Planet_JASE

This podcast did not give me a virus.

I approve of this and admire your continued efforts in improving your podcast.

The beauty, however, is absolutely free. So there's that.

I would like to take this opportunity to, on behalf of our fine neighbours in New Zealand say the following: They are an extremely lovely and pleasant people, who are fortunate enough to be so slow of wit and docile that they won't have realized your very offensive racism, CJ.

Also, Australia is a country that is sparse of Mexican Take Away stores. This should not be taken as a reflection of us being a backward, stupid, or ultimately worthless country. Unlike some places.

From my point of view, the issue I have with his statements were not because his output (or lack of) or even that he is part of the industry.  My issue with what he said was the manner with which he said them and then responding to twitter replies with "suck my d--k" (No, he did.  Really.).  That just makes you a huge @sshole whose opinion, if it carried any truth or incisive insight, is now lost because you have no interpersonal and communication skills.

I think his point (and I could be wrong) was that Japan had stagnated as far as game development and innovation were concerned.  That the west were far more nimble in changing to meet customer needs and invested more time in Indie projects that explored different play styles and methods.  I think he may have said that Japan were, for the most part, producing the same games that they were 10 years ago; in many cases still using the same franchises.

This could have held a lot of weight if said correctly... apart from the fact that all of last year's top sellers in the west were all sequels.  No new IP has really done anything in the past couple of years.  Publishers are killing off anything that isn't Call of Duty or a proven franchise.  And that he has made a f--king puzzle platformer.  The last part is what really negates any opinion he has, for me.

If you're going to tell a whole country to try doing something new, innovate, and try not to use well-worn path of previous generations, try to back that up with an example.  Not with a game that fits into the biggest groove the industry has

PS-I didn't think you were criticising his game, at all.

Thinking about it more, I think what bugged me about the comments Phil Fish made was just the unfounded arrogance-- he has released, now, a grand total of *one* game after about a 5 year development period. That's it. This does not make him famous by any stretch, nor does it entitle him to make blanket judgments about Japanese games-- no matter how good his IPPWAUAS might be.

Just because he hadn't made a game yet doesn't negate the validity, or his right, to make a comment or judgement.  If this were the case we would have very few professional critics in the world.

The only difference between a critic and a member of the industry spouting theories on what's wrong with entire countries is that some day, the industry professional will release a product that will be measured against the criticisms they applied to everyone else.  And if sweeping, generalised statements are the currency that he deals in, then he won't care if people say "another f--king indie puzzle platformer with a unique art style?  2/10."