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[StoOgE]

No but he did say that the game would not involve publishers. If your kickstarter had promised not to use outside funding would you have still set the bar well under the needed amount with the hope of it going above?

No, but my original point got lost in a bunch of people calling me unethical.

what is the better choice:

1) Go to a publisher, and work towards finishing the final product and delivering to backers.

2) Hold your promise to not use a publisher and fail.

The point I was making is that breaking promises is a better choice than holding yourself to them if it harms the overall scope of the project.

It sounds like he thought he had personally asked for enough money, but that he was also incentivized to ask for the bare minimum and not bake enough money in for problems that could arise.

I would agree that KS basically incentivizes you to assume everything will go perfectly when it could in fact go horribly.

 

[KiefbladeMaster]

Molyneux isn't the first long time developer to be grilled over Kickstarter for over promising. He is someone that had a history of over promising even with publisher money backing him up, so when he started the kickstarter this was predictable from the beginning. I want to know why he continues to put himself in this situation time and time again, why if he sees his statements as creative ideas that he would like to some day see come true but doesn't expect them would he take up the role of selling this project to fans and asking for the money up front.

Please, link me to another interview that lambastes someone like Peter was.

 

[iMax]

If you think they're not uncommon, then you should be running a site my friend.

Do you not?! You should watch The Daily Show. This industry is, on the whole, a PR practitioner's wet dream. Regurgitaters masquerading as influencers.

 

[MHWilliams]

It is sad that John Walker will probably never be able to interview developers again. He probably has been blacklisted by every PR organization by now. If I were you, John, I would be updating my resume and looking for different job offers now.

He'll be fine. RPS has a great deal of prestige. People will just have PR on hand when they talk to Walker.

I'd rather 0 interviews than PR bullshit. I'd rather games get absolutely no press if they refuse to answer questions like that. Then hopefully it would come to a point where they would have to candidly answer people if they wanted any publicity for their game. There's only so many hits a PR release can get on their own sites if everyone refuses to publish it. If people do shady bullshit they should be concerned about consequences, not be able to just handwave it away and keep getting hyped by the media like they do now.

Then maybe gaming news sites would start publishing more actual stories about games (like Kotaku has said they'll be doing) rather than just being nothing more than a collection of PR mouth pieces that regurgitate press releases all day long. That's what most of them do, re-post press releases or post softball interviews that are nothing but press releases filtered by PR. It's sad.

Fair enough. At least you understand they're not under any obligation to answer.

Do you not?! You should watch The Daily Show.

I don't, mostly because we don't have a Daily Show. Even the Daily Show wasn't that in its first few years. Oprah can get a no-holds-barred interview. Other newspeople? Not as much.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

the Call of Duty of interviewers

Fixed D:

 

[2 Slice Toaster]

Boom, RPS. Good job.


Trying to call the interviewer "emotional". Hahaha fuck you. What a slimy asshole. Reading his answers, he reminds me of an old boss I had, one kept failing to pay his employees but promised the money would come, they'd make all the conversations about themselves and how hard they were trying and how much they believed in the company and blah blah blah. Just another manipulative pathological liar.

Was the interviewer becoming emotional?

 

[Axass]

The development community will likely side with Molyneux on this because ... he's not unique in the industry. Everyone has worked with a Molyneux. Everyone has had multiple managers that have over-promised and under-delivered. These types of developers exist in the thousands. They're usually not lying - which is saying things they know to be untrue - they are embellishing and exaggerating because they are genuinely excited about the project and product. They are usually the most enthusiastic people on the team. They always want to do crazy shit that's outside the scope of the project. However, most of these people are kept in check by PR or publishers. Though not always. If you knew how many times a Director went out onto the stage and talked about a feature the team wasn't planning on doing - your jaw would be on the floor - because it happens all the time. We're in a creative industry where people want to be as crazy-creative as possible - but are ultimately limited by cost, scope, publisher oversight, etc. When our vision is cut short by those limitations - it doesn't make us liars. When the limitations of doing business force changes to the vision - that doesn't make it a lie.

