FunkySwerve wrote...
There's a reason he didn't post this fix openly on the boards way back when he made it...it completely bypasses MS verification, which is not a good thing, IF we ever get the MS back, as bioware has said we will.
But it's been almost half a year now, hasn't it? I'm getting the feeling that Bioware lied to us.
...either that or Bioware told usm "We'll have the Master Server back up as soon as we can!", only for Electronic Arts to stomp their mighty foot down on them shortly afterwards and say, "
No, you won't!"
Which really makes me wonder about EA.
1) Neverwinter Nights has been bought, played and supported for
ten years. How many EA games have that kind of longevity? The Sims games are arguably EA's most successful property ever, yet we've already been through
three The Sims games in ten or eleven years. Mass Effect came into existence only
four years ago, and we're already on to Mass Effect 3. Dragon Age only came out
two years ago, and we've already moved on to Dragon Age 2 and four DLC packs.
2) Judging by the Bioware site itself, EA apparently wants Neverwinter Nights to die so that we, the consumers, will buy Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2 and their various other contemporary products. They don't want us to realize that, unlike Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 will be
dead in ten years. Evidently, we
do already realize that.
3) The key to longevity is open-ended customization and allowance for player-created content. With these, playability and
replayability become virtually infinite. With Mass Effect and Dragon Age, what you get out of the box today is going to be what you have ten years from now, with a few patches tacked on. It'll be the exact same game, and once you beat it a few times, you uninstall it to make room on your hard drive for the
next big-budget game with lots of flashy graphics and realistic sound effects, and you'll probably only touch it whenever you're feeling nostalgic...assuming that your OS still runs the game, that is.
4) However, not everyone wants to create their own content for Neverwinter Nights, yet they still want to keep adding more content to the game and expanding their experience; this is particularly true in Multiplayer. Usually the Neverwinter Vault is their answer, but wouldn't it be nice to have a small team of experienced, professional game developers with access to Neverwinter Nights' source code creating new content for the game...like they did for all the fifty-billion expansion packs and stuff packs for The Sims games? The Sims 2 had entire packs of stuff that you could buy for about 10 or 20 dollars. Teen Stuff. Glamour Life Stuff. Ikea Stuff. These Stuff packs didn't change any game mechanics or alter the game play itself in any way; they just added more items that you could cram into your home, business, shopping mall or vacation spot. And people still bought the bajesus out of them.
So instead of trying to kill Neverwinter Nights, why doesn't EA instead recognize that this game
remains profitable (if all the "Where can I buy Neverwinter Nights Platinum or Diamond?" questions around the internet are any indication), can
continue to be profitable and, with a little love and support, can become even
more profitable? Their decision to kill Neverwinter Nights stems from their appraisal that Neverwinter Nights is no longer profitable; therefore, they want to make money off of Neverwinter Nights, right? Okay, then! "Here's a pack that brings NWN 1's graphics up to par with NWN 2's graphics. Give us fifteen dollars. Here's some DLC that adds five different castle tilesets. That'll be five dollars. Ten dollars can get you another pack with pathfinding fixes, extra combat animations (including animation sets for various martial arts, such as Capoeira, Muay Thai, Kendo and Escrima) and extra spellcasting animations. Here's a pack that adds Loremaster, Master of Shrouds and sixteen other Prestige classes to the game! The price: Ten dollars." And of course, anyone who wants to play on a server which has those packs installed will have to buy and install these packs on their own computers. KA-CHING!
Are you listening, Electronic Arts? What you have in Neverwinter Nights is
not a dinosaur worthy only of extinction. What you have in Neverwinter Nights is a
tremendously successful product. You bought Bioware. You bought Neverwinter Nights. It's yours. But you just can't buy the kind of success, popularity and longevity that Neverwinter Nights has earned. It's a rare asset to your company. Why aren't you capitalizing on it, advertising it and trying to make it even
more popular instead of trying to sweep it under the rug, letting hackers destroy the Master Server and just plain trying to neglect it to death? Yes, granted, you have clearly underestimated the tenacity and determination of NWN's playerbase and we're far from ready to let NWN die, but still....
Yeesh. How did EA ever get so big if they make poor decisions and overlook golden opportunities like
this? <><>
Modifié par Wids, 22 décembre 2011 - 08:03 .
