Peter Molyneux: Working For Microsoft Is Like Taking Antidepressants 164
SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "Peter Molyneux is one of the most famous personalities in the history of gaming, especially recognized for having created God games Dungeon Keeper, Populous, Black & White, but also the Fable series. After creating the Fable series, Molyneux announced in March 2012 that he will be leaving Lionhead and Microsoft to start another company – 22Cans. During a recent interview, the former Microsoft employee has shared some interesting details regarding the time when he was working over at Redmond. Here's the excerpt from his interview: 'I left Microsoft because I think when you have the ability to be a creative person, you have to take that seriously, and you have to push yourself. And pushing yourself is a lot easier to do if you're in a life raft that has a big hole in the side, and that's what I think indie development is. You're paddling desperately to get where you want to go to, but you're also bailing out. Whereas if you're in a big supertanker of safety, which Microsoft was, then that safety is like an anesthetic. It's like taking antidepressants. The world just feels too comfortable.'"
Thanks for peptuating (Score:5, Insightful)
the antidepressant myth, jerk.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:5, Informative)
Taking anti-depressants were like a heavy weight being lifted off me. I couldn't be happier.
Err.. I'n not implying they are happy pills, only that I am happy to have a range of emotions.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:1)
I think it depends on the type and the dosage, for some I have herd it described as like they got back their ability to feel after it had been turned off.... for better and worse
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, I knew there would be offended folks right away when I clicked on comments - and look, it was the first one. Great reply, though.
Don't apologize for the "rant" - you actually explained it perfectly. It's exactly what Molyneux was trying to express - you cannot take away the downs without also affecting the "ups".
For some people, like those that cannot function properly in life because of the "lows", it's worth it or is beneficial even in some cases to limit the "ups" as well. For others, who may feel that dynamic emotions are an important part of life, it may not be worth it.
I think there is also the "over-diagnosed" factor which is what makes some people so dismissive of it in general that other folks get highly defensive over it - just like ADHD, etc. There really is nothing offensive or inaccurate about his comment. Of course there are people who have these things, and severe enough that medication is beneficial. There also comes a point when so many people are being medicated for something that it's hard to argue that we may be not properly judging what is "balanced" when it turns out almost as many folks are diagnosed as "unbalanced" as we deem "balanced" - as in, when we start medicating for the "norm" versus the "exceptional".
But that's another topic, really - the point is, the guy made an analogy and it filled the point of an analogy - it gave me an instantly clear understanding of exactly what idea he was trying to express.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:4, Interesting)
Before I started taking anti-depressants there weren't any ups. Now there are plenty. There are still downs but they don't stop me from functioning.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
How long did it take for the side effects to stabalise? My husband recently started taking this and is struggling a bit (though not in the same way that he was imploding before starting them).
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
Then they weren't working very well, I'd say. "Depression" doesn't mean "extreme sadness", and if pills are flattening out your emotional state and removing the highs, either you're bipolar and that's a really good thing for everyone including you, or something's wrong with them.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:1)
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
^^ this. Anti-depressant is a misnomer. They are more like an emotional damping element.... a shock absorber for your mind.
At one point in my life I was living in Seattle and did not know that drinking the tap water there is a REALLY BAD IDEA....
Look up Manganese poisoning.... Though I have never seen a study that says so, I think Seattle's high suicide rate might be explained not by weather and SADS, but by chronic Manganese poisoning.
I saw a doctor about some mild depressive episodes I was experiencing and got diagnosed with (after a few tests: "Are you drinking tap water? yup you guessed it...) Manganese poisoning.
The treatment was filter the tap water, or better yet don't drink it at all. Also, a prescription for Zoloft. "Take this for 8 weeks while you detox and at the end you'll be back to 'normal'." After the Zoloft kicked in full tilt two weeks later, my emotional range flat lined. Nothing was fun, nothing was interesting, nothing was ... depressing.... angering... sad... everything was ... nothing. Someone could have spit in my face and shouted abuse at me and gotten a blank, unconcerned look from me... it would have gone right over my head. I was empty; zombified. I was just alive. Fucking-potted-plant-alive. Not even potted-petunia-oh-shit-not-again-alive.
