Neverwinter E3 Teaser Trailer

[Cergorach]

It looks like, at least from this wrap-up on Gamebanshee, that they are trying to get back to the NWN1 model of DM created content.

Neverwinter Previews and Video Interview

That would be great if it weren't for the fact that it seems that they want to run all the content on their own servers and as far as I can tell don't allow for your own servers. That would be great if those servers were still running in a decade, but experience has told me that this is very often not the case. If you spend a large amount of time and effort on creating an adventure, you still want to be able to rerun it a decade from now. I can do that with NWN1 or NWN2, doesn't seem possible with Neverwinter.

On another point, it's kind of sad to see how D&D has apparently fallen in the eyes of computer game fans. Remember when D&D was the most exciting thing to be used by computer games and a very valuable license. Yet it seems that the CRPGs have actually surpased the role of D&D now and the brand seems a lot weaker in the marketplace. D&D CRPG fans became Bioware or Obsidian fans, for instance.

That's less the fault of the computer game fans and more the fault of those who hold the D&D license, D&D CRPGs that are poorly supported and buggy as the Abyss (The Temple of Elemental Evil, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor) or have very little to do with the D&D gamesystem (Daggerdale, DDO, Dragonshard, Demonstone, Heroes). Then we have the fubar that was 4th edition, don't want to go into an edition war, but 4th edition (and it's further releases) created a big rift in the D&D fan community.

And let's not forget that computer games have become more significantly mainstream, so with titles like Dragon Age and Mass Effect there are a lot of folks that have never heard of D&D. 'The Elder Scrolls' series has also been around for 17 years (a long time in computer game land) and they have their own followers and the difference here is that they haven't lost credibility with their fans by releasing a ton of crappy unrelated games.

NWN1 was imho the last really big D&D game that had a big success, NWN2 was decent, but suffered from a bunch of issues that made creating content a pain in the tail. Also the support Obsidian provided was less then Bioware did with NWN1.

For a lot of folks D&D isn't D&D anymore, for me Pathfinder is more D&D then the current 4th Edition, so I have significantly less loyalty to the brand for new titles. I still have most, if not all, of the old CRPG titles and I still want to go through Champions of Krynn (one of these days).

Unless something significantly changes, the D&D brand will become less and less valuable, eventually ending up in obscurity.

The reason why companies like Bioware and Blizzard have my loyalty is because they've proven themselves in the last 10-15 years to continually provide quality games. I wish the same could be said about all the owners and licensees that worked with the D&D property. Currently the folks that produced/wrote/illustrated the D&D I liked have more of my loyalty then the D&D brand itself. WotC/Hasbro has gone through more people then I care to count (Christmas firing of personnel).

Negativity results when you combine the following:
- The D&D brand doesn't have a consistent quality where computer games are concerned.
- Cryptic Studios doesn't have the best reputation in MMO land, whether that is justified or not isn't the point, there is a lot of negativity aimed at the creator of the game.
- Atari was actually looking to get rid of Cryptic Studios, a serious indication that they've lost confidence in CS (not that it by itself means much, Atari has also become a crappy brand that does very strange things). Many folks are less then happy with a Chinese company taking over (Perfect World), Asian MMOs are generally viewed with much contempt by western MMO gamers and often labled as "grindfests".

Personally: I'll wait for the reviews/demo and even then it depends on pricing, quality, and publishing model. It's not asif I don't have a ton of computer (RPG) games that still need to be (re)played...

 

[JohnRTroy]

I agree with a lot of what you said. I was just lamenting that D&D used to be the thing that inspired all of the CRPGs, now the CRPGs have grown and there's less value in taking the Tabletop RPGs to the computer.

 

[Haltherrion]

It looks like, at least from this wrap-up on Gamebanshee, that they are trying to get back to the NWN1 model of DM created content.

An MMO with user created content could be very, very interesting. I think the users would tolerate a lot of flaws if the base content was rapidly expanding.

Having played WOW for many years, the problem with WOW was the content. Leveling was fun. Being max level for a while was fun but then it became tedious doing the same content over and over again, waiting for the occasional new content patch which mostly had the effect of causing unpleasant gear inflation. When I left WOW it was with the hope that someone would allow user content (and a vow never to play in a game whose endgame rested on large raids; that's an unimaginative, developers cop-out for endgame content).

If they really are going to be a MMO allowing user content, then this game just jumped to the top of my list of games to watch. It's what I've been hoping for, and a little afraid of both because it could suck up a lot of my time and put another dent in table-top gaming.

 

[Cergorach]

An MMO with user created content could be very, very interesting. I think the users would tolerate a lot of flaws if the base content was rapidly expanding.

Having played WOW for many years, the problem with WOW was the content. Leveling was fun. Being max level for a while was fun but then it became tedious doing the same content over and over again, waiting for the occasional new content patch which mostly had the effect of causing unpleasant gear inflation. When I left WOW it was with the hope that someone would allow user content (and a vow never to play in a game whose endgame rested on large raids; that's an unimaginative, developers cop-out for endgame content).

If they really are going to be a MMO allowing user content, then this game just jumped to the top of my list of games to watch. It's what I've been hoping for, and a little afraid of both because it could suck up a lot of my time and put another dent in table-top gaming.

Star Trek Online (also by Cryptic Studios) already has that option for user generated content, but that comes with it's own issues in a MMO.

 

[JohnRTroy]

And I should point out this isn't an MMO, it's more like a networked game. You can only have I believe 4-6 players maxed in their own networked instance.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Atari was actually looking to get rid of Cryptic Studios, a serious indication that they've lost confidence in CS (not that it by itself means much, Atari has also become a crappy brand that does very strange things). Many folks are less then happy with a Chinese company taking over (Perfect World), Asian MMOs are generally viewed with much contempt by western MMO gamers and often labled as "grindfests".

I think what Atari is doing is simple - they try to make fast cash to reign in their losses, and build up something else. They want to do stuff like facebook games and "social" games now. Maybe that will work well for them, maybe not, but the only thing it really says about Cryptic is that it was a property they could sell. Heck, the success of Startrek Online might also be part of the reason they need to get rid of Cryptic, as the original contracts contained extra pay-outs of Champions Online and STO met certain business goals (though it seems CO might not have done it, STO did).

Also, the reputation for Asian games and games companies is probably well-deserved - in their market. But Perfect World has also acquired at least one other "Western" game and its creators, Torchlight, and it seems they are not trying to run that in the ground at all. Their goal is not really exporting game ideas that don't work to Europe or the US, but to actually make money by producing something people like and pay for. Whether they can get it done is certainly another matter.

Star Trek Online (also by Cryptic Studios) already has that option for user generated content, but that comes with it's own issues in a MMO.

The Foundry in STO is basically an earlier version of what will go in NWN. There will eventually be a merge between the versions, but when this will happen is another matter. Startrek Online is, as I understand, being updated to the most recent (or at least a more recent) version of the Cryptic Engine with Season 4 sometime in July, how much changes this will bring to the Foundry already I don't know.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

This was looking really, really good to me. I have no interest in MMOs so that it wasn't neccessary was very much a plus. (I don't multitask at all, which means that by the time I've looked up from my keyboard after typing a response to someone fifteen other things have happened.) But the line about no pause to consider combat options pretty much squlched my enthusiasm. I like to think that I've got some tactical savvy, but I'm not a quick thinker. So, once again, by the time I decide what to do it would be too late!