NKVD
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 19 Aug 2002
From: Geneva, Switzerland |
 Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 11:49AM |
Trent Oster (one of BioWare's producers) said in an interview to GameStar.de that there is a chance that those attending the upcoming E3 conference will see NWN2 as one of the products featured there by BioWare.
He said he is not totally sure whether there will be a toolset included with NWN2 due to financial difficulties. Developing the toolest for NWN1 cost approximately 2.5m USD, which is roughly 25% of the total production budget. Although this investment has paid off in the case of NWN, he said that the company will carry out a thorough analysis of all the available perspectives regarding the toolset.
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One death is a tragedy.
A million deaths is a statistic.
Josif Stalin |
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anothername
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
Jade Empire:SE
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 12 Jul 2002 |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 12:59PM |
Quote: Posted 03/26/04 11:49:12 (GMT) by NKVD
Trent Oster (one of BioWare's producers) said in an interview to GameStar.de that there is a chance that those attending the upcoming E3 conference will see NWN2 as one of the products featured there by BioWare.
He said he is not totally sure whether there will be a toolset included with NWN2 due to financial difficulties. Developing the toolest for NWN1 cost approximately 2.5m USD, which is roughly 25% of the total production budget. Although this investment has paid off in the case of NWN, he said that the company will carry out a thorough analysis of all the available perspectives regarding the toolset.
Simple answer. I would have never spent a coin for the OC only. The toolset makes NWN really great in it´s replayabilty. I´ve tried several games since NWN came out, even bought some of them (when they got cheap) but they now collect dust in the shelves after playing once or twice. KOTOR for example was a really great game. I played a friends version two times (dark ´n light) and liked it. But after thinking about buying and playing it some more I came to the conclusion that I would play the game never again. Maybe start it once or twice, but for sure finish after playing one or two hours.
I always came back to NWN and it´s great modules. It was really worth its money. And even if some would flame me for that, I would have paid more for it. |
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adembroski
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
Jade Empire
NWN 2
Joined: 19 Mar 2003 |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 01:06PM |
I agree. I would certainly have been willing to pay more for Neverwinter Nights... how long has it been out now? And the community is as strong as it's ever been, especially anticipating a long delayed release from DLA, and I'm sure CEP will have no shortage of support.
I see people complain and moan about paying for expansions, and there have been people on the DLA forums who've moaned about requiring both expansions, and I don't get it at all! One of the great advantages of PC gaming is the fact that games can be expanded and modified... I make about 12,000 a year and am raising a child on that, fairly comfortably, to shell out 30 bucks to improve this game is still nothing to me.
Bet that if NWNII were dropped tommorrow, I'd be first in line- if it were released WITH an editor... an editor of the same level of accessability as this one! If they can come up with an equally easy way to build modules, fine, but I don't wanna see another Elder Scrolls Construction Set... the tileset system may be limiting, but take a long, hard look at nwvault and find anything close to it for Morrowind.
(that said, there was also something mentioned about eliminating the DM Client. This would be disappointing to many, but I'd have no real argument for it. Persistant worlds have become the focus of online NWN gaming, not individual campaigns, and that's fine. NOTHING will ever replace PnP gaming, certainly not a video game. It was a nice idea, didn't work as well as many had hoped.)Edited By adembroski on 03/26/04 13:09 |
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STUPIDJARJAR
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 05 Jul 2002 |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 04:02PM |
another agreement. the toolset IS the game. The SP game is nothing more then a few scripts I can look at and study from.
Its to bad NWN was not a cash cow for them.
I don’t like the direction computer/pc gaming is going but it does seem to directly reflect demand. |
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Yu-Gi_Yami
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
Joined: 17 Mar 2004
From: Currently, the (Virtual) Shadow Realm. |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 04:48PM |
As a still relatively new player of NWN, I certainly hope that NWN2 will include an editor so that mods can be made for it like mods can be made for the current game.
I like the OC in NWN so far, but that wasn't the MAIN reason why I bought the game. The MAIN reason why I bought NWN is because of it's ability to utilize player-made content.
