Curiosity Winner Faces Restricted Godus Godhood

[Andy Chalk]

Curiosity Winner Faces Restricted Godus Godhood

It turns out that Bryan Henderson's Godus godhood, earned through his victory in Curiosity, has an expiration date, after which his throne of omnipotence will go up for grabs.

Bryan Henderson's reward for chipping away the last cubelet in Curiosity was nothing less than ascension to a digital Mount Olympus [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124353-Peter-Molyneuxs-Curiosity-Finally-Chipped-Away]. Omniscient! Omnipotent! Immortal! "You, the person who reached the center, will be the god of all people that are playing Godus," designer Peter Molyneux intoned in a video explaining the reward. "You will decide - intrinsically decide - on the rules that the game is played by." Henderson gets a piece of the Godus action too, which Molyneux said is the "life-changing" bit.

"It means that you will decide on how people will play the game," Molyneux stated. "You will accrue riches from that game, from the start until the finish of your reign."

As it turns out, that last bit is kind of important, because the finish of Henderson's reign will not be the end of the game. He'll enjoy a "grace period," not less than a few months and maybe not more than a year, during which he will be the unquestioned God of Gods, and then after that the ability to usurp the throne will be introduced to Godus.

"It didn't seem right to me that Bryan would be God of Gods for all time," Molyneux told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "It seems right to me that he has a period of time to be God of Gods, and that can't just be a few days. It needs to be substantial. And in that time, many things could happen. And of course, the amount of physical money he gets depends on how successful the game is. So he'll probably be God of Gods for an amount of time approaching a year. That'll be a year from release, by the way. It needs to be enough time to make it meaningful for him in every sense of the word."

The actual length of his reign will be determined in large part by feedback from Godus backers, who will get their hands on the first alpha of the PC version tomorrow. He also said that while Henderson is the top dog, he won't have "carte blanche, uncontrolled" power. "Bryan can absolutely request something to happen, and we'll make our best effort to do it. But he can't decide everybody in Canada will explode or anything like that," he added. "There are limits to his power."

It's still a win for Henderson, since I don't imagine many people will still be spending money on Godus a year after it comes out (and I doubt he'll still be playing it either) but it's kind of a letdown too. Heading the Godus pantheon may not be the Coolest Thing Ever, after all, but at least it seemed to be unique - "There can be only one," and all that sort of thing. But when there can be several, or maybe even quite a few? That takes a little bit of the shine off the crown.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/28/too-human-curiosity-winners-godus-prize-temporary/]


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[Sixcess]

and then after that the ability to usurp the throne will be introduced to Godus

If that means that any player can, in theory, win the deityhood and the new deity gets a cut of the money, that could be a very good incentive for people to play this game, and keep playing it.

It doesn't sound like a game I'd play myself, but it does sound like one that will be worth watching, just to see what happens.

 

[BrotherRool]

It's all a lie! This is Peter Molyneux who said Fable 1 was going to have plants grow in realtime. When he talks it's a PR marketing pitch, this isn't something that will happen at all like he's making it sound it will.

 

[Aethren]

So it's basically a multiplayer God Game, where, after a time, any player can challenge the God's throne. While the rest have to live out their lives at the mercy of their God. While being a God sounds fun and all, what is the gameplay like for everyone else? Do we play as those little villagers in Black & White, forced to suck it up if a giant cow suddenly plummets onto our little farm our family lived in for generations? Do we fight wars for a big floating hand in the sky?

 

[Elvaril]

and then after that the ability to usurp the throne will be introduced to Godus

Does this mean that Henderson will have the ability to retain his throne, because that would be rather interesting. Not only would the mortals have to best each other, but also defeat the god to achieve divinity.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Well, at least Molyneux has found a place to put his deceitful tongue to use: Games that are less game and more "social-experiment-plus-exploitation".

I'm not playing anything the man is attached to, but it will at least be interesting to see how they turn out.

 

[cwmdulais]

So it's basically a multiplayer God Game, where, after a time, any player can challenge the God's throne. While the rest have to live out their lives at the mercy of their God. While being a God sounds fun and all, what is the gameplay like for everyone else? Do we play as those little villagers in Black & White, forced to suck it up if a giant cow suddenly plummets onto our little farm our family lived in for generations? Do we fight wars for a big floating hand in the sky?

nah, everyone plays a god, but i guess Henderson is like Zeus or Odin and we are Loki or Artemis

 

[Andy Chalk]

Does this mean that Henderson will have the ability to retain his throne, because that would be rather interesting. Not only would the mortals have to best each other, but also defeat the god to achieve divinity.

That would seem to be the case. It's not a matter of him getting the boot, but being exposed to external threats. And it is interesting; I still think it kinda sucks for Henderson, but in gameplay terms it may actually serve Godus very well.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Interesting to see how this plays out, and how cutthroat gamers can be once the ability to usurp is introduced. It all hinges on how good the game turns out.
Lets speculate on the idea that the game in fact turns out to be a damn good one:
I feel that gamers in this day and age are for the most part slightly antisocial wannabe misanthropes (going off of a lot of posts I've read on various sites besides and including Escapist). Therefore this could be an all out silent nerdrage war. Take a look at how people treat each other in gaming competitions; For the most part civil speech and genuine respect for others gets thrown out the window. Why? I really don't have the qualifications to analyze behavior of gamers but I will speculate that social skills are degenerating the more we don't have to interact with each other in real life. Anonymity tends to breed contempt. So what I see happening is EvE level backstabbing and sabotage perhaps.
I would like to say that there would be civil and respectful competition for the God seat but I know better.

