(Not news) Fez developer is a whiny child. (News) Fez II cancelled post-tantrum.

[Aldurin]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126385-Fez-Dev-Tells-Media-Member-To-Kill-Himself

Were you looking forward to Fez II? Well unfortunately Phil Fish didn't like being called Blowfish by one of the Gametrailers guys. So after telling Marcus Beer to kill himself, he ragequit developing Fez II.

Game developers, amiright?

[Revising Ocelot]

Eh, not big surprise. I got FEZ during the summer sale. It was good, but it reeked of pretentiousness. Like, those endings. Fish had obviously spent too much time reading up on the True Art Is Incomprehensible trope.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Phil Fish's personality is the sole reason why I refuse to allow even a single penny of mine to come into his possession. When the cocky little shitlicker isn't busy sucking off his own ego, backstabbing other indie devs, talking to himself on twitter about how great he is, or rigging competitions to his favor then rubbing it in everyone's face, he's being..well..a cocky little shitlicker.

I'll sooner pirate FEZ than buy it. I try to disassociate art from the artist, as the saying goes, but with Shitstain McSideburns it is pretty much impossible. Seeing how the game's success is only overshadowed by his douchebaggery. So, in light of this, I am terribly amused at how he handled this latest hoohaw.

His quotes are even more hilarious, "im being attacked CONSTANTLY" Then perhaps being less of a pretentious asswaffle would help.

"i love twitter. but it also invites SO MUCH UGLINESS into my life" ain't twitter's fault, chump. It's the one using twitter.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Eh, not big surprise. I got FEZ during the summer sale. It was good, but it reeked of pretentiousness. Like, those endings. Fish had obviously spent too much time reading up on the True Art Is Incomprehensible trope.

Every single thing about and by Phil Fish that I've read has painted him as literally the biggest asshole in the gaming industry. His Wikipedia page's only entry is a Controversy section (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Fish_(video_game_developer)) and it's longer than the header.

So, yeah, telling someone who criticized him to kill themselves, demanding an apology from them, and then cancelling his game in a gigantic tantrum is pretty much a normal state of affairs for Phil Fish.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

I'll give it about a month before he announces Fez 2 isn't cancelled, he is Jesus reincarnate, and when his muttonchops are consumed they cure cancer.

[Revising Ocelot]

I'll give it about a month before he announces Fez 2 isn't cancelled, he is Jesus reincarnate, and when his muttonchops are consumed they cure cancer.

Yeah, didn't he rage about PC users asking for a PC version, believing them to be entitled bastards and then said he was originally thinking of making it but then wouldn't (and then obviously backtracked).

In it for the money.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Never heard of this guy, but reading that wiki page, it never ceases to amaze me how arrogant and so full of shit some people are. So, you're a game developer, presumably you want to make games because you enjoy games, and you want other people to play games that you think would be fun to play, yet then you go and act like, well, this douche has, calling gamers retards and being generally insulting to potential customers, and then acting like the injured party when someone calls them on their shit and does it back to them.

I just... don't get it. How do they expect people to buy their games and make money when they alienate everyone and come off as such a massive tool?

It's like that other douche, Jonathan Blow, who makes one ok game and then uses the following years to call everyone elses work shit and lamenting the fall of the industry, whilst not putting out any new games himself or contributing anything of value.

I'm sorry, but you made one game, that does not give you the right to act like you're the greatest gaming genius in the development world and start lording it over everyone else like your opinion on shit matters more than theirs.

TBH, we're probably better off without these conceited little fucks and their egos vieing for artistic supremecy in the industry. The internet has proven it has no qualms about calling anyone on it's bullshit and making a laughing stock of them, so good fucking riddance. The sooner we run them both out of town the better.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Yeah, didn't he rage about PC users asking for a PC version, believing them to be entitled bastards and then said he was originally thinking of making it but then wouldn't (and then obviously backtracked).

In it for the money.

Yup. said he'd never port fez to PC because PC is for spreadsheets, pc gamers are [insert generalized vitriolic insult here] then turns around and ports it to pc acting like people should sick his dick and say thank you for the opportunity. Then shits all over people who called him out on being a hypocrite. saying things like, "$9 for a game like FEZ is a STEAL. I should be charging you $90 you fucking ingrates."

