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The Fall of Peter Molyneux

Starwars

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It's good that someone tries to put him on the spot, I don't believe many are arguing that. But starting off the interview with "Do you believe you are a pathological liar?" sets the bar straight away. It's wallowing in the shit, which of course is popular with many. Easy to get the "tough journalist" points.. I can't stand Molyneux myself but...

Approach it with balls *and* brains next time, not just balls (it's not even that, it's just fishing for clicks really), and one may actually get something interesting rather than just flinging shit like a monkey in a cage. It's like reading a transcript of an old bickering couple rather than an interview. Transcribing "RPS:*laughs*" spoke more than anything about this.

EDIT: And of course, there's very little risk involved in targeting someone like Molyneaux who is now acting on his own basically. Try coming back when you can actually be ballsy about the big boys Walker, not the down-and-out developer who most people just like to laugh at nowadays.

Pathetic.
 
Last edited:

Metro

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I guess some of you don't remember Grunker gem of an interview with 'ShitComposter' a while back.
 

evdk

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Except he's not low-hanging fruit. The only way he's that is if you base it on the fact he's so flagrant with his empty promises. It's like calling a serial killer an 'easy target' for criticism.

Now go back to playing Evolve~
He is low-hanging fruit because as has been mentioned previously he is independent now and has nobody backing him who would pull ads from RPS in retaliation. I am waiting for Walker to interview Levine in the same fashion. I am not holding my breath.

I guess some of you don't remember Grunker gem of an interview with 'ShitComposter' a while back.
I remember that and I also remember saying it was a fucking retarded way to conduct an interview.
 

Metro

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I actually said that, too, but my disdain for Molly is more than my disdain for ShitComposter.
 

sser

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Except he's not low-hanging fruit. The only way he's that is if you base it on the fact he's so flagrant with his empty promises. It's like calling a serial killer an 'easy target' for criticism.

I'm basing it on the fact he has nobody to protect him. Molyneux is still gonna do Molyneux, the key difference is that there's no publisher around to shovel loads of cash into the faces of journalists - and that journalists like Walker have been in the crosshairs, giving him incentive to do something to take the heat off. Do you think someone like Walker would ever go to Will Wright and say, after Spore showcased approximately none of the features he showed at GDC, "How do you feel about lying to the people who preordered Spore?" EA would put RPS's nuts in a vice. Hell, when people were throwing fits about the wet noodle ending to the Mass Effect series Walker said all the gamers were a bunch of idiots. What a vanguard.

Walker focuses largely on Molyneux's Kickstarter, but Molyneux doesn't even come close to guys like Tim Schafer who have straight up abandoned games, failed to release a full game, and have apparently blown right through their budget which completely dwarfs Godus's.
 

Metro

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Except he's not low-hanging fruit. The only way he's that is if you base it on the fact he's so flagrant with his empty promises. It's like calling a serial killer an 'easy target' for criticism.

I'm basing it on the fact he has nobody to protect him. Molyneux is still gonna do Molyneux, the key difference is that there's no publisher around to shovel loads of cash into the faces of journalists - and that journalists like Walker have been in the crosshairs, giving him incentive to do something to take the heat off. Do you think someone like Walker would ever go to Will Wright and say, after Spore showcased approximately none of the features he showed at GDC, "How do you feel about lying to the people who preordered Spore?" EA would put RPS's nuts in a vice. Hell, when people were throwing fits about the wet noodle ending to the Mass Effect series Walker said all the gamers were a bunch of idiots. What a vanguard.

Walker focuses largely on Molyneux's Kickstarter, but Molyneux doesn't even come close to guys like Tim Schafer who have straight up abandoned games, failed to release a full game, and have apparently blown right through their budget which completely dwarfs Godus's.
Baby steps.
 

MRY

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EA would put RPS's nuts in a vice.
Here's a potential datapoint in this. Because my cousin was the subject of it, I read Walker's interview regarding the story in Far Cry 3.

