Fable 2 creator and legendary game designer, Peter Molyneux, has made the unusual step of asking game reviewers for favours. Early review copies of the game are being sent out ahead of the launch later in the month and include a letter from Molyneux asking reviewers to see it from a non-gamer’s perspective.
Molyneux writes: “I have a favour to ask you — we built this game not only to appeal to gamers like yourself, but to appeal to anybody. So please, please, please, please, please find somebody who doesn’t play games, watch them play it and see how their world turns out, because I think it’s only when you see those differences that the unique experiences comes through.”
On the one hand, it seems like a reasonable request. Fable 2 is an important part of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 arsenal in the run up to the festive period. Gears of War 2 is targeting the hardcore gamers, Fable 2 is specifically designed to give a more casual experience. And it will be going up against Sony’s enormously hyped LittleBigPlanet, which also has its sights set on casual players.
But then again, this just daft. The reviewer may well be a hardcore gamer themselves, but their job is to analyse it from the perspective of their readers. If they can’t do that, well, it’s a problem for their editor, not the developer.
Molyneux is famous for letting his mouth write cheques his development studio can’t cash. With Fable 2′s online coop mode being delayed until a later patch, is it the fear of a few Metacritic points that has the developer wriggling so desperately?
Out Oct 24| £45 | Fable II (via ArsTechnica)
