Fish was kind of an asshole. I'm not sure there's much debate there. Typified the smug Internet dude back then and actively participated in a lot of dumb stuff online. That said, the Gamer masses were, as usual, slime and were much worse. A shame.
Fez turns 10 today
- Thread starter chaobreaker
- Start date
Perhaps my most fondly remembered gaming experience of all time. The moments you realize what's happening in that game hit me 100x harder than anything in The Witness or anything else since. Just replayed it for like the 7th or 8th time a couple months back, too. Listen to the absolutely immaculate soundtrack at least once a week even now, still the best thing Disasterpiece has done, IMO.
Miss your presence on the internet Phil, hope you're happy doing whatever you're doing now. Maybe Fez 2 someday, huh? Maybe?
Miss your presence on the internet Phil, hope you're happy doing whatever you're doing now. Maybe Fez 2 someday, huh? Maybe?
Phil Fish ABSOLUTELY did something wrong. He was insanely condescending and rude to someone who was earnestly asking him a question, insulting an entire nation's worth of games that defined the medium in the process. He was also just in general really nasty and obnoxious over silly things.
Phil Fish did not, however, deserve what happened to him. That I can agree with. There's a line between "got called out for being an ass" and "got repeatedly harassed and ganged up on" and the backlash against him did turn into the latter.
Phil Fish did not, however, deserve what happened to him. That I can agree with. There's a line between "got called out for being an ass" and "got repeatedly harassed and ganged up on" and the backlash against him did turn into the latter.
This hits the nail on the head. He was a dick but got a disproportionate response (of course typical of the internet sadly.) I love Fez :).
One of the all-time greats. I just wish I had been less spoiled on some of the secrets, but it was still an amazing experience.
Yep.
Bought it the other week. It looks absolutely stunning on the Switch OLED screen, especially the areas with black backgrounds.
Probably a good place to mention that Eurogamer have a retrospective and an interview with Phil Fish (coming tomorrow): https://www.eurogamer.net/fez-10-year-anniversary-retrospective
The communal experience of coming together with people to figure this game out and writing on notebooks and translating, remains one of my favorite experiences with any game.
Also, the soundtrack by Disasterpeace is one of the best ever.
Also, the soundtrack by Disasterpeace is one of the best ever.
Was browsing this thread and thank god you came in to get the ship back on course. This needed to be said as I felt like I was taking crazy pills.
Funny. I remember when Fez came out and I was like "this is so...boring" and I generally bounced off indie games. Then Hotline Miami came out soon after and it is still to this day one of my favourite games of all time and changed how I perceived indie games.
eh no no no, he was very much in the wrong on his response and stance to the Japanese games dev question.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills seeing the no effort posts parroting that he did nothing wrong.
He didn't deserve the abuse or doxxing quite obviously, but he was very much in the wrong on that, and was no saint.
yeah, basically this.
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Did Phil Fish ever actually resurface since the "controversy"? A shame for someone so talented to not make another game. Is he even in game development any more I wonder.
Fez was a game I was extremely excited for but kind of bounced off of in a big way, to the point that I consider it a personal disappointment on the whole. The game feels more "cute" than it is inarguably great. It's an interesting way to design an experience, but when the extent of the in-game mechanics are so rudimentary and where the true depth of the game is dictated by so many outside influences, it became too much for me. It's like what would happen if you asked someone to design a game that has zero inhibitions for meta and drove classic video game obscurity/urban legends into a logical conclusion rather than reaching for what made these aspects compelling.
Still, there's no doubt that Fish had talent, and I was interested to see what he planned for Fez 2 since I could've sworn he said the game was going to be a completely different beast. It's a shame it'll probably not happen.
Still, there's no doubt that Fish had talent, and I was interested to see what he planned for Fez 2 since I could've sworn he said the game was going to be a completely different beast. It's a shame it'll probably not happen.
Also this.
Phil had abrasive opinions that no one would care about if he wasn't a 'celebrity'. Hardly anything worth the reaction he got everywhere.
He was rude to a Japanese developer which sucked, but everything else was reactionary comments to the death threats and harassment he endured from the pre-gamergate crowd and they clutched their pearls because he dared fought back.
He started DJing, and he also worked on SuperHyperCube in 2016.
