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The Fall of Peter Molyneux

Metro

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I promise this is absolutely positively my penultimate interview before my final statement regarding my final interview. If only people would lambast that fraud Schafer, too.
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
He is just an easy target. Gaming journalism has been called out to be shit, and now they want to pretend they are real journalists for once and asking tough questions! Sticking it to the man!!!1! It's all just a shit-show as usual.
 

Disgruntled

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He is just an easy target. Gaming journalism has been called out to be shit, and now they want to pretend they are real journalists for once and asking tough questions! Sticking it to the man!!!1! It's all just a shit-show as usual.

Agreed. He is the perfect person to bash for sites like RPS.
White, middle aged, long history of lies, habitual figurehead and crucially; no parent publisher to make the bribes or threaten withdrawing early review access and advertising deals.

Id love to see the same approach towards the usual big publisher suspects and dev houses who use networking publicists. They are much harder to pin down unlike a single dude who regularly makes outrageous claims under his own name. Thats where proper journalistic work begins and you start prodding a thread which pulls on a much larger web of the game industry.
 
Unwanted

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I wish they were like this with all the studios, but that would involve giving your transsexual genderqueer spacekin rhinocerous humanfriend mate a tough time, wouldn't it?

Can't have that. Peter, here, is just easy pickin's.
 

Grunker

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FYI Metro and evdk, I wasn't the one who constructed the "ShitComposter" question. That was DarkUnderlord. It also wasn't our opener, which you incorrectly indicate here. I stand by the question though, it was the right question to ask under the circumstances and I think the answers we get in that interview are some of the best he Codex has gotten.

I also think Walker does the right thing here. When a man is so known for bullshitting, and that's what you want the interview to be about, there's no way around the confrontational style.
 
Last edited:

Angthoron

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Hmm, I'm conflicted. On one hand, it's great that a gang of shills is bashing on a liar, on the other, it's pretty obvious that this is a white crow occurrence and once the pecking's over, the flock will return to fellating everyone else, and possibly using Mollynuke as a negative counter-example.

"Not stellar but better than GODUS, 9/10"
"Doesn't overpromise quite as much as Mollynuke, GOTY"
"This indie game has added a character to cash in on Mollynuke's Curiosity promise for a cheap PR stunt, TRY THIS GAME. ITS INDIE! IT HAS SOCIAL JUSTICE AND PIXEL GRAFFIX! 10/10!!"

Fuck these shills and fuck these liars.

/awor'd
 

Metro

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FYI Metro and evdk, I wasn't the one who constructed the "ShitComposter" question. That was DarkUnderlord. It also wasn't our opener, which you incorrectly indicate here. I stand by the question though, it was the right question to ask under the circumstances and I think the answers we get in that interview are some of the best he Codex has gotten.

I also think Walker does the right thing here. When a man is so known for bullshitting, and that's what you want the interview to be about, there's no way around the confrontational style.
Peter MollyPOO, amirite?
 

Infinitron

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-14-rich-stanton-on-requiem-for-a-dreamer

Rich Stanton on: Requiem for a dreamer
The god-damned tragedy of Peter Molyneux.

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By Rich Stanton Published 14/02/2015

The story of how Peter Molyneux got his big break in the games industry is revealing. After his first game The Entrepreneur failed to sell, Molyneux gave up on games and started exporting baked beans to the Middle East. Soon afterwards Commodore, confusing Molyneux's company Taurus with a networking company called Torus, flew him to the States and mistakenly offered him ten brand-new Amigas.

"I remember it vividly going through my head," says Molyneux . "There was like an angel and a devil on my shoulder. One saying 'Go on you've got to tell the truth, you can't lie like this.' Then this other voice saying 'Just lie. Just lie, get the machines, and sort it out afterwards.' Of course, I ended up lying."

What would you have done? I like to think I'd have been a big enough man to come clean, but without being in that situation it's impossible to say.

But we know what Molyneux did. Thus was his career founded on a deception and, for decades since, his games have been synonymous with ambition, exaggeration, and under-delivery. It is only comparatively recently that things have come full circle, and into the widespread perception that Peter Molyneux is a liar.

For a designer obsessed with making games about morality, it's one hell of a place to end up.

I've met Peter Molyneux once, and he absolutely enraptured me. It was a few months before the release of Fable 2 and I visited Lionhead. He was incredibly charming and hospitable, but much more than that he was exciting to be with. Even as Molyneux demoed Fable 2 and exclaimed that he'd never seen an obviously-placed treasure chest before, I was swept along by his palpable enthusiasm for the game.

I remember with absolute clarity when the scales fell from my eyes. I wrote an article that puffed Fable 2 to the heavens, and shortly afterwards ended up reviewing the game. I noticed to my consternation that a minor aspect of the game he'd discussed, and I'd written about, wasn't there. Fable 2 was still great but I felt awful, like I'd deceived my readers and somehow betrayed their trust. While having some beers with colleagues I moped about it a bit.

