He talked about this on his podcaste too. Canned/stagged or not, its still a very funny scene to image from his descriptions. And given how quickly I found myself in the whole the first few times I played the games, I would say its not too far fetched. If you weren't worried about the money, it would be very easy to loose a few grand and keep going like its nothing.

PureEgo03

I don't think its a marketing attempt as much as just a true story written by a guy about a branch in his company, like everything else he writes. Not like he gets paid for that.

bigmac375

Seeing as how it takes a lot of restraint for me to not spend Mind in Rewind's disability checks in Vegas makes this a nice little alternative.

glamzuki

@EVIL_V2: Anyone else think that the Fortune's Tower glitch was done on purpose so people would buy the game? Seems like too obvious of a bug to miss.

ShadowXion

I wish you kept the debt, I want to load up the game for the first time and have angry goons trying to shake me down for gold I don't have.

InfernoT

@immelmann: More than a week old and not very important, either/

RageKage

"And, here's the escape hatch, you can transfer your gold to your character when you get the game, but nothing says you have to transfer your debts. In fact, you'd be quite foolish to do so. Or you can just delete the gamesave and start over without paying the debt. So if you're playing this, keep all of that in mind."

Incorrect. To port the gold (and I think more importantly, the unique items) into Fable II, you have to merge the gambling character and the Fable II character. Their gold AND debts are added together. Also, when starting over without paying the debt, you lose the items you might have earned, so the trick is gathering up everything you want without ending up in debt.

Korlis

Spinnerbox makes me feel sad, and I've won more money in Keystone tournaments by making no inside bets than by actually trying, but Fortune's Tower... now that's a good one.

Perrsun

damn, old news.

immelmann

Waisting fake money, o.k. Waisting real money on part of a game that you will own anyway in 2 months, not o.k.

Nedge

Made my own Fortune's Tower deck in real life, and the odds are so skewed it isn't funny. It's still fun nonetheless.

Thassodar

hhhhhmmmmm seems like a cheap marketing attempt to me but still funny none the less

EVIL_V2

i played the trial, its addictive ^^

FryDay

I know it's supposed to be funny but I can't believe that nobody among the first commentators on his site actually said anything about the priority of real life relationships over gaming.

Sure, 3400 in debt. Whatever. If his wife who doesn't normally play games was having a good time sharing in an activity which he loves - even if she was losing huge amounts, he needs to get on that opportunity to make their relationship even stronger.

Frankly, I thought his reaction was childish and typical of the behaviour that produces a boys with their toys reaction. Learn to share, even if it costs you.

PreDefined

@bigmac375: I have a huge amount of scepticism for comments like the one he has made. Funny that every company exec has a family memember(s) who are addicted to ' ' released game from none other than their own company! Who wudda thought?
Good times..

Strong Arm

@ShadowXion: I'm with you on that one

marissa_melee

Major Nelson is a creepy guy, a nice guy, but a creepy guy. It has something to do with how he says "gamer points" and how he enjoys getting them, no matter how easy the game is. Maybe it is just me...

Muisee

@PreDefined:

I really doubt there is any seriousness to the situation, I'm sure his wife had just as much of a laugh as he did. Also,how can you imply that he should have taken that "opportunity to make their relationship even stronger.", thats a little out of your bounds isn't it, I mean who says they aren't the happiest frigging couple in the world, and well aware aware of their relationship being a higher priority than gaming?

shane-o86

@PreDefined: You know, I don't even care if the story is legit or not. I'm just angry that that kind of a response/reaction is perceived as acceptable.

"OMG. I can't believe she did that... LOL."

Gaming needs to grow up! Not because it should be exclusive to adults but because a lot of adult gamers need to stop being women/men children and learn that they can still have fun AND set an example for future generations of adult gamers about how to combine playing and living in a healthy way.

PreDefined

@Thassodar: I was considering it myself. How'd you do it? Just a normal deck and a half of cards?

edb87

Would've been better if he'd interrupted her beating a hooker to death for her GTA IV money back post sordid back seat jiggy.

superbabyproject

@shane-o86: Ok, maybe so. However, the way that it was written (even if purely for effect) still produces that unfortunate kind of a raw abrasiveness that I believe is an unhelpful portrayal of a typical gamer.

It's an old question. What matters more? The original, or the construct?

Frig - old fashioned English slang for masturbate? Or common modern substitute for another four-letter "F" word?

