Interview "It will be an experience": Peter Molyneux on Cans, Padded Cells, and Changing the World

[VentilatorOfDoom]

About 18 months ago, this series of strange things started to happen. I started to get all these accolades. I got a BAFTA Fellowship. I got a Lifetime Achievement Award in Spain, another in Italy, over in the states I picked up a few more. They were all coming in. Of course, I was unbelievably proud of it. But eventually I took a long hard look at all these awards lined up on the mantelpiece and asked myself, do I really deserve these?

Yes. If anyone deserves it, it's the man who brought me the joy of kicking chicken. Goddamn, I'm still trying to do a new record.

 

[taxalot]

Besides the hate and the hype, Molineux is a pretty nice guy. I'd love more to have a drink with him than Jeff Vogel for example.
And yeah, I loved all of his games. Blame him for being too passionated about what he does if you will.

Go on Peter! Continue to give me pleasure and wet my buttocks!

 

[funkadelik]

Black and White kicked ass.

 

[Black]

Black and White kicked ass.

Wasted potential, good ideas and poor execution- the game.
Still, I prefer good ideas and poor execution than rehashing the same old shit over and over again. It can actually lead to something new, different and good.

 

[Sejtan]

I loved the guy as much as everyone. He made some great games, he did some cool stuff. But in last decade he went batshit crazy with his half baked promises and mediocre games. Come on, who can say that Fable 1-2-3 or w/e that shite is called is good? Pure mediocrity for the masses.
He is past his sell date. He doesn't have a clue anymore, and he became a joke in this industry with his self obsessed "my new game is going to be a revolution yo!" thing. It's like every two or three years he spouts the same bile, over and over, just changes name of his newest title.
Fuck you Peter Molyneux, fuck you and your casual multiplayer shite. There, I said it.

 

[Excommunicator]

Of course I didn’t have the idea for the game itself, partly because when you’re at Microsoft any idea you have is property of Microsoft.

Suddenly I felt my chair move. I looked around. Standing there was the Microsoft chair adjustment personnel, this nice woman who comes over once a month, fiddling with my seat settings to make sure it was posturepedically correct.

This sounds like an absolute nightmare. Good on him for leaving. You can't possibly function as a good creative mind under conditions like this.

I still regard him as one of the better designers out there (mostly due to Dungeon Keeper), and hope he can come along with something new and interesting. I also can only hope that once these designers have been through these publisher sell-out scenarios (him with Lionhead, Carmack with ID Software, Garriott, many more) where everything is streamlined and industrialised under the publisher label that they will think twice about making the mistake again just because of how limiting and negative such decisions are, beyond the extra money offered

 

[Brayko]

I applaud him for leaving Microsoft and forming his own studio. The rest was his usual batshit crazy ideas which even if they are genius in a perverse way (yet slightly interesting), usually fall flat when it comes to implementing any concrete substance to them.

 

[Ulminati]

Eh, fuck it if I lose KKK for saying this.

Molyneux at the very least tries to be different and innovative. At least in his pre-Microsoft years. Even his spectacular failures like B&W felt more like a genuine attempt at creating something new and different that just happened to fall flat under its own weight. I'd rather have a dozen mad, unplayable messes with a spark of love in them than another safe, soulless cookie-cutter AAA title. I'll give whatever madness his warped mind concocts a try. Even if it'll probably be an unplayable mess in which you have to sort unicorn poop by colour to unlock new gemoetric shapes in which to arrange your friend-spheres.

Never change Peter

 

[Achilles]

I don't think many people doubt his contribution to gaming during the pre-Microsoft years. However, the Microsoft years were a creative wasteland filled with broken promises and half-assed game concepts. It's up to him now to prove that he's still capable of producing something truly great.

 

[Brayko]

TBH, it sounds like a Molynian way of saying "I want to do a Kickstarter". Splendid.

 

[crojipjip]

No offense but you guys need to tone down the language so your thoughts resonate better with true selves.. I been called the next peter molyneux for a long time. Because you are attempting an act above what you were programmed for it backfires rendering you helpless. Its why I say you need to change.

Really.. it hurts met to see that you are all not giving him benefit of the doubt. i am surpised he has gotten over people stealing his ideas or worse claiming his hard work was never his. even today i am still hurt by how quicky the bgs community disappointed me. i not only announced what i was going to do, fallout 3 multiplayer, i fucking delivered a demo within a week. the torture i went through knowing every moment i could just quit and the community would be no worse. but i piled through to prove fallout 3 is just as likely a canidated for multiplayer as any game. i especially admire my work for new vegas where i moved separate objects and jut had ai packages pointed to those linked objects.

i have a lot better ideas than modding fallout. trust me. but when the community backstabs you it is the worst ever. in fact i went out of my way to reupload again and again the files. i even gave out the source to the server and client. i explaiend how it all worked so many times through fallout related websites that i do feel like i cheapend the whole idea. no one gives a shit. codex doesn't get a pass either. i came pretty close to implementing rain but you fucks never really gave a turd. i think just for the lulz after i sell my game, i will demonstrate my version of unlimited detail, but it will be better than what euclideon has shown since 2011. it will include fully animated models and tons of visual effects and an interactive world. perfect movement and radiant ai. and even an interface for developers to be superior at being superior.

 

[joeydohn]

but it will be better than what euclideon has shown since 2̶0̶1̶1̶ 2003.

The Unlimited Detail/Euclideon guy actually reminds me of Peter quite a lot, in that they're both so full of shit.


Fable: TLC is a really guilty pleasure for me, I know it's bad and yet I still love it like a dog who finishes your take-away in the night and throws it up on your bed, I just can't stand Peter or any of the Fable sequels though. Since the first time I saw him talk about either B&W or Fable I just knew he was talking out of his arse. I really hope that Microsoft are to blame and we'll see something original come out of 22Cans but judging by that interview no matter what Peter's going to disappoint me, as much as is possible now anyway.

 

[crojipjip]

The Unlimited Detail/Euclideon guy actually reminds me of Peter quite a lot, in that they're both so full of shit.


Fable: TLC is a really guilty pleasure for me, I know it's bad and yet I still love it like a dog who finishes your take-away in the night and throws it up on your bed, I just can't stand Peter or any of the Fable sequels though. Since the first time I saw him talk about either B&W or Fable I just knew he was talking out of his arse. I really hope that Microsoft are to blame and we'll see something original come out of 22Cans but judging by that interview no matter what Peter's going to disappoint me, as much as is possible now anyway.

I hope you will permit to say you are overthinking this. this is the real world. its simple . in theory there is a limit. but in practice there is not. do you understand? in theory a limit could be met. but in practice no developer will meet that limit. thats is why both rendering performance and memory compaction methods are the breakthrough.

i am very ambitious. if you support me i will do an open source demo, but i expect you all to be nice and make a new post about it . when i return today/tomorrow i will upload my notes so you can educate yourelves on what is really meant by unlimited detaill.