_________________
Yu-Gi_Yami
I can also be found on the official Elder Scrolls Forums under the name Yu-Gi. |
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FlynnNWN
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 27 Nov 2002 |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 05:25PM |
So far I have only played the original campaign(disliked it), expansion(loved it), and a few community modules(adored them). I have yet to tap into the power of the editor if only to use it as a reference tool. Online games are a mystery yet, except with close friends. And persistant worlds I am afraid to try. I eventually will try all of these options. I expect this game to provide me enjoyment for *years* to come simply because of that reason.
As a consumer, this is incredibly good value. As an avid gamer, I appreciate the freedom of choice and the replayability NWN offers. As an Open Source advocate, I appreciate the expression of intent that NWN offers to the community. That, in my humble opinion, is the direction PC gaming will eventually turn too for almost all genres.
This will not be easily come to fruition.
Subjectwise - gaming companies are struggling with the astronomical costs of game making today. They are obviously looking for ways to maximize their profit. The easiest way to do this is to focus on a market segment. The gaming market is large enough now that this is possible where it really was not an option before (not to the tune millions of dollars anyway). The question their research will attempt to answer is "Is the mod making market big enough to support the expenditure of an editor in NWN 2?"
Who knows what their research will turn up. I can say that without the editor and DM tools, NWN would not enjoy the life is has today. Is that enough to bring in more revenue than the official releases? Maybe if the numbers are aggregated over time perhaps, but companies are uncomfortable working that way most times.
In the end, it really boils down to Trent Oster and other original developers want. Will they push for NWN2 being as open as NWN1? I am guessing yes, but it won't be completely for monitary reasons. As least, I hope that is the case. |
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Stanley Woo
QA Ninja
Joined: 17 Oct 2001
From: The BioWare Compound |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 05:53PM |
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Since we currently have no plans to make an NWN2, it would be highly unlikely that Trent would be talking about it at E3. This has been discussed on the HotU board as well, with the explanation being that the translation is incorrect. There has also been mention of GameStar being, perhaps, an unreliable source of accurate information. |
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FrEeZiNgFiRe
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Jade Empire:SE
NWN 2
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 28 Jun 2003
From: ... |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 06:05PM |
There will be no NwN2, however they will make 2 other games for the Pc on their IP. And Jade Empire of course.
_________________
I plan to dance on the ashes of this burning world.
Why are you wasting your time with anything that'll be gone tomorrow? |
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STUPIDJARJAR
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 05 Jul 2002 |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 06:14PM |
I think the NWN focus is such that they can’t expect a financial turnaround quickly (which I feel they already knew before even starting to project). It was a huge risk for them and I hope it does pay off.
Seems to me there has been a trend to “dumb down” games. Mainly because of the console market but now more and more PC games are like consoles. Me no like. But, alas, that seems to be where the demand is.
A friend of mine suggested the general idea of creating an “open source game”. I tried to explain to him that NWN is basically just that. It would be hard to create a pure “open source game” without it losing its status as a game. In fact one might suggest C++ itself is an open source game.
(NOTE TO NWN: as a "creator" type gamer I would not be motivated to buy expansion packs unless it was a upgrade to the toolset. However, I WOULD buy a large comprehensive manual covering all the script functions, how to hak pack, listing of popular user sites, 3rd party application software like script wizards etc.
I would not be inclined to buy expansion packs not because I don’t think they would be good compared to other games, just that my gaming purchases in general as dropped considerably because I am spending more time creating a learning programming.
So I guess, in short, I do think there is a small market for a large manual for NWN creating. Only I have no clue if the work cost would justify the small market)Edited By STUPIDJARJAR on 03/26/04 18:20 |
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Georg Zoeller
Senior Technical Designer
Joined: 27 May 2003
From: Austin, TX |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 08:12PM |
As Derek already pointed out elsewhere, Bioware is a privately funded company that does not disclose financial details.
Combined with the fact that we are indeed not going to reveal NWN 2 on E3 (because we are not working on a sequel to NWN), and the other incorrect/badly researched "news" I found on this site ("Bioware is secretly working on BG3", "Bioware releases free community expansion pack", "Bioware announced they work on three original titles, NWN2?") it is pretty safe to say that you can disregard this newspost. I don't know what Trent really said, but whatever it was, it was almost certainly mangled up very badly in translation.
