Don’t Feel Sorry For Peter Molynuex

Pixel Gate UK looks at why Peter Molynuex deserves criticisms and why he is no longer worthy of defense:

''When Peter Molyneux said he no longer had a reputation in the video industry, I wasn’t sure how to react. Part of me felt sorry for him, a fallen icon baring all to the internet. The cynical side of me disagreed with his claims, and wondered if it was all a front. I respect Peter Molyneux for his achievements, but a part of me can’t help but think his downfall was his own doing.''

[Captain_Wormy]

Who?

[PixelGateUk]

Yeah we didn't get time to correct his name in the N4G title, it literally got approved within 5 mins :/

[breakpad]

Peter Molyneux is completely clueless about gaming .... he has no knowledge in coding ,directing, developping and he is not an artist ...he just had some poor ideas for gaming (as most of us have and alot better than his) and managed to get some people relative with the industry to support him financially and technically ..for that reason all his games suck .. B&W and populus in which probably never had any interaction with, he just gave the idea (and found the talented people who dedicate themselves to make them good ) .... molyneux should leave the semi-fraud tries to make a game, refund people and leave industry for good ...all his tries are bringing money to his pockets and cheap made garbages to the gamers

[christian hour]

"he has no knowledge in coding "

Where are you getting this from? The guy started out making games on a ZX Spectrum and was a huge player in the 1980's UK indie video game scene. He still codes every day.

[360ICE]

Ha! At first I thought Captain_Wormy was dissing Molyneux.

In my view, Molyneux will always be the guy behind Theme Park World, Populous and Fable, so it's difficult for me to consider him anything but a good influence in gaming. However, he has to have someone around him who can keep his feet on the ground.

[Grap]

@breakpad
obviously he is a troll that don't know sh!t about his superior. oh little boy can't replies to me he only have one bubble.

[ThatIrishGamer]

He's a guy who did some kind of fake demo for tons of cash when Microsoft introduced Natal / Kinect to fool everyone into thinking AI had reached new levels.

He pretended to have an interactive friend which would react like a human when in actual fact it understood about 5 questions and did a couple of interactions and never seen the light of day.

The things people do for cash.

Saying that. . . Anyone who did ANY demo for Natal was faking it. Remember the star wars demo which was faked and literally a video with someone doing choreography trying to match it. Then the racing game where you would complete a lap by standing still because the game steered itself anyway lol.

What a waste of everyone's time that accessory was. Fakers.

[christian hour]

This was when he was head of mcirosoft games, natal was not his idea but he was the guy in place at the time they used as their puppet.

He regrets it incredibly and quit shortly after for multiple reasons such as Kinect and how microsoft were faking a lot of it and delivering none of it.

Of course he wanted to quit at the time but he was obligated to the terms in his contract, he had to do what was asked for him, and he had a family to support.

As soon as he was able to get out, he did, and has discussed in length how it was one of the biggest mistakes of his life and he even argued with microsoft not to push milo to the forefront as it was just an idea and nowhere near being fully realised, if even possible.

So instead of giving molyneux the hate for the milo lie, it all lies on microsoft. From one irish gamer to another, surely you see the sense in that right?

Molyneux tends to share his big ideas too soon before even testing them out, but one thing he's never done is shown a working protoype of those ideas, they only ever exist as words, milo was the first time that happened, and it wasn't even a decision made by molyneux. His hand was forced.

[FriedGoat]

Peter moleneux is a dreamer. I feel sorry for the poor guy, I don't think he is a compulsive liar, I think he truly believes what he says when he originally says them.

I love what he achieved back in the 90's I was a huge bullfrog fan, and i even enjoyed lionhead when they created black and white and fable even though they werent what he set out to do. Unfortunately the industry has changed, as has gaming journalism.

One thing I don't agree with is the curiosity winner. 6 months of god of gods is hardly life changing.

[PixelGateUk]

The winner got a slice of the money made when someone bought something in game too

[FriedGoat]

Only for the 6 months they are god of gods. 1% over a 6 month period can't be much.

[mhunterjr]

I feel a bit of pity for him. I think he truly loves video games, and really does set out to do ambitious things.

Unfortunately ambitions don't always lead to results, and he hasn't seemed to learn the difference between a promise, an idea, and a pitch.

On the other hand, I realize he's ammased a fortune making video games, and surely can afford a PR advisor.... That's why my empathy for him is limited.

