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I would always recommend the first Neverwinter Nights (which, if you need it, has a Linux port).
TDyl

Bioware has lost their soul long before they sold it to the devil. They disappointed hard-core RPG fans when they gave away Neverwinter Nights 2 to Obsidian. They betrayed their loyal RPG fans again when they decided to delay the release of the much anticipated PC-oriented D&D RPG game, Dragon Age. The reason? they want to rush the release of blockbuster action game Mass Effect, which is more console-oriented, so it can hit your big screen LCD TV in this holiday season. This project is so important that they have their hands full and unable to fix the ridiculous bug of Neverwinter Night that plagued users since GeForce 8000 series is out.

Bioware has lost their soul long before they sold it to the devil. They disappointed hard-core RPG fans when they gave away Neverwinter Nights 2 to Obsidian. They betrayed their loyal RPG fans again when they decided to delay the release of the much anticipated PC-oriented D&D RPG game, Dragon Age. The reason? they want to rush the release of blockbuster action game Mass Effect, which is more console-oriented, so it can hit your big screen LCD TV in this holiday season. This project is so important that they have their hands full and unable to fix the ridiculous bug of Neverwinter Night that plagued users since GeForce 8000 series is out.

Bioware has lost their soul long before they sold it to the devil. They disappointed hard-core RPG fans when they gave away Neverwinter Nights 2 to Obsidian. They betrayed their loyal RPG fans again when they decided to delay the release of the much anticipated PC-oriented D&D RPG game, Dragon Age. The reason? they want to rush the release of blockbuster action game Mass Effect, which is more console-oriented, so it can hit your big screen LCD TV in this holiday season. This project is so important that they have their hands full and unable to fix the ridiculous bug of Neverwinter Night that plagued users since GeForce 8000 series is out.

I love episodic gaming, and am very much looking forward to Bioware's release of Witch's Wake episode 2.

It's perhaps instructive to think about some of the things that happened in the world since episode 1 was released in Dec. 2004:

• W. Mark Felt was confirmed to be Watergate's "Deep Throat"
• Michael Jackson was found not guilty of child molestation charges
• Lance Armstrong retired after winning his seventh Tour de France
• The Xbox 360, PS 3 and Wii were released

• The NHL cancelled its 2004/05 season.

But there's nothing like a bit of a wait to build anticipation.

For folks trying for this contest, I'd keep the cutscenes short, give the player as many choices as you can manage, and make your NPCs memorable. Less is more for these sorts of things. Don't plan an epic module spanning dozens of areas.

Sounds like excellent advise. Although I've got no idea what I'm talking about, I'd like to add making not just your NPCs, but also your locations memorable. It's a world design contest, after all. Large swaths of land don't do a thing. Exactly the right cure little grove, impressive cliff, cottage in the forest, etc, does.

Although I'd love to develop games, I won't be joining the contest. I think my skills would be more apropriate as a Java programmer, and I have no experience whatsoever with modding. Also, I'm not really in a position to move to the other side of the pond, what with my SO already having a well-paying job on this side.

Learning the NWN toolset, if you have no programming experience, can be daunting. It sounds like your background is ideally suited to 3D modeling, if that's of interest to you. That being said, if you're interested there are many tutorials to choose from.

Best of luck.

Apparently Bioware is a little miffed about this announcement and refuses to confirm the date. Until I see an official press release, I'm filing this one firmly in the "rumor" category.

NWN1 in Linux

And so it shall be done!!!!

Poof! http://nwn.bioware.com/downloads/linuxclient.html

when I got NWN and was angered at the number of bugs out of the box (most reportedly fixed by the 1.23 release. Let me repeat 1.TWENTY-THREE, implying there were 22 other releases post-shipping)

NO! Do not tarry into the forbidden desert of Console! All ways look alike, and you will die without dialog!

Seriously there's several RPGs on the PC worth looking forward to, several of which should come out within the next year (clipped from one of my earlier posts):

The Black Hound - Originally was in production at Black Isle as Baldur's Gate 3 (though it has nothing to do with BG1 or BG2) but was canned when it was nearly complete. Josh Sawyer, the original game's Lead Designer who's now working at Obsidian, is recreating the game as a mod for NWN2.

The Planescape Trilogy - Three large campaigns for NWN2 in the Planescape setting that look promising, despite the obvious titles (from the Divine Comedy, CLEVER!). The first part, Purgatorio, is almost done.

