“Never forget that the internet can be a fantastic thing, but it can also be fantastically dumb,” writes Gears of War designer in open letter to Phil Fish.
Veteran game designer Cliff Bleszinski has written an open letter to Fez developer Phil Fish, requesting that he stay in the games industry.
Bleszinski’s post on Tumblr speaks about how the Gears of War designer has learnt to respond to criticism online, and asks Fish to make a return.
Fish announced over the weekend that he was getting away from the games industry, and said the amount of negativity he received over the internet was a factor in his decision. Fish then announced that Fez 2, which was announced at E3 2013, was cancelled.
“Never underestimate the intestinal fortitude of the anonymous loser hiding behind a monitor and his or her ability to sling vitriol at someone who willingly puts themselves out there,” said Bleszinski.
“The fact of the matter, Phil, is that you were trending worldwide on Twitter. How many game developers can say that? Does no-one realize that while you may seem somewhat unstable at times you also have Andy Kaufman as your Twitter AVI? (Kids, google Andy, and suddenly Phil might just make more sense to you. Or watch ‘Man On The Moon.’)”
“Never forget that the internet can be a fantastic thing, but it can also be fantastically dumb. Reddit is a wonderful community for finding out funny memes or random facts until they falsely accuse someone of being the Boston Bomber or go out of their way to protect the r/creepshots loser. And never forget that the Internet can be one big game of telephone amplified by anonymous myopic monkeys jamming on keyboards who are so angry about their meatball sandwich.”
“You don’t owe a damned thing to any gaming journalist. We’ve seen the rise of many ‘Rush Limbaughs’ in the gaming industry, people who do videos or podcasts digging a finger into an open wound that gets the gaming community going because, hits. You DO owe a great product to your community, something I hope you’ll resume doing some time in the near future. The industry needs people like you to speak with their hearts before their brains because I’m tired of hearing the PR approved appropriate response. I’m tired of games that feel like they’ve been developed by focus groups or clueless executives going ‘Hey that Call of Duty is big, we need one of those!'”
“Besides, at the end of the day, that cycle of community feedback and crafting that big fireball is entirely too addictive.”
“Come back, Phil,” concluded Bleszinski. “We miss you already. Maybe I’ll be right behind you, returning with Adamantium skin.”
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