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Sony's Anthony Carboni plays No Man's Sky, does exactly what you expect

by: Sean Colleli -
More On: No Man's Sky

Discovery host and occasional Sony collaborator Anthony Carboni finally got to test drive No Man's Sky, with the game's creative director Sean Murray close by to supervise. Carboni proceeds to do exactly what you'd expect: he starts blasting chunks out of a planet, murders some of the local wildlife (after naming them after himself) and gets killed a couple times by the space police. It's great to finally see someone just have fun with No Man's Sky; up until now it's felt like this immaculate, look-but-don't-touch art piece. On the other hand I have to feel for Sean Murray--his frozen smile of terror is priceless as he laughs nervously and says "suddenly I have a feeling like I don't want to release this game."

I hope he's not serious because I really want to play this game, but as an artist I can definitely empathize. You create this beautiful something and everyone else wants to play with it, turn it around in their hands and probably break it. At the same time, without insulting the man, Sean Murray's position seems a bit naive. This is one of the most anticipated games of all time, and he seems surprised that Carboni is treating it like this. I know Murray was in big development for years before he made Hello Games, so he knows gamers. Gamers are humans, and humans can generally be pretty awful. If you create an infinite procedurally generated universe, you can't expect most people to treat it like the Ferrari in Ferris Bueller. You can expect the vast majority of people to destroy it, or try their damnedest to do so.