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PC Games (Games)

Sir Peter Molyneux? 298

Posted by CmdrTaco from the thats-quite-a-promotion dept.
KBV writes "It seems that for the first time in history a games developer has been granted an OBE (Order Of the British Empire) by the Queen of England. When Peter Molyneux - the creator of Black & White, Fable, Populous and many other games - was asked by BBC News about the honor he simply said "It's come completely out of the blue, I never would have guessed that I'd have that kind of honour." For the games industry as a whole, this is very much a good thing. It's great that developers are being recognized for their hard work and cultural impact on the world."
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Sir Peter Molyneux? More

Sir Peter Molyneux?

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  • No (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:03PM (#11246702)
    To answer your question, "Sir Peter Molyneux?", the answer is no. He's been awarded an OBE not a knighthood.

    OBE incidentally, is a three-letter acronym meaning, "Other Bugger's Energy".

  • a small point... (Score:5, Informative)

    by doofusclam ( 528746 ) <slash@seanyseansean.com> on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:03PM (#11246706) Homepage
    ... but the award is actually decided firstly by a 'relevent' government committee, and the prime minister comes in later on. At no point does the Queen decide who receives the awards - she simply hands them over.

  • not sir (Score:5, Informative)

    by raindrop#1 ( 176770 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:04PM (#11246723)
    It's Peter Molyneux OBE, rather than Sir Peter. He wasn't awarded a knighthood. Well done him though.

    And it might be worth mentioning that Her Majesty is Queen of an awful lot of other places as well as England.

    • Re:not sir (Score:5, Informative)

      by PhatAir ( 468678 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:24PM (#11246961) Homepage
      The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in order of seniority:

      * Knight or Dame Grand Cross (GBE)
      * Knight or Dame Commander (KBE or DBE)
      * Commander (CBE)
      * Officer (OBE)
      * Member (MBE)

      Only the two highest ranks are knightly (at which point you can call yourself sir).

      See the full wikipedia entry here [wikipedia.org]
      • > The Most Excellent Order

        They kinda painted themselves into a corner with that one--where do you go from there? Infomercial superlativa perhaps, a la Super Deluxe Order of a Bygone Era? Starts sounding like fast food to me.

  • Knighthood has lost its "gold" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mOoZik ( 698544 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:04PM (#11246727) Homepage
    I mean, have you seen some of the people who have been Knighted? Charleton Heston, Peter Falk, Bob Hope, etc. I can only think of a handful of people who truly deserve this, such as Tim Berners Lee, etc. It's as overrated and unfair (in the subjective sort of way) as the Nobel Prize, where politics, incredible bias, and so forth determine nominees and laureates, not pure merit.

  • OBE doesn't make you a Sir. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by byolinux ( 535260 ) * on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:04PM (#11246730) Journal
    That's a Knighthood or KBE for overseas, I believe.

    Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Steven Spielberg, but just Peter M OBE, here.
    • Not Sir Steven Spielberg. As Mr Spielberg is not a citizen of a Commonwealth country he can only receive an honorary knighthood. This means he can append the "KBE" (Knight of the British Empire) suffix to his name but cannot claim the honorary prefix of "Sir".

  • Thank you Peter Molyneux (Score:3, Insightful)

    by teiresias ( 101481 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:05PM (#11246731)
    Since arthurs, actors, movie directors and musicians ,all of whom contribute to video games these days, are awarded this title, it is fitting and may I add over due that someone who wrote the backbone for the above artists talents should also be recognized.

    Thank you Peter Molyneux and congratulations.

  • knignit (Score:2, Funny)

    by spac3manspiff ( 839454 )
    what about "aptly named, Sir Not Appearing in THis Film"??

  • Well, (Score:2, Funny)

    by Synli ( 781075 )
    It seems that Her Majesty Queen had a great time playing Populous.

  • I preferred the Ultima series, myself... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ykant ( 318168 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:06PM (#11246750)
    But how would that work - Sir Lord British? That's like, redundant in so many different ways...

