Jimquisition: Fish, FEZ, And Supporting Art Over Artists

Jimothy Sterling

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Fish, FEZ, And Supporting Art Over Artists

The past week has seen much discussion concerning FEZ and its creator, Phil Fish. It's struck up some fascinating conversations about whether or not we should support art even if we don't like the artist, and whether someone being an "asshole" ought to factor into the purchase of a product. This week's Jimquisition examines the idea, and attempts to find the middle ground of the debate.

After all, few people are more qualified on the subject of providing content while being a massive dick.

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RaikuFA

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I also won't support Earthworm Jim. After all the shit Tommy Tallarico said on his show why should I support a racist douchebag?

But yeah, Fish is an ass for what he said but he was right that Braids creator deserves more flak cause at least Fish backtracked and said it was CURRENT games from Japan that suck(which is huge your mileage may vary territory there).
 

SquidVicious

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Apr 20, 2011
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Separating art from the artist can be very tricky, and it mostly comes down to where you draw the line and how much compromise you're willing to give. In some cases I can let some assholish behavior slide as with Alan Moore, and in other cases I cannot, like with Varg Vikernes from the black metal band Burzum. While I love the genre and can at least understand where fans are coming from in regards to the influence he had on adding a sense of atmosphere to black metal, I cannot let that excuse his racist, bigoted, murderous ways.
 

Scrustle

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I feel like I should have something to say about this issue since I got Fez and I think it's a great game, but I can't help but find that I'm sitting in the "I don't care" camp. The game is great and very charming, and nothing about the game has any kind of racist tones to it. Fish and his team made a great game, and none of the profits of the game are going to go towards any kind of "anti-Japanese" cause or anything. And to say he's racist just because he said all Japanese games suck is stupid. He didn't say that Japanese people were bad or inferior in any way, he just said their games are rubbish. As stupid as that point of view is, he's allowed to have it. It's not hurting anyone. Giving him money for his game doesn't mean you're contributing to the payment of some kind of torture machine/siege engine that he's going to invade Japan with. His views are completely inconsequential. The game is really fun and interesting, and that's all that should really matter.
 

Danny O'Donnell

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ain't played Fez, but my decision when i should or shoult not buy a game is based on the review and the publisher, not what some cliff b wannabe did to piss off some japs
 

illas

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Apr 4, 2010
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Fish said that "Japanese Games suck".
He didn't say "Japanese games suck because they're made by the Japanese".

The former is a judgement on the state of a country's games output; the latter is racist, as far as I'm concerned.
 

MonkeyPunch

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Phil Fish rubs me up the wrong way. So many of his statements are so amazingly narrow minded and blinkered, it's hard to fathom that he's in a creative position.
Meh.
 

3quency

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LoathsomePete said:
I cannot, like with Varg Vikernes from the black metal band Burzum. While I love the genre and can at least understand where fans are coming from in regards to the influence he had on adding a sense of atmosphere to black metal, I cannot let that excuse his racist, bigoted, murderous ways.
Seconded, that man genuinely unsettles me.

I'm pretty much with Jim on this, it's entirely subjective what you're willing to put up with. Pretty much everyone I know likes some or all of Bob Marley's work, despite his domestic abuse.

Props for the Spider avatar by the way.
 

Bobic

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Of course, the best solution is to learn absolutely nothing about anyone who creates anything. That way you can buy whatever you want. Ignorance is bliss and all that.
 

RaikuFA

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Scrustle said:
I feel like I should have something to say about this issue since I got Fez and I think it's a great game, but I can't help but find that I'm sitting in the "I don't care" camp. The game is great and very charming, and nothing about the game has any kind of racist tones to it. Fish and his team made a great game, and none of the profits of the game are going to go towards any kind of "anti-Japanese" cause or anything. And to say he's racist just because he said all Japanese games suck is stupid. He didn't say that Japanese people were bad or inferior in any way, he just said their games are rubbish. As stupid as that point of view is, he's allowed to have it. It's not hurting anyone. Giving him money for his game doesn't mean you're contributing to the payment of some kind of torture machine/siege engine that he's going to invade Japan with. His views are completely inconsequential. The game is really fun and interesting, and that's all that should really matter.
It wasn't just that, it was the fact that he said ALL games from Japan suck, including classic games. He wasn't even asked about Japanese games, he was asked by a Japanese developer some other question about that movie he was involved with and his response was "Your countrys games suck."

Plus, it has a chance of hurting localization, if you were a big wig at a Japanese country and all you were hearing was about how US developers were bashing your games, would you want to localize them?

He did backtrack and said current Japanese games suck (which to a degree they do but so does some American games) so I might get this. Also, a lot of people pointed out the gameplay is a lot like Super Paper Mario, a current Japanese game.
 

Saulkar

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RaikuFA said:
I also won't support Earthworm Jim. After all the shit Tommy Tallarico said on his show why should I support a racist douchebag?
Wait. What did Tommy ever say, or is this a sarcastic counterpoint?
 

templar1138a

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Dec 1, 2010
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Yeah, I hadn't even heard of this controversy. And I really don't care about the game because I've detested platformers since I was a child (early nineties, for the record).

Interesting that you highlighted Peter Molyneux and Fable. His involvement never made me less inclined to buy those games (I happen to love the Fable series), I just wished he'd shut up and stop promising things he couldn't deliver.

Once that silly Fable game revolving around the Kinect has been released to the bargain bin, I want to see a Fable game set in a World War II-esque setting. And then I want the next one to be in SPAAAACE!

I'm sorry, what was your video about again?
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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ManupBatman said:
Hey Jim, is listening to Michael Jackson pedophilia or not?
It's not pedophilia, but one could questionably argue that it was support of pedophilia.

Of course, this brings up an interesting problem, since virtually none of the products we buy are untainted.
 

Scrustle

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Apr 30, 2011
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RaikuFA said:
Scrustle said:
I feel like I should have something to say about this issue since I got Fez and I think it's a great game, but I can't help but find that I'm sitting in the "I don't care" camp. The game is great and very charming, and nothing about the game has any kind of racist tones to it. Fish and his team made a great game, and none of the profits of the game are going to go towards any kind of "anti-Japanese" cause or anything. And to say he's racist just because he said all Japanese games suck is stupid. He didn't say that Japanese people were bad or inferior in any way, he just said their games are rubbish. As stupid as that point of view is, he's allowed to have it. It's not hurting anyone. Giving him money for his game doesn't mean you're contributing to the payment of some kind of torture machine/siege engine that he's going to invade Japan with. His views are completely inconsequential. The game is really fun and interesting, and that's all that should really matter.
It wasn't just that, it was the fact that he said ALL games from Japan suck, including classic games. He wasn't even asked about Japanese games, he was asked by a Japanese developer some other question about that movie he was involved with and his response was "Your countrys games suck."

Plus, it has a chance of hurting localization, if you were a big wig at a Japanese country and all you were hearing was about how US developers were bashing your games, would you want to localize them?

He did backtrack and said current Japanese games suck (which to a degree they do but so does some American games) so I might get this. Also, a lot of people pointed out the gameplay is a lot like Super Paper Mario, a current Japanese game.
I know he said all Japanese games suck, that's what I said. And so what if he did? I still don't think it matters that much. And I hardly think that any Japanese publisher who isn't already coming out with retarded reasons not to release their games in the West is going to do it just because one pretentious arrogant dick says he doesn't like their games.