Not only that, he mocked and insulted indie friends (who were friends with him at the time) who were trying to get their games on the xbox 360. Then turned around and did just that and screwed them out of their chance. or somethin like that. It's the hyper-condensed version. Hell, Judas in Binding of Isaac was pretty much inserted into the game as a tribute to how much of a backstabbing dicklord Fish is.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

The Wiki page's been neutered, apparently. This is the whole page as of now:

Filipino Poison, better known as Phil Fish, is a French Canadian video game designer, best known for his work on the game FEZ, a platformer published by his company, Polytron Corporation.[1] Fish is a founding member of Kokoromi, a group with the intent of promoting video games as an art form, and experimental gameplay worldwide. Fish, and the later stages of development of Fez, are featured in Indie Game: The Movie.

What exactly did I miss out on?

[Aldurin]

The Wiki page's been neutered, apparently. This is the whole page as of now:



What exactly did I miss out on?

The entirety of humanity declaring his official status as a pretentious douchebag.

[MuMu]

A lot of angry editing has been happening all day thanks to his rants. His name, as appropriate as it may seem, is not Poison, for example.

Honestly, I don't care much about him. Just an inflated ego let loose on the Internet, happens all the time. Besides, if I weren't going to buy any games by people who said shit, I probably wouldn't have many games.

Still not going to buy FEZ though.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

The Wiki page's been neutered, apparently. This is the whole page as of now:



What exactly did I miss out on?

Huh, so it has. Fortunately, there are still old revisions that anyone can find (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phil_Fish_(video_game_developer)&direction=prev&oldid=566078918)

And for posterity in case those revisions somehow get deleted;

During the course of the development of Fez, Phil Fish has presented a controversial and hostile behavior towards the gaming community and the industry itself, mostly expressed on social site Twitter. Often calling out developers and journalists, Fish has outright stated different remarks about how the industry has decayed thanks to the main gaming companies like Nintendo and the public in general. Other notable remarks include his controversial "narcissism", often looking down (and even in some instances, bullying) the public, using terms like "brainless retards"[2] and "shitfaces". His infamous comments online have caused a major stir in the gaming community, receiving harsh criticism from part of the community and the developers themselves. On July 27, 2013 Fish entered into a discussion on Twitter[3] where he called out GameTrailer's journalist Marcus Beer, for some criticism from one of GameTrailers' segments Invisible Walls[4]. On said video, Beer criticized Jonathan Blow and Phil Fish due to their questionable behavior and incompetence, resulting in a major debate between Beer and Fish which ended on Fish cancelling the development of Fez II and making his personal twitter account private. Fish later reported his resignation from the games industry.

References;
2.^ https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH
3.^ https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH
4.^ http://www.gametrailers.com/full-episodes/roj70m/invisible-walls-everything-and-the-kitchen-sink

[Amake]

I suppose if someone acts unfriendly enough, that's enough justification for the Internet hate machine to drive him to quit being creative. Or to quote this Twitter post I read,

Given all the comments Phil Fish is receiving on his blog I don't understand why anyone would want to become a game developer.

No matter what kind of bad dude this Fish is or if he changes his mind about quitting, I don't think the other side has nothing to learn from this little warning call.

[Ramary]

"Unfriendly" is such an understatement for Phil Fish, from Day One of his publicity (ie Indie Game The Movie) he came off as a self important asshole who talked down to everyone. Really he was only getting what he was giving, I have absolutely zero sympathies for that whiny, piss ant, brat.

And the best part of course was that Fez wasn't even that good.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

I have no doubt that the next time Ramary informs me of a story involving the name Phil Fish I won't remember who he is, but at least this time all he'll have to do to remind me is say "That guy who quit the gaming industry because a journalist was mean to him."

[Amake]

Now, I don't know either side of this story enough to sympathize with anyone, and I certainly understand the temptation to piss all over people on the Internet who's done something wrong, but I'm sure we're all aware that the correct response to someone who's being a jerk is not to "give as good as you get" but actually "stop talking to them"?

[Ramary]

No, for this case I say totally give it back, show other inspiring indie devs that you should not act like a total asshat for attention so you can sell your game.

[Amake]

There's usually the option of not buying what they're selling, I don't see why you'd have to get personal to tell someone you don't approve of the way they do business. Come to think of it that might even have the opposite effect, going by sayings like "There's no bad publicity". Heck, I had forgotten all about Fez but now I know there's a PC version I'm thinking about buying it.

