E3: Molyneux and Milo Comments by Ellie Gibson

Will not work as they are presenting it. This is the start of the Molyneux cycle, so by the time it comes out and promise after promise has been backpeddled on it'll be a Sims clone.

Its an amazing demo, but looks like the most boring game imaginable.

If I wanted to spend my spare time interacting with 10 year old boys I would... well, to be honest, I don't want to spend my time doing that!

Interesting. Not really my field of work but I know my mate will love this (studies advanced AI). So the only thing that they didn't manage to do is understand deeper contexts of things (that would be the holy grail of true AI). Question is if we really want that tbf. Do I want the enemy soldiers in MW2 to suddenly become aware of his actions and the implications of it and throw down his weapons in a fit of remorse?

I love that people have thought of applications for sex, 2 seconds after it was announced.

"A lot of stuff, like the voice recognition stuff, is based on things like Windows 7 technology."

LOL. Even at E3 they instruct their staff to reference the rebranded Vista.

I do wonder how much bollocks this all is, because the man is the bane of even his own staff when he opens his mouth last I heard.

I doubt this was really project Dimitri, I bet that just got shelved as it was too ambitious, this is a cheap gimmick not the result of 10 years of work.

must admit i didnt like Molyneux, but he is starting to win me over with his aspiration for gaming.

The fact that Ellie told him a joke and he laughed is proof enough that it works to me. I never expected it to be Data or Arnold Rimmer or something - so the fact that it works just about how the demo presented it is really bloody impressive.

Although I agree with others, I'm not sure exactly how much game there is here.

Some classic EG questioning there. Loved the article. Milo is juts a"little disturbing" and it will be interesting to see how it progresses. However I think it will be more interesting to see how it progresses rather than play it.

Love the idea of the technology but I feel it is of limited use... one of the reasons the Wiimote works is because you CAN sit on the sofa and wiggle your hand :)

While the technology does sound very impressive, the "game" they're developing sounds thoroughly unappealing, at least to me. I'm somewhat surprised Molyneux seems so excited about it.

What they didn't tell Ellie is that there's a guy under the table...

Oldest trick in the book :-D

Why a boy?
Couldn't they make it a bartender?

this is a pedo's dream....

I'm at a loss to understand the thinking behind this 'game'

Whats its target market? I find the whole thing a little unsettling. And no, i'm not some crusty fucking Luddite, but the only practical target markets i can think of are:-

1) Children without friends. This won't help them, its more likely to fuck them up for life

2) Pedo's- sad but true.

This seems the electronic version of those guys that buy life like dolls for their homes....

I WANT! Find out te release date ill be buying a box for this def.

So all you nob heads who said it wouldn't work, how you like those apples. Pete is a pioneer, and with Microsofts 3D motion tech he will create an amazing experience.

But Ellie - WHAT DID YOU THINK OF IT?

This looks lovely, and the principles guiding its development are admirable, and I wish them every success in the world with it.

Some of the relentless cynicism on EG from commenters is highly dispiriting and exhibits a frightening lack of imagination.

The demo was very impressive and somewhat scary at the same time. I just can't shake the feeling of slightly disturbed people acting like parents. It takes this quite a bit farther than Tamagotchi or Nintendogs ever did - if it works. Great interview btw.

It *is* quite impressive technology but it will take years to reach the levels we have seen in these demos and it will take some VERY creative thinking of devs before this all ends up in awesome games.

Still.. some of the small things (like automatically signing in the correct person in your household) will make the 360 a better experience for most of us. It is very ambitious but MS have all this tech lying around... so why not try to unify it and use it in a consumer device?

Ellie must have been impressed (or very, very tired) since she was hardly sarcastic or flippant at all.

I wondered, when I watched the video for this, whether this was Dimitry - and Molyneux says it is. I'm surprised they haven't made much more of a big deal about that, since Dmitry was their top secret post Black & White revolutionary AI thing they went on about for ages.

who hosted the interview? Beavis or Butthead?

nobs, bras, nubile gymnast uh huh huh huh huh

Molyneux invented the dog.