Here's Walker's original criticisms of the game:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/04/what-i-loathe-about-far-cry-3/

And here's the interview:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/19/far-cry-3s-jeffrey-yohalem-on-racism-torture-and-satire/

I don't know whether to attribute it to Jeffrey's being a much less powerful person (and thus deserving a chance at rehabilitation), Jeffrey's opening up about his own non-privileged status, or what, but the interview is quite a bit friendly than what Molyneux got.
 

Telengard

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A most wonderful example of yellow journalism. Aggressive, sensationalist, populist, and asking all the questions in the wrong order to actually prove anything or elicit any information, but it in the right order to score points. Good read.

"All balls, no brain" - I love that description of it, Starwars.
 

AN4RCHID

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Tyler Glaiel on the interview: http://gamasutra.com/blogs/TylerGla...thoughts_on_that_Peter_Molyneux_interview.php

Makes a fair point, the things that Walker actually "calls out" Molyneux for are things that virtually all developers have to deal with, IE going over budget, delays. The questions aren't really hard hitting at all, they're just unprofessionally hostile. He doesn't bring any new information to light or even paint a insightful portrait of Molyneux, this is just Walker grandstanding as the badass journalist at the expense of a has-been that no one likes in the first place.
 

Cowboy Moment

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Credit to John Walker, there were no holds barred in that interview, almost made me feel sorry for the old conman. Would still rather have this style than the usual bootlicking.

It's a big improvement for sure but I feel still mostly done for shock value and reputation boosting rather than a drastic change in overall tone of the gaming journalism. In my mind it's little different to Gamespot tearing some euro shovelware to pieces to show how critical they are while neglecting the often same flaws when hyping/praising the latest AAA offering from an influental publisher.

That said, Molyneux is an easy target now that he went independent. One wonders if Walker would've approached the interview with the same irreverence had Peter still been making big-budget Xbox exclusives for Microsoft.

Molyneux is indeed an easy target for a variety of reasons but even if he has nothing to offer to the game industry anymore (aside from the entertainment value of a crazy village idiot) he still contributed far more to it than the SF clique Walker and the rest of the gaming journos are ass-kissing will in their entire lives.

Yeah, it was definitely done this way for shock value, in the spirit of disproportionate moral outrage not unlike the one that drives all those petty social media witch hunts. Still, I think ultimately the industry will be better for having this interview, than it would be otherwise. And while John Walker is, generally speaking, a self-righteous, hypocritical asshole, I am still giving him credit for doing something that seemingly no other journalist had the balls to do.

Remains to see whether this newly discovered critical ire will survive the clash with advertiser money. Would John Walker conduct a hostile interview with Mac Walkers about the ME3 ending, amidst full-page ads for the game plastered all over RPS?

No, he wouldn't. And that's why this interview is grade-A bullshit.

Yeah, I get it, Molyneux overpromises just like the rest of the industry does. He just has a way of aggrandizing his ideas that makes him an easy target for falling short. Most companies hide behind a corporate wall, while Molyneux stands in front of it to make himself a target. It's easy as fucking shit to go after Molyneux now that he's aged, burned out, and indie.

You, on the other hand, bro, are edging uncomfortably close to Molly apologism here. "Overpromises like the rest of the industry"? The man's ability to spin unbelievable bullshit out of thin air has become a meme at his point, and he keeps doing it, over and over again, seemingly not having learned a thing from all his past failures. One unpleasant interview is hardly the end of the world for him, maybe (though it's unlikely) it will shock him enough to reconsider his modus operandi. Because if he's actually suffering from some kind of mild psychological problem, then his environment is obviously not forcing him to confront it, at all.

As for Walker, I still dislike him strongly, but I'll pay more attention to him in the future. Maybe a miracle will happen and he'll go after people who actually deserve it. That's assuming anyone will agree to an interview with him after this, that is.