[PixelGateUk]

It's hard condemning him so much given how much I've enjoyed his past work and his creative spark. But the Godus thing...well...it's just too much.

Jumping ship to work on something new, when Godus is barely a game, is pretty bad, even more so given it's a kickstarter game. Godus has honestly seemed to of 'broke' him, lashing out etc. Just odd.

It's a shame, and i hope one day he comes back with something great.

[christian hour]

So I suppose Tim Schafer should get the same hatred because he has a kickstarter game still in development yet he's also working on other games funded privately by publishers and investors?

No?

Only Molyneux is not allowed work on multiple titles?

When a game is nearing the end of it's development, most of waht needs to be laid out is laid out and theres less work for a lead designer/director to do, just oversee stuff, frees up a lot of time to start working on the next few projects.

And what about all those kickstarter campaigns started by nobody, funded to fook, and then never delivered upon in the slightest? Usualy made by people who have zero experience at making videogames.

Why aren't they being named and blamed as much as molyneux is right now? Easier and more ad revenue clicks that way I suppose, right?

[saddlebrown]

But that's the reality of business. If 22 Cans doesn't split development to work on a new game given that Godus will only have a limited audience at this point, they will not survive as a company. Call it right, call it wrong, it's the reality of business and they employ 22 people. Focusing solely on Godus means it's that much harder for 22 people to keep a job and pay their bills all to make good on a game most of you people don't give a shit about and aren't going to buy anyway, all so you can feel like you got justice.

[DougLord]

I would love to see Sean Halliday's list of accomplishments. Did you graduate grade school? Did you move out of mums basement before or after 30? Do you make more or less then minimum wage writing for your blog?

Point is Peter has accomplished more then all of you Internet tough guys put together. Get a life.

Populous (1989) (designer/programmer)
Powermonger (1990) (designer/programmer)
Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods(1991) (designer/programmer)
Syndicate (1993) (producer)
Theme Park (1994) (project leader/lead programmer)
Magic Carpet (1994) (executive producer)
Hi-Octane (1995) (executive producer)
Magic Carpet 2 (1996) (designer)
Genewars (1996)
Dungeon Keeper (1997) (project leader/designer)
Black & White (2001) (concept/Lead designer/programmer)
Fable (2004) (designer)
Fable: The Lost Chapters (2005) (designer)
The Movies (2005) (executive designer)
Black & White 2 (2005) (lead designer)
The Movies: Stunts & Effects (2006) (executive designer)
Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods (2006) (lead designer)
Fable II (2008) (lead designer)
Fable III (2010) (lead designer)
Project Milo (formerly known as The Dmitri Project) (tech demo) (lead designer)
Fable: The Journey (2012)

[GamerEuphoria]

errr...why are you doing on about the persons personal life?

'Internet tough guys'

No one is acting tough, it's a valid criticism. It's no one else fault you're too emotionally invested in someone that you feel the need to attack anyone who disagrees with their conduct.

I mean there's being tough, and there's copy and pasting Wikipedia like you!

[Baka-akaB]

Meh... like everyone i'm sure you have cricitized a movie , album or even song , or book , or game , or a particular star whose behavior or working dissapointed you , without having done anything remotely close to those working in those field either .

"Do better" and "what have you done yourself?" and other mediocre variations , were always a weak defense , and the strawman's shield , when it comes to judging entertainement products .

[CorndogBurglar]

People automatically lose any argument when they pull out the old "mom's basement" insult.

Its unoriginal, immature, and is a go-to insult for anyone that THINKS they are being cool and edgy.

[Rachel_Alucard]

Yeah the old classic Ad hominem arguement aka "I don't have a rebuttal so I'll just attack the person!" Honestly please go back and pass your public speech class your making a fool of yourself.

[Maxor]

Because credentials means credibility right?

[SpiralTear]

Peter Molyneux is not a supervillain. He's not out to maliciously ruin gaming for everyone. He's overzealous and hasn't adjusted to a newer market of games. He gets too excited for his own good, and he's certainly paying the price. His career is in shambles.

On the other hand, that interviewer was out for blood. You don't open your interview with a loaded accusation like that. If you did that to anyone else in any other field of journalism, you wouldn't be taken seriously. You'd become an internet joke from Day 1.

You can ask the biting questions, but you don't have to be a jerk while doing it. Shows the competence of the interviewer that he has to set the clearly accusational tone that early. That's not something a professional does.