One turned my way and shot back: "Well, Molyneux doesn't care does he?"

To my naïve brain, that was a lightning bolt. And here's why it matters. Defenders of Molyneux often characterise his exaggerations as a kind of motivating tactic: a feature may not be in the game, goes this logic, but by talking about it Molyneux is trying to gee-up his team to work towards it. He is trying to get people to shoot for the moon.

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In this case I'd spoken to him roughly two months before the game launched. No features are added to AAA games in the last two months of work - the team is rushing to the finishing line and ironing out bugs. In this case it would have been strange if Molyneux's intention was to motivate his team. It felt more like he'd tried to get me more hyped about Fable 2 by exaggerating an aspect I was clearly interested in, with the certain knowledge that what he was talking about was not in the final game.

I could go through a list of things Molyneux has said about his games, and then show how the games failed to deliver. I could compare Godus to the original Kickstarter pitch. Or write about the frankly incredible YouTube video 22Cans posted earlier this week, where even his own employees don't seem to believe the man anymore. But what's the point? We all know the contours.

The first thing to acknowledge is that Molyneux is who he is because of the accumulation, over years and years, of indulgence from the gaming audience and media. Why? Let's be honest: 99 percent of 'big' developers give interviews that are dull as ditch-water. It's not so much that they're personality-free zones, but more the media training out the wazoo.

Molyneux, by contrast, is a journalist's wet dream. Every single outlet is complicit in his status. On the phone he's funny, strikingly honest on certain topics, and always has something controversial that makes a good headline. In person he's even better, mesmerising in full flow and with bright green eyes that make it seem all the lights in the universe are trained on you. This doesn't excuse anything, but it's fundamental context to his public image.

This is why, when considering the people who trusted Molyneux enough to invest in Godus, the games media has to shoulder some blame. There was little scrutiny of his promises - there never is until after the event. At which point Molyneux tries to neuter criticism, and dodge the difficult questions, by donning his hairshirt.

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Media manipulation is one thing, and I would never criticise a developer for 'playing' journalists. It's their job. But with Godus Molyneux stepped into a new arena, one where the money was coming directly from punters rather than publishers. And manipulating paying customers is another matter entirely - especially when the game crosses a line, as it has with certain promises and rewards, into failing to deliver.

Consider Bryan Henderson, the winner of Curiosity and thus 'God of Gods,' whose prize turned out to be that he was a useful prop cast aside once the moment passed. Wesley Yin-Poole's outstanding piece on Henderson earlier this week contained one revelation that floored me: the fact 22Cans ignored this young man for just under a year as he politely enquired about when his prize might arrive. They just outright ignored him. Then when the press got involved, all of a sudden Molyneux's apologising.

It's a familiar cycle. Screw up and apologise, rinse and repeat. The apologies are always full of caveats. The problem with Godus, according to Molyneux, is not that he's a terrible project manager who promised stuff he had no idea how to deliver. The problem is that it's the first game he did on Kickstarter. And it's the first one he did on Early Access. Or the publisher did something. There's always a caveat, always a distraction, always a deflection in the same breath as the heart is bared.

This is the nasty undercurrent to the excuses. Molyneux puts up his hands and undergoes the ritual humiliation with an earnestness that borders on relish. The thing that is impossible to put a finger on is where the calculation begins and ends. Molyneux has cried in front of so many journalists it's hard not to be suspicious, and some of his statements are astonishing.

Most nauseatingly, to my taste at least, Molyneux compared negative reactions to Godus tobeing bullied at school. "I feel now I am universally hated by the gaming people. I was bullied at school. Badly bullied at school. And I feel some of that emotion bubbling up again inside me now." Bullying is a horrible thing for anyone to go through, and I would never deny that such an experience can ripple through an adult life. That said, Godus is a multi-million pound project that Molyneux directed and managed in his mid-50s. Casting himself as the victim in this situation shows either a lack of self-awareness and proportionality, or an acute sense that it's the kind of subject his critics will be too sensitive to question. Maybe both.

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This is why when I see people calling Molyneux a fraud or a thief I can't agree. It used to be because I wanted to believe he'd produce another great game. Perhaps now it's that the truth is so messy it's simply easier to throw around these hurtful words than engage with it: perhaps Molyneux is trapped and scared and has lost control of the situation. Perhaps the truth is that without a large and talented team to bail him out, like the old days, he has created a mess where mea culpas make it worse rather than better.

