This evening, one UK tapper hit the final block on the final layer of the Curiosity cube. That means we have a winner and that winner decided that he would disclose his prize. We finally know what’s inside the cube.
It’s a tiny Peter Molyneux!
Not really, it’s just the notorious British game designer giving a lengthy presentation about 22Cans’ “experiment”. The winner of Curiosity gets a prize that Molyneux has claimed would change their life. The prize is “the ability to be a digital god”. Basically, the winner gets to be the god in 22Can’s upcoming game, star of its own Kickstarter campaign, Godus.
So, the winner gets to make up the rules of the upcoming god game. They also get a “small piece” of every penny spent on the game. It’s all predictably hyperbolic and a little bit ridiculous. But hopefully the winner is happy with their “prize”, the money they get should be a bit of a windfall – if anybody actually wants to buy Godus.
The definition of “life changing” is, of course, completely open to interpretation. I just drank a can of delicious Diet Coke and now my life has changed because I’m not thirsty any more. So 22Cans might have awarded the winner with a sparkling beverage and a firm handshake without technically breaking their lofty promise. But it’s my opinion that this prize is a bit silly and, cut of the takings aside, not much of a prize at all.
What’s inside the cube? A lofty promise of something in the future that doesn’t mean a whole lot of anything unless that thing is successful. Sounds like the perfect ending for a Molyneux production.
Nate
“Many congratulations player, we have uploaded the contents of Jimmy Savile’s computer to your hard-drive. The police have been contacted and are on their way.”
Now that’s life changing.
ron_mcphatty
Good prize. Totally overhyped, but as something to win the creative control over such a significant part of the game is cracking. Hopefully the winner doesn’t totally fuck it up!
Porcupine_I
So, someone else but Molyneux gets to make the rules for the game? Doesn’t that mean we all win?
xdarkmagician
So the winner now gets to go to meetings and give feedback while being compensated for their time?
So, umm… the prize… was a JOB!
Plus its not even a guarantee salary job, the poor bastard has to work on commission.
hazelam
i don’t know how disappointing it is, i mean, i’d be pretty happy if i got to have a guiding hand in an upcoming Molyneux god game.
especially as a couple of my favourite games of all time are Populous and Dungeon keeper.
somebody really needs to bring back Dungeon Keepre
i don’t know if i’d call that prize “life changing” though.
but i still think it’s pretty cool.
Moshbag
Do all the Kickstarter backers of Godus know they were funding one guy’s god delusion and giving him a share of the profits?
TSBonyman
Well, it’ll certainly be life-changing for all those tiny people in the god game when this unknown quantity takes charge of the rules .. ;-)
MadYetHatless
That video is hilariously bad. When talking about the prize, he says “How can anything be worth all that effort?” Exactly. It can’t. I mean don’t get me wrong, the prize is not something to dismissed, but nothing could live up to what people were led to imagine. Millions of people spend their free time tapping away, some ridiculous enough to spend actual money on it, all for a prize that sounds like it was made up on the fly when their kickstarter worked.
Plus it makes me want to laugh when he says “Tap on this massive cube” so seriously.
Deathbrin
Since when Diet Coke is delicious?
Kevatron400
Do we know anything about the winner? I am quite looking forward to a new god game from Molyneux, but if a renegade ideas person is thrown into the mix, who knows what we’ll end up with. I think that is a pretty interesting prize. Of course it doesn’t (and couldn’t ever) live up to the hyperbole surrounding it, but not many others can say they’ve steered a game’s direction and earned from its profits (game designers aside, of course).
Nate
http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/26/4368298/curiosity-winner-weighs-in-on-life-changing-prize-and-the-perks-of
Interestingly he had only been playing it for an hour before he won. Shows the nature of the lottery that it was.