As someone who's become almost accustomed with Molyneux promises ultimately being undercooked, I have no idea why people are surprised Godus failed. Have you tracked his rep since Bullfrog? The deal is that Molyneux's press relations are out of commission, that much is clear, so if any other press website wanted to interview Molyneux at some point, that's the deal. This interview basically put Molyneux in the vault.

[GamerEuphoria]

I think the main issue is how he's reacted to Godus and it's failures. He funded it via kickstarter, he sold with to the public with him attached. Now, with the game in a utter mess, he's jumped ship to start something new.

There's a difference between him dropping a disappointing game and him just failing to deliver a actual game after a successful kick starter.

[Baka-akaB]

Extreme maybe , but on the other hand , everyone else in the press has been too complacent and even complicit when it comes to highlight the issues with his most recent projects .

He deserve forever the Hall of Fame , but magazines and gaming site should be doing more than channeling and mirroring ads and infomercials , then faking being surprised and having warned people .

So if that's the only alternative , i'd rather have the rabid jerks with the tough questions

[rainslacker]

Honestly, if it were me, and I had to give an interview, and the interviewer asked "Are you a compulsive liar" right off the bat, I would have just laughed and walked out.

It was highly disrespectful, and every question seemed to be framed in such a way to catch Peter in some sort of trap of his own statements(both in the interview and made years before) trying to make him out to be some sort of hypocritical liar. Very few even focused on the actual thing people are upset about. I don't blame peter for being on the defensive throughout the entire interview, because it was plainly obvious what the interviewer was going for, and that was to make Peter look like someone who exploits his fan base for his own gain, which is something I never once thought of him as he does seem like a genuinely nice guy.

As you say, there are ways to ask those questions without sounding like the interviewer has some sort of superiority complex. The entire interview was done in such a way to trap peter by making him defensive and pissed off from the beginning.

I don't blame him for getting pissed off and angry during the interview, but I think Peter should maybe realize that not everyone thinks of him the way the interviewer or some forum posters, or sensationalist hit piece writers do, and some of us do respect his overall body of work(even with all the unfulfilled promises because it was still good work), but just don't like the direction he's gone since leaving MS, and Bullfrog before that.

I saw one person comment on how the interview was really well done, which compelled me to read the entire thing and not the excerpts from the associated articles, and that first question I was like, "WTF....how do you talk to a developer like that that was gracious enough to grant you an interview". It's sad what's considered good journalism nowadays.

I don't like what happened with Godus, and think he handled it's production poorly, but before Peter started 22 cans, everyone focused on what Peter failed to deliver, and not what he actually did. He has produced some great games which seem to have a lot of fans. People have hated on him due to his over-promising for years now, usually completely disregarding how good his games still were.

It's clear that a lot of people want to hate on him. I believe that he does deserve some of the criticism he receives, but not the hate, although with Godus backers and some others certainly have a right to be angry.

[fallacious]

Who actually feels sorry for this hack? Doing something stupid once, maybe twice, is understandable. But he's been in the industry for around what, 30 years? And all he's done is something stupid. No one should be feeling sorry for him.

[CorndogBurglar]

You act like the guy hasn't been incredibly successful in the past. He has a grocery list of great games under his belt, which is why people feel sorry.

I certainly don't, dont get me wrong. But to say he hasn't done anything but stupid things is just being ignorant.

[andrewer]

Last game I played from him was Black & White 2, which is a pretty good game. But yeah he dropped the ball. Still hope for a sequel to B&W2 tho.

[WESKER2015]

demonize peter molyneux, yet are willing to give the businesses practices surrounding evole a free pass, wtf is going on with gamers?

[GamerEuphoria]

Quick look at the account who submitted this also submitted a piece criticizing Evolve and aggressive DLC :P

[WESKER2015]

hahahaha my bad

[WizzroSupreme]

Oh, I feel sorry for Peter Molyneux. He's someone who collapses under the weigh of his own ambitions, which is to say he always wants the impossible and doesn't tolerate anything – in himself or in others. If that makes him a troll, then it's sad so many o this peers wallow in apathy for a job by contrast.

[INTOmyMOUTH]

Isn't his name supposed to be spelled mollypuex?

[LightDiego]

I'm still waiting for that game of Molyneux that you play as a NPC, anyone knows the name?

[INTOmyMOUTH]

I really enjoyed the game where you were chipping away at the giant cube.

[Bathyj]

In hindsight he probably should have retired from the industry after Fable leaving his legacy intact.