Fish in a Barrel

Phil Fish

So Phil Fish is a douche, apparently. At first we thought 'Wow, that guy's cool, his game truly looks like a labour of love. He'll go far.' Now we're thinking 'What an utter dick. How dare he say such disgusting and blasphemous things?! His game looks like shit, and I wont be paying a dime for it.'


Really now, who's the bigger dick?


For those of you blissfully unaware of what the heck I'm talking about, Phil Fish is the independent-game designer behind the highly anticipated Fez. He recently made comments during a Q+A session after a showing of the documentary Indie Game: The Movie, in which he stated that modern Japanese games suck. 


The internet then snorted into its collective coffee, and proceeded to over-react in the worst way possible.


Fish later took to Twitter* to sort-of-not-really apologise for his comments, while still retaining-but-slightly-changing his stance (switching to 'most Japanese game...') , waging a futile battle with the incensed, butthurt public who took a rather pick-and-mix approach to how events later played out. He then properly apologised*, argued some more, then announced he was leaving Twitter for good. Nice job, internetz.


Phil Fish has now gained about the same level of infamy as one of those irritating Skyrim memes nobody finds funny. Don't believe me? Take a gander over to YouTube. Type in Fez. Click on any of the first videos to appear. You don't even have to scroll to see the effects of this freshly-squeezed zit: people now seem to hate Fish. A video-demo I once saw with positive comments complimenting the gameplay and the designer, have now been replaced with messages of anger and dismissal. What a bunch of pliable cretins.

Now, I'm all for a little healthy debate. I think such opinions as Phil's can help stoke the flames of a discussion that has been largely ignored or unheard of. I also think that such discussions can actually work to improve the state which games are in at the moment. That is, if it is an actual discussion, and not just a bunch of angry gibbonites beating their chests and howling in a manner similar to that of a freshly slapped child. I mean, come on! To get so worked up about one man's (albeit strong) personal opinion demonstrates a level of maturity and foresight that is usually reserved for a classroom of prepubescent louts; announcing that you will not download, or simply pirate his game out of spite even more so.


The funny thing is, while everyone was busy knee-jerking themselves in the face, nobody stopped to examine the legitimacy of what Fish actually said. It's up to a certain amount of interpretation of what he meant by 'suck'. Many Japanese games are, after all, of a very high standard. But it's not as if anything their game industry has done over the past few years has been wildly creative, is it? It's also bit shameful if the majority of your best I.P.s are ones you've been flogging for the past fifteen-to-twenty years.


Maybe his comments were unwarranted. Maybe he didn't elaborate clearly enough, and the response he got was simply his own fault. Maybe he should have apologised sooner. Maybe maybe maybe. That does not give anyone the moral high-ground to pirate a game which someone has clearly poured their heart and soul into. In fact, to do such a thing is, frankly, flat-out disgusting and more than a little ignorant. He did not insult the man he made these comments to. He did not use racial slurs. He did not punch the guy's elderly mother. The response he got was completely unreasonable. Nothing makes stealing a developers personal creation okay; you are a cock for doing so.


1] Here's his twitter feed. Scroll on down, if you wish.
2] His tweet was as follows: '@SquashSesame im very sorry i was so rude to you in my answer. i hope the rest of your GDC was more enjoyable.'