Phil Fish is at his most presidential in his latest statement regarding industry harassment

Fez developer Phil Fish decided to quote one of the greatest presidents (fictional or not) in a statement regarding industry harassment.

[Lord_Sloth]

So...Is he leaving or not? This message is giving me mixed signals....

[nX]

I hope he does, his attention seeking syndrome is getting on my nerves. "President of Polytron", yeah whatever twat.

[viperman240]

Looks like we've come full circle.

http://i.imgur.com/6tQxAd8....

[Blacktric]

"So...Is he leaving or not?"
"I hope he does"

All of this seems to be footsteps of what Zoe and his merry band of followers are going to do sometime soon. They're apparently talking to some people to start a "people who survived online hatemob harrasment group" (from her Twitter, not making this up). They're possibly going to push their agenda this way since they couldn't piss gamers off to spew vitriol with their "GAMERS ARE DEAD!" articles and direct attacks on social media. Expect a "heartwrenching" video with petty internet celebrities (Anita and pathetic developers like Anthony Burch) in them, calling people to action against harrasment, etc.

[rainslacker]

@Black

Is it going to have Sarah McLachlan narrating the video with one of her songs that was only somewhat popular back in the day, with pictures of all these harassment survivors looking all pathetic for the camera?

On a side note, isn't them being a victim kind of completely opposite of the agenda that Sarkeesian is trying to present women as?

[Blacktric]

"...with pictures of all these harassment survivors looking all pathetic for the camera?"

Thank you for the laugh. I needed it.

"...isn't them being a victim kind of completely opposite of the agenda that Sarkeesian is trying to present women as?"

Ironic, right? They talk about being strong, but the first thing they always do is play the victim card and tweet screencaps of kids born in 1999 saying bad things on Twitter to prove the death threats they've received was credible. While doxxing a 10 year old kid, revealing a personal picture of him with his cat on the internet and threatening to kill him, without a problem.

Sarkeesian, Quinn or other SJWs don't care about social justice. They are not social justice advocates. If the truth doesn't fit their agenda, they'll twist it in the most pathetic manner to dismiss it. That's why they're dismissing people who are outing themselves as black/asian/latino/homosexual/ transsexual who also support gamergate as being "sexist", "racist" and "homophobic". Or just simply claiming that they're victims of "internalized" misogyny or racism.

There is no winning against these people. You are either on their side, or not.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

Christina Sommers is an actual feminist, FYI.

[3-4-5]

Nice pic Viperman -

* Mostly accurate -

[CryofSilence]

Does anyone even care about this drama queen anymore?

[LostDjinn]

"In response to the mob of angry people on social media that continue to attack personalities like Anita Sarkeesian, Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn, and others for speaking out against sexism in games, Fish has provided a new statement … and it’s kind of amazing"- There you have it. Yet another media derailment of the conversation.

This isn't about sexism. It's about deception.

How very typical that they use the spectre of oppression to avoid the topic at hand.

Edit: In keeping with the tone of the piece I'd like to quote my own (real) president: "I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman."
Seems appropriate right now wouldn't you say Mr Fish?

[Godmars290]

By the looks of everything this whole situation is going to implode. Even if these people get their way in dictating the popular narrative, I can't see how they're going to sustain themselves when they've earned and hold massive disrespect towards a market base they're suppose to be pandering to. And then with their heads so far up the @$$es, how they're going to make anything worth playing.

[mixelon]

Surely it's about both now?

Because different people are concerned with different issues, and consider different things important.

There are two(+) totally different things going on right now.

[Blacktric]

"There are two(+) totally different things going on right now."

Yes. Gamergate supporters of all kind, regardless of gender, sexual orientation and color, are claiming allegiance to games they love while trying to push out godawful and one sided agendas from both games and journalism and try to have civil discussion with both each other and people with differing opinions.

SJWs are blaming Gamergate supporters for being misogynist. Gamergate supporters then come up with "notyourshield" hashtag to encourage people of different sex/color/orientation to speak out against SJW derailment and disinformation that uses these very people's sex/color/orientation... Which is followed by rabid SJWs accusing blacks, asians, latinos, homosexuals, transsexuals, etc. for being sexist/homophobic/transphobic/ racist white fat neckbeards.

And trying to lump in gamer crowd with what a bunch of underage losers say on the internet won't change any of this.