So yes, we constantly say things that will ultimately (and even likely) not be 100% accurate by the time of release. And to see someone be dragged over the coals for it - and see gamers cheer for it - is absolutely terrifying.

One thing is what you say, another thing is when you keep doing it time and time again, even when people call you out on that each time, even when you've become a joke of what you once were, even when you're trying to get money from your own fans to back a project and relying on your street cred.

He's lying, not overpromising, he lies a bunch of times in the interview as well, contradicting himself in the span of a few minutes. Anyone who's NOT a pathological liar like he frankly appears to be, shouldn't really be worried about getting such an harsh treatment. After 20 year he had it coming, it's a mystery why nobody asked him the hard questions after B&W, Fable, Fable II, Fable III, The Movies, Milo, Curiosity... we had to reach Godus, a crowd-founded game, to have someone ask him what needed to be asked.

Besides your whole point is "every developer does it"... you know, THAT is terrifying me as a consumer. You think that's a healthy thing? You think consumers deserve such a treatment? You think developers should get a free pass on this stuff?

I think people should be called out on this stuff as much as possible, maybe then your directors will STOP making promises on stage they can't afford to make.

 

[Wereroku]

Another common occurrence with Kickstarter. It's investing in an idea, not necessarily a finished product. There have been many funded projects that were never fully realized.

Yep and they all deserve to be taken to task for it. Molyneux was the only one willing to do it because the man can't shut up. He says in all these interviews that they are the last one the man loves to talk and bullshit and be in the spotlight. This was going to happen eventually because he has made people angry. People keep using flowery words like take his words with a grain of salt or he's overambitious. All that means is that he is a known liar and you can't trust his word. Mind you he is talented or else he would have been out of the industry a long time ago but that doesn't mean he can't called out for what he is.

No, but my original point got lost in a bunch of people calling me unethical.

what is the better choice:

1) Go to a publisher, and work towards finishing the final product and delivering to backers.

2) Hold your promise to not use a publisher and fail.

The point I was making is that breaking promises is a better choice than holding yourself to them if it harms the overall scope of the project.

It sounds like he thought he had personally asked for enough money, but that he was also incentivized to ask for the bare minimum and not bake enough money in for problems that could arise.

I would agree that KS basically incentivizes you to assume everything will go perfectly when it could in fact go horribly.

He didn't even do that. He went to a publisher for one part and then kicked the other part to the curb. All under the justification of keeping his promise for the PC version. It probably would have been better if he had going with the publisher on both. I don't think he had any intention of finishing the PC version.

 

[inky]

Who was taken advantage of? There was never a risk that anyone would not

I had a line of credit, and a bank account with enough money to make up the shortfall. I asked for what it would take to get the game off the ground at an amount of risk that I could reasonably afford to take on personally.

OK, but then that is a different situation entirely. Did you tell people: "I'm not going to use a line of credit on the side" knowing that you in fact, had one available and in fact would absolutely use it to complete your product? I don't think you did. So why are you comparing it with a different situation entirely?

I feel like the promise of "no publishers" is one intended to harvest goodwill, not necessarily because you won't need or use outside funding, but because even if you do, you are promising to stay true to a vision and not let outside forces govern your decisions due to money. He asked for people to trust him on that, then he violated that trust.

I'd say that is taking advantage of someone. And I'm not saying he deserves to go to jail or anything silly like that. I'm saying it's a question that deserves to be answered as honestly as possible and that, ideally, would probably make you think twice about saying things in the first place. Did we get a sense that PM understood that? going by the interview, I get the sense that he knowingly made a promise he knew he couldn't keep. Under budgeted his game, and was forced to contradict himself letting people down. And he's done that several times. I think it is not unfair for him to be faced with this stuff.

 

[Lalalandia]

He needs some assistant/carer that reigns him in sometimes.

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.

You can bring a horse to water.....

 

[Mastadon]

The way RPS dealt with the subject is pure harassment. There are more tactful and subtle ways to get him to understand what he has done to some people. Reasoning with him is a way better to get through to people. Harassing them just makes them put up their defences.

