Peter Molyneux Explains His Crazy Curiosity Cube

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
Peter Molyneux Explains His Crazy Curiosity Cube

If you build a £50,000 piece of DLC, they will come. Maybe.

Nobody can say that former Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux doesn't have his share of unique ideas. In June, we 22 "experiments" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117778-Molyneuxs-Curiosity-Offers-77-800-DLC] he intends to create with his new indie studio 22Cans. At Rezzed, Molyneux offered more insight into the cube-tapping experiment.

"[The 22 Experiments are] kind of psychological experiments as well as being technological experiments," says Molyneux. Curiosity will feature a black cube in a white room, and tapping on the cube will slowly chip away at the exterior, little block by little block. However, there are over 60 million blocks in the cube, says Molyneux, so the progress depends on how many people are working away at it together.

Players will be able to buy chisels to expedite the process, from the lowly iron chisel for $0.90 (10 blocks per tap), to the $5 steel chisel (100 blocks per tap), and finally the infamous diamond chisel - of which there is only one - which will eliminate "thousands of blocks" per tap at the cost of $77,800.

In essence, Molyneux's experiment is testing whether or not pure curiosity alone, or the sense of being part of a larger whole working towards something, will be enough to make players tackle the monstrous task of chipping away at a 60-million-block cube.

The trick, of course, is that only the person who taps the very last block away will be able to see what lies inside. Molyneux is keeping the cube's contents secret, but he swears it will be "life-changing."

"If you want, you can score me on how life-changing it is," he says. "Give me a score, and I guarantee you that out of 100, that score will be, if not 100, it will be 99."

Nobody can say that Peter Molyneux doesn't dream big, then.

Source: VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/11/rezzed-peter-molyneux-explains-his-curiosity-cube-experiment/]

Permalink
 

Bricky

New member
Dec 24, 2008
34
0
0
The problem i can see with this is that when the cube is almost finished tonnes of people will start chipping away and then hundreds of people will end up clicking the last block away at the exact same microsecond (or whatever the minimum time is that it is calculated in). Who wins then?
 

darthzew

New member
Jun 19, 2008
1,813
0
0
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a million dollars in the cube. I can't think of anything else that could actually be all that life changing.

EDIT: And I'm seriously considering doing my part in helping expedite the unraveling of this mystery. Not buying the diamond chisel, but I might pick up the steel one.
 

Bobic

New member
Nov 10, 2009
1,532
0
0
Calling it now


Seriously, the life changing message will be, why waste your time (and possibly money) on such vague curiosity.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
Given that Peter Molyneux doesn't exaclty strike me as the kind of guru who would sit on a mountain top and imparts life changing wisdom and philsophy, I can't see there being much in that cube that would matter.

The only possibility I can think of is that the "game" itself seems rather cheap to create, so it's always possible that it operates kind of like a progressive jackpot or something, with a percentage of the number of chisels sold going into the jackpot which is won by the person who breaks the last cube. Let's say he sells $500,000 worth of chisels (which would erode that cube quickly) and say $250,000 is in the jackpot, that's arguably life changing (and anyone who won it would agree), and I'd imagine the 250k he made would more than cover the development of something like this.

Incidently that kind of experiment could lead to an entirely new kind of gaming, with people running progressive games of this sort regularly as a quick way of making money, assuming of course gambling laws don't shut it down. If Peter was to say sell the "cube" game to online casinos for a profit, and they continually ran this for like say 250k a pop on average profit, well that could be a huge windfall for 22 cans, especially if they wind up with a monopoly on the style of game/technology behind it.

That's MY guess at any rate, time will tell if we ever find out.

I'd much rather see him pick up Molydeaux's survival horror bowling idea. :)
 

Azuaron

New member
Mar 17, 2010
621
0
0
Bricky said:
The problem i can see with this is that when the cube is almost finished tonnes of people will start chipping away and then hundreds of people will end up clicking the last block away at the exact same microsecond (or whatever the minimum time is that it is calculated in). Who wins then?
Well, if he's got his file locking down correctly, then whoever's at the front of the queue wins.
 

Kapol

Watch the spinning tails...
May 2, 2010
1,431
0
0
It's an interesting experiment in my opinion. I doubt whatever will be in the center will be all that life-changing, but I am curious to know what it is as well. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see though.

darthzew said:
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a million dollars in the cube. I can't think of anything else that could actually be all that life changing.
The thing about that though is that the person who gets the big chisel has a fairly high chance of getting it compared to anyone else. If they have that kind of money to spend on this, then a million isn't really all that life-changing I think.
 

mfeff

New member
Nov 8, 2010
284
0
0
Could be anything could be nothing... how simple can the Skinner box get? Let's find out! Talk about leveraging a name to drive nonsense into the public forum.
 

RJ Dalton

New member
Aug 13, 2009
2,285
0
0
And once again Peter Molyneux overhypes his own work, thus ensuring that people will be disappointed with the finished product.
 

Fwee

New member
Sep 23, 2009
806
0
0
I kinda thought there would be some kind of cash prize. A video game lottery?
Would it be something that simple and predictable? Maybe they haven't figured it out yet and they'll just put it in when the cube's closer to being finished.
Maybe it makes you Emperor of the World, and you get to fly in a private jet to be coronated at Space Mountain.

captcha(or whatever you want to call it now): spitting feathers
thank you internet!
 

Fwee

New member
Sep 23, 2009
806
0
0
Bobic said:
Calling it now


Seriously, the life changing message will be, why waste your time (and possibly money) on such vague curiosity.
Hilarious.
I just also thought: what about a video that just reminds you that you're the only person in the world who gets to see it? And you are the Most Special Person who played the game!
 

Xman490

Doctorate in Danger
May 29, 2010
1,186
0
0
This scheme makes Molyneux sound like a maniacal villainous scientist. It's creepy.
 

Kahunaburger

New member
May 6, 2011
4,141
0
0
This guy is the best. I don't even care if he hasn't made a good game in a decade. Shine on you crazy diamond.


BTW, I bet the money is going to go to some charity, and the thing in the cube will detail how you've positively impacted lives with your overpriced chisel. At least that's what I'd do.
 

kortin

New member
Mar 18, 2011
1,512
0
0
It won't be anything, and I'll laugh at all the dumbasses who actually spent shitloads of money on picks. The project will reveal nothing new. We all know humans are curious. We all know the lengths that a human will go to in order to alleviate that curiosity. The cube will serve as a reminder for how much money and time you wasted on absolutely nothing and anyone dumb enough to spend even a dime on this deserves it.

Do excuse me, I'm not in a pleasant mood and this obvious money making scandal does not help.