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Molyneux gets BAFTA honour

Creator of Fable, Populous, and Theme Park to receive Fellowship at the March ceremony.

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While the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has been honouring video games and their developers since 1998, it was not until 2007 that leading game creators were put on the same level as leading lights in the other creative arts. This was marked by Will Wright receiving a BAFTA fellowship--the highest honour the Academy can bestow.

Peter Molyneux.
Peter Molyneux.

After the awards' hiatus in 2008, the next developer to be inducted was Nolan Bushnell in 2009, followed by Shigeru Miyamoto in 2010. This year, the honour is to be bestowed on Peter Molyneux. The 51-year-old founder of Bullfrog and current head of Fable studio Lionhead is the first British developer to receive the honour.

"We are delighted to be honouring Peter at this point in his long and successful career in video games. He is one of the leading figures in the development of video games as an art form and an inspiration to the next generation of creative minds," said BAFTA's chief executive, Amanda Berry.

Molyneux's credits include games such as Populous--which popularised the god game genre--and Dungeon Keeper, as well as Theme Park and more recently Microsoft's Fable series. He is also to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards, which are set to happen alongside GDC in San Francisco next week.

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Avatar image for leop4rd
leop4rd

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It's good that a video games developer is being honoured, but in almost every game of his that I have played (which I have loved and spent many hours on including populous, dungeon keeper, theme park series, fable and a probably the most on black and white) there is always something missing. I found this mostly with fable, it seemed quite shallow and relatively confined for a game of its genre (the battles were pretty repetitive if im honest). He's always been more adept at getting a gamer involved in the games story. I'm glad of the recognition (although I heard he's quite arrogant in person) but i'm not sure his games are especially above those who created, say, system shock or deus ex (I wont mention recent games as they get a lot of recognition already).

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Avatar image for deactivated-60889f10c3b8e
deactivated-60889f10c3b8e

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Well done. This guy has committed his life to making games, and has shaped the course of gaming for the better in many ways. Congratulations!

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The_Godfather_

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another award for a Hype Master.. how ironic..

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jayme22

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well done he gets so emerged in games its unreal! so peter winning does this mean we might get another theme park game plz its been years

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Sigil-otaku

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@Stan_boyd: I remember when he said grass would grow and you could plant seeds to make trees, I was massively disappointed. Come Fable 3 though I knew what the Fable franchise was about and I feel they achieved something good even if its not what he was going for. I'm still a little annoyed we can't just get good armour as it'd add some extra depth but in the end I like fable games regardless, I can play RPG's as there's plenty of them but there's very few games like what Molyneux makes. He stopped over hyping around Fable 2 so Fable 3 at least isn't a let down by hype standards.

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Avatar image for Gelugon_baat
Gelugon_baat

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Hating on Molyneux for his less-than-promised Fable games appear to be like a Pavlovian reaction by those who despise him towards any news on Molyneux getting awards for his past achievements before Microsoft's RPG franchise. :roll: That said, this dude ought to leave Microsoft's patronage; it's crimping his genius, especially when << LINK REMOVED >>. He did it before when he was in EA's employ; I say it's high time he leaves Microsoft too. It's not like it will be difficult for a person like him to find employment elsewhere - corporate recruiters would (exaggeratedly speaking) murder each other to court him. (As disappointing as some of you find the Fable games to be, they still made money, after all.)

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kardmiliphen

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WHERE IS MY FABLE 3 FOR PC MOLYNEUX! though for actual him getting the award, it was well deserved. I still remember him making black and white series. The fascination of its originality is beyond any game I have played so far. I really hope he can go back to his earlier career and bring back some of the beloved games.

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HezzyxJB

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Well deserved Props to you Peter, and everyone at Lionhead

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puffadell

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bafta

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IWKYB

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Look at all these haters with mediocre avatars...you guys forget that this guy was making awesome PC games before you were potty trained? lol!

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Grim_Reaper007

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So... they give awards for over promising and not delivering now eh?

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RECONJON

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I think this was well-deserved. Yes, Fable 3 delivered far below expectations. But throughout his career Peter Molyneux has produced some of the greatest games of our generation.