  • Not Quite Sir (Score:3, Informative)

    by defsdoor ( 737019 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:07PM (#11246756) Homepage Journal
    Recipients of a KBE (Knight of the British Empire) are called Sir. Whereas KBEs are limited in number (a KBE has to die before another can be kinghted) OBEs are quite commonplace - frequently given to non-celebs that do a service to their community etc..

    • Re:Not Quite Sir (Score:4, Informative)

      by mOoZik ( 698544 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:10PM (#11246793) Homepage
      According to WikiPedia [wikipedia.org]:

      The Order is limited to 100 Knights and Dames Grand Cross, 845 Knights and Dames Commanders, and 8960 Commanders. There are no limits on the total number of members of the fourth and fifth classes, but no more than 858 Officers and 1464 Members may be appointed per year.

  • Jez San might object to the "first" bit (Score:5, Informative)

    by antime ( 739998 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:07PM (#11246765)
    Jez San of the late Argonaut Software received the title in 2002. Good research!

  • Really the first one? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Geckoman ( 44653 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:07PM (#11246768)
    But what about Lord British?!

  • OBEs mean nothing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:10PM (#11246794) Journal
    OBE is a joke these days, to the point where people turn them down. Once they ment something but now they get handed out for next to nothing. Everyone in the country knows this and it gets 10 minutes on the news once a year at most.
    • No, you're wrong on that front. Official title bestowing is still the one of the best ways the state can reward achievement. What about all the people who work for charities? Or volunteer for schools? Or actually change people's lives? All you hear about is the celebrities, but even then they usually deserve it. Just because you don't care whether they have one or not doesn't mean they aren't important to the majority, and to those who receive them.

      The people who turn them down either have:
      a) A problem wit

  • In other news.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by 1019 ( 262204 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:11PM (#11246798) Homepage
    The entire staff of Rockstar Games was knighted today for their contributions towards "Thefting Autos Grandly."

  • This is certainly interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <`imipak' `at' `yahoo.com'> on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:16PM (#11246869) Homepage Journal
    There are two awards lists - the Queen's Birthday List, where she can basically give awards to whoever she likes, and the New Years honors list, which comes from Number 10. (ie: the Prime Minister.)


    Now, it's not unusual for "celebrities of the moment" getting awards from the PM, but a games designer is rarely considered a celebrity. And Populus is hardly a current game.


    Don't get me wrong - I think this is a good trend, and I'd like to see Ian Bell and David Braben also get awards for their contributions. It's just very surprising - it goes against the usual way these things work.


    Mind you, Britain's current Prime Minister is a former Heavy Metal guitarist, so I guess unusual things can be expected to happen from time to time.

  • The Queen knighted Molyneux expecting he will ride around on a horse and defend the crown and wear armour, but it turns out he's just going to keep on making video games. The Queen is going to apologize to Britain for getting everyone's hopes up and really just knighting some aging guy.
  • So "Fable" is more "orderly" than The Who?
  • I want to see Molyneux publish a game where we can send teams of OBEs, Knights and other promoted Britons into battle against one another. Given the range of meritorious services earning entry to the winners' circle, an environment like Populous might be best. BTW, I draft Lancelot and Lennon.

  • *cough* wrong expansion of OBE (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Cowpat ( 788193 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:24PM (#11246955) Journal
    although the letters obe mean order of the british empire, they refer to several actual 'titles'
    If you get an OBE it stands for Officer of the British Empire, a specific title. Above MBE (member) and below CBE (commander).

    Free pedant points please

  • That's not what I heard (Score:4, Funny)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:27PM (#11246995)
    In an interview I read in Molyneuws, the Peter Molyneux quarterly, Peter had said in 2002 that he was going to become God's Second Son and appointed by God Himself. In 2003 he said he would be president of the world and that it would be announced at the next G8 summit. Late last year he said he would become a Governor of some northwestern state in the US.
  • Better than Elton John IMHO. Fable is a great game. Black and White should have been but it had giant cows and that was one of the highlights...

