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[Column] Neverwinter: Something Evil this Way Comes
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
I have an interesting relationship with Neverwinter. I used to host a live stream series on our Twitch Channel called the Foundry Focus. Some of you may remember it. Most of you probably not. One of my fellow writers on this site, Som Pourfarzaneh, used to join me when he was still a community manager for Neverwinter. Neverwinter is a game that I really want to love, much like DDO, because of my fondness for the IP and the wealth of source material. In a number of ways I like what Nevewinter has accomplished but in others… not so much.
Read more of Rob Lashley's Neverwinter: Something Evil This Way Comes.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Right after publication, Cryptic's Shicoff took to the Arc site to offer an apology for the overall quality of Module 6.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
There's a workaround for that:
It seems to be translated poorly from another language. I have not tried it.
It may be an idea to park this interview for a while, in light of your other post highlighting the issues that have forced the lead developer to come out with an apology for the expansion.
No amount of interview fluff from Cryptic can disguise the truly awful ideas behind this Module.
There is no story to the 60-70 leveling areas, it is just go half way across the map - get 40 xxx items by killing yyy mobs, with a drop rate of 0.0.....1
Return to the quest hub and do it again.
Then onto the next quest hub for guess what....more of the same only with different looking mobs.
All the while, running in old zones with different mobs - about as cheap as you can get for "new content".
Players have already started heading for the exit door. Some guilds just quit en-masse the day Mod 6 came out, as any feedback from the preview server had just been completely ignored.
Honestly, I can't believe people stuck around. I'm guessing you see very few original founder pack accounts. I have one, and I recall going back to try the ranger for a day and noticed no founders. Barely any on the forums as well. Guess the players come in like shark teeth.
There are good areas to the game.
The action bar set up is one of the best of the limited option formats. Combat mechanics are good, I wish a couple of other action mmos would get to this level.
And the Foundry - player created content. There are some really excellent examples by players here. You can tell they have put time and effort, and it's fair to say, a lot of love into their individual creations.
The quality of some of these reflect the care and attention of the players who have contributed.
But the upkeep of the Foundry desperately needs improving. Once again, it was made unusable after the Mod 6 patch, with players unable to transfer areas inside these quests. It is a regular occurrence for the Foundry to be off-line after each weekly maintenance period, for hours or sometimes days.
With the current state of the game, the quality of some Foundry quests only serves to highlight the dismal level of the other content. Consequently there where repeated calls for Mod 6 to be scrapped and rewritten by the top Foundry writers.
I was a founding member and I bailed after the last module in Icewind Dale. I was really upset that I couldn't continue the story unless i had the right type of gear and that meant logging in everyday to do the same quests, over and over, to get enough currency to upgrade. Sure I could spend money to upgrade quicker but I had already sunk far too much money into it. It feels like poor writing if they can not create enough content for someone to go through the whole module in one run, instead making them repeat the same content/quests, dozens of times before they can move on.
I won't be coming back. It is completely Buy-To-Win, or Sinkoutrageousamountsoftimeanddorepeatedquests-To-Win.
Your love of the halfling leaf has clearly slowed your mind...
As much as I love help like what you're doing I have to comment on it because there's a problem. You see there shouldn't be a workaround for commonly expected features that don't exist. In this game we have no option to sellall, we have no option to drop commonly acquired items into the bank from anywhere for future use like enchant stones, we don't have the option to pickup all loot in an AOE or autoloot without having to click something over and over again.
Without these quality of life improvements the game itself is half done.
Rob, you said it!
I too have an interesting relationship with Neverwinter...a real love / hate one!
Neverwinter is what I consider the Monet of MMOs; although some could argue that it's not even truly an MMO, but I digress. Like the saying goes with a Monet:
"Looks good from afar - but far from good close up!"
Now, I'm not speaking specifically about the graphics or look of the game -- which could be better, but also could be worse as well. When I call Neverwinter a Monet, I am referring to how beautiful the idea of the game is versus the actual implementation of it. Simply stated, the closer you get to Neverwinter, the more you realize how much of a mess the game is. Frankly it's an absolute mess, bordering on disaster! One in which Wizards should be ashamed to affix their Dungeon's & Dragons name too!
Don't get me wrong, I love D&D, particularly the Forgotten Realms and if there is one IP I could choose to play in, aside from the DC Universe (don't get me started w/DCUO), I'd choose to play in the Forgotten Realms setting. However, like the Monet, Neverwinter looks good at first glance, but the more time you spend with it, the more you see what a mess it actually is.
First off, the direction of the game is absolutely horrific. So much so, that a bunch of monkeys could most likely do as good of a job. I mean good Lord, they just had their umpteen exploit occur.
It's like this bumbling babbling band of baboons (your Harry Potter quote of the day) can't get anything right and they learn nothing from past mistakes! Ugh!!!
Second, while I'm sure there are a few competent developers working on Neverwinter, you wouldn't know it by playing it. The game is 'clown shoes'! You can't honestly compare the fit and finish of Neverwinter (or lack thereof) to just about any other AAA MMO on the market. In terms of polish, Neverwinter, particularly in its current state, pales in comparison. In addition, Neverwinter, which is coming up on its second birthday in June, plays like it's still in early beta. It is an absolute buggy mess....and Module 6 has made the game nearly unplayable!
If I've learned one all-encompassing lesson in my time playing Neverwinter, it's: Just how disappointed I am that Cryptic/PWE was the dev/pub that won the right to create a game based the D&D/Forgotten Realms IP!
Serioulsy, I'm so angry with how badly they've screwed this D&D opportunity up that I just want to give Cryptic and PWE the middle finger...both of them!
I am a founder that has spent a decent amount of money on Neverwinter over nearly the past two years, but due to the utter incomptetence I've seen over at Cryptic/PWE, I'll be damned if they ever see another dime from me unless something major changes for the better.
Considering it's a PWE game, I won't be holding my breath.
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Cryptic and PWE!
Just finished reading the update on Neverwinter from Scott Shicoff, the new Lead Designer.
Hopefully he and his new team can fix the game into what it should be and give us D&D fans some hope!
They've got a lot of work ahead of them and a long way to go, but anything is better than the cluster **** of a game the previous rabble left behind!
I wanted so much to like this game. I even read Salvatore's Neverwinter trilogy lead-in.
I played through early beta and intermittently with each new update. After Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms is my next favorite campaign setting along with Salvatore's many books.
I agree with FanOfSuperman on nearly every point.
For me, the combat, foundry and scenery have been the only moderately redeeming features of this game. Everything else seems completely disjointed and ineffectual and this from a supremely casual gamer. With each update and consummate marketing fluff I get lured back only to be more disappointed. After this last update I finally resigned to deleting the game all together.
I would not even be commenting if not for the fact that I had such high hopes for the Forgotten Realms IP.
At least DDO is now incorporating some elements of Forgotten Realms and even Greyhawk.
Del Cabon
A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.
The gear score block on Icewind Dale was ridiculous. It pissed me off to no end.
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RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
Yeah, I thought about checking DDO out again. I wasn't a big fan when I first played it, but in fairness, I aven't played it since launch. I was never as big a fan of Eberron as Forgotten Realms, but since I hear they've added FR, I should give it a try.
FanOfSuperman, I couldn't agree with you more. MOD 6 killed any interest I had in NWO, and being there since beta really stuck in the back of my throat.
They should have fired more of the incompetent Dev team than they did. All it is now is damage limitation.