After another week on the Zoloft I dimly realized that it was going cause me to walk in front of a speeding Metro bus before the 'script was exhausted. I stopped taking it, and drifted back to sad, sleepy, weepy Eyore for the rest of my detox. That was a relief. I could feel shit again.... Yay! Shit!
Don't get me wrong... I believe that psychotropics can help people 'normalize' when they have extreme emotional/mental health issues. However, they are depressing drugs.
I was working for M$ at the time so maybe that was exacerbating the situation... set and setting... all that.
Re:seriously though, I hate wogs. (Score:2)
Gather round folks, looks like we've got ourselves a clash of the intellectual titans.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:3)
Sure, some people have bad reactions, but they can be invaluable. Some people have been killed by seat belts but you should consider the net effect, not the aberration. What I don't get is the notion that antidepressants can actual cause suicides. Depressed and mentally ill people kill themselves without antidepressants pretty often, so it seems like they just don't work for some people, not like they cause suicide attempts. And of course there are multiple classes of antidepressants, which can not just be lumped together.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:3)
There is some thought that those people are so depressed that they aren't even capable of marshaling the energy to commit suicide. When you give them an antidepressant, they start to become less depressed and but are still depressed enough to be suicidal, only now they have the energy to kill themselves, and so do it.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
There is some thought that those people are so depressed that they aren't even capable of marshaling the energy to commit suicide. When you give them an antidepressant, they start to become less depressed and but are still depressed enough to be suicidal, only now they have the energy to kill themselves, and so do it.
*citation needed
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
After a month of this I was moved to Citalopram. This seemed better; there was less staring at walls, certainly. I spent over two years on Citalopram.
Then one day I stopped. It was kind of an accident; it was Easter weekend, I wasn't paying attention and ran out without a prescription to get more. So I ended up going cold turkey, which is the thing you're really not supposed to do with any SSRI.
I can tell you now, within three days I felt like I had woken up from a trance. I didn't realise it at the time, but the Citalopram made me feel like I was wrapped in cotton wool and wearing ray-bans. The feeling was exactly like the feeling of a dental aesthetic wearing off, except all over. I hadn't noticed because I'd come from Fluoxetine, which was even worse. So I thought I was onto a good thing with the Citalopram.
So please don't go around calling it a "myth". For some people, SSRI's really do have that kind of effect. In fact I suspect it's more pre-valiant than people realise, either because of long term use, because people think it's "normal", or because most people come down gradually and never really notice.
Oh and for all that, I really do believe I was much better off taking the SSRI's at the time than I would have been without them.
Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:3, Insightful)
Trust me on this one, folks...
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:3)
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:5, Insightful)
at this point, I'd take working for MS over not working at all.
(yes, out of work and not able to find any; and THAT is truly depressing)
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:1)
Good luck, God speed and best wishes!
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:2)
thanks, man. finding work when you are over 50 in the bay area is an exercise in self-torture. if you have a job and are of a certain age, don't lose it!
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:2)
OK - What's your field? I may know something.
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:2)
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:2)
at this point, I'd take working for MS over not working at all.
I would too, in that case, but I've both seen the kinds of people they hire and also seen what it does to people. In the former case the people I've known who have been hired by Microsoft have been deceptive, arrogant (I know! but no, seriously, even I think so) and started making excuses for their decision almost as soon as they made it. In short, you don't want to be the kind of person they hire, and you don't actually want to work there. You want to work for someone with scruples. They don't just bone their customers, they bone their employees as well.
