It's actually his real name!

@shadowconqueror: Yeah, there is truth to what he said in that regard. There are major exceptions though (like Dark Souls).

This was after him blowing them off for 6 months and calling there system worthless

@pr1mus: Is it really?? I was wondering when I saw you post that earlier. That's amazing.

just saw the tweets you were talking about...............oh boy..................ok im converted back, dude is a pretentious asshole. he is obviously trolling around, but those tweets still have him come off like a real prick.

You can even see it in Indie Game The Movie when he's showing the game he made as a kid with his father.

Yeh I dont want to hate em but the guy has said alot of stuff if you just dig for it that most people dont really know about.

Also maybe it's because he revels in the fact that he creates "art games," like he's some kind of outsider who's coming in and teaching video game developers how to make games into art. We already have games that are art, Phil. Pac-Man is art. Fez? Eh, the jury's still out on that one.

I haven't read the whole thread so maybe this was mentioned already, but didn't he tell people to choke on his dick after he won an award for Fez or something? I could be thinking of someone else, but I thought that was one reason why some people disliked him.

true, but then also he still has a elitist attitude to him though, that still came through on the gdc show today i thought, so people i think still get a sense of how he is.

He said that but he said it along with "suck it down" to Microsoft about their policies or something (which are the same as Sony's)

before the game was even out and Microsoft could still just kick him to the side of the road.

@mrfluke: Thats what i was trying to point out here.

Most people said he was okay just from seeing him on the show but didnt bother looking back at his past comments and seeing he has the ego the size of Jupiters orbit

@connerthekewlkid: will be very interesting to see how the comments shake out once the archive is posted.

Sudoku... huh... lol

He's a bit of a prick.

Jonathan Blow is pretentious as fuck.

Oh wow, it totally is! That's even funnier.

I found him to be kind of a pretentious douche in all his twittering, but he was totally cool on the stream. Huh.

I love the consistent response of "he was being sarcastic!"

Come on. Are you that gullible?

Its a secret club inside joke

He smells like a hipster.

Fish, Blow and other indie devs just come off as super douchey, arrogant, etc. They get so hot and bothered by big budget games. There is room for everyone.

No he's really not.

I really like Phil Fish, and especially Jonathan Blow.

Because he's a twat.

When I read his comment on Japan I figured he was trying to make a point but being hyperbolic about it. After watching Indie Game: The Movie I grew to sympathize with him. He's just an opinionated guy trying to achieve his vision and you don't get to do that without breaking a few eggs along the way.

He can be rude at times, which means blunt, which means being honest with himself and the person he is speaking to and some people can't take that sort of blatant honesty.

I don't care one way or another, but people seem to dislike him for some specific tweets me made. Mainly - "The Japanese gaming industry is rubbish" and "Fez won't be on PC, PCs are for paperwork, not games".

Are you fucking serious? I watched the stream yesterday and saw him talk a bunch of shit that, if he had put on twitter, would have had a bunch of people fucking pissed at him, but, here, it was totally clear he was joking around. Are you that completely jaded that you can't accept the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Phil Fish isn't a complete fucking dickwad?

I think he's great. To each their own, I suppose.

I can see why people don't like him. He has strong opinions and says them without any subtlety. He can come across as quite assholey at times.

But I like the guy. He's passionate about the gaming industry and he shows his emotions so openly. I don't necessarily agree with all his views or the way he chooses to express them, but I can respect someone who voices his opinion so openly and with such passion. He's kinda like Peter Molyneux in that respect. Molyneux has way more class than Fish, though.

Yeah, same here. I've never had a problem with him. I mean the whole Japanese games incident was a bit iffy, but I certainly did not come to hate him for it.

He really doesn't do himself any favors with the silly comments he makes. I don't think he's like the worst guy ever but I understand why people wouldn't like him from the comments he makes and how he presents himself. Even though he is a talented developer, its hard to defend him when he acts like a douche.

He's right about the Japanese industry though, just looking at my stack of PS1 and PS2 games 95% of them are Japanese, where as my Xbox 360 and PS3 stack 95% of them are Western.

Remember when the new Final Fantasy and Resident Evil games were the most anticipated games of the year? I do.

I dunno he seems like a pretty cool dude who i would be down to chill with

Wait, if you don't like Phil Fish "because he's an asshole" then how do you live with yourself?

I've never seen him or really heard him say anything other than through all the hate he gets. He seemed fine and provided a funny or two, although he needs a haircut and a shave. I thought he sounded a little 'far-out' when talking about virtual reality but, hey, he knows more about how close we are to that than I do so whatever.

i watched that indie game movie, and he came off as really self-important. that movie was all sorts of weird, i dont get why its so highly recommended around these parts.

Really? I thought he came across as a guy who had everything in his life invested in a project that could make or break him and after several years, he was getting fucked by external forces and a passionate and opinionated guy was venting and trying to keep it all from falling apart before him.

Tommy got a lot of shit for what he said in the movie, too, because his comments about working on AAA games were taken a little too seriously. *shrug*

People kind of need to chill. He's just a dude like other dudes.

People don't like him for the same reason a lot of folk dislike Patrick and thats because he expresses his opinions poorly and often times in a derogatory way towards the subject matter.

