So, Jim playing the good cop today? I like it. Well done, Jim.
Speaking from my own experience, it does not take much to feel intimidated by groupthink on the Internet. I think there's a natural, human drive to want to feel socially verified about what you do with your life, and there was very much a time when it was a good and positive thing to help us grow as a society.
These days, though, there's a couple of big problems with that I can see off the top of my head.
First, there's this driving idea of being "cool," it haunts kids from the day they're born and it's ultimately a bunch of arbitrary bullshit that only really serves to ostracize people. I'm old enough now that I can say, "Fuck being cool, I'm my own individual now," but I think there's still a lot of adults out there who never really come to this realization and end up acting the perpetual snobby frat boy for a significant amount of their lives.
Second, there's the media. If you never watched Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, I really recommend you do. (But then, I think should be aired as mandatory classwork to High School seniors, such is my positive opinion of it.) It basically comes down to a great little documentary about how news is not really about reporting the facts anymore. It's entertainment, and consequently it has been inflated with so much fluff pieces that would include lambasting people just to jump on the popularity train and give the lowest common denominator what they want to hear. Fish got caught up in that, he became a popular guy to be bashed by the media, and I think the media needs to be held accountable for its actions. It won't be, though, because it's the media, and freedom of the press is something we hold sacred enough that they can even report school shootings despite experts saying that causes more school shootings, if they want.
That said, take it from me, don't lose your cool, Fish. Getting angry at these people does not solve anything. They love it, they're just looking for things to report that get them viewers, and providing them that kind of spectacle just plays right into their hands. You should not even think of members of the media as people when they're doing their job, because they're certainly not acting the part; they're not attacking you as a person would. They're just objects of sensationalism seeking, hounding out whatever they think will garner them a little more popularity. Don't get mad at that, it's like getting mad at a mosquito for sucking your blood.
Finally, lemme point this out to you, Fish, if you're reading this. I don't think making games was just a job for you. It was not just a job for me, either, and I never actually managed to see a game through to completion. It's a creative passion, isn't it? Nobody should be able to take that away from you. Even if you end up developing Fez II, or whatever, in your garage, while you try to hold down a "real" job of some kind, do what you enjoy doing, and don't listen to the groupthink-aligned idiots who would try to tell you otherwise.
Speaking from my own experience, it does not take much to feel intimidated by groupthink on the Internet. I think there's a natural, human drive to want to feel socially verified about what you do with your life, and there was very much a time when it was a good and positive thing to help us grow as a society.
These days, though, there's a couple of big problems with that I can see off the top of my head.
First, there's this driving idea of being "cool," it haunts kids from the day they're born and it's ultimately a bunch of arbitrary bullshit that only really serves to ostracize people. I'm old enough now that I can say, "Fuck being cool, I'm my own individual now," but I think there's still a lot of adults out there who never really come to this realization and end up acting the perpetual snobby frat boy for a significant amount of their lives.
Second, there's the media. If you never watched Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, I really recommend you do. (But then, I think should be aired as mandatory classwork to High School seniors, such is my positive opinion of it.) It basically comes down to a great little documentary about how news is not really about reporting the facts anymore. It's entertainment, and consequently it has been inflated with so much fluff pieces that would include lambasting people just to jump on the popularity train and give the lowest common denominator what they want to hear. Fish got caught up in that, he became a popular guy to be bashed by the media, and I think the media needs to be held accountable for its actions. It won't be, though, because it's the media, and freedom of the press is something we hold sacred enough that they can even report school shootings despite experts saying that causes more school shootings, if they want.
That said, take it from me, don't lose your cool, Fish. Getting angry at these people does not solve anything. They love it, they're just looking for things to report that get them viewers, and providing them that kind of spectacle just plays right into their hands. You should not even think of members of the media as people when they're doing their job, because they're certainly not acting the part; they're not attacking you as a person would. They're just objects of sensationalism seeking, hounding out whatever they think will garner them a little more popularity. Don't get mad at that, it's like getting mad at a mosquito for sucking your blood.
Finally, lemme point this out to you, Fish, if you're reading this. I don't think making games was just a job for you. It was not just a job for me, either, and I never actually managed to see a game through to completion. It's a creative passion, isn't it? Nobody should be able to take that away from you. Even if you end up developing Fez II, or whatever, in your garage, while you try to hold down a "real" job of some kind, do what you enjoy doing, and don't listen to the groupthink-aligned idiots who would try to tell you otherwise.
