Interview Peter Molyneux - Complexity is only simplicity multiplied

[winterraptor]

I think we're just realizing that what we're making is a sort of arc of enjoyment, and that arc of enjoyment should have definitely a variety in it.

arc of enjoyment

Arch, rather?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Read the whole thread. Too fucking depressed to think now. Video games used to be my life. Now it's ruined. I might have to get a job now. Fuck. If anyone wants me, I'll be sitting in the corner drinking rum.

 

[StrangeCase]

Unfortunately, Sid's not guilty of stupidity. Selling out, maybe. I think he's correctly assessed the modern gaming market and its trends. He uses "players" too broadly, but other than that, are his observations actually false? He's telling us a lot of stuff we definitely don't want to hear, but the fact is a whole lot of paying gamers see it just as he described. Sid's following the money.

I guess gamers get the games they deserve, huh?

 

[1eyedking]

Something's not right in that Sid quote. He sounds as he's embarrassed of having been a videogame designer instead of a corporate sociopathic executive of a large multinational capable of manipulating global politics.

He used to have a passion for playing and making games. Those things he said, it's like somewhere along the road he became really tired, maybe because the gamers he catered to got more stupid as publishers demanded for developers to reach for a broader audience.

I doubt he's referring to people you would find here (well, at least among the demanding Codex crowd) but rather to the stereotypical gamers nowadays: the 30 year-old fatass who's probably still a virgin and plays nothing but ego-stroking MMOs all day long, the 25 year-old ectomorphic casualfag who just wants his share of Guitar Hero just so his co-workers think he's as cool as them and can throw "geek" parties at his place after the weekly "Big Bang Theory" run, and ADD-impaired Halo cum-guzzling teens who brag about their digital achievements to their newborn zits' reflection on the TV screen. Notice a trend?

I'd go as far as saying he's, in fact, one of us

 

[rpgcodexusername]

http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=727

rampant coyote did a good parody

 

[Radisshu]

MOLYNEUX: HEY GUYS! DID YOU KNOW ABOUT ATOMS? THEY PRETTY MUCH CONSTITUTE MATTER! YEAH, THAT CHAIR OVER THERE CONSISTS OF ATOMS. THAT MEANS THE CHAIR IS AN ATOM.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

I want to kill him!.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

Allow me to retort, you stupid mother fucker.

So i love hack and slash games in all there forms from the simple God of war type game and all the way to the more complex Bayonetta/Devil May Cry.

Now in fable 2 they work with a simple system of 1 button attacks.
Every combo is 1 button and nothing else. You can not even flow together magic/ranged attacks into your main combo's, becaus it would make things to complex or some retarded nonsense like that.

Now the biggest issue with the combat in Fable 2 is that the game had no challenge at all.
NO CHALLENGE WHAT SO EVER!.

No need to learn a combo, have timing, plan things, use a right weapon, positioning or ANY THING!.

Fable 2 is shit!.
Also SHITTING YOUR SELF IS NOT A VALID FORM OF SOCIAL INTERACTION YOU BRITISH CUNT!:

Agreed. Fable 2 was so easy the game made money for you when you werent even playing.

 

[Garm]

That has a lot of implications, such as how you have to always tilt the odds in favor of the player winning, regardless of the true mathematical odds for things such as battles. If you don’t do this, players will perceive your game as too difficult and will drop it.

Or you know...you could have an Easy mode and a Extremely Hard difficulty mode as well...pretty sure that's possible there Sid.

Meier said that the first 15 minutes of a game are key. Players have a need for instant gratification. If you don’t hook them at the start, they will drop it quickly. Game designers should never waste a player’s time by sending them down the wrong road or giving them too many options that distract them from the main object of a game.

WTF is this "options are bad" shit? Fine, make a game have options, and then just have a Moron difficulty level which removes them. Fuck off with these stupid gamers causing all games to be dumbed down.

He said that games should have moral clarity. If you’re playing an empire game, the player should have no qualms about crushing a rival. If you make the rival into a mean ruler, then there’s no moral dilemma. But if the rival is pleading and the action is morally confused, the player won’t be as satisfied. The style and content of a game should be consistent.

I for one, like having morale dilemmas in games. I thought people grew out of the black/white/good/bad bullshit after age 10? More shades of gray please.[/b]

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

He's right about the first 15 minutes in a way, though. Consider first 15 minutes of Torment vs Dragon Age. My character just woke up on a mortuary slab and has a floating skull and interactive zombies nearby! Holy crap. I was 14 or 15 at the time I saw that, it hooked me hard right there. It still does. Dragon Age? Yawn, please. So yes, he's right on that one.

DA had about 6 15 minns. I only played one of them and I thought it was very good. Torment is a bad example too because Torment starts off very simple. His point was that the game needs to start off simple and I generally agree. Eve is about as complex as games get in the first 15 yet its still popular so I cant say I really agree with him in every genre.

 

[Garm]

He's right about the first 15 minutes in a way, though. Consider first 15 minutes of Torment vs Dragon Age. My character just woke up on a mortuary slab and has a floating skull and interactive zombies nearby! Holy crap. I was 14 or 15 at the time I saw that, it hooked me hard right there. It still does. Dragon Age? Yawn, please. So yes, he's right on that one.

DA had about 6 15 minns. I only played one of them and I thought it was very good. Torment is a bad example too because Torment starts off very simple. His point was that the game needs to start off simple and I generally agree. Eve is about as complex as games get in the first 15 yet its still popular so I cant say I really agree with him in every genre.

I never got very far in DA mainly because the rest of the game was so boring compared to the start of the game. I really liked the Dwarven Noble one start.