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2nd Blog, Same as the First!


On 02/04/2016 at 10:13 PM by Jason Ross

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That title is supposed to rhyme. Whoops. (Molyneux and Godus, Part Deux.)

Sorry about that, my first blog about this was terrible. This one will be better. This blog will cover all the stuff the first blog was supposed to cover, and more! Check out the other one for context. I'm too lazy to link it.

So, everyone's favorite friend Peter Molyneux and his studio, 22cans, released Godus Wars. Molyneux did an interview with Eurogamer. This is my favorite excerpt:

"We're working on another project called The Trail," Molyneux says. "I'm not going to talk about that at all because this whole thing about me over-promising got so caustic that it actually worked as a negative. My shoulders are fairly broad and you can send me death threats or whatever you like. It's the team that hurt me more than anything else - the feelings people had here when they saw the press."

I might be misunderstanding or misinterpreting things here, or even taking them out of context. I don't believe I am. That is an entire paragraph, so context is covered. However, the line "...this whole thing about me over-promising got so caustic that it actually worked as a negative." has very odd implications in my mind. When is over-promising not a negative? Yes, the gaming public's reaction to the over-promising did get caustic. That's true, and I think it was overdue. However, to me, I read that, considering Molyneux's own history, as though he's suggesting that over-promising is general a positive. Something to be encouraged. Something desirable and good, except the fuss about it ended up becoming caustic, so it made something that should have been hunky-dory into a negative. Way to ruin Molyneux's lies, everyone. Good going.

Does anyone remember when Molyneux and his Lionhead Studios with Microsoft basically made up and lied about everything to do with the range, scope, and adaptability of Project Milo and Natal? I hope so.

On a side note, death threats aren't cool. I don't believe I saw any, and I hope if any were made, they were passed on to the proper authorities, and not used as exaggerations to make anyone with a dislike of Molyneux's history seem as though they resort to literally insane practices. I'm not saying that's what's occurring here. However, I believe lumping in dissent over lies with people who make death threats in one brief segment of one's statement is a fairly manipulative way to attempt to manage an argument.

Let me close this blog with this: Don't give Peter Molyneux your money based on anything even close to a promise. It's just not a good idea. Don't do it based on interviews about his games. Don't do it based on preview or pre-release coverage. Don't do it based on a successful run of video games that were primarily released in the '90s. I'd say don't do it at all, but you have a right to make your own choices. I'm encouraging you to wait until you can read and amalgamate a variety of sources to understand what content the game actually provides. It's not a bad idea for gaming in general, but with Molyneux titles, it's the right choice. If you want to ignore that warning, do so understanding the history of risk you're accepting.


 

Comments

Super Step Contributing Writer

02/04/2016 at 11:14 PM

Kinda sad that death threats have come to be an expectation for trivial matters ...

Jason Ross Senior Editor

02/04/2016 at 11:37 PM

I'll be honest, I think Molyneux is mischaracterizing what's been said. What I've seen (though I haven't looked into it,) is that in one interview he gave an example from his twitter feed.

"So when someone says, as they did on my Twitter feed, 'Why don't you just shut up and die?' You don't know whether that's from someone who is a 60-year-old or someone who's a 6-year-old."

That isn't a death threat. Someone wants him to die, yes, but no threat is being made. It is their desire. Allegorically, I'd imagine that's about as much of a death threat as masturbation is sexual battery. Granted, in this interview, he did not state this was a death threat, I believe his intention is for the audience to infer that it is one, and I think he embellished the idea in the Eurogamer interview. I don't know which interview occurred first, though.

Death threats are a serious matter, but by mentioning a death threat in this context in this interview, I don't believe his intentions are to shed light on the difficulties he's faced, but rather to paint those who believe he's been a dishonest man who's essentially part of a con game hosted by 22cans as people of ill repute. The reality is, he's lied. He's lied about lying and he's bragged about lying. Most recently, he's tried to recalibrate history in his favor by stating he's always tried to be completely honest with people. That statement is in the interview I posted in this comment.

A quick google search produced this article. Undoubtedly one of many covering the actual truth. Molyneux admitted on stage that he would lie to journalists to keep them interested in his games, particularly in the context of a convention or large conference, where journalists would interview and preview one game after another. He uses the phrase "over-promise" here, as well, but when you read the following line:

“I could name at least 10 features in games that I’ve made up to stop journalists going to sleep and I really apologise to the team for that.”
 
It's clear in the context, over-promise is a synonym for a lie. One expects more of a public figure who has asked for the gaming public's funds to not be dishonest with their intentions of the funds, and to stick with the standards outlined in the funding request. Anything else would either have to be entirely incidental or a lie. Based on how development of Godus has gone, it is evident that Molyneux did lie in an effort to pull in greater kickstarter money. That's laid out in the Rock Paper Shotgun interview, as well as a few others. I don't carry the same expectation of milions of people who have passionate reactions to lies as I do the one person who's collected so much.

asrealasitgets

02/05/2016 at 01:01 AM

What I remember about this RPS interview was thinking 'how far gaming press had transformed itself into a purely advertising arm of the game industry'. Having seen all of my fav gaming journalist personalities leave the writing business for other carreers only to see it replaced by fanboy flamewars.  1up at least still gave controversial review scores before it went under, and I had rarely seen a game site go after a developer the way RPS did. I wasn't really sure how to process it all? I read a recent news item about another startup that blew all their funding on alchol, and I really wish that gaming press would take issue with these things more in the way RPS did with Molyn. Even still, I remember a lot of sympathy being directed towards Molyneux for being 'mistreated' in the interview. Good grief!

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/05/2016 at 02:18 AM

that is kind of fucked up, what he said about it (complaints of his being an ass) becoming caustic.  It seriously reveals how out of touch he is.

KnightDriver

03/17/2016 at 04:33 PM

Coming up with sensational features in a game is definitly a marketing tactic and it works, but like he said, it can come back to bite you in the ass. At first Molyneux was just charmingly over-excited about his projects, but now he's seen as just a blatant liar. I still like him and want him to make something great. He has that in him. But no one's going to jump on his bandwagon now. He's over done it in the PR department.  

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