Citadel Community News Update: 06/13/2009

[dunniteowl]

Citadel Community News Update: 06/13/2009

Wow! Turns out the news this week just keeps getting bigger and bigger! With a tease like that, you gotta read this the whole way through!

I have been 'feeling' my way in the presentation of Community News Updates over the course of the last year or so. I am continuing to experiment with the process. Much as I'd like to be something of a reporter for the Community, I could use some help.

Now I can do some research and am a pretty good 'sorter' of the bs from the news in most cases, though I must admit, I am just another guy in the Community. I don't have a job doing this, but it's a job, let me assure you. So, if there are any folks out there who'd like a byline once a week, once a month, once in a Blue Moon, by all means, your assistance would be most welcome as long as we get facts separated from opinion in the right places.

Help me help you. Help me help you. Help me help you. (In my best imitation of Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire.)

Now, on with the usual suspects:

Vault Offerings:

NWN2 USER SCREENSHOTS

Guess the character by BuSyMan

Don't tell me ... by Stormbow

Divinus Fatereaper by Orgolove

Mr badp by Genra

NWN2 GAMEWORLDS

NWN2 - Realms of Trinity by Brian Bloom

Dammendrech by Dammendrech Development Team

• This is a new offering in the Gameworlds section and I know extremely little about it. I didn't read the description this week as there is a lot of other news going on and I have focussed my efforts/time in another direction this week. If you have information on this PW, please add it via a reply to this News Update.

NWN2 OTHER

Xydek's PrC Pack by Xydek

NWN2 PREFABS: BLUEPRINTS

Magical Miscellanea Package by Apep

NWN2 AREA PREFABS

Thunder Falls by 5thDragon

Fenargh Causeway by 5thDragon

Hills of War by AmstradHero

NWN2 SCRIPTS

Uncle FB's NPC Blacksmith by Uncle FB

Spell Fixes and Improvements version 6.0 by Reeron and Trekari

NWN2 ENGLISH MODULES

ALFA Books by bartleby12804

The Last of the Danaan by J.E. McKellar

Icewind Dale (NWN2) by IWD NWN2 Team

The Heist at the Neverwinter Lights Casino by BlackRain Software

NWN2 ORIGINAL HAKPAKS

Skins for all Races by Casa

P&P Style Palemaster Bone Armor by Jake Zahn

Jester's New Nudes (With Clothes) by Jester_v01

Animal Companions and Familiars (Updated for SoZ) by Emily

Ultimate NWN2 Voice Pack 1.6 by Simon L'Aleph

Ladydesire's Classpack v1.06.5 by ladydesire

Once again, my apologies for not providing as much detail as I have in the last few weeks. I strongly encourage authors of these submissions as well as knowledgeable proponents of these offerings to post a reply to this News Update to provide more information and details to these usually wonderful offerings.

On with other NWN2 Related News:

In a category titled: I Don't Mean to Alarm You, But...

Forum Planet: IGN Hosting to Close...

Reddit Gaming:IGN free hosting (planet*, gamespy etc) is shutting down August 31, 2009

IGN Hosting Shutdown - Frequently Asked Questions

I just heard about this last night -- late last night to the point it was really this morning. As I am the dunniteowl, to be up late is all part of the handle. In any case, I joined an impromptu discussion on NWN2irc and we all basically slapped a few ideas around, in case this notification meant that the Vault would be breached.

Upon further reading, though, it appears that officially hosted sites that are part and parcel of the IGN network will remain (I believe the Vault is in this category.) Additionally, File hosting services will remain (I am sure the Vault is in this category.)

In the meantime, all the forums, and fansites that are freely hosted in the IGN servers must either be moved and rehosted somewhere else, or die the death of deletion by the mainframe. (A little ReBoot reference.) There is probably more news to be had in this particular bit of information, however, I don't mean to worry you, but... there it is.

Also I have a message to Maximus to ask him what's up on his end, as he would be in a position to know what the fate of the Vault is. Will the race to get the water chip come in time? Or do the hordes of the mutant brotherhood overwhelm the beleagured defenses? Wait and see.