[mixelon]

Blacktric - that's incredibly one-sided. Saying everyone into one cause is dismissing the opinion of the other is just totally untrue.

The overwhelming majority of people understand its a small number of troublemakers in any camp who're most toxic. One side is not actually blaming all gamers. Anyone blaming all people calling for attitude chances are being just as dismissive.

Devs showing support for one cause does not mean they're attacking people into a different cause which conceptually isn't even tightly related, it's just come up at the same time.

The only people I've seen considering it with this level of black&white thinking are people making themselves into the persecuted, righteous ones to discount the other side. On both sides.

Both sides are incredibly inclusive! And they're actually arguing for a lot of the same stuff. It's turned into a weird 2 party political type debate where people have decided it's about teams and not actually the issues at hand.

It's pretty damn interesting to watch, if occasionally depressing. (And by this point im used to being dislikes to hell and back, haha)

[Blacktric]

"Both sides are incredibly inclusive!"

Haven't experienced this in any shape or form so far. I asked a few of the anti-gamergate folk for a civil discussion or just basically replied them to tell them about our side... And all I got was "f*ck off!", "omg why do u think I care bout ur opinion?", "say hello to the wasteland of banned! blocked!".

When one side is filled with people who actually want to debate this with others to get to the bottom of it and the other side is filled with pseudo intellectual social justice warrior morons who accuse minorities for being racist and sexist and basically tell them that they don't know better than SJWs do, you tend to end up having a pretty clear picture of what's what. Not to mention Adam Sessler and Devin Faraci calling gamers worse than ISIS and chemical weapon dealers' marketbase.

You have a Twitter, go find a few people from opposing side and try to have a rational and polite discussion with them after outing yourself as pro-gamergate. See what happens. I'm calling it right now that you're gonna get told to f**k off in 5 minutes tops for having a different opinion.

[mixelon]

Blacktric - we're having a civil discussion right now.

Civil discussions have been happening in comment threads all over the place. A load of people only consider things reasonable if you agree with them 100% here. This doesn't have to be so polarising.

Note that people completely jumped on many of us for "taking sides" here yesterday. No side gets a free pass. Many of the people saying "we just want a open discussion" are actually stirring shit intentionally and trying to damage the reputations and dismiss the concerns of others.

Note *some* SJWs are calling gamer gate supporters mysogenist. Or some are calling some of them mysogenist.

Much like the SJWs are being labelled as.. Marxist, communist, anti male, feminazis, "not real feminists", and much worse just base insults - that's from your the accepting gamergate side, just from this site. Just yesterday.

Twitter isn't the best place for a discussion. 140 character limit - youd only know who to approach from their presumably "opposing" viewpoint which they've probably gained through various past interactions. How is anyone supposed to know anyone else's intentions or mindset?

But yeah, I'm a typical SJW according to loads of people over the last few days, which, if so.. Makes them sound pretty ok. ? People should be more careful before throwing labels around.

[Blacktric]

"we're having a civil discussion right now."

You are on a heavily moderated comments section on one of the biggest, maybe the biggest, gaming news content aggregator site on the internet. Not Twitter, where you can swear to people and then block them, or on Devin Faraci's website Badass Digest, in which case you won't be able to speak anything related to gamergate in a positive manner.

And regarding the not know intentsions; you just have to start the conversation in a civil manner like you did. If they reply aggressively, you'll know you shouldn't talk to them.

[rainslacker]

@mix

Do those small number of trouble makers include several major websites? Seems to be it's a bit unbalanced on who's making trouble for who.

Isn't it obvious that this narrative is being created completely wrong, and that the side of the "gamers" is just being dismissed or changed completely? I mean, Fish gets this exposure, Sarkeesian gets her views out there, Quinn gets to play victim with the gaming press.

Where are the articles from major sites that represent our side with the things that we are actually upset about properly? None. All we get is forums like this, Twitter, and a few blogs here or there(at least since they stopped being shut down for taking our side).

I know you keep decrying how each side is misrepresenting the other...but shouldn't you be asking both sides to be represented equally? Isn't that what discourse should be? It's obviously an issue...why can't you just accept it and either pick a side or express the opinion of both sides instead of dismissing both?

Gamers are well aware of what the SJW are asking for(the moderate ones), they aren't getting coverage either because of this hijacking of the issue for some extremist to play victim.

