You know it's time to start paying attention to a game's development when the game promises to be a great party based online RPG and have a story.
Multiplayer… with a story?
Quick Peek:
An online RPG that plans to bring the pen and paper experience to the PC in full 3D glory.
Release Date:
2000
Developer:
BioWare
Publisher:
Interplay
Homepage:
Neverwinter Nights
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Aside from the prospect shaved monkeys chewing peanut butter and parachuting from the Empire State building, that's about the most unorthodox thing I've heard in a long time. Or is it? Pen and paper RPGs have long been a platform for groups of friends to get together and immerse themselves in a story controlled by a designated "Dungeon Master." This "DM" would guide the players through the world and affect the game however he or she saw fit. This idea has certainly been entertaining people a lot longer than online RPGs, and it's a tried and true method of combining both story, "multiplayer," role-playing, and plenty of parachuting monkey action. BioWare, being the cunning developer they are, saw this method of story telling and game play as a perfect means of once again sending players into an AD&D game set in the Forgotten Realms universe, and now their dream is coming true.
BioWare created the hit Baldur's Gate, and showed us just how fun AD&D games could be on the PC, even if you were still limited in imagination when compared to pen and paper games. While few people had the audacity to criticize their masterpiece for that, it was an unspoken fact that a real pen and paper game set in Forgotten Realms was a much more powerful setting for the imagination to reign free than any computer RPG could allow for. Now, worlds are about to collide. BioWare's Neverwinter Nights is going to pair the party based/DM monitored action of pen and paper games with an immersive online world. I'll pause for a second while you think that over.
You have to wonder… how can they possibly accomplish this and make the game fun? The first thing they're doing is programming various "modules" for the game. Each module will contain its own adventure and story line. Since the game will not be a mass multiplayer online RPG, someone will start a server and have complete discretion over who is allowed in their server. If you want to play with a group of friends, you're perfectly welcome to do so. Next, a DM is chosen to oversee the game and alter the game world as seen fit. This person can take control of NPCs and communicate with players, or even hijack an ogre or two to chase after the party he's monitoring. Everything down to the very story line of a given module can be edited by the DM, or the DM may just sit back and alter the world only when absolutely necessary. Ok, so you're now with a group of friends playing a module with a unique storyline that contributes to the game's overall storyline, and you're being watched over by someone you hope isn't too drunk. What's next?
Let's say you proceed to beat that module, and several more after it. Eventually your party of heroes becomes more and more well known in the game, and new modules will be opened up to you to go on with the overall storyline of the game. While you don't have to complete every module to access a Hub Module that is a portal between environments, each can effect the game later or even clarify some portions of the plot before you move on to the next set. But what about when you've finished all of the included modules? BioWare plans to keep releasing modules even after the game is out, and with the inclusion of the "Solstice Toolset" gamers can continue making their own modules to be played amongst friends or release them publicly. Trent Oster of BioWare commented on the ease of using this toolset in our interview by saying, "Our unofficial motto is that, using our Solstice Toolset, even your grandma ought to be able to put together a basic dungeon crawl in under an hour." But we'll have more on that later…
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