And when faced with the catalogue of disastrous behaviour and project management that is 22Cans, all Molyneux has are those mea culpas. The way he puts a loudspeaker to his errors is not repentance - not now, not after we've seen it a thousand times. The only consistent element of Molyneux's apologies is their regularity, and this very repetition is an hypocrisy. It's a simulation of shame.

Molyneux's reputation has been on shaky ground for a long time, but this week marked a nosedive. He's currently giving a round of interviews claiming he'll no longer speak to the press - which the uncharitable might take as another deflection. Only a fool would deny the press bear some responsibility for his current situation; but it would take an even bigger fool to continue to regard Molyneux as an innocent abroad, the victim in all of this.

So where to? The writer and radio host Garrison Keillor once said something which fits. "The reason to retire is to try to avoid embarrassment; you ought to do it before people are dropping big hints. You want to be the first to come up with the idea. You don't want to wait until you trip and fall off the stage."

What is currently happening to Molyneux's reputation is a feeding frenzy; parts of it may be deserved, but the whole is no less tragic. There is yet the time for a somewhat dignified exit, but that will never happen. Of course he will speak to the press again and, spread-eagled in the stalls, plead for another chance. The next time, he says with tears in his eyes, will be different.

It is hard to look coldly at Molyneux, to completely hive-off all the joy I've had from games he's been involved with and forget that part of me that wants to believe. Hard but not impossible. What I've seen in the course of this week is an old emperor, naked and exposed, cringing as his former subjects jeer and laugh. I could never join in. But I can't quite bring myself to weep, either.
 

Infinitron

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Molyneux's former PR guy is opening up on NeoGAF: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=151731338#post151731338

Molyneux should have a PR guy who just says, "Shut the fuck up, Pete. Just shut your fucking mouth before it writes a check the team can't cash." He builds a promise bubble and it always bursts because he can't fucking shut his mouth.

That used to be me. Problem is he never listens to advice and instead will bully and insult you into oblivion if you dare to disagree with him.

Also, some of the RPS commenters are butthurt:

Kurokawa says:

I’ll make it short. This piece…

I) Confirmed my long standing believes of who Peter Molyneux is.
II) Made me lose all respect for John Walker’s “journalism”.

As much as I can understand the anger and frustration some people feel towards PM, as much as some tough questions have to be asked, this sensationalist, prejudiced, bigoted, self-righteous, disrespectful and utterly unprofessional piece of click- and hate-bait is just about everything I thought RPS did NOT stand for.

Massively, massively disappointing…

Reply
  • e5cac5869c3ac39cd430aa915c11bc59

    14/02/2015 at 02:27Borodin says:

    Isn’t it. If I knew my supporter money was going towards paying for John to spit in people’s eyes then I would never have subscribed.

Borodin says:

I’ve been searching for a way to cancel my supporter status. Does anyone know how to do that?

This is particularly nasty journalism, and in the light of John’s recent exposé about his anxiety disorder I expected something more empathetic and compassionate.

Finding facts that are in the interests of RPS readers and uncovering the truth needn’t involve abusive methods like those transcribed here. I don’t enjoy blood sports, and take no pleasure in seeing a dying horse kicked to within an inch of its life like to think that most other subscribers feel the same.

I subscribed to RPS in the hope of a more mature assessment of PC gaming news. Now I wish I had seen this item much earlier on. Sorry John, but your tactics are contemptible.

Reply
  • 99d4f847fe1b9a7108799b05c64642a6

    14/02/2015 at 02:48Mackeriah says:

    This has done RPS considerable harm. I really hope this wasn’t reviewed by the other writers prior to publication. As that would sadly tar yourselves also, although to a lesser degree. If it wasn’t reviewed before John posted it, then I suspect that’s a hard lesson RPS just learnt.

    Reply
  • 70680fc305725083c729ffb4db4bc7d5

    14/02/2015 at 03:27sairas says:

    agreed.
    something must have gone wrong in the editorial process, although it seems unlikely a controversial transcription like this would’ve been published without discussion amongst the editors.
 

balmorar

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Deja vu.

Game journos August 2014 "Guys, let's not write articles about the bitch Zoe Quinn because she's a poor woman."

Game journos Feb 2015 "Guys, we need to increase site views somehow because we are in deep shit. Let's gang rape Molyneux!"
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Why Peter Molyneux's Godus Is Such A Disaster

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"You know what Peter Molyneux's like," an ex-22Cans employee told me while trying to sum up the infamous designer's tendency to make enormous promises and then just kinda... forget about them. "You try to hold onto his words and they slip through your fingers."

