News Molyneux: RPG design is flawed

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/08/19/molyneux-rpg-design-is-flawed/1

GC 09: Microsoft's Peter Molyneux has claimed that there is something wrong with modern RPGs.

 

yes because a console rpg where you cant die is the future of things to come.

my arse it is!

 

Did he get replaced by a very poor clone during the development of B&W?

 

I've always thought that the way characters just always get better and better until they are almost invincible superhumans could be changed - if you become massively strong you would expect to slow down due to the weight of muscle for example. Or as your character gets older they might learn new skills but get slower to heal. It would certainly make rpgs a lot more strategic since you couldn't just rely on getting better at fighting and might have to adapt differently as you age.

 

Seriously, who can consider anything this man says as anything other than utter nonsense?

 

Molyneux has shown he likes to implement radical and new gameplay design in his games. SOmetimes they work well, and sometimes they don't. Personally, I'm waiting till more concrete evidence of this new feature in Fable 3 appears before making any judgements.

 

what I liked about alternate reality and it's dungeon expansion.. you could be cold- had to carry food, you could wither.. was pretty cool

plus you could haggle in the store with the shopkeeper, talk with the bartender and buy drinks for people in the bar.. your armor and weapons could break and needed upkeep.. you didn't run around thinking I need this many bats to level up- you were just trying to survive.. this was all back in the 80's on a 64k, 8-bit rig

you were considered a bucktooth, there was no 400 lb saddle poppers to sell to.. how is taking away death going to be better? and pokemon yeah

you know what would have the mongloids watering at the mouth.. make a game and base it on gunbuster manga- you put a cloak over yourself and can repel the universe

 

kind of sad even fable 2 was not ported to pc... i really liked fable 1 the lost chapters.
i guess there was no rpg where you could moon to the big boss before killing him, and they fixed that.
'every boss is moonable in fable 3! now worship us because we are the absolute obama's of the RPG world'
or maybe not

 

B&W had sooo much potential...the problem was most GAMERS didn't see or utilise it.

I remember teaching my creature to put trees into the workshop and build houses himself, harvest the wheat, and run the whole show on his own! most people just taught it spells and thought that was it!

Everything Moly did after that was over hyped rubbish though...

 

Something wrong since the 80's? Clearly the man has never played any of the Baldur's Gate games. KOTOR was good too.
I'll be interested to see what he does to "fix" RPG's.

 

in what universe is not dying a "feature"

edit: the molyverse!

 

I only played 30mins of Fable 2, I just couldn't stand the overall feeling of the "my first RPG" experience. Anything said about RPG's that isn't from the Bioware doctors is utter crap imo. Dragon Age and ME2 are the games I'm most looking forward to in the next year.

 

I hope someone straps Molyneux into a chair and tapes his trap shut.

This is the start of a lot of build up to a game that will be adequate at best - See his entire other collection of work and their associated pre-release talking from the man himself.

 

I'm probably alone.... But I want my RPG's to be harder, much longer, more intricate, with a truly bewildering array of strategies and paths. (Notice how at no point did I mention Graphics or DLC or 'Revolutionising the way we play games'.)
In short I'd like my RPG to be as unaccessable to the average gamer as possible, because after a decade or so of gaming I'm getting bitter and grumpy about dumbing games down.

 

trefarm i agree
i just cant see it happening tho
i cant see dragon age offering this either
although have you tried playing eve online?

We Will need to find out what is apparently wrong with my fave genre

 

Fully agree with you there, Black & White 1 was quite an amazing game, I still play it on LAN and stuff with friends and over Hamachi. Truly a wonderful and amazingly complex yet simple to use game. The mechanics behind the creature AI was absolutely wonderful. Black & White 2.. was a major let down IMO, sure, it was fun, but the creature was reduced to near-uselessness, which is a shame.

Fable 2 was cool, but the no dying thing was a bit lame & boring, there simply was no reason not to rush in like an idiot and die 50 times over except for scars. OOHH a scar, big deal.

Also..

Totally with you, Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls IV, KoTOR2, NWN2, etc are all good examples of beefy RPGs I think. I still play NWN1 actually.

 

I think you have to go a little farther back to find truly great RPGs. Look at Baldurs Gate 2 (talk about epic...), Icewind Dale and Fallout 1/2. Fallout 3 and KOTOR are great, but they lack the crazy depth and strategy those old school RPGs provide. Out of the modern RPGs I would have to say The Witcher as being one of the the best, if not the best RPG in recent memory. Its has a deep (if a bit overly done) story with a great combat and upgrade system.

 

I wish there'd be a BW3...BW1 was awesome and BW2...well it wasn't too great, but it was fun.

Sadly most people never got past the casting spells and killing people thing...

Having a creature run the show was the best.

 

the last good rpg i played was fallout 2 , before fallout ishar trilogy and ultima underworld

 

Fully agree with The Witcher, the last proper RPG from the new ones. Can't help but Fallout 3 sux, shame i bought the best boxed version which was available just to play it for few days and then i got fed up, what they've done to fallout is just ridiculous, it shouldn't carry that name as it's got nothing in common with classic fallouts.