GameSpy support for NWN likely discontinued indefinitely.

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               After looking into this for several hours I can say that GameSpy server support for NWN was intentionally revoked and almost certainly won't be coming back.  This does not appear to be a technical issue.

What happened?
In a nutshell, a company called GLU Mobile purchased GameSpy Technologies from IGN sometime back in August of this year.  I've been registered as a GameSpy Developer for about a year now and noticed that the licensing for developers was changing but there didn't seem to be any other big changes.  Starting sometime as early as October, the people who purchased GameSpy began contacting developers and publishers for games which were part of the GameSpy network, attempting to get them to "re-support" their games.  I am assuming this is a euphemism for paying some amount of money.  The original GameSpy left a huge number of legacy games on their network and this new outfit has now "conducted an audit" and those games which are "nolonger supported by their publisher" (their verbiage) have been removed.

It appears this has been a rolling thing, not done to all games at once, and what we're seeing now is either in the middle or the end of those games being decoupled from the GameSpy network.

A very large number of games and users are affected.  We are not the only ones, not by a long shot.

Can we do anything about it?
Well, if you can get the word out to Joystiq, Slashdot or any other gaming news website, the sheer number of disaffected users might be able to pressure GLU Mobile to reconsider their move.  It's really their call, though.  You can also communicate with "Powered by Gamespy" on Facebook here.

Is this THE ENDâ„¢ of NWN1 Multiplayer?
Not at all.  All it means is that, worst-case scenario, you won't be able to list servers with the built-in GameSpy server browser again.  That's all.  There doesn't seem to be any problem at all with hosting a server or connecting to a server via Direct Connect, or your History.  The way NWN works, you really couldn't kill it off even if you tried.  Some of the other games that are affected by this are not in such a good position, though.

At the time of this writing, while the in-game server browser does not list servers, the Chat tab works fine.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par OldTimeRadio, 07 décembre 2012 - 05:47 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Pearls]

               if its glu mobile then im not surprised

redirecting to a new server would be easy, mimicking gamespy functions less so
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Celvantis]

               Bioware stopped supporting NWN and axed renewing gamespy along time ago Im afraid. (Same with 2 and alot of other unrelated games.) The reason gamespy stayed up tell now was they didnt bother looking at all the unsupported games accessing it still til a audit on monday.

"Powered by GameSpy
As you've seen our posts on other titles GameSpy is a service provider to game publishers, we have service agreements in place for each title we provide services, when a publisher declines to renew the service we follow their lead and disable the services we provide. It's up to the publisher to communicate their plans to their game's communities - this, unfortunately, rarely happens. You should reach out to MS and share your indignation. I know I was suprised."
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheBlackstaff]

               It's a shame really, so many Legacy games will be effected by this; NWN is still technically playable (The History page works, the Favorites page works) but a lot of other games are gonna be completely unplayable.

ALSO IMPORTANT: XFIRE CLIENT DOES HAVE A LIST OF NWN SERVERS, so if you need it just use that for now until neverwinterconnections can create a good solution for this.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Celvantis]

               *Likes*
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               And the price to keep it all going?  Maybe....$200 a month?

Not sure if it's worth it to Atari/Hasbro/Whomever, though.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Celvantis]

               A headsup from bioware would be nice, It effects both neverwinters....
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kamal_]

               

OldTimeRadio wrote...

And the price to keep it all going?  Maybe....$200 a month?

Not sure if it's worth it to Atari/Hasbro/Whomever, though.

I didn't think the NWN1/2 community was that large, I thought it was in what they say is the $20 a month range.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Visavant]

               Tinkering with an application I wrote that just requires players and server hosts to make a single line edit to their OS' host file which simulates what GS used to do at least for server matchmaking only. I'll dust it off and see if I can't get something production'ish available by Sunday.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Visavant, 07 décembre 2012 - 02:10 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

kamal_ wrote...
I didn't think the NWN1/2 community was that large, I thought it was in what they say is the $20 a month range.

That would be great, but from the way I figured they calculated the API calls I thought it would be higher.  I'm wondering if Atari wouldn't be interested in ponying up- NWN1 & NWN2 are probably still on the shelves in a pack.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I wonder if we could get a user's group together to pony up donations, and ask for support from whoever still makes money off of sales of NWN.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tyrakasaurus Rex]

               At any given time, yeah, there's almost certainly no more than a thousand in NWN1. Trouble is, that's a count of individual players, on at any given time during the month. So if you're counting everyone who plays NWN at some point in a given month, it's almost certainly over a thousand or so. Definitely, if you add in NWN2.

Still, that's $200 a month for an entire gaming community. Seems like penny change for a company like Atari.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Visavant]

               About 1,300 in NWN1 player wise, roughly half that in NWN2 when I was running a separate query site.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

henesua wrote...
I wonder if we could get a user's group together to pony up donations, and ask for support from whoever still makes money off of sales of NWN.

From what I'd seen on the FB page (there were several responses from the "GameSpy" folks), it appears the money might have to come from a publisher.  That's just the vibe I got, don't know if it's grounded in some kind of contractual reality or whatever.  Heck, I'd love it if there was a "GameSpy - Click HERE to donate to your game's Master Server" kind of deal.

Edit: D'oh, I see that's part of what you were saying now. 
               
               

               

                     Modifié par OldTimeRadio, 07 décembre 2012 - 02:47 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_MrZork]

               Thanks for the heads up and the links to other info. Obviously, this isn't positive news. But, I don't think this has a negative impact on me or most PW players, directly at least. I usually direct connect anyway, and other resources list the servers, in addition to their posts in the PW forum here. And, there's always Google.

The biggest annoyance is that this will bring forth another pointless, unproductive cacophony of doomsayers, proclaiming that the end is, once again, nigh. <><>

               

                     Modifié par MrZork, 07 décembre 2012 - 03:05 .