Dragon Age - Bioware's mystary PC RPG based on original IP is, well, a mystery. All previous work has been scrapped, a couple of times, and the project started anew, but some hints by Dave Gaider lend some hope to this maybe possibly turning out decent. Unlike Mass Effect.

The Broken Hourglass - An infinity engine RPG by the best infinity engine modders out there. Whether that means that they will be making a great RPG with the engine remains to be seen. Based on original, non-DnD setting and rules.

Age of Decadence - An "isometric, turn-based, single-player 3D role-playing game set in a low magic, post-apocalyptic fantasy world, inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire." Currently under development by an asshole. He's also a purist, though, so it may turn out respectably, if it ever turns out.

The Alien RPG - I know virtually nothing about other than Obsidian is making it and they say it's an RPG. Probably won't be out until 2008. Or later.

And of course...

Fallout 3 - Bethesda has it. They say it won't be "Oblivion with guns", but they lie frequently. I still have a sliver of hope, though. We'll see if it's still there when they release some concrete info/screenshots.

Lastly, The Witcher looks interesting as well. A lot of actual "Role Playing" for an Action RPG, which can only help.

The game was pirated far more than any other game before its time, there were torrents *everywhere*, and *everyone* had a copy. Anticipation was high, and when a warez group let slip the ISO *days* before the retail date, sales were instantly decimated.

I'm curious where your information comes from. Doom 3 lost 10% of its sales because of the early illegal release? How can you know what the number would have been without that release? It was pirated more than any other game previously? I wasn't aware that NPD was tracking those numbers. "Everyone" had a copy? Hyperbole just makes you look like you lack real evidence.

Ultimately you're guessing. You have no more evidence that piracy caused fewer sales than expected than the grandparent post claiming that the game just sucked.

Here are some actual numbers. You've suggested that "Piracy ruined Doom 3...." Doom 3 sold 3.5 million copies. Most publishers would love to sell 3.5 million copies of a game. Games generally considered to be highly successful, like Warcraft III , Baldur's Gate , and Unreal Tournament didn't sell 3.5 million copies. There are only perhaps a dozen or two PC games that can claim to have topped that. id claimed Doom 3 was "...id's most successful game to date." If that's ruination, I'm afraid of success. Assuming you claim of decimation is correct, we're talking about id losing about 350,000 sales. That is a huge number of sales; many PC games never sell that many. But really is the different between 3.5 and 3.85 million copies really ruination?

Huh, what?

Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II (and the expansions for both) were all written at BioWare, by generally the same folks... you can see how they progress in their craft (game design, writing, and programming) between the two.

The Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic situation (BioWare did the good/excellent originals, shifted the sequels to Obsidian where they were rushed out the door by the publisher before they were even close to ready) on the other hand...

You're leaving out a quite a few titles. There are some great mods in the works as well.

The Black Hound - Originally was in production at Black Isle as Baldur's Gate 3 (though it has nothing to do with BG1 or BG2) but was canned when it was nearly complete. Josh Sawyer, the original game's Lead Designer who's now working at Obsidian, is recreating the game as a mod for NWN2.

The Planescape Trilogy - Three large campaigns for NWN2 in the Planescape setting that look promising, despite the obvious titles (from the Divine Comedy, CLEVER!). The first part, Purgatorio, is almost done.

Dragon Age - Bioware's mystary PC RPG base on original IP is, well, a mystery. All previous work and screenshots have been scrapped and the project started anew, but some hints by Dave Gaider lend some hope to this possibly turning out decent. Unlike Mass Effect.

The Broken Hourglass - An infinity engine RPG by the best infinity engine modders out there. Whether that means that they will be making a great RPG with the engine remains to be seen. Based on original, non-DnD setting and rules.

Age of Decadence - An "isometric, turn-based, single-player 3D role-playing game set in a low magic, post-apocalyptic fantasy world, inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire." Currently under development by an asshole. He's also a purist, though, so it may turn out respectably, if it ever turns out.

And of course...

Fallout 3 - Bethesda has it. They say it won't be "Oblivion with guns", but they lie frequently. I still have a sliver of hope, though. We'll see if it's still there when they release some concrete info/screenshots.

