• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The God who Peter Molyneux forgot - Curiosity winner Bryan Henderson

K

KDR_11k

Member
Hm, could Curiosity be considered a lottery? I mean, gambling laws tend to be VERY nasty when it comes to stuff like weaseling out of paying out.
 
O

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
More_Badass said:
While also making a big deal of a mobile game tie-in and its life-changing reward, then offering the winner silence and broken promises.
Click to expand...
Unbelievable.

Given the 'that part of the game hasn't been made yet!' out they've given themselves on the contract, it sounds like it was probably all planned that way from the beginning. I despise people like this. Seems like he has a very long track record of flat out lying and weaseling people out of their money but is still well respected, for some reason. Baffling.
 
W

WGMBY

Member
Purple Cheeto said:
Tim Schafer is the American Molyneux, can we involve him too?
Click to expand...

Hey, Schafer might not be the best at making sure a game gets finished on time (or under budget), but at least his overreaches are because of his crazy story and setting ideas, and not because he's proposing game systems that are too complex to create in a reasonable amount of time.

I haven't seen Schafer promise anything like Trees growing in real time or conversations on kinect with a digital person. He's never promised that a prize will completely change a persons life or any of the other crazy shit Molyneux did.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Ollie Pooch said:
Unbelievable.

Given the 'that part of the game hasn't been made yet!' out they've given themselves on the contract, it sounds like it was probably all planned that way from the beginning. I despise people like this. Seems like he has a very long track record of flat out lying and weaseling people out of their money but is still well respected, for some reason. Baffling.
Click to expand...
Not only is that part not made yet or maybe ever, that reveal video left out the very crucial detail that it's not some permanent thing. If whoever is "God of Gods" is defeated, then he's out and the person who replaced him gets the reward from then on.

Let's say the best case scenario occurs and Godus is completed as originally planned. I doubt this guy, who had never played a Molyneux game and doesn't really play games in the genre, would hold that spot for very long. Theoritically, he could be replaced in a week.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
Molyneux is one of the few people whos careers I legitimately want to see completely crumble apart. Stuff like this just reaffirms my believe that he's a scum bag
 
D

Doctoglethorpe

Member
murderface-s-present-o.gif


The irony of this is almost poetic.
 
O

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
More_Badass said:
Not only is that part not made yet or maybe ever, that reveal video left out the very crucial detail that it's not some permanent thing. If whoever is "God of Gods" is defeated, then he's out and the person who replaced him gets the reward from then on.

Let's say the best case scenario occurs and Godus is completed as originally planned. I doubt this guy, who had never played a Molyneux game and doesn't really play games in the genre, would hold that spot for very long. Theoritically, he could be replaced in a week.
Click to expand...
Honestly, for me it'd all be about the money. 1%, on paper, could be a sizable payoff for doing next to nothing - but the way it's worded doesn't seem like this guy will ever see a cent. I'm sure there's some clause in there making his paying 1% 'after wages' or some crap. Haha.
 
S

Sayers

Member
More_Badass said:
Not only is that part not made yet or maybe ever, that reveal video left out the very crucial detail that it's not some permanent thing. If whoever is "God of Gods" is defeated, then he's out and the person who replaced him gets the reward from then on.

Let's say the best case scenario occurs and Godus is completed as originally planned. I doubt this guy, who had never played a Molyneux game and doesn't really play games in the genre, would hold that spot for very long. Theoritically, he could be replaced in a week.
Click to expand...

Forget within the week, within the hour
 
F

FX-GMC

Member
Sayers said:
Forget within the week, within the hour
Click to expand...

6 Months. Now whether you believe anything that comes out of PM's mouth.......

His reign will last for about six months from when we unlock multiplayer. Within those six months, communities can come together to earn the right to challenge Bryan and overthrow him as god of gods.

At the end of six months he'll either retain his reign and retain the money, or we'll have a new god of gods.
Click to expand...

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Godus/feature.asp?c=61069
 
T

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
this is pretty awful. it actually seemed like kind of a cool reward at the time, but of course molyneux had to undermine the entire thing by promising something he couldn't deliver.
 
P

Purple Cheeto

Member
FlyinJ said:
What? Because Tim was late with a project he's suddenly classified at the sociopathic levels of Molyneux?

