how come neverwinter night 1 is on one website and neverwinter night 2 is on atari when we know both were published by atari?
That is a very good question.
Who knows. Maybe there are many contributing factors? ...like the game is "ancient"...but then NWN2 aint too new either.
Personally I just realised that EA bought Bioware not so long ago...and Atari and EA are like competitors...thats a long shot...but could have played a role...
The thing that complicates things a lot is the D&D license. That one is (was?) owned by Hasbro but then they where sued...or Atari was sued...well I don't know...lets not dig too much lol...
Both NWN1 and NWN2 seem to get the boot on some places....but as long as the communties are as strong as they are the game will continue to flourish despite shutting down of master authentification servers, moving forums or whatever...it will live on....and on.....
Playing NWN1 online has been the closest to playing old school UO for me.The server populations are smaller sure, but the thing I';ve always liked about NWN PW servers ( and I'm sure the NWN2 ones as well) is because the communities are smaller you as a player and your characters matter to the server admins more as well.
I remember back in the old UO days where your guild could get GM blessings or could affect the server they played on. For instance on the Catskills server, many of the rp/pvp groups took over actual areas of the game. The Shadowclan Orcs for instance, made the Yew orc fort their own, any one looking for some pvp/rp could just show up at the Fort.Lots of other examples like that.
Then EA screwed it all up, but that's another story.
I've played on a NWN rp PW for about 10 years, the World of Avlis, that gave me what UO used to offer back in the day.My character, and the guild he was in got to take part in some awesome server altering plots, as did many other groups and characters.
I've gotten to rp an evil character who for his Blackguard initiation ( menaing this is how he was able to unlock the Blackguard Prestige Class) helped resurect an ancient evil being in the game world, among other things.
No freakin' " hey go collect 10 spores from that plant" that every other noob character has to collect from in your typical MMO.
No auction houses, players can buy and run their own merchant shops, run guilds,etc,etc..
You as a player can have a great impact on the server and feel like a real member of the community.
Sorry WoW,Fallen Earth,DAoC,AoC,etc..You just can't compete when it comes to that kind of player interaction.
Also, besides GOG, you can buy it at Impulse as well.
I've played NWN 1 since its release. I went through all the OC and all the expansions then I started playing online and modding. In the last 10 years i've tried and played for a time many different MMORPG games and in all honesty I can say they deserve the title of MMORPG:
Massive
Multiplayer
Online
Ridiculously
Pro - A.D.D.
Grindfest
You want the original grindfest - WoW
You want an oriental based grindfest - Silkroad Online
You want a clone of a grindfest - Runes of Magic
You want a grindfest on different planes - Rift
You want a pretty grindfest - Aion Online
You want a grindfest with pets - Rappelz
and the list goes on and on and on of cookie cutter MMORPGs. Quite honestly they took the Roleplay out of RPG and put everyone on a hamster wheel they have to pay for (yes, even the F2P games). NWN gives you the ability to Role things how you want to Play via the toolset (see the play on words there). Want a world where only Purple Polkadot Bunnies can have +10 Swords of Doom with pointy Teeth? It can be made. Want to bring Jerry Springers show back to life and have Lesbian Dwarves battle it out to the death on stage? It can be made. The point is, NWN gave us something no other Multiplayer online game has since. The tools to build things how we see fit and the networking ability to share our creations with a community only hindered by its imagination. Sure other games have released a toolset or toolkit, but not to the extent of NWN. And certainly no where near what the NWN community has done for the game in the 10 years its been around, not to mention the above and beyond support of the Bioware group that built NWN.
I am not an expert for NWN2. There is a reason I still play NWN1 :-P
To what I know NWN2 had a bit more "issues"...but some of the "issues" where as the design was supposed to be ...like that you needed to get PWC files and so on...
..but yeah...fresh from the start they had more serious issues...but thoose where fixed quite fast I think...I knew one guy who hosted one server and he was always there...so I guess it worked...