Molyneux—who has long had a reputation for making promises he never quite delivered on—has again been accused of misleading statements, if not outright false ones, in relation toGodus, his Kickstarter god game revival. In an attempt to get to the bottom of it all, Kotakuspoke both to Molyneux and to three people who have worked with him over the past few years. This is the story of how Godus ended up where it is today.
PC vs Mobile
Godus, which Peter Molyneux once touted as "the ultimate god game," originally launched as a Kickstarter in late 2012, garnering £526,563 (or about $800,000) in pledges. At the time, it was pitched as an "innovative reinvention of Populous" with "a living world" and much-hyped multiplayer for PC, Mac, mobile, and—as a stretch goal—Linux. As we've previously detailed, nether multiplayer nor the Linux version have come to fruition, and for a time there was serious doubt from 22Cans as to whether we'd ever see either.1

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Initially, Molyneux and co said they were focusing on Godus' PC version, insisting that it was priority number one. The Kickstarter, while not going so far as to state that outright, only offered a PC version as a backer reward and contained claims that the mobile version would not lead to a dumbed down or otherwise compromised PC game. "No absolutely not," they wrote in response to a question about whether mobile would lead to a lesser PC game. "We are gamers at 22Cans, we love depth as much as we love innovation. We will be playing the game with you during our Alpha and Beta stages, so if anyone gives us feedback we will look at that. But we're not making a dumbed down game."

In May 2013, the people behind Godus released an unfinished, buggy PC alpha, followed by a beta, followed by minimal updates and large patches of radio silence when the mobile version came along. Said mobile version, which was released in August 2014, ultimately bore little resemblance to the god games of yore, with a microtransaction-based business model and gameplay that drew upon common mobile game tropes, especially farming. Opinions on it weremixed.4

Molyneux told me that the mobile version was only meant to be a detour—that it simply took longer than intended (the plan: a few months, the result: nearly two years)—but according to two people who have worked for 22Cans, that's not quite true. Mobile was the primary focus from day one, according to those people. During team meetings, Molyneux would talk about the mobile version's potential to earn millions of dollars per day and attract hundreds of millions of people, according to people who were in those meetings. He cited companies like Rovio and King as 22Cans' main competition. Godus, sources say, was built with mobile in mind from the get-go. It came up during nearly every design meeting my sources were privy to—even PC-focused ones. (Molyneux denies those accusations.)


This was surprising to developers internally, according to all three people I spoke to, because many people had joined the company expecting to work on a PC game—on something akin to Molyneux classics like Populous or Black & White. But they soldiered on through the mobile version's development in hopes of eventually getting to that point. Meanwhile, the PC community's ire only grew and grew as 2013 turned over to 2014, especially as patches of silencelengthened and updates became insubstantial.

Despite claims from the team that all was well and Godus would be a fully independent game, the Kickstarter money wasn't enough to maintain a production of Godus' size on multiple platforms. So 22Cans made a deal with mobile publisher DeNA in May of 2013, another move that sparked controversy and prompted heavy scrutiny. Molyneux claimed it was only a distribution deal at the time, and that mobile mainstays like microtransactions wouldn't creep into the game's structure. Then they did.

Speaking to Kotaku in an interview, Molyneux denied that the mobile version took priority from the beginning, but he copped to having money issues that the Kickstarter couldn't solve. It seems, curiously, that he and his company did not ask for enough money in the first place, so he made a deal with that old video game devil, a publisher, out of necessity.56

"You only have to do the math," Molyneux said on a Skype call yesterday. "There are about 22 people here and the average salary is about $40,000. Do the math on how much that costs to run the studio for a month. It doesn't take a genius to work out that the $800,000 or so we raised on Kickstarter is only enough to take you a certain amount through development. That's why we had to sign on a publisher. That does put an extra impetus on delivering. I wish we didn't have to do that. As a designer I wish I had a gigantic cavern of money to dig into, but you have to keep your finances and do things in service of that."78

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I asked if he'd considered completing the PC version before shifting everybody to mobile. "In hindsight maybe I wish I'd done that," he replied. "But we laid out this strategy and it seemed sensible at the time. It had some benefits. The mobile version is kinda self-sustaining now."

As 2014 progressed, focus on the mobile version proved more and more troublesome for the game's oft-ignored PC version. Even after Molyneux and crew had announced that the mobile version was mostly done, server issues on the publisher's end forced 22Cans into months of additional development toward the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015—something Molyneux says contributed to a handful of key developers' decision to leave the company and an ensuing patch of radio silence after that.10

Despite all this and the apparent lack of funds that necessitated a publisher in the first place, Molyneux noted that the company still had Kickstarter money in the bank—just in case. In hindsight, he says he wishes he'd used it.

"We thought it was gonna take nine months, but what we really should've done is put 200 percent contingency on that," Molyneux said. "Actually, it's very hard to justify contingency in a Kickstarter campaign. People ask, 'How are you gonna use the money,' and then you say, 'Well, two-thirds of the money is just there as a contingency,' people wonder what the hell is going on. So I should never even have intimated dates. I wish we'd made it through the mobile phase faster than we did. I wish development didn't throw us these curveballs all the time."