I'm firmly of the believe that you're responsible in the media for not only reporting on how things are but also for being aware of how they may be perceived.

As for being out of my bounds: Don't most relationships need ongoing work especially over the little details of day to day living? I wasn't suggesting their marriage was on the rocks and that he needed to check himself in for counseling.

PreDefined

@PreDefined:

Uh... "the happiest masturbating couple in the world" haha sounds funny, but no, it was merely in place of "fucking".

Well, I agree with you on the fact that the media plays a very important part in the portrayal of the story, but I think this entire thing is pretty innocent, in my opinion.

And I was aware you weren't suggesting marriage counseling or anything of the drastic sort. I have a girlfriend and we've been living together for two years, and of course work needs to be done to keep any relationship alive and healthy, but in THIS case I really can't see it being a reason to sit down and have a talk about relationship matters over video-games. I just don't feel a moral debate is warranted in regards to their marriage and how he himself is portraying his non-video gaming wife in a little anecdote on his blog.

But congrats to you on firmly sticking to your opinion. The world can always use a few less sheep.

shane-o86

Wow is this for real? I actually wouldn't mind trying to play the game while starting off in debt.

Refused

i already have over 1,000,000 gold and all of the unique items.

3inst3in

@Nedge: I don't understand why it's not ok. I personally haven't bought the Pub Games, but if people find value in getting their hands on it early and having the ability to build in-game cash supplies early, then it's "ok".

Omnimon

You should not leave your Xbox running like that... unless you want to have to make a nice call to India on microsoft's bill.

durrem

never mind, just found the answer

meltyman

question, do you really need to buy the xbla game, i thought if you preordered it, you would get an online code to get it

meltyman

I'm still terrible at that game. But it is pretty fun. If ridiculous sometimes.

sir_carrot

Fortune's tower is quite an addicting game. I love just kicking back and listening to some tunes while playing that for a couple of hours.

Guild_Navigator

@PreDefined: You know, I read the original blog post back when he made it and I didn't take away that his reaction was anything but slightly amused.

Dirk Dorkelson

Cynical bunch we humans are. Kind of sad as we use cynicism as a defense mechanism when we can't cope with our own perceptions. If you listened to the podcast to here the story then you have already bought-in into the idea of being interested and your cynicism is hypocrisy otherwise if you heard about this news from Kotaku then blame Kotaku for influencing your weak mind. If Kotaku thinks that it can post it because it's funny but at the same time feels the need to call the guy fake then that's just dis-indigenous of them. One things clear here, if everyone just takes it at face value (this includes the podcast listeners, Kotaku editors, and Kotaku readers) and get a laugh or two out of it then nothing is lost. e needlessly complicate things with our cynicism and that's just sad.

okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under)

Sort of old.......

sargemat

I've been playing offline so the game can't be patched. He-he...

hagridore

I would be playing this a lot more if they made me transfer my debts over so it felt like doing something more then getting myself twinked before the game even comes out.

ShineyBlueShoes

I'm having a difficult time understanding this whole pub games idea.
One buys The pub games for $$$$, A game that will presumably already be included the game Fable2?
(I could be wrong)
This is Assuming that buyers of the pub games will buy Fable2, sort of a no shit question. 70 dollar game?

The point of buying the pub game is to get in game money/items?
Is this not one step ahead of paying Real moneys for fake moneys?

I love fable, and have mine pre ordered, but whole thing seems like dirty pool to me.
I have also noticed that starting a game with cheat codes (like free money) Kills the appeal working to finish a game or just enjoying the little things in the title.

Let it also be said that I'm a cheap ass and probably would have just bought the pub games had I a dispensable income.

Also Woo! Fable =)

CRUNK

haha i emailed this in days ago, i found the original story kotaku newsworthy on my first read through.

second time, blatant advertising!!!

shaunomacx

In Portugal they continue to simply ignore , the portuguese player right to play or buy this game, and they don't say why.

Marshal_A

@CRUNK:
You can get it free by preordering Fable II. I imagine this is how most people got it.

Xagest

I can verify that the story is true.

DMZilla

I played the pub games for a while, they're fun, but they get boring after doing the same thing over and over. good marketing idea though. it gets people talking about the game 2 months in advance (like we weren't talking about it already).

First2Die

why do my message never get posted?

pinshot