Molyneux: Microsoft's E3 Conference Was "Unprofessional"

[Frotality]

this may be the first reasonable idea PM has vocalized to the public in years.

 

[olorin]

I don't think so Peter; the majority do not want always online DRM for a console no matter the reason.

The majority are not happy with it and will never be happy with it.

You wouldn't accept a laptop that had to be connected to the Internet everyday or else it wouldn't work; why should we accept this?

If you can't run a business on the profits that are generated by this industry as it is then your business deserves to fail.

 

[Rellik San]

Oh look Uncle McCrazihead got let out to speak to the press again. It must be new game season. Please oh please oh please Game Journalists and sites like the Escapist and IGN and Gametrailers and similar. STOP SPEAKING TO THIS MAN! STOP LISTENING TO HIM! STOP POSTING HIS INANE CHATTERINGS AS GAMING GOSPEL. He is a nutty game developer. He made one or two good games. More bad ones, and is most famous for being an opinionated blowhard with an overinflated sense of self. Please stuff him back into whatever closet you keep him along with American McGee. Give him some Lego's and tell him they are Cubes.

You mean "Uncle McCrazihead" who's always tried to put his best into his projects and has the best of intentions, mister "Uncle McCrazihead" who for many was such a massive part of their child hood with Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, Populous, Magic Carpet, Syndicate, Black and White and Fable, some of the most highly regarded and influential games ever to exist (i.e. his one or two good games)?

Sure the man has a talent for hyperbole and it can be frustrating when his projects fall short of what is promised, but at least he dreams big.

"Uncle McCrazihead", who for a great many millions of both gamers and developers instilled the love and passion we have to this day. I don't normally get annoyed at opinions like this, but this guy just makes me sick. There is a damn good reason why when Molyneux talks, we all stop and listen, no matter how out there his ideas may be.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

Necessity has everything to do with it. Steam is an ONLINE gamestore. In order to use it, you have to be online. What MS is trying to convince us is that ALL gaming has to reside online. Even when I purchase items on Steam I don't have to check in every time I want to play. I'm ok if a seller wants to authenticate the sale of their game at the POS, but to insist you need to check in EVERY DAY is not necessary, and won't be OK no matter how much you try to convince people it is, or how many "features" you try to tie to your arbitrary check-in system.

Except Steam is not only an online game store, it's also a fairly restrictive DRM system, not as restrictive as One's, but restrictive enough that people would not be using it if it weren't for the sales.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Well, it's certainly driving me away. I have no interest in picking up any of the promised consoles in the next gen.

 

[Stevepinto3]

Yeah, if there was any kind of practical upside to the once-a-day connection I'd be more willing to accept it, but there just isn't. Cloud computing is a weak excuse because even then it should have no reason to lock you out of games that you have on your local hard-drive that the console can process by itself.

I mean seriously, when did the industry decide taking games away from costumers was a selling point? Everything about the Xbox One has been one insane load of anti-consumer bullcrap after another and it's reaching the point the point where even casual audiences are starting to take notice. I have friends that only ever play Call of Duty and Gears of War that said they've heard about the new Xbox and don't think they'll be buying it, even if it means no precious GoW. Microsoft, you dun goofed.

 

[Something Amyss]

Isn't Curiosity his creation? How much bullshit was that?! Something "Life-changing" ended up being an announcement for a new game in development. If he sold chocolate, he'd start advertising it six months in advance as a new form of oral sex that cured hepatitis, and even now we'd still be disappointed every time we put some in our mouths.

Technically, it was life-changing, but leave it to Meter Polyneux to take even that and overhype it. And then he made it sound a lot less sweet when he imposed term limits and even cut down what "godhood" entails. And that's not even mentioning the fact a lot of people think this wasn't the original planned surprise, based on the odds that he was actually involved in this game when he started Curiosity and the claims that it was something you could share with the world or keep to yourself....

Could he have behaved better and been more transparent? Yes, absolutely. Should he have done it? Of course, it's his word afterall. Why didn't he and why does he expect others to behave as he should when he doesn't? No idea. We should ask him, really.

If you ask him, he'll promise you an answer in six months that will not only blow your mind, but cure cancer and make you chain orgasm. As it comes closer to the day, it will sound more and more like "trolololololol..."

