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[DunDunDunpachi]

Title.

Phil Fish ain't the most polite character, but I enjoyed the two games he made, Fez and Super Hyper Cube. He did have a Cliffy B-esque habit of threatening to leave gaming and to never release his projects, a promise he appears to be keeping for now.

Not sure what people think of the guy. My interest is whether he was an early example of "cancel culture" mob going after someone because of something they said. He wasn't cancelled for making a bad videogame, but for his comments and behavior elsewhere.

 

[Yoboman]

He cancelled himself

 

[Grinchy]

I don't even know what he specifically said, but he always came across like one of those annoying bratty little kids without a lot of parental supervision who just downed a bag of pixie sticks and walked around pinching everyone and quacking like a duck until you just wanted to smack him but you couldn't because he's just a little kid.

 

[30yearsofhurt]

 

[alabtrosMyster]

1 - the guy clearly has issues, he is some kind of crazy genius guy
2 - he definitely was cancelled for his take on the stare of japanese games development (if I. Remember well), he obviously made his comments from a good place, and the backlash felt forced back then

So, I think you're right about that .

 

[Teslerum]

Title.

Phil Fish ain't the most polite character, but I enjoyed the two games he made, Fez and Super Hyper Cube. He did have a Cliffy B-esque habit of threatening to leave gaming and to never release his projects, a promise he appears to be keeping for now.

Not sure what people think of the guy. My interest is whether he was an early example of "cancel culture" mob going after someone because of something they said. He wasn't cancelled for making a bad videogame, but for his comments and behavior elsewhere.

Phil Fish can dish it out, but can't take it. And as Yoboman already said he cancelled himself in the end.

Edit: That said,.... maybe? Thinking about it. Not on the level we see cancel culture today tbh.

 

[regawdless]

"Upon reflection".

Raytraced though or not?

 

[ripeavocado]

I don't remember what happened but I think he was harassed and decided to step out of the spotlight.

He has released some other projects during the years but none of them was successful, thus raising questions about his talent and capabilities as designer.

In fact wasn't Fez the brainchild of someone else that left the company before the release of the game?

Quoting wikipedia page about Fez:

"They worked on McGrath's idea for a puzzle game in which a 3D space was viewed from four 2D angles. Though their partnership broke down due to creative differences, the entirety of Fez's design, story, and art descends from this game mechanic. "

 

[AV]

He was a cunt with a god complex who made one pretty good game. No. He can stay gone.

 

[Boss Mog]

Dude made a game that ripped off a bunch of Japanese games, then proceeded to say to a Japanese's persons face "you guy's games are shit". So yeah, fuck that douchebag.

 

[Fuz]

1 - the guy clearly has issues, he is some kind of crazy guy

FTFY

(if I. Remember well)

No, you don't.

 

[Hudo]

Dude made a game that ripped off a bunch of Japanese games, then proceeded to say to a Japanese's persons face "you guy's games are shit". So yeah, fuck that douchebag.

Yeah, this. Dude did this to himself.

 

[Rolla]

Some people who achieve fame or a recognizeable public persona are not meant to speak to the public without a PR manager. Mr Fish was one of those people.

 

[GametimeUK]

I've never had a problem with him. Always seen it as the internet being a bunch of bitches as per usual. Mob culture for sure, even though Phil can come across a bit strong.

 

[McCheese]

Ooh, very good question.

Cancel culture to me is when somebody is forced out of an industry against their will, often for a political stance or leaning which is completely unrelated to their profession, or their ability to carry out the work.

I think Phil wasn't cancelled, but he did face the same internet bullshit that pushes people out of the industry.

I stopped working on some open source hobbies in the past as folks would keep badgering me, contacting me asking why I hadn't made progress, or why I wasn't prioritizing things they wanted.

Phil loved making games but didn't like the discourse around them and dealt with that poorly. But he wasn't cancelled.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Some people who achieve fame or a recognizeable public persona are not meant to speak to the public without a PR manager. Mr Fish was one of those people.

Notch is another one.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

Fez is so good on PSVITA! ❤❤❤

 

[theclaw135]

Programmers and human relations don't mix.

 

[Concern]

Who is he and what did he make?

 

[BusierDonkey]

Who is he and what did he make?

He made Fez which was really good.

He's also a retard.

 

[01011001]

he wasn't cancelled, he was a huge dick to everyone and came across like super arrogant, and so people started calling him an arrogant dick... and he couldn't take any clapbacks so he basically just disappeared

 

[GreyHorace]

I never played any of the guy's games, but watching some clips of him makes it clear he definitely has some issues.