Always Talking, Never Listening
From the outside looking in, the development of Godus seems disorganized, executed with little regard for many of the features pitched to Kickstarter backers and Steam Early Access buyers. Key features didn't materialize in the PC version, 22Cans abruptly switched to focusing on mobile, and when the community rose up in a great tidal wave of rage, Molyneux and co didn't change course. In our interview, however, Molyneux claimed that 22Cans was always listening, always trying to keep backers in the loop and listen to their feedback. For instance, when the developer decided to suddenly focus fire its efforts on the mobile version, Molyneux said keeping everyone on the same page was a top priority.

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"We tried to explain as best as we could," he said. "We went on the forums, we posted videos. But the problem was that it took longer than we thought it was gonna take. I thought naively that it was gonna take a few months, and it took longer than that. This is an excuse. It is an excuse. I'm not the brightest cookie in the barrel. It was unfortunate, but we were honest about it."12

On top of the communication issues, some backers had been fuming that Molyneux had yet to fulfill many of the Godus Kickstarter's promises, such as multiplayer, a Linux version, and a book documenting the behind-the-scenes development of the game. But Molyneux maintains that listening to those backers was a big part of their process.

"There was [a concrete plan to fulfill promises to backers]," he said. "I would say I had more of a plan for Godus than almost any other game I've worked on. We've done 57 video updates where we talked through each stage of the development. And we've always had these big milestones. Releasing a demo, releasing an alpha version on Steam Early Access, refining that over three months, and then moving onto mobile because there were people who backed the Kickstarter for a mobile version… The problem isn't our milestones. The problem is that they take an awfully long time."

But people who worked on the game paint a different picture. Even today, you need only glance at numerous forum threads to see that relations between the Godus team and their community have been strained for quite some time. In a recent video update, Molyneux chalked this up in part to inexperience with Kickstarter and Steam Early Access. This problem, allege people who previously worked on the game, could have been avoided—or at least diminished. Molyneux was provided with frequent, detailed reports on the community, but more often than not, Molyneux's whims took priority, say three people who worked on the game.13

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Other members of a core dev group—now made up of longtime Molyneux friends and associates Paul McLaughlin and Tim Rance, former Ubisoft designer Jamie Stowe, and lead engineer Gary Leach—would influence his decisions, but the Godus team was fragmented. Left hand often failed to speak to right hand. Molyneux and his group would sometimes squirrel themselves away for days, said one of my sources, only to emerge with some difficult-to-implement new feature or one that directly contradicted what 22Cans had previously told the community. 15

Or Molyneux would say something to the press that dev team members weren't even aware of. Some team members, for instance, found out about Molyneux's new game, The Trail, first from articles and then directly from Molyneux. This happened, according to one person who worked on the team, immediately after Molyneux called a big meeting about how everyone needed to improve on company-wide communication. "He squirreled himself away with two other people for two weeks," said the source, "and when he emerged, he was basically like, 'We're moving everyone onto a new project called The Trail. What's The Trail, you ask? Well, you'll all find out—separately!"16

This type of behavior led to instances where members of the dev team would publicly say one thing to the community, only to be forced to contradict themselves not long after, especially where future plans for the PC version were concerned. It was a source of frequent frustration for developers and community members alike. Everyone I talked to felt like they had very little impact on Godus' ultimate direction. To make matters worse, they began to feel like they were shutting out the community, like they were doing something that wrong, something that didn't quite sit right with them.17

Interestingly, however, my sources agreed that Molyneux isn't some whip-cracking, spittle-shouting dictator. They said he was very kind, with an almost Steve-Jobs-like aura about him. He was frequently sincere, excited, cradling new ideas like a thrilled parent. But he was also flighty—prone to losing interest in one idea when another popped up—and he almost always got final say, even when other high-up members of the team didn't necessarily think his decisions made sense, according to people who have worked with him. 1819

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Alienating the community in pursuit of some of those ideas, especially, made one important person in the company hesitant, said one source. They worried, among other things, about legal ramifications of not fulfilling Kickstarter pledges. But the source claims that person wasn't able to alter course. It was still Molyneux's company.

In hindsight, it's unsurprising that Kickstarter didn't mix well with a man whose rap sheet of larger-than-life promises has become inseparable from his game-making legacy. Kickstarter is a place where promises both spring to life (to get people interested) and go to die (when development takes an unexpected turn or drives off a cliff). It's a tough place for games—what with all the inherent uncertainties of game development—whether you've got a Peter Molyneux making sweeping proclamations the whole time or not.

