Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

[gojira]

Not CO related, directly, but indirectly its very interesting. There's a rumor on Gamasutra that Cryptic is developing a Neverwinter Nights MMO for Atari.

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/newswire?story=24997

 

My first thought: WOW! Start Trek online and Neverwinter Nights online? That's some serious properties.

 

My second thought: could be an indirect boost for Fantasy Hero sales, if Hero Games can capture some of the CO players with their current association with Cryptic.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Maybe if Turbine got off it's ass and didn't cack up DDO so badly from the start they wouldn't need to sue some other company for trying to put out a D&D MMO to replace the utter failure that is Turbine.

 

And that's not to say I 'hate' DDO. It's a fantastic game, it's the most accurate D&D pnp ruleset to MMO to date. The problem is the people behind it, not the game itself.

 

It suffered from what the MMO community likes to now call FATAL Star Wars Galaxies Syndrome.

[GamePhil]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Maybe if Turbine got off it's ass and didn't cack up DDO so badly from the start they wouldn't need to sue some other company for trying to put out a D&D MMO to replace the utter failure that is Turbine.

 

And that's not to say I 'hate' DDO. It's a fantastic game, it's the most accurate D&D pnp ruleset to MMO to date. The problem is the people behind it, not the game itself.

 

It suffered from what the MMO community likes to now call FATAL Star Wars Galaxies Syndrome.

 

So, they're suing over discontinued support? Wonder if they have a case.

 

I might have to give it a try, actually, if it's true that Cryptic is working on it. I've liked their stuff so far, broadly, and my impression is they're learning as they go, so hopefully things will get even better.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

So, they're suing over discontinued support? Wonder if they have a case.

 

I might have to give it a try, actually, if it's true that Cryptic is working on it. I've liked their stuff so far, broadly, and my impression is they're learning as they go, so hopefully things will get even better.

 

I do know that DDO has or is (I'm not sure of their timetable) going free to play. fyi.

[Mindhold]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Turbine is sueing Atari over DDO and these rumors. They want 30mil.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Yep, seems I've been wrong about Turbine.

 

Seems like Atari really gets off on abusing the companies it works with. Which should go a loooong way to explaining why Atari bought Cryptic Studio's outright. They can kick them around now and not worry about being sued?

 

Talk about Atari having it out for DDO to fail because they were interested in pushing out their NWNO MMO. Ugh, the thread explains quite a bit. =(

 

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=196705

[Mindscape]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

I think the main problem with DDO was that they used the Eberron setting which is not a bad setting but I believe that Forgotten Realms is a much more widely played setting. At least it is with my group, when we aren't playing Fantasy HERO. Thus I believe that while it may not have saved the game it might have attracted more players if it was set in the Realms. At least that's what I like to think.

[GamePhil]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Yep, seems I've been wrong about Turbine.

 

Not to defend Atari, but the link you provided can hardly be considered unbiased.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Not to defend Atari' date=' but the link you provided can hardly be considered unbiased.[/quote']

 

Are you referring to the actual DDO thread on the board, the link on it that leads to the Courthouse News Service or the link there that leads to the Atari.pdf which I think is the actual complaint filed by Turbine?

 

I dunno anything about Courthouse News, so I dunno if you feel it's biased, or you were talking about the DDO forums, or the pdf itself?

[GamePhil]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

The post to the Turbine thread, which is in the post I was responding to. I have no idea about the validity of the case or the evil of Atari, though it wouldn't surprise me.

[Checkmate]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

I think the main problem with DDO was that they used the Eberron setting which is not a bad setting but I believe that Forgotten Realms is a much more widely played setting. At least it is with my group' date=' when we aren't playing Fantasy HERO. Thus I believe that while it may not have saved the game it might have attracted more players if it was set in the Realms. At least that's what I like to think.[/quote']

The problems with DDO are far too numerous to list here. And I don't think we should forget Turbine's track record before we immediately assume everything's Atari's fault.

[Tuscarora]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

"

And that's not to say I 'hate' DDO. It's a fantastic game, it's the most accurate D&D pnp ruleset to MMO to date. The problem is the people behind it, not the game itself."

 

You are right, DDO did a good job on turning the pnp ruleset into a game. Sadly, they went with Eberron which ran me off. I would have settled for any of the earlier properties... but oh well.

