Curiosity's (Molyneaux) secret, the one that would change your life forever, revealed

[Cyan]

Basically, you are a digital God.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/26/peter-molyneuxs-curiosity-secret-revealed

A narcissistic video, adding reverberation to his voice, sigh. I am not a big fan of him.

Is this the thing which was going to change your life and change the world forever?

The secret at the center of Curiosity, the iOS game from Peter Molyneux and his studio, 22Cans, has been revealed after the final cubes were destroyed this morning by Bryan Henderson from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Henderson has won the ability to be God over everyone else in 22Cans' next game, the Kickstarted project Godus, of which a playable alpha is expected to be released soon and which Molyneux showed IGN last week.

"You, the person who reached the center, will be the God of all people that are playing Godus," explains the video, which features a black-clad Molyneux standing inside a virtual cube. "You will intrinsically decide on the rules that the game is played on."

But that wasn't all. Henderson will also get paid.

"You will share in the success of the product," Molyneux said. "Every time people spend money on Godus, you will get a small piece of that pie."

Though this video was revealed to Henderson alone, he agreed to share it, and 22Cans posted it to their YouTube channel. See it above.
Peter Molyneux founded 22Cans last year after departing Microsoft, where he was the studio boss at Lionhead and chief creative force on the Fable series, as well as the head of Microsoft Game Studios in Europe. He recently joined IGN as an expert panelist during the Xbox One Reveal.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Well, it's an interesting way to pick the person that's going to "run" your game, and that person is probably going to be kind of excited. It's cool they're getting paid too. But for everyone else that spent all that time clicking away ... They probably won't be too happy. I imagine everyone that took part thought they'd get to share in the reveal.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

A random person is put in charge of a computer game. That random person amused themselves by tapping out tiny cubes over and over. Is that really what you want as a key designer in Project Godus?

I think Molyneux's just a little too far gone into crazy-land, making poorly justified decisions that don't stand up to reason almost because 'free thinking' is, in his mind, carte blanche for 'good and original'. The ethics of this app are also suspect. First players were told that they'd be working their ways towards the centre. Then they were sold means to remove cubes faster, and even put them back, paying to undo other's work in trying to reach the centre. Then were told that the centre is an arbitrary point decided on by 22Cans, and all the work prior to Molyneux decided to end it was a waste of time. Finally, we're told the final life-changing result that isn't money and will be life-changing isn't really life-changing and is basically money.

A parallel would be a lottery where you buy tickets, the more tickets you have, the more chance of winning. Only there's no set number of tickets and the lottery operators just keep printing more until they decide to stop. Then they offer the chance to pay for batches of tickets and to pay to have someone else's tickets revoked.

The invention of 'pay to make other guys lose' is perhaps the final nail in the coffin of legitimate gameplay. Other than that monstrosity of a concept, I don't know what else Molyneux can be praised for here. He says the experiment was synchronising thousands of taps p the same server which no-one has done before. I can't see that being a major hurdle to anyone wanting to design a game with such a huge client base; suitably logging and sorting of timestamps is enough. Any decent company would have rolled out a free beta to test the idea, or used their kickstarter funding to test it, or done something a lot more principled than selling gaming snake-oil.

After 1:30 I stopped the video. He's so slimy and I felt like punching him in the face.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I followed him on twitter for a while, but after I realized his free game ideas weren't sarcastic, I unfollowed him.

 

[Arwin]

I am purposefully avoiding watching the video as it is too hard to associate the current Molyneux with the guy I idolized as a teen, and watching him talk would probably change my mind about how I feel about this. But the main idea for this I thought was pretty cool and interesting. We'll see how it pans out. For the winner, I would define the following items as success:

1. Gain eternal fame from having won this, and being an important figurehead for the next game - assuming he likes games, it could bring him to events, podcasts and such in a nicer (read: dev or press) capacity.
2. Actually make some money if the next game is successful
3. Actually have a fun and unique gameplay role to play in the next game.

I feel that however iconic Peter Molyneux is, keeping him behind the scenes and putting a filter in front of him in the shape of a new, forward looking spokesperson who has realistic expectations of what can actually be delivered, and a much better flair for presenting in a realistic, sympathetic manner, would help him in more ways than one.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I checked out from console gaming for a few years. Why did he leave MS/Lionhead?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

To form his own studio, 22Cans. they've so far made Curiosity and are working on Project Godus. A classic God game in the Populous mould would be very welcome, but I'm very sceptical of the direction that game may be headed.

 

[orangpelupa]

I checked out from console gaming for a few years. Why did he leave MS/Lionhead?

long time ago he say something like... on MS he is chained, he want to be free, free to design game without the fear of PR fallout.

i only take that from memory, so dont count on me

 

[Cyan]

A random person is put in charge of a computer game. That random person amused themselves by tapping out tiny cubes over and over. Is that really what you want as a key designer in Project Godus?

