Slashdot Mirror
Interplay Targeted By Bioware-fare
corby writes: "Bioware Corp., developer of the highly anticipated multiplayer Dungeons & Dragons game Neverwinter Nights, is escalating the conflict with their troubled publisher Interplay. In September, they filed a lawsuit against the publisher, and now they have terminated their contract with Interplay to distribute Neverwinter Nights. The problem is, these guys need each other. The loss of Neverwinter Nights means that Interplay will lose out on substantial revenue from a surefire hit, but Interplay is apparently the only company with rights to distribute games under the AD&D license."
fp
All your base are belong to us.
you scared the shit outta me with that headline. and now I'm more scared - neverwinternights is in jeopardy!
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
Just so happens, this is the first post!
Umm, eactly what does the article title have in common with the content?
... yet another example of crappy headlines! That title was just used to feed off the current thoughts of bio-terrorism. Bah I say to yee.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
Please, in these times of terrorists sending anthrax through the US Postal system, it is considered at least poor taste to joke about game developers being hit by biological warfare.
Is your company running tools written by ma
Surely it is legal to distribute an Open Source AD&D game?
AD&D is generally taken to refer to the second edition Dungeons & Dragons Rules.
Neverwinter Nights will be based on the 3rd edition D&D rules (D&D3e), which is different from AD&D.
A link to the 3rd Edition System Reference Document with all the core rules released to the Open Gaming Foundation (including Psionics!) may be found here.
----------
Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
Had they said 'Biowarefare'...
I saunter into Slashdot and what do I see, a bio-warfare threat! I am alarmed and wait for the rest of the article to load.. looky here, it's a stupid lawsuit.
Slashdot's not a yellow journalism zone (or is it) and shouldn't use such titles. People have been dying from bio warfare.
Goat sex free since 2001
When Hasbro bought out Wizards of the Coast and sold off their rights to D&D computer games, you could see something like this eventually happening. Wizards had a 'Mastertools' program under development which was designed to remove all the bookkeeping tedium of handling a campaign. Once the license was transferred to Interplay, WotC had to gut the project to ensure compliance. I wish them all the best against Interplay.
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
They roxor
Stated reason was difficulty breaking them from an MS framework. Seems like a designer fubared by choosing that framework to begin with, huh?
I know Slashdot (and every other news outlet) likes shocking headlines, but isn't that a bit much? Nobody's mailing them anthrax. This is just companies doing what companies do best: being stupid.
They need each other, they don't want to play with each other.
What are we gonna say?
Fuck 'em - they deserve each other, though it would be nice to see the game come out. I hate it when adults act like children, damn....
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
How many people on /. play DND?
Yes! Finally someone decided to get them back for Total Recall for the NES!
Oh.. you mean they didn't get killed?
Crap.
jackass. Further proof that, even in the company of fools, you manage to distinguish yourself as a complete fucking idiot.
MasterTools has not been "gutted". It's still in active development, and seems to be on track for release in the first quarter of 2002.
In fact, Ryan Dancey posted updated info regarding the project just two days ago on the WotC Message Boards.
----------
Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
http://www.opengamingfoundation.org
http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/srd.html
The second link is to the SYSTEM REFERENCE DOCUMENT for D20/DnD. It contain's most of the content from the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monsters Manual I, and the Psionics Handbook.
Was this agreement maid pre-Wizard or back in the TSR days? If it was made back with TSR, then it makes sense (TSR was having troubles finacaliy if I recall). But nowadays, I don't see why Wizards couldn't just publish it themselves. I'd be very suprised if they didn't already have a few published titles and more so if they couldn't handle this one.
I got a giggle out of it, at least...
Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
Aw, man - that's a pretty shitty state of affairs. But I suppose it does graphically illustrate why developing products based on licenced properties is generally a Bad Thing (or at least something to be done with extreme care) for any game developer. (Being someone who has been bitten by having a licence holder suddenly refuse to let us release our finished game because of Sony's attitude to all things not Playstation 2).
Who cares, those games are for nerds and satanists.
http://www.poolofradiance.com/
I don't see any mention of Interplay or Bioware there, yet it's an AD&D computer game. Would anyone care to explain?
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Once again slashdot amazes me with the ability not to be able to post reliable or good information.
