The first thing Peter Molyneux asks someone who has played "Fable," his newest video game, is not whether they like it, but what kind of person they were when they played it. Were they kind or cruel? Had they married? If so, how many times? Had they courted fame or skulked in shadows?

"What kind of hero were you?" Molyneux asks, trying to divine what kind of person stands before him.

Molyneux is renowned in his industry for creating "god games" like "Populous" (1989) and "Black and White" (2001)--games that cast the player as a deity whose whims influence the activities of a simulated world. With his new effort, conceived for Microsoft's Xbox console, Molyneux has given his player-gods flesh, at least of a digital sort.