Lastly, The Witcher looks interesting as well. A lot of actual "Role Playing" for an Action RPG, which can only help.

DnD was very innovative for its time. Never Winter Nights is a computer game that is very true to the d20 system. There have been many computer game adaptations of DnD but I believe that NWN should be recognized as innovative in how it incorporates elements of a TPS style game, like Diablo II, and still be true to the turn based format of DnD.

Hah! Yeah that's what I thought of too. I find it amusing is that the "came back to nwn after nwn2" thread over at bioware is five pages long. This on a game that was released in June, 2002. And they still have one more patch coming for it, which will hopefully have rideable horses. (registration required for that link, here's the google cache).

There is an unofficial AI patch for NWN2 that makes your companions considerably less retarded. It's a must install for anybody who wants to use spellcasting classes (like Qara) on the harder modes because otherwise they'll spend most of the fight tossing spells into the middle of your party. It also fixes Neeshka's retarded behavior mostly.

Here's the lowdown on it

Unfortunatly, there's not much review for the online creation stuff because online play is still quite buggy (even with the enormous patch that came out a few days ago). If they work the bugs out though, it should be quite a good game.

Just look at this Bioware poll. The question is "What platform(s) below do you both own and play games on?", and 54% of responses are Linux. http://www.bioware.com/_poll/view_poll.html?pollID =136

Interesting poll from the bioware boards of NWN players - 54% of NWN1 players ran Linux compared to 44% Windows and 16% on OS X (multiple select was allowed).

Depending on when this poll was taken it's fairly believable. Later on in the lifecycle NWN was far more heavilly played by Linux users (well, it was newer for them by a year :P) and I suspect it was mostly Linux users who brought the expansion modules (competition? what competition?).

Microsoft isn't going to let Mass Effect or Jade Empire appear on Nintendo.

Since the link given in the story seems to have been hit simultaneously by thousands of drooling gamers, here's the press release from Bioware itself.

Clearly your comment suggests you know very little about the capabilities of Linux and the state of Linux gaming - or you're just being a troll.

For your information, Flash is often ported to Linux a fair time after it's written for Windows so the likelihood of this game being Flash 9 is slim to none since there will probably not be a Linux port of Flash 9 by that time. Also, there are several games that look and play better in Linux using OpenGL than they do in Windows on the same hardware. I would expect that this game simply will use OpenGL as the graphics engine allowing the majority of code written to be cross-platform with very little to port between Windows, Linux and Mac.

Thank you.

I haven't read many strategy guides lately, maybe 10 or so in total, and I definitely haven't read any in the last couple years in either a seperate book version or print Computer Game magazine feature.

I've been disillusioned to them since I read the Diablo II strategy guide and like many I had read before it seemed to be a series of common sense suggestions, and a rehashing of in-game help & manual information. More importantly, it often suggested strategies, character builds, and skill combinations that were bad. The most annoying is information which is out of date or incorrect!

At least now I can go to gamefaqs or gaming websites if I want mediocre strategies and single-player walkthroughs (I generally don't).

I find a lot more useful information and effective strategies reading the most popular fan forums for the game in question. Yes, there is bullshit in the forums and information which is wrong, but the absolutely vital thing is that people usually get called out if the provide bad information, strategies that only work on 'easy', or are easily countered. People will sometimes (best cases) give hard evidence/examples/replays/game data to back up their claims, and will comment on whether patches have changed the effectiveness of any plan.

• Detailed information or strategy discussion -> Forums
• Walkthrough for an unenjoyable/unsolvable puzzle -> Gamefaqs
• Otherwise -> Enjoy the game unassisted

It's very possible I'm out of touch with most others and get more 'into' any game I play

Games I've played recently & best website I could find discussing them:
Civ 4 at Apolyton and Fanatics
Rise of Legends also Game Replays is a pretty popular site for Rise of Legends and other popular RTSes I don't play (C&C, AoE III, Act of War, Battle for Middle Earth).
Rise of Nations
Guild Wars
NWN Official Forums and NWVault
Ground Control II Official Forums
Age of Mythology
Diablo II

I've tried looking for a good place to find out about Star Wars: Battlefront II and Homeworld 2 but I haven't really found out what the most useful site for these games is.