GTFO with that crap.
Click to expand...

He consistently over promises and under delivers and abandons projects and is living off shared glory from a project that happened over a decade ago.
 
V

Version 3.0

Member
It's always been hard for me to believe that Mr. Molyneux is technologically naive enough to believe that the impossible bullshit he claims is actually possible. But that seems to be the position of many others - that he's just overly enthusiastic and his imagination gets ahead of the tech.

I remember trying to cool down the hyperbole for Milo. The "game" was using pre-recorded speech, not synthesized speech. Which means Milo could only verbally react to things they'd specifically anticipated, recorded and programmed for. And there's no way that Mr. Molyneux wouldn't know that.

But that kind of lying, prior to a game's release, is relatively accepted. We call it "marketing". Maybe it shouldn't be acceptable, but it generally is.

But lying about a game post-release, like is being described with Curiosity, its in-app purchases, and the prize for winning, is another level. It's qualifies as fraud, in my opinion.
 
N

Nemmy

Member
Triggerhappytel said:
A means of digging faster on the idea of getting to the 'centre' faster was available to buy, yeah. And considering there was no 'centre' until 22cans decided to end the project just seems like a con. Selling something on the idea it has an effect, when in fact it has none.
Click to expand...

So Curiosity was basically a scam from start to finish. Holy shit. It's unbelievable they got away with this.

Z3M0G said:
Makes me wonder if everyone stopped playing it long before he decided to jump in... they "reduced" it down to ~1hr of tapping, and waited for someone to finally come around and finish it. It's crazy that this guy just decided to jump in only 1hr before it was all over.
Click to expand...

That's sorta lucky for him. At least he didn't waste too much time on this.
 
O

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
Nemmy said:
So Curiosity was basically a scam from start to finish. Holy shit. It's unbelievable they got away with this.
Click to expand...
I think they framed it as some 'comment' on how people spend money in games or something. But yeah, sounds like a total scam, like most of this guy's output.
 
M

McLovin

Member
Well its life changing in that he learned one of lifes valuable lessons. A lesson that most gaffers should know by now. You never believe the Molyhype.
 
J

Jamaro85

Member
Sayers said:
There's some kind of messed up stuff in that article. He stole money from his grandmother to buy a Pong machine, lied to Commodore so they would give him a bunch of Amigas and shot kids with BB guns at close range apparently sending a couple to the hospital.

Dude sounds like a psychopath.
Click to expand...

There is some gold in the article. I liked the part about being able to play DVD movies on billboards in game in Syndicate in 1996. This of course coming at a time when DVD drives for PCs were not yet available.
 
N

Nordicus

Member
Shadders said:
Nah, they're in good financial health. This article is from last week:

http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/03/f...eter-molyneuxs-reinvention-journey-interview/
Click to expand...
Oh wow, oh my fucking god.

First week he says that Godus has made him tens of millions of dollars, and that it still brings him tens of thousands daily, and then the second week he has the balls to say that his team of 20-something people is in bad financial health, and thus the company couldn't put more effort on Godus?

STICK TO ONE STORY MOLYNEUX!
 
O

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
Nordicus said:
Oh wow, oh my fucking god.

First week he says that Godus has made him tens of millions of dollars, and that it still brings him tens of thousands daily, and then the second week he has the balls to say that his team of 20-something people is in bad financial health, and thus the company couldn't put more effort on Godus?

STICK TO ONE STORY MOLYNEUX!
Click to expand...
And has apparently now abandoned that game to move onto another one. Presumably with the proceeds from the Godus Kickstarter.

Though let's be honest, given his track record, the tens of millions of dollars comment is probably untrue :p
 
R

RealityPales

Member
GREAT read - I was wondering what happened to that kid.

They should have never promised the world to this kid, clearly. Especially since they were neck deep in Godus development.

Who has the time for that?
 
S

Spieler Eins

Member
At first he was a funny meme, but now it's getting out of control with this and bailing on the kickstarter. What a senile jerk.

