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Neverwinter Nights Will Go On Win/Mac/Linux/Be
Faw writes "In an interview at Stomped Bioware's CEO Ray Muzyka mentioned that its next game Neverwinter Nights will be available for the PC, Mac, Linux and BeOS. I think this is the first time I have heard BeOS mentioned by a mayor game company. You can check the interview out as well." For those of you who don't know, Neverwinter is supposed to be the sequel to Baldur's Gate II [?] - and will have functions that allow DMs to make dungeons, and much better multiplayer support. Update: 12/29 06:53 PM by H :I've been corrected - NN doesn't have anything to do with the BG2 storyline. Must have been wishful thinking on my part. *grin*
This will be a godsend for me and a group of my friends. We're all 30-somethings that have been playing a set of D&D campains now for about 5 years in a world our DM has taken about 10 years to develop. Once per month we devote an entire day to get together and play. But due to changing circumstances it looks like our beloved DM will be emigrating from the UK and going to live in Colorado in the US. We're looking at possible ways we could keep the game going and Neverwinter Nights appears to be the strongest candidate. A number of us have broadband at home and we run a mixture of Windows & Linux. So if NN turns out to be as good as we all hope it is, our monthly tradition will be able to continue.
More power to you Bioware
Macka
You can pre-order this game at Tux Games for $46
Tux Games. Your complete source for native Linux games.
The original Neverwinter Nights was one of the first graphical multiplayer games. I want to say it came out around 1988, but I'm no good with dates. Built by SSI, it had gameplay similar to Pools of Radiance, but allowed up to 500 people to connect to a central game server (run by AOL).
NWN was a 16-color DOS-based game that was simply amazing. It was a RPG, but the storyline was rather limited. That didn't matter though, the players stepped in and carried the roleplaying far beyond anything the designers ever intended. This was the first game I ever saw recognise player run guilds and clans.
PVP combat in NWN was nothing like PKing in any other RPG. There was a strategic element that I've never seen in any other game. It wasn't just reaction time or first strike, you actually had to plan your actions.
After AOL moved away from hourly rates they found they could make more money off chat rooms than gaming. Even though it was still running at max capacity almost every night, AOL shut NWN down.
I still know people from that game. Some of them are still members of the same guilds they were in 10+ years ago. We've been waiting for a remake of NWN for a long long time. This will not be that game. This will not be anything close to that game. But it will be nice to revisit the old days. To stroll once more through Triboar and Port Luskan.
Neurosis
BeOS makes perfect sense as a gaming platform more stable than winders and much better multimedia support than either winders or Linux. If more game publishers did this I might have to consider spending some money with the good folks at Be. BTW and OT has anyone had any luck running Red Alert 2 under Wine?
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
The Linux port of Neverwinter Nights is old news. That announcement has been around since the game was announced. The BeOS port is news to me. Seeems that after the Infinity engine (The engine that powered Baldurs Gate, Planescape, Baldurs Gate II, Icewind Dale) Bioware has learned how to make portable code. (I've heard rumors that the Infinity code is a mess from a portabily standpoint)
There is a good reason to release a Linux version. Without a Linux version there would be a lack of player run servers. Take a look at just about any game that uses player run servers. Most of the servers are UNIX based. I'm sure BioWare is also aware that Linux gamers are hungry for a RPG that isn't nethack.
So far Neverwinter Nights looks great. Just check out this 19 part preview (Got your mpeg player ready?) from Neverwinter Stratics.
I'll be thankful for the Mac version as well as I see myself getting a new Mac (Perhaps a G4 cube with that nice studio display...) as soon as OSX is released.
As for Be, well, there's definite potential there, but I'll leave commenting further to someone who knows more about Be than I.
Check out the preview, you'll be drooling in anticipation in no time.
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
Unfortunately, this is a trend that has been going for a long time, and has only been aided by the growth of the www.
It used to be that companies needed magazines and news services to get their name noticed, therefore would submit to a really pointed interview (or at least one that didn't read, as you said, like a press release). However, with the growth of the niche magazine market and the 1000000000000 gamer sites on the Internet, publications now need to fight to get interviews from relevant companies. If they go too hard on the interview, they just might never get another one, therefore denying them site traffic/buyers for the their magazine. Therefore, they basically kiss up and allow their publication to be used as a secondary marketing platform, instead of a informative source for fans and enthusiasts.
There are some good sites and zines out there that do excellent interviews, however they tend to be the exception rather than the rule. Sometimes, the over-abundance of publications can hurt the quality and veracity of information being released. ugh. FYI - if you look around, you'll notice that this trend is not specific to gaming (or even just computing). Go to your local magazine rack and look through at "exclusive interviews" and you'll notice that they read more like pre-reviewed and press-agent prepared puff pieces, rather than a source of good information.
"Moving through the masses like a fish through water." syrup
I like the sound of this game, too. I like D&D, and I've wanted to try out a decent online game in the genre for some time. I know that there is Ultima Online, which is perhaps a little dated (am I wrong?) and also Asheron's Call, the Microsoft game, but ideally I'd like something on Linux because I plan, one day when I have the courage, to get rid of my Windows partition. Also, this game's website mentions that the player can control the plot of the game, and write it herself. Is that true? I'd be interested to know how that works, because I would like to make my own atmospheric scenarios and share them with my friends. Oh, and coo, it looks as though it has good graphics too! heheh :)
--Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The
Why can't game magazines actually ask questions that follow up on previous answers, challenge the developers to say something more than what products they have in the pipeline, etc.? If we're really moving to the point where everyone can run a graphical MUD server on their Linux box/OSX machine/embedded BeOS refrigerator, wouldn't it be nice if the interviewer asked questions like "how does it work?" or "why are you making this sort of game?"
Instead, we get answers like this:
"Game sales have been at 92.3% optimization for the past three fiscal quarters. Market segmentation is decreasing as more developers work hard on great mega-games like our soon-to-be-released 'Everplaying Sites.' Currently, our primary action item is to decrease the potentially tremendous negative impact of the D&D movie on the perception of gaming in the girlfriend-who-was-dragged-to-the-movie market."
I'm not trying to start a flame war here -- didn't anyone else think that this "interview" read like a press release?
Think again, Lionhead will release Black and White for Windows, Linux, BeOS, Playstation and probably other platforms.
Monkey sense
didn't he say that the Linux platform was disappointing? Doesn't it worry everyone that Q3 didn't even do well in the stores, or is this going to be a Windows game w/Linux binaries on the net? I don't mind doing it that way myself you can then run the game on both platforms...
.02
I really like the fact that they are supporting alternative OS's, but are we supporting the developers enough for them to want to continue the development for us?
Just my worthless
Ok as I read through the comments there are a few points that I'd like to clear up as untrue.
1) The NWN engine is an internally developed engine based on the omen engine which powered MDK2
2) NWN is not the sequel to BG2. It is an entirely new game based on the 3rd edition AD&D and has nothing to do with the BG story.
3) The plan, as last revealed to the employees, is to ship all 4 binaries in one box, thus all versions will be complete and shipped at the same time.
** please note all comments are my own opinion and may not reflect the official stance of BioWare Corp., Interplay, or any other related companies.
Marc Audy
BioWare Corp.
Programmer - MDK2:Armageddon