The Future of NWN Round Table Discussion,
Part 2

By Jay Watamaniuk

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Last week, we asked our panel of experts to talk about the persistence of the Neverwinter Nights community, how people play, and why. This week, we gaze a little further into the crystal ball and get some impressions on what is in store for our favorite game.

Our commentators are:

• Maximus: Grand Vizier of Neverwinter Vault
• Rizzen: Overlord of Neverwinter Connections
• LadyRolePlay: Award winning roleplaying expert
• Poetic Colossus: Respected veteran Dungeon Master
• Lycius: Operator of Brynsaar persistent world
• Papermonk: Head Honcho at the City of Doors Initiative
• Steelwind: Big Cheese at DragonLance Adventures

On Large Scale Projects

What effect do you think the large scale community projects have had on the community as a whole?

Papermonk: I believe they've had a galvanizing effect - they've both strengthened the backbone of the community while continuing to provide inspiration and optimism for just what this game--and this community--is capable of.

Steewind: Seeing as neither DLA or CODI have released a mod or the lion's share of their content yet, I think its too early to tell. The CEP, however, has been very successful.

In terms of the utilities created for the game, however, it's safe to say there would be a far smaller amount of custom content released for the game without the contributions of the membership of CODI and DLA. NWN Viewer (later NWN Explorer), NWN Mdl Suite, and most especially NWmax and its add-ons, have been extremely important in making custom content accessible to people in the community and allowed the game to grow. NWmax is something we are all very proud of at DLA.

Similarly, the CODI Custom Character Creator has been important in opening up new races and possibilities for players and PWs and the CODI custom character manager for making 2da management easier.

Lastly, most (not all, but most) of the grunt work in techniques for modeling, texturing, .set file editing, and the like arose through the work of individual members of CODI and DLA ,and we've continued to lobby BioWare for additions to the game code to make custom content easier to create and to expand the horizons of what's possible in the game.

Those discoveries would have largely languished among a few if Eligio had not synthesized that work into one digestible PDF: the Custom Content Guide. It was a great contribution to the community. That work continues with the Custom Content Guide Wiki, which incorporates the PDF, and makes modding the game easier and more accessible for everyone.

That's been the legacy so far. I just wish both DLA and CODI had been in the position to release our work around March of 2004. That would have been ideal, but it has taken longer than we hoped. *sigh*

Lycius: City of Doors Initiative. DragonLance Adventures. Need I say more? These two massive projects are not even playable to the community, but players are staring at screenshots and downloading haks like a fanatic Star Wars fan 12 hours before release day of the next movie.

Rizzen: They definitely keep the community feeling fresh and keep the environments feeling new. Each time something new comes out, people flock to it and use it as inspiration to come up with something that hasn't been done before. However, it does make it more difficult for multiplayer considering everyone in the group generally has to have the add-on. Either way, I think its nothing but a positive experience.

Maximus: For those that are still in development, I don't think we've truly felt the full effects of their work, but if the content they've pre-released is any indication, then we are in for something great.

For those that are out of development, they are important contributors to the overall community and help others. It's much like making a movie. You have a relatively small group of people bringing enjoyment to millions.

Poetic Colossus: Er, I won't have a life anymore when the DLA mod comes out. Does that answer the question?

LadyRolePlay: They have done wonders for the game and the community. The CEP, despite some of its annoyances, has been a great boon. The plethora of general community tilesets allow people to make great looking areas that look more realistic than doing something like taking the standard rural tileset and giving the area a green tint to simulate a swamp for example. Also, NWC has proven utterly invaluable. It allows people to schedule games, find players and DMs, and to easily communicate with others. GameSpy is probably great for FPS games, but it's absolutely terrible for NWN type games. *Laughs* It's much harder to put together a D&D game than climb on and play an FPS. And, as said in Part 1, so much of roleplaying group play involves chemistry and dynamic, and hunting for the right players for the right game is far more involved!

Once again, it's that and projects like the CEP where the continued success of a game like NWN is. To be able to create something, whether it is custom content, a story, or a player wanting to live a story with a PC, is what makes it a never-ending, always viable game. And therein lies its success. The community, having a place to meet, to participate, to draw new ideas of others to use, to have their own ideas used in turn, and the creative flow from all that just could not happen without this structure in place. It is critical to the success of NWN or any game to aspire to recreate this online success.

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