On the other hand, poor old Peter is so caught up with his own hype and imagination, he often falls so short of his grandiose plans. He needs some assistant/carer that reigns him in sometimes. To his credit, the man did bring us some great games but he always dreams a bit too high for this own ability or that of the team he is with.

I think he needs to go silent now for a while, work on his projects and let them speak for him.

But without the confrontational style, PM is free to control the narrative like he so often does. The Guardian piece on this highlights some of the same issues, but give PM space to weave his excuses without any comeback or scrutiny.

It's not harassment, it's persistence.

 

[KingFire]

That was absolutely heart-wrenching. Reading the interview is like reading a script from a movie. I kinda feel bad for Molyneux actually and I really don't know what to feel from this interview.

I do feel bad for him. It seemed like it was a melt down: He kept talking about how hard his life has become. Returning to home at 2:00 am and missing his child's play are not pleasant. However, considering his history of empty promises, I am thankful an interviewer was harsh on him, and perhaps that gave him a new perspective of what the consumers think of him.

 

[iMax]

It is sad that John Walker will probably never be able to interview developers again. He probably has been blacklisted by every PR organization by now. If I were you, John, I would be updating my resume and looking for different job offers now.

Why? He's just proved he's one of the few journalists in this sector with some legitimate clout. He's a rare commodity.

 

[Branduil]

Boom, RPS. Good job.

Disagreed. He fully deserved it.

Yup this.

Look at this part:

One is, John, you’re becoming very emotional, I think firstly you need to take a breath

Trying to call the interviewer "emotional". Hahaha fuck you. What a slimy asshole. Reading his answers, he reminds me of an old boss I had, one kept failing to pay his employees but promised the money would come, they'd make all the conversations about themselves and how hard they were trying and how much they believed in the company and blah blah blah. Just another manipulative pathological liar.

Exactly. A normal person would have ended the interview, but PM is still trying to manipulate the situation. The aggressive questioning helped expose how PM has consistently operated.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Was the interviewer becoming emotional?

Molyneux was being far more emotional than the interviewer.

 

[Simbabbad]

Ever since Populous came out in 1989, Molyneux basically reuses the same concept again and again while claiming his 25 years old concept is "revolutionary" every. Single. Time. And ever since Black & White came out in 2001, his concept gets poorer and poorer, filled more and more with bugs and bogus. And I'm not even talking about his other concepts. Frankly, I find Phil Fish got an unbelievable level of hate and crap with next to no basis (nothing related with games anyway), but Molyneux deserved this interview.

Also, death threats, harassment, messages involving his family, etc. have nothing to do with this. That sort of thing is evil for anybody, it's crap that appears on every topic, it has nothing to do with video games or gamers specifically. Even the kid from Star Wars Episode I (a KID) got that level of crap just for starring in his role. Until anonymity is removed from the Internet or your spend billions in moderation, it won't change.

 

[pj]

On the other hand, poor old Peter is so caught up with his own hype and imagination, he often falls so short of his grandiose plans. He needs some assistant/carer that reigns him in sometimes. To his credit, the man did bring us some great games but he always dreams a bit too high for this own ability or that of the team he is with.

"I could name at least 10 features in games that I’ve made up to stop journalists going to sleep and I really apologise to the team for that.”

That's not dreaming too big. It's lying to generate hype and press coverage.

 

[Mastadon]

Besides your whole point is "every developer does it"... you know, THAT is terrifying me as a consumer. You think that's a healthy thing? You think consumers deserve such a treatment? You think developers should get a free pass on this stuff?

I think people should be called out on this stuff as much as possible, maybe then your directors will STOP making promises on stage they can't afford to make.

Amen.

 

[Draconian]

Was the interviewer becoming emotional?

There's no need to bring logic to the people in this thread who will look to any desperate defense they can to justify what the interviewer does or demonize PM.

 

[2 Slice Toaster]

Molyneux was being far more emotional than the interviewer.

At parts, but since we're reading a text interview, its hard to discern tone and voice at certain parts of it?