This works pretty well if everyone has a copy of the game. I have done this a lot and had great fun. Since it was made in 2002, the graphics are a bit dated, but that means you can actually run it on some older machines. Luckily it is very affordable now and you can get it to run under Linux and Mac OS X. The Linux version requires having the PC version, then downloading the Linux client here. The mac version is here, but you need to buy both expansions seperately so it's more expensive than the PC version.

Be sure everyone updates to the latest game patches. The new Community Expansion Pack v2 is coming out soon with neat stuff like ridable horses, hundreds of new items, a thousand new monsters, and a couple of thousand placable objects. You can build your own modules in the toolset, or just download some great ones from Neverwinter Vault. Then just serve it from your broadband connected machine either with the stand-alone server or the dm client.

With all that for running table-top like games, plus a good single player game and lots of multi-player persistent world modules it's like three games in one, and the best part is no monthly fees.

This works pretty well if everyone has a copy of the game. I have done this a lot and had great fun. Since it was made in 2002, the graphics are a bit dated, but that means you can actually run it on some older machines. Luckily it is very affordable now and you can get it to run under Linux and Mac OS X. The Linux version requires having the PC version, then downloading the Linux client here. The mac version is here, but you need to buy both expansions seperately so it's more expensive than the PC version.

Be sure everyone updates to the latest game patches. The new Community Expansion Pack v2 is coming out soon with neat stuff like ridable horses, hundreds of new items, a thousand new monsters, and a couple of thousand placable objects. You can build your own modules in the toolset, or just download some great ones from Neverwinter Vault. Then just serve it from your broadband connected machine either with the stand-alone server or the dm client.

With all that for running table-top like games, plus a good single player game and lots of multi-player persistent world modules it's like three games in one, and the best part is no monthly fees.

This works pretty well if everyone has a copy of the game. I have done this a lot and had great fun. Since it was made in 2002, the graphics are a bit dated, but that means you can actually run it on some older machines. Luckily it is very affordable now and you can get it to run under Linux and Mac OS X. The Linux version requires having the PC version, then downloading the Linux client here. The mac version is here, but you need to buy both expansions seperately so it's more expensive than the PC version.

Be sure everyone updates to the latest game patches. The new Community Expansion Pack v2 is coming out soon with neat stuff like ridable horses, hundreds of new items, a thousand new monsters, and a couple of thousand placable objects. You can build your own modules in the toolset, or just download some great ones from Neverwinter Vault. Then just serve it from your broadband connected machine either with the stand-alone server or the dm client.

With all that for running table-top like games, plus a good single player game and lots of multi-player persistent world modules it's like three games in one, and the best part is no monthly fees.

I bought Neverwinter Nights Saturday, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

With the Diamond Edition ($30 at Best Buy), you get both expansion packs, and you can follow some online directions to install to Linux without passing through Windows.

I also bought Return to Castle Wolfenstein a while back. That was good, too.

Oh, and there's DOOM, DOOM ][, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, several versions of Unreal...

If you'll go the Open Source route, there's DarkPlaces, Cube, Duke Nukem 3d (engine, anyway. You'll still need the gamedata.

Uhm...no games? How about, no hyperadvertised games?

BioWare is a good example for this

http://www.bioware.com/2million/articles/community _staff_members.html

They have hired a large number of people from the Neverwinter Nights community because of their mod work.

http://www.bioware.com/games/baldurs_gate/

here you go...

With any luck Atari will completely collapse, and someone with half a brain will get the license:
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.htm l?topic=482903&forum=95
(if you can view it))
pertinent text:

Well, this thread has "Locked" written all over it, but I'll throw in my mostly uninformed two cents.

My guess is that Atari will stay alive at least long enough to publish NWN2, though that's a little iffy. They'll potentially be delisted from Nasdaq August 30th if they don't get over $1 per share for ten days. They owe a lot of money to creditors. Still, they're generating ready cash by selling off licenses left and right. They'll probably make it to the September NWN2 release date.

The D&D license reverts to Infogrames should Atari go under. They can then sell it to another group. Infogrames is similarly in financial trouble, in which case it might revert to Hasbro, who can then sell it to someone else.

All of those things take time, however, so there might be a prolonged period of time where license ownership is uncertain. The biggest risk I see is that Obsidian doesn't get paid to work on patches and may not be able to get the necessary approvals to introduce new content.

So, I think everyone is holding their breath, seeing how NWN2 does at retail, and hoping for the best.

