Peter Molyneux debuted his virtual boy, Milo, a couple of E3s ago when Kinect was called Natal, and though he's talked about it, he's never shown us more... until now. We were starting to wonder -it wouldn't be the first timeMolyneux has over-hyped an ideahe later abandoned.
Toprove us wrong, Molyneux held a TED presentation on the subject last month. He cited a "huge row online" over the legitimacy ofhis E3 presentation as the reason he's waited until now to give a new demo - this time of the "real tech." And it does look like an actual game now, with points 'n everything. And now Milo has a problem: his parents are dickholes...
Cool... I guess. The tech is nice, for sure, but why would I want to play invisible magic therapist to a virtual kid? Following him around everywhere, observing his life and growth... it's creepily voyeuristic. And that has nothing to do withGuardian columnist Charlie Brooker's pedophilia comment-I don't think that's ever the implication, and I hatethe assumption that men can't interact with children without being pedophiles. It's weird on an entirely different level.
The Sims contains iconic representations of humans, so we don't feel like we're intruding on anything real, butthis is a little kidwho adjusts to our posture and has a functioningblush reaction.That's weird. And personally, I feel awkward when interacting with realkids. This looks even more painful.
It's good that Molyneux recognizes that thisisa bigchallenge to overcome, but I don't see it happening.What do you think?
Aug 18, 2010
