Edit:
I started this blog before the Boston Marathon bombing and will be finishing it after. I work 45 mins away from Boston and this news hit the area hard. A few people I work with were in the marathon but everyone is OK. All friends of mine in Boston are ok, too. I hope my pixl friends are all ok. Now, on with the blog
Phil Fish created a funky little game falled Fez. He made it all by himself! Its a charming 8bit style platformer with a twist, you rotate the worlds around to find new paths and solve puzzels. It was a decent hit for an Indie game, now totalling 200,000 copies. Now it will see a release on Steam soon! Non X-Bots rejoice.
Not everyone is a fan of Mr. Fish and his little game, though. One day he let out his human side and said some things that a lot of people disagreed with and those people got a bit upset. He yammered something about Japanese games sucking and whatnot. Then a bunch more people got pissed off when he said he wasn't going to pay the $40,000 fee it would take to patch a bug in his little Fez game that caused 1% of the players to lose their game save. This angered many more people, even people that never intended to play the game in the first place.
My opinion?
His Comments;
You know, you don't have to agree with someones ideas to enjoy their work. Just because that comment made him look like a jerk doesn't make Fez a sucky game. So he's arrogant, so he said something the general masses may not agree with. so what? Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Phil is an artist, artists have been snobby, arrogant, and even mentally ill since the begging of history. If we had the internet when Vincent Van Gogh was around, would we get hung up on a few words he spoke during a manic depressive state that went viral and denounce him and his art? Probably, but look at what we would have missed.
The patch;
So the ONE MAN decided he couldn't dole out $40,000 to fix his game to help a small minority of people effected. I don't care how much the game made, $40,000 is a HUGE piece of pie. If anything I blame Microsoft for not relenting on their obsurd policy of charging so much to patch a game. I get the point is to push developers to make a FINAL product before releasing it. But come on, this is crazy. Let the guy fix his stupid game. People say they are mad because Fish KNEW ALL ALONG he would have to pay $40,000 to patch his game, so he shouldn't have taken the risk in the first place. REALLY?? So he should have said "aw shucks, forget it" and went about his business, never chasing his dream and passion? THE GAME WAS CREATED BY ONE MAN!!! One man with a vision. He took a risk and worked his butt off to release something he believed in. So how many amazing games by less dedicated devlopers did MS scare away by thier policy? Its toxic.
Have you watched the documentary Indie Game yet? If you havn't you really should, you might get more of an understanding of Fish. Or, you might still think he is a hipster douche, which he is. But SO WHAT? He created a cool ass game. Don't get me wrong, its not perfect. I'm kinda lost in the convoluted map and some of the puzzles got the best of me, I don't know if I will ever finish it. But its a joy just to mess around with, set personal goals for yourself and strive for that. If you didn't pick it up on XBLA and you are concerned about the bug, the Steam version is for you. Fez gets the Chrozi seal of approval.
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