Neverwinter Nights MMO?

[Luvian]

Kotaku is reporting on a rumor that a Neverwinter Nights MMO might be in the work. What do you guys think of that?

[SpiritWarrior]

Well, I had tons more fun playing NWN's online than I did playing DDO. NWN's 1 was almost MMO-ready in a sense. If it is true, I would be cautiously optimistic. But, Bioware aren't heading it - bloody cryptic studios get their hands on all my favourite stuff and I am yet to be really impressed with this company. As you know, CoH left me bitter. And then there's also NWN's 2 to consider, which took more from its predecessor than it gave IMO. I hope they don't follow down that path.

Honestly, I feel like someone screwed with the timeline. I always thought, due to the successes of BG and NWN's, that Bioware would eventually be the first to develop the official Dungeons and Dragons MMO, and it would be close to where WoW was in popularity, but alas, things worked out so oddly.

Bioware are busy with Dragon Age, which btw, looks and plays so like NWN's/BG that they should just grant them the license and change some spell names, cashing in on the D&D license and attracting that extra market. But anyways, Turbine got the rights from Atari for DDO, and now cryptic could possibly be creating NWN's online. If I were Atari or Hasbro i'd be begging Bioware to head most of my games simply because they have had such success with them in the past. Who used the timeship to commit such atrocities?

[Legolas]

To me the strength of NWN lies in the creative freedom. You're heavily directed towards a d20 system and Forgotten Realms setting, but not really bound to either. You can make a pre-scripted adventure for one or more players, or a sandbox from which to build adventures as DM. Design your own setting, make your own textures, modify the game rules, it's all possible to a fair degree. And then of course you can still be the player and experience the work of others. Years in, I'm still having loads of fun with this gem.
Yet I don't have any special love for the rule set, nor the standard campaign world. It plays well enough, but I don't find it particularly spectacular. I expect a full MMO would miss the point of the game completely, regardless of the design team.

[Kezardin]

Makes me think

Will it :

- be a re-do of Champions Online, with spells instead of super powers ?

- use the 3.5e or 4e rules ?

- offer much over some of the currently available online mods & persistent worlds ?

- be released to coincide with an all new Neverwinter Nights 3 ?

[SpiritWarrior]

NWN's online could be awesome or could be another disaster. I am still waiting on the original Forgotten Realms online which to me, was a no-brainer given the success of the realm both in video games and novels. But again Bioware bailed, I hear because Atari we're hard to work with.

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by SpiritWarrior NWN's online could be awesome or could be another disaster. I am still waiting on the original Forgotten Realms online which to me, was a no-brainer given the success of the realm both in video games and novels. But again Bioware bailed, I hear because Atari we're hard to work with.

It really depends on who ends up making it, eh.

[SpiritWarrior]

Cryptic Studios are, according to this rumor.

[Luvian]

And on paper it's really not their style. But I'm assuming it's not being made by the same dev team, and just because a company has made a certain game doesn't mean they have to be typecast to just make that same game forever. They can come up with a new engine.

But yeah, I'm really wondering what a NWNO game would be like? It is going to play like NWN? It is going to play like WOW? Will the story be related to the single player games?