To his credit, Molyneux grasped this much earlier than most of his contemporaries, and once the sales figures started rolling in, it quickly became apparent that this was only the first round of something that would take time to perfect. Perhaps because the world itself, which games often mimic in a sort of inverted mirror, is itself a massive simulation, which requires nudging, fine-tuning, and occasional upheavals to set on course.
Ironically, a game that offered less player input than usual seemed to tickle this fancy better than any game with delusions of minute, infinitesimal control ever could. That something as simplistic as Populous could excite these feelings, in retrospect, is difficult to imagine.īut the heart of ‘storytelling’ differs in each medium, and for video games, the dynamism of being a protagonist in a living, unfolding world – of influencing and leaving one’s mark on it – is what makes the narrative feel personal, first-person. And like any watershed moment, a feeling simmered in the atmosphere after Populous’s release that games, in their uphill climb towards artistic respectability, had tread new ground once more. With Populous, Bullfrog had unintentionally spawned a massive hit that would draw a new line in the ever-shifting sands of taste.
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