Lionhead Studios - Interview with Peter Molyneux @ GamesIndustry.biz

GamesIndustry.biz has posted the second part of their two part interview with Lionhead Studio's Peter Molyneux. The discussion is about Molyneux' views on games as art, and what he'd like to acheive in Fable 2 :

GamesIndustry.biz: You've always been outspoken in your beliefs about what games have the potential to offer and where they could go. What's your view on the question of whether games are an art form?

Peter Molyneux: Of course they are.

Why would you say that is?

Why would you say they weren't? I'm very glib about that because this is a philosophical question. Before I really answer it, you have to define what art is to you. If art is described as something which promotes a reaction in you and lets you glimpse something that's more than reality - then yes, of course they're an art form...

...I will say this: if this industry doesn't start waking up from the slumber it's in at the moment and realising we're not making people go 'Wow!' any more, we are going to become increasingly niche.

We need to look at the sense of wonder everybody has when they see a screen, and how many computer games are really getting that. That is art because it pulls people in, just like a piece of great art.

I want to play Spider-Man 3, of course I do... But what I desperately want I don't see very often these days: that moment I had when I first saw computer games. When I first saw Street Fighter, my eyes were glued to the screen. You look back at it now and it looks really rubbish, but it was incredible at that time.

We have to get that sense of wonder back into this industry, and that's a real obsession of mine at the moment.

Part 1 of the interview, which deals with Fable2's combat approach, may be found here.