Molyneux on the Vanity of Gamers 91
Fable 2 is turning out to be a fantasy game unlike any other, with a new feature announced almost every time Molyneux opens his mouth. At a games industry event in Brighton, he sat down for a chat with Gamasutra to discuss using vanity as an incentive. "Fable 2 will take a similar dramatic approach to the concept. Drained of health points and laid out on the ground, players will have the choice of losing experience points - the game's key method of building up a selection of fearsome fighting moves - and immediately jumping up to regain the action, or letting the enemy close in and work them over with stabs, kicks and punches ... Worse than that, when you eventually get up again to fight another day, the marks of your beating will remain for all to see." These scars will be important, somehow, in Fable 2 online mode, a topic they still aren't discussing in detail.
Vanity in one game (Score:5, Funny)
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"SKU:" Quicker to type than "version," less ambiguous than "model."
"Squenix:" Quicker to type.
"Shmups:" An abbreviation of "shoot-'em-ups," not "shooters." Shooters make up a totally different genre. I usually type it out, but I have no problem with people who use the abbreviation.
"Roguelike:" OK, genius, tell us how you would describe those RPGs that contain rand
Re:Vanity in one game (Score:4, Interesting)
When ever someone say "I'm a hardcore gamer", I have the urge to kick them in the teeth.
Re:Vanity in one game (Score:5, Funny)
You'll enjoy this recent SomethingAwful article where they look at postings from a forum where everybody is convinced that Fallout and Fallout 2 are the best games ever, to the extent that they actually threaten to kill Bethesda developers for "ruining" the franchise. (Bethesda's version is not even released yet!)
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/weekend-web/fallo
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I loved fallout... but I've moved on.
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Since Fallout 3 is unpublished and, indeed, unfinished at this point in time, anyone who claims to like it is very likely eithe
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In any case, your argument
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Anyone who claims to be a hardcore gamer and only plays one game...well, isn't.
Personally, I prefer to bitch about how certain famous games *cough*StarCraft*cough* are overrated and not the bes
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I get the jokes...
I otoh. play WoW, Q4, UT2k3, all in the same week.
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Playing Halo doesn't make you a gamer any more than eating a taco makes you a Mexican.
Usually said to the Halo/Madden/CounterStrike/Final Fantasy people.
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The only ones that really bug me are the "hardcore" gamers.... who play either madden, counterstrike, Wow, star craft... or any game exclusively. Then there are the ones who spend more time bitching about what game is better or how all the new games suck, then they actually spend enjoying the games they hold so highly. Actually I just hate all the asshats who claim to be hardcore gamers then act like it makes them an authority any game.
When ever someone say "I'm a hardcore gamer", I have the urge to kick th
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ATTN: Abbreviations/Pet Names == Vanity (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps we can combine forces and release an informative newsletter!
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thx bai
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That's kind of his point. It's a retail term. Not a gamers term. [insertcredit.com] Since when did gamers start talking like retail executives?
While there might be room for debate on the term 'Rogue-like' and obviously he meant shoot'em ups instead of shooters (I pray), aside from that I agree whole heartedly with what he says
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And I have played Rogue, at least enough to know that I would rather play any othe
Eh. (Score:2)
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Why not? (Score:4, Interesting)
You can see both sides of the medal in WoW too, that is, both PM's point and the counter-point.
On one hand, if you take a census of the population (repeatedly at different times, to have a good statistic), on any server, you'll find that, with exactly one notable exception, the more a race looks human and pretty, the more players play it. Before Burning Crusade, that meant there were more Humans or Night Elves than the whole Horde combined, no matter what advantages the Horde races got. Even as everyone was bitching about shamen and warlock-killing un-fearable Undead, most people didn't actually want to go and play one.
That's one major reason why the Horde got Blood Elves in the Burning Crusade expansion. Blizzard just caved in and realized that the only thing that would even start to even the odds was to give the Horde a pretty and human-looking race. In fact, one prettier than the Night Elves on the Alliance side.
So that would sorta illustrate PM's point that, indeed, a lot of people will take looking pretty over being an effective killing machine.
The counter-point, though, is that notable exception I've mentioned: the undead. (Technically called the "Forsaken".) The WoW undead aren't the pretty sanitized VTM vampires, but something more hideous than anything you could get in Fable or in most other games. They look literally like someone who's been rotting in a grave for two weeks and then got dug out. You know, with missing flesh, tattered clothes, bones poking out, etc.
The funny thing is, the undead were the most played Horde race. Ok, so the Will Of The Forsaken ability was a major selling point too, but even then it illustrates that some people do take power over looking pretty. But the funny thing is, even after WOTF got nerfed, the undead _still_ are disturbingly popular. Some people actually _like_ looking like that. Go figure.
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Warrior? Undead or Tauren. Warlock? Pfff, undead! Hunter? Tauren or Troll (though Orcs do get bonus to pet damage, and originally Trolls did not have +5 bow skill). Shaman? Tauren. Rogue? Undead, pff. Duh.