Still, I have no sympathy for someone who regularly insults the audience who buys his shit. If he didn't want the abuse heaped on him he shouldn't engaged in the first place.

 

[Punkster88]

He got cancelled? Bwahahahaha!

 

[MiguelItUp]

He cancelled himself

This honestly hits the point the hardest. The guy definitely had issues, and a lot of the times he came off as this pompous asshole with skeletons in his closet. Every time I'd have sympathy for the guy, he'd do something that would throw all of that out the window. Hope the dude eventually found peace, it was pretty sad honestly.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

The entertainment value is unrivalled.

"Suck my dick, choke on it"

 

[GAMETA]

Isn't he the guy that said his own creations were the greatest games ever and claimed the japanese devs don't know how to make games?

Yeah yeah that guy can go fuck himself, pretentious piece of shit.

 

[Hendrick's]

He was a whiny bitch, but he didn't deserve the hate he got.

 

[Punished Miku]

He was a whiny bitch, but he didn't deserve the hate he got.

Have you actually seen the video of it?

 

[tusharngf]

weak soul

 

[pochepiller2]

He was shunned for mild comments.

 

[Punished Miku]

He is the opposite of cancel culture, and he deserved everything he got.



A lot of people forget, but during the 360 / PS3 generation, Japanese games almost got pushed out. The whole media was working together with large western developers to put down Japanese games, to minimize anything they did right, and to push them out of the industry for being archaic and inferior. If anything, Japanese games were at risk of being canceled. Fish not only didn't get canceled, but got hugely elevated far beyond his ability or standing in the industry by a media machine obsessed with western indie developers that dress like them and can be friends with journalists. Consumers of Japanese games were just disgusted by his behavior and didn't want to continue to support a giant asshole and bully. Fish later went on to try and push other people out of the industry for criticizing Zoe Quinn and pointing out that she was abusive. The guy partially made one NES game and acted like he could put down all Japanese games, and like a lot of elements of gaming culture at that time that were explicitly anti-Japanese, I think his actions and generalizations were almost racist. I think the year he was saying all Japanese games suck, Mario Galaxy came out.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[BigBooper]

I seem to remember him canceling himself. FEZ sold pretty well so he wasn't boycotted either. It may have been a premonition of cancel culture, because people seemed so satisfied when he canceled his games and quit. I would say it was more like a comorbidity.

 

[The Hamburglar]

The guy could never get over the fact his surname was fish.
you’d be upset eternally if you were named fish.

 

[PSYGN]

He’s a pretentious dickhead and no one likes that.

 

[Fbh]

Was he cancelled though?

I don't remember everything 100% but as far as I recall it's not like publishers started ignoring him or that no one wanted to work with him due to some fear of a Twitter lynch mob. If he wanted to continue making games he probably would have had no issues finding a publisher.
It's more like he couldn't take the haters that pretty much any well known personality in any industry has, and decided to cancel himself. Maybe with the exception that his extremely arrogant and pretentious personality gained him more haters than other similarly "famous" people.

 

[Hugare]

"Dude is a cunt"
- Phil's mom

The guy deserved everything he got.

He is like that child who tries to bully everyone, and when gets offended by someone, runs to the principal's office

 

[oldergamer]

The problem with phil Fish was that he was a outright dick, both in public and in private. Took credit for others work, in addition to being unpleasant to work with. I know one person that worked with him, and he had nothing but bad things to say of him.

 

[Yselacrey00]

Title.

Phil Fish ain't the most polite character, but I enjoyed the two games he made, Fez and Super Hyper Cube. He did have a Cliffy B-esque habit of threatening to leave gaming and to never release his projects, a promise he appears to be keeping for now.

Not sure what people think of the guy. My interest is whether he was an early example of "cancel culture" mob going after someone because of something they said. He wasn't cancelled for making a bad videogame, but for his comments and behavior elsewhere.

It would be nice to give some context OP, don't expect everyone to know what you're talking about.

 

[-Arcadia-]

If I remember right. He said something incredibly stupid, and got ripped a new one. That’s not cancel culture, but the same mechanism that has existed throughout human history for self-regulation.

Nobody wanted him to quit, or did any of the things we see today to prompt it. He did that on his own, and people were quite disgusted that a talented creator took his ball and went home over this.

 

[-Arcadia-]

Still one of the biggest wastes of a promising career and talent. Who knows where he could be by now.

 

[Krappadizzle]

He is the opposite of cancel culture, and he deserved everything he got.