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Richmaester6907

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But he has made no GAEMZ!

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tizmond

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@P_R_E_Y I thought that as well, however Sam Houser & Leslie Benzies of DMA Design (now Rockstar North) were given a special award at the 2004 BAFTA gaming awards. But you are right, I doubt BAFTA would be willing to go as far as giving them a Fellowship, even though they probably deserve it.

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DanielL5583

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Maybe that last comment was a little hard on him. Theme Hospital was good, so I guess I'll let it slide...

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DAMSOG

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Hope that BAFTA promised him everything then delivered a watered down version with new hats!

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Gamer-Geek

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And well deserved to.

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TheGreyArea

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Whether this is a stand-out accolade for Mr Molyneux's past or present game, to me is besides the point. I'm simply pleased to see a higher profile recognition for the industry as a whole, in popular honours. It's small victories like this that turn a more credible eye upon an industry which a lot of "non gamer" still consider "penny arcade" games. It's nice to see that story, artwork, design and overall effort has been remarked upon with an award such as this. My hope is that there will be a future in honouring the great work that goes into the titles we thumb / trigger finger consumers enjoy on so many levels. And that other great story-tellers, artists (musical and visual) will be called up on to present their skill in front of industries outside of their own... It's nice to see the people that do work hard to provide us these experiences, finally taking the spotlight. Especially after the ghastly year of studios closing (2010) we've all just survived. Good on him. and thank you BAFTA for taking another sturdy stride into the future

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Avatar image for B-B-B-BOOM
B-B-B-BOOM

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Molyneux deserves this honour, to be honest. Despite attempting to publicly rouse hype for his games, Lionhead has created many of this generation's best games.

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Munch1981

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Should have got a OBE instead from the queen. but not a BAFTA ,Fable 3 was rushed and not that great.

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Shardz7

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Peter is one of my all time hero game developers by founding the amazing and innovative Bullfrog productions and cranking out the unique goods. The furious game play in Magic Carpet Plus, the lost late night hours spent in Dungeon Keeper, and those classic moments which basically defined the God Game genre...I shall never forget and look back with fond memories. Then came E.A....then came the console rush...and here we are at a different juncture in Peter's career. I would love to see Bullfrog reform and return to those values and leave it all behind like they did in the past. Instead of leading the industry and showing others how to do it as with Bullfrog, Lionhead now seems to wait comfortably in the release queue with all the other console games, unfortunately. Peter definitely deserves this award and many others, though. Congratulations on an overall job well done.

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Mar28jw

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a BAFTA for what?,bullsh*tting

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Zero_resistance

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Kudos to him when he was at Bullfrog. games like theme park, syndicate etc. were great. Wouldn't give him spit for his lionhead stuff though. The Fable series has just been one huge dissapointment after another.

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stan_boyd

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@sigil-otaku You're right Fable is not an RPG although that is what Peter Molyneux said it was going to be, he also said that grass was going to grow in it, that the worlds would be massive where you could do almost anything and it would have changing seasons etc etc etc. Instead we got Fable which has almost none of the features that Molyneux had been hyping up for a year.

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DanielL5583

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Am I reading this right? This dork of a Brit (kind of like me) gets a BAFTA for making *passable* games... Why?

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krillar

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This guy is such a hypemaker. He did it on the first fable, the second fable and now the third....... I am not going to be preordering any of Lionhead games again and instead wait to see what the reviews are like. BTW Who owns the Dungeon Keeper franchise at the moment? Is it EA? I so want DKIII NOW!!! Wish they never cancelled it. Loved 1 and 2.

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penpusher

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well the guy is a creative dude, even if his ability to employ decent bug testers in the last 2 fable games is a bit off .. .. ..

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ChiefOReilly

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Couldnt agree more tizmond, Dan Houser gets my vote. For all his past achivements Molyneux is basically a marketing man now, hardly creative.

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Knightarce

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While fable 2 and 3 were awful, he should get credit for fable 1 and the others, to be fair least we still have english studios even if this one is massively tied into microsoft

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warhawk-geeby

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Never knew he made populous.. Awesome old school game. "Ka kaa.. Umm wakka! Sha!" Haha. Those were the days..

