Peter’s Fables
Like many gamers, and apparently the entirety of the gaming press, I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Fable 2. Unlike most of them, the reason I’m eagerly awaiting it is so that we can stop hearing about the bloody thing.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the first Fable, and it did some interesting things, namely allowing you to watching your hero develop visually in response to your actions. But it also did a lot of stuff wrong, like having a combat system so shallow you didn’t need to take of your shoes to paddle in it1, and a complete and utter lack of anything resembling a decent story.
It’s the latter that really bugs me. Every time, every damn time, Peter Molyneux gets up to talk about Fable 2, he keeps going on about emotional involvement, and every time he does it seems that everyone raises their voices in chorus to declare that when PM talks about emotion in gaming, you sit up and listen.
But frankly, I’m struggling to understand why. The good ship Emotions in Games has long since sailed. Valve were aboard, so were Irrational and Bioware. Hell, even developers like Bungie and Starbreeze were hanging gamely from the railings. Lionhead, meanwhile, were sitting on the beach, building sandcastles of out of fantasy clichés and bad voice acting.
The first step to creating emotional involvement in a game is making you believe in its world. If you don’t buy into it, then you won’t care what happens to any of the characters that inhabit it. But Fable never even tried to make me believe that Albion was a real place. From the fact that every character spoke in ‘Oh arr zurr’ exaggerated British regional accents (this from an English developer, mind you, who really should know better), to the fact that my character’s every emotion was conveyed through ‘comic’ mime. And that my most significant interactions with the populous involved either striking a pose, roaring, or farting at them. How witty2.
It’s not just Fable, though. There has never been a game from Lionhead, or from Bullfrog before it, that made even a passing attempt to generate any emotion other than mirth in the player. Perhaps I’m being to harsh. Perhaps the unbridled optimism for emotion in Fable 2 is based on Peter Molyneux’s stated plans. Which would be great, except that, from what he’s said, the emotional anchor for the game is…your dog.
I’m sure it’s going to be a great dog. If there’s one thing Lionhead do very well, it’s funky creature AI. But honestly, it’s just a dog. Yes, you can get emotionally attached to a pet, but it’s not enough to be a driving emotional force in the life of any character outside of a Disney film. The Half Life series has Alex Vance, possibly the most rounded and convincing digital character ever created, as its emotional heart. Fable 2 is going to have a dog.
Sigh.
Bottom line, I’ll certainly be buying Fable 2. I’ll probably be enjoying Fable 2. But I’ll bet my bottom dollar that I’ll be enjoying it for the same reason I enjoyed the first fable, which is basically for the chance to play The Sims meets Conan. For the next great stride in computerised storytelling, my gaze is fixed firmly elsewhere.
1Although not the point of this article, I want to take a moment on the combat system. It was, as noted, shallow, and so easy you would need to actually lack thumbs to lose a fight. The argument from Lionhead, which has expressly been applied to Fable 2 as well, is that although anyone can win the fights, a skillful player can work for extra rewards. Fight well, and you get more experience. Think about that for a moment. The good players, who already find combat too easy, get bonus experience, making them more powerful, and any future combat even easier. Hooray for game balance.
2I’ll admit, farting is inherently funny. It was highly amusing in, say, the Oddworld games. But in the Oddworld series, when you got past the bodily functions and slapstick comedy, you would find a game that was making a serious point about industrialisation and the treatment of native peoples. When you get past them in Fable, you realise that there is nothing but an endless vista of more farting and more slapstick on the other side, like the ninth circle of hell as designed by the Chuckle Brothers.
Gaming Wisdom of the Crafty Banana 
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