Owlright

We have such unrealistic demands for people in the public eye. We deride them constantly and expect them to take it all without batting an eye. I think the glorification of 'thick skin' is misguided. Since when is pretending to not be injured by hurtful statements so wonderful? Sure Fish could be slightly more tactful in his responses, but I don't give a rat's ass if he does get deeply hurt over derogatory comments. So what? I do, and most people do too.

Asking people to develop 'thick skin' is just asking people to take our derision better so that we can continue to show it, because we don't like being confronted with the fact that we're the ones being dicks. It's not about the other person needing to be anything at all, it's about us needing them to act a certain way.

@Kraznor said:

@Sparklykiss said:

There was a Fluttershy shirt in that Q&A.

SPEAK UP, WHO ARE YOU, BRONY.

Speaking.

you do the Top Down Perspective podcast, right? I was sort of half-watching/half-listening to this video and then you started talking and I was like 'WAIT I know this voice from somewhere'

Oh hey nice to see Fotonica on the site in some small way. It's my favorite podcast-listening game.

I kind of disagree with this argument that agency in making the horror happen in a video game is worse than the passiveness of watching a movie. It isn't for me anyway. Horror movies scare me because I can't make it stop. It's going to happen anyway. That monster is going to kill that person or that alien is going to pull that guy's head off whether I want it to or not. With a video game I'm safe in the knowledge that if I just let it idle, if I retreat down paths of map already tread, the story won't progress. I can have a breather. I can totally fuck up the tension and pacing. I can make it stop at any time. I am the director of the action, not a victim. None of the horrors happen without me allowing them to, just to see what they are.

I guess you could say that you could control a movie the same way with a remote, but it's still different because the movie doesn't encourage you to control it the way a video game does. Although that is part of why I like to watch them in theaters. I have no choice but to sit there and be terrified.

I get the argument, but that's not the reality for myself.

Either way, great read, Patrick. I myself am quite looking forward to Machine for Pigs. I'm hoping that that one will scare me.

@Gunslinger0130 said:

@VargasPrime:

I get what you're saying but I used the term in reference to how he's selling out his fans. After keeping tabs on the development of this game for the past few years, Phil seemed to be this crazy, art eccentric who wouldn't settle for anything but perfect. Now that his game's been delivered and works (for the most part), the fact that he isn't willing to spend the extra cash to polish it to the level he had initially intended is (in my mind) selling out, he's saying "fuck it, why bother, it's out, it's done, patching it won't bring in more revenue, it will just create a better product".

I thought he was a perfectionist but obviously money's more important than end product. In the Indie game scene I think that constitutes selling out.

You make it sound like he's just got 40k that he's sitting on, refusing to patch the game because he wants to keep the money. In all likelihood, he literally just doesn't even have the money to patch the game. I understand Microsoft needs to charge to cover the work they put into releasing patches, but even still 40k is a hell of a lot of money that not many people, particularly indie developers, can just toss around.

Also, in response to people saying why he bothered with XBLA and not Steam, as far as I'm aware he signed with Microsoft quite a long time ago, back when XBLA was a much more viable way to get your indie game noticed, Steam wasn't such a big deal, and a lot of the grievances with how XBLA is run hadn't come to surface much yet.

Hm

Edit: aw man I didn't think I'd actually get that quest. I feel like an ass for commenting before reading the piece.

It's nice to see Fish in the news in a way that isn't him accidentally making an ass of himself. I'm excited to see what he does next, hopefully it's less of horrible period in his life.

Considering how much horror movies scare me (I still love 'em though), I always expect to be too frightened to ever finish a scary game, but for the most part I really don't find horror games all that scary (being startled by a jump scare notwithstanding, because being startled and being scared aren't the same in my opinion)

I didn't find Amnesia to be that scary honestly, mostly I just thought the constant balance of hiding in the darkness versus losing your sanity to be well implemented.

But jesus the subtitle of this game unsettles the hell out of me

Based on what she's worked on previously, she's a good world builder and a good character creator, but her plots aren't that great. It'll be interesting to see how that translates when she's writing for something where the world and the character already exists.

Glad to see you back again, Patrick.

I for one would love to see a more light-hearted, campier version of Batman in games/movies nowadays. I love me some dark-ass Batman, but even Batman needs to loosen up every now and then.