About Phil Fish

I never understood all the the hate for Phil Fish (and Jonathan Blow btw) and when I saw him sitting on the couch on today's live stream I was expecting the worst from the chat. I am happy to say that I was wrong. What happened? Everybody seemed to be cool with him being there. As I said I never disliked him. I know he isn't a super-happy-funtime guy or that shy-indie-nerd everybody likes today, he is a person, you know... with opinions and stuff. So... thanks chat... I guess

Phil Fish seems like an awesome guy. I never understood the hate either. Even watching Indie Game: The Movie I had nothing but sympathy for the bullshit he was going through to get Fez completed.

He said Japanese games industry sucks. If you shame glorious Nippon, you should commit sudoku!

I missed the stream but he is a really cool guy, the bad image he gets is pretty unfair. Glad chat was civil.

I wasn't a fan of Fez at all and Phil can be a bit...let's say intense at times (I certainly never "hated" him or anything) but he was great on the stream today.

People don't like him because he has really strong opinions about things and if you don't agree with the internet then you're a horrible monster who deserves to die.

But the real reason people don't like him is because he's French-Canadian. That's like twice the awfulness in one person!

I have never had a problem with Phil Fish, but I kind of think Jonathan Blow is full of himself. I love Braid, but the fact that he got pissed off because the people that loved his game and showered it with amazing reviews "didn't like it for the right reasons" or "didn't get what he was trying to convey" just makes him seem kind of like a pretentious dick. Maybe that's unfair, but that's what it seems like to me. His new game still looks pretty cool though.

I wasn't fully aware of him beforehand but he seems like a cool guy to me.

People don't like Phil Fish because he's French Canadian. They don't mince words and aren't afraid to tell you what they really think.

It's why I love him, personally.

Philippe Poisson is awesome. The guy speaks his mind without consideration for political correctness which some people don't like.

He seems like he's not a bad guy but sometimes he opens his mouth way too wide and some shit falls out (metaphorically... or not, I don't know the guy)

He seemed like a nice folk. And like he was having a good time.

I've always kind of dug Phil Fish, though I know he gets a bit of a "moody" or "jerk" wrap. So does Blow, it seems. There was a time when I kind of didn't like Blow, but that was my fault. I judged him based on a lot of people who I felt were a bit pretentious in their adoration and constant not-shutting-the-fuck-up about Braid (a good game, but jesus some people wanked over it a bit excessively). After I realized more about what the dude himself was like, I even sent him an apology for being a dick and adding to the noise (because I know he used to have a reputation for reading everything about himself or his games online and taking it very personally). I felt legitimately bad about myself over my initial reaction.

Anyway, so what if they're both more thoughtful and intense and can be a little bit of a jerk than the average person? Welcome to the fucking software industry. I'd have a beer with both of these dudes and I'd gladly be the one to pay.

it was because of the whole quote where he said he thought japanese games sucks. came off very elitist

but he did apologize soon afterwards though, dude seems like he can be still pretentious

He's just such a cunt. Fez was a fine game, but he can't provide criticism without being an absolute douchebag. He hasn't accomplished enough to earn that right.

@oldirtybearon: It's pretty funny when people say that we don't mince words. When I went to NYC a couple months before, my friend told me to watch what I say because apparently some Americans don't appreciate how we word things. I didn't get that feeling because I barely talked to New Yorkers, but is this really how some Americans view our way of speaking?

If you really wanna know why people are so upset look at his current ranting on twitter from the past few days.

on the topic of blow:

i kind of get why people have a bad attitude towards him despite the fact that i liked his game and agree with a lot of the stuff he says. my only problem with him is that it seems like a lot of his energy is focused outwards and a lot of his criticism of the game industry/ people who buy mainstream games can seem totally condescending. picasso didn't have to explain to people why his art was wonderful and deep and i doubt he really cared if people didn't get it. imo art isnt something that needs to be explained or need a justifiable reason for it to exist/be art, it just needs to be presented as art and that's about it.

@superfusion said:

Not American myself, but I imagine if you aren't around French Canadians for any extended amount of time, they can be downright brutal when they're just being honest. I don't think it's malicious in nature. I lived in Montreal for a couple of years so I got used to it pretty quickly.

I've got it. My problem with him is that he thinks he's about a hundred times as successful and important as he really is. That really bothers me.

@oldirtybearon said:

I suppose this could be it for me actually. He certainly doesn't hold back and in my admittedly limited knowledge of him I had built an idea of some brash, arrogant jackass. I never acted on that idea through bullshit forum posts or anything silly but I didn't hold him in a very high regard personally. All I had to go on was Indie Game: The Movie and whatever showed up on the few sites I follow. Seeing him interact with his industry peers and with the GB people was certainly eye opening and I was quite happy to have my eyes opened.

