You Can't Blame Phil Fish

Hardcore Gamer: Phish decided to deal with the negativity by responding with negativity, which isn't something I can criticize him for. It's easy to sit over here saying "be good, stiff upper lip, carry on, let it go" but I've never actually been a focal point for an internet @#!^-stream.

[PopRocks359]

As far as I'm concerned, Beer is just as responsible, if not more so for being a condescending prick and throwing the match on the gasoline. Not saying Fish is innocent for fanning the flames and reacting so immaturely, but he's not the most sociable guy to begin with. It's not fair to judge him by the same standards given it's been pretty easy to tell the man is not as capable of making his messages clear and concise as the average person in the industry.

@iamsuperman

I don't care who the community is siding with. I'm not giving any props to Beer. The man is a an opportunistic tool and he's the one who instigated the situation in the first place. Like I said, Fish is definitely accountable for his actions, but to think he's entirely guilty for this mess is ludicrous.

[iamnsuperman]

They are both idiots but at least one didn't go and tell the other to go and "kill themselves". That is the big thing. Childish name calling is one thing but this is another thing entirely. I didn't know grown men acted like this. I disagree with Beer's name calling (childish behaviour) but Fish should get criticised for what he said. The guy comes across as such an arse to the community anyway and this situation showed that he is an arse because a lot of the community siding with Beer (even though he was being childish as well).

[badjournalism]

Fish started the namecalling and shit talking at IGF when he first started this behavior. He's reaping what he sowed, at this point.

[Shadonic]

Honestly I thought the Saying " Kill yourself " was Normal from all the online gaming I've done. Its weird to see people go against the saying honestly in the gaming populous at that. I agree it was immature and it shouldn't of been said by fish.

[dedicatedtogamers]

The "compare your life to mine and kill yourself" is a direct quote from Futurama. And it stand to reason that he's at least watched it considering how just a few days ago he said in response to Microsoft's self-publishing news "I feel like Fry squinting, not sure what to think". But of course in the endless internet hate-grinder we can't apply some basic logic and

1) give Fish any benefit of the doubt, and
2) we willfully forget that it was Marcus Beer who prompted this whole thing in the first place.

Marcus Beer is a dime-a-dozen "angry gamer" personality. He should comment on games, not on the industry. He threw a fit about Microsoft's behavior during E3 and then later admits that he's going to get an Xbox One anyway, and this was BEFORE the DRM reversal. Talk about integrity!

And what prompted all of this? Digital Foundry ran with a (now disproven) rumor about the PS4's RAM specs and who do journalists run to? Sony? Santa Monica? Naughty Dog? Yoshida? Andrew House? Cerny?

No, they pester an indie dev who has no affiliation with PS4's hardware design, and then when said indie dev tells them to bugger off, these noble paragons of integrity devote a show watched by tens of thousands, linked to the main page of one of the most popular gaming sites just to call these developers names.

And is that where it ended?

No. Beer was so self-important that he called for all other media outlets to "boycott Fish and Blow's games until they realize that this is a two-way street". Really? REALLY? Talk about integrity again! You're calling for the media - a media that is ONLY POSSIBLE if videogames exist - to boycott an indie dev (that cannot afford millions of dollars of PR and ad revenue) just because they won't give you a quote for a story that's unrelated to their game? Where was this noble outrage against Microsoft after Adam Orth's outburst? Was he telling media outlets to "boycott Microsoft games until Microsoft tells us what's going on"?

As an added result, hundreds of people flooded Polytron's site with hateful comments, something that Fish has already had to deal with for months/years.

The whole situation is pathetic and you don't have to even like Phil Fish to realize that.

[jimbobwahey]

Yeah they're both idiots, and I'm glad to see Fish gone because he really is a horrible person. He's been nothing but poison to the industry and in particular the indie gaming community, and I hope that he never returns. Same goes for that Beer guy, too.

Anybody defending either of these people is obviously oblivious to why they're so disliked in the first place.

[Shadonic]

Exactly Yes Phil Fish was an ass but the true ass that started this is getting away basically scott free because being an ass is his Job. Fish shouldn't of done anything except for maybe the post about official news from MS.

[dark-hollow]

if you can't handle the heat stay out of the kitchen.

Yes I get it that it is depressing when the media and the gamers bash you at any giving moment, but he brought that to himself.

[OhMyGandhi]

@PopRocks359

I'm sorry, I totally disagree with you.
Fish wasn't bullied. He was his own worst critic. He is the one that made controversial remarks, yet when someone else calls him out on it, is the one that cries foul.

Fish loves to act like the world is conspiring against him, it gives him power. He likes to think that he has been dealt a bad hand, and that, like in "Indie Game: the Movie" is the sole individual whose kiosk at PAX was failing, and glitches were popping up right at the start screen. No.
He is not the only one.

I cannot be empathetic towards someone who berates others when backed into a corner. His snarky attitude in the film showed that as much as he IS an artist, he has deep rooted psychological instability.

We all know his type, and life is too damned short.
Beer made a bad comment, but if Fish is THAT violate to just go off the deep end, then it was only a matter of time.

Like I've said in related topics on Fish, I never would have guessed that the cute, cuddly aesthetic was created by someone who needs professional help.

I for one, have been working on the same damned game for 6 years. In GAME MAKER. Damned SOFTWARE that SAYS what it does. And have yet to finish it.

I have at least a dozen game design documents, each ranging from 10 pages to 100 pages in length. I have horrific OCD and my own brain will not let me move the hell on. So, while watching that Indie Game film, I felt for Fish, and the others who put their blood, sweat and tears into making each game.

