Peter Molyneux's Milo and Kate

[Utforska]

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_molyneux_demos_milo_the_virtual_boy.html

There's reason to be sceptical towards all the bold claims when they talk about this stuff, but it's also hard not to be a little excited. If this isn't a notgame I don't know what is.

[Albin Bernhardsson]

The demo looked interesting apart from all the cartoony scores that popped up. I'm also very skeptical to whether it works as well as he claims it does.

[QXD-me]

To start with, I have some bias against this because I had an idea that was fairly similar before I'd heard of this game (I think even before it had been announced). So when I found out someone had been working on a similar idea (admittedly having butchered it) I was kinda peeved. That notwithstanding, I still have issues with it.

The first is, as Chainsawkitten pointed out, those cartoony things that pop-up. Because of course, real people get that all the time when they "change". I think it completely spoils the illusion of him being anything other than a component of a computer game.

Secondly, I don't like the fact that it just seems to be a giant series of mini-games, almost like Wario-Ware (I think that's what it was called) on the Wii.

3.) It also seems like you don't really interact with Milo himself most of the time, it's more like you just happen to be there and doing things around him.

4.) (A somewhat petty one) Who the hell follows an 11-year old around trying to shape his thoughts anyway? All I can think of is some kind of paedophile trying to groom him.

Also, the first time I watched it I thought Mr. Molyneux treated him more like some sort of RPG character rather than a person. Though, watching it again, it didn't really seem that way.

Saying that, while I don't really think it's much of a notgame, it definitely has some very interesting ideas with a lot of potential and I am looking forward to see how it turns out.

[Albin Bernhardsson]

I feel that doing things around Milo rather than with him feels quite natural, really. At least when I hang out with friends we tend to do a lot of stuff together. The problem is not doing things around him, the problem is (I think) that he doesn't seems to be that involved with them.

The idéa of a "real" character that changes depending on the players' actions is interesting. The natural way of doing this is with a child, as children are usually more impressionate than adults, who seem to be stuck in the same ways. Otherwise the change might be too slow to notice or simply not feel very natural. Pedophilia has hardly anything to do with it. I, for one, would be interested in this concept, if it worked well, without any inclination of fapping to it.

[Michaël Samyn]

I was surprised how similar this suddenly was to playing with your creature in Black and White (one of my all time favorites, by the way). And a bit disappointed that they didn't take it further in the direction of an autonomous character instead of turning it into a game. But then again, I felt uncomfortable with this "boy who lives in your television set" the first time they presented Milo.

In the hands of an author with imagination, I think this has great potential.

[QXD-me]

The problem is not doing things around him, the problem is (I think) that he doesn't seems to be that involved with them.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. Your activities are almost separate from his, Like you're two people who just happen to be in the same place.

The idéa of a "real" character that changes depending on the players' actions is interesting. The natural way of doing this is with a child, as children are usually more impressionate than adults, who seem to be stuck in the same ways. Otherwise the change might be too slow to notice or simply not feel very natural. Pedophilia has hardly anything to do with it.

True. I don't really think it's paedophilic, I was just trying to point out that the setting makes it feel like your presence is very much "forced" just to make the game possible, which happens to highlight to fact that he's not real and that it's just a game.


It's definitely one to keep track of though.

[badvibration]

I agree with Michael, in that I wish they had kept with the virtual character development aspect of it, rather than the game. I think it would be really interesting and sort of fun if you had your own virtual person that you could talk to and maybe enjoy playing a game of chess or go against(maybe that's too complex, but something of the sort). That's what I thought Milo was going to be when it was first introduced at e3 and I was excited, but after seeing this, I don't think I am.

[Jeroen D. Stout]

It did seem more game-like than the last time I saw anything of it... the points specifically. If finding snails with Milo is not fun enough to be worthwhile without getting points, then the interaction is surely just not interesting to begin with?

4.) (A somewhat petty one) Who the hell follows an 11-year old around trying to shape his thoughts anyway? All I can think of is some kind of paedophile trying to groom him.

Literature is full of imaginary friends. This sort of mindset really bothers me, I actually used to get dirty looks for being friendly towards children here in Britain (and then I started shopping downtown where being friendly to children does not equal grooming them).

I am interested to hear what the gender difference towards this game is, perhaps women do not... groom children but are merely friendly to them?

Actually, a gender difference bothered me about this presentation; men get snails, women get butterflies. Why on earth does he presume that I like snails just because I am a man? Even as a child I preferred butterflies.

I was surprised how similar this suddenly was to playing with your creature in Black and White (one of my all time favorites, by the way).

It certainly has that Black & White feeling to it. I adored that game as well, mostly because of the creature. I have always found it a shame there were not more Black & White type of games afterwards.

[Michaël Samyn]

Literature is full of imaginary friends.

I like the imaginary friend aspect. Though it's a little bit creepy.

I have always found it a shame there were not more Black & White type of games afterwards.

Black & White got criticized heavily by gamers. I think Molyneux never recovered from this. Up to the point where he even publicly apologized for its existence. Now they seem to be afraid to release anything that doesn't have a solid conventional game backbone. Sad. They once were a very promising studio. And Milo is rooted in experiments from those days, codenamed Dimitri, with the brilliant Richard Evans, who moved to EA to work on The Sims 3 after Lionhead gave up and sold out to Microsoft.

[QXD-me]

4.) (A somewhat petty one) Who the hell follows an 11-year old around trying to shape his thoughts anyway? All I can think of is some kind of paedophile trying to groom him.

Literature is full of imaginary friends. This sort of mindset really bothers me, I actually used to get dirty looks for being friendly towards children here in Britain (and then I started shopping downtown where being friendly to children does not equal grooming them).

Again, this was meant more as a tounge-in-cheek 'it's kinda petty and I don't really think it' sort of reason. I actually agree with your point, people really should be allowed to be friends with younger children without being looked down upon. I like children too, although I have plenty of younger brothers so I didn't really get dirty looks for it. I was drawing this reason more from society than my own personal beliefs to try and emphasise that the whole thing seemed 'unnatural', like you didn't really belong there.

And yes, I believe you're meant to be an imaginery friend, it's mentioned that Milo "counjures you up", I just don't think that playing as an imaginery character that doesn't really exist is going to enable you to immerse yourself in the world. At the very least, it just seems like an odd and forced setting. Maybe that's because I've never had an imaginery friend though.