[mixelon]

Rainslacker - woah! I'm not dismissing both. Im doing the exact opposite of that. Im trying to promote the idea of both sides being less dismissive and polarising.

But people on both sides of the spectrum are too far gone.

I don't think the narrative has been controlled to make it "wrong" I think people are taking different things from it. From the perspective of the media of course it looks like a hate filled shitstorm because people are constantly throwing that at them. It's relentless.

The rest of the media will run with what they think are the bigger stories. A little bit of patience and a lot more tact and the gamergate people will get the spotlight too. While so many of them carry on like an angry mob that plays directly into the negative stereotypes that's a lot less likely.

No big site is going to cover this while it's still a powder keg. And even if they did, there's no way everyone would be satisfied.. And certain rabbit holes just aren't worth reporting on and legitimising. It goes far too deep into unsubstantiated BS and conspiracy theories. As well as stuff that's just outright irrelevant character assassination.

Basically.. If people calm down, make salient points. Write about them in a non-inflammatory way. People in positions of influence might actually take that seriously.

But I'm running out of bubs again. XD

[christian hour]

I hvent been keeping up with a lot of this, still don't know what SJW stands for but I know what they stand for. And a vocal minority (within SJW) have done an excessive amount of damage for them, the media have horribly represented both sides in a vain attempt to come off neutral or have decided to sensationalise the whole thing for that sweet ad hit moola.

This zoe quinn debacle should have been cleared up by the end of the week, but both sides have been throwing fecal matter at each other and just prolonged the whole mess, this whole incident is the reason high paid celebrities have publicists. To stop them from going crazy on the internet when theyve spent too much time in their own heads thinking about the harrassment from loud mouthed internet folks.

And apparently being rational and seeing the trouble caused by both sides of the fence gets you incredibly down voted around here as I witnessed yesterday (Ive been away for a month so I had no idea of the craziness ensuing on gaming forums and the like).

Mixelon made some very valid unbiased points so I'm gonna give him a nice shiny bubble!

Also I dont know how people can type the word "gamergate" and take themselves seriously. Media buzz words should not be used to represent a side, it all seems silly to me.

This is not going to be a popular post I can tell. But with so much misinformation on both sides with rational people few and far between, I cant really side with anyone on this only to say stop blowing things out of proportion, stop letting "professional" news sites stir up a frenzy within our community with their sensationalist reporting, this is exactly how moral panics are created. Only this one seems to be contained to gamers and not worrisome mothers angry at KISS, satanists, comic books, rock n roll, or whatever moral panic is the flavour of the times,

[Godmars290]

@christian hour:

The Quinn thing, for the most part if not entirely, is trivial. Though this is about the personal relations between indie devs and people in the industry, reviewers, its more about what they're doing *for* each other, actively supporting their projects and giving them favorable reviews, than *to* each other. You could substitute Zoe Quinn sleeping with five guys to advance her career with the five guys rooming together while only "good things" happen to them, like winning contest the others run, and it would be the same thing that bothers gamesgate supporters: conflict of interest within the industry.

On the other side of the issue you've got the SJW who, even before the Quinn mess broke, have been unfairly using their influence and connections in the industry as the pseudo-intellectual's equivalent of the "old boys club" and are now using the misogyny claim as the modern McCarthyism or Salem Witch Trials to both cover up their abuse of power, and gain more power.

Most who know what's really going on are trying to address both the sexism issue and journalist malfeasance while the other side obscure things to the point, where like in basic trolling, you just have to decry a one word label, repeatedly shout "Hitler", to win the public argument and get others to thoughtlessly join in.

[HonestDragon]

This whole situation has just exploded. Starting all the way back from Sarkeesian's misinformed and judgmental Tropes vs Women series to the latest scandals with Polygon, Kotaku, and Zoe Quinn, this has literally become an "us vs them" debate. It's gamers vs the gaming media.

Now that all of this has come out about reviewers "getting personal" with game developers and those same people turning the situation around on us (the gamers) has only turned this into a war. We have "journalists" out there saying that we should be ashamed of calling ourselves gamers. They say that we are rabid and uncontrollable trolls who harass others online. They say we are misogynistic cavemen who slander women any chance we get.

No. I won't stand for this anymore. Anita Sarkeesian, Phil Fish, Zoe Quinn, Polygon, Kotaku, and any other social justice warrior or self-proclaimed "journalist" are going to get a dose of what I have to say about their actions. I'm tired of seeing these people go on to flip the script on gamers like we are the bad guys despite the fact the things they get criticized for are things they did. They turned the conversation to no longer being about (even though it should be) "corruption and entitlement in gaming media and development". They made it "gamers are the problem with the industry and here's why...".