Re:Working for MS is like NEEDING to take PAXIL (Score:2)
show me a bay area company that does not 'bone' their employees?
been in the bay area over 20 yrs and worked for quite a few big-name (and smaller) companies and they are all unethical, at one level or another. they will let you go at a moment's notice if it suits them. before you vest in stock, they will find a reason to fire you. if you have been there too long, they will slow your raises (if you even get any!) to convince you to leave.
they all suck. working for someone else pretty much sucks, but few of us can find a business to create all on our own AND be able to pay the bills with it. so we have little choice but to work for some company.
a few really good companies have been out there, but a lot of them went under. I loved working at SGI and Sun but they both went under! I loved working at DEC but they are long gone (and some people even say 'DEC? what's that?'). there were others that were really great to work for, but none of those good ones are still around anymore.
working for MS might suck, but I would expect most big co's to suck. as long as the paycheck is steady, that's my #1 need for right now. all else is secondary.
it takes someone out-of-work to give y'all a reality check. yes, many of you hate your jobs. think of me who has none right now and is really in need of one. if your job sucks, leave it and give it to me! I'll gladly take it as long as it pays the bills and does not totally kill me with overtime.
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
It's also been reasonably verified in medical studies, such as http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content... [rcpsych.org].
It an also be difficult to measure.. The intensity of a mania can make one feel like one is very, very productive in many ways, but the productivity can be complete gibberish. This is visible professionally among coders who do binge programming sessions of exciting work that creates reams of exciting new ideas paradigms. But on review, the ideas are old, poorly implemented, and worse, entirely undocumented. This is followed by the attitude of "just read the code" and "it's so simple, it doesn't need testing".
Yes, I've seen work done by bi-polar colleagues before they were diagnosed or were off their meds. It may be less inventive, but it's far better quality code when they're medicated.
WORKING FOR MICROSOFT (Score:3, Funny)
Is like sniffing glue, in the alley behind a billionaire's high-rise apartment block.
I don't often work for MS, but when I do.... (Score:5, Funny)
"Working for Microsoft is like being raped by a drunken billy-goat while falling down a three hundred foot high pile of chocolate chips."
The Perfect Wine Pairing for Working at MS? (Score:1)
Anal gang rape, vintage 1992.
Re:The Perfect Wine Pairing for Working at MS? (Score:2)
Yes, well, if you are going to feel like you are safe in the billy goat's stack racking system, something other than employee job skills rating must be going on, ewww.
Re:I don't often work for MS, but when I do.... (Score:2)
My turn:
"Working for Microsoft is like sneaking up on that gnome that stole your booze while air guitaring on a velociraptor that is precariously balanced on sharks with a laser cannons underneath each foot."
I'd like to see these sharks with feet!
Re:Thanks for peptuating (Score:2)
Consider the source (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like taking antidepressants.
Peter Molyneux has probably never taken antidepressants in his life or he would not say this. Antidepressants don't make the "world just feels too comfortable". They make the world feel survivable.
Re:Consider the source (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Consider the source (Score:3)
What you describe is "situational depression" as you are being depressed by the actual real circumstances. Antidepressants are not usually prescribed in those situations.
Re:Consider the source (Score:1)
Bull. Shit. Antidepressants are absolutely prescribed for situational depression. Here's a recent example:
Lacasse, J., Cacciatore, J., Prescribing of Psychiatric Medication to Bereaved Parents Following Perinatal/Neonatal Death: An Observational Study. Death Studies. DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2013.820229
To examine psychiatric prescribing in response to perinatal neonatal death, we analyzed data from a cross-sectional survey of 235 bereaved parents participating in an online support community. Of the 88 respondents prescribed medication, antidepressants were most common (n=70, 79.5%) followed by benzodiazepines (n = 18, 20.5%). Many prescriptions were written shortly after the death (32.2% within 48hr, 43.7% within a week, and 74.7% within a month). Obstetrician gynecologists wrote most prescriptions given shortly after loss. Most respondents prescribed antidepressants took them long-term.
Re:Consider the source (Score:1)
Spot on - like those clowns who conflate "schizophrenia" with that (uniquely North-American) phenomenon of multiple-personality disorder.
Also, all Molyneux's games strongly resemble the extremely tedious, if novel, Populous; they just got worse with each revision. Microsoft have released some good games over the years, but he wasn't involved in any of them.