But, if I got to the point where I garnered multiple rewards for my game, had a huge following,served as an inspiration for other indie developers, and teased a sequel to a wildly popular game...It would take much more then an inflammatory remark to make me leave.

[ChickeyCantor]

When you hear Beer speak, it clearly sounds like Beer actually has some basis to go hard on him.

[badjournalism]

Nobody owes Phil Fish or Johnathan Blow any apologies for having negative opinions of them. They earned those opinions when they decided to be pompous gasbags and, in Fish's case, a complete and total douchebag.

Let them get huffy, let Fish act like a 5yr old in the toy aisle who just got told no. They'll either grow up and act like mature adults should when faced with things they don't like or they'll be children the rest of their lives, and mocked as such.

[yewles1]

I can DEFINITELY blame Fish. I can ALSO go at Beer for being the very kind of person he called out Fish and Blow for being.

[Megaton]

Beer was a toolbag for berating a couple of indie devs who didn't feel like giving up console war soundbytes to "journalists". Phil Fish is always acting like a child mid-tantrum. He flings his shit at the world and breaks down when the world responds.

[PablitoPaperito]

Fish's fanboy brigade is out in full force I see.

I wonder if they'd still defend him if he tweeted them back "F*** y** and go choke on a d***" in response to a comment.

And Fez should've been a free flash "game", not a 10$ steam release.

[Summons75]

For throwing a tantrum with every hint of critisim in an industry that develops and evolves off critisim. Yes I can, if he can't handle the truth or ignore some dumb reporter then he doesn't deserve to be in the industry. Plain and simple.

[Majin-vegeta]

Both are idiots problem solved.

[modesign]

fish sounds like a troll, and he is going to be getting worse since he wont have anything to do but troll the interwebs.

[Godmars290]

Can we just forget about this? And Him?

[GentlemenRUs]

Lifes a beach...

Just do what I do and DealWithIt.

[TripC50]

Beer battered Fish.....yum

[Simon_Brezhnev]

I find it funny they go after small independent devs. Yet when its a big publisher them journalist are scared to call them out.

[theWB27]

Fish is a grown A man. Beer is a internet personality. Fish got his feelings hurt, just like these other pompous Indie devs. He decided to quit. Let him quit. He'd never be able to handle the pressure of an athlete or actors life if this is all it takes to make him go cry in the corner.

I'm not joking, I wish this was Jonathan Blowhard even more so.

[TripC50]

Because a video game indie developer should have the same media pressence as a professional athlete or actor...some devs are geeky, socialy awkward geniuses. All they should be worried about is the games they make but comments from media and the internet are too much for some of them.

I don't really care about Fish or media personalities or anything. I do care about the loss of a future fun game. I liked fez, its a shame we won't get Fez 2.

[theWB27]

No one forced him to be in a movie about the gaming industry after his game blew up did they? Which led him to gaining even more exposure. He spoke out on his twitter and made other comments that didn't concern him.

Jason Jones co-founded Bungie. The head of the studio who released Halo and he hadn't given an interview in over a decade until just recently.

If the leader of Halo can stay out of the public eye, then so can the little Indie guy who created Fez. He chose to be out there and couldn't take the heat.

[TripC50]

@theWB27

Media presence is part of the game for athletes and actors, they are being viewed by millions of people every time they perform and must know how to maneuver cautiously with their comments, be it twitter or interviews. Video game developers don't usually get exposure like that,their video games do but not them personally. Fish was filmed in a movie about Indie game developers, those types of movies don't come around often so why not be in it? Just because he was in a small time movie doesn't mean he should be as media/twitter savvy as an actor or athlete. Not all people are as humble as Jason Jones. When Fish gained popularity his sub-standard personality didn't do very well.

[theWB27]

So I don't understand what your defense of him is. If he couldn't handle it, he shouldn't have been out there. Even after the movie, he could have stayed low and created Fez 2 with no media fan fare.

He chose to be out there, his personality couldn't take it. So he has to deal with it. If quitting is his way of dealing, then let'em quit.

He knows himself better than we do and this is the path he chose.

[TripC50]

I'm not defending fish. I don't care about fish. I care that there won't be another fez game cuz I liked the original fez. The choice of laying low obviously wasn't in fish's personality.

[ifritAlkhemyst]

I really don't care how it started or who's responsible.

Fish has always projected himself as a pompous douchebag. It was only a matter of time before someone knocked him down a peg or two.

[Jovanian]

act like a jerk get treated like one

he deserved every bit of this

[WheatBread]

Fuck those hipsters

[isarai]

He takes shit too hard, seriously, but i can't really blame him for getting mad when someone attacks him for no good reason. People ragging on the fact that he handled this unprofessionally forget that he's not a professional in the field, he's an independent developer making his own game, not an employee. Overreaction sure, but you can't expect people to say absolutely nothing while people put him down.

[Bonerboy]

Who gives shit about any of this really? Oh wait, I know who, a bunch of bandwagon hopping internet losers spouting off their anonymous self-righteous condemnation of Mr Fish, who might be a 'blow hard ponce' or maybe not, why should you care? I sure a hell don't. I cant say I blame him after having to put up with the millions of twats who make up the gaming community. So he said something mildy inappropriate in frustration, and a silly cartoon quote no less. Whoop dee f-ing doo. Get off your high horses and stop making a mountain out of a mole hill, but of course, any opportunity and you idiotic, 'sheep like' morons, so very typically, jump all over it and break out the proverbial rope, pitchforks and torches. Im shocked no one has threatened his life and family yet. Good christ, you bunch of pathetic losers... You know who you are.

[Tyre]

Well Said Bonerboy Bubble for you!

[Evil_Ryu]

not only is he a hipster he is a cry baby also