The Shadowclan Dark Moot

[K'Dahbruh]

Going to be put out by Atari? No info yet.

[Hin]

hahaha by Cryptic? .... oh well.

[Ganthar]

I didn't see anything about Cryptic making it but if they are you can pretty much already write it off the list of being a quality mmo.

[Dek'Oligz]

This rumor is sketchy imo. Not saying it can't be true, I'm more saying that I'm hesitant to believe it. Here's a few reasons why:

I'm no MMO historian, but I follow a few of the major sites regularly, forums included, and have for the past few years. I think the first talk of a NWN MMO was back when BioWare's secret game was unreleased, which of course turned out to be TOR. I think since then the "rumor" or possibility of a NWN MMO has sort of just lived on.

Also, Cryptic said they were making 3 MMOs using the same engine and such to pump MMOs out faster. (Which a lot of people hate, I don't actually have any problem with it considering they came out and said what they were doing before they did it. No one should be surprised that their games don't have much in the way of content. It's basically a failing experiment is all. No ill will here.)

Anyways, Cryptic's first 2 MMOs from this batch were Champions and Star Trek. The third is rumored to be NWN, but they have concept art on their website. There's Champions, Star Trek, and a mysterious third batch of concept art which looks nothing like NWN - there's rifles and vehicles and stuff. Looks more like something along the lines of Secret World.

So those are the two big things I'm looking at. I also don't really see the connection between Atari and Cryptic. I guess Atari and Cryptic work together, but isn't Atari behind some of Turbine's games as well?

And I'm a fanboy, too. I'd play a mediocre NWN just because I love Forgotten Realms so much. If it was done remotely well, or even just the same old WoW clone we keep seeing, but set in Forgotten Realms, I'd shamelessly play it.

With all that said, I did see one hell of an interesting theory that I'd be pumped about were it true.

I saw a guy mention Cryptic's ties to CoH, and CoH's architect system where you can build your own missions. Then you have NWN, popular largely because of it's player generated content. So the theory is perhaps NWN will be a MMO with a feature that allows players to create their own quests and storylines, just like a DM. Were that the case I'd be happy with a game with limited Champions Online-esq content so long as we have a tool to make our own quests.

So that's my two cents! My caution tells me we may soon find out that this was all in our heads, but the hopeful side is eagerly awaiting this MMO to be announced.

[Vulg]

I has all teh infos

Its actually looking pretty darned cool. As soon as I am allowed I will be filling you lot in.

[Dek'Oligz]

LFM 10 man raid on Vulg, rolling need on teh infos

[Hin]

let's speculate wildly until Vulg gets so annoyed by the misinformation that can't keep his trap shut anymore!

Anyway, I herd that there's going to be a quest system that basically rips off WOW. Kinda annoying. I was hoping to play nwn without the "kill 10 rats" quest trudging. They are also going to have a talent tree with three main branches.

Also, it's heavily instanced. and crafting sucks

[K'Dahbruh]

No, no, no! I've heard that it's going to be a drow-only game. Every PC will be a rebel/good-aligned drow ranger. And all names must start with D, and have at least two Zs somewhere in them.

[Severian]

[Vulg]

One thing I can guarantee is that our guys at WoTC are heavily involved and informed on every design consideration, especially in regards to story and content. This will not be Atari/Cryptic taking a lot of artistic license with the IP.

[K'Dahbruh]

[Dek'Oligz]

[Throkwatt]

I just can't get excited about this. Cryptic seems like a bunch of hacks after Champions Online and what they did to Star Trek.
I can only imagine it'll be a subscription combined with a online store where you can buy things like Bags of holding for 10 bucks, etc...
Unless they have actual DMs and ways to affect the world like in the better NWN PWs ( or old school UO) not really interested.Am hopeful, but..

I guess that explains why WoTC is coming out with a Neverwinter campaign setting book.

[Vulg]

To be quite honest much of the MMO universe is heading into the micro-transaction business model and Cryptic's model allows you to play the entire game and have complete access to everything but some cosmetic and vanity stuff (costume pieces and action figures) without ever needing to look at the C-Store. Frankly, I play Champions Online and continue to have fun with it often. City of Heroes was a great game that opened a whole new genre to MMOs. Star Trek is just plain awful but 2 out of 3 isn't bad.

[Dek'Oligz]

Mhmm. I try to stay out of the Cryptic debate, cause I wouldn't want someone telling me they think I'm wrong if I felt ripped off by a certain company.

I like Cryptic though and I defend them pretty regularly because I think they've been very honest in releasing "bite sized" MMOs. I read quite a while back that they had created a game engine and were planning to release three MMOs. The article said that they wanted to try to release games in 6 months instead of 3 years like most MMOs. I thought and still think that the idea of trying to grow your game with your community instead of for your community is a novel and unique idea.

For example, I bought Champions and played for two months and stopped because I had played through all the content. Neither my girlfriend and I felt any regret having purchased it though, because what we played was fun and we could see ourselves going back to that game after more content was released. We both bought Warhammer and felt ripped off.

Why the difference? Because we felt Warhammer really hyped their game, misled us. I feel Cryptic's been pretty honest about what they're doing - they're not claiming to compete with WoW like Mythic did, which then implies WoW-like quality.

I didn't try STO though, and I hear that was the worst of it, so I'm only getting half the story here. My only beef with Champions was I felt they could've balanced things a little sooner, and I wish they had released with Villain content.

[K'Dahbruh]

More info on the NWN MMO:

- Yes, it's being done by Cryptic
- Not really an MMO, not really a single player RPG.
- Yes, it will include 'editing tools' that allow player generated content.
- It'll be based on a brand new set of books by R.A. Salvatore.

And, the official NWN site: http://www.playneverwinter.com/

About all that's on that site is a front page, and a chance to sign up to get the newsletter.

[Dek'Oligz]

Okay, it's announced!

Tell us everything you know, Vulg! About everything. Start with the birds and the bees.

Seriously though, got any goods for us?

[Dek'Oligz]

And if anyone finds a fansite for Neverwinter with forums, link it here? I'm looking for some fun convo/speculation sort of discussion but every thread is mostly "Cryptic doom" crap.

[Throkwatt]

It does sound interesting, I'll give'em that. Even though I don't care for DnD 4th Edition, it is well suited for a computer game.
It sounds like they'll have their own servers you'll have to log into, but you'll be able to create your own content too. But it doesn't sound like they'll
have GM tools for players as part of that, which is a downer.
That's the best part of NWN 1, IMO.

In the interview, Emmert was actually pretty open and honest about the mistakes they made with Champions Online and Star Trek.Maybe they learned from their mistakes.

[K'Dahbruh]

The biggest problem with 4th ed. is that it was incomplete. The first players handbook included only the combat information. Combat spells, combat abilities, combat feats. It didn't allow for anything but combat.

The later players handbooks may have finally fixed that, but I wouldn't know, because they took too long to come out, and I'd already given up on the 4th ed. by then.

In our pen-and-paper games, combat was only a small part of what we did each gaming session. Leaving out all of the rest of the game (or claiming that everything else is stat rolls) ruined it for us, and we couldn't use 4th ed.

[Throkwatt]

Agreed on that.Our group started playing Pathfinder awhile back, and we haven't looked back.

[Ganthar]

What rules do you feel are needed for outside of combat? In my experience non-combat is typically RP with the occasional skill depending on what you did.
I haven't had my non-combat encounters change from 3.5 to 4th edition except there is the addition of rules for an actual skill encounter now.

[K'Dahbruh]

[Khargug]

I'm a fan of the 2nd edition. Everything after just made me cringe.

[Ganthar]