Still....NWN2 never really turned into the NWN1 killer it was supposed too and there are still many more players oneline on NWN1 than NWN2.
NWN2 was done by Obsidian and like many things done by Obsidian they had some great story ideas but didn't leave enough time to code the thing properly. Despite 3 odd expansion packs each one with promises of fine tuning the engine, the thing still ran like crap for most people. As for the online side that was even worse.
As for NWN I have fond memories of some online RPing back in the day. It always was a game designed for the old school D&D PnP experience not really as a single player game so it works well.
Thanks for the post sfly I'm glad there's still people enjoying this
The same can probably be done with NWN2 too, the game is much better now with it all patched up, can't say i've bothered with it's online though.
NWN1 however, I spent a lot of time online during it's hayday and it was one of the most enjoyable and socialable experiences i've ever had on an online game. Even when compared to modern mmo's today.
But I think that had more to do with getting invited into one of the most active private/password protected server where people took it seriously, with a very dedicated DM capable of creating his own content too. We treated it more like a tabletop game and all agreed to play it together as a group for the most part too.
Never played the first Neverwinter game, but I bought NWN2 in the summer sale on Steam. I tried a couple of the persistent worlds. In the first, immediately on entering I got someone telling me I'd picked the wrong class. In the second I got someone wittering on at me about not using WASD among other things. This, coupled with performance issues, caused me to give up.
I don't think anyone mentioned yet that you can get the digital download of NWN Diamond via Gamestop for 10 bucks....incase you don't want to wait on the good ol snail mail system for your physical copy.
Personally I think it is a much more solid platform for MP.
Maybe that's why it will always have a lot more online players than its predecessor...
You mean its successor ( which wasn't much of a success ).
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Is it best to play through the single-player part to get a feel for the game before heading to a PW server?, I guess so
I never did that.
If you played any kind of online games before, read on the servers homepage you're playing at and asking others...get you far.
As I said...I would be happy to give you personal help on Xfire or Skype even when I have some time off.
If you're totally in the dark about D&D i do suggest giving the manuals a read...but then also...don't think that even making a lousy build wont get you through the day...there is always the recomend button...
I'm going for some food now but I'll be back soon enough....Requested friendship on Xfire :-)
Just an FYI as I didn't see it mentioned. The master server has been down for some time, all this means is you have to wait for the time out when connecting to play online (it takes about 15-30 seconds) before you can proceed to the server list. It also means new accounts do not need to go through the verification check so just make your user name and password and go. There is a work around for the time out which allows you to connect immediately without waiting which can be found here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/199/index/8265052.
The client extender which is what I linked to also allows for more camera settings from my understanding and weapon visual effects. Tech support is also available on that forum and there are many helpful posts for working with windows Vista and 7s overbearing admin controls with NWN.
And finally, if you have a newer Nvidia based card (200 series and up) you will want the latest release (280.xx) as they address lag and frame rate issues with NWN.
The game installs easily and is virtually trouble free providing you get the drivers with the newer Nvidia based cards. My recommendation would be to install and play it how it is (on or offline) and then take a look at the custom content like CEP, Project Q, CTP, and override content like combat animations, hand/finger fixes, bow string fixes, tileset reskins, and the like. The override content alone makes NWN seem like a whole new game.
I spent a massive amount of time for the first four years after the game was released playing in various RP servers. I still consider it to be the best, most consisent RP experience I've had in video games.
Stay away from NWN2, however. Compared to its older sibling, it's utter garbage.
I tried playing and thought it was complete garbage. I was expecting something like Diablo. I uninstalled the game and dont know/care what happened to the CDs.
So you played it, expecting it to be like another game... found it wasn't like the other game.. and decided it's garbage.
Interesting.
Anyway...
Neverwinter Nights was my "gateway drug" to MMORPGs.
