Molyneux: 'I am a failure'

knowledge123 · 26 Feb 2008 at 12:36

Peter Molyneux, creator of Populous, Fable and Black and White, considers himself a failure.

Speaking to the BBC, the Lionhead boss says he's failed as a designer because he has not been able to attract a wider audience to gaming.

"It's a failure borne out of myself as a games designer and creator and indeed the wider games industry," he said in the BBC games blog. "For making games that only appeal to a small part of world. The number of people playing games is going up, but it's going up slowly. The number of people who could potentially be playing games is huge.

"For a long time I made games I mistook adding complexity for being a good thing," he added, touching on his famous habit of chucking extra options and features onto his games.

"In actual fact I kept adding new features to a game when I should have been fixing something deep down in the guts of the game that was slightly wrong.

"What I feel more and more as I get more and more experienced is that if I can make something really simple, give gamers a highly-polished experience, then I have succeeded." Don't worry Peter, we love you really.

Last week Molyneux revealed the third "big feature" in his Xbox 360 sequel Fable 2; an Xbox Live Arcade spin-off game and full drop-in, drop-out co-op.

"I want people to sit down and play the game with a friend," Molyneux told the Beeb. "Now sometimes your friend could be a gamer. But probably more likely your friend is going to be someone who has never played the game before.

"Both of you should feel good about what you are doing, neither of you should feel stupid about what you are doing."

Linky

Credit on being honest, at least.

He's a good game designer, he just need to work on the hype, imho.

Streeteh · 26 Feb 2008 at 12:38

His problem is he tries to do such complex things in such a simple manner. Take fable for example, he tried to create a world with moral choices, but they were so simplified it was basically a choice between being a mass murderer or a priest.

Shamikebab · 26 Feb 2008 at 12:40

Good honest statement, I really think Fable 2 will change things, he's being far more careful about what he's promising and I think its looking excellent.

Gooner14 · 26 Feb 2008 at 12:51

I've played poker with him

Killerkebab · 26 Feb 2008 at 12:53

LeaguePosition14 said:
I've played poker with him

I can see him being really good at poker

Lunatic Dreyfus · 26 Feb 2008 at 14:13

Whilst it's good for PC gaming to have had high profile figures like Molyneux around, with the exception of Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper his games have been hugely over hyped, but rather forgettable once released. That's my personal opinion obviously.

Oh, and I could never understand what was going on in Populus and so gave up on it. There were far too many other great games vying for my attention back then.

Molyneux's had a least 20 years to work out where he's been going wrong. And, there's always been those "this isn't quite right" remarks about his games, so what's the real reason behind this sudden revelation?

fish99 · 26 Feb 2008 at 14:29

Populous was a stone cold classic, as was Magic Carpet for that matter.

I don't agree with him about simplifying games though. Is that all it's about for him - the bottom line, the number of copies sold? I don't wanna play games my granny could play, which is why I've got no interest in the Wii. Why does he need to bring gaming to a wider audience, why not just make intelligent innovative games for people who can appreciate them - for people who actually play games?

I'm fed up with rubbish that's dumbed down for casual gamers who get bored if they haven't shot anything for 3 seconds, or who give up when they reach the tiniest bit of difficulty or are required to use their brains. That's why I loved Stalker, Thief and System Shock 2 and was so dissapointed with Bioshock, COD4 etc...

In the hope of tapping into a new audience he's forgetting his core audience.

RobH · 26 Feb 2008 at 14:30

I think I've played every one of his games and love them, yes they do only appeal to certain people but they were great games. Dungeon Keeper was one of the first games I saved up money to buy and I played it for years, it is one of my favourite games of all time. Likewise populous and Black & White are also great games but they are not for everyone, he definatly does do things that no one else has managed to do right, it just seems that not a lot of people notice them.

unwashed potato! · 26 Feb 2008 at 14:39

Shamikebab said:
Good honest statement, I really think Fable 2 will change things, he's being far more careful about what he's promising and I think its looking excellent.

in all honesty i think this is exaclty what he wants you to think which is why he made that "statement".

a bit ot but i work like 3 buildings away from lionhead studios, pass it every single night yet to see anyone working in it though past 8pm.

HangTime · 26 Feb 2008 at 19:13

Molyneux is a fantastic visionary who has many grandiose plans for his games, but sadly they often don't quite turn out the way I would hope. The is probably one of the most original creative talents out there who I think sometimes lets his imagination run riot at the expense of the 'end product'

Of course, if he reigned himself in, he would probably lose some of his magic.