Re:Consider the source (Score:5, Informative)
It is not uniquely North American.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.or... [psychiatryonline.org]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu... [nih.gov]
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.e... [uoregon.edu]
Re:Consider the source (Score:2)
Populous wasn't "extremely tedious", at least not until you'd played it for a long time, after which most games become tedious. It was fun gaming for its time, with hundreds of worlds to try and win.
Re:Consider the source (Score:2)
Re:Consider the source (Score:2)
Antidepressants [...] make the world feel survivable.
Isn't that exactly what he was saying? He was talking about how being out on his own is like having to paddle desperately while bailing water just to stay afloat, whereas working for Microsoft didn't have nearly that sense of desperation because you knew you'd survive. On one side, you're struggling for survival, on the other, there's no sense of pending doom. Seems like that corresponds to what you said.
Yes, saying it makes the world "[feel] too comfortable" was a poor choice of words to close out his thoughts, particularly after mentioning antidepressants, but given the preceding several sentences, it seems quite apparent what he was intending to say. Let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt (in this at least; I don't trust any promises he makes about his games, since this is a guy who's made a career by overpromising).
Re:Consider the source (Score:3)
The problem with depression is not the impending doom but the feeling of powerlessness to effect that doom. In a depressed person's mind not matter what they do they are doomed so why try. Someone paddling and bailing a leaky raft is not a good depression analogy. A better depression analogy would be a person sitting in a sinking raft doing nothing because they think that no matter what they do they will die.
Re:Consider the source (Score:2)
That's one condition anti-depressants treat, sure, but it's not the only one. They also work for anxiety that's not tied to circumstance (nothing wrong, but you're panicked and stressed out anyway), which is a similar brain chemistry imbalance.
Re:Consider the source (Score:3)
Being someone who has depression and anxiety I have different medications for those disorders. That is why they are called antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. There are a few that cross over but Ativan is an anti-anxiety medication and has nothing to do with depression.
They also work for anxiety
Some, manly SSRIs, do work on anxiety but many do not.
The point is that antidepressants bring back reality and does not make the world feel too comfortable.
Re:Consider the source (Score:2)
It's like taking antidepressants.
Peter Molyneux has probably never taken antidepressants in his life or he would not say this. Antidepressants don't make the "world just feels too comfortable". They make the world feel survivable.
Exactly right. Clinical depression is a life-threatening illness. Antidepressants are as "comfortable" as heart medication.
Re:Consider the source (Score:2)
Spot-on. And the main reason it is so life-threatening (and frequently fatal) is because you are your own worst enemy. Sometimes realizing that you are not being rational is enough (CBT), but sometimes drug-therapy is also needed.
I've done a course of CBT (about a year, with monthly visits). The tips and tricks that you learn during CBT are very useful. It teaches you coping mechanisms, ways to self-diagnose that you are not thinking straight, and gives you symptoms to watch for that indicate you need to go get help again.
But for me, medication is the only long-term solution. Fortunately, there is a generic that works well enough to make me functional (even optimistic) without only minor side-effects.
Heck, the best part about opening that dialog with the doctor and going through that first few months of intensive treatment is that it is no longer scary. I'm not afraid to pickup the phone and call my doctor's office to seek help with it.
So, we hate Peter now? (Score:1)
Re:So, we hate Peter now? (Score:2)
Who says anyone hates him? only said he is being a jerk for perpetuation a myth. A myth that hurts people and prevents people form getting help.
I don't hate people I don't know.
Re:So, we hate Peter now? (Score:2)
Re:So, we hate Peter now? (Score:2)
I see that repeating an inaccurate simile that's in common usage is all it takes to ruin a lifetime of hard work.
I think his notoriety for over-hyping and under-delivering did more for damaging his credibility and ensuring that some here are none too fond of the guy. He does some cool stuff, I'll admit, and I've enjoyed his games, certainly, but to hear him hype up $latest_game, you'd think the heavens would open up with angelic choirs whenever it gets released.
