Neverwinter Nights |
Neverwinter Nights ( NWN ), produced by BioWare and published by Infogrames Entertainment (now Atari), is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that uses the Third Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules (with minor changes). It was released on June 18, 2002.
The game is based in part on traditions started in the original Neverwinter Nights online game, the first graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), which ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL. See the History section below for further details.
The core release includes the game engine, a NWN scenario, and the Aurora toolkit for building your own game adventures based on the same engine.
=Description=
Play centers around the development of a character that becomes the ultimate hero of the story. In the original NWN scenario supplied with the game engine, the player is single-handedly responsible for defeating a powerful cult; stopping an insatiable plague; thwarting an attack on the city of Neverwinter, and many other side quests.
The first and final chapters of the story in the official campaign deal with the city of Neverwinter itself, but the lengthy mid-story requires the player to venture into the countryside and then northward to the city of Luskan. Neverwinter is a city on the Sword Coast of Faerûn. It is part of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
==Gameplay==
True to its Dungeons & Dragons roots, the first thing a player must do is create a character. One can choose the character s gender, race, class, alignment, stats (strength, dexterity, etc.), abilities (skills, spells, feats, etc.), appearance, and name. There is a great deal of customization involved - one can be, for example, an outdoorsman (Ranger (character class) class), healer (Cleric class), and choose the skills and feats that would help them the most (a Ranger might want Animal Empathy, for example, while a Cleric would probably choose Combat Casting).
The actual game is rather lengthy (original NWN has three CDs, while the expansions each add one CD). Following a small prelude, there are four chapters in the original game, with each chapter consisting of a general storyline (the first chapter, for example, deals with a mysterious plague in the city of Neverwinter), and within each chapter, there are many quests, subquests, and mini-storylines. The game s actual mechanics are based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rule set – most important actions (fighting, persuasion, etc.) are based on a die or dice roll. For example, when a fighter attacks, he might use a 1d6 short sword (meaning that one roll of a six-sided die determines the damage inflicted).
=Multiplayer=
The robust multiplayer component separates Neverwinter Nights from previous Dungeons and Dragons games, as there are many servers for players to choose from. Each server, depending on hardware and bandwidth, can support up to 64 players or more in the same module. NWN game modules run as a variety of separate genres and themes, including Persistent Worlds such as the World of Avlis (which are similar to MUDs), combat arenas (Player versus Player modules), and simple social gatherings similar to a chat room. The campaign included with the game can be played with friends, for example, or an intrepid team of builders can build a virtual world similar in scope and size to commercial MMORPGs. Big difference is that Bioware insists these persistent worlds be free of charge.
Now (september 2005) many PW s are still actively run with updates and improvements. Still active is also is the comunity via the CEP (Comunity Expantion Pack)with a new version that boasts a 145 Mb of free homemade but high quality extra s for use in the Never Winter Night environment.
Servers can be linked together as well, allowing the creation of large multi-server worlds. Two early examples include [http://www.alandfaraway.org/ A Land Far Away ] and [http://www.copap.org Confederation of Planes and Planets ].
Because Neverwinter Nights lacks a global chat function aside from the supported [http://www.gamespy.com Gamespy], players typically join pickup games through the game s multiplayer interface, or schedule games in advance with friends. Matchmaking sites, such as [http://www.neverwinterconnections.com Neverwinter Connections], facilitate scheduling of games, and the experience is much like traditional Pen-and-Paper roleplaying games. Persistant worlds make this work for them by inviting players to visit the pw s website and continue roleplay there.
=Editor=
The Aurora toolset is supplied with the game so players can create stories for others to explore. The toolset allows the user to build areas using a tile system--the appearance and surface textures of the area are defined by the tileset. The user can also use the built-in NWScript to run cut scenes, quests, mini-games and so forth.
It can truly be said that it is with the toolset that the true potential of NWN could be realized, not exploited by the original campaigns. Regrettably, these tools require knowledge of C-similar programming languages to utilise in full. Those in the online community who are familiar with programming langauges similar to C put these development tools to good use, creating worlds, stories and playing experiences beyond the original ones. Despite its age, the Internet NWN community remains active.
The computer gaming community at large still awaits a simple, flexible roleplaying game editor that allows them to create games at the same scale and technological prowess that Neverwinter Nights game editor had during its publication.
Noteworthily, on many online communities, people have commented on a purported similarity between Everquest 2 and Neverwinter Nights in graphics style and area structure.
=Expansions=
In March, 2004, an expansion known as the Community Expansion Pack based on community material was released. This expansion was not made by BioWare, and it can be downloaded free of charge. It adds much new content to the game and works with or without the two earlier expansion packs released by BioWare. This expansion is updated regularly.