I think Molyneux's just a little too far gone into crazy-land, making poorly justified decisions that don't stand up to reason almost because 'free thinking' is, in his mind, carte blanche for 'good and original'. The ethics of this app are also suspect. First players were told that they'd be working their ways towards the centre. Then they were sold means to remove cubes faster, and even put them back, paying to undo other's work in trying to reach the centre. Then were told that the centre is an arbitrary point decided on by 22Cans, and all the work prior to Molyneux decided to end it was a waste of time. Finally, we're told the final life-changing result that isn't money and will be life-changing isn't really life-changing and is basically money.

A parallel would be a lottery where you buy tickets, the more tickets you have, the more chance of winning. Only there's no set number of tickets and the lottery operators just keep printing more until they decide to stop. Then they offer the chance to pay for batches of tickets and to pay to have someone else's tickets revoked.

The invention of 'pay to make other guys lose' is perhaps the final nail in the coffin of legitimate gameplay. Other than that monstrosity of a concept, I don't know what else Molyneux can be praised for here. He says the experiment was synchronising thousands of taps p the same server which no-one has done before. I can't see that being a major hurdle to anyone wanting to design a game with such a huge client base; suitably logging and sorting of timestamps is enough. Any decent company would have rolled out a free beta to test the idea, or used their kickstarter funding to test it, or done something a lot more principled than selling gaming snake-oil.

After 1:30 I stopped the video. He's so slimy and I felt like punching him in the face.

I must admit those are very very wise words, I certainly couldn't explain it better.

I think the prize would be okay if he didn't stupidly decided to sell smoke as he usually does. The life-changingly incredible prize he was talking about, not to mention he said it would change the world.

It's no wonder Microsoft decided to let him go, and other companies too. Unlike Arwin and many other forumers, I didn't play the original Populous and never grew up to like him that much.

It looks like he began his decline afterwards. I tried Fable 2 and Fable 3 -especially this one-, and I wanted to love them but I couldn't.

There is a pretty good article on the subject here:

http://killscreendaily.com/articles...r-curiosity-exposes-our-naked-desire-conform/

 

[Cyan]

Well, it's an interesting way to pick the person that's going to "run" your game, and that person is probably going to be kind of excited. It's cool they're getting paid too. But for everyone else that spent all that time clicking away ... They probably won't be too happy. I imagine everyone that took part thought they'd get to share in the reveal.

There is an interview with the guy who won the prize, where he said that he felt bad because he won the prize after downloading the game an hour before completing it.

How long have you been playing Curiosity? How often did you play?
I downloaded the game only about an hour before I won, so I feel a little bad.

Full interview here:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...ew-with-curiosity-winner-bryan-henderson.aspx

In regards to the psychobabble weak thinking from Molyneaux -using bold terms like "life and world changing", and what Shifty said about slimy tone-, he stated those words back in early July 2012.

The prize seems to be totally improvised, because back in July 2012 Godus didn't even exist. The game was fully funded in December 2012 using their kickstarter campaign and after some crocodile tears from Molyneaux, and it wasn't announced til November 2012.

So Molyneaux is selling smoke again Not to mention he created 22Cans as a way to conceive what they called 22 little game experiments, but they abandoned the idea once Godus was funded.

 

[Cyan]

long time ago he say something like... on MS he is chained, he want to be free, free to design game without the fear of PR fallout.

i only take that from memory, so dont count on me

Ironies of life, there is nothing more PR than his words.

He defined Curiosity as "the greatest cooperative effort the world has ever known".

I wouldn't say it is very cooperative when the guy who won the prize had never played the game and downloaded it an hour before completing it.

 

[idsn6]

It is a very cool prize. Henderson has been granted a sinecure and the influence to affect it along with the experiences of anybody playing Godus as much or as little as he wishes. It absolutely has the potential to be life-changing for him.

 

[warb]

I find it hard not to like Peter Molyneux.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Molyneaux's problem is he always over-promises and under-delivers, so even if the end product is great a lot of people still feel cheated. I really enjoyed the entire Fable series, but I never actually read any of the promises he was making beforehand. To me they were just fun simple rpgs.

I started following him more as Fable went along, and it became very clear with Kinect that he had some over-the-top ideas that wouldn't happen. Then I started following him on twitter, and it's basically just a stream of nonsense ideas that will never happen. There were a lot of tweets about the cube, and I didn't even know what he was talking about, so when I looked up the project I kind of knew it was destined to be a disappointment. I'm not sure he's totally aware of how much of a letdown he sets people up for. Maybe in his mind he's actually delivering on what he's selling.

 

[Scott_Arm]

It is a very cool prize. Henderson has been granted a sinecure and the influence to affect it along with the experiences of anybody playing Godus as much or as little as he wishes. It absolutely has the potential to be life-changing for him.

