Jimquisition: Go Fish

[klaynexas3]

To be fair, at least they did go on to explain afterwards reasons why they didn't like Japanese games, and even Blow admitted it was mostly an opinion. Though Fish still played the dick in that role when he started it off.

The community didn't start the problem by launching unprovoked attacks on Fish. He started the problem by acting like a conceited, bigoted, self-fellating ass.

Now that's actually wrong, people jumped down his throat just because he took awhile to make the game. Then he lashed out at the assholes that wouldn't get off his ass for taking so long to make the game. Then the rest of the internet joined in after that because they got pissed off that Fish was getting pissed and held him to a higher standard. My guess is he didn't start out as the ponce, but everyone else made him into the twitter ponce.

Now that's not to say he can't be a dick of his own fruition, the previous video was proof of that alone. However, that wasn't the start of the internet hating him, which started the moment he popped up on the internet. That's when he started showing that he, too, when having his buttons pushed, could play the part of the anus.

 

[MoeMints]

I feel like this quote is relevant.

*snip*

That logic is also a gigantic enabler of artists like TomPreston who can say any outright wrong (Samus and Link aren't blond), ironic (Japanese animation is dumb, that's why I reference my characters with it!), or just odd (hey guys, I didn't know tracing a photograph for profit could be highly illegal).

 

[Starik20X6]

The only time I ever heard anything from Fish was when he'd say something that would sic the journalists on him. As such, I currently don't have the highest of opinions of the guy. Have never threatened the guy, obviously, because I'm not a complete psychopath, but everything I hear about him makes him come across as a bit of a dick. I was unaware that he was apparently being picked on all day everyday, so... I dunno.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Really felt like this episode was coming from a very sincere, and personal place. Well done Jim.
Please don't leave us. We love ya, Jim. :3

As for the Fish thing? I don't really know what happened, and I don't think I really want to. I guess that I will be hoping that Fez 2 doesn't die over all this, though. Seeing as a lot of people liked the first game.

Thank God for you. Jim.

 

[HellsingerAngel]

Easily the best episode of the Jimquisition I've seen to date. I think you need to seriously think about doing episodes like this in the future. "Real talk" Jim is a very cool Jim.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

What leaves me with no sympathy for Fish over this is that he wasn't just 'snapping' at people who insulted him. When people call him 'outspoken,' what they really mean is that he was constantly starting the kind of shit he left complaining about. He would go out of his way to insult or piss off people who didn't do anything to him, sometimes who hadn't even interacted with him before. He was repeatedly guilty of the same sort of 'abuse' people were throwing at him, and Jim is just glossing over that. Hell, plenty of the people Fish 'snapped' at were 'snapping' at him over that delightful way he phrased his 'interesting opinions.' If Fish wanted to fling shit at people, he should have been tough enough to take it himself.

I put 'abuse' in quotes because of personal experience. I've experienced the kind of online 'harassment' that gets you a bunch of angry Youtube comments and a thread of people wishing you dead on 4chan, and I've also experienced the kind of harassment and abuse that leaves you black and blue every other day and locks you in dark, windowless rooms to teach you that you're inherently worthless and better off dead. The former was a minor annoyance that any decent humanities education (especially in the arts) teaches you to completely brush off, the latter was horrific and scarring.

 

[Something Amyss]

My problem isn't with Fish needing a thicker skin.
I just have no sympathy because every time I heard him make a statement, he's acting like a ponce.

Indeed. In fact, most of the time I sympathise with the people who get hatemail and threats because they probably don't deserve it.

Fish is, instead, a dickhead who is routinely on the offense. He didn't just snap, he had an outburst in a chain of outbursts. He didn't just have a bad day, he's had a string of bad days near constantly since he arrived on the scene, proclaiming his hipster ass superior to everyone else's. He didn't have his HP worn down, he's a One Hitpoint Wonder who's constantly on the verge of that KO.

Fish probably does need thicker skin, though. Not because he's a celebrity on teh interwebz, but because he IS that guy who's always on the attack, always making an ass of himself.

The guu doesn't deserve death threats, though, even if his shitty Futurama reference reads as telling someone to kill himself. Ridicule and insults? Well, I'm not sure anyone DESERVES them per se, but Fish makes it really hard to defend him if you're aware of his history.

Sure, no one is perfect, but most people aren't assholes.

Or, alternatively, we're all better at covering it up.

 

[lancar]

Thanks for this episode, Jim. It needed to be said. Especially after I read some of the spiteful comments in the original article about this event here on the Escapist.

I admit, I don't know the guy (Fish, that is), and I'm not particulary interested in his games either.
But even if I did, and even if I considered him the epitome of douchebaggery, I still would never send hate his way.

Why?

Because I know what being hated on feels like, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
And even though I can think up viable reasons as to why people are doing it, deep down I still can still never understand them.

