Molyneux was at the Develop Conference in Brighton yesterday and talked about Fable 2 combat again in a talk called “Innovations in Game Design”. Next-Gen.biz has some snippets from the talk and a summary of what he said.

A lot of games developers worry about button-mashing and we look down with disdain on it.

I hate that we spend millions of dollars designing our games and only 1 percent of people finish them. If they don’t finish the game, it’s like leaving the movie halfway through, so it’s a rubbish movie to some extent, and that responsibility is on our shoulders.

…We often make casual gamers feel dumb, stupid and intimidated. We want to make those people feel as good as hardcore gamers.

He added that there will be certain ways to finish the game more quickly, depending on the path you choose. You can be a hero and fight a lot and finish quickly, or you can have as much sex as you want and children to build a family and take the game more slowly.