While it's not a true MMO itself, it can provide easily months, if not years, of enjoyment if you find the right PW to log on to. Sadly, the PWs I used to really love are either gone or are barely a shadow of what they used to be.
I used to love Dor Maeglin Underdark for some good theme-based (Drow) hack-n-slash style gameplay, used to love 'Realm of The Lost Legion' for more plot-driven gameplay. RoTLL had some of the most amazing custom scripting in it that I've seen in any PW since, like a very deep economy system, a gladiator arena where players could challenge NPC opponents, or challenge other players.. Other players could spectate and place bets on the contestants, etc. Very good server.
I do agree about politics - or even simple cliques - tarnishing what could otherwise have been great RP servers. I used to play on one where there was a clear "core group" of players comprised of the DM, is co-DMs and some of their friends. He used to put on this facade of being "strict RP", no meta-gaming, etc. etc. Yet, a number of people started noticing peculiar situations occuring on a regular basis.
The most blatant example being that any character started by someone in that inner clique would - by level 3 - have quite awesome gear that no one outside that clique could ever seem to find. Invisible rings, unique +3 weapons, etc. When questioned about it, he'd say "you just have to explore more". Well, I'm an explorer at heart and over time managed to scour every inch of that game world... or so I thought. I never found anything that dropped or otherwise yielded any of those items. The DM wouldn't even so much as give a hint to where they were found, or even how... using "Nope. No meta-gaming. You use meta-info for your character, and I'll delete your character." as his reasoning.
Well, lo and behold.. sometime later, I'm playing on a high level character and happen to see a bunch of them going by on new characters, level 3 or lower.. and they're running in a high level area. My friend, who was part of the clique, confirmed the new characters in a PM while I was talking to him earlier that session. They hadn't seen me as I was tucked off in a corner healing. What blew my mind was seeing a characters that were clearly low level taking out high level mobs that gave me a challenge at level 10 and having no trouble. I just sat and watched... "No meta-gaming, indeed", I thought.
Then they continued on, into what I knew to be a dead-end, having been in there many times. I see them all run over behind a few hedges near a boulder, and then a few moments later, all of them vanish. So I wait a few moments and then go over to the hedges. Moving my mouse around, I find that there's an extremely tiny object tucked in behind the boulder/hedges. If you didn't know it was there, it's likely you'd never find it.. which is exactly what I think the DM intended. I "use" the item and am teleported into a dungeon I've never been to before. It's barely a dungeon.. It's a few corridors connecting to rooms with enemies in them, just standing around. In one of the rooms is the group of players, taking turns killing the enemies and getting their loot... In turn I see each of them equip the +3 weapons, the capes, etc.. all the stuff I'd seen them wearing before.
"Ah ha...", I think. I decide to leave quickly before they spot me and wait. Lo and behold about 20 minutes later they all emerge from the dead-end and go running by.
I then go into the dungeon, and help myself to the same mobs, finding that they go down pretty easily, and equip all my nice new gear... some being better than anything you could get (on that server anyway) at even my level. I go back to town to find them all RP'ing near the center square of town, all complimenting each other on their new threads... I go up and greet them. They go silent and moments later, the DM's character pm's me "How did you get that gear?". I say "Oh, this? I was hunting out near that secret entrance earlier and saw you all fighting your way toward it. Level 3 and lower characters killing level 10 enemies was impressive to see by the way. Anyway.. I saw you guys go over to that boulder and then vanish. So I investigated and figured out where you'd gone, and where you've been getting this gear. So I got some for myself after you left."
"Why didn't you let us know you were there?" he asked. "Didn't want to disturb your "RP" session", I replied. He says, "Why do you put "RP" in quotes?", to which I said, "I think you know why". He says "Whatever. Just don't show anyone else where you got that. That's meta-gaming and is bannable." I actually laughed out loud at the hypocrisy of that statement. I said "It's not meta-gaming if it's my character - who found the location himself - shows them where it is". A moment later, my friend sends me a PM saying "Dude... You got him pissed off. Not a good idea". I said "Why? 'cause I caught y'all blatantly meta-gaming, and having DM buffs no less and he knows it?" He said, "Just don't push it, dude. He's ready to kick you from the server as it is". I responded to him "lol... that would just confirm his guilt, then wouldn't it".