Re:So, we hate Peter now? (Score:2)
Re:So, we hate Peter now? (Score:2)
I don't hate him, I just think he's being sort of a jerk. Well, that, and I continue to admire his absolutely unparalleled ability to create bugs in games that leave me wondering how anyone could have gotten those results on purpose, let alone by accident. (Favorite: In Amiga Powermonger, you could only save if every floppy drive the machine had contained a write-enabled disk. This is so much more work than simply using the existing writing facilities, and even then it's fairly impressively hard to get it wrong.)
Re:So, we hate Peter now? (Score:2)
Anyhow back to reality (Score:1)
Well, that sort of explains Windows 8... (Score:5, Informative)
All kidding aside, Win8 does seem to be a product of "Who cares what our customers want, we'll do it our way and they can just suck it", which pretty much defines comfortable complacency.
Re:Well, that sort of explains Windows 8... (Score:1)
...although I'd say the devs were on something stronger than antidepressants.
All kidding aside, Win8 does seem to be a product of "Who cares what our customers want, we'll do it our way and they can just suck it", which pretty much defines comfortable complacency.
Amusingly when Apple does it, most of their users either don't complain about it, or actually appreciate it.
Hmm - maybe execution and taste matter?
Meaning - Microsoft probably not only ignored it's users, it likely ignored it's own influential employees that were critical of it (especially those who weren't vocal because it would be a CLM [wiktionary.org]). That's poor taste.
Re:Well, that sort of explains Windows 8... (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree that Win8 is a product where Microsoft didn't give a rats ass about what their customers thought of it, but it also has the feel of a product where the developers own input was disregarded. The entire metro interface feels like a design that was created by committee (that never has used it) and forced on the developers by order of management.
I honestly don't believe developers would have done half of the BS that's in Windows8 if left to their own devices and even if certain features were dictated there would have been settings to reset the behavior to previous standards. That those settings don't exist screams of management dictating behavior.
Re:Well, that sort of explains Windows 8... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well, that sort of explains Windows 8... (Score:3)
I think it's pretty clear they were certainly not on antidepressants while making Windows 8.
They were on crack.
Re:Well, that sort of explains Windows 8... (Score:2)
They were on crack.
They were on panic. They can see the writing on the wall, finally, and it's not happy writing. The proof is that tablets are kicking their ass so they went all tablet-y. But because they're Microsoft, and one size SHALL FIT ALL, they did it everywhere including places which weren't tablets, which was a typically Microsoftian idiot move. Look at Windows CE of yesteryear, it is a bad copy of Windows. And now, Windows is a bad copy of a mobile Windows interface. Microsoft is only capable of doing one thing at a time, and and chew gum simultaneously.
Organisational culture (Score:2)
it seems that the piece is about organisational culture and how you preserve a high functioning development team in an a large organisation that becomes too focussed on bottom line and not enough on their customers and growth.
This must be a common problem for IT companies. do you need skunkworks? at the same time there is a piece in the news at the moment about how Jobs slavedrove the iphone team into spectacular creativity. maybe it only works when the driving force is as creative as the people being driven?
it is a bit unfortunate that most of the
Power trip (Score:2)
"Nurture and grow a civilisation of reactive, living followers who worship you as a god." - product promo for his current game. Talk about an ego trip...
It's an always-on MMORPG, so managing your piece of the world may be a full time job. The graphics suck, apparently by intent. It makes Animal Crossing look realistic.
Translated (Score:1)
Now that I've made soooo much money that I don't have to worry about paying my bills, mortgage, kids college, etc. I'm going to venture out and do something FUN! Yayyy! I'll also run through the grass barefoot every weekend in my paid for in cash Malibu mansion.
I took antidepressants (Score:1)
All they did was make me not want to kill myself while I was in the hospital.
They're not feel-good pills.
Since Turbine isn't doing Asheron's Call 3 (Score:2)
have to admit (Score:1)
Re:have to admit (Score:2)
Re:have to admit (Score:2)
You could delete the word "mental" from your last sentence and it would still be pretty accurate.