I still think the ultimate game designer would be a merger of PM and Sid Meier. You'd have all that creativity and ideas from him, coupled with the fantastic attention to detail and 'deliverability' from SM. Both are genuises at different ends of the spectrum, if you could somehow harness both their talents you would have a helluva game studio on your hands.

SkeeterUK · 26 Feb 2008 at 19:45

He is where he is now BECAUSE he made complex games, dumbing them down for casual gamers is what everyone is doing thesedays, if he follows suit then there goes another good designer down the tube.

Tute · 26 Feb 2008 at 19:48

I certainly wouldn't think of him as a "failure", not by any means. I still play both Dungeon Keeper games as they're classics. Fantastic good fun and different to the usual dross.

Meridian · 26 Feb 2008 at 20:24

fish99 said:
Why does he need to bring gaming to a wider audience, why not just make intelligent innovative games for people who can appreciate them - for people who actually play games?

That's an easy one: £££. Or $$$ for that matter. A game which appeals to only hardcore gamers is a game which is a failure. Hardcore gamers don't like to hear this, but it's true: games like the Sims are successful because they are bought by people who only occasionally buy games - which is a far bigger market than those who buy a lot.

Molyneaux's problem was always that he's tend to say what he wanted a game to do, and imply that's what it would do. Sadly the technology and/or coding was seldom up to it, so the final product was usually a pale shell of what people were expecting.

But Dungeon Keeper is still a classic of it's kind....

M

Gerard · 26 Feb 2008 at 20:35

Tute said:
I certainly wouldn't think of him as a "failure", not by any means. I still play both Dungeon Keeper games as they're classics. Fantastic good fun and different to the usual dross.

He is in a sense that he runs his trap non stop about this and that feature and how this is gonna be so amazing then it gets the chop block.

He's really not ha a big name game in quite a while, all the projects he's been working on in the last lot of years all seem to have a ton of hype and promises attached to them, when they come out they never do that well. Black and white 2 practically sunk lionshead, was only ms buying them up that theyre in business.

He needs a big hit to make people take him seriously again, i think he's at a point now where people just dont take him at his word, and would prefer to see whatever he's gabbing about in the final product before announcing it as the second coming.

snowdog · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:38

I think his games are good, played Fable the lost chapters and quite liked it, I dunno why I stopped playing it I can't recall but I really liked it. Not to complex at all.

Most games are dumbed down far too much these days.

The Running Man · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:39

its true, id feel stupid sitting down with a mate to play Fable...but thats because i just dont like the game.

some games demand complexity, like RPgs etc and to dumb them down wouldnt always be the right solution imo. maybe people dont want to play a game like that in 2 player?

Halo on the other hand, you can be made to look pretty stupid if you havent played much, and then u go for some multi play and get rocked repeatedly?

Flibster · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:44

Still play Syndicate, Syndicate American Revolt *chuffing hard!* and Syndicate Wars.

Dungeon Keeper and Black and White were very good as well.

unwashed potato! · 26 Feb 2008 at 21:57

Gerard said:
He needs a big hit to make people take him seriously again, i think he's at a point now where people just dont take him at his word

which is why i think he has said he feels a failure, already people are now getting a ilttle more hyped that maybe fable 2 will actually be good, his usual techingues no longer work so he has moved on to a sneaky one, imo of course.

Pulseammo · 27 Feb 2008 at 00:24

Lunatic Dreyfus said:
Molyneux's had a least 20 years to work out where he's been going wrong. And, there's always been those "this isn't quite right" remarks about his games, so what's the real reason behind this sudden revelation?

Gonna throw something out here, dunno what reaction this is gonna get but here we go. . .

It's a self serving statement. Every time this guy releases a game, it always does something "revolutionary" in some way. His next big revolution is that his is atoning for his sins of being a "bad developer" (drama queen, woe is me, emo kid alert) by bringing more people to gaming, and what do you know? His newest game is going to revolutionise that too.

Am I being too cynical? I don't know. . .

unwashed potato! · 27 Feb 2008 at 00:55

Pulseammo said:
Gonna throw something out here, dunno what reaction this is gonna get but here we go. . .

It's a self serving statement. Every time this guy releases a game, it always does something "revolutionary" in some way. His next big revolution is that his is atoning for his sins of being a "bad developer" (drama queen, woe is me, emo kid alert) by bringing more people to gaming, and what do you know? His newest game is going to revolutionise that too.

Am I being too cynical? I don't know. . .

exactly what im trying to say, this just seems like a way to increase hype once again as he is running out of ways to do it