This is what Dene Carter, managing director of Big Blue Box Studios, has to say about Fable as an Xbox game: "Marvelous, truly enjoyable, addictive, and really, really funny."

This is what Carter, who also served as lead designer and programmer for Fable, has to say about his creation as a role-playing game: "Um.where's my +3 Zargmace of Slow, Dull Poisoning? Where is the family tree for Euronymous (Guard No. 5)? Why am I not given the option to feel truly bored by interacting with naught but a series of cut-scenes strung together with occasional options to press B? Why is my combat not restricted to a nice turn-based menu? Yours, disappointed, Garrhtrot the Unpronounceable."

Upon its release, Microsoft's Fable cured no acne. It didn't eliminate world hunger, unite the masses under the gleaming banner of peace, or defeat the evils of static cling and ring around the collar. Then again, its developers Simon and Dene Carter and their team at Big Blue Box never intended it to.