Antidepressants... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about working at Microsoft being like being on antidepressants (never worked for them, don't think I'd want to), but I know that whenever I hear him talk about his next greatest game - I want to TAKE antidepressants as I know none of the shit he talks about will actually make it into the game at 1/100th the grandeur he describes. Can we say 'Master of the over-sell and the under-deliver'?
If it weren't for Microsoft... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:If it weren't for Microsoft... (Score:2)
He shoots, he scores.
Game designers need to hear, "NO!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Indies don't usually have yes men, or more correctly: We're close enough to the programmers that they can laugh in our faces and tell us what zany ideas AREN'T POSSIBLE given the game's canvas -- the technology itself. A good designer can make amazing stuff happen in limited mediums -- They can make the most of what actually is in the engine, rather than banking on that which requires a complete rewrite.
Now the crazy thing is that when some insane idea drifts my way either from my own mind or while I'm being part of the idea reactor for the team, I may actually think on it over night and figure out how to pull it off. However, being an implementor means it's my job to say "NO!" not "Yes, but...". "Yes, but... It'll mean taking 8 times more time or money than we have." "Maybe but... we'll have to try out 20 different implementations to figure out if the feature is workable and meanwhile the other devs and content makers will be waiting to see if its possible, or they may wind up scrapping assets if not." -- Give 'em the TL;DR: "No!"
You get maybe ONE of those "That might be doable" per game, maybe TWO if you're helping make the implementation happen, and have an idea of how to pull it off. Maybe a few more if time or money or a playable release isn't important to you. It's important to try new things, especially for innovation; However, you can innovate yourself right out the other side of, "Yes, but...", into, "Oh it might be possible, but the release schedule better include relocating the asset repo before the sun explodes", and only takes one really bad, "Yes", to make that happen. The bigger the behemoth under you the more wonderful are things that seem they might just be crazy enough to work. This is always folly due to the planning fallacy. [slashdot.org] No game is ever finished (we just have to stop adding features and polishing at some point), so if you didn't hear or say enough "NO" then you'll be bound to have game designers making wonderful statements which seemed wholly plausible at the outset or individually, but are not actually executable as a whole. You wind up with a game suffering from amputations instead of leveraging what was possible to its fullest. You start to sound just like Peter Molyneux.
Sometimes it's not the designer's fault that their plans were just too crazy enough NOT to work out. And, sometimes they just push the hype-drive beyond warp 13. The public really can't tell the difference, but you can help prevent the former by learning when to say, "NO!" Saying, "NO", can leave the door open for a better "Yes!". Smaller guys say more "No", and less "Yes". Indies can't afford to entertain as many pie-in-the-sky prosaic Prozac delusions. Great ideas are a dime a dozen, it's really the execution that matters...
"supertanker safety" (Score:5, Funny)
So who forced Molyneaux to take Microsoft's money? I assume he cashed his paychecks.
People who claim to be "too comfortable" to be creative really get on my nerves.
And if risky, uncomfortable circumstances are what it takes to make Molyneaux creative, maybe he should try developing games while swimming covered in beef gravy in a pool of sharks. Maybe then he'll actually finish some games again. What a fathead.
Re:"supertanker safety" (Score:2)
But isn't that just what he's doing? He found his current circumstances "too comfortable", so he's changing them. Indie game development is stressful enough even in a shark-free pool!
Re:"supertanker safety" (Score:3)
I guess there's stress and then there's stress.
I actually know some indie game developers. I've been to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) because I've written music and done sound for indie computer games. For the most part, it seems like the most stressful part of an indie game developers life is the fear that some of his piercings will develop infections.
Seriously. You know who's got stress? Oil-field roustabouts. Professional money managers. Anesthesiologists.
Seriously, have you noticed that all indie games are now "Early Access"? How much stress can your job have if you're not even required to actually complete any of your projects because you can sell them to clueless Steam customers?
