Som fortalt tidligere har spilskaberen Phil Fish erklæret at spilbranchen (og især visse journalister) ikke er noget for ham.
Spilskaberen der ellers skulle være på vej med Fez II, har kastet håndklædet i ringen. Det har fået Cliff Bleszinski til at række ud og mane til besindighed. Ganske enkelt er den tidligere Epic-mand godt klar over spilbranchens til tider uheldige vilkår, og han har derfor skrevet et åbent brev til Fish (det kan du læse her).
Her skriver han blandt andet:
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. We miss you already. Maybe I'll be right behind you, returning with Adamantium skin.
Bleszinski kommer også ind på internetbrugernes manglende empati og evne til at skrive pænt, og fortæller blandt andet om nogle af de ubehagelige episoder han selv har været ude for (og skyld i):
"My first time being flamed online happened when I was 15 on a BBS the summer my father died suddenly from heart issues. I was learning how to code and I wrote a simple screen saver; one of those dancing multi colored lines programs. I released it to a BBS and someone anonymously posted "Your dead father could have coded something better." I was furious, hurt, and I replied with an implied death threat. The website called my house and I got in trouble for the comment, but the damage was done. I went back to mowing my neighbor's two acre lawn with his shitty push mower for ten bucks and Bionic Commando."
Hvad siger I til sagen?