Bioware CAN publish titles under AD&D license, interplay has been rideing the "bioware" wave for over a year now. Bioware has every damn right to terminate their contract, especially since Interplay VIOLATED the terms of it.
The game is slated to be released Mar 2002, and on another note, I submited this story on wednesday.
I have posted anonymusly in order to protect myself and other sources.
Reuters:
"Former Vice President Al Gore told a Nigerian audience on Thursday that he now runs a family restaurant in Tennessee."
-Thursday, November 29, 2001
#1: Everything on the menu is a #2.
#2: Second half of menu all Kosher.
#3: Special everything-that-should-be-down-is-upside-down cake.
#4: Annoying waitress Karenna also a lawyer, mom & runs restaurant ad campaign.
#5: Patrons have trouble following arrow to lavatories.
#6: Sign on door reads "Inventors of Bacon & Eggs."
#7: All Tipper can eat salad bar.
#8: Bill tallied up using "fuzzy math."
#9: Beard hair in soup.
#10: Boasts Robert B. Reich "short stack" o' pancakes.
#11: Cashier can't recognize George Washington on $1 bills, or Ben Franklin on $100s.
#12: All patrons greeted at door with a bear hug and long, sloppy, slobbering soul kiss.
#13: Coffee for working patrons charged to the bills of the "top 1%" of customers.
If Bioware can't hash things out with Interplay, I'm sure they can get a deal with Infogrames.
Ed Chauvin IV
bunch of pimply-faced dorks getting worked up over a stupid game. Don't you people have lives at all?
Egg Troll has better things to do than to hang out with some ponytailed compufags who live in a fantasy world. Like, I can go out and get laid. Sure beats throwing around my 27-sided dice or talking about my 32nd level dwarven ninja/janitor.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
What the hell?
This definately needs mod'ing up! I can't stop laughing now. Oh, where for art a moderator when one is needed? :)
plse lren two spel beter. Eye kant udestnd u
The part that does mention AD&D indicates that it is being used under license, no mention of exclusivity.
Can anyone clear this up?
-- Dan
I hope they can find a good pub. because I've been waiting for Neverwinter Nights for a hella long time. Oh, and Bioware, if you don't get this game published, damn you.
If I wasn't so lazy, I'd have a sig.
considering that myself and everyone of my other buddies interested in this are combat veterans, mostly Marines, the others are various Special Forces (hey, Marines ARE special forces)
Does this mean that I am going to have to get a life? Things are so much easier when you can pretend to have a life, and not have to leave the house!(dmagoo steps outside.. sees a big burning thing in the sky and runs back in, Frightenend.)
Kidding aside, it's a shame that things are not going well. The game has great potential. I suppose I will have to stick to Diablo II for my fix! Perhaps Starwars Galaxies will cater to our needs, even though I anticipate a world with a disproportionate number of Bouty Hunters and Jedi's.
According to Gamespot [gamespot.com] "Despite the announcement, the developer plans to release the Dungeons & Dragons game on schedule in early 2002." Still, I'm a bit worried. I think NWN has a huge potential, as it allows players to both play a fun MMORPG and allow the more hardcore players to create and play their own D&D adventure - like these [www.nwdl.net] people. I think a NWN Dragonlance will be great, so I really hope Bioware can finish it.
Perhaps will we see games using other fighting systems !
Personnaly, I like GURPS.
I guess in this case I am supposed to just let them steal from me? As in not HONOR a professional and ADULT contract. Interplay knew damn well what they were doing. This was no accident, but rather one of those "you can do anything until you are either caught and punished or caught and the PR dropout kills your bottom line" sort of like politicians.
Interplay- "By gamers, For gamers" Well, actually to be fair, Interplay was once a fine example of how to run a great gaming company and this slogan was true. However it is now, "Interplay, By executives, marketers, lawyers and managers... For executives, marketers, lawyers and managers. we take the engineer out of Engineering, well, we shit on all our actual REVENUE PRODUCING WORKERS, but we sure slap each other on the back... hey, did I ever tell you on my new cell phone on my laptop what my latest Golf score was? Hey, is that a new watch?..."
