Molyneux: I've Never Made a Great Game

[GrizzlerBorno]

So does anyone else see this as a marketing ploy to get people to buy Fable 3 out of sympathy which is ridiculous and unnecessary (but wholly forgivable) considering the fact that Fable 3 looks to be a Fantastic Game and people will buy it and love Mr.Molyneux for it, anyway?...... no? just me?

 

[Atmos Duality]

Well, at least he's set a goal for himself.
In today's gaming market, I can genuinely respect forms of ambition other than "Making Shitloads of Money".

 

[spinFX]

Pete, BNW1 was phenomenal you goon.

BNW2 was above average.

Fable 1 and 2 were above average.

But yeah, you made BNW1 so you get a free pass for life.

 

[Callate]

I'm somewhat at a loss to think of a single "great" game of the last ten years or so that could really be said to have been spearheaded by a single person. "Civilization" comes the closest, but while every new iteration is more beautiful and refined, it's still the same game that was released in 1991 at a certain fundamental level. Many games bear the trademarks of a particular designer or designers, but few can be said to be "so-and-so's game" from whole cloth.

To be clear, I know that nearly every game that comes out now is the product of a large team. But the number of people who are recognizably thought of as personally responsible for bringing particular games into being remains fairly short: your Warren Spectors, Will Wrights, Sid Meiers, Peter Molyneuxs, American McGees.

Most of the games of the last decade that I think of as "great" are more likely to come from notable teams or companies that particular people. Blizzard, Valve, Looking Glass/Irrational Games, DICE, etc.

Still, far be it from me to dampen Molyneux's ambitions. I think he's at least as likely to pull it off from sheer effort alone as anyone else.

 

[tk1989]

im sure he would get those 5 million sales if he went multi-platform...

 

[Gerrawn]

In my opinion the Fable series has been very solid, and Fable 2 was an improvement to the first in many aspects, even though a lacking last encounter. (I actually think Peter will remedy that by, I don't know, making your brother turn into a goddamn mech or something in the showdown.) If Peter just keeps doing what he's doing he'll hit gold eventually.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I'm sure that someone would put one of his games on their top five list. Like someone who hasn't played that many games and none in the last ten years or so. He's too hard on himself.

 

[Xanthious]

Those might be the first words to come out of ole Pete's mouth I actually agree with.

 

[deckai]

And he never will... his ideas are usually to big to be properly realized. Although in my opinion, he already made some great and fun games, but since his ideas are always 10 step ahead of the practicable he will probably never create THE "Great Game" he always dreams of.

 

[Red Right Hand]

Fables were good games, they just have some flaws, sooner or later we will have that truly great game.

Any game that ends with a SINGLE moral choice that renders every last thing you did before that irrelevant is not a good game. The fables are bad, bad games.

I've been saying he doesn't make good games for years, I'm pleased he and I are on the same page.

What? Surely a measure of whether a game is good or not depends on the level of enjoyment experienced by the users? Not some arbitrary game flaw. Sure that can affect whether someone enjoys it, but the flaw you mentioned didn't really have an affect on my experience of the games. Speaking as someone who enjoyed the Fable series immensely, I would certainly say that they are not bad, bad games. I'm pretty sure i'm not alone in that opinion either.

OT: This is what I love about Peter Molyneux. While he might promise the world in the run-up to a game, he's the first one to point out it's flaws and that's what let's me forgive his over-enthusiasm.

A single choice that turns you from Jesus Christ into the Devil just because those are the two choices isn't an arbitrary complaint, it's a wholesale betrayal of the rest of the game when you were supposed to be making this hero with their own choices. How did that make any kind of narrative sense? It was something that came about because everyone wanted to go home early that day and they said "Fuck it, that'll do."

Regardless, my point is that you cannot say a game is bad if a majority of the people who played it enjoyed it. If this flaw detracted from people's experience so much that a majority of people dislike the game, then yes you would be right. It would be a bad game. However, this isn't the case. Yes, it doesn't live up to the hype that you have total freedom in your moral choices, and it was a particularly stupid thing to promise on Molyneux's part, but that flaw doesn't instantly make it a bad game.

Sadly, I have a feeling that you and I are not going to agree no matter what is said, but oh well...

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

You're always looking at the stars Peter, try something a little less "ambitious".

 

[Dyp100]

I like that Peter is very down to earth.

He gets excited and spurt off about his game, and then after he calms and looks at it from an outside standpoint.

He's not cold and unwilling to admit anything like the calculated speeches of most other designers.

 

[theevilsanta]

Molyneux really needs a sidekick to level him out. An Anna Wintour to her Grace Coddington, so to speak(watch The September Issue, it's great, if you can stand people in fashion and magazines). He needs a yin to his yang.

 

[PrototypeC]

So what he wants is not just sales, but people actually loving his game and putting it in their top 5? What a noble goal!

I get the feeling though, from his comments, that he doesn't feel like this is the one either. I hope he doesn't lose that enthusiasm that has become so endearing to most of us!

 

[DEAD34345]

For a second there i thought people had forgotten about dungeon keeper, i'm relieved that it got some attention on the second page.

Personally, i think pretty much every game Molyneux made has been great, with some going way beyond that. Unfortunately no game could ever have lived up to the hype that surrounded him, so a lot of people got disappointed.

 

[Scott Guthrie]

he's like every other games designer, he's made some ace games and some shite

but he is an ace developer, and fable 3 will kick asssssss

 

[Wes1180]

Bullfrog... Black and White, Fable 1 and Black and White 1

Dungeon keeper 2 is one of my favourite games and I demand a sequel be made and the movies too.. actually all of bullfrogs stuff plus the movies