

Peter Molyneux's Curiosity cube is now open, contents still a mystery - ihuman
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/26/peter-molyneuxs-curiosity-cube-is-now-open-contents-still-a-my/

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feral
"You, the person who has reached the centre will be the god of all people who
are playing Godus. [Molyneux's upcoming god game.] You will decide on the
rules the game is played by. [...] Every time people spend money you will get
a small piece of that pie."

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhzb9OUWrXU>

Reminds me a little of 'ready player one' on a much smaller scale. I hope they
think it was worth all that time tapping.

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IvyMike
This was all a promo for Godus?

"A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!"

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guiambros
Commercial? They are _paying_ the winner, plus letting him/her be an intrinsic
part of the game.

This is a lot more than I expected. I was thinking it'd be something trivial
and self-promotional, like some autographed copies of Godus, or maybe a
vintage Black & White t-shirt.

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hosh
Also: according to the article, the winner asked 22Cans to make the video
public. Otherwise, we would never have known what it was about.

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ColinWright
More information:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_%E2%80%93_What%27s_In...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_%E2%80%93_What%27s_Inside_the_Cube%3F)

Apparently the winner is in the UK:
<https://twitter.com/pmolyneux/status/338677057481490432>

Apparently they have said they will share the result:

<https://twitter.com/pmolyneux/status/338686110966353920>

A video of the result: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5771496>

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benwerd
Contents no longer a mystery; are instead a setup for what is basically the
gaming world's answer to reality TV. This could go either way.

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bradhe
This guy is a genius. He got 5mil people to tap incessantly on their screens
with such a simple mechanic!

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mathieuh
What the winner saw: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhzb9OUWrXU>

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sek
So the winner get's cash for people spending money on Godus and to decide
stuff about the game....

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0x0
Here's the winner on Twitter: <https://twitter.com/Bryanh559>

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sp332
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!

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dreen
I initially thought that looked a bit like a lame attempt to get money while
"provoking dialog about what makes game a game" or something arty farty like
that, because he makes it sound like that.

Now it seems it's a rather clever attempt at crowd funding.

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hosh
I am not sure why there is so much hate and vitriol against Peter Molynuex's
... uh, what did you say, "arty farty". On the comments for the Engadget
article, there were lots and lots of incessant comments about his
pretentiousness. People reacting with cringes. What is up with that? It's like
listening to a bunch of middle school kids at an art museum.

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dreen
well, because, sounding pretentious is a negative connotation.

pre·ten·tious /priˈtenCHəs/ Adjective Attempting to impress by affecting
greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.

I have no hate for PM, he is a cool guy. But sometimes he is needlessly
pretentious.

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hosh
That doesn't answer anything. I know what pretentious means.

What I don't understand is why people _don't_ think what Molyneux is doing is
important, or have culture. Why do people _feel_ hatred and shame for him?

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rossjudson
Feels like a kickstarted lottery, in a way. But since the winner didn't really
know what the prize would be, the precise regulatory environment such a thing
would operate in is pretty grey!

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mesozoic
Well I just got unsold on Godus.

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sunseb
By the way, strange that's the winner is too in the UK...

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ancarda
There may be a good reason; the servers for the game ultimately decide what
user tapped on the final cube. It's likely the servers were in the UK and thus
latency would put US players at a disadvantage.