Update to: I Don't Mean to Alarm You, But...

Just got word from Maximus and he assures me that the file hosting services, including the Vault, will not be affected by the changes going on at IGN. So rest easy, people, the Vault has it's water chip and the mutant hordes have been turned away.

Good news, that.

Atari Bought Cryptic Studios, Rumors of Neverwinter Nights Online MMOG

Recently it has come to my attention (and to that of anyone else that reads the official forums, gaming news or is an MMO fan of the upcoming Star Trek Online. Actually, in some ways, it's kind of Old News. Here's some information and websites I have scoured for more news on this:

Neverwinter Nights MMORPG Coming from Cryptic? on Gamespy A small and sketchy blurb about this, with no confirmation to it whatever, still, it does have some corroborative anecdotal references.

However, back on the 10th of December 2008,
City of Heroes Dev Cryptic Bought By Atari on The Game Reviews.com
And it seems that the idea was the acquisition was based on Cryptic's ability to 'crank out' an MMOG in as little as 18 months.

This is, for all I could garner so far, the news bit that started the ball publicly rolling: Atari’s secret weapon – Neverwinter Nights in Variety's "Cut Scene" Section

Sources tell us that the developer is working on a massively multiplayer online (MMO) version of “Neverwinter Nights” with an eyed 2011 release.

Details about the project are unavailable, naturally, as it is an unannounced title. But this reportedly was the primary reason Atari was interested in acquiring Cryptic late last year.

The above was apparently the most salient point of the article. You can also post your comments there. I have a funny feeling that this news leak of an unsubstantiated mention of NWO MMOG and the quite recent stepping down of Phil Harrison as President to Member of the Board of Atari, are related.

And for any of you that ever doubted me when I say NWN2 is really NWN3, this:
Crispy Gamer on this Rumor
Where this quote exists:

And it should be noted that Neverwinter Nights Online, would not be the first Neverwinter Nights online game. that distinction belongs to publisher Strategic Simulations, Inc., America Online and developer Stormfront Studios. Neverwinter Nights was the first MMORPG to display graphics and provide large scale game play sessions through an online service. The game ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL — and at its peak cost a whopping $6 an hour to play. Eventually, as the internet became more prevalent in American households, the hourly rate was dropped altogether by AOL, who would later roll it into its suite of services for subscribers. By the end of the game’s life it had over 100,000 subscribers. Pretty impressive if you consider that games like Ultima Online and EverQuest 2 didn’t exist at that time.

And if any of you are old AOLers out there that played NWN on AOL, I was, at the time DaNightOwl and played a Ranger.

During the news of the acquisition in December, this is what David Gardner, CEO of Atari said about it:
1Up.com Atari Acquires Cryptic

David Gardner, the current CEO of Atari parent company Infogrames, commented on the acquisition:

The acquisition of Cryptic Studios brings to Infogrames an outstanding creative organization, with a proven track-record of success in the fast-growing MMO category. Cryptic's success is founded on leading-edge technology and the vision of a seasoned executive management team. I am impressed with the tools and technology that Cryptic has developed to make MMOs less expensive to build. Creating vast worlds and interesting interactions can be very people intensive but with the use of Cryptic's toolset they have a proven way of cutting average production costs in half. This is exactly the type of company we wanted to acquire in order to build Atari for the 21st century.

I like a lot of my "hard" news about gaming from Gamasutra (which also prints Game Developer Magazine, which I get...) and this is what they had to say on December 9th of 2008,
Atari Parent Acquires Cryptic Studios

Cryptic is currently working on three MMO games, with Champions Online due to be completed in 2009, Star Trek Online in 2010 and a third unannounced title.

and this on the heels of the purchase announcment before the deal is actually completed. Therefore this 3rd "unannounced" MMO in the pipe, sounds like it couldn't be an Atari IP such as indicated by the NWO rumor leak. Of course, I could be wrong, but why buy the cow when you get the milk for a fee? In other words, if Cryptic was already making an Atari IP, and Atari was already financially strapped, what purpose did it serve to spend the quan to buy Cryptic?

