IN DEFENCE OF: Peter Molyneux, the man of many promises

A few days ago it was announced that Peter Molyneux, formerly of Bullfrog Productions and now head of Lionhead Studios and creative director of Microsoft Game Studios Europe, the creator of games like Populous, Black & White, Dungeon Keeper and most recently the Fable series, is being honoured with a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship, placing him in the esteemed company of the likes of Anthony Hopkins, Stanley Kubrik and Christopher Lee. It's a continuation of the pleasing trend for influential videogame designers being recognised by the mainstream entertainment industry (Molyneux joins Mario's main man Shigeru Miyamoto and sim superstar Will Wright, who have already been inducted).

But the gaming community isn't as thrilled as one might expect at this latest evidence of game design being ushered into the limelight. That's because, if the internet is to be believed, Peter Molyneux is A Bad Man. If you check out the comments pages on many of the news sites running the story, you'll see quite a few comments like this one from The Telegraph: "If there is an award for failing to deliver then Peter Molyneux should certainly get it." Type Molyneux's name into Google and two suggestions that automatically spring up are "Peter Molyneux lies" and "Peter Molyneux is a liar".

What is it about Molyneux that has gamers so riled? Well, he's an overenthusiastic public speaker with a tendency to make grand proclamations about his games that aren't quite delivered in the finished product. The infamous quote that is often rubbed in his face like a facial scrub of shame is his idea that in Fable, his most recent series (a fantasy role-playing game that emphasises player choice and morality), a player could plant an acorn at the beginning of the game, which would grow to an oak tree as the story progressed, or words to that effect. It has now become assumed knowledge by hardcore gamers that Molyneux is at best a chronic promise-breaker and at worst a PR droid who boosts his game sales with cynical campaigns to build unwarranted hype.

So is Peter Molyneux a liar? Should his BAFTA Fellowship be revoked on the grounds of slithering cynicism and masochistic mendaciousness? Well, no. Molyneux has indeed developed a recent habit for getting excited at press conferences and making statements that probably make his Lionhead developers wince. But this isn't lying or up-selling a poor product.

With the exception of his latest game Fable III, which was a genuine disappointment, Molyneux and his teams have a brilliant record of creating games that positively buzz with innovative gameplay, novel concepts, charming presentation and genuinely British sensibilities and humour. He has done more than anyone to make British game development what it is today. Not through brash talk, but through his games. They're not always flawless, but they've been consistently imaginative, eccentric and forward-thinking from the early days of Populous and Syndicate through to Fable II in 2008. Even Fable III was bursting with ideas, even if most of them were the wrong ones.

It's pretty demoralising to see a game creator as passionate and idealistic as Molyneux being pulled down for the very ambition that makes his games great. The man shoots for the stars on every project. Even if he never quite gets there, his games reach heights that 90% of humdrum military shooters and annualised sports games never even bother to try for. Dungeon Keeper, my favourite of Molyneux's games, crams more wit, character and addictive gameplay into one level than a hundred more polished games that are cranked out via committee and compromise.

And if we're now criticising developers for promising too much, what of the other BAFTA honorees from the gaming world? What happened to Will Wright's Spore, which was due to join us all together in an infinite God simulation, with our evolving races interacting with one another? Miyamoto's Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had problems with its "revolutionary" Wii controls that put it below the best of the series and disappointed many fans in the long run. But although many of the grandest ideas don't have a hope of perfect execution (at least the first time out), the games industry, which tends to avoid risk and stick to proven concepts, desperately needs these people and their teams for their willingness to stick their necks out and shoot for glory.

I'm not saying don't call Peter Molyneux out when he makes a game that is not up to par. And feel free to take his excited press conference chat with a grain of salt. But let's recognise the role of gaming's innovators, the people who pave the way for other less courageous souls to iterate on. We need to be careful what we're wishing for when criticising the people who emphasise progress over slick layers of polish. If we keep dragging them down, we'll be the ones to blame for turning a great industry into a conveyor belt.