And thats just from ONE source.

Imagine receiving it from thousands.


Somehow, I don't think it gets any easier.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

It's worth pointing out that Kevin Smith threw the mother of all hissy fits when critics tore Cop Out apart, yet was happy to ride the critical buzz of Clerks, Chasing Amy and all his other View Askewniverse films for all it was worth.

Artists are not wilting daisies. They don't need to be kept locked away where the nasty people of the world can't hurt them. They don't need special treatment. They're normal people, and at the end of the day, if they fuck up then they deserve a metaphorical arse-kicking just like anyone else.

If you do nothing but encourage an artist, you simply end up enabling them to produce whatever meaningless piffle they feel entitled to. The Star Wars prequels came about because people did nothing but encourage George Lucas.

Discourage an artist, criticise him, and you give him a challenge to overcome. Critics ripped the shit out of Cop Out. And you know what Smith did? He then went and made Red Tape, his best film in years.

curious, did you mean red state

i looked damn everywhere and couldn't find any information on red tape, as i wanted to watch the movie that is supposed to be good and by kevin smith.

although i do agree on this opinion, if you don't challenge and question an "artist", then their work has a higher chance of being meaningless junk. Plus people need to get it under their skin that opinions will come at you left and right no matter what you do in life, learn to observe and absorb if deemed necessary.

 

[s_h_a_d_o]

Kudos on showing a modicum of support for M. Poisson.
Pity you couldn't address the lack of professionalism demonstrated by your contemporary in the first instance... or would that perhaps cut a little too deeply, hmmm?

 

[Azaraxzealot]

I think it's no coincidence that what you said towards the end, Jim, is pretty much EXACTLY what I said on Destructoid and here on the Escapist. I'm glad to see we're on the same page.

 

[chstens]

I just took a lot of what Fish said as jokes, the "boycott harder, nerds" comment for instance when Fez was released on Steam. I saw a lot of angry comments after that one. How that could offend anyone is beyond me.

Not only that, but Fish probably doesn't see himself as a company or a public figure, so being forced into that position without knowing how to handle it can be rough.

 

[C.S.Strowbridge]

My problem isn't with Fish needing a thicker skin.
I just have no sympathy because every time I heard him make a statement, he's acting like a ponce.

That about sums it up. It wasn't that he got a lot of crap from gamers, it was that he stirred up a lot of crap and then complained when some of it hit him in the face.

 

[JarinArenos]

I tend to get pushed away by people like Phil Fish, and his personal actions and communication went a very long way towards convincing me to avoid his game. Should developers' personalities have that much of an influence over their product's perception? That's probably a larger discussion for another time.

 

[MrBoBo]

My problem isn't with Fish needing a thicker skin.
I just have no sympathy because every time I heard him make a statement, he's acting like a ponce.

Summed up nicely mate. Seems to me Jim is ignoring the fact Phil Fish acted like a knob head as if somehow all this abuse and hate he was getting was because of objective opinions. No, he was trying to get a rise out of people. He made disgusting comments right up until his demise. Good riddance.

 

[chiefohara]

Im not surprised Fish lost it.

A large amount of the anonymous troll hordes that throw feces at people from the safety of their computers are complete and utter scum.

Deal with that bile day in day out and you'll snap too.

 

[grey_space]

I don't really know much about Mr Fish of the journalist in question other than they got into a pissing contest.

I did however really like your comment Jim on the whole 'thick skin' comment and how it may not have been that the final comment was all that bad, only that it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

In dealing with the public in general that can be so true. The first asshole threatening your person or family you can deal with, fair enough. The second, the third, no problem. The fourth may get some verbal back in kind, the fifth, the sixth....by the time fifty fifth person turns around and may just simply call you a '******' you may be fit to do murder.

Patience really is finite and nobody ever considers what the other person in an interchange has undergone previously.

 

[SageRuffin]

Discourage an artist, criticise him, and you give him a challenge to overcome. Critics ripped the shit out of Cop Out. And you know what Smith did? He then went and made Red Tape, his best film in years.

although i do agree on this opinion, if you don't challenge and question an "artist", then their work has a higher chance of being meaningless junk. Plus people need to get it under their skin that opinions will come at you left and right no matter what you do in life, learn to observe and absorb if deemed necessary.

I was actually about to say something myself, but you beat me to it, gmaverick. I will say this much though: never discourage a person from creating. But by all means, please criticize them, question them, challenge them, inspire them to get better. There are few things in this world that require the same amount of passion as modern-day liberal arts, and if you active discourage a person from creating and tell them to go kill themselves (extreme, I know), he or she just might.

Or maybe I'm tripping. I don't believe that the "You suck" method of reinforcement is a very good teaching tool, that's for fuck's sure.