Shine on, you crazy diamond. Can't wait to see what he comes up with.

i hope that he makes his dream game... i certainly hope, that with microsoft gone, he can open his imagination box once again

Recent news of Molyneux seems to indicate that he's finally managing to get out of his little bubble in fantasy land. That can only be a good thing.

I told you suckers! I TOLD YA BRO, I TOLD YA!

I knew the real Peter was still in there somewhere. I knew his insanity was still there, it was just locked in a padded cell. With chair adjustment personnel in there with him.

Doclector:
Sorry, but molyneux has been upstaged in this story by the revelation that microsoft hires chair adjustment personel. I mean...what other jobs to microsoft have people going around doing?

You don't want to know...

And I agree, the fact that Microsoft hires "professional chair adjustment personnel" steals the show in this article.

I love how he says: "I felt like I was being suffocated creatively a little bit." To use such a powerful word as suffocated clearly indicates that he couldn't take it anymore. But then he throws in "a little bit" in order not to hurt Microsoft's feelings. X'D
On a graver note, does anyone else get a bit of a "it's-Microsoft's-fault-that-my-games-haven't-been-amazing" vibe?

OK Peter I forgive you for convincing me to waste my money on Fable 2, I see now that this is the sort of environment you were in. Where your company is a babysitter.

Anyway the optimistic person in me hopes that something great will come of this.

The Chair Adjustment Bureau. They make sure all chairs, and the people in them, stay upright and in their proper place. In order to escape the Chair Adjustment Bureau, Molyneux had to escape and go around the system while working within it to affect real change.

I'd still love to see what Peter Molyneux is capable of without the lead weights around his neck and shoulders. If he is incredibly dissatisfied with what he's done so far, I can't WAIT to see the kind of game that he'd be really PROUD of.

Peter Molyneux is a beacon of light in an increasingly stagnant and intellectually bankrupt industry. He honestly gives me hope the way only a crazy person can.

I'm keeping an eye on him now. I lost interest in Molyneux when he was just churning out fable games. But I'm excited to see what he does by himself and with such good motivations for leaving the company. He played a big part in my childhood with populous and dungeon keeper. Can't wait to see what he does!

Scars Unseen:

RaikuFA:

MartianWarMachine:
They're both looney, but we love Molyneux for it more than we do Microsoft... right? o.O

I do. At least Molyneux dosen't charge $60 for online just so you can get screamed at by 12 year olds.

Yet.

I find it absolutely hilarious that someone would go around the office, adjusting chairs regardless of their current state of occupancy.

It's the engineers that are suppose to be working on the Next Xbox, but instead they have no ideas so they give the engineers busy work.

I don't see why Fable and Black & White are so unpopular. I didn't like Fable 2 much and I didn't like 3 at all, but I did really like the first one, which is something I seem to be nearly alone on. I've played through it more times than I can count. And I freakin' love Black & White 2. I've sank far too many hours on that in the past.
I just felt like throwing that in there.

But yeah, whether you like his games or not, everyone's got to love Peter Molyneux. He could end up making good games again. You never know.

*sigh*

As much as I don't like a lot of Microsoft's policy choices, I think it's unfair to judge them over this issue.

For a company that specializes largely in things that require its workers to be sitting down most of the workday, having someone who makes sure their chairs aren't going to cause long-term back damage is kind of important. It's basically a preemptive health program: you cater to the sort of ailments that your employees are likely to have. Construction workers wear hardhats, office workers get ergonomic chairs and generous treatment plans for things like carpal-tunnel syndrome.

To use the previous example, this is like Molyneux quitting his job at a construction site because someone comes around every so often to make sure that everyone's wearing their hardhats. Sure, when hardhats prevent medical problems, it tends to be quite a bit more obvious, but back problems? Ask anyone who has back problems. They're an absolute bitch. And they don't have magical hardhats to stop them when they creep up, either. They don't make any noise at all, so you need a much more passive prevention system.

MartianWarMachine:
They're both looney, but we love Molyneux for it more than we do Microsoft... right? o.O

if i had to choose? Peter. his kinda loony is better then Microsoft's kind of loony

ether way, will he finally do all the stuff he says he will?

Scars Unseen:

RaikuFA:

MartianWarMachine:
They're both looney, but we love Molyneux for it more than we do Microsoft... right? o.O

I do. At least Molyneux dosen't charge $60 for online just so you can get screamed at by 12 year olds.

Yet.

I find it absolutely hilarious that someone would go around the office, adjusting chairs regardless of their current state of occupancy.

Talk about creating jobs in a bad economy. I wonder how much chair adjusters are paid.

Well I certainly won't be missing him anytime soon. All he's ever done since before the first Fable is lie outright about what his games can do. If he's leaving over chairs then I was right all along: The guy is an utter lunatic.

I'm pretty sure the Chair Adjustment Personnel was hired personally by Molyneux, then when the idea didn't work out he blamed it on someone else :P

It's actually quite sad how little he apparently had time to do game development at the end. In the interview he states that he had hardly any input in Fable 3 because he was running around on a bunch of events for Microsoft. Now with 22 cans he can be free to obsess over the details he wants and work along with other enthusiastic developers and focus on development rather than business management.

6SteW6:
I'm pretty sure the Chair Adjustment Personnel was hired personally by Molyneux, then when the idea didn't work out he blamed it on someone else :P

Imagine a game about a chair. As you play with the chair in-game the chair you sit in gets adjusted in real-time for a fully immersive experience!