Atari's involvement with ongoing support for NWN was minimal, basically all the patch support for NWN for the last year was BioWare driven and funded and had little Atari involvement. The premium modules program was used to fund continued support for NWN, including the recent 1.67 patch which added a large amount of new functionality and content to the game.

However, the focus of this discussion should not be on the patch support (which we planned to stop sometime this year anyway), but on the fact that several premium modules developed by very hard working groups of the community were cancelled litterally weeks before the finish line, robbing these people of their chance to get professional credit and reward for projects they had worked on for years in some cases.

Some more info:
http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic =482695&forum=42

Georg,
BioWare

website is still pretty mum. This is one I am waiting for also.

The fin-shaped mass is about 300 feet tall and growing 4 feet to 5 feet a day

I am a student in my final year of high school. Earlier this year I completed a two year diploma in programming (Java was my major language, but I also learned SQL and various programming and computing concepts), and have done a fair share of Lua scripting, along with basic C++. So I would say that some kids do still program, but we are in the vast minority.

The fact is that today's programs often require several programmers working for extended periods of time to produce anything even remotely impressive. Children's first encounters with the results of programming will most likely be in the form of games (whether they be recreational or educational), and this will be the level of programming to which they become accustomed. As such, when they learn how to print "Hello World" onto the screen for the first time, they are often less than ecstatic. When they learn that creating a fully functional GUI might take a bit more time and effort, all interest that they had in the wonderful world of programming often disappears.

This, coupled with the fact that most Computer Studies teachers can barely program, let alone teach programming, provides little incentive for kids to learn how to do anything themselves (my teacher, for one, has never taught the class the basics of OOP, and most students are afraid to ask a question, lest the teacher launch into an hour-long lecture on everything *other* than the subject of the question, and how Microsoft is the source of all his problems).

The problem is that most children are used to instant visual results, and have neither the time nor the patience to achieve those results from scratch (especially when doing so would result in comments such as "you should rather be picking up ladies, har har"). From my experience, most schools do not cater to these children either. They teach programming to those who are already willing to invest a lot of time and energy into it, and not to those who have a passing interest (there were over 60 people in my grade studying computers two years ago, now there are about 9).

I became interested in programming seriously about 5 or 6 years ago, in anticipation of the scripting that would be possible with Neverwinter Nights. I found that most teachers were less than eager to teach me a lot more about programming, and was forced to pursue my interests on my own (which, to say the least, was not very easy).

I think that, as games include the possibility for modification via scripting (NWN and WoW are just two examples), we will start seeing more and more kids interested in programming. Granted, there may be a learning curve involved, and the scripting can be a (sometimes) watered-down version of the real thing, but it can provide the instant result that will keep kids interested and the subject and wanting more.

1) We have rumours being bandied about that SOE is going to lose the SWG license.
2) We have a massive shakeup in the Sony Online world - including Raph Koster leaving to head up a _new game studio_.
3) And, at the same time, we have BioWare announcing that they have opened a new division in Austion to produce what? A brand new MMORPG.

BioWare is now, as the above press release shows, hiring for all positions and already has one previous Sony Online Entertainment executive producer on the payroll. BioWare also mentions their highly successful games with SW: KOTOR being the first one mentioned in the list.

Now, let us take #1+#2+#3 and mix in all the other miscellaneous tidbits of information and supposition, stir well with the spoon of "what if" and ... VOILA! You have the makings of a brand new Star Wars MMORPG on your hands. IS this what BioWare is keeping under wraps? *shrug* Who knows?

I, for one, would love to see some of the best parts of the original SWG (intricate crafting, non-combat roles being valued - dancer, etc., MULTIPLE professions being possible and varied, and several other parts) being implemented in a much more Star Wars style universe than what the CU and *gag* NGE did to Sony's bastardization of Star Wars.