  • Nutty brits... :-) (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:30PM (#11247040) Journal
    Like Knight Commander Bill Gates wasn't enough! (yes, it's true [bbc.co.uk])

    Microsoft said Mr Gates, 48, was "absolutely delighted".

    Words chosen by a true fearless knight, indeed.
  • Just let him come around to Neriak where my Inkie Shadowknight will make short work of him. This geek does not know the meaning of courage! He will taste my steel!

  • There is precedent! (Score:3, Funny)

    by timothy ( 36799 ) * on Monday January 03, 2005 @02:43PM (#11247184) Journal
    It seems that for the first time in history an semi-realistic American cartoon character has purchased a lordship [all-scienc...ojects.com]. When Zonker Harris - plant-whisperer and babysitter extraordinaire - was asked by BBC News about the honor he simply said "It's come completely out of the blue, I never would have guessed that I'd have that kind of honour, right up until when the credit card confirmation came through." For the world of fictional people as a whole, this is very much a good thing. It's great that cartoon characters are being recognized for their hard work and cultural impact on the world.
  • I look at it this way: The bureaucrats of today are no doubt exposed to many many conformist, spineless lemmings on a daily basis. These games provided people with a way of lightning bolting, drowning, squishing, or outright chucking conformist lemmings into a jagged mountain range. This man was very in touch with the frustration of modern leaders. This honor serves not only to reward an inventor, but also to make a statement.
  • Hmmm...weren't Black & White and Populous games where the player had 'absolute' power? And isn't the monarchy something that used to have 'absolute' power? :-)
  • The first? Not so.

    Stephen Grand, creator of the Creatures series, already has one:

    http://www.nesta.org.uk/mediaroom/newsreleases/3 12 7/

  • Explanation for foreigners (Score:5, Funny)

    by panurge ( 573432 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @03:11PM (#11247477)
    Since the Roman Empire, the order of Knights has really been more about commerce and banking than military activity. (In fact, in the Roman Empire, financially embarrassed senators would occasionally ask to be downgraded to Knights so they could engage in trade.) The British Empire followed the Roman Empire in this regard, awarding knighthoods mainly to entrepeneurs and businessmen. Sir Francis Drake was knighted for his interesting take on maritime commerce - acquiring Spanish ships without paying for them.

    The Order of the British Empire is a completely fictitious society invented to satisfy people who want impressive titles, without really giving them anything. The worthy people - the people who have done jobs nobody else wants to do for years - get the lowest ranks (OBE,MBE). The flashy people get the right to be called Dame or Sir, and the lower ranks exist so that the higher titles are not too obviously a complete joke. You can't be a commander if you have nobody to command, though that doesn't stop those terrorist "liberation armies" that seem to have no rank below colonel.

    The only parts of the Honors System that are actually worth having are:

    Real peerages (e.g. Lord Muck of Bradford): Allow you to spend your time in superior London hotel and get paid for it.
    Order of the Bath (not what it sounds like)
    Order of St Michael and St George - what civil servants get for creating the maximum bureaucratic chaos, and divided into 3 levels, viz.
    CMG (Call Me God)
    KCMG (Kindly Call Me God)
    GCMG (God Calls Me God)

    Finally, I have to point out that the real pinnacle of English aristocracy is to have a real, ancient and very important title and then NOT USE IT or even give it up. The left-wing parliamentarian Tony Benn, whose family have held the title of Lord Stansgate for many years till he renounced it, is an example of this tendency. The problem is that there is no official register of People Offered an Honor Who Refused It, and letting it be known that this has happened rather defeats the whole "I am above fancy titles" thing.

    I do not understand why so many US science fiction writers seem to think that Empires are such a good idea. All they do is go into decline, leaving behind a flotsam of empty titles and people playing games in silly uniforms.