 

Cryptic failed to turn the HERO game system into a workable Champions MMO at least using the pnp ruleset. I now am seriously concerned about them flubbing STO

[Arkham]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

 

 

 

 

Cryptic failed to turn the HERO game system into a workable Champions MMO at least using the pnp ruleset. I now am seriously concerned about them flubbing STO

 

Cryptic didn't fail to turn the HERO game into an MMO. That wasn't one of their goals, and this was stated as such at the very beginning. That's like saying WoW failed to provide me a chicken pot pie. While it is true that they did not provide me with a chicken pot pie, it is also true that they don't need to, weren't intending to, and never told me they would.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Anyone care to do a little google foo and see if they can did up any previous instances of Atari rogering it's properties or business partners? Might go a long way to determining what's more likely, that Turbine mismanaged things, or Atari is just a feckless wonder. I'll tell ya, I find it a tad suspicious that DDO was so poorly fielded, and just a few years later Atari comes up with it's NWN MMO ...

 

That's probably nothing to it, but on the surface it gives Atari a pretty good reason to drag their feet and make sure DDO didn't perform well.

 

Just one opinion.

[Checkmate]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Well look at Turbine's track record:

 

Ashron's Call: Not a bad MMO given it's time, but was soundly defeated by the original Everquest

 

Ashron's Call 2: An abysmal failure. They really didn't get much right with this one. They pulled half of what players they did have off of Ashron's Call making sure neither game had enough people to support it. Then in a sudden resurgence, they released an expansion to Ashron's Call 2 promising more expansions were on the horizon. They waited until sales on the expansion dried up, then announced the closer of the game.

 

Lord of the Rings: The name alone should have brought them in in droves. The poor execution of the game has it near the chopping block.

 

DDO: Now take a GOOD look at DDO, I thought this was an absolutely horrible game. I haven't played it in awhile (although now that it's free I may take a look at it) so my assessment comes from the initial release (actually beta, never bought the game). They made the game as simple as they possibly could and still call it D&D. There was no exploration, nothing over level 10, added mini levels to give people that "instant gratification" feeling.

 

I dunno, I have heard Atari is a PITA to work for, but I know I'll never trust Turbine.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Interesting, but any game would have been soundly defeated by EQ at the time, remember, EQ was the 'statistical' anomaly WoW is today, it was literally the 800lb Gorilla in the room.

 

AC2. I'll go with you on that. But the same could be said for City of Heroes, and people are still playing it, though it can be argued the game wasn't the success it was hoped it would be.

 

Lord of the Rings isn't near the chopping block or even within distance of the chopping block to be seen by spy glass. Sorry, can't agree with you. LoTR is a fine game, it's got a lot of going for it. Again, it's just not going to bring in 'WoW' numbers. Right now 'Nothing' is.

 

DDO, I'm playing it now. And yeah I think you are basing it on the beta and launch. I'd call it alot of things, but simple isn't one of them. It's one of the most complete PnP to CRPG conversions of the D&D rule set I've seen to date. Including things like Baldur's Gate and NWN, which really didn't do a lot of things with the PnP rule set it should have.

 

All in all, I can see by your own admission that you've got a pretty heavy bias against turbine. And that's fine by me, we've all got our biases. But I think that bias will color any real objective discussion of who's at fault here, so I think I'll leave the rest of this discussion to others. =)

 

Well look at Turbine's track record:

 

Ashron's Call: Not a bad MMO given it's time, but was soundly defeated by the original Everquest

 

Ashron's Call 2: An abysmal failure. They really didn't get much right with this one. They pulled half of what players they did have off of Ashron's Call making sure neither game had enough people to support it. Then in a sudden resurgence, they released an expansion to Ashron's Call 2 promising more expansions were on the horizon. They waited until sales on the expansion dried up, then announced the closer of the game.

 

Lord of the Rings: The name alone should have brought them in in droves. The poor execution of the game has it near the chopping block.

 

DDO: Now take a GOOD look at DDO, I thought this was an absolutely horrible game. I haven't played it in awhile (although now that it's free I may take a look at it) so my assessment comes from the initial release (actually beta, never bought the game). They made the game as simple as they possibly could and still call it D&D. There was no exploration, nothing over level 10, added mini levels to give people that "instant gratification" feeling.

 

I dunno, I have heard Atari is a PITA to work for, but I know I'll never trust Turbine.

[Checkmate]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Lord of the Rings isn't near the chopping block or even within distance of the chopping block to be seen by spy glass. Sorry, can't agree with you. LoTR is a fine game, it's got a lot of going for it. Again, it's just not going to bring in 'WoW' numbers. Right now 'Nothing' is.

I stand corrected. LotR does have respectable numbers.