Some developers came away from all of this more soured on Molyneux than others, as evidenced by things like this NeoGAF post from ex-community manager and longtime Molyneux associate Sam Van Tilburgh. In response to another poster's suggestion that Molyneux should have a PR person to keep his infamous larger-than-life promises to a minimum, Van Tilburgh replied, "That used to be me. Problem is he never listens to advice and instead will bully and insult you into oblivion if you dare to disagree with him."

And in my interview with Molyneux, I did notice that he has a certain, extremely frustrating way of talking around anything that makes it sound like his intentions were anything less than pristinely pure. My sources were adamant that he had some sins to make up for, but he played the saint the entire time. He owned up to some mistakes, but he never took responsibility for being at the heart of them. It was always circumstance, bad luck, naivete, or some sad twist of fate. Negligence was never even considered. He favored the words, "if I'm being honest," swished them around in his mouth like he was washing it out with soap. That phrase, though, has always stricken me as a strange one. If you're a generally honest person, why throw it around at all? Ultimately, it likely means nothing, but it's an interesting word choice nonetheless.21

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If nothing else, Molyneux verified the structure of his team in our interview, explaining that his product meeting team spends hours or even days brainstorming big picture game/company strategies, but denied the accusation that he lets his whims control the development process above all else. He did, however, say his methods tend to be experimental—prone to new ideas being tried and sometimes discarded—which explains why features like multiplayer were added to Godus and then quickly removed, only to be left on the cutting room floor for more than a year.

"We take stuff out and put it in again," Molyneux said. "It's the way I work. It's the way it worked with Magic Carpet and Black & White and Syndicate. Dungeon Keeper took four years because we rewrote the game three times. It's ridiculous, I know, but this is the way I approach things. I know it's inefficient. I know it's frustrating for any backers looking at it and expecting the sort of game they imagined. But that's the way of it."22

Molyneux then emphasized, once again, that listening to backers was a key part of his process. "We've done polls, we've done surveys, we've brought people in from the community. We have one working for us now. I've done design calls with backers. But the fundamental problem is, we haven't had people working on features the community wants until now."

Two years is a long time to wait when all you've got to go on are words.

Winding Down
People have been wary of Godus' development progress for a while, but red flags really went up toward the end of 2014. In the wake of Molyneux's announcement of The Trail and server problems with Godus' mobile version, the Godus team shrank to three members, said one of my sources. Some people left the company of their own volition; others were moved onto The Trail. Things did not look good, especially for Godus' PC version. The widespread skepticism of the game was encouraged by, among other things, a disheartened forum post from new lead designer (and former incensed community member) Konrad Naszynski on January 10, 2015. In the post, Naszynski said multiplayer was likely out of the question, despite all the promotion a couple years back.

The reasons behind the team shrinkage is disputed. Two people who worked on Godus say that this was Molyneux's way of winding down development on the game. The mobile version was more or less complete, and the Steam version wasn't making money, according to those people. Funds, meanwhile, were beginning to dry up. Despite the fact that the Steam version was only halfway done, Molyneux was, according to those sources, willing to call it a day and shift focus onto The Trail.

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Molyneux, however, disputes this, saying he took note of a dispirited, downtrodden team and decided it was time to bring in some fresh faces to take over Godus' development.

"We're not backing away from Godus," he told me. "It's just the logic of how approach it [that's changed]. We've launched hundreds of updates to Steam Early Access, and we've done god knows how many on mobile. This team is pretty tired, as you can imagine after all that. We needed some fresh people. And honestly, a lot of our people had been working so hard that they chose to leave the industry. [Former producer] Jemma Harris has gone to the film industry, and [former community manager] George Kelion left the industry. So did [Kickstarter head and community manager] Sam Van Tilburgh. It is really, really hard work."23

Molyneux said that—despite adamant claims to the contrary from two people who have worked with him—he never intended to wind down development on Godus. He admitted, however, that it could've happened had things not turned around recently.

"To me, that point [of almost giving up] came just before Christmas [2014]," he explained. "What happened was, we were—as a team—about to move onto combat and multiplayer. At that point this incredible bombshell was dropped, that the servers we were using—which were provided by our publisher, DeNA—use a system called Mobage. We had to switch off to a completely different system called LCD, which was still in development. And if we didn't do the development time there, Godus wouldn't be live on the App Store and Google. We were basically forced to do that work.

"That was the straw that broke the camel's back. That's when I started to see in people's eyes that sort of dullness. That's when I thought, 'You know what? Unless I can bring in some new fresh blood to this team, we're gonna flounder.' I think that was a smart move. What I should've done is put the community and press on notice that this was happening."24

Waiting For Godus25
Instead, fears were allowed to run rampant for nearly three months, and many fans and backers came to believe that the game was doomed. However, shortly after a piece on Rock Paper Shotgun earlier this week called attention to the radio silence and indications of development troubles, Molyneux and co came out with a video in which they declared a new dedication to Godus' PC version. The development team has ballooned back to a less discouraging number—with a combat specialist, a new artist, a new coder, and, soon, if hiring goes according to plan, a new scripter/designer—now led by Konrad Naszynski with Molyneux in more of an advisory role.

