Neverwinter Nights Freeware?

[Legacy_Rio420]

               Given the sheer amount of posts in these forums over the years as well as the changes to the design alone, I didn't think I was going to find a thread pertaining to this, so I'm gonna ask under the presumption that it has been asked before.

Is there a legal and legitimate "free" release of the full game of Neverwinter Nights available?

Why do I ask?
Considering the age of the game and that you can't truly buy this off the shelves any longer, and given that it seems to no longer be supported on any level, I would assume this is or will fall into the realm of freeware.  As such, I admin what some of you may have never heard of, it's called a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), which is a text based game that pre-dates MMOs or graphical games for the most part.

Over the years, I tinkered and tried out other titles, and this particular title stuck with me, I truly was amazed at the ability to host persistant worlds and develop through the toolset, and so I, along with several others formed up and developed our own PW.  With the Mudding community in it's death throes, it really has become evident that if we want any chance at continuing to host our own little slice of game heaven, we're going to have to at least evolve to something graphical to gain any interest in the project and potential players.  The key elements for me however, involve maintaining creative and administrative control, but the few players we have left aren't going to be interested in going out and hunting down a unopened copy of the game.  

Truthfully, I wish they'd release the source for the game and tools, and let us take this brilliantly designed and enjoyable game and make it our own, continue to let the original Neverwinter NIghts live on and be used by an enthusiastic community of old timers who truly want to keep the game alive.




 
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Squatting Monk]

               NWN is not (and probably will never be) free or open source. However, you can still buy it. Good Old Games is selling it as a digital download for $5.99.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Squatting Monk, 17 août 2013 - 07:27 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Rio420]

               Thank you for the link, I'll get that checked out and bookmark it.. 6 bucks is more than reasonable for a game like this, hell if I have to I'll pay for all my current players to get a copy.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               And it is currently on offer this weekend along with a load of other d&d games at GOG. See GOG's front page for the link.

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Empyre65]

               It can never be open-source because the D&D rules are deeply embedded into the code.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Asymmetric]

               Empyre is right: Unfortunately not gonna be Open Source. But the problem are not the D&D rules themselves. Since 2000, the D&D System itself is licensed under OGL (Open Game License). As I undersand it, you can use the underlying rules and mechanics like dice rolls, attributes or the Point Buy System. But you cannot use the names and descriptions of creatures, skills, spells, stories, etc.

NWN is full with these things and a lot of stuff is hardcoded.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_SuperFly_2000]

               

Empyre65 wrote...

It can never be open-source because the D&D rules are deeply embedded into the code.

Yeah...kind of.

Still...NWN saved D&D. Perhaps some day D&D can save NWN?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Urk]

               NWN will never be open source.

Asymmetric is right about the rules, although the OGL is kind of an industry myth. Game rules can't be copyrighted with or without the OGL.

What CAN be copyrighted is the artistic expression of the rules, however. And NWN is through and through an artistic expression of the D&D IP.

This isn't in and of itself enough to prevent a game from going opensource. MechCommander 2 is a Battletech title that went open source. It can and does happen from time to time.

The problems with NWN are mostly, for lack of a better word, political.

One big problem is that the publisher (Atatri) has, as a direct result of it's own stupidity, greed, and shortsightedness, completely destroyed it's relationship with the IP holder (Hasbro),

Another perhaps even more insurmountable issue is that while Hasbro owns the IP and Atari owns the publishing rights, the toolset was developed by Bioware. Bioware is a wholly owned subsidiary of EA games, and EA games is a direct competitor of Atari.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Artos13]

               Just a quick reminder to those buying the game off of GoG, to request multi-player CD Keys when you buy it! The regular CD Key that comes with it will not work on persistent worlds.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_AlgernonsGhost]

               

Artos13 wrote...

Just a quick reminder to those buying the game off of GoG, to request multi-player CD Keys when you buy it! The regular CD Key that comes with it will not work on persistent worlds.

^^^^^ Yes, this! ^^^^^

I thought I'd emphasize Artos13's excellent point. On our PW, The Vast, we've banned the GoG generic CD key that comes with their download. You can't get in until you get your own unique key from them.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FunkySwerve]

               Banning it? That could cost you a good source of players. I'd recommend a lighter touch. For example, in our custom cd key verification (very similar to the public one I posted in the sticky on securing your server without the master server), we have a check for this to warn them that they're using a public key:

    } else {
        if (sKey == "Q7RREKF3") {
            DelayCommand(19.0, FloatingTextStringOnCreature("WARNING! You are using a public cd key from GoG. Check your chat log for more information", oPlayer, FALSE));
            DelayCommand(19.5, SendChatLogMessage(oPlayer, COLOR_RED +
                "Everyone who buys a copy of NWN from Good Old Games gets the cd key you are using. This can cause many problems, including an inability to log in whenever anyone else is using the key. You should refer to our Installation Guide at http://wiki.hgweb.org/wiki/Installation_Guide for instrucitons on how to obtain a private cd key form GoG." + COLOR_END, oMessenger));
            DelayCommand(20.0, SendChatLogMessage(oPlayer, COLOR_RED +
                "We do not store the public key provided by Good Old Games, because it would allow anyone with that key to log in to your account. The key will not be added to your list of allowed cd keys, and anyone will be able to log in to your account, until you obtain a private key." + COLOR_END, oMessenger));
        } else {

            sSQL = "INSERT INTO pwdata (val,name) VALUES" + "('" + sKey + "','PlayernameKey" + sPlayer + "')";
            SQLExecDirect(sSQL);
        }
    }

I should probably add that we have code in place to block same-key logins, to avoid dual logins. I no longer remember if this is necessary or not on servers with only a single instance, but that's why that part of the message is in there.

Funky
               
               

               

                     Modifié par FunkySwerve, 23 août 2013 - 04:43 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_AlgernonsGhost]

               There was an additional reason we banned it that I won't go into. Your solution could work, though I'd want to port them to a holding area where they can't get in world until they use a unique key.

Where in the original code are you using this? I don't have our script version of your system handy right now.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FunkySwerve]

               It's in the VerifyPlayernameAgainstCDKey function, in two spots. I posted our version in the stickied Securing Your Server thread, so as not to further derail this one.

Funky
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lazarus Magni]

               Not to further further derail this thread, but I was under the impression you could not play online with the default GOG.com cd key? I have always been under the impression you need to request a new one from them to play online (and download a patch if you still want to be able to play the premium modules.)
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_FunkySwerve]

               You can. We had numerous issues with people using it before implementing that code. It's just that anyone else who has it will be associated with anything you use cd keys for. It may also be impossible to log into the same server with the same key as someone else - I just don't remember, since we have code in place to prevent it, but it's quite possible that that code is just for our multiple instances, which require additional safeguards to prevent du_p*ing etc.

Funky