[Ramary]

After Indie Game Movie he got a lot of publicly BECAUSE hes a massive jerk, and I don't want some desperate starving indie dev getting ideas to sell their game from him. I guess it is kinda censorshipy of me to want to shut someone up because they may be a bad example, but he has told people to "suck my dick, choke on it" after he won some indie game award so I am gonna keep personally hating him for giving indie devs a bad name. Also I didn't buy Fez.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Now, I don't know either side of this story enough to sympathize with anyone

:raise:

Maybe you should stop right here and read up on it, instead of giving a wildly uninformed opinion?

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Tosspottery aside, the main reason Beer called Blow and Fish out the way he did is because the both of them are always more than glad (pisspants excited, even) to promote their own stuff and only their own stuff the moment they can at any and every chance they can get. But the moment they're asked about something that doesn't pertain to them or their projects directly they won't even give the time of day. Then turn around and piss all over anyone who helped them get to where they are, insult everyone under the sun, and expect their opinions to be treated as if carved in stone tablets atop a mountain done by the voice speaking through a burning bush.

Taker-Takers don't do well in a give-and-take environment for very long. Use the press to promote your game, toss the press a bone back now and again. Like Beer said: it's a two way street.


As for the Fez games themselves, meh. if I want to play such a game I'll stick with Sky Island.

[Azisien]

I don't know what Fez is, or this guy, but he seems like kind of a dick.

[Amake]

:raise:

Maybe you should stop right here and read up on it, instead of giving a wildly uninformed opinion? I looked and found two wildly different stories, so there didn't seem to be much point. So you'll note I'm not giving any opinion. I'm trying to put together a picture of what people are thinking, and figure out what happened and what we can learn from it.

I have a couple of further questions for Ramary about that, as a matter of fact. Are you saying Fish sets a specific, bad example to the indie game industry and is a general, bad influence on industry at the same time? Can you develop on that? Cause it sounds like either a really impressive feat or a logical paradox.

Like compare with Roman Polanski, who's an accomplished and widely recognized artsy-fartsy filmmaker and authentic child molester. We aren't worried that because of him indie film makers might get a reputation of raping kids and escaping conviction by moving to another country, nor that indie film makers would try to gain notoriety by emulating his crimes instead of his filmmaking techniques. But in Fish's case we have to worry about both those things, why?

And in your estimation, did Fish act as a horrible person as a business strategy or because he's a horrible person? That's kind of crucial to the question of if getting the Internet to yell at him did any good.

[Ramary]

Originally Fish seemed like he was saying the things he said in twitter just because he was a jerk, maybe having a pre-conceived notion that the internet was gonna hate him immediately. This is when his comments were in poor taste (I already mentioned "suck my dick, choke on it) but not just outright crazy. I feel he eventually caught on this was giving him attention, he started just going crazy, making comments like saying the PC was not for video games but for spreadsheets....in 2012...and actually kept on defending that stance till Microsoft screwed him over with not letting him patch his game, and realizing Valve lets you patch your games at anytime for free pretty much (which is why Fez is on Steam now), then backpedaled like all hell to save face for the PC release.

There is also the fact that hes 3rd to Notch and Johnathan Blow as well know indie devs, and all 3 have their own bad reputations (Notch being lazy with updates and taking a lot of vacations while Minecraft was still in active development, Blow for being even more high and mighty then Fish, although less of an outright asshole) and with Fish it means the 3 most well known singular indie game devs are together giving a terrible picture of these people as a whole if you even look a little bit past their hype.

But again, me thinking they give indies a bad name is just me thinking that, I actually am not totally sure how much of an effect the bad rep indies have on everyone else, I hope barely anything but I am sure at least one person's view of indie devs have been darkened by Fish's many tantrums.

[Mr.Bookworm]

I looked and found two wildly different stories, so there didn't seem to be much point. So you'll note I'm not giving any opinion. I'm trying to put together a picture of what people are thinking, and figure out what happened and what we can learn from it.

...there's not really a "story", though. You can look up the exact video that caused Fish to blow up, go over to Twitter and watch him self-destruct in real time, and then draw your own conclusions from that.

And in your estimation, did Fish act as a horrible person as a business strategy or because he's a horrible person? That's kind of crucial to the question of if getting the Internet to yell at him did any good.

I think it's a line so thin that there's no practical difference.

Frankly, the Internet yelling at someone isn't going to make a difference, period, regardless if Fish is a troubled soul hiding behind a callous exterior or just a total asshat. Someone who handles criticism and mild mockery by blowing up and throwing tantrums is not particularly likely to change their worldview because a bunch of strangers calls them an asshole.