It's not ideal for people who crowdfunded a god game principally designed by Peter Molyneux, creator of the whole damn genre—nor is what they were led to expect—but perhaps that's for the better at this point. Molyneux thinks that it's a necessary step, and he says he believes players will appreciate it with time.


"A guy named Konrad Naszynski—who actually posted a forum thread and started this whole thing off—he has so impressed me with his enthusiasm and his ideas," he said. "His fresh take on the story that's coming out soon on the update branch, for example. He's super passionate about making Godus a great, fantastic, amazing PC game. And it made sense to have him take up the day-to-day stuff. I'm still there. We brainstorm his ideas together, but he's the one who actually turns those ideas into working documents. If someone implements a feature, he sits next to them and tests it out."2627

Meanwhile, Molyneux says he plans to have developers post daily update blogs about their progress, and there will apparently be webcams around the office, presumably for frequent streaming, as well. If all goes according to plan, the community will not be in the dark this time around. Of course, given the project's history, that is a goddamn god-sized if.2829

The team's main priorities as of now? A story that's "meaty by PC game standards" and combat, which will hopefully be followed by the long-promised multiplayer option. However, there is still reason for doubt. In a recent forum post, a 22Cans programmer explained that multiplayer is probably doable, but maintaining servers will be extra costly.

"We've been able to [make multiplayer happen]," he wrote, "just not been able to afford the costs associated with releasing it. That's always been the issue. If we do release it, it's going to have to come with some kind of price tag. That or it's going to be limit[ed] to LAN/Steam friends games like it was when we first launched. The hubworld approach needs monetisation, otherwise we'd sink in a week from costs. I think the multiplayer [Molyneux] is planning is based on these known problems. Not sure what that means yet."

On top of that, two people connected to 22Cans say the company is still facing money troubles, something which leaves their ability to sustain full-steam-ahead work on two separate games—not to mention a costly multiplayer mode—in doubt unless they can secure more funding. When I learned of this yesterday, I emailed Molyneux for comment, but he still hasn't replied.30

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In wrapping up our interview that took place early that day, however, Molyneux made some bold claims. He of course asked that people give him time and leniency given that the team only recently began tackling the problem of Godus' PC version in earnest, but he also said he now intends to largely disappear from the public eye until Godus is complete.

"The fundamental problem here is me," he lamented. "I think my days of talking to the press and talking through development and talking about exciting ideas are over. I think we need to draw a line under Peter Molyneux. That needs to be it, because I think my reputation has hurt the development of Godus. It hasn't helped. Every time I'm quoted in the press now whether I'm talking about Dungeon Keeper or Steam or what have you, it becomes this massive headline.3132

"It's just become incredibly destructive. I think I'm no longer gonna go to GDC or E3. I'm no longer gonna go around on road trips for press. I think we just need to draw a line on that. It makes me incredibly sad. I loved talking to the press and I loved being a designer in front of people, talking through ideas. But I think now it's just too destructive. So now I'd rather retreat. I would rather die than stop developing games, but I think retreating gracefully from the public eye is the best thing I can do. I think if Godus was not done by me, it wouldn't have caught quite so much flack."333435

Granted, he also claimed that he's been trying to avoid speaking or appearing publicly for the past year, and the results have been... questionable, especially in light of the fact that he's spread similar sentiments around to publications like Rock Paper Shotgun and The Guardianwhile continuing to do more interviews. Moreover, keeping quiet is kinda what got us here in the first place, so maybe an all-or-nothing approach isn't the best idea. Then again, he cited death threats as motivation to speak out less, and it's hard to blame anyone for tying down their tongue in the face of something like that.

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(Image source)

At the end of my interview with Molyneux, I asked one final question: after this whole runaround, did he think he'd misled people, intentionally or not? His response was puzzling, verging on bizarre.

"Everything I say in the press misleads people," he said. "I spoke to a journalist yesterday, and the first thing he asked was, 'Are you a pathological liar?' When I say something in these 57 videos I've done, when I say something to the press, I truly believe it. And my philosophy, for what it's worth, is to be a designer—not to be a PR person, not to be careful about every word I say. And that's led me to this disastrous position where I can never say anything. Because everything I say misleads people. Especially with me, because I'm such an eloquent talker. I talk around a point and then a segment comes out."363738

But then he added:

"I said we want to make a great game, and I still stand by that."

So take that—all of that—as you will.
 

Athelas

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Not to defend Molyneux, but...