Neverwinter Nights seems to fit your requirements. NWN is 3rd edition based and has an online mode which includes support for one or more DMs in the game. (You can also just have maps which are fully scripted like the one-player mode which comes with the game.)

http://www.bioware.com/10years/

1996: Shattered Steel
Publisher: Interplay
Platform: PC

        1998: Baldur's Gate
Publisher: Black Isle Studios, Interplay
Platform: PC

        1999: Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast
Publisher: Black Isle Studios, Interplay
Platform: PC

        2000: MDK2
Publisher: Interplay
Platform: Dreamcast, PC

        2000: Baldur's Gate II:: Shadows of Amn
Publisher: Black Isle Studios, Interplay
Platform: PC

        2001: MDK2: Armageddon
Publisher: Interplay
Platform: PS2

        2001: Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
Publisher: Black Isle Studios, Interplay
Platform: PC

        2002: Neverwinter Nights
Publisher: Atari (formerly Infogrames)
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux

        2003: NWN: Shadows of Undrentide*
Publisher: Atari
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
*In association with Floodgate Studios

        2003: NWN: Hordes of the Underdark
Publisher: Atari
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux

        2003: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Publisher: LucasArts
Platform: Xbox, PC

        2004: Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker
Publisher: BioWare Corp.
Platform: PC, Linux

        2004: Neverwinter Nights: ShadowGuard
Publisher: BioWare Corp.
Platform: PC, Linux

        2004: Neverwinter Nights: Witch's Wake
Publisher: BioWare Corp.
Platform: PC, Linux

        2005: Jade Empire
Publisher: Microsoft
Platform: Xbox

Why not just play Neverwinter Nights? It's really fun, and lots of modules can use the D and D rules with up to 96 players, I believe.

http://nwn.bioware.com/

Maybe it shouldn't matter, but there are far too few women in the game industry as it is (let alone at the Producer level).

I worked with her for a little while at Atari. She gave a lot of freedom to developers in terms of creative space, but was serious about keeping devs to their schedules, and good at it (which is a rarity in games). Dragonshard came together in a hurry when she got on board.

"Black Isle (Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic...)"

You do mean BioWare right?

"Black Isle (Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic...)"

You do mean BioWare right?

"Black Isle (Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic...)"

You do mean BioWare right?

Where's HALO 3 Bill? Huh? There, buddy, where's the Master Chief upon whose shoulders your gaming empire reigns?

Do you think Bungie are a bunch of miracle workers? Halo 2 was just barely a year old at 360 launch (11/9/2004, compared to 11/22/2005). Consider that after Halo 2 I'm sure the guys took a nice long vacation, so scratch two months off of possible working time, and that the game would've needed to be completed by the beginning of November, so scratch of another month. So, Halo 3 designed and developed with high quality in 9 months (call it February to October)? I think not. Halo 2 took 3 years, and Halo 1 took much longer than that. Maybe Bungie should've held onto Halo 2 for one more year and shipped it on 360 (complete with a real ending!), but that would have causedother problems.

There's a reason Halo 2 isn't on PCs yet. Because Gates nigh-Lucasian empire of videogaming goodness would topple without console sales of Halo 2.

First, the usage of the word "yet" is incorrect. Halo 2 will not ever be on the PC (well, except perhaps under emulation in a couple years). Halo 1 only made its way back to PC and Mac because that's where it started. Halo 2 was designed exclusively for the Xbox from the ground up, with no plans to ever port it to PC.

Americans have been demanding XBox role-playing games since the inception of the big black box. We haven't been heard. Where are the epic Square-style RPGs that will tie me up for hours. What, I get a shitty port of Elder Scrolls and a buggy Star Wars game? Now, Knights was AWEsome, but had its little burps now and again.

Well, there were two Knights games, and Jade Empire. As for epic Square-style RPGs, that really would've entailed getting Square (because they're the only ones who do that well). It's well-known that Square was in Sony's back pocket for quite some time, and that they generally only really support one console at a time (Crystal Chronicles and portable games aside). But Square is coming to the 360 (albeit with an aging FFXI), and ex-Square developers are also working on 360 games. Also, Bioware's upcoming game Mass Effect looks like it'll be pretty sweet.

As for launch titles, I'll agree that they are mostly weak (though I'm really digging on PGR3 and Kameo right now). However, you completely overlooked the Live Arcade. Geometry Wars has been hailed as one of the best launch games on the platform (yes, it is a little sad that the best launch title for a $400 console is a $5 old-school-style shooter of infinite difficulty), and there are several old arcade favorites like Gauntlet and Joust, puzzle games, and card games if those are more your style.

