I've Got A New Complaint

You know I'm a fan of independent media, take an interest in technology, and am a child at heart. So it will be no surprise that I've jumped on the bandwagon of the burgeoning indie video game scene. That is, if you were aware that indie video games are a scene, and that they have burgeoned to the point of having a bandwagon.

So it's a disappointment to see the news about Flappy Bird. If you haven't heard, it's a simple game created by Dong Nguyen, a solo programmer in Vietnam, that became a breakout hit. And if you further haven't heard, he withdrew the game from app stores at the height of its popularity because of the stress its success had put on his life.

Some reaction to the end of Flappy Bird

That's kind of troubling when you combine it with the experience of Phil Fish. He created a cool game called Fez. It was popular and critically-acclaimed, but in the middle of creating a sequel, he abruptly stopped and retired from the business.

One starts to wonder if the Internet's underbelly of anonymous anger might be curtailing individual work. A company can avoid a lot of this vitriol - the company itself attracts the attacks, and that imaginary person doesn't have feelings to hurt.  But an individual has to take the Internet's firehose of criticism all by themselves; it's an awkward middle-ground in a world where most of us are safe because of either wealth or anonymity. 

So perhaps future businesses will be more anonymous, if creators decide that avoiding the catcalls is more important that getting personal credit. That Bitcoin guy may be on to something.