In May 2013, the people behind Godus released an unfinished, buggy PC alpha
This is the equivalent of saying: 'A red-haired person has hair that's red.'

Unsurprisingly, the article is written by ex-RPS journo Nathan Grayson.
 

Hobo Elf

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While I agree that Peter is a very easy target, I don't understand the sympathizers. This doesn't exempt Peter for what he's done (and not done). We can call out the journos for being pussies for only attacking him and not more people who are also backed up by megacorps, but Peter deserves all the shit he gets.
 

Starwars

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While I agree that Peter is a very easy target, I don't understand the sympathizers. This doesn't exempt Peter for what he's done (and not done). We can call out the journos for being pussies for only attacking him and not more people who are also backed up by megacorps, but Peter deserves all the shit he gets.

I don't like Molyneaux much, I would certainly never give him any money, but there's a point where one has to wonder what it's worth. Digging up the bit about the guy who apparently didn't get what he was due (the God of Gods thing) was certainly necessary. But what is the journalistic worth in what's going on now? Who the fuck cares about Godus? Like, noone, except now of course when the journalists have started flinging their shit. Now it's just kicking the dead horse, scandalizing, sensationalist bullshit. There's nothing to be gained, there's no interesting info to dig up. It's just shit-flinging, and the pigs wallowing in it.
And the goddamn hypocrisy of these so called journalists is something to behold. Moneyhungry opportunistic cowards.

That shit annoys me way more than wtf Molyneaux is trying to squeeze out with his little studio noone cares about. Maybe if the journalists had any kind of integrity they would've called him out when it actually *mattered*, when he was at the top of his game, slinging the lies. Not *now* when it seems more like the studio is already dying a slow death.
 

shihonage

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Reading that made me feel like Molyneux was crying. He is a medium-hanging fruit.

I wish they'd have the guts to go after Chris Taylor in this fashion. Unlike Molyneux, who is dysfunctional but still works hard, Taylor with his millions IS going to have a Watergate moment.
 

taxalot

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Oh, he's been getting shit alright. He's been getting it since Black&White.

It's not as much a matter of trying to sympathize than one of trying to understand the motivation of RPS article. Was the point of that article trying to show that Molineux isn't keeping his promises as a game developer ? Holy shit, did that need to be done on 30 pages ? There were people around who didn't know that anymore ?

This felt like kicking in the balls some guy who's already on the floor, bleeding because of his very own mistakes. It's not noble. It's not journalism. H
 

Astral Rag

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Messages
7,771
I'm surprised PM didn't just end the call after that first question. I'm by no means a fan of Molyneux's post B&W games and Godus is obviously a total clusterfuck but fuck that kind of tasteless ambush journalism, this interview wouldn't feel out of place in the Mail or any other sewer rag.

It's no surprise to see all the other usual suspects copy/ paste the drama in the hope of gaining some easy clicks.
 
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Black

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Messages
1,872,592
Both RPS and Molyneux are full of shit.
Molyenux has made some good shit in the past. RPS hasn't.
And obviously they chose him as their target because, well, he's a nobody pretty much now. He doesn't have anyone's backing. You think they'd call out Todd or Pete on their bullshit? They're gonna go after DLCvolve which has 2K behind it? R00FL33S!!!
Molyneux wins, ban Infinitron.
 

AN4RCHID

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While I agree that Peter is a very easy target, I don't understand the sympathizers. This doesn't exempt Peter for what he's done (and not done). We can call out the journos for being pussies for only attacking him and not more people who are also backed up by megacorps, but Peter deserves all the shit he gets.
He might deserve some shit, but he's not relevant anymore. What's the point of hammering the guy so hard now? That RPS interview didn't unearth any new information. Everyone's known Godus is mobile garbage for a long time. Everyone knows the answer to "what is in the cube?" was a non-event. So what function does the public flogging serve, besides earning some faux-journalists free praise for faux-hard-hitting reporting?
 

AN4RCHID

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In this case only toothless, cancer-riddled dogs have their day. And "their day" consists of beating them for peeing on the floor years ago,meanwhile a bunch of obnoxious puppies are tearing up the furniture unmolested. :mrfussy:
 

Metro

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Okay, Peter.

Yeah, poor toothless cancer-ridden dog slumping back to his million dollar mansion. Fuck Moly. You remind me of the people in Louisiana who said former Governor Edwin Edwards should get a reduced sentence because he was old despite raping the state for millions. He didn't get it but, no worries, he's still alive and kicking married to some broad a third his age... even had a shitty reality show for a few episodes. I'm sure ol' Petey-puss will land on his feet just fine.

At the very least maybe this will stop him from pulling off the same shit again. Maybe he'll start a KS to help fund his 401k and you dopes can all chip in to support his upper class lifestyle.
 

Black

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Oh shit, Metro's gone.
 

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