Edit: I forgot to actually write about Fez which is why I came into this thread; game is amazing, I can't believe it's been 10 years already. I remember being completely hooked to it. I think I played it into the summer and it was very much a play into the night, wake up and continue playing kinda game. Great memories.
He was rude to a Japanese developer which sucked, but everything else was reactionary comments to the death threats and harassment he endured from the pre-gamergate crowd and they clutched their pearls because he dared fought back.
He started DJing, and he also worked on SuperHyperCube in 2016.
Edit: I forgot to actually write about Fez which is why I came into this thread; game is amazing, I can't believe it's been 10 years already. I remember being completely hooked to it. I think I played it into the summer and it was very much a play into the night, wake up and continue playing kinda game. Great memories.
Now this is facts not the "Phil fish didn't nothing wrong" revisionist history going on in this thread.
Ah, I'm glad that ten years later we can revisit the magic of Fish discourse in a thread about Fez, as if it were fresh off the press 🙈
I feel like the great irony is that his hot takes were not too dissimilar from your average Era member's or the message board culture of the time anyway, but he had the great misfortune of being somewhat famous while having little sense for the tact that also demands.
I feel like the great irony is that his hot takes were not too dissimilar from your average Era member's or the message board culture of the time anyway, but he had the great misfortune of being somewhat famous while having little sense for the tact that also demands.
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For those of us who are out of the loop, what did Phil Fish do wrong? All's I remember is that he was kinda an asshole, but what did he do to earn such a bad reputation?
Looking back, 2013 truly was a horrendous time for gaming culture… the toxicity was disgusting.
I remember finding out about the game about a week before launch in the old site. I knew nothing about any of it. In the thread, it was toxic. So many people attacking him and making him out to be horrid. I genuinely thought he was a murderer or sex offender from the comments I was seeing. Then I googled him and saw he said some things about Japanese games. Really tame things.
I was blown away. I could not believe so many people were attacking him in the way they were because of that.
I don't know if he has done anything sus since then. But at that point at launch, the vitriol towards him was awful.
AFAIK he doesn't actually have a 'bad reputation' per se. In some instant/interview or something he made a comment/statement that was insensitive IIRC and he was rightly criticized for it. Thats about all.
Crazy toxic gamers went way overboard on some other shit later on and he backed out of the scene and I dont think anyone blames him. He was being doxxed which is absolutely ridiculous. Its just bizarre seeing people pretend that the microscopic feedback he got for what he said that one time was unwarranted. From what I can recall it was absolutely warranted. The overboard nonsense that came afterwards however was WAY out of pocket.
phil's comments about japanese games were harsh but true. he could have said it better but japanese studios were chasing western aaa fare at the time and producing some truly shit tier garbage. quantum theory anyone?
You gotta remember Fez was launching as a 360 exclusive. So of course there was fanboyism in the mix, as well.
Phil Fish was absolutely an abrasive person (I'm using the past tense, as I have no idea how he is now). I think his response to that Japanese developer was unnecessarily harsh, even if there was a seed of truth in what he said. That being said, despite being prickly, and being able to rub people the wrong way, Phil Fish also supported vulnerable people.
When TotalBiscuit was doing his damndest to legitimize Gamergate, Phil Fish was one of the very few game developers who was speaking out against the movement. He was one of the few public-facing people who acknowledged what it truly was. So was Phil a giant dick sometimes? Yes. But was he actually a solid human being? I think so.
Human beings are complicated. Phil Fish is a human being.
When TotalBiscuit was doing his damndest to legitimize Gamergate, Phil Fish was one of the very few game developers who was speaking out against the movement. He was one of the few public-facing people who acknowledged what it truly was. So was Phil a giant dick sometimes? Yes. But was he actually a solid human being? I think so.
Human beings are complicated. Phil Fish is a human being.
Reading through this thread, I clearly must have missed something back in the day since the game didn't do much for me and I dropped it pretty quickly. I love puzzle games, though. Guess I should revisit it.
I think it is a pretty great puzzle game. My favorite element of it is how it tailors itself to your needs. If you want a quick, breezy, puzzle-platforming title, you can complete Fez just by meeting the minimum requirements and you will get just that. On the other hand, if you want something that really forces out-of-the-box thinking and careful deductive reasoning, then these are some real doozies in Fez. There are some real gloves-off puzzles here.