...Yup, that sounds like Peter allright.

cricket chirps:
Aww, poor Molyneux. :( I'ld definately put the Fable series up there as one of the best series of all time. So what #3 was just more #2. #2 was great! So i saw no real problem :/

Really hope he makes the breakthrough game he wants to.

Thunderous Cacophony:

The thought that Microsoft employs at least one person to adjust everyone's chair for optimum ergonomics, rather than trusting that they can handle their own butt-holsters, is what did it for him. Microsoft doesn't want to take a risk that their developers might not perform at their optimum capacity, making optimum profits; Molyneux sees the chair adjustment as a metaphor for not wanting to take risks of any kind, which is the antithesis of creativity. I hope he does produce something amazing; he's kinda pretentious, but we need big names who love creating games and exploring what they can do.

This statement is perfectly worded. *claps*
Also nice name xD It's the antithesis of mine. i'ld have taken that if i thought of it.

*takes a bow*
Thank you for your praise, and may I mention how stylish your top hat is?
And I agree that there was nothing really wrong with the Fable series; he just built it up too much, and when people saw more of the same their hearts were broken.

MartianWarMachine:

ReservoirAngel:

MartianWarMachine:
They're both looney, but we love Molyneux for it more than we do Microsoft... right? o.O

I know I do. Microsoft's lunacy is just run-of-the-mill "what the fuck is wrong with you people" lunacy. Peter's lunacy is just oddly charming, I can never find it in me to dislike the guy.

I know, right? He's like...

...I spent over an hour trying to think of a way to describe him, and failed ._.

Endearing, is the word I've been using.

I got the impression from this article that Molyneux, when he wants to think of ideas, goes into some kind of bubble, eyes closed, headphones on. Then this chair adjustment personnel dared to disturb him from his creativity coma! How outrageous!

JasonKaotic:
I don't see why Fable and Black & White are so unpopular. I didn't like Fable 2 much and I didn't like 3 at all, but I did really like the first one, which is something I seem to be nearly alone on. I've played through it more times than I can count. And I freakin' love Black & White 2. I've sank far too many hours on that in the past.
I just felt like throwing that in there.

You're not alone. I liked the first Fable more that 3 (I don't know much about 2 'coz PC), made a lot of playthroughs and as for Black & White I actually have it installed right now and return to play it from time to time.

I got weary of the Fable franchise milking, maybe something more akin to the older titles will come along after he starts working on his own.

Doclector:
Sorry, but molyneux has been upstaged in this story by the revelation that microsoft hires chair adjustment personel. I mean...what other jobs to microsoft have people going around doing?

I'm waiting for the "Hot drink" staff, making sure that your coffee/hot chocolate won't burn your tongue or the top of your mouth, so that you won't be hindered when talking to your employees.

People give Molyneaux a hard time, but he's one of the people who you know really gives a shit. He'll admit failures and always want to do better.

That being said this will either lead to brilliance or we'll see him on the news doing something like

I'm imagining a giant group of people, developer veterans, just leaving their posts and assembling a super development team. No publishers, no boundaries, just development.

RaikuFA:
So he left because someone touched his chair?

This guy is looney.

Don't looney people make great artists? Da Vinci was a bit mad.

SonOfVoorhees:
I thought his last few games failed (eventhough i enjoyed them) because he doesnt know when to stop adding new ideas and thus the games are less than what they could have been. I like that he is imaginative and creative but when making a game you stop implementing new ideas and just make the game - if you have time once your finished then add new stuff. But atleast make the core gameplay good to begin with. Its like he starts off wanting to make the best loaf of bread he can and then half way through decides to make a cake instead and try to turn the bread mix into cake mix. All you end up doing is make an ok cake instead of an awesome loaf of bread.

Your analogy hit the nail right on the head.

I worked with Pete on a game a few years ago (back in the Lionhead days), and he is genuinely a lovely guy. Sure, some of his ideas are crazy, but some aren't and the ones that aren't sometimes make you think, "why didn't I think of that". And he cares... oh boy, does he care - he cares about games in general, the game currently being made, and he cares passionately about the gamer that will be playing it. And there's nothing wrong with any of that (quite the opposite, in fact).

However... he is an absolute nightmare to work with beyond the initial ideas phase. When it comes to the actual implementation of his ideas, he's hopeless because of exactly what your analogy suggests. He just can't leave something alone to fully mature to see whether it will be a good mechanic or a crap one. If it isn't very quickly an awesomely amazing mechanic, he'll be off on a tangent changing things so that the original idea never has a chance to come to fruition.

The ideal way for Pete to make a game is this:
1) Be the visionary for the game at the beginning. He is better than almost anybody in the industry at this. Come up with crazy ideas all over the place.
2) Remove Pete from the building while these ideas are prototyped and iterated on for a few months.
3) Allow him back in the building to review the prototyped mechanics. Allow him to suggest modifications, further iterations, and so on.
4) Banish him from the building once again while these changes are being made. Repeat prototyping phase until time is up.
5) A final review of core gameplay mechanics with Pete back in the room. What worked, what didn't? Now we have the core of the game nailed down.
6) Fly Pete to the other side of the world for a couple of years and let the dev team actually complete the initial ideas and mechanics.

And, of course, don't ever, ever let him in front of a journalist halfway through development, or you'll be reading about some great feature you didn't know was going to be in your game, and now you have to figure out how the hell to cram it into the schedule in time for release....

I'd never make it at Microsoft, my first day at work at my current job I brought in a huge bean bag chair and stuff it into my office and then work from there. My boss didn't seem to mind, though some of my clients gave me some odd looks. How are they going to adjust my chair huh?! huh?!