Reprinted from the official Lionhead discussion board without permission or comment:

I was originally thinking of adding this message as a reply to the "Please post your creature's amazing stories" thread, but as I wanted to be sure that Lionhead could see this one I decided to make it it's own message.

Mr. Molyneux and Lionhead, you have all done a really fantastic job on this game's detail and spectacular AI. I want to strongly compliment you on "Black and White". All your hard work has really shown, as I was shown last night just how powerful your game really was. I was so touched by your game last night that it became the first videogame I've ever encountered that made me cry.

To save myself some typing time, let me show you a copy of an email sent out late last night to other members of my little clan concerning what happened:

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I wanted to tell you about something that just happened.

Tonight after spending all day doing other things, I decided to take some time to play my new game, and was genuinely astonished and horrified at what happened in it. Well, you know what I mean, it was just like watching a dramatic movie when I say "horrified".

You know how the game says it's like a giant personality test and will reflect your own personality due to the fact that it's wildly open-ended and will reflect your moral choices?

Well, I was so proud of my tiger Rainbow...he was entertaining the children, petting and kissing the villagers, doing chores for them, even putting them all to bed at night when night fell. He was beginning to glisten with a heavenly rainbow-like glow aura, and his alignment read something like "saintly and true".

But then I watched something awful happen. He wasn't eating. He was just taking care of everyone, so I immediately tried to feed him. He simply took the food, rejected it and gave it to the villagers instead. In other words, he was so compassionate and caring towards the people that he wasn't caring for himself. I desperately tried to get him to eat and rest, but he kept refusing.
He died of hunger and weakness.

Fortunately, creator Peter Molyneux promises that your creature won't actually "die" permanently, he'll just come back in his home and you can correct whatever happened. But as I tried to get him to eat, he kept rejecting the food and giving it to the people and ended up "dying" some five more times. I kept thinking sadly "This is for your own good, Rainbow" as I slapped him hard as he threw the food away yet again.

Finally, I got him to eat by putting food in his paws and rubbing his chest until he realized it was alright. So he seems to be alright now. But man, that was touching to watch, just like watching a good movie or something.

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I sat there and just began to cry as the above happened, and my ten-year-old nephew was genuinely concerned (he was watching the game over my shoulder and desperately hoping I could get "poor Rainbow" to eat). I've had certain movies move me to that degree, but this is the first time I've ever encountered a *computer game* that affected me like this. Obviously, you and your staff must have an incredible amount of talent to create a program this special.

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*Note: This file photo of Brandon Reinhart reacting to George Broussard reading the story out loud to the 3D Realms staff does not appear in the original post.