 

[iMax]

I don't, mostly because we don't have a Daily Show. Even the Daily Show wasn't that in its first few years. Oprah can get a no-holds-barred interview. Other newspeople? Not as much.

I don't know what your point is here. PR people don't just block out tough interviewers. Their clout usually comes hand-in-hand with their reach, and therefore influence. That's value and if executed correctly (hence the existence of media training) can be extremely fruitful.

 

[KingFire]

Why? He's just proved he's one of the few journalists in this sector with some legitimate clout. He's a rare commodity.

Not in the game industry, iMax. The more ass you kiss the further you go..

 

[The Adder]

Knowingly under budgetting your Kickstarter while promising no publishers, exceeding your goal, then getting in bed with a pub? That's a lie.

Promising features in your game that you haven't even told your devs are going to be in it? That's a lie.

Promising to change someone's life then ignoring they exist? That's a lie.

Indepent of his tendency to talk big and walk small, PM is a liar and there's nothing wrong with asking if it's pathological or malicious.

 

[ScriptedReality]

I loved the interview. Dude had no room to try and wiggle himself out.

 

[SeanTSC]

Fair enough. At least you understand they're not under any obligation to answer.

Right, they have absolutely no obligation to answer any question ever. No one should. And the press shouldn't have any obligation to keep being their hype machine if a developer refuses to talk when they've done something that's bullshit.

 

[iMax]

Not in the game industry, iMax. The more ass you kiss the further you go..

Unfortunately, yes.

 

[Rymuth]

So uhm... is Konrad going to get fired now?

Poor Konrad.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

wow that was straight to the point. I would love to hear the audio version of this.

 

[erpg]

Standing ovation for John Walker 👏.

 

[JacksUsername]

Exactly. A normal person would have ended the interview, but PM is still trying to manipulate the situation. The aggressive questioning helped expose how PM has consistently operated.

And if he had ended the interview, people would have been complaining that he refused to answer the tough questions. People have decided to hate this guy no matter what, so it's a catch-22 of whatever he does, it has to have some malicious intent behind it.

 

[ironcreed]

Not in the game industry, iMax. The more ass you kiss the further you go..

And therein lies the fundamental problem with the game industry. Damn right I will applaud someone who is not afraid to break away with conventions and has the balls to call someone out on their bullshit. If his gig at RPS goes south, he can always strike out and do his own thing with a hard-hitting format. I am sure he would have a huge audience in no time.

 

[Alienous]

Knowingly under budgetting your Kickstarter while promising no publishers, exceeding your goal, then getting in bed with a pub? That's a lie.

Promising features in your game that you haven't even told your devs are going to be in it? That's a lie.

Promising to change someone's life then ignoring they exist? That's a lie.

Indepent of his tendency to talk big and walk small, PM is a liar and there's nothing wrong with asking if it's pathological or malicious.

.

It isn't a comfortable thing to do, but it's a case of trying to get straight answers in an interview with someone about their tendency to lie in interviews. Opening it with that question brings the point of contention immediately to the forefront, and when you have been caught in lies as frequently as Peter Molyneux has it's a legitimate query that could invalidate the rest of the interview, or significantly change the direction of questioning.

 

[SummitAve]

Why? He's just proved he's one of the few journalists in this sector with some legitimate clout. He's a rare commodity.

Proved this by asking a bunch of questions everybody already knows the answer to, gaining no new or interesting information, and all while putting in doubt any further line of communication? Great job! It's ultimately the opposite of what should be happening between developers and the press even if it is about one of the parties lying.

 

[Mael]

Sometimes they are, not most of the time. Usually its like nothing is happening and the press even sides with the publishers sometimes.

Bullshots are comm practice, so are PR pieces ridden with lies that are passed forward by the press as valid information.

there's quite a bit of difference between Bullshots and the level of stuffs PM does.
I mean seriously he's the guy that tried to sell us on Milo.
Something that wasn't even close to being possible the way he tried to sell it.
Based on that vid alone, I'd say he's master con artist.
The truth is it doesn't even register compared to all the shit he did.

