Fable at 20: a uniquely British video game with a complex legacy

Related: One of the main designers of Fable recently released a free, highly imaginative Ultima-4-inspired game called Moonring. Check it out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2373630/Moonring/

I have such fond memories of Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2, Fable, Black & White, Populous.

I think the biggest take away from Molyneux's work is regardless of how seriously he talked the games up, the games themselves never once took themselves too seriously. There was a level of playful whimsy that just didn't exist back then (and probably still doesn't today). You could tell he wanted to say more and do more, but was always limited by the technology available at the time. It felt like he was searching for something in the games he developed, and I was always happy to go searching with him.

Huh, what this whole article actually led me to find is that the winner of Curiosity never actually got any price. The price they were supposed to get was never even developed. I guess that’s some way to get out of your contractual agreements. Wonder how that would have gone for them if the winner wasn’t a clueless 18 year old.

I vaguely recall playing Fable on the Xbox and being satisfied, though not blown away by it. It was certainly one of the most fleshed-out house-buying/marriage-allowing games I recall playing (not the first, though) and probably paved the way for more complete systems.

I love Peter Molyneux and he's built amazing things, but he is certainly a hype factory.

One of my favorite franchises, and although I would love to see a new Fable game come out, I fear I'd wind up with a Saints game. Completely disconnected from the original game. Ridiculous.

Just looked up Saints Row reboot again, it flopped so hard that they shutdown the studio behind it, making the game literal abandon-ware. Yikes.

Boo to associating Britain with heroic failure. We do this too much to ourselves! Actually, British game development industry is a notable success and has turned Leamington Spa from a byword for chintziness to an exciting place to work.

I'm so glad I didn't hang around in video game forums & news sites and got to experience Fable in its pristine form.

It's a beautiful game with a great environmental quality to it, much like classic World of Warcraft and Skyrim. Simply roaming around, taking in the visuals, the music, and the ambience was an enjoyable experience in itself, without even doing the quests or progressing the story.

Whenever I read about it now, it's just a bunch of people complaining about how overhyped it was and how their own expectations prevented them from enjoying the game. Sad!

Fable was a game that was hyped up far beyond what it delivered or even what was possible at the time. It was entertaining but sort of just an above average game. Not an amazing game, not a legendary game. For some reason there was a lot of games journalism at the time that propped up the image of people like Peter Molyneux, maybe because of Black and White. In the end gamers didn’t get what they expected.

I still remember chowing down on crunchy chicks to qualify for the evil quest lines >:)

IIRC, II was considered superior, where a lot of the ideas were supposed to have matured and gelled to create a compelling experience. I didn't own a 360, so I never got to see for myself, but I did get to watch a few hours of gameplay while hanging out with my boyfriend at the time.

A notable moment: he'd unlocked a Demon Door and was enthusiastically laying out how the game's real estate system worked, and his plans for the idyllic winter lodge he'd just found, when he walked his character inside and... well, I won't spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say, someone on the design team had a very good handle on what they were doing. It's always stuck out to me as an excellent example of how deeply game designers understand their systems, how those systems influence gamer behavior and expectations, and how to play on those expectations for emotional impact.

Molyneux is obviously infamous for over promises and under delivering, but Fable (Fable, Fable The Lost Chapters, etc.) had such a special place in my heart.

An amazing game with raunchy wit, moving story, and great fantasy world building. The music still rattles through my brain and I still occasionally say, "Do you chase chickens, Chicken Chaser?".

I really enjoyed the games, but especially Fable and Fable TLC (which was an extended chapter at the end which changes the ending and takes you to a talked about continent that the base game did not).

I'm amazed when I see positive coverage of / nostalgia for Fable 1 for Xbox.

I was 15 at the time at the peak of Xbox vs Playstation vs Gamecube message board arguments on forums like NeoGAF.

And Molyneux's bullshit wasn't making it easy for us online Xbox crusaders. He made crazy claims like how it was an open world game with an advanced social system where you build relationships with people and can plant a seed and watch the tree grow if you were to wait next to it for many ingame hours. The lead up and hype made it part of gaming forum discourse for years!

Finally, Fable comes out and it's this short, easy, linear, arcadey, simplistic game. The super complicated reputation system was just a basic "you got +10 good/bad points" alignment system. "People remember your actions" just meant `if player.didThingX then cheer()`.

After all that, it was a weekend rental at best. I think I beat it in 8 hours. It was so disappointing.

After having not thought of Fable in 20 years, it's kinda funny to see it covered without the "gravity" of the waves it made in the Great Online Message Board Console Faction Wars. Not that the context was worth preserving nor that nobody should be allowed to enjoy it. It's funny because it was such a big deal to many of us forum crusaders.

But I guess that's part of getting old.

In the Swedish game magazine Super Play (now defunct) they covered Fable development and the release, but IIRC they advised the reader to take Molyneux's claims with a grain of salt. The final review still made it to 9, or 10 out of 10 I think, but I'd have to check the issue to confirm.

I want to thank my father for giving in and purchasing Fable for me when it hit the shelves. Fable II was my favourite, a fantastic game.

I assume by python-esque they meant monty python-esque (comedy-esque, versus python the programming language-esque), so remember to context switch, especially if you went to read the article from HN!

Since we’ve brought up the question as to whether Molyneux is overly enthusiastic or just dishonest, I invite you to rewatch this 2009 demo and make up your own mind: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPIbGnBQcJY&pp=ygUMUHJvamVjdCB...

My favorite aspect of Fable and one that few other games have touched for some reason is the fact that many quests asked you to choose between a moral solution and a moneymaking solution, which meant basically that only wealthy people could afford to be good. At the same time it let you invest in businesses and collect profits while you played the rest of the game, so that you could make some passive income basically. Rarely have I seen such a positive-capitalist-forward take on a game world, but the real lesson was the "need to be wealthy enough to be good" aspect

I remember playing one of these a decade or so after it came out. Found out there were hookers and a prompt on whether or not to have safe sex. Despite my attempts, I was unable to receive any penalties for ignoring the prompt.

I am excited and optimistic for the new game, but very aware of what an absolute train wreck the modern game industry (read: the execs and shareholders) is. I really, really, really want the new one to be good.

I enjoyed Fable so much that, yes, I will buy what ever game platform they release the 4th installment on just for that game

Sudeki was better. Long live SOL :)

... It always felt more French to me.