Neverwnter Nights community discussed in Video blog

[Legacy_Kothoses Rothenkisal]

               So my new video blog is based on online communities and their impact and value in the gaming world. 

I just thought you might like to know that the Neverwinter Nights community was the one that was in the end held up as the very best a community for an online based game can be.

The full 10 min recording can be found here



http://www.youtube.c...eature=mhee#p/u



Now I admit this is a blatant bit of self promotion aswell as introducing discussion, but since Bioware communities are amongst the strongest in online games and Neverwinter Nights is (as you will hear) probably the most enduring of them and the most pro-active I figured I would post it here for feed back, and such. 

Please no trolling, I am actually interested to hear what you think, my next topic is going to be the effect the community have had on games and will focus on the Dragon age games in particular but after that I am open to requests and sugegstions.

Thanks for your time, if you listen to it.

Take care.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               Pretty good and I'll probably watch the next installment.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Kothoses Rothenkisal]

               Thank you, appreciate the kind words.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_WebShaman]

               I don't mean to be unkind, but what exactly does this have to do with NWN?

NWN is not a MMO type of game.

On to your Vids - I find it extremely difficult to follow your voice.  Either the recording is very unclean, or you are somehow too close to the mic or in a room that echoes somewhat.  I would suggest trying to "clean up" or at least filter the audio.

Try not to make so many vocal pauses like "ehm", "um", etc.

Other than that, yeah.  I like the content of the vid.  A Community will make or break you as a game company.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Kothoses Rothenkisal]

               

WebShaman wrote...

I don't mean to be unkind, but what exactly does this have to do with NWN?

NWN is not a MMO type of game.

On to your Vids - I find it extremely difficult to follow your voice.  Either the recording is very unclean, or you are somehow too close to the mic or in a room that echoes somewhat.  I would suggest trying to "clean up" or at least filter the audio.

Try not to make so many vocal pauses like "ehm", "um", etc.

Other than that, yeah.  I like the content of the vid.  A Community will make or break you as a game company.

It was more that the NWN community is the one I hold up as an example of how a game developer got it right.  The fact that 11 years on the NWN community keeps the game fresh and alive really is something that all game developers should be looking to learn from.  Which is what I cover at the end, and you are right, NWN is not an MMO but at its peak it had a 4 million strong community and many of those played it as an online game.  

With MMOs in general becoming bigger in scope but with a focus on smaller and smaller group sizes, well the comparison between NWN then and MMOs now is not a million miles off in my opinion.

Regarding the audio, I will look into some better filtering software for the next one, thank you for pointing that out.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, appreciate it.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Kothoses Rothenkisal, 28 juillet 2011 - 02:13 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_SuperFly_2000]

               

WebShaman wrote...
NWN is not a MMO type of game.

I see this coming up once in a while and I definately think that statement is wrong.

At least the opposite statemant is more right than that....that NWN IS (or at least can be) an MMO.


Cause it least part of the game can definately said to be at least MMO-like...
               
               

               

                     Modifié par SuperFly_2000, 28 juillet 2011 - 10:07 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               

WebShaman wrote...
On to your Vids - I find it extremely difficult to follow your voice.  Either the recording is very unclean, or you are somehow too close to the mic or in a room that echoes somewhat.  I would suggest trying to "clean up" or at least filter the audio.

Same here, Web.   Thought my sound card was taking a crap or not enough bandwidth. 

Intro seemed too long but not all that bad of a perspective on MMO in the industry.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lord Sullivan]

               @Kothoses Rothenkisa

It was nice enough VO Vlog. Your mention of NWN however was too much of a quicky outlook on the whole.

@others
NWN is not an MMO, an MMO normaly means everyone connects to the company servers and pretty much
play on the same world, same rules, same gameplay while NWN is a multitude of personal servers with
different worlds, rules and to an extent... different gameplay. So definitely NOT an MMO. '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_WebShaman]

               I am in the same mindset as LS here - NWN is definitely not a MMO.  Massive Multiplayer Online?  Nope.

Most servers would choke if more than 100 players could log into it.  Most MMO servers can handle much more traffic than that!

As LS has described, NWN Online is like a multitude of small, unique worlds, each with their own rules, flavors, scenery etc.  I would go so far as to label it the anti-MMO.  Or perhaps Modest Multiplayer Online...hehe.

One thing I do find interesting about NWN now, is that the support for it (or rather, for the Community) has become much less now that Bioware has been acquired by EA. 

It is nice that these forums were created, no doubt about it.  But we rarely get official visitors down here anymore.

Hopefully we will get the Legacy forums back *fidgets*
               
               

               

                     Modifié par WebShaman, 29 juillet 2011 - 01:17 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Kothoses Rothenkisal]

               In the very literal sense I would agree NWN is not an MMORPG however, drop the first M and the lines between conventional MMOs and NWN in its natural state become very thin.

Its an online game that delivered post launch content, it housed multiple players on the same server who played together via the internet and accessed said servers via a dedicated portal.  (replace portal with login server and you start to see even few lines).

Now the two GAMES are not the same this much I think we can all agree on, but how the NWN community was structured, grown, supported well look at the early days of WoW and look over even more interestingly at Star Wars The Old Republic, the way the fans gather together and the format of said gathering is very similar.

The difference between the games them selves may be huge, but the difference between how the community is organised and dealt with is very slim.

It is in this spirit that I feel the comparison is a fair one, and let us not escape the fact that the NWN community is to many people still one of if not the very best that has ever gathered for any online game.  It is something that sadly I doubt will be replicated, that is why I use it as the benchmark for current communities.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Kothoses Rothenkisal]

               Double post, apologies.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Kothoses Rothenkisal, 29 juillet 2011 - 02:02 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Kothoses Rothenkisal]

               Episode 2 is up, For those who reported sound quality issues last time would you mind telling me if this version is any better please?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UrkOfGreyhawk]

               A good post, but I did get something stuck in my craw that I'd like to share in regards to the way Bio handled the duplicate model complaints for DAL.

I thought they handled this REALLY badly. They didn't ADDRESS the problem at all, they CAPITALIZED on it. They could easily have fixed the game by rebuilding a few areas and releasing it as free DLC. Instead they're just capitalizing on their own shoddy design by selling new areas on the promise that they don't suck as much as the old ones. That's just low.

I loved DAO, but DAL was a huge disappointment. I'm not sure how many, if any, more chances I can afford to give Bio. I have a kid now and I can't keep throwing down $60 a shot for games I don't actually like enough to play.

I know they won't miss me. There are 10 console tards out there for every PC snob, but it's heartbreaking to see a great dev like Bio being torn down and corrupted by the evil minions at EA.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par UrkOfGreyhawk, 29 juillet 2011 - 10:09 .