A day later, the DM shows up on his new character again, to find a number of other players all geared up in +3 armor and weapons, etc. He immediately pm's me "I told you not to show anyone where that was. That's meta-gaming". I said "No, sorry. My *character* discovered this literal treasure-trove of gear that would be suitable to budding adventurers and wished to share his discovery with them, so they may be better equipped to help the city deal with the many problems it has. It was all quite RP'd and in-character. You can ask any one of them how it went down. Or check your logs if you have them".
He says "I don't care. I told you not to show them. I'm the DM. This is my server. These are my rules. The only reason you're still here is because you're (friend's name here) friend". I said "Honestly, cut the crap. I'm not the one who did anything wrong here, and you know it. You were the ones on level 3 and lower characters miraculously killing level 10 enemies without a scratch. I was actually the appropriate level to be there. You were the one using meta info that the characters couldn't possibly have known to get yourself that gear. You were the one who was clearly intending to keep it secret as much as you could. You should be kicking yourself and everyone else in that group. I've done nothing wrong". He stopped replying after that.
The next morning, I go to log in and find that my characters "don't exist" on the server. The character list is completely empty. I go to the forums to find posts by other people who had gotten that gear complaining of their characters being gone, too. The assumption was that there'd been a glitch and everyone's characters were lost. That is, until a few of the DM's "chosen few" who apparently weren't filled in on what had gone down and told to "keep hush about it", posted that all their characters were still there and untouched. They assured everyone that the DM was cool about things like this and would certainy help get them back.
I replied "Not likely. You'll find out why soon enough I'm sure".
About an hour later I went back to check on how things had progressed... That thread was gone and my account had been banned from the forums.
This all happened on a weekend. The next morning, when I saw my friend at work I told him what happened. He said "I told you not to piss him off". I said "really? You're defending that?" He shrugged. "He's the DM. I have no say in it".
About 4 days later, my friend tells me that the DM had to remove that dungeon because - thanks to me - everyone knew about it and he had to keep deleting characters. I said, "In other words, other people found out about what him and his closest buddies, including you, had been keeping to yourselves on numerous characters, and he just couldn't have that. So, he moved the teleport item somewhere else. Right?". My friend didn't reply.
There was a bit of other examples of clear favoritism and DM-driven meta-gaming on that server (such as certain players in his inner circle never being jailed or penalized, no matter what they did).
Fortunately, such examples were the exception for me, and not the rule.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
NWN was a good game. For its time there were a long of things that made it awe inspiring. The user generated content was amazing. It seems like no developers took up that inspiration.
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
yeah...as I have also mentioned somewhere there the good and bad with private servers.
Especially some RP servers unfortunately see it very important to police and also in worst case you'll have the players that are untouchable...who can get away with anything...while others always get in their face that they are not roleplaying properly whenever it is something they want...I believe it has to do with people being people....
Then many of the RP servers have gone over the top I think...especially nowdays...to the extent I would rather call them social servers instead.
Anyway...I've found many good servers that work for me....so hop on the boat...
....and for gods sakes people...stop talking about this game in the past tense already :-P
Comments
Which one are you thinking of joining?
how come neverwinter night 1 is on one website and neverwinter night 2 is on atari when we know both were published by atari?
That is a very good question.
Who knows. Maybe there are many contributing factors? ...like the game is "ancient"...but then NWN2 aint too new either.
Personally I just realised that EA bought Bioware not so long ago...and Atari and EA are like competitors...thats a long shot...but could have played a role...
The thing that complicates things a lot is the D&D license. That one is (was?) owned by Hasbro but then they where sued...or Atari was sued...well I don't know...lets not dig too much lol...
