User:Digitalhumanitiestudent1/sandbox

Editing area for later moving to live page

(Note for peer reviewers: I did not paste the entire article in my Sandbox, only pieces I am working on. Please navigate to the full article for all the context.)

Some time prior to September 2003, the owner of coinop.org submitted a tip-off to the video game magazine GamePro about Polybius. Polybius then appeared in the September 2003 issue of GamePro, as part of a feature story on video games called "Secrets and Lies". This was very noteworthy, as it was the first known printed mention of the game, exposing the legend to a mass-market audience. The article declared the existence of the game to be "inconclusive," helping to both spark curiosity and spread the story.

Following the appearance in GamePro, a number of individuals came forward claiming to have some involvement with Polybius. In 2006, a man named Steven Roach claimed he had been one of the original programmers and that his company developed a game with very intense and cutting-edge graphics. However, after the game saw a limited release, a boy experienced an epileptic seizure while playing, and the cabinets were withdrawn by the company in a panic. Although Roach offered no proof for his claims, his story added details on the gameplay, which later inspired Rogue Synapse's game based on the legend.

Analysis

The original game's existence has never been authoritatively proven. Snopes.com claims to have debunked the existence of the game as a modern-day version of 1980s rumors of "men in black" visiting arcades and taking down the names of high scorers at arcade games. Magazines of the time period dedicated to electronic gaming make no mention of a Polybius, and mainstream news also fails to note such a game. While a number of mockup cabinets and games inspired by the myth do exist, no authentic cabinets or ROM dumps have ever been located. Ben Silverman of Yahoo! Games remarked: "Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the game ever existed, no less turned its users into babbling lunatics . . . Still, Polybius has enjoyed cult-like status as a throwback to a more technologically paranoid era."

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Version without Cat as a Source--

Skeptics and researchers have differing ideas on how and why the story of Polybius came about. American producer and author Brian Dunning believes Polybius to be an urban legend that grew out of a mixture of influences in the 80s. He notes that two players fell ill in Portland on the same day in 1981, one collapsing with a migraine headache after playing Tempest, and another suffering from stomach pain after playing Asteroids for 28 hours in a filmed attempt to break a world record at the same arcade. Dunning records that the FBI raided several video arcades in the area just ten days later, where the owners were suspected of using the machines for gambling, and the lead-up to the raid involved FBI agents monitoring arcade cabinets for signs of tampering and recording high scores. Dunning suggests that these two events were combined in an urban legend about government-monitored arcade machines making players ill. He believes that such a myth must have been established by 1984, and that it influenced the plot of the film The Last Starfighter, in which a teenager is recruited by aliens who monitored him playing a covertly-developed arcade game.

However, some skeptics believe that the Polybius myth has a far more recent origin. British filmmaker and video game journalist Stuart Brown, after his investigation of the legend's origin, did not find any evidence of the Polybius myth existing until the year 2000. He concluded that Polybius was an intentional hoax made by Kurt Koller, owner of coinop.org, in order to drive traffic to his website. The hoax capitalized on the popularity of conspiracy theories and the highly viral nature of other recent internet hoaxes. In Brown's view, the reasons for a 80s origin are simply retroactive justifications of the hoax's existence-- or served as inspiration to Koller to craft his tale.

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Skeptics and researchers have differing ideas on how and why the story of Polybius came about. Both writer and producer Brian Dunning and researcher Cat Despira argue that a mixture of influences in the 80s led to the creation of the story. For instance, there were at least two real cases of children falling sick in Oregon while playing at arcade machines. In 1981, a 12-year-old played Asteriods for 28 hours straight, attempting to break a record. He was forced to stop due to stomach cramps, most likely due to a strict diet of cola and juice during the gaming marathon. On the same day, another young boy suffered his first migraine headache while playing Tempest, the sudden onset of his symptoms alarming his friends.

In addition to these real events of children falling sick, it was not unheard of for local and federal law enforcement to be involved with arcades. In fact, there were a number of raids during the time period to arrest suspects for illegal gambling operations and the selling of stolen goods. Federal agents had even wired some arcade cabinets with survelliance equipment prior to some of these raids. Dunning and DeSpira believe the combination of these events made for a potent breeding ground for rumors and stories to develop and spread. Dunning further argues that the Polybius myth must have been established by 1984, as it was referenced in the plot of the film The Last Starfighter, in which a teenager is recruited by a man in black who monitors him playing a covertly-developed arcade game.

