back to article Molyneux chisels away at social experiment

Peter Molyneux's new studio 22Cans is ready to launch its first game, Curiosity, an app that looks at how social media is used to spread information, apparently. The Bafta fellow revealed details about the unique game, in which players contribute towards chiselling away at a black cube in a virtual room, causing it to fracture …

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  1. Horridbloke
    Paris Hilton

    Hmmm.

    Could this scheme fall foul of gambling laws? It's not clear from the article whether there's any actual skill involved.

    1. DJ Smiley
      Facepalm

      Re: Hmmm.

      Only if theres a "Prize".

      I presume it unlocks for the Xth hit.

  2. Caff

    not about money

    But money is a nice side benifit

  3. Joe Harrison

    tappy tap tap

    Sounds maybe exciting but more like a lot of work for no reward.

    What he thinks will happen... "truly amazing, absolutely unique, social media, AI, incredible never-seen-before crowdsourced solutions"

    What will actually happen... black cube has one or two random bits chipped off by inquisitive passers-by who go "wtf?"

    Or some creative soul figures out how to turn the iron drill into a depleted uranium one and solves it immediately

  4. Rameses Niblick the Third (KKWWMT)
    Mushroom

    Just to mix things up...

    If I happen to be the one to crack it, I'm not telling ANYONE! Muahahaha!

  5. c2423
    FAIL

    Thinking about Fable...

    With his history of over-hyping things, I would imagine whatever is "in the box" isn't really worth sharing with anybody.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thinking about Fable...

      It's probably a cat.

      1. c2423

        Re: Thinking about Fable...

        That can't be killed, however much you might want to?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Thinking about Fable...

          Ah, I was thinking more in the Schrodinger kind of sense.

    2. Goat Jam
      Stop

      hrrrmph

      Fable?

      I gave up on Molyneux after Black and White.

      So much hype, so little gameplay.

  6. Roger B

    DLC Pricing point

    Interesting idea or experiment. I've never bought DLC that was purely cosmetic (for example weapon skin packs in Gears of War 3) or for something that was eventually unlockable (car packs in NFS:Hot Pursuit) but obviously people do, not sure anyone will spend 50K on a piece of DLC though, I guess he's maybe going to find out the optimum pricing point for DLC add ons and work round that.

    If someone does buy the 50K piece will it be bought "by my son, by accident, he's only 2 months old, I must of left my login details on the system"

  7. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Sounds a bit underwhelming

    So it's basically a game requiring no skill, where you just tap at a cube until your break your finger or your screen (or your mouse and finger if using a computer rather than a phone.) How dull.

    Also what happens when this one person gets into the cube and finds out the "amazing" secret inside? I'm guessing a new cube appears and you just start again. Yawn.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sounds a bit underwhelming

      I don't think so, I'm fairly sure the article covers this, but once the cube has been broken, that's it, the "game" is over. The idea is that only one person can find out the big secret, and then Peter and his merry band of data miners trawl the social networks to find out how the news spreads.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sounds a bit underwhelming

        Not one for me. If I buy a game I'd kind of like to finish it myself, not find I open it up one day and there's a "Game Over" message there to greet me.

  8. DJ Smiley
    Trollface

    Obviously...

    It'll give you the url to buy the next "game" ?

  9. PassiveSmoking

    I'm not sure how to feel about this.

    Molyneux is brilliant at coming up with concepts and novel ideas.

    Implementation, not so much.

    Black & White was a brilliant game, struggling to break out from a shell of terrible implementation. Fable failed to live up to the promise of Project Ego. So I feel rather ambivalent to the guy these days. Also I'd dearly love to see a properly-implemented version of Black and White with the bugs polished out, modern physics instead of the clunky engine the original had, more nuance to the choice about being a good or evil god, etc.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Game" is going a bit far isn't it?

    What between my real job and this, the tedium can never end!

    I can go to work for the promise of one day having something awesome to show for it.

    Then i can come home to continue with this and one day have something to show for it!

    There is zero chance of dissapointment in either case, clearly.

    I think i'll pass.

    Also, it contains a picture of Molyneux himself, i am sure of it.

  11. Tim Worstal

    Dear God you could have fun with this

    So, square black box with vaguely islamic looking silver inlays and the task is to chip away at it until it breaks open.

    Popularise the rumour on Twitter that this really is all about the Kabaala and see how they like tracking that?

    1. Eguro

      Re: Dear God you could have fun with this

      I'm fairly certain the picture is from Hellraiser - as is mentioned below it.

      The game seems to center simply around a black cube

    2. Irongut

      The Box (Re: Dear God you could have fun with this)

      YOU OPENED IT!

      WE CAME!

  12. Maxson

    So....

    Anyone else just going to skip the £50,000 chisel and just run 100 virtual machines each runnining a mouse script?

    1. Anonymous Coward 101

      Re: So....

      No.

  13. Graham Jordan

    What a load of shit

    ^

    l

  14. Irongut

    What will they do if...

    someone like me has the final blow and there is nothing for them to follow on social media because I don't do FB, Twat, etc?

  15. Jerome 0
    Boffin

    By a strange co-incidence...

    I also am running a "test about the psychology of monetisation". Please send me £1,000. Thank you.

    1. Gavin King

      Re: By a strange co-incidence...

      So what's your address? And will you take a personal cheque?

  16. John H Woods Silver badge

    Game over ...

    a) game fails to catch on, nobody gives a toss what's in the cube, no movement of news through social media to track.

    or

    b) game goes crazy, winner announces contents to media, everybody finds out at once, no movement of news through social media to track.

    1. Ru
      Big Brother

      Re: "everybody finds out at once"

      I am terrified by this global broadcast system you speak of whereby everyone learns of a particular bit of news simultaneously, and never repeats it via any other means.

  17. Rameses Niblick the Third (KKWWMT)
    Black Helicopters

    Wait a minute...

    I think I've just figured it out.

    The Box Will Never Open

    Seriously, go with me on this. This has sod all to do with how quickly a single point of information can spread around the world, this is an experiment to see how much money gullible idiots will spunk on NOTHING. What's the bet that the upgraded "tools" people pay for wear out after an hour, a day, a week or whatever? And they have to buy them again, and again, and again.

    Maybe there is a side experiment running whereby they are tracking to see how long it takes from someone linking their FaceBook / Twitter account to the game and them posting the phrase "Fuck this shit!".

    In other news, a well known gaming industry personality has come up with a licence to print money.

    1. Ru
      Meh

      Re: Wait a minute...

      It has been done before: cow clicker.

      Anyway, of course the box will open; Molyneux always wants to share his Vision with the rest of the world, regardless of whether it is particularly interesting or not.

      1. Eguro

        Re: Wait a minute...

        And of course all the money will have to be refunded, as it was received under false pretenses...

  18. Alan Brown Silver badge

    mouse scripts....

    ... meet mod_throttle

  19. John A Blackley

    Try this

    I have another test of the 'psychology of monetisation'.

    I have a gun. Give me all your money.

  20. LinkOfHyrule
    Coat

    woah!

    I think my BSometer just exploded!

  21. TheOtherHobbes

    This sounds

    depressingly like the rest of the Internet.

  22. FrankAlphaXII

    Its got people talking already, and Im pretty sure thats his goal, to track how communication (or lack thereof) is working anymore in the age of supposed instantaneous communication. For a game designer he sure has a hell of a sociological bent. This sort of reminds me of this particular arthouse USB game, I forget the title of it, that users are supposed to play through til they die and then pass it on though in practice it didnt work out the way it was intended.

    The free money's just an added bonus as far as he's concerned, Im sure.

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