It's funny how things work out sometimes.

During last month's Game Developers Conference, my beloved co-worker Nick Breckon decided to play a little prank on me. In short, he convinced me that renowned game designer Peter Molyneux, who is currently wrapping up production on Fable 2 (X360), wanted to do an interview.

Of course, there were a few stipulations, as relayed by Shacker Abigail Sponge, playing a convincing representative from Lionhead. At first they were mostly innocent requests, but they soon grew increasingly eccentric, to the point where I was expected to call him Sir Molyneux, wear a pink shirt that complemented my brown eyes, and polish up on my Connect Four skills.

Needless to say, everyone had a good laugh once the prank was revealed. I received countless messages from numerous folk scattered all about the industry. So many, in fact, that when Microsoft offered a real interview with Peter Molyneux, I was a bit apprehensive. How was I to be sure this wasn't part of another prank?

Thankfully it turned out to be legit, and I spent a good hour talking with Sir Molyneux about all sorts of things, including Fable 2, Lionhead's next project, Grand Theft Auto 4, the PC gaming industry--and of course, the prank itself.

Below is the first half of our lengthy conversation. Be sure to check out the second part here.

Peter Molyneux: Chris, what did they do to you? You must've thought I was a real--this is not an American word, it's a British word--wanker. You must've thought I was a real idiot.

Shack: ..No?

Peter Molyneux: You liar. I heard it the other day and you were so patient, you just kept saying, "Yes, yes, yes." But what was going through your mind when all this was happening? Were you thinking, "My god, Peter Molyneux is an idiot and everyone from Britain is an idiot"?

Shack: Well, it was in the middle of Game Developers Conference, so I was really busy. My train of thought was, essentially, "Either this is real, and it's going to be a really funny story, or this is fake, and it's going to be a really funny story."

Peter Molyneux: Well, it was that. I found it very funny anyway. They were very cruel to you then.

I'm just sitting here--it's nice to take a break from the play-throughs of Fable 2 at the moment, because that's what we're doing--I'm sitting, looking out on a very miserable, wet, rainy day here in England.

Shack: Before the interview begins, would you prefer to be called Sir Molyneux or Dr. Molyneux?

Peter Molyneux: Just call me.. idiot, if you'd like. That's probably the closest you can [get].

You've got to remember, that when I went up and got those honors, which they are incredible honors, I honestly believed at some point they were going to turn around and say, "Molyneux, get out of here! You're not supposed to--we didn't mean that Molyneux! We meant another Molyneux."

When they were given to me I was in a room with someone who had explored Antarctica single-handedly, and another person who walked around the world backwards with no legs. It was like these true heroes, and then there was me. Everyone was going around saying, "What have you done?" and eventually it came to me. I said, "I make up computer games," and the whole room went quiet for a while.

I don't feel I deserve that honor, at all. There's a lot more people in this industry that deserve that accolade than me. I'm just lucky to be British.

Americans should have this sort of thing! You need a king! Maybe George W. Bush should resign his presidency and become your new monarch. We could have the Bush monarchy. We have the Elizabethan monarchy, you could have the same in America. Then you can have knighthoods and all of that.

Shack: Some would argue that the Bush monarchy is already well-established.

Peter Molyneux: [laughter] Yes, well, it looks like that from this side of the pond. The Bush monarchy or the Clinton monarchy, one of the two.

Shack: My first question is, how confident are you in your Connect Four skills?

Peter Molyneux: [laughter erupts from the room] You know, I've got to tell you something. Now, this is something where they could have actually got it right, because I would play Connect Four any day of the week.

I play, and have played, board games every week of my life, pretty much, since the age of about eight. And while Connect Four hasn't featured very often into those things, if you suggest a board game, I reckon I could give you a good game.

So I'd be pretty confident [in Connect Four], yeah. I've got this group of people, we have played board games every two weeks for about the last 15 years. One of the people in there is [Ian] Livingstone, he works at Eidos and is one of the guys that discovered Lara Croft. There's another guy that's at the head of a studio called Deep Red.

We're all kinda game developers, but we've been meeting, and I've consistently been top of that group of people for the last three or four years. Although, if they read this report, they're gonna kill me.

I'd be pretty confident in my Connect Four skills. How confident would you be in yours? That's the question.

Shack: I'm fairly confident.

Peter Molyneux: What we should have done is pull up MSN Messenger. They've got two-player Connect Four and we could've played, every question would allow us to take a move, and see who won by the end of us.

Well Chris, let me ask you this. What's your first move, then?

Shack: I'd probably drop a piece in the second row to the right.

Peter Molyneux: Fatal.

Shack: ..Fatal?

Peter Molyneux: It's a well known fact, consistently proven, second row to the left is definitely the winning move.

Shack: ..Yeah, you probably would have taken me.

Peter Molyneux: [laughter]

Shack: You mentioned that you're play-testing Fable 2 right now. How's that going?

Peter Molyneux: It's pretty good. The way we work at the moment is that the whole game is completely playable, from start to finish. There's a group of people, and I'm in that group, that just keep on playing through it and making minor adjustments.

We're just playing through the opening scenes of the game, which is childhood. When you first play the game, you start off as this eight-year-old kid who's either a boy or a girl. We're just playing through the first thirty minutes of childhood at the moment.

Turn the page for Molyneux's thoughts on Fable 2's co-op, its distinct lack of mini-maps, and its elusive release date.