Trying to extract some sort of lesson from this is kind of pointless. Fish is an asshole who has repeatedly done things that have proven him to be an asshole, this incident just being the latest. There's not a moral in this story other than "don't be an asshole".

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

then backpedaled like all hell to save face for the PC release.

Nope. (http://steamcommunity.com/app/224760/discussions/0/828936719094418300/#p54)

Nope 2: the nopening. (https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSmsDNLEdERrHMocHdBLzjvWkyLlUTRx wu-N5tUEGBWfw7qBVGO)



There is also the fact that hes 3rd to Notch and Johnathan Blow as well know indie devs, and all 3 have their own bad reputations (Notch being lazy with updates and taking a lot of vacations while Minecraft was still in active development, Blow for being even more high and mighty then Fish, although less of an outright asshole) and with Fish it means the 3 most well known singular indie game devs are together giving a terrible picture of these people as a whole if you even look a little bit past their hype.

and before he closed up his twitter privacy he'd take potshots at notch, minecraft, and minecraft fans because they aren't his fans.

[Ryong]

Didn't he only release it on PC because he wanted to release some sort of patch for the XBLA version, found out he had to pay 20k for it, then simply released the game on PC and never released said patch?

Also, I remember back in the old days when the first Fez trailers started popping up and there were a lot of people asking for what platforms the game would be released for - it was assumed PC, XBLA and PSN at the time - and from the looks of it, PC was rather guaranteed...Then they said nope and they got a lot of hate.

[Aldurin]

Update to the article linked in the OP. Basically Phil Fish said that he didn't ragequit Fez because he's criticized for being a jerk, but that he wants to get out of games in hopes it makes him stop being criticized for being a jerk.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

HAH!

Way to pin the blame for his fantastically lacking interpersonal problems on err'one else for being so meeeaaaan. Act like a dick, get treated like a dick. What a fuckstick.

The indie dev scene will be all the better without his smug brand of idiot stanking things up. Now, if Blowhard would pop off the scene along with Cliffy-B that'd be super fantastic.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yeah like I said earlier, good riddance. The indie game scene is probably better off without dickbags like this around.

[Revising Ocelot]

http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz151/cjjolly/doctor%20who/gifs/fez01.gif

[Amake]

What do you know, after sleeping on it I found an opinion. I think whatever damage Fish may have done to the indie game scene is ridiculously unimportant. Orson Scott Card's gay-hating tendencies damage the credibility of writers and give writers bad ideas more than this, and I'm fine with not giving him any of my money, but there's a lot of people for whom his work means a great deal, who have felt incredibly betrayed by the revelation of his bigotry, and yet they apparently deal with it without feeling the need to attack Card personally. Indie game enthusiasts have not shown the same dignity.

There's probably more than one hopeful young dev who might have made the Citizen Kane of games, but who maybe isn't too confident in their ability to maintain a tolerable public persona, and reads about this and learns what the Internet hate machine does to you if you don't keep your mouth shut and gives up and gets a honest job instead.

I would tell them, as I would have told Fish, that it doesn't matter what people think of you, you can say nothing, be a complete nonentity to your audience, and if your work is good then people will enjoy it. But I don't know if anyone can believe that, since we're apparently so damn eager to judge the quality of a work by the behavior of its author that we celebrate when a guy we hate stops making games. I think that's the real problem here.

[Ryong]

I would tell them, as I would have told Fish, that it doesn't matter what people think of you, you can say nothing, be a complete nonentity to your audience, and if your work is good then people will enjoy it.

See: Nifflas ( guy behind the knytt series ), Konjak ( guy making Iconoclasts, made Noitu Love series, that one cool Legend of Zelda single stage game ) and a bunch others.

[Ramary]

the Citizen Kane of games

I FUCKING HATE THAT PHRASE. STOP USING IT, HOW ARE GAMES GONNA BECOME THEIR OWN THING IF WE ARE STILL JUST TRYING TO APE HOLLYWOOD, FUCK HOLLYWOOD. PEOPLE KEEP THROWING IT ON BIG POPULAR GAMES AS SOON AS THEY ARE OUT, WHEN KANE WAS A BOX OFFICE FLOP AND IT WAS NOT TILL MUCH LATER THAT IT WAS RECOGNIZED.

