This story of a woman whose hobby and vocation is Cosplay is worth a read if you were ever wondering why someone would choose that hobby. Part of what struck me is the quality of the writing, presentation and (especially) the video associated with the piece. Since Cosplay is generally something that interests the young, and is based on a segment of the culture that’s popular but not really mainstream, a long-form piece done by, say, the New York Times Magazine would have probably treated the woman in the story like some kind of foreign object to be studied like a science experiment. This piece is in a gaming magazine (Polygon), so the author can just dispense with a discussion of, or excuse for, the choice of Cosplay as a subject, and dive into what drives this particular player.
Though there are ads on the page, I thought the whole experience was quite a bit better than, say, The Atlantic. Just to pick one example, they don’t try to jam ads in your face by putting in a pop-over as soon as you click on a story. Overall, the design was just a lot better than the average MSM magazine on the web.
Polygon is from Vox, the same company behind SB Nation and the Verge. All three of those sites are leaders in their categories. If you want to see the “future of journalism”, at least for specialty magazines, look at those sites.