Fable: The Lost Chapters Interview

GameZone has conducted an interview with Lionhead Studios' Dene Carter, in which the lead designer talks a bit about the upcoming Fable: The Lost Chapters. Here's one of the more interesting questions:
Q: Where do you think RPGs should be, where do you think they are going and how does Fable fit into that picture?

A: (For me, RPGs are often far too long, far too po-faced, and too self-absorbed to be much fun. Value for money shouldn't mean '˜Let's make sure every step of your journey is so dull, painful and tedious it takes 200 hours to complete, with 90% of that being random grind' play!' Nor should it mean, '˜Let's create a landscape the size of the entirety of the USA! And make you walk from state to state!' Again, this receives no points in the '˜Fun' stakes. Likewise, if I wanted to read 2,000+ pages of text I'd probably pick up a novel and put down the joystick.

(I'd like to think that as time goes on, RPGs will get back to the core that made the concept so compelling when D&D originally came out: the ability to shape your character, to experience a vivid world, and to feel that what you do has consequences.

(Our aim was for Fable to lay a few stones of that particular pathway.)