Like I said, I won't stand for it anymore. They have been on their high horse for too long. It's time for me to type up some more Under the Knife pieces and show the reality of these situations and people.

[TongkatAli]

I played Fez, it bored me, Velocity X2 better.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Yeah Fez was boring after the beginning unless you like to go through meaningless puzzles for hours.

[Benjammin25]

I really, really, dislike this guy.

[DragoonsScaleLegends]

Who is Phil Fish I forgot... does Phil fish?

[HentaiMasterRace]

Oh boy.....

[windblowsagain]

FeZzzzzzzzz

[Qwagy UK]

But he has such a wonderful moustache!

[JeffGrubb]

If you guys can't give Fish props for this awesome Independence Day reference, then you are blinded by weirdhate.

[rainslacker]

I can't give him props for it, because it hardly seems relevant to the situation. Maybe if he identified who was who with using this for an analogy of the current situation it would make more sense...but honestly it seems more like the same kind of ramblings people have when taking a lot of acid.

[JeffGrubb]

Dude ... it's not supposed to be relevant. It's a joke. There is no deeper meaning. It's just the awesome speech from ID4.

[Godmars290]

So gaming media and indie devs have been "invaded" by gamers, their audience, to whom they only have to give release dates and review scores to, make games for, so is declaring their "independence" from, again, their audience.

Something similar would be cable networks saying they'll no longer cater to their customers - but still think themselves entitled to their money as they put on whatever they feel like. Which just so happens to be a dog taking a crap.

[jts1891]

...Who cares? It's not like he's relevant. He's only ever made crappy Indie games, so it's not like the industry is losing anything if he leaves gaming.

[SilentNegotiator]

"He's only ever made crappy Indie games"

Stop trying to rewrite history. His game was a highly rated, award winning game, no matter how much of a prick he has become.

[jts1891]

No one is re-writing history. Indie games aren't judged by the same standards as AAA titles. It was a crappy game, regardless of how much 'praise' it received.

[Gh05t]

highly rated and award winning... Pretty sure Anita is Highly rated and won plenty of awards but I would still call her and her ideology crap.

Its not rewriting history to have a different opinion of the merits of a game.

I watch multiaward winning movies and call them crap all the time. Its just my opinion compared to someone else opinion.

I wanted FEZ so bad since the first time I heard about it. I bought it day one without hesitation... I played it for a while and never touched it again... it was pretty crappy to me too and I am sure that is for different reasons than others. I love the concept I just hated certain things he implemented in the game which really bothered me (QR code for one) and there are many more.

[scark92]

And to I would like to quote an game regarded a a classic to respond to Phil Fish..: "Die Monster! You do not belong in this world!"

[Rebel_Scum]

I think Phil Fish is a nice guy but just acts like a dick on social media. How many people can say that they've never being a dick at least once online?

[christian hour]

None of the usual people coming in here talking about how much they'd love to physically harm him or the ones who are just throwing hate at him.

And definitely not the people who kept harrassing him about FEZ2 when he was trying to spread awareness of what was happening in Ferguson when american media outlets failed to cover it properly. You'd tell people to fuck off asking about fez 2 when theres a real issue like that at hand too.

In fact, that was what started the whole "fuck off stop asking about fez 2" few weeks ago, but it seemed a lot of the gaming media took it out of context and just showed his later responses. *slow clap* it seems even gaming sites didnt want to mention a thing about fergusson in their reports on fish :P

And this biased bullcrap is exactly why I got out of television production :)

[Gh05t]

Yeah, because its only happened once...

[Rebel_Scum]

I never said he acted like a dick only once. That was my question for you. :)

[Gamerbeyond]

phill is fishing for attention.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

I think it is funny, that no one cares, that VIDEO GAME PUBLISHERs give gifts , fancy hotels . money at the gaming websites in exchange for positive reviews. Yet, one female developer flirted with some game journalist and the gaming community online is flipping out !

[aLucidMind]

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. It annoys me to no end how developers can openly and obviously pay off a reviewer or journalist and get no shit for it. But the moment it isn't MONEY being exchanged (even if it is just flirting), that's when the journalists pounce all over it.