but I guess that wouldn't fit as well so they kept the old one. Like EA (and all of its gobbled up fodder dev studios) and Sierra, Interplay has decided to ignore common sense and history and will gladly beat its collective executive heads into a spiked steel wall. Good job guys! Great forward thinking! I am betting you probably have an average of about 3 staff meetings a week, produce more spread sheets and powerpoint slides than WORK, and consider the actual business of making games as bottom on the priority list (with more meetings, memos, messages, documents, teleconferances and other crap up top)
Hear that everyone! That is three sounds combined into a chorus in the distance! One is Interplay choking on its own vomitous bureacratic red tape, one is the mass exedus of all your workers (including dev and support studios) and the other sound is the steam locomotive of independant studios that wish to make good games and logically understand that their quality approach will naturally bring great rewards as a consequence... and that train is gonna run you over!
Anyone know what Interplays ratio of workers to non workers is (anyone who does not actively create, document and qa the actual products). Managers are necessary... but when did they move from a member of the team to a heirarchically higher echelon that is bloated and innefficient to the point of breaking the organizations under their own weight? DOT BOMB? More like executive bomb. Watch and learn America! If you continue this downward spiral of throwing more red tape and management at problems you will only destroy yourselves
The other side of this, is that the open source community needs to work harder towards having consistent and uniform architectures and coding practices. Otherwise it is only making the very same mistake as that other rather large software company we all love and adore!
The other day I found an amusing and informative text file on some BBS or other, explaining how to make a lifelike, artificial vagina "out of common household products." Hey, I thought, I've tried that. (Bet you have, too. Be honest.) I was intrigued. The guy who wrote it calls his device Porta-Pussy. It involves a mailing tube, a string, and a balloon. Basically, you lower the balloon into the tube, stretch the neck of the balloon to overlap the outer edge of the tube, then use the string to stretch the balloon down the length of the tube. He suggests taping the tube to the edge of a table, kneeling down and licking it for a while, then standing up and fucking it.
I just tried fucking it. It wasn't bad. I decided not to try the advanced applications, though, which include sticking a dildo up your ass and drinking the cum as it leaks out of the tube. Another time, maybe. But I did admire his imaginative design; simple to make, reasonable facsimile, easy cleanup (throw away the balloon). His description made fun reading, too; "How I Spell Relief." I encourage others to download his file(called IWACK1.ZIP).
So, in a spirit of sharing, here's my technique. It doesn't look as authentic as his, and it takes more preparation, but I think it feels MUCH closer to the real thing. Close your eyes and the PseudoCunt (this name just occurred to me; snappy, huh?) feels just EXACTLY like a warm, wet, tight pussy. You think I'm kidding, right? Nope. Read on, if you're so inclined.
CONTENTS:
1- Registration
2- Materials & Ingredients
3- Construction
4- How to Use
5- Hints & Techniques
6- Troubleshooting
7- Why I Created PseudoCunt
REGISTRATION:
Ha, ha. Get it? It's software. Real soft. If you figure out who I am, send me some money. PseudoCunt is not shareware, by the way. It's recommended for use alone.
MATERIALS & INGREDIENTS:
* Cylindrical container (see below)
* Large pot (3-4 quart capacity)
* Butter or margarine (2-3 tablespoons)
* Vegetable oil (just a drop or two)
* Saran Wrap or equivalent
* Spaghetti or fettucini (lots; two boxes)
* Sturdy rubber band
* Several big, firm sofa cushions (optional)
* Your favorite masturbation fantasies in magazine, video, gif, or virtual form
CONSTRUCTION:
1- Find a suitable container. This is the tough part. The best one I've found is an overlarge Mason-type jar (about 11" tall), though these are hard to find. Second choice would be a length of PVC pipe sealed at one end, or a mailing tube, but it should be at least five inches in diameter. A half-gallon cardboard milk carton might work, with clever modifications.
2- In a large pot, bring two or three quarts of water to full boil. Add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. Boil spaghetti to aldente texture (about 8 minutes). Any pasta will do, but I find spaghetti and fettucini most satisfactory.
3- Drain spaghetti, but do not rinse. Mix in A FEW DROPS of vegetable oil (be CAREFUL not to use too much; use just enough to keep the spaghetti from sticking together) and stir well. Set aside in colander until cool enough to handle.
4- While spaghetti is cooling, melt some butter (not much; about 1/3 of one of those little butter pats you get with toast in a diner is enough). Don't let it boil; 15-30 seconds in the microwave should do it.
