Lionhead’s Molyneux asks Reviewers of Fable 2 for Special Consideration

The original Fable, while an enjoyable experience, suffered heavily from over-hyping; in the years and months leading up to its release, Lionhead founder and game developer Peter Molyneux became somewhat infamous from promising incredibly grandiose things for Fable. When a lot of once-promised features didn’t make the final cut, gamers felt a bit gipped, and the Fable experience became somewhat tainted.

Fable 2, the second installment of Lionhead Studios’ action RPG series, is set to release on October 21st. For those of you unfamiliar with the first game, Fable’s biggest selling point was the way the world of Albion and your character changed based on the decisions you made. While the good-character-or-evil-character dynamic is not exactly revolutionary (see: Star Wars games), Fable added some new twists to the idea, such as varying your character’s appearance or having the populace of Albion cheer you or flee from you depending on your moral decisions.
Now, mere days from the release of Fable’s sequel, it has been reported by several gaming review sites that the review copy of Fable 2 included a letter from Molyneux himself.

Sit Ubu, Sit. Good dog.

In this letter, Molyneux asks the reviewers to watch a “non-gamer” play through Fable in order to gauge their experiences. This strikes me as interesting for a couple of reasons. One, I have to believe there are other gamers out there who were jaded by the original Fable’s shortcomings and as a result were hesitant about the sequel. Having Molyneux specifically ask for special review consideration makes me even more wary about the game. Second, I would like to think that any reviewer worth their salt can appreciate features of a game that appeal to various types of gamers. I feel that if I were in these reviewers’ shoes, I might almost be insulted that a developer would question my ability to fairly judge a game’s merits.

This whole scenario troubles me and raises some questions that I wish I could answer. What are the differences between the way a gamer and a non-gamer are going to approach Fable 2 that Molyneux wants to bring to light? What preconceptions beyond a game’s own hype machine does the “informed” gamer bring to the table that Molyneux wants to avoid? At the end of the day, I think the guys over at Penny Arcade summed it up quite nicely with their comic on this situation (link contains language, you’ve been warned).