Both NWN1 and NWN2 seem to get the boot on some places....but as long as the communties are as strong as they are the game will continue to flourish despite shutting down of master authentification servers, moving forums or whatever...it will live on....and on.....
Buy Neverwinter Nights 1 here! | Unofficial NWN1 homepage | NWN1 guild on X-Fire
Playing NWN1 online has been the closest to playing old school UO for me.The server populations are smaller sure, but the thing I';ve always liked about NWN PW servers ( and I'm sure the NWN2 ones as well) is because the communities are smaller you as a player and your characters matter to the server admins more as well.
I remember back in the old UO days where your guild could get GM blessings or could affect the server they played on. For instance on the Catskills server, many of the rp/pvp groups took over actual areas of the game. The Shadowclan Orcs for instance, made the Yew orc fort their own, any one looking for some pvp/rp could just show up at the Fort.Lots of other examples like that.
Then EA screwed it all up, but that's another story.
I've played on a NWN rp PW for about 10 years, the World of Avlis, that gave me what UO used to offer back in the day.My character, and the guild he was in got to take part in some awesome server altering plots, as did many other groups and characters.
I've gotten to rp an evil character who for his Blackguard initiation ( menaing this is how he was able to unlock the Blackguard Prestige Class) helped resurect an ancient evil being in the game world, among other things.
No freakin' " hey go collect 10 spores from that plant" that every other noob character has to collect from in your typical MMO.
No auction houses, players can buy and run their own merchant shops, run guilds,etc,etc..
You as a player can have a great impact on the server and feel like a real member of the community.
Sorry WoW,Fallen Earth,DAoC,AoC,etc..You just can't compete when it comes to that kind of player interaction.
Also, besides GOG, you can buy it at Impulse as well.
http://www.impulsedriven.com/nwn
Not sure yet, send me a PM if you want to join one with me (or even if you already had one in mind).
I have one other person interested as well.
Any others are welcomed to join us!
I've played NWN 1 since its release. I went through all the OC and all the expansions then I started playing online and modding. In the last 10 years i've tried and played for a time many different MMORPG games and in all honesty I can say they deserve the title of MMORPG:
Massive
Multiplayer
Online
Ridiculously
Pro - A.D.D.
Grindfest
You want the original grindfest - WoW
You want an oriental based grindfest - Silkroad Online
You want a clone of a grindfest - Runes of Magic
You want a grindfest on different planes - Rift
You want a pretty grindfest - Aion Online
You want a grindfest with pets - Rappelz
and the list goes on and on and on of cookie cutter MMORPGs. Quite honestly they took the Roleplay out of RPG and put everyone on a hamster wheel they have to pay for (yes, even the F2P games). NWN gives you the ability to Role things how you want to Play via the toolset (see the play on words there). Want a world where only Purple Polkadot Bunnies can have +10 Swords of Doom with pointy Teeth? It can be made. Want to bring Jerry Springers show back to life and have Lesbian Dwarves battle it out to the death on stage? It can be made. The point is, NWN gave us something no other Multiplayer online game has since. The tools to build things how we see fit and the networking ability to share our creations with a community only hindered by its imagination. Sure other games have released a toolset or toolkit, but not to the extent of NWN. And certainly no where near what the NWN community has done for the game in the 10 years its been around, not to mention the above and beyond support of the Bioware group that built NWN.
Way to go Birdman!!
Buy Neverwinter Nights 1 here! | Unofficial NWN1 homepage | NWN1 guild on X-Fire
NWN2 was done by Obsidian and like many things done by Obsidian they had some great story ideas but didn't leave enough time to code the thing properly. Despite 3 odd expansion packs each one with promises of fine tuning the engine, the thing still ran like crap for most people. As for the online side that was even worse.
As for NWN I have fond memories of some online RPing back in the day. It always was a game designed for the old school D&D PnP experience not really as a single player game so it works well.
