Has the gaming community gone too far?

Last weekend, Marcus Beer of Gametrailers.com criticized indie game developers Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow for not commenting, on what was then rumor, that Microsoft is going to allow self-publishing on Xbox One. On the podcast Invisible Walls, Beer called BlowFish: “f*****g hipsters,” “tosspots,” and specifically called Phil Fish a “f*****g a**h**e.”

Soon after, Fish took to Twitter calling Beer a “media leech” and told him to “compare your life to mine and go kill yourself”.

The conversation seemed to take only a few hours before Fish and Polytron cancelled Fez 2. Fish also blocked his twitter account and said he was leaving the gaming industry because he is tired of all the abuse.

Jonathan Blow also took to Twitter saying that he has in the past been tempted to quit and leave the game industry.

After watching Indie Game: The Movie, I did get the impression that Phil Fish had a bit of a temper. He has in the past done and said things that has angered fans. Like taunting PC gamers before the launch of Fez on Steam. However gamers took it to far threatening his life and calling him horrible names. I can only imagine the toll it could take on someone’s psyche.

I still personally respect him. He was able to create a popular game with only one other person, all while battling legal issues with his ex-partner.

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Penny Arcade had an interesting article talking about how game developers have to be strong, thick-skinned individuals. The writer, Ben Kuchera used Dave Chappelle to sum up the situation up perfectly. Chappelle is talking about Hollywood and the entertainment industry, but it still applies here.

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Gears of War designer, Cliff Bleszinski, wrote a letter to Fish asking him to reconsider his decision. He also talked about his own personal issues with hate mail.

Never forget the internet can be a fantastic thing, but it can also be fantastically dumb.

Many journalists over the last few days have written about dealing with hate mail, from deaths threats to people threatening to kidnap their wives and children.

Even our own ABT editors shared stories about dealing with different kinds of hate mail. It’s sick that someone disagrees with another person’s opinion, that they have to resort to these extreme measures.

In a recent Eurogamer Interview,Bioshock creator Kevin Levine,  talked about abuse towards developers by fans:

As a gamer, game comes out, I hope it’s good, and if i like it, I play it and if I don’t like it, I don’t play it, and i think you can get in a strange space where it ends up being counterproductive for gamers…I don’t think it helps gamers.

Levine also talked about the new Bioshock DLC explaining that he is used to all this pressure from gamers over the years, If he wasn’t he could just cut content and push it out fast. That doesn’t help the game and ultimately gamers are the ones that lose.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 had an update to its gun mechanics recently. A majority fans felt certain weapons were more powerful than others. David Vonderhaar, the game design director announced that his team had made some adjustments. Over last week, since the patch has rolled out Vonderhaar has received multiple deaths threats. All because the AN-94, now does a bit less damage, and the DSR 50 and the Ballista, now have both had their rate of fire reduced. You can view some of the threats here.

It’s disappointing that Fish is taking a break from the game industry. I haven’t had a chance to play Fez yet, but from what i hear, it seems like a high quality game. With all this violence, it makes me wonder if the gaming community has gone too far? Like Levine said this pressure just makes developers rush things and eventually leads to them leaving the industry.

99% of the internet has been nothing but nice to me… That 1% is vile,hateful,spiteful,jealous, and mean… I can’t spend my day worrying about the 1%. I wake up everyday trying to make the 99% happy.- Patrick Klepek

At the same time, two years ago when i switched from console gaming to PC gaming. I noticed a huge difference in the community. They tend to be more friendly and understanding. Just remember that video games are supposed to be fun, it’s not worth degrading another person because you don’t like their opinions.