I seem to recall Fable 2 doing something sort of like that where you were given money in-game for playing for five or so minutes depending on properties owned, so maybe Microsoft could look into an idea like that...once they stop looking at their earnings projections.

The problem is, they've already said that was possible with this. The...OTHER...Problem with this is that Fable 2 exists. Peter Pholydeux has already put out a game where this can be done without being always online. Or being online at all. In fact, this is a feature we've seen in other games before. Animal Crossing will change the environment based on how long you've been gone, and it's a Nintendo title. They didn't even think we LIKED the internet when they dreamed that one up.

Granted, no example I can think of is particularly complex, so maybe there's one that can't simply be done by looking at the bloody clock and adjusting. If so, however, make it happen when that game boots up. You don't need a persistent online VERIFICATION for all your titles in order to make a handful of games have persistent worlds.

 

[Otaku World Order]

I think the biggest PR fuck-up that Microsoft's done lately is the combination of this week's "Can't be online? Get a 360" and last week's "Backwards capability is for the backwards thinking" remarks from executives. That's a PR nightmare for any company. Even my local rock radio station is talking about how bad the next Xbox is going to be and they never talk about gaming.

I'm just wondering if Microsoft can change this bad reputation around in the next 6 months. Or will they keep the "Deal with it" comments coming?

Or will it mean nothing in 2 years when all the launch games have come out? Look at Sunset Overdrive. That's fucking Insomniac Games. That's gonna be real hard for me to skip out on. But if I have to spend $120 for Xbox Live on top of a premium internet connection and the Xbox One itself to play it, it's gonna be real easy to skip.

Considering that Microsoft considers a hundred bucks extra for their console a "piddling amount", are you really surprised?

Molyneux may have a reputation as the human overhype machine, but he's very right here. Microsoft really needs to explain what we're getting out of spend an extra hundred bucks for a more restrictive console.

 

[unstabLized]

Damn Peter.. Why can't you use these wits more often? That's the most sane conclusion I've heard yet..

captcha: knock on wood
Indeed captcha..

 

[faefrost]

Oh look Uncle McCrazihead got let out to speak to the press again. It must be new game season. Please oh please oh please Game Journalists and sites like the Escapist and IGN and Gametrailers and similar. STOP SPEAKING TO THIS MAN! STOP LISTENING TO HIM! STOP POSTING HIS INANE CHATTERINGS AS GAMING GOSPEL. He is a nutty game developer. He made one or two good games. More bad ones, and is most famous for being an opinionated blowhard with an overinflated sense of self. Please stuff him back into whatever closet you keep him along with American McGee. Give him some Lego's and tell him they are Cubes.

Did you actually bother to read what he said, or did you just assume that what he said was stupid?
Because without providing what particular part of his opinion you dont agree with.... you look a bit insane yourself.

I read it. I don't find issue with a lot of what he said. But who is saying it is what makes it suspect. I'm sorry. I know he has made some generally beloved games in the past. But his current pastime seems to be head games. and hearing him criticize another company or individuals professionalism is truly appalling. He has become some oddly pretentious PT Barnum. I think he has taken to promising stuff just to watch what kind of a reaction he gets from people. He's playing his own personal game of Populous and we are the little digital dudes being manipulated. And really that's what Cube was. That's what all of these public statements and weirdly unfulfilled promises are. More and more he seems to be making a game that only he actually gets to play. and I just think we as a community are probably better off if we stop playing it.

 

[Belated]

I'm getting tired of all these powerful people claiming that Microsoft just didn't frame things right, and implying that they could get away with the exact same policies if they just used the correct wording for them. Like consumers are that stupid. No, it's not that we don't like always-online because Microsoft didn't "show me why I should". We don't like always-online because we don't fucking like always-online. It's just a genuinely bad idea that has no redeeming qualities, as simple as that. It has nothing to do with publicity. And we know it has nothing to do with publicity because we rejected the idea before Microsoft even confirmed they were doing it, because the idea is just inherently bad. Spin doesn't matter when the facts stay the same.

I choose not to put a rabid beaver down my pants, because that is a genuinely bad idea. No amount of marketing is going to convince me that I should do it. It doesn't matter what you want to call it. You can spend all day telling me why I totally want a rabid beaver down my pants, but I'm never going to agree with you because I'm never going to want a rabid beaver down my pants.