Yes I went all caps because I am yelling at you. Yes I really do hate that phrase that much. Also King Kong was a much more important movie to film making then Citizen Kane.

[Amake]

I use it as a synonym for "work that history remembers as the defining moment for its medium", I didn't know what those other people are talking about but they're clearly using it wrong.

[Locke cole]

Then say "Defining moment for gaming" instead?

[Amake]

I am starting to wish I had said "The Maus of videogames" instead.

[akaSM]

WHEN KANE WAS A BOX OFFICE FLOP AND IT WAS NOT TILL MUCH LATER THAT IT WAS RECOGNIZED.

The answer is Psychonauts...right?

About this guy, I barely heard of him or his game but, I'll ride the blowfish bandawagon because that's the cool thing to do.

Also, I don't like that guy.

[PyrosNine]

Pyros wants a Maus video game that is entirely about trading commodities in an increasingly desperate market and long lavishly drawn cutscenes in the graphic novelist's style.

[akaSM]

Pyros wants a Maus video game that is entirely about trading commodities in an increasingly desperate market and long lavishly drawn cutscenes in the graphic novelist's style.

TF2 + MGS4 + Braid?

[MuMu]

I use it as a synonym for "work that history remembers as the defining moment for its medium", I didn't know what those other people are talking about but they're clearly using it wrong.

Clearly you aren't the Roger Ebert of gaming

[greed]

It's mostly a bad cliche is the problem. Have to hand it to you though Amake, it set up Ramary's explosion which was kinda hilariously out of proportion.

Every single thing about and by Phil Fish that I've read has painted him as literally the biggest asshole in the gaming industry.


Obviously you need to do some reading on the Stardock guy or the dude who made Star Ocean 4. The piece of human waste behind Other M as well.

Fish probably wins for ones who aren't actually evil though I guess.

[Mr.Bookworm]

What do you know, after sleeping on it I found an opinion. I think whatever damage Fish may have done to the indie game scene is ridiculously unimportant.

Nobody actually gives two shits about the "damage Fish may have done to the indie game scene".

He's a arrogant jackass who flounced out of the room after someone called him an asshole.

He told someone to kill themselves, which is, you know, a completely fucking awful thing to do.

So, fuck that guy. That's what this is about.

and yet they apparently deal with it without feeling the need to attack Card personally. Indie game enthusiasts have not shown the same dignity.

It's hard to talk about an asshole without calling him an asshole.

Also, flatly incorrect on the Card thing. Plenty of people insult him. He is a reprehensible fucking person and he should be called out as such.

There's probably more than one hopeful young dev who might have made the Citizen Kane of games, but who maybe isn't too confident in their ability to maintain a tolerable public persona, and reads about this and learns what the Internet hate machine does to you if you don't keep your mouth shut and gives up and gets a honest job instead.

Here's a thought: If you cannot manage to not come across as an asshole, maybe you are an asshole. It's not that hard! Most people do it every day. I don't see a thousand other game developers being called out as assholes on a regular basis.

I would tell them, as I would have told Fish, that it doesn't matter what people think of you,

Bullshit! Absolute fucking bullshit. This is up there with "sticks and stones blah blah blah" for shit advice.

Of course it matters what other people think of you. It matters even when those people are flat out objectively wrong, because they will act in accordance with their beliefs. OSC isn't a vile little toad because every time he hates a gay person, they get hit by lightning. He is a vile little toad because his homophobia expresses itself in his actions, which are directly harmful to gay people.

you can say nothing, be a complete nonentity to your audience, and if your work is good then people will enjoy it. But I don't know if anyone can believe that, since we're apparently so damn eager to judge the quality of a work by the behavior of its author that we celebrate when a guy we hate stops making games. I think that's the real problem here.

If you buy anything, you are placing money right into the hand of it's maker.

If you judge the maker to be a piece of shit, you might decide that you don't want to give them money, even if you want the thing in question.

You will then probably call the maker a piece of shit, because expressing feelings and thoughts and emotions is something human beings do, and you may want other people to know about their shittiness so they don't give a shitty person money.

This is, in fact, how boycotts work.

Obviously you need to do some reading on the Stardock guy

Oh god, Stardock guy. Yeah, Fish has some major competition.

[Amake]

Bullshit! Absolute fucking bullshit. This is up there with "sticks and stones blah blah blah" for shit advice. It has worked for me. In fact I don't know any other way that would possibly make it better when people think you're a horrible person no matter what you do.

Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. You seem to be fine with less good games being made so long as the right people make them; I think the work is more important than the author, and when I fail to not have my perception of the author influence my perception of their work it makes me sad.

[Ryong]

Who's Stardock guy?

It has worked for me. In fact I don't know any other way that would possibly make it better when people think you're a horrible person no matter what you do.

But what if, hypothetically, you are, as a matter of fact, a horrible person? This is a person who makes a petty insult to a large group of people, gives them a product as an afterthought to maybe get money and then, upon selling the product, calls the consumers bad at boycotting and when called out on it, tells the person to die and then proverbially flips the bird to the whole company.

We all ask the same, if you can't do good, then at least don't be horrible, or a hindrance or whatever. It's what we expect others to do.

Except in cases where you can quote Edmund Burke.

[Amake]

Yeah, then it works the same. If you don't care what people think of you, then you don't have much of a reason to make petty insults or tell anyone to die because they think badly of you. Or do you think Fish's problem is not that he wants people to think he's clever and cool?

[POS Industries]

Orson Scott Card's gay-hating tendencies damage the credibility of writers and give writers bad ideas more than this, and I'm fine with not giving him any of my money, but there's a lot of people for whom his work means a great deal, who have felt incredibly betrayed by the revelation of his bigotry, and yet they apparently deal with it without feeling the need to attack Card personally. Indie game enthusiasts have not shown the same dignity.
For what it's worth, the fans of Card's work mostly just seem to be defending all the money he gives to actual hate groups as "exercising his freedom of speech" and calls to have him not get paid for things since that money goes to funding said actual hategroups as "denying him his livelihood because you don't agree with his opinions."

Orson Scott Card is a fucking monster whose actions have helped lead to getting innocent people killed just because of how they were born and anyone who doesn't call him out on this is honestly an immensely worse person than phil Fish themselves.

The two are incomparable, and the fact that Fish gets more hate just for being a big spoiled baby who can't take criticism and has internet tantrums than Card whose actions have very real and very dire consequences for society is astounding. And don't think for a minute that means I think people are being unfair to Fish. Card just deserves considerably more hate than he's getting.

[Mr.Bookworm]

To be perfectly clear, since I've been sort of frustrated in this thread and not communicating very well, 95% of the bullshit Fish gets is probably bullshit. "Go kill yourself" or whatever with more misspellings is completely unacceptable no matter who's doing the slinging or who the target is.

It's just really dumb to lump in the relatively reasonable criticism of Fish and his asshattery with all of the "lol gay" school of Tumblr interpersonal communication.

I'm also far less inclined to be sympathetic to someone who is being an asshole and gets assholed back at than I am to one of the million people that are blameless but get bombarded by fuckwads anyway. Maybe that's a bad thing? I dunno.

It has worked for me. In fact I don't know any other way that would possibly make it better when people think you're a horrible person no matter what you do.

There's a middle ground between basing your self-image around what other people think and just completely not giving fucks about what other people think. Neither is desirable. The ability to separate the reasonable criticism from the chaff is an incredibly important skill to have.

Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. You seem to be fine with less good games being made so long as the right people make them;

When on Earth did I say that? I'm not interested in Fez, either 1 or 2, partially due to the creator's obnoxiousness, but I recognize that there are people who want to play it, and I'm not really going to rag on them for doing so.

Also, man, I would be infinitely surprised if Fez 2 did not actually come out.

I think the work is more important than the author, and when I fail to not have my perception of the author influence my perception of their work it makes me sad.

Jesus Christ, middle ground. I'm playing Bioshock right now and I wouldn't give much of a fuck if I found out that Ken Levine had gone straight Republican in every election since he could vote.

On the other hand, you have, say, Orson Scott Card, who's vileness has been expounded on at length in this thread. I am not going to do anything that would put money in his pocket.

As POS said, Fish isn't anywhere near as bad as Card, but his assholery has done quite a bit to turn me off from ever playing his games.

Yeah, then it works the same. If you don't care what people think of you, then you don't have much of a reason to make petty insults or tell anyone to die because they think badly of you. Or do you think Fish's problem is not that he wants people to think he's clever and cool?

If you don't care what other people think about you, you end up as a raging douchebag because you are unable to accept criticism of any sort.

And I have no idea what Fish's problem is and trying to speculate would be wasting words. The only thing we can judge is what we see.

Who's Stardock guy?

Stardock guy! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Wardell)