Maybe it's stressful to put up a Kickstarter campaign and have to worry that your next Kickstarter campaign will have to be under your girlfriend's name because you screwed over the supporters on the last one (but to be fair, you made some kick-ass concept art and maybe a funny trailer).
If Molyneaux wants some stress to make him more creative, tell him you'll kick him in the balls if he doesn't actually finish a game sometime before 2018.
Re:"supertanker safety" (Score:2)
People who claim to be "too comfortable" to be creative really get on my nerves.
Dude, you're a barista. [youtube.com]
Re:"supertanker safety" (Score:2)
So who forced Molyneaux to take Microsoft's money? I assume he cashed his paychecks.
Nobody forced him. You can tell because he moved on.
And if risky, uncomfortable circumstances are what it takes to make Molyneaux creative, maybe he should try developing games while swimming covered in beef gravy in a pool of sharks.
That would explain his wild claims about the Fable series. Anything to get out of the pool.
Ignorant Bigot (Score:3)
"It's like taking antidepressants. The world just feels too comfortable."
Spoken like a true ignoramus who's never experienced Depression.
Re:Ignorant Bigot (Score:2)
"It's like taking antidepressants. The world just feels too comfortable."
Spoken like a true ignoramus who's never experienced Depression.
Or maybe for him, that's what taking antidepressants is like. Molyneux has always been a bit of an egotist, it's not a leap for him to assume everyone is like him. Or to assume that's what he assumes. Etc etc.
Re:Ignorant Bigot (Score:2)
Idiot. (Score:2)
It's like taking antidepressants. The world just feels too comfortable.'"
Spoken like a person who has never used antidepressants or understands or how they work, or just buys into the nonsensical Scientologist bullshit.
Antidepressants aren't magic happy pills and they aren't some sort of metaphorical rose coloured glasses.
They take the edge off. That's it. They give you the chance to back away from the emotional precipice that you would otherwise jump from. Some are better than others (Paxil sucks for many many people, for example) but properly used, they help people restore their lives from what was a bottomless pit.
Depression is the third leading cause of death. Probably the main cause of preventable death since if you don't kill yourself yourself outright, you tend to not give a shit about "healthy living" and shave 20 years off your lifespan with heart disease and other crap.
This article and summary is crap.
--
BMO
Re:Idiot. (Score:2)
It's like taking antidepressants. The world just feels too comfortable.'"
Spoken like a person who has never used antidepressants or understands or how they work, or just buys into the nonsensical Scientologist bullshit.
Antidepressants aren't magic happy pills and they aren't some sort of metaphorical rose coloured glasses.
They take the edge off. That's it. They give you the chance to back away from the emotional precipice that you would otherwise jump from. Some are better than others (Paxil sucks for many many people, for example) but properly used, they help people restore their lives from what was a bottomless pit.
Depression is the third leading cause of death. Probably the main cause of preventable death since if you don't kill yourself yourself outright, you tend to not give a shit about "healthy living" and shave 20 years off your lifespan with heart disease and other crap.
This article and summary is crap.
--
BMO
Having a wife with this condition, I'd like to add that antidepressants take the edge off enough that therapy can work, and perhaps coping skills can be learned.
Re:Idiot. (Score:3)
Antidepressants don't make you complacent, they restore the ability to be a functional human being. They are a life preserver for a drowning victim, not a fucking pleasure cruise of comfort.
Yes indeed. But one of the things that often happens with depressed people is that they figure that everyone else but them is so happy that their biggest problem is getting the stains out of their underwear. I'm not being insensitive about that either, I can assure you.
Some times just not being desparately unhappy is the best we all can hope for.
Stack Ranking? (Score:2)
I thought stack-ranking was supposed to make everyone feel uncomfortable to motivate them; but they did away with it recently due to complaints.
Perhaps being threatened by real doom (startup failure risk) has a different feel than doom created by the superficial ill-informed bullshit criteria of a PHB (Dilbertian) ranker. The nature of real doom is relatively clear and knowable, whereas dealing a PHB is like trying to tame a chimp on LSD: too random to strategize around such that you grow tired of trying to guess.