ME fans were lied to(just a fact) and were called entitled by most of the press.

As of PM, the problem is not the fact he was confronted but the way it was done.

I don't think you'll see me siding with the press on the whole ME scandal.
Having read the whole piece, I don't find the whole thing that confrontational.
If anything he was given more than enough time to explain his position.
The starting point was rough but we did get the answer we really had to know.
Kudos on PM and RPS for that one.

 

[Palette Swap]

There's no need to bring logic to the people in this thread who will look to any desperate defense they can to justify what the interviewer does or demonize PM.

You don't need a desperate defense to think it is absolutely relevant to question Molyneux on his perpetual lies when it's really one of his defining characteristics along his ambition.
What is more surprising is that no one has done it before. You could argue Molyneux has kept going on like that because no one ever seriously called him out on it.

 

[iMax]

Proved this by asking a bunch of questions everybody already knows the answer to, gaining no new or interesting information, and all while putting in doubt any further line of communication? Great job! It's ultimately the opposite of what should be happening between developers and the press even if it is about one of the parties lying.

Think you missed the point of the interview.

 

[JacksUsername]

And therein lies the fundamental problem with the game industry. Damn right I will applaud someone who is not afraid to break away with conventions and has the balls to call someone out on their bullshit. If his gig at RPS goes south, he can always strike out and do his own thing with a hard-hitting format. I am sure he would have a huge audience in no time.

Yeah, a huge audience, but no reliable industry insiders or note-worthy interviews. Kinda makes developing hard-hitting content difficult.

 

[nacimento]

Pity RPS is only PC, they should do such an interview with Evolution on Driveclub psn +.

 

[bj00rn_]

Even though I've been critical of PM in the past, and the fact that RPS has been my favorite gaming news site for a while, after this interview I'm sorry to say I think I'm pretty much done with RPS. I do not agree with what happened here at all. Unless the guy tortured, raped and murdered someone, this is not the direction I want to see gaming journalism go in the future. So unless the editor is going to say something about this, I'm just going to do my own personal and relatively insignificant protest here by deleting my RPS bookmark.

 

[Raide]

"I could name at least 10 features in games that I’ve made up to stop journalists going to sleep and I really apologise to the team for that.”

That's not dreaming too big. It's lying to generate hype and press coverage.

That's also trying to keep his own hype going. People know what he is like, so he has to live up to his own hype. Nobody expects him to have a sensible idea, else it would not be Molyneux and nothing to talk about.

Dude should just melt into the shadows and work on stuff without making a fuss.

 

[Almighty]

Has Will Wright ever been held accountable for Spore?

Has Will Wright done anything since Spore? As far as I can tell the answer is no.

I also find it pretty weak that people are trying to excuse Peter Molyneux because he isn't the only developer to fail to deliver on a game. If this was the first time you would be right, but Molyneux has a very long history of over promising and under delivering and now it has come to bite him in the ass. I also don't think we should let the guy off the hook because once upon a time he was a great developer.

 

[Atrophis]

This thread has taught me that veteran developers are delicate little flowers that should be handled with kid gloves and grovelling respect at all times.

 

[aspiegamer]

The interview is fantastic! ...Overall! Quoting back things someone has said and actually pushing for answers (ie accountability) is something we need. This sort of thing is one reason why journalism in US politics has gone to hell, too; Often the most basic of questions like "can you please explain this ridiculous statement? Because we did some fact-checking and..." are never asked. It's 100% appropriate to form an interview around what someone has already said and done and not only what they plan to do later.

However, the immediate opening of the interview is horrendously unprofessional. "Do you fuck sheep? Because it looks to me like you fuck sheep." -- "No, that's really not appropriate..." -- "Let's face it. You fuck sheep. Now, spend this interview defending yourself and proving that you do not fuck sheep. Why do you fuck sheep?" -- "Do you think the zoological industry would be better without me?" -- "I think it would be better if you didn't fuck sheep."

