I've been trying out The Universim recently. It has a lot of the same ideas, but gets rid of many which I felt didn't work. Most notably, there is no creature bound to your will. I think the game is better for the omission. Version 1.0 is slated for January, and is supposed to include interplanetary colonization.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 6 points 6 months ago

That's the whole point of Black and White though?

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 10 points 6 months ago

I remember all the marketing and promises for Black and White 2 that were never realised. It doesn't feel like they really managed the first sequel, let alone another one.

[–] Fracturedfox@sh.itjust.works 18 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

I remember playing this game when it first came out as a mobile game. Super cool concept, but I also remember hearing the drama from the start. I definitely thought this game had been abandoned a looong time ago.

[–] SgtAStrawberry@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I remember loving it when it came out for mobile and really liking the updates for a while. Then I didn't play it for some time as I had done most stuff and when I came back it had had some big update that completely changed it and I really didn't like it.

[–] ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I remember that during the development of Black & White they had a journalist writing about its development and how exciting it was going to be.

Black & White got realized, but these interviews seemed a very fishy way of hyping the game and it's when I got wary of Molyneaux grand claims

[–] badcommandorfilename@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I remember reading those Dev journals too, but I feel like they helped me to get more out of B&W than most other people.

Yes, it was all about building hype, but it meant that I played more in a "find-your-own-fun-and-set-your-own-goals" way, which I think was what the original intent was.

Everyone's biggest complaint was that the missions were half-baked and felt like they were thrown in right at the end. And they were right.

[–] phareous@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

Wow how far he has fallen and what a way to ruin your legacy

[–] FMT99@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'll always have a soft spot for mr. Molyneux. Yeah his plans don't always work out but he's a real visionary, not (intentionally :p) a scam artist.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 13 points 6 months ago (2 children)

If your game has been in Alpha since 2015. And there are basically no updates since that time, then yeah you're a scam artist. He knew what he was doing was wrong and he kept doing it for nearly a decade, there's no defense for that.

Also plenty of other software developers manage not to do what he does so it's obviously not actually that hard

[–] alienangel@sffa.community 4 points 6 months ago

Yeah at least going by what's reported in this article, Peter seems pretty neck deep in the scamming. If it's not intentional the most charitable interpretation i can think of is he's gone senile and someone else is using his name to run the scams:

Molyneux has copped to failures with Godus several times, saying he's learned his lesson about overpromising - usually while making grand proclamations about what his next game will be. Godus Wars was followed by 22cans' only other game still available on Steam, The Trail, which Molyneux said would "build on feelings and emotions untapped so far."

Last month, 22cans released their latest game, the business management and invention sim Legacy, which seems to be Molyneux operating in his Theme Park/The Movies mode - except that Legacy is a Web3 blockchain game and they sold £40 million in NFT land two years before launch. 22cans updated Legacy players earlier this month to explain that they'd be ramping up marketing efforts on Legacy soon so as to help attract tenants for its current population of wannabe digital landlords.

Molyneux, meanwhile, began talking about 22cans' next game back in October with launch of a development blog for a fantasy RPG set in Albion, which is also the name of the fantasy Britain where Lionhead's Fable was set.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 2 points 6 months ago

Kind of makes you wonder who was doing all the work for him before.

[–] didnt_readit@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Idk…telling lies to potential customers that you know to be bullshit to get money from them based on promises you know you’ll never deliver sure sounds like a scam artist to me:

(From the article)

Molyneux talked in interviews about the pressure to overpromise in order to secure funding, telling Tech Radar that "the behaviour is incredibly destructive, which is 'Christ, we've only got 10 days to go and we've got to make £100,000, for fuck's sake, lets just say anything'."

[–] Khrux@ttrpg.network 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I always thought he wanted to be the Steve Jobs of the gaming world and never found his signature product to sell his success.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago

Perfect analogy