Will Lionhead Change The RPG?

04 Feb 2010 at 00:00:00 by Andy Alderson

We have a running joke at IncGamers about Peter Molyneux. Actually we have two, but one I can’t mention without risking both epic embarrassment and a libel suit. Anyway, on the podcast, whenever the Lionhead man is mentioned, IncGamers director Paul Younger inevitably refers to Molyneux’s “trail of broken dreams,” his voice laden with all the crushing despair of a jilted lover. It seems it all dates back the days of Black and White and certain promises that were apparently made and which never made it to fruition. The wounds, it seems, are yet to heal.

My first and only encounter with Mr Molyneux did nothing to dispel this image. After an interview at the gaming BAFTAs last year, I was invited to a studio tour at Lionhead which, to my dismay, never materialised. Although, to be fair, this was merely weeks before the unveiling of Microsoft’s Project Natal so it’s possible (I guess) that he might have been a bit busy.  

Yesterday’s announcement over Twitter that Molyneux will reveal how he will change a core gaming mechanic at this year’s GDC event, predictably, led to more comments about broken dreams. See, while it may only be Paul Younger who still holds a grudge over the Black and White stuff, Molyneux’s hyperbole surrounding Fable clearly still riles some gamers. Vaunting the first game in the Albion-based series as the future of RPGs, the Lionhead man arguably over-egged the pudding a little (OK, a lot) when talking about features that would appear in the game, most famously the ability to plant an acorn and watch it grow into an oak tree. Ever since, it seems, the phrase “a pillar of salt” has been suffixed to grand claims by Molyneux. And yesterday’s announcement is undoubtedly a grand claim.

Now, Molyneux is the first to admit that his mouth can get him into trouble, once likening his hyperbole to a PR-specific version of Tourette’s, but there’s something quite endearing about someone so enthusiastic about their job. And, of course, he had a hand in some of the most innovative games ever made and Bullfrog titles like Populous and Syndicate are bona fide classics that will always have a place in my gaming heart.  Accordingly, while the sceptics waxed dismissive about this supposed ‘game changer,’ I found myself getting quite excited about the whole thing. Perhaps, being British, I crave disappointment and love nothing more than a stonking anticlimax. Or maybe there’s something to this claim after all.

For one, this announcement didn’t exactly take us by surprise as it echoed comments made by Molyneux during his GamesCom keynote speech last year. Then, he suggested that he was committed to replacing one of the central tenets of RPG gaming with something much more intuitive and modern. In an interview with IGN later in the year, he dropped a few hints about what he was talking about at GamesCom, saying that the expression system in Fable II was a step forward but that Fable III needed something more and that the mechanic in question is directly linked to gameplay. His focus, it seemed, was to find a way for the player to insert their own personality into a game.

The most likely candidate for the ‘game changer’, if you’ll permit me to speculate wildly, is communication and the way we interact with NPCs. The days of text blocks and dialogue may just be numbered if what we saw at E3 last year is any indication of what’s to come. Molyneux’s Project Natal demonstration featuring Milo and Kate, smoke and mirrors or not, showed that he is committed to playing with the established notion of interactivity in games, at one point passing a note through the screen to Milo. With this in mind, it seems reasonable to suggest that the “long established” mechanic he will apparently replace concerns communication. After all, playing a role where your character has no voice, or is voiced by someone else, is undoubtedly a barrier to immersion and a game in which we speak directly to NPCs will not just be a passing novelty, it will likely be a revelation. Of course, Molyneux could be talking about something completely different or, equally, it could be that PR Tourette’s kicking in again.

Either way, Peter, I still want my studio tour. 

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