Who Cares About Phil Fish?
Kotaku has an article up trying to get people to stop hating on Fez creator Phil Fish. But even from the get go the article is a non-starter with the headline starting “Don’t you have anything better to do…?” This is the kind of argument people use to shut down debate about social justice issues in America. “Don’t you have anything better to do than worry about white women getting raped? There’s honor killings in the Middle East!”
I’m not saying that these two are comparable in anyway but the logic being patently absurd. If people want to hate on Phil Fish for the very abrasive way that he comes across in public then good for them! The author of the article seems to not even get what he’s asking for by telling people to not ‘hate on’ Phil Fish. As he so notes “Video games need more people like Phil Fish, not less. People who come off as insanely passionate, who wear their heart on their sleeve.” a statement with which I agree. And you know what passionate people end up doing most of the time? They become divisive. They earn loyal groups of fans and loyal groups of people opposed to them.
And that’s a good thing.
Telling people to stop hating on an interesting figure in the gaming industry shuts down avenues of criticism and analysis. Telling people to leave the guy alone for coming off like an asshole means that Phil Fish won’t have anyone to try and keep his ego, such as it may be, in check. If we all just said “That Phil Fish is a swell dude” what incentive is there to be better than Fez?
Sure, there are better people to hate than Phil Fish, but don’t you have anything better to do than tell us who to hate?
