I have zero reason to 'defend' Fish and hasn´t played any games by either devs being discussed, but am I missing something?
That article is just him saying japanese games suck.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Jonathan Blow threatens to boycott conferences that "disinvite speaker[s] due to "cancel culture"-style pressure" [UPDATE: He's a COVID truther too]
- Thread starter Icolin
- Start date
I have zero reason to 'defend' Fish and hasn´t played any games by either devs being discussed, but am I missing something?
That article is just him saying japanese games suck.
You don't have to rescue them, it's not your burden. Recognise what's in your control and what's not. Accept they're adults with their own responsibilities and choices.
This is the dude who made an arthouse film about Soulja Boy saying his game sucked, right
Tracks
Tracks
The problem with knowledge is it doesn't automatically confer wisdom or understanding. This tends to result in people who just want to be right about things rather than get things right.
It's part of the engine that powers stupid takes from "smart" people.
It's a high school debate club gimmick - "I'm right because I am professionally full of shit."
Anyone that unironically claims not only that "cancel culture" is a thing, but starts blaming societal decay on it is 100% a clown.
Oh I don't give two shits about saving them
I am worried about the collateral damage the lies in our collective future should the brain virus continue to spread unchecked
It's just that, gamers will forever hold a grudge over the pettiest shit
But Era has told me they are all brainwashed and we should feel sorry for them
Everyone just retweet that video of Soulja Boy ripping on Braid. He still doesn't know how to counter that.
User banned (1 month): Trolling a sensitive thread over multiple posts
When is he going to make another game? Blow its a fucking brilliant puzzle designer, one of the best.
:lol true
that covid tweet popped up on my feed yesterday and it's so embarrassing. blow is making it really difficult to be a the witness fan
The person who got banned for saying his game promoted segregation simply lacked any actual evidence for this but your point is undeniably true if anyone has reached that video where this actually happens. I always found the audio and video content as over the top but now it is going to sour me on any future replays that he has taken this type of thinking too far.
I like this take, too bad Blow didn't get that takeaway from his own game
And this right here, I think he's a talented designer, I liked Braid well enough when it came out and thought the Witness was a flat out great game, but he can fuck right off with this bullshit
Funny thing about that video, Soulja Boy wasn't even ripping on it...he was playing it, he thought it was fun and funny. People play games and have fun with them, which is something Blow couldn't understand. You make something and then it's out of your hands. There's no "right" way to play.
User Banned (3 Weeks): Hostility; Tone Policing; Dismissive Commentary
Alright, I agree what I initially wrote about this was a little too much.
I don't think it's right people continually, still, connect Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow but you're not a bad person for being upset at Fish's comments back then. Though I do believe it's well past time we all move on from it and acknowledge they are nowhere near on the same degree of humanity.
I don't think it's right people continually, still, connect Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow but you're not a bad person for being upset at Fish's comments back then. Though I do believe it's well past time we all move on from it and acknowledge they are nowhere near on the same degree of humanity.
Last edited:
I wish I could like this tweet but for some reason she blocked me. So weird, I don't think I've ever once had an interaction with her.
you're right, I disregarded the thread premise, on topic: Terrible tweets, shame on him, can't believe such a smart guy holds such conspiratorial opinions about covid being man made etc
Still want to see what he creates next in the game design space.
Basically, less tweeting and talking and more designing, Jonathan. Chop chop!
He didn't make the film, but he's filmed in silhouette while wistful music plays over the sounds of Soulja Boy and his friends playing Braid.
This is never not funny to me.
Last edited:
It's good to see, in these uncertain times, some things stay constant. Even if it's Blow being a fucking asshole.
And I can't believe there are still people defending Phil Fish in 2021. Dude was a clown.
There's a difference between saying "Japanese games suck" and telling a Japanese man "your games suck" (as if he's meant to represent his entire country) on stage in front of a crowd, plus sarcastically saying "I'm sorry, Japanese guy!" on Twitter.
lmaaaaooooooooooooo I've never seen this...imagine being so insufferably self-serious.
You seem very angry about people calling out the time a developer was an asshole. You might want to untangle whatever personal feelings you have tied up with the public reception of Phil Fish because this post isn't conveying what you think it's conveying.
I'm glad I didn't redeem the witness over the epic games store when it came up. not that it matters, but still.
"an oopsie in the lab". okay.
"an oopsie in the lab". okay.
It is absurd to try to connect Phil Fish saying some rude, dumb shit to Jonathan Blow who has again and again shown he legitimately is a piece of shit who believes he's smarter than everybody.
