UPDATE: Peter Molyneux [No Longer] Worried About Fable 3 Opening

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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UPDATE: Peter Molyneux [No Longer] Worried About Fable 3 Opening



In a Tweet this morning, Peter Molyneux asked for comments regarding Fable 3 [http://www.amazon.com/Fable-III-Xbox-360/dp/B002I0JGDM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278964142&sr=1-2]'s current lack of combat in the first 30 minutes of play.

Update: Peter Molyneux finally responded to all of the comments by thanking everyone for their feedback. The final Tweet [http://twitter.com/pmolyneux/status/10746653868] of the day from the designer is as follows:

Thanks for all your feedback, the decision is now made . It's interesting to get feedback via Twitter. I might try this again

While one might say that this is merely lip service, and that the feedback had nothing to do with the decision, I'd argue that reading everyone's comments had to have some kind of an impact. Does this mean that we will see more direct solicitation for feedback from game designers on Twitter?

--


After bro-hugging Molyneux at GDC last week [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/gdc2010/7287-Fable-3-Bro-hugging-Peter-Molyneux], I didn't think we'd get much more communication out of him regarding Fable 3 in the next couple of weeks. Apparently though, after playing through the opening sequence of the game, he became worried about the lack of combat early on. Molyneux asked for comments and then clarified in a later Tweet that the sequence was without fighting because of there was so much "drama."

"Been playing the opening of Fable 3, I am slightly worried that there is no combat for the first 30 mins. Is this too long, thoughts." Molyneux's first Tweet [http://twitter.com/pmolyneux/statuses/10717290883] read.

A few hours later, Molyneux clarified his statement in another Tweet [http://twitter.com/pmolyneux/status/10724257103].

In responce to the 1st 30 min no combat. There is no combat because it is so dramatic, and that drama has little room full combat.

Many will point to the opening of Half-Life as a similar sequence in which mood and characterization took precedence over combat. And if you're erring on the side of Half-Life, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

It is awesome that Molyneux is able to ask direct questions like this of his audience so long before the game is released, and to even get decent feedback. Doing a quick search of "i'll take story progression over combat any day." [http://twitter.com/#search?q=%40pmolyneux]

But I wonder if the PR people are preparing their poison darts [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/gdc2010/7287-Fable-3-Bro-hugging-Peter-Molyneux.2]...

Source: Twitter [http://twitter.com/pmolyneux]

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WrongSprite

Resident Morrowind Fanboy
Aug 10, 2008
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PETER MOLYNEUX WORRIED?

God help us all. If the king of optimism is worried, Fable 3 could well carry the end of the world as we know it.
 

Bat Vader

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Mar 11, 2009
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It could possibly upset some people but I would prefer a good beginning to a story rather than just jump into the combat.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Plenty of games have combat free openings. Anyway, the "beat on the bully" tutorial of the past 2 Fable games wasn't a good combat intro. It was REALLY forced and awkward.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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Right, because the combat in Fable 2 was so overwhelmingly interesting we couldn't last 5 minutes without it.

[small]/sarcasm[/small]

Given Molyneux's penchant for exaggeration, I wouldn't be surprised if this 30 minutes was in fact 5 minutes anyway.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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WrongSprite said:
PETER MOLYNEUX WORRIED?

God help us all. If the king of optimism is worried, Fable 3 could well carry the end of the world as we know it.
I dunno. Maybe he's finally got the idea that "ZOMG MY NEW GAME IS BESTEST EVAH." is just setting himself up for a fall. Games designers asking their fans for feedback may bring in a lot of tripe, but there's some occasional gems that come from the community.
 

Joe Deadman

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Jan 9, 2010
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WORRIED?!? But.. he's never...
Well as you said it worked for half-life so I guess it might work here too. And besides these estimations tend to be a bit off anyway.
 

The_Deleted

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Aug 28, 2008
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If people will give Heavy Rain a chance I'm sure most of us a re able to do without stoking someone's head in for 30 mins.
 

Lim3

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Feb 15, 2010
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He should be worried about more then the opening.

I got so excited about Fable 2...then it came out. And i was disappointed. I had even bought the pub games and had millions of gold.
 

dududf

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Aug 31, 2009
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I think Fables players can make do with out drinking thy enemies blood for a meagre 30 minutes.
 

gibboss28

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Feb 2, 2008
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This screams to me as Molyneux saving his own skin.

Its been done time and time again, a game is hyped up more and more than then before its released "well it may be not as great as its hyped up to be"

And this fucker is one of the most guilty bastards for doing this. Feh, just calling it.
 

Sparrow

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Feb 22, 2009
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Drama sounds good to me. I've always liked the little bits as a child, collecting small amounts of money to do something awesome. Why should it be any different this time?

gibboss28 said:
This screams to me as Molyneux saving his own skin.

Its been done time and time again, a game is hyped up more and more than then before its released "well it may be not as great as its hyped up to be"

And this fucker is one of the most guilty bastards for doing this. Feh, just calling it.
Read the interview with him for the Escapist. He basically says "Yeah, sorry. I hype things. I can't help it."
 

Lono Shrugged

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May 7, 2009
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"There was blood in my stool today, should I be worried?"

"I'm good Pete, don't need to know."

I like this new marketing strategy where if the game is underwhelming it's our fault because he followed fans advice all the way along. Probably trying to shake that cocksure image too.

I like a little auteurship, where the person in charge just follows their vision and we either buy into it or not. It cheapens it knowing that an online poll decided what flag is on the main character's underwear
 

David Bray

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Jan 8, 2010
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Fable is not Half-Life, and i didn't even like HL

This is hype, like a "look at this link" in a forum. Don't fall for Peter's shite