The only reason there's more Trolls than Orcs though, honestly, is because a lot of people smoke pot.
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They also get +5 to axes. Many Arms warriors use Axe spec for crit. I'm not sure about the new talent tree, as I stopped playing shortly after BC came out, but I'm pretty sure Fury w
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> Blizzard just caved in and realized that the only thing that would even start to even the
> odds was to give the Horde a pretty and human-looking race. In fact, one prettier than
> the Night Elves on the Alliance side.
I thought the Blood Elves were the one that had the big controversy...
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It's arguable which model looks better, but it wasn't to uglify them by any stretch of the imagination.
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1) I get to look like a bad ass.
2) Most alliance players have no idea what they're doing.
Many PVP servers back in the day were very close to a 1:1 ratio. There are
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The popularity of the undead may seem a bit disturbing, but hey, as long as you're not hurting anyone (living), I couldn't care less what your fetishes are.
Peter Molyneux talking about the vanity of gamers? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Rob
Molyneaux's Fables (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Molyneaux's Fables (Score:4, Interesting)
Dungeon Keeper had a great concept, but as a game it was kind of eh. Dungeon Keeper 2, on the other hand, is a much better game in every way. Ditto with Black and White and Black and White 2. For some reason, Molyneux's sequels come out to be better games than the originals... either this is because he needs some feedback from the gaming community to decide what to change, or that he pays less personal attention to the game to give more power to his 'underlings' to add features. (i.e. skipping the tutorial in Black and White 2, but even that was a patch.)
Interestingly, both Dungeon Keeper and Black and White had the exact same bug. In both games, once you set your minion to worship, they were supposed to leave when they get hungry or tired, go get some food, then come back to the job. Instead, they would worship until they starved to death and died. Both Dungeon Keeper 2 and Black and White 2 fixed this bug.
I will give him this though: Although he makes crazy promises, like a lot of bigwig game producers, he's a lot better at following-up with them than most. I think Black and White contained nearly every feature it was touted to contain. (Although I know Fable was missing more than a few.) Also, his games come out at least remotely close to "on time."
P.S. What was with that level in Black and White where they stole your creature away? The creature was the selling point of the game, and frankly the most fun part of it by far. Then you go to an island, and bam it's gone. That sucked.
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You can say about his games what you want, but they are never some kind of clone of what's been done a billion times before. They usually are either something completely new or at least twist things around in a way that make them look like something completely new. Not a bad thing if you ask me.
The problem with him is that his vision usually sto
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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Unlike any other? (Score:4, Insightful)
You'd think PM would have learned his lesson on Fable 1 about opening his mouth, and I think I remember him SAYING he learned his lesson (Why did I believe him?) but here he goes again.
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Is that a bad thing? Fable is the best adventure/RPG hybrid I've played since Quest for Glory 4. My only complaint is that it was too short. Seemed like it was just warming up and then it ended. My girlfriend actually got a bit sniffly when we found out there was no more Fable.
Schmiss, anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
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-Zipwow
So when will this be ported to the Wii? (Score:1)
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It'll be ported around the day that Molyneux actually delivers on his promises. Note the owner of Lionhead Studios.
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that might be a while
Re:will it let you complete the game? (Score:4, Insightful)
You could be the glorious hero, full of light and wisdom, but you were so damned fugley by the end game that the towns people would run away from you.
Not to mention the fact that some people DO care what their character looks like, even more once you go online, a name isn't always enough to make you unique.
Go look at wow, how many lvl 70s look almost the same and are the same right down to the enchants, the talents, and the equipment? Its not pretty and it gets really annoying really fast.
People want unique characters, this is part of that to an extent.
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Early in the game I opted to help the man whose group was attacked by a werewolf, despite (correctly) guessing he would turn into a werewolf at some point and attack me. This left the only scar I'd accrue the entire game. It ran over my character's left eye for the rest of the game and served two purposes: reminding me there's a price for careless do-gooding and instilling a sense of cumulative experience.
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Except that, no matter what, you still get the same set of regular quests related to the main story arc. People might interact with you differently, but the core of the game is unchanged. This goes the same for the whole "good/evil" division as well, really.
To the pain (Score:2, Funny)
Based on what Molyneux has said before regarding scars, your interactions with NPCs and (possibly) other players online will be affected. So your ability to complete the game won't be changed, but the manner in which you complete it would.
Thant is, if you believe everything Molyneux is saying. Personally, I have a box of Morton's Kosher on hand.
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Know who this is going to bother? (Score:5, Insightful)
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You were only allowed to choose guys in Fable and the expansion.
Re:Know who this is going to bother? (Score:5, Insightful)
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One hears this a lot on WoW.
On the other hand, those skinny Blood Elf ones aren't that great.
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Re:Know who this is going to bother? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Molyneux talking about other people having vani (Score:2)
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More of the same from Molyneux (Score:3, Interesting)
Gamers on the vanity of Molyneux (Score:2)
Mashing Buttons (Score:1)
Kind of like how Guitar Hero tries to make us non guitar-playing types not feel foolish.