" but this is incorrect, that being the name of a separate publication by the same company.) Mr. Cole has also stated in his blog that "If you really want to know what's going on in the adventure game industry, you can't do better than" reading Polyglot.
Polymancer Studios has encouraged other companies in the game business to adopt professional press release writing techniques such as using the inverted pyramid
Inverted pyramid
The inverted pyramid is a metaphor used by journalists and other writers to illustrate the placing of the most important information first within a text...
in a style guide
Style guide
A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
on their web site. A press release by Polymancer Studios in Polyglot Volume #3 Issue #1 indicated that this has had the effect that the company intended.
Polyglot has been distributed freely on other game companies' websites.
Regular Contributors
Apart from editorials, Polyglot's only "contributors" are companies in the game industry. Their press releases are often signed by the company's owner or president. However, the computer game companies' press releases are typically signed by third party public relationsPublic relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
and marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
consultants. More than 100 companies have sent material to Polyglot since it first went online in March 2005 and as a result a full list of contributors would be long. The companies named below are a partial list.
Roleplaying game companies that have had material posted in Polyglot include Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, White Wolf
White Wolf
White Wolf is a publisher of role-playing games, notably the World of Darkness.White Wolf may also refer to:*White Wolf , a location in Yosemite National Park*White Wolf , a Canadian heavy metal band...
, Mongoose Publishing
Mongoose Publishing
Mongoose Publishing is a prolific British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, actively publishing material since 2001...
, Columbia Games
Columbia Games
Columbia Games is a maker of board and role-playing games including Hârn and a variety of games, mostly wargames using blocks instead of the more conventional chits...
, Eden Studios
Eden Studios
Eden Studios was a commercial recording facility in west London. It opened in 1967, originally at 11 Eden Street in Kingston upon Thames, before moving to 20-24 Beaumont Road in Chiswick in 1972. It was started by Philip Love, Mike Gardner and Piers Ford-Crush. Love and Gardner owned the studio and...
, Paizo Publishing
Paizo Publishing
Paizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...
, and a large number of smaller "independent" game companies. Polyglot also regularly has had marketing and publicity material from Mayfair Games
Mayfair Games
Mayfair Games is a publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games. They also license German-style board games and publish them in English throughout the world...
(known for Settlers of Catan) and other German game companies. Several miniatures companies also send to Polyglot (usually including color photos of their products) including Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
and Rackham Miniatures
Rackham
Rackham is a French miniature and role-playing games production company founded in 1997 by Jean Bey, CEO and Creative Director....
. Traditional wargame companies like Amarillo Design Bureau
Amarillo Design Bureau
Amarillo Design Bureau is a company which specializes in tactical and strategic board wargames. The company is a successor to Task Force Games, and is owned and operated by Steve and Leanna Cole, with partner Steve Petrick, and based in Amarillo, Texas...
and Avalanche Press
Avalanche Press
Avalanche Press is an American company that publishes board wargames and has published some role-playing game supplements. An extremely prolific company, they have produced many respected contributions to the wargame community, most notably The Great War at Sea and Panzer Grenadier series, as well...
also have sent product announcements on a regular basis. Some toy
Toy
A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...
companies (e.g. Briarpatch), conventions
Convention (meeting)
A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...
(e.g. Gen Con
Gen Con
Gen Con is one of the largest and most prominent annual gaming conventions in North America. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card-style games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, board games, live action role-playing games, collectible card games, non-collectible...
), game industry professional associations (e.g. GAMA, and film festivals (e.g. Fantasia
Fantasia Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...
) have also had marketing material appear in Polyglot's "Traditional" gaming section.
The various computer games that have been featured in Polyglot include Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
, id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
, Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
(who have a game studio), Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
, and numerous smaller companies. Activision is the most frequent contributor, generally having several press releases, product announcements, and pages of screenshots or video stills placed in every issue of Polyglot (see various issues in the Notes below for examples of this).
External links
- Polyglot website http://www.polymancerstudios.com/content/view/48/61/
- http://www.myspace.com/polymancerPolymancer Studios's MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page] - Ezine hub http://ezinehub.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?l=10&b=No&c=56&t=normal&s=11&title=Games
- http://groups.google.bg/group/rec.games.frp.industry/topics
- http://www.directory-index.net/Games/Miniatures/
- http://www.mobiumrpg.net/index.php?option=com_weblinks&catid=31&Itemid=23
- Polyglot at ScribdScribdScribd is a Web 2.0 based document-sharing website which allows users to post documents of various formats, and embed them into a web page using its iPaper format. Scribd was founded by Trip Adler, Tikhon Bernstam, and Jared Friedman in 2006...
http://www.scribd.com/Polymancer - Polyglot at IssuuIssuuIssuu is an online service that allows for realistic and customizable viewing of digitally uploaded material, such as portfolios, books, magazine issues, newspapers, and other print media. It integrates with social networking sites to promote uploaded material. Issuu's service is comparable to what...
http://issuu.com/polymancer