    • Here [timesonline.co.uk]
      Well, I can't find the complete list but it exists and was leaked. Actually, I think there are a lot of hereditary peers and baronets who don't use their titles day-to-day. There's not much point in giving them up unless you want to enter the commons.

    • Re:Explanation for foreigners (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Some points:
      1) Blanket statements about the "Roman Senate" are liable to innaccuracy because its nature, and the rights and obligations of its members changed throughout Rome's long history. As an example, Roman senators were by definition all equites (knights) until 123 BC.

      2) A blanket statement about knighthood being concerned with banking and commerce rather than war is (like your other blanket statements) inaccurate. In dark and much of middle-age Europe, knights were simply people with the means to ma
    • Readers of this post who may be less familiar with Yes Minister the delevision series may find that this clip [yes-minister.com] seems a little familiar.

  • Never could crack it. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Civil_Disobedient ( 261825 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @03:56PM (#11247906)
    Well deserved award. Not only was Populus an stroke of pure, unadulterated genious (and helped create an entire game genre), but to my knowledge, Populus was one of the few games that was never successfully cracked. I recall a slew of irritating patches that *never* worked.
  • Conga-Rats Sir Molyneux!

  • Can't think of anyone better. (Score:3, Informative)

    by blanks ( 108019 ) on Monday January 03, 2005 @04:19PM (#11248077) Homepage Journal
    Peter Molyneux has come up with some really great games over the years, most of which have allways been right on top of the latest technology.

    Games like Populous (back in the sega days) was way ahead of its time, and even new games like fable where characters and even the game change as you progress has allways seemed like a major effect he has gone after with each game.
  • He's not been knighted, just OBE'd. He's not the first developer so honoured (Jez Sans) and the Queen doesn't choose the New Year's Honours, the Prime Minister and his staff do; the Queen has more input on her birthday list.

    Other than that, a fine article. I think there's a knighthood in it for the /. crew (honoury only, I'm afraid, since they're for'n)

    TWW

  • Congratulations, Mr. Molyneux. You now join the honorable ranks of Bill Gates, Elton John, and Pelé.

    Isn't it great to know you're as good as those three? :-)

  • Randomly bestowing knighthoods/obes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by petrus4 ( 213815 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @05:46AM (#11252331) Homepage Journal
    There was a period a bit back where that many of these seemed to be given out that I suspected that the Queen's primary motivation in bestowing them was actually to make sure that there were still *some* people around who had them. I didn't think Gates really deserved his, in all honesty...and I'm not sure what Elton John did to receive one, either...Presumably it was his cover of Candle in the Wind.

    I do get the feeling though that despite long periods of inactivity, the Queen periodically experiences bouts of sheer terror over the idea of becoming irrelevant. I'm going to be accused of being an anti-monarchist here, but I'm actually not. I occasionally hear stirrings about the idea of the Queen being terrified about the monarchy's continuation, when if it dies, I believe that she as an individual should take full responsibility.

    As an example of another religious leader, although the Pope has no real relevance whatsoever in the mind of me as an individual, he has gained a huge amount of respect and political influence from his involvement in the collapse of Soviet Russia. My point is, that because as an *institution* these figures (the Queen, the Pope, probably the Dalai Llama) have very little contemporary relevance, the only relevance/influence/power they can gain comes directly from their action as individuals.

    To me, virtually nobody in the contemporary English royal family really does much at all. Elizabeth II has been almost entirely a caretaker monarch to my mind. Diana tried to be a lot more active, and the Queen's inner circle responded to that by ostracising her while she was alive.

    So to the Queen I say...if you're worried about the monarchy dissolving, get out of the palace occasionally and actually *do* something. The world is currently going through a period in which Darwin's theory is acting ruthlessly upon institutions which do not remain in some way useful. If the monarchy dies, it will be directly your fault as an individual, not public apathy or anything else. We only need to look at the monarchy's (even comparitively recent) history to know that if the monarchy is in any way currently at risk, it only is primarily because of the current monarch.

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