Peter Molyneux Seeks Donations For Curiosity

[Andy Chalk]

Peter Molyneux Seeks Donations For Curiosity

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Peter Molyneux says 22 Cans is "desperate" to get Curiosity fixed, and he'd also really appreciate it if you'd help pay for it.

It's been a bumpy ride for Curiosity, the "What's Inside the Cube?" thing released last week by Peter Molyneux's indie studio 22 Cans. It came out on November 6 but has been plagued with numerous technical problems ever since, including connectivity and latency issues that have prevented large numbers of people from taking part.

22 Cans is working hard to get the problem solved, according to an apology/explanation/update posted over the weekend. "We are desperate to get these bug fixed," Molyneux says in the video. "The reason we're desperate to get them fixed is, we want to carry on with this experiment. There's lots of stuff we've got planned, lots of interesting stuff that happens as we go through layers that we haven't been able to do because we've been fixing this problem."

Molyneux says he's convinced the solution is at hand and that 22 Cans will soon be able to "take you on another journey of experimentation," but in the meantime he also seems to be trying a different experiment of sorts by asking players to help foot the bill for the game.

"We are a small independent developer and due to popular demand we now offer the option for kind people to donate, so that we can make Curiosity the best possible experience it can be," the 22 Cans website says. "However big or small the donation; it will really help us make Curiosity better."

A PayPal donation link is now clickable at 22cans.com [http://www.22cans.com/wordpress/].


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[dragongit]

Why not just wait for that day someone pays 80,000 dollars for that diamond pickaxe. That's why this whole thing was made right? To see if someone was desperate enough to know what was inside to buy the stupid thing?

And at the end, the person will probably own 22Cans studios, right before it goes bankrupt.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

"small independent developer"?
I'm sorry, remind me how many copies of this game he sold? Cuz it was enough to crash their servers

 

[mattttherman3]

What is Peter Molyneux net worth? Is he rich or just a name?

 

[Twilight_guy]

I would be interesting in this whole curiosity business but I can't help but feel its an experience built entirely around this line:

I don't care what happens, I'm not going to spend money to take a journey through what Molyneux considers interesting.

 

[dragongit]

Oh, I know the problem. Molyneux wanted to add emotions to the cube so we could identify with it and have sympathy, but the limitations of the pad and the overwhelming complexity killed their servers.

Curiosity is a perfect alegory for Molyneux work. Big promises that get stripped down till there is hardly anything left, and it's likely a lot of people are going to be dissapointed.

 

[ResonanceSD]

I neux this would happen eventually.

I see what you did there.


Apparently no one is "curious" enough to spend ludicrous sums of money on Pretention's latest game.

 

[Albino Boo]

What is Peter Molyneux net worth? Is he rich or just a name?

Well he sold Bullfrog and Lionhead to EA and Microsoft respectively, given that he may have been the total owners of those studios, he has to be in the $20 million area. He was able to afford $6 million of own money on black and white.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Y'know, these biweekly updates on how Peter Molyneux's dreams are falling apart once again are starting to look suspicious. Since indie game announcements, Kickstarters, failures, even releases, aren't generally covered it can't be indie news coverage. Since there's not an update every time Tim Schafer yawns it can't be vapid "personality" news coverage.

You guys are just enjoying watching the guy fail, aren't you?

 

[IamLEAM1983]

You guys are just enjoying watching the guy fail, aren't you?

On some level, yes. I think we are.

I know what's in the cube, though. A system crash on 22 Cans's side; immediately followed by a crushing sense of disappointment for the players.

Molyneux needs to understand that appealing to human emotions without any kind of decent supporting structure does not a good game make. Precanned animations featuring the Hero of Albion dancing around and hugging total strangers does not foster emotional involvement. Propping a whole game up on the premise that people will want to know what's inside a freaking box is utterly ridiculous. We might be interested if the investment is painless, but there goes the diamond pickaxe. Nobody is brainless enough to blow that much cash in a freemium game.

Nobody except kids and toddlers, of course. I'm pretty sure we'll hear about the diamond pickaxe getting nabbed by a six year-old on his mother's iPhone. Cue lawsuit against 22 Cans.

The Sims series handles emotional investment correctly. The hugs and WooHoos come to mean something to you because you're building your own narrative with these little people. There's no emotional involvement in anything from Black & White to The Movies, because every physical contact is a means to an end.

He has his heart in the right place and always has - but he's pretentious and naive. The one point where I'd say he's right is that somewhere, someday, a video game will make us cry. We're simply nowhere near having the tech specs required for that to happen, however.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I guess he grossly overestimated peoples curiosity with "the box". Or overestimated how much money regular folk actually have. If you really want to make a dent in that thing it takes a lot of money/ time, which people don't have.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"issues that have prevented large numbers of people from taking part."
All TENS of people?!!!!

Seriously though, you suck Peter.
Go foot your own bill, please!

 

[BernardoOne]

"small independent developer"?
I'm sorry, remind me how many copies of this game he sold? Cuz it was enough to crash their servers

Its F2P

 

[Aureliano]

As I'm sure many other people have figured out by now, odds are incredibly good that there is one of two possible things in the cube: a) a time-lapse video of people tapping away at the cube/the cube itself changing colors set to some inspiring music or b) a teaser trailer for 22 Cans' next experiment.

The fact that people aren't willing to pay $80,000 a pop for the chance to see it first just means that people aren't as dumb as Molyneux gave them credit for. So don't donate to his stupid experiment in cynicism. Just be happy he was wrong.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

"small independent developer"?
I'm sorry, remind me how many copies of this game he sold? Cuz it was enough to crash their servers

Its F2P

Correction: How many $.50-$50,000.00 pickaxes has he sold?

 

[weirdee]

"small independent developer"?
I'm sorry, remind me how many copies of this game he sold? Cuz it was enough to crash their servers

He sold zero copies, because the game itself is free.

He can't sell pickaxes if the game is also down.

The point of the game isn't actually selling the pickaxes, since that would be too mundane a reason for doing what he does.

 

[Somebloke]

Somehow I can't help but to wonder whether this is part of the experiment.

 

[TilMorrow]

Curiosity, the experiment that evolves. Originally it was to see how willing people were to pay to break the box and satisfy their curiosity. Now it's how much they are willing to pay to get access to said box so that they can pay to satisfy their curiosity.

What I bet is that the cube actually has an infinte number of squares around it's centre that automatically replenishs on the inside when one is broken on the outside. No wonder Molyneux said he wasn't going to be making any more games after his next one. This could potentially keep him in the green for years... not as the bloody thing doesn't work.