Toast On Jam: Peter Molyneux Is Not The Enemy But He Is A Problem

Peter Molyneux has been the topic of much discussion in the past week following some rather damning news regarding Godus, his latest bundle of as yet undelivered promises, followed by a brutal interview. As a developer his contribution to the industry has been great and we need people like Molyneux to continue injecting ideas into the industry but he seems unable to keep his feet on the ground. He overpromises, underdelivers and seems to sometimes have a very tenuous connection with reality.

In the wake of that interview, some defended Molyneux while others said that he needs to be called into question for his actions. There were those, however who championed the interviewer for his full-frontal assault on Molyneux. The truth is, there is no reason to open with a question such as “Are you a pathological liar?” or call into question the man’s dedication to his work and the industry. Not unless you’ve come to the interview with an agenda, with a bone to pick and a belligerent attitude to boot. Let’s put it this way: it was unethical.

That said, I do agree with those who feel that Molyneux must be held accountable for what is happening with Godus.

To provide a quick recap, Godus was Kickstarted in 2012 and is being developed by Molyneux’s studio 22Cans. The game went into Early Access in September 2013 and since then has been under constant development but is still nowhere near the product that was promised. There are key features still missing, an entire multiplayer component which needs to happen and let us not forget the Kickstarter stretch goal of a Linux version even though the game is built on Marmalade which does not support Linux. The real kicker is what happened with Curiosity, the game which promised a life-changing experience for its winner. The winner was to get cash as well as be made the God of Gods in Godus’ multiplayer. Two years on the winner, Bryan Henderson, has yet to see any of that life-changing magic.

In fact, Bryan was more or less ignored for two years despite being promised a life-changing experience and a cash prize.

Add to this the fact that Molyneux’s actions sometimes contradict his words and the fact that his own dev team is doubtful over whether Godus will ever become what it was originally billed as and you’ve got a sticky mess.

This is not some fly by night developer peddling barely functional detritus on Steam’s Early Access. Molyneux deserves earnest inquiry but not derision. Regardless of what he has or has not done in the industry over the past few decades. That said, he’s an industry veteran who many would argue should know better than to let Godus turn into the mess it has become while others would just dismiss this as “classic Molyneux.” Both assessments are true. Molyneux has a reputation for overpromising and then struggling to realise what he’s set out to accomplish.

He’s not the likes of John Romero who promises something, rubs it in your face and then fails to deliver. Molyneux is more akin to David Cage. They’re both dreamers who are hugely passionate about the games they make but deeply flawed in the steadfastness to which they cling to their visions and their words don’t always translate to tangible results.

Molyneux has always been like this though so why is Godus a bigger trainwreck than anything else he has done? Quite simply because it is being developed independently whereas his previous games were made under the watchful eye of a publisher to keep things in check. Furthermore, he didn’t simply make nebulous promises to an audience, he made promises to a specific person (Henderson) and has yet to deliver.

Now, I’m not going to advocate a big brother system overseen by Lords Ubisoft, EA and Activision but accountability and not having the final say go some way towards reigning developers in towards reality. If George Lucas hadn’t been left unchecked then the Star Wars prequels might well have turned out differently.

Above is a slightly off-topic but relevant aside about the curious case of David Cage.

Independent developers are great because they have a freedom that other developers simply aren’t always afforded unless they’re the likes of Naughty Dog or Rocksteady and even then there is pressure from the publisher to do certain things. It’s doubtful that something such as Gone Home, The Stanley Parable or No Man’s Sky would have come out of EA or Ubisoft and that unbridled creative freedom is great for innovation. That’s assuming things go well.

The flip side is that developers such as Phil Fish and Peter Molyneux are free to do whatever they want and often end up having the final say in creative decisions. Fish is a juvenile who canceled Fez 2 because he got a bit upset, regardless of what his dev team wanted. Perhaps that’s fine and what Fish decides to do with his IP is up to him. It’s a bit more of a problem when you’re burning crowdfunded money. Yes, when backing a Kickstarter project the backer must accept the risks associated with what is essentially an angel investment in a venture but there must be some form of oversight to provide those developers with the impetus for accountability. I’m not talking about entitlement but if a developer has made certain promises then they should be held to those promises.

That responsibility currently sort of falls to the community and games journalists (not real journalists for the most part) as a self-regulating mechanism of the industry. It works for the most part with serious backlash forcing the hand of companies but would we perhaps not benefit from a complaints commission of sorts to pair nicely with Caveshen’s suggestion of a gaming board. This would hold developers accountable for any undelivered promises they’ve made.

In reality though, such a commission would be inundated with complaints all across the spectrum from preposterous to urgently valid and would likely not function nearly as well as one might hope. So what’s the solution? Surely not to force these people out of the industry because aside from some of the truly awful shovelware on Steam, people get into game development out of a passion.

The likes of Phil Fish left the industry of his own accord so that solves that problem but what should be done to get Molyneux back on track and keep people like Cage from going a similar route?

Perhaps the sane thing to do would be to stage an intervention when a developer goes sideways. A group of peers from within the industry who could meet with said developer, sit them down and hopefully set them straight. It’s idealistic and frankly I’m not wholly sure who within the industry is best suited for such a task but it’s an idea. These are talented and passionate people but people nonetheless. People with flaws so in the same way that smaller communities such as the local game dev scene support each other, perhaps something like that should exist on a bigger scale.

After all, these are not bad people but people with a lot of passion, a lot of drive and certainly a vision of what they want to achieve. these are people that the industry needs but sometimes they need to take heed of a second opinion or simply take a step back and look at what they’re doing.

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