DDO' date=' I'm playing it now. And yeah I think you are basing it on the beta and launch. I'd call it alot of things, but simple isn't one of them. It's one of the most complete PnP to CRPG conversions of the D&D rule set I've seen to date. Including things like Baldur's Gate and NWN, which really didn't do a lot of things with the PnP rule set it should have.[/quote']

I SERIOUSLY disagree here having had some time to play it. Running through a dungeon smashing barrels is not my idea of D&D. Let's not forget the fact that it's now free and relying on Micro-Transactions to stay alive speaks volumes.

All in all, I can see by your own admission that you've got a pretty heavy bias against turbine. And that's fine by me, we've all got our biases. But I think that bias will color any real objective discussion of who's at fault here, so I think I'll leave the rest of this discussion to others. =)

There are reason very good reasons I'm biased against Turbine, but you're right, we'll never know who's really at fault.

[Zed-F]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Let's not forget the fact that it's now free and relying on Micro-Transactions to stay alive speaks volumes.

And by all accounts having a spectacularly successful re-launch in that model.

 

If you want to rag against DDO on the basis of its strengths and weaknesses as a game, fine, but I think dragging in the payment model is pretty disingenuous. In fact, moving from a subscription-based revenue stream to a microtransaction-based revenue stream is only good business sense in today's MMO business climate. There are only so many subscription dollars to go around, and WoW has too big a share of them; microtransactions taps into a considerably larger total pot of consumer money. While microtransactions has gotten a bum rap from a number of shoddily-developed games that were produced several years ago, the industry as a whole would be a lot better off if more A-list games went this direction.

[firesnakearies]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

I'm actually playing DDO as well as Champions Online currently, and enjoying it quite a bit. I pay for my Champions subscription, but I can play DDO a little here and there for free, so it's a fun diversion.

 

But as to the original topic . . . I'd be very interested in a new Neverwinter Nights MMORPG. Or any new D&D MMORPG really.

[SvZurich]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Curious about DDO, but I am paying for Aion as my backup and CO charges me nothing right now (lifer).

[Kisska]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Maybe if Turbine got off it's ass and didn't cack up DDO so badly from the start they wouldn't need to sue some other company for trying to put out a D&D MMO to replace the utter failure that is Turbine.

 

And that's not to say I 'hate' DDO. It's a fantastic game, it's the most accurate D&D pnp ruleset to MMO to date. The problem is the people behind it, not the game itself.

 

It suffered from what the MMO community likes to now call FATAL Star Wars Galaxies Syndrome.

 

 

You need to get some of your facts straight one the big problems with ddo was Atari didnt promote or market it like they should most likely it seems now that they were planning on coming out with their own game and didnt want to boost a competing game and its one of the reasons turbine is suing them.

[Kisska]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

I do know that DDO has or is (I'm not sure of their timetable) going free to play. fyi.

 

 

Actually they are a hybrid of free to play and subs. Free to play has some limits on what they can access(can buy more through microtransaction) number of character slots and a little restircted on races and classes as well as limits on auction house and tells, and no shared bank, they can buy all of these off either with cash or earned game points(would take a long time to buy off all for free) while subscription players have no limits on tells and more character slots. I would recomend any who hasnt played to at least check out the free to play option.

[Kisska]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Turbine is sueing Atari over DDO and these rumors. They want 30mil.

 

 

While I am rooting for Turbine Atari is counter suing

[Kisska]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

Yep, seems I've been wrong about Turbine.

 

Seems like Atari really gets off on abusing the companies it works with. Which should go a loooong way to explaining why Atari bought Cryptic Studio's outright. They can kick them around now and not worry about being sued?

 

Talk about Atari having it out for DDO to fail because they were interested in pushing out their NWNO MMO. Ugh, the thread explains quite a bit. =(

 

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=196705

 

 

I have to applogize I didnt read this before I chastised you in my other post. so sorry:(

[Kisska]

Re: Cryptic to develop Neverwinter Nights MMO?

 

I think the main problem with DDO was that they used the Eberron setting which is not a bad setting but I believe that Forgotten Realms is a much more widely played setting. At least it is with my group' date=' when we aren't playing Fantasy HERO. Thus I believe that while it may not have saved the game it might have attracted more players if it was set in the Realms. At least that's what I like to think.[/quote']

 

 

I hate the realms and wouldnt have played if it had been there, and to tell the truth I think it would have been a mistake as they couldnt have made all the Realms fans happy and they would have been told constanly that they got this or that wrong. I love Eberron myself but would have been happier maybe if they game on been set in a new world or maybe Kalamar, Greyhawk or Blackmoor