Re:Stack Ranking? (Score:2)
It might motivate you, but not to actually be better: Many things that make you better will be tracked to the team, not to you, and a good team still has to have a poor performer. So stack ranking motivates people to make sure some people are behind you, and to make sure that your manager actually likes you, instead of making your product better. Creating conflict for the good of the application is not great idea in a stack ranking organization, because it'll make the manager work harder, and thus not endear it to him.
I remember the last time I was in a stack ranking org. Our team was way too good: A few developers were quite a bit better at their jobs than the manager even understood. Who was getting the good review? A guy that was pretty darned average, code-wise, but that played D&D with the manager. I at least managed to avoid being called the 'bad one', but it was pretty clear that there was very little future in that kind of organization unless you managed to surround yourself by relatively bad developers.
Really? (Score:2)
Que Sera, Sera (Score:4, Interesting)
This is not a commentary on Microsoft so much as it is a commentary on Peter Molyneux's personality and work habits.
Some of us are self-starters and don't need constant crises or deadlines to get work accomplished or be creative. Others require that sense of the world will come to an end to be motivated. Hell for me would be to constantly be in crisis mode. Hell for him is to not be... To each their own...
bad analogy? (Score:2)
Such a disapointment.. (Score:2)
I must confess I was hoping to learn something along the lines of "microsoft beats small children and eat their puppies" ... ...
But what he really writes is that startups are more fun than large companies
wich is "mostly" true... except when you just have trouble paying the bills because the funding dried up and the business is not quite there...
And what he writes about M$ would be true in most large companies ... (they probably never trusted him enough to learn about the secret rooms where they really eat puppies while concocting new EULA and IP legislation...)
Well good luck to M. Molyneux anyway :)
Peter Molyneux, ya never knew who he was. (Score:2)
"Peter Molyneux is one of the most famous personalities in the history of gaming."
If I read his name in any other context I'd have no clue who he was. And I've played the heck out of Dungeon Keeper, and Populous. Odd as well, a last name like his would seem to want to stick with you.
I read someplace in that article When the idea of Microsoft and gaming comes up you think of an Xbox, actually I think of Ages of Empires, Xbox only because I was told that was the answer.
Linked at the bottom of an article blasting the working conditions at Microsoft, is of poor Mr Holtman; "Microsoft Hires Former Steam Boss Holtman to Make Windows Great for Gaming"
Wasn't there a lot of talk recently of Microsoft ditching the money pit called the Xbox?
Re:Almost Famous? (Score:1)
Never heard of him or any of these games.
Welcome to Earth. Will you be here long?
Re:Almost Famous? (Score:2)
What about Syndicate or Magic Carpet?
Re:Almost Famous? (Score:2)
Re:Almost Famous? (Score:2)
-- Yahtzee Croshaw [youtu.be]
Re:Worst summary title ever (Score:2)
Re:Worst summary title ever (Score:2)
Antidepressants make many people stop getting really stressed out about stuff. That was is point: startups are really quite stressful, working at MS isn't. He's not feeling the motivation and pace that leads to his best creativity. I get that, being the same way. I'm not chasing my muse, so I prefer less stress to my best performance, but that's quite subjective.
Re:You'll need antidepressants with his new game.. (Score:1)
Godus sounds interesting, like massive persistent version of Populus. I read something recently that described how they had overhauled large parts of the game in response to beta testers comments which is how it's supposed to work, isn't it? Wouldn't happen in a big studio with millions already committed.
There's some genuinely innovative aspects to the game, such as a Joe Public (the winner of his last project 'Curiosity') being granted overall God status in the game - to be benevolent or a dick as they see fit and taking a cut of the profits.
Admittedly a lot of what sounds interesting about it is probably from Molyneux's own hype but then you have to aim high to have any chance of producing something great. Ill judged comments about antidepressants aside, would you be more welcoming to him if he said "We're basically just recreating Populus with prettier GFX?"
I would jump at the chance of working with someone with overreaching ambitions and massive industry experience.