Moments In Gaming 2014: Part 2 - The Serious & The Story
to get out while he still could.
This is something I myself did a lot of reading about
at the time. I was a fan of Fish and his thoughts on
always fighting back and the idea that the creator
of something does not owe anything to someone
purchasing, enjoying or critiquing it. This was a
very interesting concept. Sure, he wasn’t the first
person ever to think this, but Fish did seem to show
how self-centred gamers had become. The irony
that the very thing he fought against and detested
so completely was the reason for his eventual
downfall, appeared to be lost on those who were
part of it.
The most disappointing part of this whole saga is
that it’s not just isolated to this incident. Fish has a
long standing history of abuse over the production
time of FEZ, but Treyarch design director for Black
Ops 2, David Vonderhaar, had no such history.
The threats this man received against his life and
families lives, are, frankly, downright disgusting
and do nothing to help the stereotyping that the
Call Of Duty community gets on a regular basis.
Mr Vonderhaar tweeted about changes
implemented on a certain gun, to which he received
nothing but hate and vitriol. The tweaks to the
guns were so minimal that only the most devoted
CoD fan would have noticed. Does this deserve the
Essentially, a very talented man left his livelihood threat of violence and death against a man and his
because a group from within our own community family? I think we can all agree that it does not.
berated him constantly, making his life hell. Yes,
he could have quit social networks and yes, he These, in my opinion, were some of lowest points
could have just plain ignored these people, but the of 2013 and we as gamers should be wondering
chorus of hate was just too much. It’s not the the what kind of community it is we want to foster. Is
end product that we should be analysing, but the this acceptable behaviour for anyone within our
cause.
growing pastime to exhibit? Games constantly
Issue 52 • February 2014
9 • GameOn Magazine