Though not actually expansion packs, Atari released subsequent editions of the game following its first release in 2002. These editions are Neverwinter Nights: Gold Edition , which combines the original game with the Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack, and Neverwinter Nights: Platinum Edition , which combined all three NWN products and came on a single 2005 and includes everything in the Platinum Edition plus 3 premium modules.
==Premium modules==
In late 2004, BioWare launched its [http://store.bioware.com online store] and started selling what it called premium modules as part of its digital distribution program. This initiative was spearheaded by BioWare s Live Team Lead Designer, [http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,6526/ Rob Bartel]. Though technically not expansions, these smaller-scale adventures introduce new storylines and gameplay. They often include new music and art that BioWare claims will be integrated into future patch (computing)es and updates to the core game.
According to BioWare, the revenue generated is used to support their fan community and provide ongoing updates and improvements to the popular game. Unfortunately the modules require internet access to download and play, which limits the audience somewhat.
=History=
The original version of Neverwinter Nights ran on America Online from 1991 through 1997, and was a co-development of Strategic Simulations, Inc., TSR, Inc. (acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 1997), AOL and Stormfront Studios. The Stormfront game design team was already working with SSI on Dungeons & Dragons games using the Gold Box engine that had debuted with Pool of Radiance in 1988. At the same time, they had been working with AOL on original online games since 1987 in both text-based and graphical formats. Graphics at the time were severely restricted by the need to support modem data transfer rates as slow as 300 bits per second (bit/s).
In late 1989 the Stormfront team realized that it was technically feasible to combine the Dungeons & Dragons Gold Box engine with the community-focused gameplay of online titles to create an online computer role-playing game with graphics. Although Air Warrior had been online since 1987, all prior online RPGs had been based on text.
In a series of meetings with AOL s Steve Case and Kathi McHugh, TSR s Jim Ward and SSI s Chuck Kroegel, Stormfront s Don Daglow and Cathryn Mataga convinced the other three partners that the project was indeed possible. Set in the same Forgotten Realms area as the current NWN game, Neverwinter Nights went live in the spring of 1991 and originally cost United States dollar$6.00 per hour to play. Some users bragged about monthly game bills of $500 or more. As the years progressed, connection costs dropped, AOL and NWN membership grew, the servers became faster and the hourly cost charged players declined. As a result of these upgrades, the capacity of each server grew from 50 players in 1991 to 500 players by 1995.
The original Neverwinter Nights was expanded once, in 1992. At about this time AOLs subscriber growth started to expand exponentially, as the adoption of email by everyday Americans drove new sign-ups. AOL diverted all its efforts into keeping up with the exploding demand for modem connections and online capacity. All other game development at AOL other than NWN was suspended, and the game s player capacity was enhanced through server-side improvements but not through the addition of new playable areas. Nevertheless, the original game remained one of AOL s most active areas until its then-ancient technology forced its retirement in 1997.
Much of the game s popularity was based on the presence of active and creative player guilds, who staged many special gaming events online for their members. It is this committed fan base that BioWare sought when they licensed the rights to Neverwinter Nights from AOL and TSR as the basis for the modern game.
Following Neverwinter Nights in 1991, the early major graphical MMORPGs were The Shadow of Yserbius in 1993, Ultima Online in 1997 and Everquest in 1999. A persistent-world module, Neverwinter: Resurrection , has attempted to recreate many of the locales in the original game and attract the original player base. A stand-alone online recreation of the original NWN has also been created by players called Forgotten World[http://www.forgottenworld.com].
=Sequel=
A sequel to Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2 , is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, a company which had long been working with BioWare. According to BioWare, the change of developer is due to BioWare s business with other titles, such as Jade Empire and Dragon Age . The game is expected in 2006.
=Legacy=
== DragonLance Adventures ==
DragonLance Adventures is a team of artists that is semi-professionally making high quality custom content for Neverwinter Nights , to build a Dragonlance world within its game engine. It is currently the most notable Modding team working on the game, and has been contracted by BioWare to develop content for its digital distribution program. What the team was contracted to do is still yet unknown, although rumors on rideable horses (something of a holy grail in the primitive NWN engine) are rife.
== The Witcher ==
The Witcher , a computer role-playing game currently in development by the Poland company CD Projekt, is based on Neverwinter Nights Aurora game engine. Its development was highly publicized within the Neverwinter Nights community.
=External links=
*[http://nwn.bioware.com Official NWN website] *[http://www.sorcerers.net/ Sorcerer s Place (extensive coverage of all (A)D&D computer games)] *[http://www.nwnwiki.org NWNWiki] *[http://nwvault.ign.com/ NWN Vault] *[http://www.nwnlexicon.com/ NWN Lexicon Scripting Reference] *
==References for Original NWN==
*[http://www.bladekeep.com/nwn The Original Neverwinter Nights] *[http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/stormfrontstudios2.php UGO & GameBanshee interview on history of original NWN]|
|