Was reading it at the same time you posted, friend linked that to me.
Don't like it, everything is under the assumption he's in bad faith, while he's just a developer doing his work. Other people have fucking spent it all and gone out of business!
But also, this is exemplary of why I don't support kick starter.
Although, people should pull their head out of their assess, the name of the initiative already explains this is a system to START a project would not get funded on traditional channels.
Kick starters have been using the tool improperly, presenting their ideas as doable on certain budgets, and backers haven't understood the real model of this.
This whole situation has torn me. I really like RPS and I'm not surprised that they pulled no punches (I'd expect no less!), but starting an interview with "Do you think that you’re a pathological liar?" stinks of cheap click-bait to me, and if PM wasn't already on the defensive it certainly ensured that he would be.
As Blackdog says, there's also a persistent and stubborn refusal among many people (a lot of the RPS writers included, seemingly) to understand the nature of Kickstarter. Anybody who funded Godus (myself included) would surely have had some awareness of PM's sketchy history when it comes to over-promising, and given over their cash in full knowledge that it was a risky project -- either that or they're far too frivolous with their money and are bound to lose it in some way anyway! The beta version of Godus that I played had some promising features, but it was very obviously incomplete so I uninstalled and don't plan to play it again until such a day as the dev's declare it finished.
Once upon a time in kickstarter
I'm all for kickstarter, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a gamble. Throwing money and petitions at things doesn't always yield results and people need to realise that and move on with their lives.
It's no different to buying shares in an "up and coming business" which then falls flat on its face and it's shares are worth nothing.
I don't think kickstarter and peter molyneux is exactly the best combination. Has he ever had a game meet it's initial hype?
Games kickstarters/early access work best when the developer already has something tangible for people to play.
Minecraft/Dayz etc were already pretty fun to play so if all the promises never fully materialise no big deal.
There's no doubt that Molyneux has messed up a bit with Godus, but I do feel like a huge amount of general pent-up frustration about Kickstarter in general is being taken out on him. The problems Godus has faced aren't unique, other developers — including the wonderful Double Fine — have been hit by very comparable issues (we're still waiting for half of Double Fine Adventure/Broken Age three years later), and many Kickstarters have turned out to be damp squibs.
That's kind of the business of games because not all games are good, and I think that people find that harder to accept when they're funding the development, i.e. taking the kind of educated gamble that publishers normally take. OK, Molyneux has always been a hype merchant, but I've always seen that as done out of unrestrained passion rather than malice.
He's clearly a good guy having watched and read many things featuring him, and I think that his apologies are sincere. He's made some mistakes and wants to make reparations, so what more can you ask really? Sometimes the internet seems like it won't be satisfied until it's utterly destroyed someone, as if everything is black and white, and everyone can be put into a 'good' or 'evil' category (the irony of that being a core theme of Molyneux's games).
When I first heard about how the guy whom was promised to be a god in godus got "forgotten" by 22 Cans, I got a bit mad at Molyneux. Feeling like it was the peak of many broken, or at least underachieved, promises from him. But when I started reading the RPS article I can't help to sympathize with him, that article comes in way too hot, even though I too feel that he has done wrong I don't think it's okay to treat someone like that.
PM is a pathological liar and deserves some heat for that. But what RPS did is just riding the hate train for clicks while cheap shooting him. They should be embarrassed and we should be too. Because after decades of false promises, who the fuck listens to PM anyway? You know the saying, fool me once....?
That interviewer comes across as really unprofessional... What a horrible interview.
Its games "journalism" what do you guys expect, all games media sites are fucking dreadful.
Yeah, that guy has basically cemented his position as being somebody no game developer will ever interview again.
I think I have boiled the entire interview down into one snippet:
RPS: You’re asking me to accept that you know you’ve run late on every game you’ve ever made but you were going to finish this one in a ludicrous and obviously impossible seven months?
Peter Molyneux: No, I didn’t say absolutely we’d be there, I said we’d try to finish it on this time. And why are you beating me up on these dates things? You sound like a publisher.
RPS: It’s three years later! People gave you half a million pounds and you’ve taken their money–
Peter Molyneux: One is, John, you’re becoming very emotional, I think firstly you need to take a breath, because if I had walked away from Godus I’d agree with your points, but I haven’t walked away from Godus. We are committed to Godus, we are recruiting people to go on to Godus, I have never moved that percentage beyond 52% where it is now.