So again, we are not working on NWN2 and we are not working on another expansion pack for NWN, through we are working on other things to support NWN in the future (see Witch's Wake forum for details).
_________________
georg zoeller
senior rules and systems monkey
[da | me]
My custom NWN content
ceterum censeo ambulatiuncula esse delenEdited By Georg Zoeller on 03/26/04 20:18 |
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Elessar Elendil
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Joined: 20 Jan 2004
From: Vancouver, Canada |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 10:32PM |
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All this proves one thing, whenever humans are involved...rumour mills run rampant! |
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Red Five
Game Owner
 NWN
Joined: 17 Jul 2002
From: State of Denial |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 11:27PM |
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The moral of this tale: don't believe all the trash you read on online gaming news tabloids. |
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Elessar Elendil
Game Owner
NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Joined: 20 Jan 2004
From: Vancouver, Canada |
Posted: Friday, 26 March 2004 11:46PM |
Amen to that Red. Unless of course, its you giving me some advice with regards to the game!  |
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Sir_Thazar
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 17 Oct 2001 |
Posted: Monday, 29 March 2004 01:56AM |
Then what ARE you guys working on? I hope that it is more PC RPGS. Personally, stuff like jade empire doesnt interest me at all. Not flaming, it just isn't my thing.
I don't understand why you wouldn't be working on BG3 or NWN 2.
There are enough other companies out there making lame generic games on 15 diferent platforms, and I hope that you guys stay in your niche and continue to produce really excellent role-playing games for the PC. I'm cool with multi-platform developement, I know it's good to diversify sometimes, but I hope that you don't sacrifice PC RPG's along the way, because that's why I love you guys.
Anyway, best wishes.
p.s.
remember your roots. |
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Crystal-Meth
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Joined: 28 Dec 2003 |
Posted: Monday, 29 March 2004 02:24AM |
Quote: Posted 03/29/04 01:56:17 (GMT) by Sir_Thazar
Then what ARE you guys working on? I hope that it is more PC RPGS. Personally, stuff like jade empire doesnt interest me at all. Not flaming, it just isn't my thing.
I don't understand why you wouldn't be working on BG3 or NWN 2.
There are enough other companies out there making lame generic games on 15 diferent platforms, and I hope that you guys stay in your niche and continue to produce really excellent role-playing games for the PC. I'm cool with multi-platform developement, I know it's good to diversify sometimes, but I hope that you don't sacrifice PC RPG's along the way, because that's why I love you guys.
Anyway, best wishes.
p.s.
remember your roots.
Honestly, I think what BioWare's doing is reasonable and sensible.
Why make a third game based on BG? I don't think that would be good, it's been wrapped up.
The NWN: OC, however, is still left untied and I pray for a sequal whenever I play this game. A sequal so I'll have the chance to continue my character or bring closure for him, what he started, and what he started with certain NPCs/characters, like Aribeth for example. I'd like to be able to continue things like that from a story perpective and I kinda didn't like the way that aspect of the game(s) turned out. It's like everything was just dropped. I wouldn't mind being able to continue the OC story into brighter light. The x-packs were good and I liked them, (except I didn't like the way HoTU is linked so much to the NWN: OC and the OC's characters are in it; yet, your OC character means nothing in it) I thought they were well done just like the OC. Whatever, what I'm tryin to get to is this -
Why make a direct sequal now? I say wait for a while, wait for this killer episode of other sequals (Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc.) to pass and then, later on, start doing something regarding NWN 2. It makes sense from a financial point-of-view to do something more original with all the other sequals. Plus, doing a sequal right-off-the-bat will wear NWN out... Let things build and wait for a while.
Just some thoughts. 
Quote: but I hope that you don't sacrifice PC RPG's along the way
Again, BioWare has ever stated they're 'done' with CRPGs. So don't worry m'friend.
Quote: I love you guys.
Yeah, heh, I love BioWare too.   Edited By Crystal-Meth on 03/29/04 02:42 |
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