@ll_exile_ll: Don't you think that it is a valid opinion by an artist (that's right, I said it) like Jonathan Blow who is trying to express himself and deliver something to his audience and who feels people just didn't get the message? And does he not have the right to express his disappointment?

If we have the right to criticize his work, why shouldn't he be allowed to criticize our part in the creative process. The reader writes the text. And if the reader fucks up, well... then the text is fucked. You could blame the writer/artist for not delivering a good enough base for interpretation but that's a totally different argument than "Jonathan Blow is full of it".

Picasso actually had a rep for being super arrogant. Just saying :)

I thought everybody figured out easily that the girl was the atomic bomb and "humanity are all horrible monsters" pretty well.

http://www.twitch.tv/giantbomb/b/384113504

@38 mins. I truly hope Phil is just drunk, because his contributions are (if nothing else) rude and disruptive. "Fuck you, it's not art." "It's fast food. It's throwaway entertainment; all of it."

Fuck this egomaniacal piece of shit. Seriously. Fez was interesting, but it wasn't an amazing work of art. Listening to this asshole talk makes me sad that he succeeded in the gaming market. Fuckheads like himself deserve to rot in poverty and failure.

@oldirtybearon: Really? Fascinating.. I wonder what makes us more honest with our words than others. Where were you originally from? Also, what was the moment where you vividly remember that happening?

@connerthekewlkid: There was the other level of it being based around a break up, but yeah, people got that pretty quick. It just wasn't talked about in reviews and that pissed him off I guess?

the nintendo thing? he was joking around, doesnt excuse the attitude, but dude was joking around.

@pr1mus said:

ahahahahha

But yeah, I really like him. I imagine people don't like him because he doesn't bullshit anyone. Says what he thinks even when it's not popular, which can be offensive to some people if they don't agree.

@connerthekewlkid: that's a valid interpretation.

Being an inconsiderate asshole is standard among French Canadians? If Mr. Fish created a game that reinvented the very idea of what a "game" is I could forgive his arrogance, but he made a limited 3-D platformer with puzzle elements. He does not get to say shit like "____ is fast food; it's throwaway entertainment."

Fez may be a fine game, but it is simple and it is throwaway entertainment. Mr. Phil Fish is a hypocritical, egomaniacal moron.

You mean the part where he blocked everyone who didn't agree with him on the subject and only repiled to people complimenting him? Then when he threw Destructoid under the bus after that?

Yea sure was a funny joke

and don't forgot his choice words of "Choke on my D*ck" and "Suck it Down"

Have heard about this new thing? It's called "sarcasm". You should try it. Can be dangerous because not everyone will understand you but it's pretty fucking funny.

mind giving me a specific date on when he made those tweets, just went back and looked at his feed and only saw the stuff where hes talking about how he was messing around about hating nintendo.

The guy is a joke. When he releases a game that has any impact above and beyond Fez I will back down. Until then, he's an alcoholic egomaniac with a huge problem admitting fault. He's also just a fucking asshole.

If you scroll farther you should see him saying "Oh no Destructoid has AAA journalists 5/5" and then getting into an argument with the writer of the article on twitter.

Unless he deleted it which would be hilarious

I see you didn't play much Fez.

He blocked dudes who were throwing hate over some shit he said on twitter. I woulda told them to fuck off too. Also throwing Destructoid under a bus for posting a game developers irrelevant twitter updates as news, with a hefty dose of snark, is entirely justified.

im with ya on the pretentious douche remark, ill at least say that, especially coming off watching that GB gdc show.

but i dunno, havent really paid attention to the guy after the japanese games suck remark , and after watching the indie game movie and really not liking him there.

Well that quote was him mocking people who say that games can't be art.

i fucking hate destructoid with a passion (especially jim sterling) so they get no sympathy from me either.

I played it to completion. Oh my goodness, there are secret codes hidden in the environment? Stop the fucking presses, let's get back to what real gaming is!

Wait, no.... let's not. Let's get back to the part of gaming where developers aren't egomaniacal assholes that think their 3D rendition of 16-bit adventure gaming is worth your while.

When also asked why he decided to port Fez to the PC after be quoted as saying "PCs are for spreadsheets" in a reddit AMA he simply replied "For profit".

@connerthekewlkid: So? Money is awesome.

Seriously, dude? He was being sarcastic. He was impersonating people on the internet who don't think that games can be art and refuse to look at games as anything other than just popcorn entertainment.

@superfusion: Absolutely. Being an artist is fucking hard and brutal at times but if you don't have this passion for your work, for every single piece (especially if it took 3 years in the making) then maybe, just maybe, you are not a good artist. Jonathan Blow isn't the first and won't be the last creative mind that is obsessed with his work and his legacy. Many bigger ones even went crazy about it.

You realize he was being sarcastic here, right?

I don't get it either. They're both awesome. And Phil's right about Japanese games.

He's an intense person with little to no filter. By being that way you're bound to piss off people from time to time.