However, there is only the barest minimum of actual facts in the releases and therefore, I will maintain the Grain of Salt adage in response to this. I don't think the NWO MMOG is what Cryptic was already working on. To this, though, I did read in a few other places that Atari was sure that Cryptic could take a game from start to finish in 18-24 months. If this announcement is true and not simply a rumor, then it is possible if Cryptic ramped up on it right now, they could turn out a release by Christmas shopping start of 2011 as indicated for the release of this MMOG hinted to be NWO.

Of course, who doesn't just hope for an interview with Feargus Urquhart? There are two recent ones.
Feargus Urquhart Interview - Page One
Wherein an anecdotal reference to Cryptic and Atari working on an IP he says:

[this from page 2 of the interview]
GB: Do you think we'll ever see a third PC-only, non-MMO Neverwinter Nights? Why or why not? Would Obsidian be interested in tackling another sequel?

Feargus: We'd be jazzed about tackling a sequel. We learned so much from making NWN2 and would love to make another one. As for there actually being another one, personally, I would be surprised. If there was, there would be a lot of brand confusion between what Cryptic is doing and what we are doing. What we'd love to do instead is tackle something like Baldur's Gate 3 or create our own new fantasy world - or have we already been doing that?

Highlighting mine to indicate salient reference.

However, I have to ask, how much would even the indomitable Feargus know about what Atari and Cryptic are actually doing? In what capacity could Feargus possibly have acquired such confidential information about an IP that Atari has yet to announce and as such, has no official network to discuss such things. I could only imagine that even such a reference on the part of Feargus, if he actually knows more than we do, would probably violate the NDA he'd have to sign to Atari not to speak on it until there was an official announcement from Atari first.

So, my guess is that Feargus is as tuned in to the "news" as we are and is postulating based on what we all can read. If I am wrong, I would love to hear Feargus at least say, "I can't say how I know."

Meanwhile, you can expound on any of those site urls provided or you can go here:
Neverwinter Nights MMO! and join the Official Forums Discussion on this.

Now, as I mentioned we all love to hear Feargus (colloquially speaking) so here's another interview you can read if you haven't already:
RPGs, Moving Forward: An Interview With Feargus Urquhart
by Ben Fritz
Honestly, not his best interview, though perhaps it provides a decent snapshot of the Great One's Humble Beginnings.

And now, the Opinion Piece, signaling the near end of this news update...

Opinion Piece: The Fate of the World In Your Hands...

What do you think, irrespective of the news of a proposed NWN MMOG, about it? In other words, in simple terms, would you be supportive or dismissive of a Neverwinter Online MMOG altogether? You could present your arguments in a post reply, however, in this issue of the Update, I am posting a poll to gather your non-scientific, and online leet status-weighted point of views, that will have no real meaning whatsoever, other than what staunch fans of this particular franchise have to say on the matter, whether or not there is such an MMO in the offing.

Personally, I have no interest in subscription based play. On top of that, I have seen too many folks who've come off their addictions of MMOs who swear that they just cannot afford to get near another one as it'll, quite literally, ruin their lives. I hear things like Ultimately Online, or Infinitely Online to refer to Ultima Online. Ever heard of Evercrack? What about Warcrack? I see a pattern here.

That said, I honestly believe that MMOs have a lot to offer a lot of people who are into them. I have a deep appreciation of the technology advances in servers and bandwidth transmission that they require. I respect that, regardless of our personal feelings on MMOs, they have a place. It is no less a valid form of entertainment than watching and voting on American Idol. Or bowling.

In fact, a PW vs SP debate is no less hotly contested at times as an MMO vs PW debate. In order to generate this level of heat, there must be passion on both sides. And this tells me something important that any publisher or developer would do well to be aware of: You can make games for both and still make money. And you don't have to do it by making a game with both aspects combined.

However, if you have any interest in this discussion at all, please go to the forums and post there or read up on it. To participate in the poll, you can simply vote, and, if you feel it appropriate, please post your reasonings as a reply to this News Update.

Well this ends my opinion piece and this current edition of the NeverWinter Citadel's Community News Update.

my very best regards,
dunniteowl