But the most important question is of course: Any word from Molydeux yet?
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Eurogamer understands he was promised a royalty of one per cent of revenue from Godus for the period of his role as God of Gods. (This God of Gods feature hadn't been developed yet, but there was an expectation it would be at some point.) However, there is wriggle room in the language that means 22Cans is under no time pressure to fulfil its obligation - unfortunately for Bryan.
Click to expand...
damn son
 
G

GeordieMark

Member
I stuck up for Peter in the thread about him the other day as I felt, and still think, people go a bit OTT in outrage about a few missing features from the Fable games, and the obvious over-selling of Milo & Kate, but this is really poor of him.

He made a commitment to an individual and has treated them outrageously badly. He fully deserves all the criticism and outrage he gets over this.

I have a feeling that he didn't get the winner he wanted from the Curiosity experience. I imagine he was hoping for someone enthusiastic about games, and that would appreciate the 'gift' he was giving. The actual winner isn't much a gamer according to the article, and doesn't sound like the type of guy given to displays of enthusiasm and excitement. I wonder if that dulled Peter's enthusiasm for the experiment, and ultimately led to the current state of affairs. Molyneux is the kind of guy who needs to be excited by a project and hasn't got time for things he isn't passionate about.

None of that is meant as an excuse or a defence. At the end of the day, he made a commitment to the young man, and should honour it. To not only fail to do so, but also pretty much cut contact, is pretty disgusting
 
Z

Zoloft Sonic

Member
Pete Molyneux, George Lucas, and John Lasseter should start some club, where bloated, horrible assholes with too much money ruin stuff and behave like dicks.
 
T

tonythedemon

Neo Member
Apparently according to the dev "FuriousMoo" who I assume is Konrad working on Godus:
Make no mistake though, I can't ignore mobile. It's the main source of revenue for the project and without it Godus is finished, simple as.
Click to expand...

and
So the fist half of Jan was completing the work for the Asia launch, had all sorts of issues with that because of a new account management system our mobile publisher is introducing. This had been scheduled for some time and was totally out of my hands. On top of that production was sorting itself out because of staff turn over.
Click to expand...

It seems a tiny bit of progress, although it was posted on the 6th so the conditions may have changed. I kind of hope Konrad can make at least something out of Godus.

source: http://godus.boards.net/thread/736/furious-moo-working
 
A

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
GeordieMark said:
I stuck up for Peter in the thread about him the other day as I felt, and still think, people go a bit OTT in outrage about a few missing features from the Fable games, and the obvious over-selling of Milo & Kate, but this is really poor of him.

He made a commitment to an individual and has treated them outrageously badly. He fully deserves all the criticism and outrage he gets over this.

I have a feeling that he didn't get the winner he wanted from the Curiosity experience. I imagine he was hoping for someone enthusiastic about games, and that would appreciate the 'gift' he was giving. The actual winner isn't much a gamer according to the article, and doesn't sound like the type of guy given to displays of enthusiasm and excitement. I wonder if that dulled Peter's enthusiasm for the experiment, and ultimately led to the current state of affairs. Molyneux is the kind of guy who needs to be excited by a project and hasn't got time for things he isn't passionate about.

None of that is meant as an excuse or a defence. At the end of the day, he made a commitment to the young man, and should honour it. To not only fail to do so, but also pretty much cut contact, is pretty disgusting
Click to expand...


Or maybe...and just maybe...Peter Molyneux being a lying cunt led to the current state of affairs.
 
G

GoaThief

Member
GeordieMark said:
I stuck up for Peter in the thread about him the other day as I felt, and still think, people go a bit OTT in outrage about a few missing features from the Fable games, and the obvious over-selling of Milo & Kate, but this is really poor of him.

He made a commitment to an individual and has treated them outrageously badly. He fully deserves all the criticism and outrage he gets over this.

...

At the end of the day, he made a commitment to the young man, and should honour it. To not only fail to do so, but also pretty much cut contact, is pretty disgusting
Click to expand...
I came to post something very similar, over promising on a game is one thing but toying with someone's security and life goes way, way beyond that. I am absolutely appalled, an apology and promise for contact won't suffice - if he attempts to get out of the issue by not giving him the money he's owed this needs to go to court and/or authorities.

Did anyone see the pocketgamer interview he did last year? Here's the relevant bit;

What has curiosity winner Bryan Henderson been up to, lately?