Thanks for the post sfly I'm glad there's still people enjoying this
The same can probably be done with NWN2 too, the game is much better now with it all patched up, can't say i've bothered with it's online though.
NWN1 however, I spent a lot of time online during it's hayday and it was one of the most enjoyable and socialable experiences i've ever had on an online game. Even when compared to modern mmo's today.
But I think that had more to do with getting invited into one of the most active private/password protected server where people took it seriously, with a very dedicated DM capable of creating his own content too. We treated it more like a tabletop game and all agreed to play it together as a group for the most part too.
By far my most cherished "MMO" experience.
Never played the first Neverwinter game, but I bought NWN2 in the summer sale on Steam. I tried a couple of the persistent worlds. In the first, immediately on entering I got someone telling me I'd picked the wrong class. In the second I got someone wittering on at me about not using WASD among other things. This, coupled with performance issues, caused me to give up.
Try NWN1 then...even though its not on Steam....
Personally I think it is a much more solid platform for MP.
Maybe that's why it will always have a lot more online players than its predecessor...
Buy Neverwinter Nights 1 here! | Unofficial NWN1 homepage | NWN1 guild on X-Fire
Very tempted
"LOL"
I don't think anyone mentioned yet that you can get the digital download of NWN Diamond via Gamestop for 10 bucks....incase you don't want to wait on the good ol snail mail system for your physical copy.
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/neverwinter-nights-diamond/91697
You mean its successor ( which wasn't much of a success ).
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I've ordered this now off impulsedriven.com and hope to d/l sometime this evening. I had the original game but never got any ex-packs.
Is it best to play through the single-player part to get a feel for the game before heading to a PW server?, I guess so
<aref="http://www.enjin.com/"; alt="rift guild hosting"><img src="http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-rift/14060_d62c0a5a4ba0df2e.png"></a>;
I never did that.
If you played any kind of online games before, read on the servers homepage you're playing at and asking others...get you far.
As I said...I would be happy to give you personal help on Xfire or Skype even when I have some time off.
If you're totally in the dark about D&D i do suggest giving the manuals a read...but then also...don't think that even making a lousy build wont get you through the day...there is always the recomend button...
I'm going for some food now but I'll be back soon enough....Requested friendship on Xfire :-)
Buy Neverwinter Nights 1 here! | Unofficial NWN1 homepage | NWN1 guild on X-Fire
As soon as NWN1 goes on sale from gog.com, I will buy it just to try out this multiplayer as the OP suggests. I can't wait.
EDITED to reply to the poster below:
Yeah that's true and good advice. I will try to buy it. I am a cheap bastard sometimes.
It's only 10 bucks, that's less than your average MMO sub and the PW servers do not have a sub fee attached either.
The single player is really well done and i would advise anyone to at least play the first chapter.
Just an FYI as I didn't see it mentioned. The master server has been down for some time, all this means is you have to wait for the time out when connecting to play online (it takes about 15-30 seconds) before you can proceed to the server list. It also means new accounts do not need to go through the verification check so just make your user name and password and go. There is a work around for the time out which allows you to connect immediately without waiting which can be found here: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/199/index/8265052.
The client extender which is what I linked to also allows for more camera settings from my understanding and weapon visual effects. Tech support is also available on that forum and there are many helpful posts for working with windows Vista and 7s overbearing admin controls with NWN.
And finally, if you have a newer Nvidia based card (200 series and up) you will want the latest release (280.xx) as they address lag and frame rate issues with NWN.
The game installs easily and is virtually trouble free providing you get the drivers with the newer Nvidia based cards. My recommendation would be to install and play it how it is (on or offline) and then take a look at the custom content like CEP, Project Q, CTP, and override content like combat animations, hand/finger fixes, bow string fixes, tileset reskins, and the like. The override content alone makes NWN seem like a whole new game.