It's not that he has strong opinions and people get butt hurt because they don't agree. You can have your own opinion and say it in such a way that isn't demeaning. It's all about how you express yourself. Patrick might not like Metal Gear fiction but there's something to be said about casually stating "Metal Gear fiction is shit" but then go on to praise Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Likewise Phil might not think Japanese games are very good right now, but the way he said it to that Japanese developer was sort of uncalled for especially in a public panel.

David Jaffe has strong opinions but he doesn't come off quite as aggressive in expressing them even though he's really intense. I think it all comes down to experience and age. With time Phil might learn to word his answers better but who knows, he seems to be wearing his negative reputation like a badge of pride these days which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's also not the greatest thing either.

David Jaffe also seems like a motherfucker that will hunt you down and stab the shit out of you like 800 times if you cross him. Don't get me wrong -- I'm sure he wouldn't do that, but he's got a real Joe Pesci vibe goin' on. Of course, like the others listed, I like him, too.

I don't have to agree with guys like this. I don't even have to like the way they voice their disagreement on some things. We're all adults here and we can take a little judgement of things we like without having to consume it like a pill in a bowl of sweet mush.

oh dont get me wrong, i dont think he's a bad dude or anything. he kinda IS pretty self-important, but everyone has flaws. i dont think he deserves the hate he gets.

i didnt like the movie because it felt so one-sided and was pushing "this side is evil and we're the free spirited indie game devs!" thing. i mean they push this whole thing about phil fish's old partner being this horrible person dragging out this court case just to "fuck with him". yet we NEVER hear the other side, i HIGHLY doubt the guy was just being vindictive.

the film felt like propaganda rather than a documentary

To be fair, I think the film sort of telegraphed its affinity and bias with its title and it was less about indie game development and more about "these four dudes making these three games". I certainly would have preferred it to be a longer film with a more comprehensive scope, too. With Valve occasionally dipping its toe in the water with film on Steam, it would be fantastic to see someone on there do a regular series that focuses on game development (or even just indie development) in a more open-ended format. Maybe an hour or more per episode, each focusing on one particular developer or game.

butthurt japanophiles were butthurt by his comment on the Japanese video game industry.

Pretty much this. He was throwing shit around before FEZ was even completed at GDC, and on twitter telling people to go fuck themselves and just generally acting like a bit of a twat. A certain amount of arrogance can be funny if you play it right, but it's a tall order to swallow when he's running around acting like he owns the place just because he made a fucking puzzle game. It makes his games seem pretentious and as a result I find FEZ very difficult to enjoy, despite being completely enamoured with the concept right up until launch.

It's fine to be passionate and be vocal about your opinions, but Phil Fish doesn't know how to without coming off as a douchebag. His Twitter feed over the last few days has been proof that he's a complete douchebag. No one is telling him to only offer praise, but if you're going to criticise things in the manner of "this thing fucking sucks", don't expect people to reply to you with intelligent discussion.

Plus the fact that he uses words like "fag" loosely on is off-putting to me, as I feel like homophobia among the industry needs to stop.

I think the quintessence of being an adult is being able to get your point across without being crass or condescending. I can tell you why I don't like your favorite band in a calm, civil manner or I can tell you it's fucking garbage. I'm sure you'll be more inclined to listen to one of those forms of argumentation over the other. Sure most of us are adults here but that doesn't mean you need to shit all over something to get your point across, but maybe that's just me.

That's... half true at best. I think that Phil Fish is a natural troll, he just hadn't/hasn't fully realized that. I think that if he realized that 'horrible internet backlash' is the logical result of phrasing something in the most cuntish way possible in an interview or on twitter and chose to not cry about it when it happens then he would reach the 'troll zen' required to fully appreciate and enjoy his powers of abrasion and aggravation.

Fish is probably an okay guy who didn't adjust to the fact that a whole bunch of people who don't know him are suddenly paying undue attention to everything he says.

Like you've never taken the opportunity to tell people to choke on your dig when you get on a stage. :)

@mattyftm said:

I think there's something to be said about being able to speak your mind without being mean about it. To me, that's not filtering, that's just being a considerate human being. Being open and honest doesn't equate to being mean, and I don't think it should give you a license to do so. People often shit over something or claim they're "not mincing words" for the effect. It's easy to be mean.

@humanity said:

You can have your own opinion and say it in such a way that isn't demeaning.

Sure most of us are adults here but that doesn't mean you need to shit all over something to get your point across, but maybe that's just me.

This.

@authenticm: Opinions on Fish extend well beyond that. You do nothing for yourself by painting the argument along those lines because, while there are cetainly those that are like that, there are others that dislike Fish for more than just that reason, or for other reasons.

It depends. I perceive quite a difference between even a flippant statement of something and directly responding to someone by attacking something they like. If you say MGS fucking sucks, that's fine. If I'm talking about how much I enjoy MGS and you respond about how you dislike it, I'd probably expect a reasonable person to offer more than "it fucking sucks", as you mentioned and to use a little tact and give some explanation (otherwise it's not even really a conversation, anyway).

I just sort of see it as the first case; not the second and, therefore I don't really take any issue with it, I guess.