Whenever the topic of the future of gaming comes up, I immediately begin blathering on about immersion, and how as time goes on, games only get more immersive. Normally, I’m referring to top notch visuals, high quality surround sound, and deep, engaging plots. Fable 2 has shown me that immersion comes in more flavors than I had previously thought.

First came the Pub Games for the XBLA. The actual games themselves were somewhat lackluster. They weren’t terrible, just not super duper fun either. While the gameplay was kind of “ho hum” the higher concept behind Pub Games was novel and interesting. If you didn’t already know, you can take your Pub Games winnings and drop them into the pocket of your Fable 2 hero. Consequently, I spent a larger than I care to admit number of hours playing games I didn’t particularly like in order to build up a fortune. Much like in real life, I spent a lot of time cheating at cards. I used the very widely known exploit in Fortune’s Tower to amass around 3 million gold pieces… only to find out Peter Molyneux has it in for me. Molyneux has made it clear that there will be consequences for cheaters, but hasn’t said what those consequences will be. That’s when it really hit me - I was genuinely excited to see what fate would befall my cheating hero. I had been pulled into Fable 2 months before the game even launched.

Fast forward to early this week. Microsoft and Lionhead launched the official Xbox.com page for Fable 2, which includes a chicken kicking mini game, and an interactive story, featuring a voice over by the extremely talented Zoë Wanamaker. Now, here’s the neat part - you can earn yourself 1,000 gold by kicking chickens accurately, and, depending on your choices in the interactive story, you can earn some in game items. While no one from MS or Lionhead has said as much, I’m assuming the cave near Bowerlake where the hero of the interactive story buries his treasures at the end of the story will be the place to go to find your new swag. If my assumption is correct, that mini game has added a mini quest to Fable 2. When was the last time an in browser game did that for you?

Immersion is the future of gaming, and while plot and presentation are vital to pulling the player further into the game world, they’re not the only way to do it. By tying external websites and games to the main game, developers can go one step further toward keeping the player’s attention fixed on a game. I look forward to a future where game worlds are expanded past the confines of the disc they ship out on.

-Mike Kurz

Tags: DLC, Fable 2, featured, Game Design, Peter Molyneux, Pub Games, XBLA, Xbox 360

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