This entire attack is about an overly emotionally attached reporter. It really is quite painful to read.
Newsnight wannabe.
'Why are you such a horrible person, Peter?'
I like the peter molyneux parody twitter- Was set up by a weirdo I know off another forum- https://twitter.com/petermolydeux
Yeah, I can scarcely believe that the interview is even for real considering how flustered and unprofessional this guy is behaving.
It's also misleading due to the journalist being both incorrect and badly worded. You could easily interpret that as meaning that Godus is running three years late, when in reality it's actually running about 1.5 years late.
There have been much, much worse delays and the phenomenon is not infrequent — even less so when we're talking about a brand new indie studio. Raking Molyneux over the coals for something that happens to countless project just because it was fan-backed seems silly. Isn't it kind of a given of Kickstarters that if anything they're more risky than publisher-backed projects?
As I say, 22cans has clearly had some problems and failed to do certain things in the ideal manner. But the severe attacks against Molyneux have been highly unwarranted. Apparently he's even been getting death threats and such, as seems to be the norm in today's world of Twitter-fuelled controversies where every week there's a new person everyone must hate.
I just find the whole Molyneux outrage thing ridiculous in general. Just play his games when they come out and judge them based on their final form. Why is so much scrutiny being applied to what he says in interviews and the internal set-up of his studio? Have people not seen the hyperbole almost all developers and publishers spread about their in-development games? Do other studios not have split resources and delays? If anything, this industry has a problem with games being pushed out too quickly.
lol internetz,
All I can add to this, as a developer, it can be extremely frustrating when representatives of your team make announcements publicly that are not proven internally - or any kind of boasting. It creates just as many problems internally as it does to the fans. At the very least you can say "we're trying stuff out, and it might not be in the final game." Humility is always the answer in the press (and should have more of it IRL)
I think PM is sincere, but has a way of sharing his excitement in a way that can do more harm than good. It's VERY hard to promise more and deliver less without shit hitting the fan, but it's usually wiser to promise less and deliver more.
I've known people who can talk for hours and be the creative vision for a project, internally that means filtering their vision, contributing to it and managing the fallout in development, usually these are not the best people to send to represent your game to the press. Unless that said person is the reason for your funding, and then you have little choice.
This is not a problem of kickstarter, it's just how he is. This was happening a long time before kickstarter. I have respect for him in a development capacity, but not for his PR skills.
In a weird way, this interview has made me want to buy Godus to support PM, haha. Maybe it's all a big marketing ploy to rejuvenate his public persona.
One of my elder colleagues started in video games press 25 years ago and has been a magazine EIC and knows the business inside and out. He knows PM personally and has tremendous perspective. His only word about the interview was "brutal."
I agree that the interviewer was brutal, but in today's climate PM basically walked into this and I think he knows it. I feel bad for him, as he is considered a legend by many but he's sadly burnt up his reputation. Saying his name evokes incredible frustration in industry circles now...frustration because we have seen glimpses of what he's capable of and we know he could (theoretically) deliver something amazing but it just doesn't feel like it will ever happen.
Oh well...
If I were in an interview and the first question was the pathological one then my mind would immediately switch to an ultra defensive mode where I would probably say things I don't mean because I'm panicking and not thinking clearly.
The article was really bad in that way. If he had worded it "There is a sentiment going around that you've been disingenuous in regards to statements you've made with Godus" would have probably evoked a more rational, less emotional interview.
Over the years RPS has gone more and more towards a rough, shock-journalism style. They are also too verbose without saying a whole lot. I gave up on reading them about a year ago for those 2 reasons.
And yeah, there's like no good game sites these days. Makes me really want to start writing about games more 
If someone was attacking me that way on the first question, I would explain my position and finish the interview there, if not straight away.
Fucking spoiled game press, they think we need them more than they need us.
Quote from AlexMAnd yeah, there's like no good game sites these days. Makes me really want to start writing about games more
MapCore Gaming Blog! -- Games journalism straight from the mouths of developers. The only rule being that contributors aren't allowed to write about their own product, unless it's some sort of retrospective/postmortem 6+ months down the line. I guess it would be an extension of the current "Features" section, presented more like a standalone ezine and with regular news posts as well as the more in-depth features. I'd read the hell out of it.
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