 

[BrotherRool]

It's all a lie! This is Peter Molyneux who said Fable 1 was going to have plants grow in realtime. When he talks it's a PR marketing pitch, this isn't something that will happen at all like he's making it sound it will.

I think there is a HUGE difference between lying about "plants" growing in real time and lying about becoming a freaking god in a game, getting paid and change how the game is played at will.

Besides, Fable 1 was still a fantastic game IMO (much better than 2 or 3) so I can deal with the game not having something as trivial as plants growing XD.

The being paid isn't a lie but the level of control is obviously a lie. I mean that something we all know right? Designers don't have a fun job where they pick and choose in a wonderful world of correct choices, they're smart people who've studied games for years and experiment and test to find out what mechanics encourage what playstyles and make the game fun. There's absolutely no way you can get a randomer in and say 'make the game as you wish' and have a game that anyone wants to play. There'll be some watered down version of it, maybe the guy will say 'I'd love a volcano spell' and they make a volcano spell or something like that.

Of the two examples though, the Fable one is much more an actual factual lie. He had gameplay trailers and 5 minute long discussions about technology that didn't exist and that he wasn't working on as though it were in the game. And then there was the Kinectimals Milo thing where again he was talking about technology and features that don't exist. This isn't a new thing, PM always talks about technology and features that don't exist and that he'd never worked on, it's just the way he operates.

Heck. take Curiousity. At the start he said there was a 'secret' in the cube and only the person who discovered the cube would get to see it. And then it turned out that he'd never even thought about what the secret was going to be because it turned out to be a trailer for a game which only got kickstartered way after Curiousity was released and then that trailer was posted on youtube and sent to all the news sites. PM never had a clue what Curiousity was going to be, he makes it up as he goes along.




And in all honesty, that's probably the truth. He's not lying, that was me poking fun at the way what he says never ever happens. It's just he doesn't know yet. I'd bet a fair amount on that. He's had an idea of what sounds cool, but he doesn't know what it is, or how he's going to implement it and half a year down the line he'll figure something out and present it to us. That's why we've already had this 'till the end of his reign' thing pop up. He's spinning ideas

 

[1337mokro]

The only way this will go down well if we get a separate game called the Godyssee where gods fight to the death for control over the world of Godus! I think there was an MMO that sort of did this where the biggest baddest PVP player was like the lord of the land or something.

There is something interesting here buried deep inside Molyneux's magic hat he keeps pulling tricks out of. A game where control of the world is dictated by events in a different game.

 

[BrotherRool]

-snip-

I don#t actually have evidence that it's going to happen. But he's lied about every game he's ever made and he's using the exact same tone in this one, so all I'm saying is I'm not going to be surprised when it turns out to be nothing like people were hoping for.

He hasn't even changed he called Fable 1 the "greatest role-playing game of all time". And in his Godus kickstarter he was on the exact same track, saying it will reinvent the genre without providing any evidence and he even threw in that 'real time population' stuff from Fable again. And remember when he said he'd release a playable Godus prototype tomorrow? On December the 13th. Yeah that didn#t show up. And then he said he'd have it done by Christmas. 2012. He did show us a video though.

And I went back to read up, and the number of lies he told about Fable 1 were astounding. The game compresses and uncompresses the flow of time as you play it. Your character ages according to the stress level he's under. You develop facial ticks depending on whether you run from combat or not. NPCs will treat you differently depending on your clothing style. You can carve your initials onto trees and they'll be there 10 years later. NPCs will treat you differently depending the length of time you spent away from town.

I just don't see how anyone can believe that someone who says all those things will be in a game when if he has even an ounce of intelligence he realises they can't be, will be able to fulfill on the promise to be able to act as DM to all the thousands of players in the game. My comments about designers are even more relevant in that scenario. Do you know how hard DMs work and how much experience they have to build up? And to create interesting play for thousands and thousands of other people playing the game? It won't happen, or rather it will, but it will be .000001% as cool as it sounds now

 

[Baresark]

I don't know if I'm misreading this article or people's comments. I don't personally read the part of accruing wealth as meaning real money. Unless they said that in the kickstarter. I just avoid this guys games. I've just about had it with his over promising ass. What a let down though. Winning one game basically makes you an advertisement for his next game.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Damn, exploding the Canadian players would have been my first edict as Dog of Dogs. Instead I'll make them suffer by only letting them eat bacon and maple syrup! Ahahahahaaaa!!

It will be interesting to see the power struggles when players can knock each other off the top spot and then make rules, but I'm guessing there will be some kind of safe period after a new Dog of Dogs emerges so it's not about being online 24/7 and having a reign of a few minutes.

 

[NightHawk21]

Lucky guy still gets some money though (for minimal effort none the less). Guess we'll have to wait and see if the game is actually successful. A side note though, why would anyone want to blow up all the Canadians. We're like the coolest people ever.

The only way this will go down well if we get a separate game called the Godyssee where gods fight to the death for control over the world of Godus! I think there was an MMO that sort of did this where the biggest baddest PVP player was like the lord of the land or something.

There is something interesting here buried deep inside Molyneux's magic hat he keeps pulling tricks out of. A game where control of the world is dictated by events in a different game.

There are a few MMOs that incorporate this already. There was one I played, Voyage Century, where you could actively contest and take entire cities as a guild which would give you certain benefits and the option to change certain stuff within the city.

 

[Daemascus]

Sounds more like his god will have to fight for his place at the top after awhile, or be the games version of Cronus. That actually sounds pretty cool.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Well depending on how big the cut of the profits are and given that he is now mildly famous (at least in the video games world) I'd say that Peter actually came through with his statement about the inside of of the box being life changing. Well done sir.