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fps_d0minat0r

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isnt this the guy who calls his own games rubbish?

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huevosbenedicto

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Does anyone care about the BAFTA's for video games? I think that even Gamespot's awards (not meaning to sound condescending) holds more leverage.

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nathace

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ul get a BAFTA WHEN u bring Fable to pc, Im seriously losing interest its been that long

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thetomato13

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NEWS FLASH! MOLYNEUX TO BE MADE BOSS OF THE UNIVERSE!

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Sigil-otaku

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@stan_boyd: 2 things, first fable is not an RPG. There is no levelling up or anything. Second it's not shallow, as an action adventure game it has more depth than simply dungeon crawling to collect items like on Zelda or any other action adventure. I personally like that molyneux has made a game where I don't just run and kill and grab items like some mad item hoarding loaner who is apparently still a noble hero. Instead I'm treating people good if I'm a hero, I can give beggars money and renovate houses to rent out cheaper than normal while also doing quests that I choose to do for there benefit but also can be evil and do the opposite. Fable is an action adventure game with a human touch, with comedy and with charm. I respect games like Zelda as I have completed ocarina of time and twilight princess but ultimately its just not got the same amount of stuff going on as Fable and I feel Molyneux has achieved something in that regard. No other game is like fable so I can safely say it is at least unique and charming.

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Animatronic64

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Well, if you ever get the chance. Film it.

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stan_boyd

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@animatronic64 thats because you don't know me, anyone who does knows that I speak my mind, been fired from 2 jobs for telling my bosses exactly what I thought of them, even lost a couple good friends for opening my big mouth and telling them what I thought of their girlfriends.

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Animatronic64

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@stan_boyd That's what you wish you could to. I personally don't think you have the cojones to do something like that.

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stan_boyd

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I would love to have a conversation with the great Peter Molyneux it would consist of me farting and belching in his face and then putting my hand out in a in a way that suggests having a dance. Then I will open my mouth and tell him what a stupid shallow game his so called "deep and rich" rpg series is in actual words.

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Aletunda

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i really like this guy, his concepts and ideas are well deserved, but he fails miserably in his ability to overhype his work, if his work met the standard of his word then he wouldnt get these 'haters' on this forum. Lets take Cliff Blezinski,(head at epic) he tells it like it is, he says what is in the game and thats what the consumer gets.

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Darth_Tyrranus

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The only award that this man really deserves is the award for being the biggest over-hyping self-inflated gas-bag of all time.

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powerfulone1987

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Oh gosh ew haters. Stop your hating. The man deserves the world and this award for ALL of his games. Especially the Fable Series.

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Offworlder1

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He doesn't deserve it, his new games blow, Fable 1 and before that were his good games but thats it. Fable 2 was the begining of his crappy games, Fable 3 is by far a turd.

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system3142

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Gotta love Theme Park.

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mightEone

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I want Black & White 3. Put Fable on the backburner for a while. I miss playing God and training my creature to open a can of whoop ass on those that opposed me.

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emerin76

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One must remember that the BAFTA award is a recognition of 'artwork' and not 'gameplay'.

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P_R_E_Y

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@tizmond The mention of GTA should be your answer. As retarded as it sounds, awards like these are given to the safe options, GTA etc has been in the news too often for wrong reasons, and has been the blame for a lot of problems... (despite it not being the games fault) So awards like these would not wish to promote such actions to the public by giving out rewards for those seen as taboo... Obv they could win a BAFTA for any other game, but not games like GTA

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-TheWormsMan-

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I loved Theme Park and Fable but outright exaggerating about game features and speculating highly ambitious game ideas shouldn't be the basis for winning awards. Actions speak louder than words Peter, your games are good but nowhere near as good as you originally made them out as.

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tizmond

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It's amazing what you can be awarded for repeatedly blowing your own trumpet. He's still very good at hyping his games and getting people excited about them, despite his recent history of mediocre games. If the award was given for continual disappointment, then he definitely deserves it. What about some of the guys from DMA/Rockstar North who've produced the GTA & Red Dead Series ????

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