A lot of people forget, but during the 360 / PS3 generation, Japanese games almost got pushed out. The whole media was working together with large western developers to put down Japanese games, to minimize anything they did right, and to push them out of the industry for being archaic and inferior. If anything, Japanese games were at risk of being canceled. Fish not only didn't get canceled, but got hugely elevated far beyond his ability or standing in the industry by a media machine obsessed with western indie developers that dress like them and can be friends with journalists. Consumers of Japanese games were just disgusted by his behavior and didn't want to continue to support a giant asshole and bully. Fish later went on to try and push other people out of the industry for criticizing Zoe Quinn and pointing out that she was abusive. The guy partially made one NES game and acted like he could put down all Japanese games, and like a lot of elements of gaming culture at that time that were explicitly anti-Japanese, I think his actions and generalizations were almost racist. I think the year he was saying all Japanese games suck, Mario Galaxy came out.

Games don't get pushed out, even then. They either have an audience or they don't. Japanese games just weren't competing on the same level as Western influenced and focused game. And by saying Japanese games in general you are including fuckin' juggernauts of the industry, Capcom, Konami(at the time), Nintendo that all did fine and thrived, they just didn't stick to traditional Japanese style design choices all the time.

What does "pushed out" even mean? To me it sounds like you are trying to cover that fact that plainly, that there were a lot of trash ass weeaboo level games being made at the time when a general world audience doesn't care that much or moves past old design mechanics and tendencies. Nintendo did fine even then on Wii/3DS and they are as Japanese as it gets.

 

[kingpotato]

I thought FEZ was boring personally. If he would have made better games the industry wouldn't have let him go.

 

[Birdo]

This guy was so autistic that his piss turned frogs gay.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Once he said that about Japanese games, I didn’t want to play his game anymore. I actually wanted a refund for Fez. I lost all respect for him. I don’t care if he painted the Mona Lisa, I feel like that comment was uncalled for and incredibly wrong.

 

[Punished Miku]

Games don't get pushed out, even then. They either have an audience or they don't. Japanese games just weren't competing on the same level as Western influenced and focused game. And by saying Japanese games in general you are including fuckin' juggernauts of the industry, Capcom, Konami(at the time), Nintendo that all did fine and thrived, they just didn't stick to traditional Japanese style design choices all the time.

What does "pushed out" even mean? To me it sounds like you are trying to cover that fact that plainly, that there were a lot of trash ass weeaboo level games being made at the time when a general world audience doesn't care that much or moves past old design mechanics and tendencies. Nintendo did fine even then on Wii/3DS and they are as Japanese as it gets.

I'm not trying to cover up anything. I'm talking about a sustained media effort to change the perception and spending habits of consumers. It's one of those things that's hard to point to, and some sociologist would have to spend a year writing a book on it for people that didn't live through it and remember it. Most of the whole tendency to put down Japanese culture came from this time as well (you mention weeaboo), with Kotaku putting out daily articles for a decade magnifying only the most absurdist and out of context elements of Japanese culture. It was a perfect storm of multiple things: 1) PS3 architecture hobbling many studios, 2) slow transition to HD era and open world engines, 3) east vs. west culture war as western PC games first appear on console in large numbers, 4) western indie devs making personal friendships with journalists and receiving undue influence and publicity (later evolving into Gamergate).

 

[Eevee86]

Being unlikable and going out of your way to piss people off is going to have negative effects. Most people grew up playing Japanese games, so I don't know why you'd want to make such a broad, sweeping statement that can make them not want anything to do with you.

 

[Bragr]

I don't remember what happened but I think he was harassed and decided to step out of the spotlight.

I remember, after he and Jonathan Blow said that Japanese games are designed like safe kid's games with no challenge and generic game play, he was bashed on the internet and especially on the Invisible Walls podcast, the Game Trailers show that was big at the time, and that Marcus Bear guy called him and Jonathan Blow the "blowfish" and everyone laughed and bashed him even more. He went on a huge tantrum and said he was canceling Fez 2 because everyone sucks.

 

[peronmls]

Glad I never played his game(s).

 

[Neff]

He was a fucking prick and probably still is

Ollie Barder wrote an excellent article about it

Gaming goes through some really weird fashions at times but I'm glad that one is forgotten, as it should be. The industry (and the press particularly) seemed enamoured with the idea of western publishers being the ones to take gaming forward, despite the fact that they tend to mostly stick to a few very well-rehearsed genres. It's so strange seeing press outlets giving Switch games higher scores than they initially did to the same titles on Wii U, because Japan (and Nintendo) is in vogue again.

New games that tried out new controls and mechanics were deemed awkward and the long dark night of functional homogeneity set in.

This is particularly spot-on.