Keep in mind, though, that these are launch titles. They're games that had at most of year of development time. They're barely stretching the capabilities of the platform because it hasn't been around long enough to truly be learned. They have bugs or missing features or jaggies where we were promised none. And yet, they don't speak at all to the quality or type of games we'll see on the 360 a year from now. The Xbox launch library was a fluke with Halo. Every other console has had a horrible launch line-up, with the possible exceptions of the Dreamcast (Soul Calibur) and SNES (Mario World).

Last I heard, Bioware wasn't even giving hints about their proprietary package formats, let alone a full specification, so it's all been through reverse engineering.
Excuse me? Sounds you heard a lie last time, you might want to check your sources / and or hearing before you post something like this next time.

http://nwn.bioware.com/developers/

For those too lazy to check, the link contains the official documentation on the games "proprietary" data file formats (and tons of it), sourcecode examples, explainations and help from the tools programmers, etc.

I guess none of the talented artists are using Macs, and none of the talented scripters are using Linux; they are all using Windows, right?
Last time I checked you couldn't create art content with the windows toolset either, you need to use Max or NWmax for it. As a scripter, you can use vi if you want to, there are standalone compilers available for NWScript if you feel like it.

The reason why there is no toolset for linux and why there will never be one has been discussed over and over on our forums and we have been pretty open about it. The development environment that was used to create the toolset was supposed to have a linux version but the company producing it cancelled linux support during NWN development. No secrets here, just business. A full port of the toolset after that point was and certaintly is now cost prohibitive.

We still release client and server patches, for all supported operating systems 3.5 years after the game was released with the next patch (a big content patch with new art, sound, a load of new scripting functionality, etc) coming up sometime in the coming months, but BioWare Corp. is also not a charity, so maybe it is time to revisit some of the expectations you have there :).

Regards
Georg
BioWare

I noticed most people on Slashdot don't actually read what they are replying to.

http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/jobs/positions /senior_writer.html
http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/jobs/positions /writer.html

I noticed most people on Slashdot don't actually read what they are replying to.

http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/jobs/positions /senior_writer.html
http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/jobs/positions /writer.html

I think a better suggestion to all hopeful contestants would be to read the contest guidelines, one of which is:

Use a medieval fantasy setting.

It's also worth clarifying that Bioware isn't necessarily hiring the winners of the contest. The top 8 submissions will be "reviewed" by Bioware staff for consideration.

Curiously, while this is being billed as a "contest", it appears to be the standard method for applying for a writer's job at Bioware (by submitting a writing sample via a NWN module), according to http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/jobs/positions /writer.html .

You are right about one thing - we are trying to generate interest in a very non-standard career not many people are thinking about.

BioWare is one of Canda's Top 100 employers for the 3rd straight year now, and no - we're definitely not desperate. The problem is that it is quite challenging to find writers that are capable of writing for a computer game. It's not as easy as taking a good novel writer and telling him to write a good game now. We have writers with very good backgrounds and a lot of experience on books fail miserably when confronted with the limits of game writing.

BioWare is one of a handful of companies in the gaming industry that employs dedicated writers for their games. Most companies have a single programmer, designer or producer create the stories for their games - Our projects are story driven games that require between 3+ full time writers [b]per game[/b].

BioWare has been steadily growing in the last 10 years and we are now running several projects simultaneously at any given time, and with that growth opportunities for new writers are obviously created as well. Since there is a limited number of professional game writers in the industry and it takes a lot of time to find other, suitable candidates from outside the industry through traditional methods, why not try to find potential new writers (that maybe have never even thought about this career path) in a place that likely has a few of them - the fan community.

We had a lot of success with hiring people from our game community for other positions in programming, art and design in the past couple of years (I think around 8 to 10). Since the community was such a great source for skilled programmers, designers or artists, why not see if some of the hobby writers out there meet our requirements? The contest is a great way of getting people that would never have thought of submitting an actual job application to find out if they have the talent to write for games and get an idea if that might be a career they would want to pursue.

Of course we can't give a guarantee for employment to the contest winner, after all it takes a bit more than just being great in your field to get a job in any company, from immigration issues to fitting into corporate culture.

Anway, there is always the traditional way of applying if you feel uncomfortable about the contest.

http://jobs.bioware.com./
http://bioware.pandemicstudios.com/jobs.html

We already have job ads (http://jobs.bioware.com/ this is just an additional way of attracting people that otherwise would never think about applying.

Not sure if the toolkit is available stand-alone (doubt it), but there most certainly is a Linux version of NWN.