The other thing that has been interesting is the difficulty mode. Its not the first time thats come up on Fable game; on Fable from the beginning I can remember sitting in a room with Peter [Molyneux] and him being very explicit with me that
I believe the direct quote, if I remember correctly, was I want a blind child to be able to win this game with their feet. Clearly, thats an ambition, a general direction for us, people should be able to finish the game.
The main reason for that at the time, and that hasnt changed, is that people have limited free time and we want them to feel like theres a sense of progress and theyre seeing the world, experiencing the story and everything they can in the game. The other thing is that we want people to finish it. Theres nothing more frustrating for a user or a developer than when someone gets to a point in the game and says alright, I quit. Thats bad for both parties.
The interesting thing about Fable is the anecdotal stuff that we hear. The first thing that springs to mind is our PR telling us that her hairdresser plays Fable, and shes a girl, and its the only game she plays. Another one is that a friend of mine emailed me and told me it was the first game his daughter had ever finished. Shes nine, and she loved it. Its important to us that we achieve that.
Theyre just a person, right, with shorter arms. Theyre sitting a littler closer to the screen perhaps, but nonetheless theyre still sitting there wondering whats the right thing to do.