It is actually very cool. I just think the expectations for people was that they'd get to share in the reveal. For one, they may have no interest in playing this other game. For the guy who one, well he gets to be a pretty interesting social experiment. He has been set up as an omnipotent virtual ruler, but didn't put himself in that position. It'll be interesting to see how much influence he has on the game, how he uses it and how the community reacts. The social experiment outside the game is probably more interesting than the game itself. Once again, very cool idea, but probably a letdown for the community after Molyneaux oversold it for a significant period of time.

 

[Cyan]

It is a very cool prize. Henderson has been granted a sinecure and the influence to affect it along with the experiences of anybody playing Godus as much or as little as he wishes. It absolutely has the potential to be life-changing for him.

The prize itself is okay. The demi god who won the prize is going to get a tiny piece of the pie though.

He totally depends on the success of the game. What Shifty posted makes a lot of sense.

How many ideas of the guy who won the prize are going to make it into the final game? Then there are those words from Molyneaux, is he going to live up to his promises of letting the guy change the game as much as he wants to?

I find it hard not to like Peter Molyneux.

I have never ever been a fan tbh. I tried but in the end I couldn't.

The ending of Curiosity just shows how much he loves himself and why companies end up not wanting him.

His video looks like something out of bad movie, like a dictator standing rigidly and in a monolithic way, puffing himself up with a micro reverbering and echoing in order to ensure his credibility.

 

[Cyan]

Molyneaux's problem is he always over-promises and under-delivers, so even if the end product is great a lot of people still feel cheated. I really enjoyed the entire Fable series, but I never actually read any of the promises he was making beforehand. To me they were just fun simple rpgs.

I started following him more as Fable went along, and it became very clear with Kinect that he had some over-the-top ideas that wouldn't happen. Then I started following him on twitter, and it's basically just a stream of nonsense ideas that will never happen. There were a lot of tweets about the cube, and I didn't even know what he was talking about, so when I looked up the project I kind of knew it was destined to be a disappointment. I'm not sure he's totally aware of how much of a letdown he sets people up for. Maybe in his mind he's actually delivering on what he's selling.

This picture is a fun reminder of his overpromising and under-delivering tendencies.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I just think the expectations for people was that they'd get to share in the reveal.

I don't think anyone was under that impression - the project clearly outlined the winner would have the option to share or not. Had they kept it a secret, people may grumble about not knowing. But the current grumbling is that M. basically lied about the project. "It's not money" he says, and yet the meat of the prize is money, and as Cyan explains doesn't really tally with the initial description. It does sound like the project was made up as they went along, and the prize was whatever they had to hand. The description of 'experiment' can be used to justify any of their actions. "Yes, we didn't really have a good prize at the middle of the box, but for the experiment we needed people to believe there was." The structure and execution of the thing was handled extremely badly IMO, and the same idea could have been executed in a far more interesting and involving way that rewarded players and the gaming community.

His video looks like something out of bad movie, like a dictator standing rigidly and in a monolithic way, puffing himself up with a micro reverbering and echoing in order to ensure his credibility.

I think that's unfair. The video was set in the centre of the box, or rather where it had stood. The reverb is to make it sound like M. is in that space, as if you had uncovered him in the centre of the cube.

I hope we get to read opinions from various people who bought the paid DLC, as to whether they are happy with the experience or not.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I don't think anyone was under that impression - the project clearly outlined the winner would have the option to share or not. Had they kept it a secret, people may grumble about not knowing. But the current grumbling is that M. basically lied about the project. "It's not money" he says, and yet the meat of the prize is money, and as Cyan explains doesn't really tally with the initial description. It does sound like the project was made up as they went along, and the prize was whatever they had to hand. The description of 'experiment' can be used to justify any of their actions. "Yes, we didn't really have a good prize at the middle of the box, but for the experiment we needed people to believe there was." The structure and execution of the thing was handled extremely badly IMO, and the same idea could have been executed in a far more interesting and involving way that rewarded players and the gaming community.

...

I wasn't aware that it was made clear from the beginning that the prize would be solely for the winner. Pretty much everything you're saying is spot on, even though I think the prize is pretty interesting for the person that won it.

 

[I.S.T.]

The prize seems to be totally improvised, because back in July 2012 Godus didn't even exist. The game was fully funded in December 2012 using their kickstarter campaign and after some crocodile tears from Molyneaux, and it wasn't announced til November 2012.

So Molyneaux is selling smoke again Not to mention he created 22Cans as a way to conceive what they called 22 little game experiments, but they abandoned the idea once Godus was funded.

Are you sure Godus wasn't even a concept by July 2012? I highly, highly doubt it wasn't even a concept by then...

As for the actual video: well fuck Molyneaux he's a pretentious git whose words are worth as much as the bits that they were recorded onto.