... or The Rant Against Fish.
Something's Fishy here.
Having seen the amount of vitriol splashed about the Internet gaming community for game developer Phil Fish and his outspoken opinions, I'm frankly surprised the guy hasn't been driven into suicide. I don't need to link the article about him quitting, hundreds of websites have done that already. I feel sorry for the guy, frankly. Yes, he's considered a strongly opinionated person with a massive following of haters, but he doesn't deserve the complete hate campaign against him. Nobody deserves that.
Thankfully, people support him, although their support is completely overwhelmed by all the negative comments that Phil has engendered. Looking through the comments on Phil's latest blog post about dropping game development, I'm not entirely surprised at his reaction. I am surprised at the complete flood of hate directed at Phil, purely because some people absolutely totally and utterly hate the guy. I mean, some people think he's worse than Mussolini, Hitler, Caucesceu and Mao all combined, in part because of what he said about some modern Japanese games. And that's not including the general opinion on his previous statements in the press. Let's face it, in a lot of cases, this guy is honestly loathed. And frankly I'm totally sick of it.
The Game's Up, and it's all good.
I'm not qualified to judge Phil's comment about Japanese games. I haven't tried modern Japanese games, and I don't own a modern console. Most of the games I have are from the Indie community or from Valve, so I'm not approaching this question from a hard-core game player's perspective. Instead, I'm stating what I feel as a casual gamer approaching a game I hadn't seen before but had certainly heard of.
Now that I've tried Fez, I quite like it. Phil does the necessary work needed to introduce the game mechanics, and then gets into what makes the game so good, at least for me. Yes, I'm frustrated by not being able to get further through the game, but I can lay that entirely to my lack of skill, rather than any flaws in the design of the game. I like the degree of having to figure stuff out, without it getting entirely frustrating.
Phil Fish, if you ever read this, I hope you are able to continue to partake in the Internet community. You probably already have a skin like a turtle's shell. I would love it if you reconsidered your position about game development, but I won't blame you if your decision is final.
As for those that wish to completely vilify and revile a character, think about what happens if that flood is aimed against yourselves one day. How would you hold up?
