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NYT Profiles Creator of Black & White and Fable
Amy's Robot writes "The NYT has a profile of Peter Molyneux, creator of 'Populous,' 'Black & White,' and the upcoming 'Fable.' In Fable, the moral decisions you make affect the character's appearance, the outcome of the game, and so on. You get the impression that Molyneux's unconventional approach to game design infuses each of his creations with something more than your average game. Fable will be released for X-Box on September 14."
I've had several discussions with my friends who swear up and down that since this guy was responsible for Populous that he basically invented the real time strategy game. I don't think this is true. I remember playing Utopia on the Intellivision years before I played Populous, and it was definately real time strategy.
Don't get me wrong. I repsect the hell out of Molyneux. The two titles I have played by him - Populous and Black & White - were very enjoyable. I just don't think he invented the RTS genre. Some unknown dude at Mattel did.
Fable is getting some pretty solid reviews.
B&W, on the other hand, is the worst game I have ever purchased. Awesome graphics (at the time) can not make up for bad gameplay, buggy code, and an AI that simply didn't work.
I bought Black and White and was amazed at how much people loved it. The mouse driven interface was frustrating as hell when you needed to do something quickly and as other posters have mentioned it all came down to micromanagement and resource gathering. I spent a good 30 hours playing it before I gave up trying to have any fun with it. In game cut scenes were long, annoying, and could not be skipped. The game was hardly revolutionary although it made taking out the garabage and doing dishes seem like fun.
I got hugely caught up in the hype of B&W and was very excited to buy it the day it hit the shelves.
It took me about ten hours to realize that B&W was less of a video game and more like an application. The UI and design and visuals were very cool but I wasn't having any fun listening to the guy saying "Your people are dying!" over and over.
I would compare it to something like a fractal visualization program, or maybe mapping software. Fun to play with but not really a game.
The only thing that gave me giggles was teaching my creature to eat his own poop.
The single most frustrating thing about it was not being able to skip the damn tutorials. I wanted to start over wit ha different creature but didn't want to sit through the 30 minutes of BS, so I never played it again.
I don't know a single person who made it all the way through B&W.
THere are some games that have awesome creators.
Take Deus Ex (the first one) for example. Incredible story, awesome gameplay, and a complex game world all lead to a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Granted, it was a literary's game, as it had a lot of references to culture and literature, but I think that certainly added rather than subtracted from the overall gameplay experience. It had a head to it, unlike most games which are fairly base in their approach to entertainment.
Max Payne is another example of a stunning presentation and execution. Though drastically different in gameplay, it still had an awesome story and felt "finished". Nothing was out of place.
All the good films that are remembered tend to have these same elements. They get you involved with the characters and the story and help you form emotional attachments.
B&W had some good things about it, but the overall implimentation was lacking. The bugs were frustrating, the gameplay drawn out and poorly paced, and the actual goal and the method by which to execute it were pretty nebulous until you got further into it... never played Populous. I don't remember anything about it.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
*By blunt I mean you can't miss the point, some SciFi have have good points about technology and society or pollution or something, but its fairly in your face lacking it subtlety and nuance. Also they don't seem to be drawn to behavioural novels, more plot driven ones.
Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
Peter Molyneux is all hype. We suffer through endless bullshit hype everytime he makes a game. Please Peter, stop making games, or stop talking so much about how great your shitty games will be.
He made:
Populus (sp), which was great
He made syndicate, a REVOLUTIONARY game. never seen cyperpunk tactics like that again.
He made Magic carpet, which was fun and had a AWESOME engine for its time
He made Dungeon Keeper, which was unique and great.
He is responsible for the original Pirates, clones till this day...
And yes, he did black and white, which wasnt stellar. But neither was your idiotic post.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
He has a track record of destroying things he touches. Witness Black and White. Witness Dungeon Keeper. For the last 10 years, he has picked up other peoples' work and mashed it into the ground.
...Bitter that I have to post this anon as the powers that be would have my everloving arse in a sling for this.
Fable was NOT conceived of by Molyneux. It was conceived of by the folks who conceived of Dungeon Keeper in its pre-Molyneux (and pre-EA) form. Lionshead, due to Peter's enormous potential to gain funding from large entities (ie: EA, Microsoft) effectively bought out the entity that had been Fable. Fortunately, those who created the game had had sufficient experience with Molyneux's way of doing things that they were able to fight his influence more effectively than before.
Fable is *fun*. A lot moreso that I'd expected given the hype and the Molyneux factor.
Wishing you could play some populous?
Check out the FreePop project:
http://freepop.sourceforge.net/
sounds like the guy could use some help
Bye!
SeqBox
So why does this Peter guy think he's Aesop? Or even God!? Saying this is what's Moral???
If the character (i.e. Player) is making moral decision and being judged on them then there must be a Moral Code in this game and who is to say this is the right moral code? It's just one person version of morality. I hope there's a mod pack so I can create my own moral vision of the world, which Peter might feel is immoral but to me is how it should be. This game shouldn't be called Fable but 'The Last Judgement' as that's what Peter is in fact doing.
It looks like computer games are now going to takeover the role of teaching the young and easily lead what's right and wrong. If you ask me GTA 3 is a better tool for teaching morals, it's more real life.