No. Just no. There's already plenty to grill him for both recent events and ongoing issues. The proverbial homework was obviously done by having past quotes and promises ready for mention and that by itself is already going to result in a good article--You know, journalism-- But the immediate hostility is entirely unnecessary.

So, with this in mind, do I have any sympathy for PM? Hell no. It's best for everyone that this is finally catching up to him.

 

[ironcreed]

Yeah, a huge audience, but no reliable industry insiders or note-worthy interviews. Kinda makes developing hard-hitting content difficult.

You might be surprised. As long as you are not mired in some controversy, then you would have nothing to worry about. Hard-hitting does not mean crucifying everyone. But in this particular case, Peter had it coming.

 

[benicillin]

This thread has taught me that veteran developers are delicate little flowers that should be handled with kid gloves and grovelling respect at all times.

I'd say the vast majority of people in this thread who didn't like the interview are not saying that at all, and people constantly using this argument are missing the point entirely.

 

[thebloo]

This thread has taught me that veteran developers are delicate little flowers that should be handled with kid gloves and grovelling respect at all times.

Do you really not see a difference between grovelling and calling someone a "pathological liar"?

 

[Wereroku]

The interview is fantastic! ...Overall! Quoting back things someone has said and actually pushing for answers (ie accountability) is something we need. This sort of thing is one reason why journalism in US politics has gone to hell, too; Often the most basic of questions like "can you please explain this ridiculous statement? Because we did some fact-checking and..." are never asked. It's 100% appropriate to form an interview around what someone has already said and done and not only what they plan to do later.

However, the immediate opening of the interview is horrendously unprofessional. "Do you fuck sheep? Because it looks to me like you fuck sheep." -- "No, that's really not appropriate..." -- "Let's face it. You fuck sheep. Now, spend this interview defending yourself and proving that you do not fuck sheep. Why do you fuck sheep?" -- "Do you think the zoological industry would be better without me?" -- "I think it would be better if you didn't fuck sheep."

No. Just no. There's already plenty to grill him for both recent events and ongoing issues. The proverbial homework was obviously done by having past quotes and promises ready for mention and that by itself is already going to result in a good article--You know, journalism-- But the immediate hostility is entirely unnecessary.

So, with this in mind, do I have any sympathy for PM? Hell no. It's best for everyone that this is finally catching up to him.

Would that be an appropriate question if that person had been caught fucking sheep like Molyneux has been caught lying?

Do you really not see a difference between grovelling and calling someone a "pathological liar"?

Hey be fair he did ask if he was a pathological liar. He didn't just say you are a pathological liar so how does that feel.

 

[MHWilliams]

I don't know what your point is here. PR people don't just block out tough interviewers. Their clout usually comes hand-in-hand with their reach, and therefore influence. That's value and if executed correctly (hence the existence of media training) can be extremely fruitful.

As a person that has conducted interviews, they absolutely do. Especially in our industry. People assume they don't get the hard questions because people don't ask. That's not true. That's why I know what happens.

Here's Deep Silver's PR person. That's the norm.

RPS has prestige, but this interview in particular seems to be a personal one for Molyneux. He felt he had something to say, so he kept pressing on. That's not normal, regardless of if you're at RPS, Kotaku, or whatever.

But alas, I'll dip out here. Khorne hungers too much.

 

[Nafai1123]

A snake oil salesman that believes in the efficacy of the snake oil he's selling doesn't excuse him from selling snake oil.

I don't think he deserves death threats, but he absolutely deserves the criticism that's built up over the years from constantly under delivering on what he says, regardless of whether or not he believed what he said at the time.

I view this interview as a callout to all developers and publishers that overhype and underdeliver on their promises. PM is arguably the worst in this category and justifiably deserves the frustration exhibited by RPS.

The sooner we stop accepting bullshit the PR hype machine tries to generate the better. Games journalists need to stop acting like they are interviewing for future jobs and ask the real questions that the public want to ask themselves but can't. If that causes a implosion between pubs/devs and journalists then so be it.

 

[CambriaRising]

Do you really not see a difference between grovelling and calling someone a "pathological liar"?

Even though he is?