I expected this to be a piece about on-line piracy. In reality, it is about something that can be much worse.
It's profoundly disturbing that so many people have such a lack of perspective that they can seriously threaten violence against someone and their family just because that person did their job and tweaked some game mechanics.
Sure, most of the abusive people are probably kids, but that's no excuse. What kind of kid is old enough to be allowed unsupervised access to the Internet and yet so out of control that they can think this kind of behaviour is acceptable?
Some of the things described in this piece are surely criminal, but somehow I get the feeling that sending the cops round would just be a badge of honour to people who've gone that far off the rails already. I'm not sure how you fix this without change on a society-wide scale, and I'm not sure how you could even start to effect that change if you're in the the kind of position described in the article.
I don't think it really makes much sense to say that a victim is 'part of the problem' when they respond to thousands of slurs, threats, and near-constant abuse by telling the abuser to go kill themselves. It's not as if they don't actually wish the abuser were dead...
Yes, Phil Fish is part of the problem by existing. He's solved this by leaving the industry entirely. That's a helpful way of looking at it, isn't it?
Phil Fish constantly posted caustic, abusive remarks to everyone on his twitter feed. His public persona was one of a complete and utter asshole. Nothing excuses that behavior. While the internet's response to it is contemptible, I have absolutely no sympathy for Fish. He dished it out constantly, the fact that people replied in kind is expected.
On the other hand, I have a ton of sympathy for the Treyarch dev. He didn't deserve or invite any of the remarks aimed at him, and he didn't do anything to get that level of response.
That's simply an inaccurate interpretation of the facts. People lashed out at and abused Fish, and then he responded negatively. That's TOTALLY DIFFERENT than him going out there and finding random people to abuse, which isn't something he has a history of doing. Period. The fact that he 'seems like an asshole' or his public persona was unlikeable doesn't excuse the shit people did to him.
No, please stop. I can't take it. What you wrote is an inaccurate interpretation of the facts. It also exposes your hypocrisy. You seem to speak passionately about "bullying" and that Phil Fish is a "victim". Apparently, it is wrong to harass someone on the internet, unless your name is Phil Fish. It is wrong to write "suck on it" "hows your boycott going nerds" "compare yourself to me and kill yourself", and to act like a disrespectful human being who insults his own fanbase, unless you are called Phil Fish. When people ask for Fez on the PC, and you insult them. That's okay, because he is Phil Fish, he is only defending himself from his "abusers", his fans. Phil Fish has a history of doing this for the past year. He acquired his notoriety preciously because of his disgusting actions. He was a bully, yet he couldn't take the heat. He IS part of the problem. Period. Now, when you realize that Phil Fish actions are indefensible, and are the REAL problem about this situation, you will say that he suffers from "mental problems", but this is another excuse.
Notice how there are many indie developers are out there who aren't being harassed. Thats because the idea that Phil Fish was harassed randomly is simply a way to gloss over the real issue. You spend all your time, like warriors, decrying about how bad his supposed "abusers" are, like there is some type of epidemic problem of people who are spending their time attacking poor Phil Fish for no reason. Yet, what set him off weren't the abusers, it was his critics. Again and again, he responded to his critics like a child. Shifting the focus on the "abusers" is ignoring the real problem. This is what western developers have become. It is sickening to see people defending the indefensible.
You simply don't know how this industry works. Pretty much every public figure in games gets abuse by being on the internet. It's why an article was written about it, because it's not just Phil Fish and it's not just something he 'did' to 'deserve' it.
It totally changes the tone. It goes from a pompous and hateful statement, to more of a sassy put down. The original Futurama line is obviously satirical, so quoting it is referencing a satire. It was also a reasonable assumption that the target of the statement would recognize the quote.
Not defending Phil Fish. Just the "kill yourself" incident seems to have been blown out of proportion.
The Futurama line is satirical: pompous robot says obviously cruel and pompous thing. Quoting it, assuming the other party recognizes that it's a quote, keeps some of the original humour and makes it into more of a sassy put-down than a literal "you should kill yourself".
For instance, if I say "nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure" I'm not ACTUALLY saying we should nuke anything. I'm actually quite against the use of nuclear weapons.
Except there's no humor, implied, or otherwise, there. Just malice.
And honestly, the phrase "nuke it from orbit" is a rather exaggerated phrase. Unless the speaker is Barrack Obama or Vladamir Putin, it's a pretty good assumption that they are incapable of performing such an act.
However, "look at my life and go kill yourself" is much less exaggerated. Bender gets a pass when he says it because it's used in a comedic context. In real life, there is just about no point where that is a socially acceptable thing to say, except, perhaps, in a Futurama quote competition.
>> However, "look at my life and go kill yourself" is much less exaggerated
I believe Fish actually used the full quote too "compare your life to mine and then kill yourself" [1] .
Also, have you seen the abusive rant that Fish was responding to? It was this GameTrailers panel clip, 1min 50 [2]. I was appalled, it was a character assassination.
Beer called Fish a "fucking hipster," a "tosspot," a "wanker", a "fucking arsehole" and was dismissive of his game [2]. For some reason it's fucking hipster that gets my goat the most as that is just a pathetically lazy insult to throw at someone creative.
> What kind of kid is old enough to be allowed unsupervised access to the Internet and yet so out of control that they can think this kind of behaviour is acceptable?
It's profoundly disturbing that so many people have such a lack of perspective that they can seriously threaten violence against someone and their family just because that person did their job and tweaked some game mechanics.
Sure, most of the abusive people are probably kids, but that's no excuse. What kind of kid is old enough to be allowed unsupervised access to the Internet and yet so out of control that they can think this kind of behaviour is acceptable?
Some of the things described in this piece are surely criminal, but somehow I get the feeling that sending the cops round would just be a badge of honour to people who've gone that far off the rails already. I'm not sure how you fix this without change on a society-wide scale, and I'm not sure how you could even start to effect that change if you're in the the kind of position described in the article.