I spent a massive amount of time for the first four years after the game was released playing in various RP servers. I still consider it to be the best, most consisent RP experience I've had in video games.
Stay away from NWN2, however. Compared to its older sibling, it's utter garbage.
So you played it, expecting it to be like another game... found it wasn't like the other game.. and decided it's garbage.
Interesting.
Anyway...
Neverwinter Nights was my "gateway drug" to MMORPGs.
While it's not a true MMO itself, it can provide easily months, if not years, of enjoyment if you find the right PW to log on to. Sadly, the PWs I used to really love are either gone or are barely a shadow of what they used to be.
I used to love Dor Maeglin Underdark for some good theme-based (Drow) hack-n-slash style gameplay, used to love 'Realm of The Lost Legion' for more plot-driven gameplay. RoTLL had some of the most amazing custom scripting in it that I've seen in any PW since, like a very deep economy system, a gladiator arena where players could challenge NPC opponents, or challenge other players.. Other players could spectate and place bets on the contestants, etc. Very good server.
I do agree about politics - or even simple cliques - tarnishing what could otherwise have been great RP servers. I used to play on one where there was a clear "core group" of players comprised of the DM, is co-DMs and some of their friends. He used to put on this facade of being "strict RP", no meta-gaming, etc. etc. Yet, a number of people started noticing peculiar situations occuring on a regular basis.
The most blatant example being that any character started by someone in that inner clique would - by level 3 - have quite awesome gear that no one outside that clique could ever seem to find. Invisible rings, unique +3 weapons, etc. When questioned about it, he'd say "you just have to explore more". Well, I'm an explorer at heart and over time managed to scour every inch of that game world... or so I thought. I never found anything that dropped or otherwise yielded any of those items. The DM wouldn't even so much as give a hint to where they were found, or even how... using "Nope. No meta-gaming. You use meta-info for your character, and I'll delete your character." as his reasoning.
Well, lo and behold.. sometime later, I'm playing on a high level character and happen to see a bunch of them going by on new characters, level 3 or lower.. and they're running in a high level area. My friend, who was part of the clique, confirmed the new characters in a PM while I was talking to him earlier that session. They hadn't seen me as I was tucked off in a corner healing. What blew my mind was seeing a characters that were clearly low level taking out high level mobs that gave me a challenge at level 10 and having no trouble. I just sat and watched... "No meta-gaming, indeed", I thought.
Then they continued on, into what I knew to be a dead-end, having been in there many times. I see them all run over behind a few hedges near a boulder, and then a few moments later, all of them vanish. So I wait a few moments and then go over to the hedges. Moving my mouse around, I find that there's an extremely tiny object tucked in behind the boulder/hedges. If you didn't know it was there, it's likely you'd never find it.. which is exactly what I think the DM intended. I "use" the item and am teleported into a dungeon I've never been to before. It's barely a dungeon.. It's a few corridors connecting to rooms with enemies in them, just standing around. In one of the rooms is the group of players, taking turns killing the enemies and getting their loot... In turn I see each of them equip the +3 weapons, the capes, etc.. all the stuff I'd seen them wearing before.
"Ah ha...", I think. I decide to leave quickly before they spot me and wait. Lo and behold about 20 minutes later they all emerge from the dead-end and go running by.
I then go into the dungeon, and help myself to the same mobs, finding that they go down pretty easily, and equip all my nice new gear... some being better than anything you could get (on that server anyway) at even my level. I go back to town to find them all RP'ing near the center square of town, all complimenting each other on their new threads... I go up and greet them. They go silent and moments later, the DM's character pm's me "How did you get that gear?". I say "Oh, this? I was hunting out near that secret entrance earlier and saw you all fighting your way toward it. Level 3 and lower characters killing level 10 enemies was impressive to see by the way. Anyway.. I saw you guys go over to that boulder and then vanish. So I investigated and figured out where you'd gone, and where you've been getting this gear. So I got some for myself after you left."