However, some skeptics believe that the Polybius myth has a far more recent origin. British filmmaker and video game journalist Stuart Brown, after his investigation of the legend's origin, did not find any evidence of the Polybius myth existing until the year 2000. He concluded that Polybius was an intentional hoax made by Kurt Koller, owner of coinop.org, in order to drive traffic to his website. The hoax capitalized on the popularity of conspiracy theories and the highly viral nature of other recent internet hoaxes. In Brown's view, the reasons for a 80s origin are simply retroactive justifications of the hoax's existence-- or simply served as inspiration to Koller to craft his tale.

Photos

I am not very familiar with the legality of photos on Wikipedia, so I still need to research this. There is a screenshot from the original coinop.org website of the game that I would like to use for the article-- it's extremely relevent and the most influencial image to the myth that there is. Almost every single article that discusses Polybius has this image. However, I'm not sure if I can actually use this image.

There is also a screenshot of The Simpsons episode that includes a Polybius reference in the background. Again, if I could include this image, it would be very useful, but I'm not sure if it's legal.

Outline

The more I work with the article the more I realize how poorly organized the entire page is. There are many areas that need reorginization and expansion. I'm currently working on an outline.

Urban Legend

(a) Summary of original legend as listed by coinop.org (need to confirm all details in article are cited properly)

Note-- Strongly consider adding 'screencap' of the game, which is the oldest visual 'proof' of the game and very influential to the myth

(b) Explain the significance of the myth's appearance in GamePro magazine (first time it appeared in print, the single biggest source of spreading myth)

(c) Steven Roach adds details to the myth that become embedded in the story. Briefly summarize his involvement and his added details

(d) Consider adding a little bit of info about the photos of fake arcade cabinets that popped up, as this helped further fuel and spread the story

Analysis

(a) Debunking the myth (move relevent material from elsewhere in the article to this section): BRIEFLY review the proof that the game does not exist (no proof of company existing, no printed mention from media of the time, no ROMs or machines found, name of the company seems to be made-up by non-German speaker)

(b) Argument for 80s origin (Dunning, DeSpira), with focus mainly on why the myth developed and was popular/appealed to people

(c) Argument for 2000 origin (Brown, et al), with focus mainly on why the myth developed (a hoax by coinop.org to drive traffic) and why it was popular and appealed to people/why it still appeals to people

Legacy

Notes:

• I realize 'legacy' is a common method of organizing Wiki articles. It does feel a bit odd here, though, to seperate it from 'history.' That is because the nature of urban legends is that they are on-going and always evolving. The 'legacy' really is just the next step in the story's history, spread, and morphing. Still, it may be easiest to stick with this header.

• Add screenshot of The Simpsons episode that has Polybius, if this is legal to do so. It was arguably the most major mainstream reference to the myth.
• Clarification needed tag in this section to tend to, clean up 'in popular culture section'
• Check to see if the legacy list is accurate and if anything needs to be added

List of Sources

Coinop.org

Reinvestigating Polybius by Cat DeSpira

The Urban Legend of the Government’s Mind-Controlling Arcade Game

Polybius - The Video Game That Doesn't Exist

Coin-op conspiracy: uncovering Polybius, the arcade’s enduring urban legend

Polybius: The story behind the world's most mysterious arcade cabinet

Was Polybius real?

BitParade Interview with Steven Roach

Article evaluation

• • Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you? Although the page is quite short, the content at least is relevant.
  • Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? For the most part, the article is neutral. However, in the Analysis section, there are very few viewpoints offered, so it does not provide a very balanced view of the available ideas about why the urban legend came about and appealed to people.
  • Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? Yes. The Analysis section focuses almost exclusively on Brian Dunning's ideas, and then makes very brief mention of Stuart Brown. This could be expanded to represent more viewpoints.
  • Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? Yes, the links work and the pages are relevent to the statements made in the Wiki article.
  • Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted? Although older versions of the page were very poor with citations, its recent incarnation does an excellent job of making frequent, relevent citations. The sources are largely magazine publications, interviews, online news outlets, and webpage archives courtesy of the Wayback Machine.
  • Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? There's nothing out of date per se, but there's certainly information that can be added. I especially believe that a recent investigation by Stuart Brown and the detailed research by Cat DeSpira should be represented more in the article.
  • Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? There are mainly three things discussed in the Talk page; (1) people complaining that "creepypasta/hoaxes" should not have a Wikipedia page, (2) People arguing over whether the page should be classified as "video game" or "urban legend" (they claim the article is biased to assume the video game is pure fiction), and (3) people discussing whether the information about Steven Roach's involvement in the urban legend should be included.
  • How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? It's rated C-class, which means it is fairly decent but still has room for improvement, either by adding missing information or removing irrelevent material. It is part of the WikiProject Video games
  • How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? We sadly have not discussed urban legends in class, but it would definitely fit into the themes of our class. We should talk about it sometime!