Games of Gods

Abstract

Computer games were long scoffed at. The rigid black-and-white thinking of the developer in whose games the buyer was the hero and the abstract figures were the bad guys inhibited the narration of complex stories. It was only after explosive technological breakthroughs that programmers and graphic artists succeeded in creating lifelike virtual worlds. Nonetheless, most games continued to stay with rigidly predetermined roles. One person, however, always saw things a little differently. Peter Molyneux, a developer from England, devoted his efforts to transposing the player into the role of a god. Is a god good or evil? “It depends how his followers judge him,” Peter Molyneux believes. For almost four years he worked on Black&White with the aim of granting the player all possible freedom, while at the same time leading him through a story full of variety.