"Why didn't you let us know you were there?" he asked. "Didn't want to disturb your "RP" session", I replied. He says, "Why do you put "RP" in quotes?", to which I said, "I think you know why". He says "Whatever. Just don't show anyone else where you got that. That's meta-gaming and is bannable." I actually laughed out loud at the hypocrisy of that statement. I said "It's not meta-gaming if it's my character - who found the location himself - shows them where it is". A moment later, my friend sends me a PM saying "Dude... You got him pissed off. Not a good idea". I said "Why? 'cause I caught y'all blatantly meta-gaming, and having DM buffs no less and he knows it?" He said, "Just don't push it, dude. He's ready to kick you from the server as it is". I responded to him "lol... that would just confirm his guilt, then wouldn't it".
A day later, the DM shows up on his new character again, to find a number of other players all geared up in +3 armor and weapons, etc. He immediately pm's me "I told you not to show anyone where that was. That's meta-gaming". I said "No, sorry. My *character* discovered this literal treasure-trove of gear that would be suitable to budding adventurers and wished to share his discovery with them, so they may be better equipped to help the city deal with the many problems it has. It was all quite RP'd and in-character. You can ask any one of them how it went down. Or check your logs if you have them".
He says "I don't care. I told you not to show them. I'm the DM. This is my server. These are my rules. The only reason you're still here is because you're (friend's name here) friend". I said "Honestly, cut the crap. I'm not the one who did anything wrong here, and you know it. You were the ones on level 3 and lower characters miraculously killing level 10 enemies without a scratch. I was actually the appropriate level to be there. You were the one using meta info that the characters couldn't possibly have known to get yourself that gear. You were the one who was clearly intending to keep it secret as much as you could. You should be kicking yourself and everyone else in that group. I've done nothing wrong". He stopped replying after that.
The next morning, I go to log in and find that my characters "don't exist" on the server. The character list is completely empty. I go to the forums to find posts by other people who had gotten that gear complaining of their characters being gone, too. The assumption was that there'd been a glitch and everyone's characters were lost. That is, until a few of the DM's "chosen few" who apparently weren't filled in on what had gone down and told to "keep hush about it", posted that all their characters were still there and untouched. They assured everyone that the DM was cool about things like this and would certainy help get them back.
I replied "Not likely. You'll find out why soon enough I'm sure".
About an hour later I went back to check on how things had progressed... That thread was gone and my account had been banned from the forums.
This all happened on a weekend. The next morning, when I saw my friend at work I told him what happened. He said "I told you not to piss him off". I said "really? You're defending that?" He shrugged. "He's the DM. I have no say in it".
About 4 days later, my friend tells me that the DM had to remove that dungeon because - thanks to me - everyone knew about it and he had to keep deleting characters. I said, "In other words, other people found out about what him and his closest buddies, including you, had been keeping to yourselves on numerous characters, and he just couldn't have that. So, he moved the teleport item somewhere else. Right?". My friend didn't reply.
There was a bit of other examples of clear favoritism and DM-driven meta-gaming on that server (such as certain players in his inner circle never being jailed or penalized, no matter what they did).
Fortunately, such examples were the exception for me, and not the rule.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
@WSIMIKE
That's positively infuriating, but it makes for an interesting story!
NWN was a good game. For its time there were a long of things that made it awe inspiring. The user generated content was amazing. It seems like no developers took up that inspiration.
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
WSIMike,
yeah...as I have also mentioned somewhere there the good and bad with private servers.
Especially some RP servers unfortunately see it very important to police and also in worst case you'll have the players that are untouchable...who can get away with anything...while others always get in their face that they are not roleplaying properly whenever it is something they want...I believe it has to do with people being people....
Then many of the RP servers have gone over the top I think...especially nowdays...to the extent I would rather call them social servers instead.
Anyway...I've found many good servers that work for me....so hop on the boat...
....and for gods sakes people...stop talking about this game in the past tense already :-P
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