He is low-hanging fruit because as has been mentioned previously he is independent now and has nobody backing him who would pull ads from RPS in retaliation. I am waiting for Walker to interview Levine in the same fashion. I am not holding my breath.

Levine's independent now as well, and therefore a valid target. He's not nearly as controversial of a figure as Molyneux, but he's been expressing some anti-SJW sentiment on Twitter lately, and the road from that to suddenly becoming public enemy number one is very short sometimes.
 

Starwars

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You, on the other hand, bro, are edging uncomfortably close to Molly apologism here.

Are you loling when you're writing stuff like this? Because it's just pretty damn funny. :D
 

almondblight

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In my mind it's little different to Gamespot tearing some euro shovelware to pieces to show how critical they are while neglecting the often same flaws when hyping/praising the latest AAA offering from an influental publisher.

Pretty much this, and it's surprising seeing people fall for it. You're not going to find an interview like this with Tim Schafer, Neil Stephenson, or the Yogscast people. Think John Walker would keep hammering Schafer for being so late when he pulled in an extra $3 million for his KS the way he did Molyneux who got an extra 100k pounds? With the others we get a shrug, "this is troubling but that's crowd funding for you." That's even what they were saying about Godus when Molyneux actually did a lot of this stuff - "that's fine, this is what you get with KS;" now that Molyneux is a persona non grata among gamers, they act like they're shocked, shocked to find that Godus development has been a mess. I'm sure if enough people got pissed off about Schafer, Stephensons, etc., and their stock dropped enough, we'd get some righteous indignation from RPS about them as well.

Boot-lickers love carrying water for people when they're popular and trashing them when they've fallen. It works for them, and apparently a lot of people fall for it.

Remains to see whether this newly discovered critical ire will survive the clash with advertiser money. Would John Walker conduct a hostile interview with Mac Walters about the ME3 ending, amidst full-page ads for the game plastered all over RPS?

According to John Walker, if you were a person who complained about the ME3 ending you were "a self-entitled giant fart of a human", and Walker was "so damned delighted to see the giant F-YOU that BioWare have given to those demanding they rewrite it." Hard-hitting game journalism!
 

evdk

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Levine's independent now as well, and therefore a valid target. He's not nearly as controversial of a figure as Molyneux, but he's been expressing some anti-SJW sentiment on Twitter lately, and the road from that to suddenly becoming public enemy number one is very short sometimes.
I thought they just downsized the studio dramatically, but he was still wageslaving for 2K?
 

Infinitron

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John Walker was also right that Bioware fans being butthurt isn't all that bad. :smug:
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I don't think he has anything to do with 2K anymore.

No, he stills works for them.

On February 18th, 2014, Levine announced that Irrational Games would be closing down, with fifteen members of the staff to follow Levine to focus on digital-download, narrative-driven games for Take-Two.[22]
 

Cowboy Moment

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Levine's independent now as well, and therefore a valid target. He's not nearly as controversial of a figure as Molyneux, but he's been expressing some anti-SJW sentiment on Twitter lately, and the road from that to suddenly becoming public enemy number one is very short sometimes.
I thought they just downsized the studio dramatically, but he was still wageslaving for 2K?
I don't think he has anything to do with 2K anymore.

No, he stills works for them.

On February 18th, 2014, Levine announced that Irrational Games would be closing down, with fifteen members of the staff to follow Levine to focus on digital-download, narrative-driven games for Take-Two.[22]

I stand corrected. Still not entirely clear from the description, though - Is he forming a new studio of his own and making games that 2K will publish, or is the new studio still owned by 2K?
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I'm not aware of him being fired or quitting, so yes, it's still owned.
 

Metro

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So, basically, he's even worse of a human being: retaining his huge salary while dispatching the underlings.
 

Metro

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Obviously it's an easy dog-pile now. Too bad people weren't on this years ago.
 

evdk

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Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
From the Grauniad:
SJCtPJE.jpg

This is kinda epic.
 

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