Put this tech into Fable 3 or Elder Scrolls 5 and videogaming is going to be like an acid trip.

As impressive as the tech is, I don't really see the point in this. I'm more excited in seeing what people like Valve can do with their piles of money and experience with things like *fingers crossed* Half Life 3. To be fair I have my own friends and I'd rather see real games use this level of tech, not creepy virtual children. Did no one at the original meeting not point out that making it a kid called Milo (Milo? Really?) was a little strange!? I'm honestly more excited about the facebook features!

There's something I find very, very disturbing about all this. The Wii has a lot to answer for.

I'm quite disappointed that so many people are jumping to the conclusion that anyone who wants to make friends with children is a paedophile. That's like asserting anyone who buys Nintendogs is into bestiality.

What is disturbing to me, though, is the echoes of so many science fiction short stories about artificial life. Especially the notion that you'll turn it off one day, and back on the next, or maybe even leave it a week, and something will have changed. With the likes of fable's money totting up over time, Lionhead have a history of doing things like that. I quite like the idea that there's a story to it, so there's actually something to play, though that might lead to an even greater headfuck.

As interesting from a technical standpoint as this is, i dont see how it translates in to fun games.

I remember Sony giving a demo of a very similar interface a few years ago using their Eye Toy Camera thing where a man was chatting to two female secret agents and they could tell when he was laughing etc, It wasnt quite as detailed as this but it was very similar.

It translated in to nothing substantial being released on the PS3 using the camera in that way and only served as a tech demo, so i am expecting this to go in a similar fashion.

Additionally the "hype" surrounding Natal feels very similar to when the Wii was announced, we all thought it would be incredible swinging swords, playing tennis, it captured our imaginations and we thought "yes" nintendo are really innovating....and all it amounted too was half assed controls, mostly crap games that give you cramp and a ton of shovelware.

For the sake of the industry i really hope the Microsoft effort doesn't go the same way, but currently i just don't see how history isn't going to repeat itself.

Eurogamer: Can you draw a nob?

We were all thinking it, Eurogamer asked it. Good work!

I remember Sony giving a demo of a very similar interface a few years ago using their Eye Toy Camera thing where a man was chatting to two female secret agents and they could tell when he was laughing etc, It wasnt quite as detailed as this but it was very similar.

That was fully scripted, this is AI at work, they could tell when his mouth changed shape and a scripted reponse would follow. This is true AI it reacts to full face expression, voice and tone, certain words etc.. Pete has said himself its not perfect yet, but even at this stage it does more than anything else in the world.

"Additionally the "hype" surrounding Natal feels very similar to when the Wii was announced, we all thought it would be incredible swinging swords, playing tennis, it captured our imaginations and we thought "yes" nintendo are really innovating....and all it amounted too was half assed controls, mostly crap games that give you cramp and a ton of shovelware."

Which led to Nintendo ruling this gen...

I'm pretty sure Natal will not have such an impact though. Because it is more encompassing than a Wii-mote it is also much more complex to integrate in 'regular' games. So it will probably result in the same mini game collections that we saw with EyeToy. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing IMHO.

That guy shoulda been helped straight from the stage and into the Priory.

Total cobblers.

There's something I find very, very disturbing about all this. The Wii has a lot to answer for.

Schnide what the hell has the Wii got to do with this, the Wii is a point and click controller. This is full body motion control interacting with state of the art AI, before you go comparing stuff open your eyes and ears, muppet.

Why are people still saying this stuff is a long way off? Did we not see a working demo yesterday? I know nothing really from an industry standpoint but I assumed that the woman talking to Milo was actually using the software?

Surely dreams of virtual reality games has been heading in this direction? I can think of many different applications for technology like this, the most obvious being role play. As someone said above, think of how you could actually interact and talk with NPC's in a game like the Elder Scrolls. Virtual pet games will take on a whole new lease of life too.