He's not up to anything, other than he makes a portion of every pound we make. He accrues all that money - we're not paying him yet, but he's accruing it. But he's not doing anything until we turn on the multiplayer.

Now, I had hoped to do the multiplayer stuff pretty soon, but I think I'm a bit worried to experiment more with the PC early access stuff until we've got this current tidal wave [of criticism] sorted. But when we do that's when you have the opportunity to come together, to band together, as nations.

I'm very nervous about doing this. Because it's a very very different approach to multiplayer and at the moment if I launch that I think there would be a dot appear on my forehead because we need to solve this community crisis. But we are hopefully switching that on in the next month or so.

It's a very difficult feature to get right because what we're trying to do is make an entire persistent planet and that means that it's got to be totally robust before we do that.

So what will Bryan be able to do when multiplayer is online?

Oh, so Bryan breaks ties. There's a feature that we haven't rolled out yet called commandments where your followers will come and ask you for your guidance on something.

A classic example of this: should women stay at home and look after the family, or should it be down to men, or should it be equally shared? When you make that decision you'll see what percentage of players chose each decision and if there's a clear majority that becomes the default behaviour through everyone's worlds. Unless you override it as a god.

Now if there's a tie that's what the god of gods, Bryan, breaks. So each week we'll present him with "there's been these commandments and there are these ties, what decision will you make?"

His reign will last for about six months from when we unlock multiplayer. Within those six months, communities can come together to earn the right to challenge Bryan and overthrow him as god of gods.

At the end of six months he'll either retain his reign and retain the money, or we'll have a new god of gods.

Will he keep the money if he's overthrown?

Yeah, any money that he earns in his reign. And any subsequent person that earns it in their reign, it's theirs.

So if I become a god and overthrow Bryan, I will earn money from 22cans?

From that moment, any money that we make on Godus, you will share some of that.

Do you stand by your claim that the Curiosity prize was "life changing?"

We'll for an 18 year old kid who was sitting at home and wondering what to do next, to featuring in a Wired magazine, on the BBC, in his local newspaper, and accuring thousands of pounds in his bank account, and controlling the moral direction of an entire game, that sounds pretty life changing to me.

I'm sure there are more life changing things, but it's money, it's fame. When this starts, the challenges are all going to be televised on Twitch. It's not like being in the Big Brother house or anything. But it's pretty good.
Click to expand...
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Godus/feature.asp?c=61069

...

I'm almost speechless.
 
O

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
The result has been “tens of millions of dollars” in revenue, Molyneux said.
Click to expand...

Peter Molyneux said:
He's not up to anything, other than he makes a portion of every pound we make. He accrues all that money - we're not paying him yet, but he's accruing it. But he's not doing anything until we turn on the multiplayer.
Click to expand...
If I were this Bryan guy I'd be demanding answers. and a shitload of cash.
 
O

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
GeordieMark said:
Yeah, if I was him reading that quote I'd be asking for a statement of exactly how much I had accrued.
Click to expand...
The guy seems to be quite passive and not wanting to upset anyone, so I doubt he'll even go out on a limb to push the question. Shame, he should be taking this liar to task.
 
G

GoaThief

Member
Ollie Pooch said:
The guy seems to be quite passive and not wanting to upset anyone, so I doubt he'll even go out on a limb to push the question. Shame, he should be taking this liar to task.
Click to expand...
Hopefully his mother will give him a clip round the ear and tell him what needs to be done.

If Godus has done as well as claimed that is a lot of money.

I'd consider hiring a forensic financial analyst too, at this point cooking the books in a troubled independent studio might not out of the question or before they go insolvent leaving no way to recoup.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Peter Molyneux: the sweet promises
2
92
6K
borborygmus replied
Another Code: Recollection | Review Thread
Analysis Review Hype
28
2K
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Hideo Kojima or a cult game designer and his story
Game Dev
40
6K
brian0057 replied
A look back at the Ratchet & Clank series & Insomniac Games | Behind the scenes
Game Dev
7
3K
Kuranghi replied
A record of Segas reactions, mistakes, missteps, poor or misguided decisions, JUST in 1996.
2 3
138
15K
kvltus lvlzvs replied
Top Bottom