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The Overlooked Module Reports

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk

The community has created endless adventures for Neverwinter Nights. Over 4400 different modules of varying length, difficulty, and quality can be downloaded to play for free, chiefly from NWVault. How do you sort through all those possibilities and find the gems?

While NWVault's great public rating system gives you a selection of modules to take a closer look at, the vast number of modules do get lost in the shuffle. Enter the Overlooked Module Report, which highlights modules of high caliber that might have been missed in the avalanche of module submissions. The interview responses below are a collaborative effort among community members who have actively been working on the Overlooked Module Project, including Berliad, caesarbear, El Dano, Hugie, jfoxtail, furnaski, and Starlight, among others.

Can you explain what you and you team are up to?

We see an issue facing the NWN community where the sheer number of good modules can be intimidating and difficult for prospective players to negotiate. Some valuable, hard work is being overlooked because players have difficulty finding all the modules that fit their interests. Word of mouth has proven to be the best way to find many of these hidden gems, but all too often the discussions on the message boards are about modules that are already well known. To address this problem, we've focused on collecting recommendations for lesser-known modules and making those recommendations easy for the community to find. By publishing these recommendations each month, we put a spotlight on overlooked modules and hopefully help players experience more of the great content this community has produced.

Since we started last October, we've released eight monthly reports of overlooked modules, the most recent being our June 2006 Report. We also continue to collect new recommendations for modules at our thread in the BioWare forums. We've been delighted to receive a great deal of very positive feedback from players who use our reports to find fun modules they hadn't seen before, as well as from module builders who were able to gain greater exposure through having their modules nominated to our list.

How do you locate your selections? Can fans send in suggestions?

From the beginning, this has been an open community project in that everyone in the community is welcome to participate. This is not meant to be an "alternate Hall of Fame." It's just a list of modules that individual community members have played, enjoyed, and think more people should experience. In order to help us focus on modules that are overlooked, we, the organizers, have put in place a few straightforward guidelines for modules to qualify for the list:

• The module should not be in the NWVault Hall of Fame.
• The module should not be in the Top New Modules list at NWVault.
• The module should have been available for download for at least three months.
• The module should not yet have reached both 2500 downloads and 25 votes.

We encourage everyone who knows of a module that fits the bill to stop by our thread in the BioWare forums and recommend it. All we ask is that you include a link to the module as well as a few words on what you found enjoyable about it. We'll then add it to our master list, from which we pull 5 selections each month for our Overlooked Module Reports.

When do you post your report on overlooked modules?

We post a new report each month, usually on the second or third Friday of the month, at NWVault. We also have a master list of overlooked modules.

How can I help?

The easiest way you can help our project succeed is to watch for our monthly reports at NWVault. Look through the descriptions, check out any modules that appeal to you, and leave comments and a vote for those modules' authors when you're finished playing. Voting is still the best way to help modules get attention, and many of the modules we feature are in great need of player feedback. Furthermore, if you have recommendations for our list or just want to get involved, please do stop by our thread in the BioWare Forums! We're always happy to hear from a new face.

Related Links

• NWVault Modules Hall of Fame
• Top rated modules
• Independent Game Festival module winner profile
• Tips on what to look for in reviewing a module

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