Can Neverwinter Nights Go Massively Multiplayer?
By Eva on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 7:28 PM PST In Atari, Bioware, Computer, Editorials, Features, Game Companies, Game Platforms, Games, Mods
Would a Neverwinter Nights be a viable MMO? Sources at Variety say Atari is betting on it. Supposedly it’s the whole reason Atari bought out Cryptic Studios.
I question whether porting NwN into the massively multiplayer realm is really a sure thing. The most obvious obstacle is taking BioWare and Obsidian out of the equation. However, I believe that taking the modding out of the game which has already spawned many persistent worlds which are essentially mini MMO themselves will take away one of the elements that makes NwN such a fascinating setting.
This classic RPG based on the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons & Dragons has been a popular staple for PC players since BioWare launched it in 2002. Two expansion packs, NwN: Shadows of Undrentide and NwN: Hordes of the Underdark continued the series, expanding the Forgotten Realms and adding to the already extensive tools and utilities that allowed modders to create their own detailed adventures.
The full sequel, Neverwinter Nights 2 developed by Obsidian, was received with slightly less enthusiasm from fans, but has gained a solid following and spawned three official expansions to date. Although the NWN2 tool set is less intuitive than the original, it was just a minor delay for modders. Players have options to add new character races and classes to their games as well as rule and effects tweaks. Modders have also created countless skins, models, textures, and tilesets to forge many new high quality mods for fans to play after they’ve conquered the official releases.
There are also persistent worlds like Silver Spire, World of Talernon, and Higher Ground which has 192 players and 21 DMs. Many of these worlds are constantly changing because of players actions and many have NPCs that react differently to players of different classes or races. The core issue is that in my opinion, pulling a off persistent and dynamic world in an MMO hasn’t successfully been done. Sure you can have a stateful persistent environment but name an MMO where it remembers your actions and changes the world as a result – its somewhat counter to the idea that everyone shares the same game experience if you allow that to happen.
Cryptic is a class act that has shown great promise with its work on Star Trek Online and Champions Online. I don’t doubt that they could create a beautiful rendering of the Neverwinter Nights settings. However, I doubt that adventuring in a static world with content that continues expanded, but doesn’t change, will satisfy many fans of the Neverwinter Nights series.
If they can give players the option to add new content AND make the game a real D&D style game it would probably be a big hit.
I disagree. Why drive players to invest time into another system to create custom content? Why not have Cryptic develop adventure packs, heck, copy them right from the books/magazines, etc. Maybe allow games to be saved by the DM, so you can jump back in at the same point you left off?
I for one would much prefer a combination of a huge world to explore, and the choice to join DM led games that are either adhoc (can be instances of areas that are only for the group involved, and led by the DM), and/or also have adventure packs, or modules if you will, that are premade and a DM can lead you through them.
Then there is choice. And DM’s don’t have to worry about investing all this time creating there worlds, because Forgotten Realms, or parts of it, are already there for you to explore and join adventuring parties on quests.
I think that’s way better then making me create all my own stuff (NPC’s, lands, conversations, quests).
… only a relatively small amount of content on the internet for NWN/NWN2 is really worth playing. So if Cryptic is tasked with creating an MMO on Forgotten Realms, or NWNO, I think bang for the buck would be much greater if they focused on enabling players & DM’s to explore a prebuilt world that they can interact with.
Just my 2cents!
Aes
NWNO doesn’t need, nor would I want player made input. That’s why we have NWN/2, any work with a MMO set world needs to be primarily “static” with any changes or world events coming from the Dev Team and them alone imo
There is PLENTY of history, data and lore to draw from for this franchise, Cryptic should have no problem drawing from all the sources available to create a MMO world.