With time and perspective I think everybody can agree Fish was an idiot but not deserving of the petty malice he still receives today from gamers* when he doesn't even have a presence and didn't continue that behavior, to my knowledge.
I am not being angry, I am being direct: It is stupid.
jblow absolutely stinks and this is a funny scene, but this is not on him. The filmmakers shot a bunch of b-roll and put some of it with the soulja boy stuff. They weren't like, "Hey, will you let us film you in silhouette, and it's going to be moody and here's the music that will be playing, and we're gonna use this in contrast with some stuff about soulja boy not liking your game?" They were probably like, "Sit there for a second, we're gonna grab some b-roll before this next interview."
I feel like there are levels to seeing Jonathan Blow sitting silently in darkness at the thought of Soulja Boy being happy for the wrong reasons, but I don't think I can unpack them.
You're right that the presentation is the filmmaker editorializing, but sadly reflecting "But...they're missing the most important thing..." because his game was played wrong is hilarious enough even without the sad music from 1970s Hulk show playing.
Phil Fish's behavior was worthy of condemnation on more than one occasion but barring any further details I'm not aware of, sure I can agree that he isn't on the same level of what we're seeing from Jonathan Blow right now. It's a bit of a shame the two are forever tied together in public consciousness but it is what it is. If you wanted to say it's irrelevant to this topic, sure.
That said, it's still worth talking about why what Fish did was wrong, especially his reaction to the backlash, and calling people who do that "clowns" and "trash" and trying to make an unspoken connection between them and GamerGate level shit with the "gamers*" comment does make you seem a little disproportionately angry, and you really might want to take a step back and look over this whole thing with some distance.
Last edited:
Irregardless of the audio (which is absolutely fair to say he didn't pick it), he's still choosing to play into this stewing "they don't appreciate my genius" auteur role. Soulja Boy is just the icing on the cake knowing he's still not over it to this day.
I've always found him to be a bit pompous but for some reason I thought he was above something as absurd as this.
Damn... XD
Damn... XD
You know what, you're actually right. I edited my initial post because it was way too hasty and judgmental.
I think that's totally fair given what we know about jblow, his attitude toward detractors/critics, and his perception of his own work. Without the really heavy-handed framing from the filmmakers or biographical context, though, I don't think what he's saying is particularly risible or ridiculous. He's not saying that his game was played wrong or was unfairly maligned, he's saying that there's a disconnect between the things that the game was being celebrated for and his own perception of what's noteworthy about it, and that having one's work celebrated for 'succeeding at' the wrong things can be more alienating and dispiriting than someone's belief that you don't quite accomplish the right things.
I don't have an opinion on if he's right or wrong in this specific case—I do not care about Braid, I do not know exactly what disconnect he's identifying—but I do think that sentiment is reasonable, and is one of the things that he/the documentary actually astutely read into the cultural moment they're capturing. Bad readership, bad literacy, bad criticism did a lot to contextualize the 'rise of indie games' narrative, and have not really gotten better on a broad scale in the intervening years.
Imagine going into a jk terfing thread and asking about her new book.
I never realized how much he looks like Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. Tracks.
Hum, you don't have to be an ass to be sad when you spend years of your life making something you think is special and then see it get famous for something that's completely not about what you wanted it to be about, especially if there's an emotional investment on your part. That's just being a normal person.
The fact that right wingers scream cancel culture as soon as someone is called out for doing or saying something awfull is a real problem these days.
I had no idea of what he was like prior to this thread but Ill skip his games going forward.
I had no idea of what he was like prior to this thread but Ill skip his games going forward.
Yeah, think maybe it's more on the odd production of that clip than it is on Blow there. I can totally see someone be like, "wait, no point? But it has a point..."
All fair, I did conflate Blow's role with the people working on the film, along with their portrayal of things. The heavy handiness doesn't come from Blow. The heavy handiness comes from the edit and the fact that it's so clumsy is what make it funny. The text in the post should be something more like "he's filmed in silhouette while wistful music plays over the sound of the infamous video of Soulja Boy and his friends playing Braid." I'll edit the original post.
I'm also all in for better media literacy (and should have exercised it more in this case lmao) to the point of "this should be a mandatory course in schools," but the one thing I will say is nobody is owed the perfect interpretation of their art. He's absolutely allowed to be depressed about it though, it's not a great feeling.
I think we can all agree that he still sucks though, especially right now.
To me it looks like he's not reacting to Soulja Boy in the clip, right? He's talking about professional reviewers who gave Braid glowing reviews, but in his view still didn't "get" the game on some deeper level he was going for. The Soulja Boy clip is just edited on top