I wish we could've had an actual in-depth interview rather than a couple of sex jokes. Still, the fact that he actually recognized a joke is pretty impressive.

I'm pretty sure Natal will not have such an impact though. Because it is more encompassing than a Wii-mote it is also much more complex to integrate in 'regular' games. So it will probably result in the same mini game collections that we saw with EyeToy. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing IMHO.

Les, this breaks down the barrier for non gamers, people can interact with a game in a complex way without holding a controller or device for the very first time. Everyone will want this, Wii is a gimmick, this is true innovation at work. When this comes out Microsoft will not only win the console war, it will own it.

"When you show it to people, especially non-gamers, it does promote this incredible emotional reaction."

They're going to have to do some serious work disguising all the gaming conventions of this, like the specific mode for him listening to you.

Hmmm, my dog is called Milo.

Ah, Captain Smugface picture changed

"Why are people still saying this stuff is a long way off? Did we not see a working demo yesterday?"

Because it was a demo in a controlled environment as others have already mentioned in other threads. That's a bit different from an actual implementation in a proper game. Getting this stuff to work properly in a game that people might actually be interested to buy is rather complex, as the relatively slow progression of Sony's EyeToy has shown before. How long ago was that pet game announced? The one where you drew stuff and it would appear in the game as a 3D object? Or that tank game?

Can't believe all the negativity here. This is just the Pong of immersive gaming, give it 18 months to two years and "gymnast virgins with chainsaws" will be No.1

Because it is more encompassing than a Wii-mote it is also much more complex to integrate in 'regular' games

According to this report:


http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,...

EA have hacked Natal wheel-free Mario Kart Wii style controls into Burnout (presumably paradise), and motion sensed foot control for pedals, too.

As I mentioned before, when the leaked reports of this were being discussed, if it can easily be used to add a bit of head tracking for changing view perspective on FPS, or even platform games, then this could change a lot of games in very interesting and subtle ways that could be difficult for the competition to replicate.

Oh and targeting non-gamers is positive now is it? I thought it was the all encompassing evil, consoles only for hardcore games with teh gameplayz.

"Will not work as they are presenting it. This is the start of the Molyneux cycle"

He's openly stating that it employs tricks and only understands certain words, but will learn some over time. I wish people would give him a bloody chance instead of instantly "Mlolyneux".

This piece of software sounds very intriguing from a technical point of view but it's still just an illusion albeit an incredibly elaborate one and I suspect that it is something that you'd get bored of once you realise its limitations. Anyone old enough to remember the innovative Little Computer People from Activision on the Commodore 64, which had you interacting (or, rather trying to interact) with a little person in a house can tell you that, although that "game" is obviously incredibly dated by today's standards but was state-of-the-art at the time.

If this software person can remember things and use them in later conversations then it could be very intriguing and give the best illusion of an artificial life yet. Whatever it looks interesting and at least it's trying to be something different, which is a rarity these days. It could be used as an educational tool for children for example, where they discuss and learn things they've been doing at school along with their Milo or Milly. I doubt anyone would object to that and kids would no doubt find it fun too.

I still think he is a fraud and I'll believe this -amazing- game/tech demo when I get to "play" it.

I hope the software isn't just restricted to choosing between a boy or girl. How about having your own English speaking alien for example, even designed by you, that you can interact with? Or even a talking animal of some kind (dog, cat, horse, lion, whatever) just for the sheer fun of it? Why just have a human being, the avatar itself doesn't have to be realistic, just the A.I. driving it.

Right! Break out the virtual Beyonce / Jolie / Tweedy simulators!

"He's openly stating that it employs tricks and only understands certain words, but will learn some over time. I wish people would give him a bloody chance instead of instantly "Mlolyneux"."

That plus Lionhead always have a couple of test projects cooking that are amazing but will then be cut up to be used in other games. It's usually more R&D than anything else.

They had The Room ages ago i.e. It was way ahead of it's time back then. It was never released but 2 generations later nearly every decent game uses a lot of the things that where then thought to be a load of bollocks.