GDC08: No gold drops in Fable 2, new co-op details

by Richard Mitchell { Feb 22nd 2008 at 4:30PM }

In a soon to be published interview with X3F, Fable 2 creator Peter Molyneux revealed some new details concerning Fable 2 co-op and how players will earn money in the game. First and foremost, Molyneux noted that there are no gold drops in Fable 2. In other words, monsters don't drop large bags of cash when they die (which is somewhat more realistic really). Instead, Fable 2 will have players earn money the old fashioned way: working for it. There are a range of jobs available to players such as being a blacksmith, assassin or woodsman. There is also one other job which specifically concerns cooperative play: henchman. Co-op players will become the henchman when they visit the worlds of other players. How exactly a player earns money as a henchman wasn't discussed. It raises some interesting questions such as whether or not the main player will actually have to pay henchmen, for example. Finally, when asked about whether or not male characters will be able to impregnate their female co-op partners, Molyneux noted "it's certainly an interesting idea," adding, "no promises." We hope the feature makes it into the game, because we're dying to have CliffyB's digital baby.

Tags: fable-2, fable2, gdc08, lionhead, lionhead-studios, microsoft-game-studios

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:41PM

Sweet, for lack of a better word.

Marty @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:41PM

Although I have my doubts, I just hope for two things for Fable 2. A longer game, and just a slightly more complex RPG system.

I beat the entire game in one weekend, and it was disappointing to me that the inventory / RPG aspects of the game were so shallow. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but man - it had so much unspent potential.

tcc3 @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:43PM

Maybe thats another way to earn money ingame: child support.

Maybe Henchmen could huntdown deadbeat digidads.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:45PM

I'd totally knock my wife up.

Too bad we only have 1 360, and it probably wouldn't do splitscreen.

Stefin Hehman @ Feb 22nd 2008 5:01PM

You can do co-op on one Xbox, that's actually all they seemed to be showing at the conference.

NeverSage @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:46PM

I used to play UO and monsters rarely dropped a lot of gold. They would drop armor and stuff that was worth a good bit of money which you could then sell. So maybe in Fable 2 they'll just drop stuff you could take to a store and get cold hard cash.

Stupidiot @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:52PM

Sidequests and assassin missions are usually fun ways of making money, but can someone please explain the appeal of serious work to make cash in games? That's the kind of thing that keeps me from playing MMOs like WoW - It sometimes feels like you're just spending lots of time keeping a second job, and that just isn't much fun to me. This coming from someone who loved the original Fable to pieces...

NATO_Duke @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:55PM

This is bs - whenever I kill monsters they drop bags of gold, and sometimes snack cakes. How the hell can they now claim that it isn't realistic. My whole world's being turned upside down.

Farseer (GDI) @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:01PM

I honestly will miss the snack cakes and ice cream most of all...

glitched @ Feb 22nd 2008 5:09PM

Well if MS really wants to push their Live Anywhere and Games for Windows initiatives, and wants to deliver on their promise from a year ago that there would be some measure of cross-platform multiplayer between the 360 and PC, you'd think they'd make cross platfor coop a priority.

Fable 2 would be a great "showcase" title for GfW so if they have any sense, they'd enable cross-platform play for it.

Stupidiot @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:25PM

Wouldn't it be kind of difficult to implement cross-platform gameplay for a game that's only being developed on one platform (to our knowledge)?

glitched @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:45PM

riiiight.... You think It wont be coming to PC? The precedence is set man.

Stupidiot @ Feb 22nd 2008 8:34PM

I don't have any doubts that it will come to the PC eventually but, so far as I know, there haven't been any official announcements or anything, which makes cross-platform play seem unlikely at this stage. The only other game I know that supports cross-platform play is Shadowrun, and that was developed as a multi-platform game from the start.

Purple Haze @ Feb 22nd 2008 5:15PM

This sounds like a stupid idea to me. I don't want to be doing jobs in a game for hours to continue with the game, I'd rather go make some money in real life.

DarkTetsuya @ Feb 22nd 2008 5:26PM

I thought 'realism' went out the window the moment it became a *fantasy* game...

Just saying.

Stupidiot @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:28PM

Precisely. When since does a game have to be realistic to be immersive? I personally find games to be a lot more engaging when they try to be fun, rather than fail to be real. (and face it, with current technology and input methods, games can't even come close to being 'real')

343 Guilty Fart @ Feb 22nd 2008 6:07PM

This game was originally titled 'Animal Crossing 2: The Fable'

Odog4ever @ Feb 22nd 2008 7:20PM

Ok, aside from having to do "side jobs" to earn money I didn't read anywhere that you won't be getting money from quest too, right?

Who is to say that doing one large quest won't net you as much money as working your "job" for a few virtual days. Also you may actually get a large some of money from your job meaning: Maybe the goods in fable are cheap enough where you won't be broke ass hell.

Honestly until the game gets closer to coming out, we shouldn't freak out and assume we are going to be spending all our time grinding away on mini games.