5- Stuff spaghetti into the container described in Step 1. Really pack it in tightly; as tight as you can cram it in. This is crucial to success. I use wooden cooking implements to tamp it down. When the jar is about 3/4 full, bore a hole down the center with something long and moderately thin (I use the long handle of a wooden stirring spoon) and continue packing spaghetti around it, up the brim. Remember to pack tightly; spaghetti will compress a lot more than you'd think.
6- At this point, remove the rod or dowel or whatever, and pour a SMALL amount of melted butter down into the little hole to lubricate it. (By the way, I've found that butter or margarine feels much more like the creamy inside of an aroused cunt than any kind of oil; and I've tried quite a few). Stick your finger in and work the lubrication down into the little hole. Feels interesting, doesn't it? Close your eyes and probe, slowly; does that feel just EXACTLY like a wet pussy hole, or what?
7- Now, use something wider and slightly tapered to widen the mouth of the surrogate vagina (I use the neck of a wine or beer bottle). Do this gently, and don't widen it to your full dick diameter; you want it to be nice and tight.
8- Cut a generous length of Saran Wrap and stretch it tightly over the mouth of the jar. Fasten it tightly with the rubber band. Now punch a hole in the Saran Wrap in the obvious place. (Use a pencil, or a spoon handle, not a knife; a sharp cut will make the Saran Wrap tear.)
HOW TO USE:
1- Pile two or more big, thick sofa cushions on top of each other. Make an identical pile next to the first, leaving a 12-inch space between the two piles.
2- In the space between the cushions, spread a towel (or newspaper) on the floor. If properly constructed, your PseudoCunt should not make a mess unless you really get carried away, but it's a good idea to protect against this possibility.
3- Position the PseudoCunt jar on the floor between the two cushion piles.
4- Lie across the cushion piles, chest on one, thighs on the other, dick dangling in the space between. Now, gaze lovingly at whatever fantasy object you prefer, tease the head of your dick against the warm, slick mouth and begin fucking.
HINTS AND TECHNIQUES:
* Before you get started, check with your finger to make sure your PseudoCunt has cooled to the proper temperature. You don't want to burn yourself. Optimum temperature should be obvious if you're a reasonably sexually active person. Push your finger in as deeply as you can; the bottom of the jar may be too hot even though the mouth is a nice, warm, cuntlike temperature.
* The PseudoCunt is not recommended for quickies. Choose a time when you're absolutely certain you'll be alone and undisturbed. PseudoCunt takes some time to prepare, and a fair amount of what's called in cinema and theater circles 'suspension of disbelief.' It can't be fully enjoyed if you're worried about your wife or girlfriend walking in and finding you fucking a jar of spaghetti.
* Size of the container is important. Make sure it is at least two inches deeper than your dick is long, and wide enough so that your dick is surrounded by a generous cushion of pseudo cuntflesh. You don't want to bang up against the hard sides or bottom of the thing at a crucial moment.
* Shape of the container is important, too. I like the jumbo jar configuration because the "shoulders" of the jar where the neck narrows help to keep the spaghetti in place when you withdraw on the out-strokes.
* Don't use too much butter. A very small amount should suffice. Remember that your own secretions will increase the lubricating effect. It's not generally recognized that grease and oils actually DE-sensitize erectile tissue. A thin coat of oil on your dick is like wearing a condom. I find that the absolutely perfect effect is achieved by adding just a tiny amount of butter, then slathering saliva all over my dick just before first penetration. The combination of butter, saliva and natural lubrication that leaks from your dick feels closer to authentic vagina arousal than any oil I've ever tried.
* Make adequate preparations. Arrange your favorite magazines on the floor in front of you, or display a particularly fascinating .AVI, or make sure the VCR is cued up and the remote
is handy. One of the real joys of using PseudoCunt is that it leaves both hands free to work
the VCR remote or languidly browse through magazines, savoring the tight cunt sucking wetly
at your dick with each slight movement of your hips. With careful preparation it's a damned
comfortable position, and you can just lie there for as long as you please, indulging as
many fantasies as your self-control will allow.
* For best results, fuck slowly and gently on first penetration. This allows the PseudoCunt hole to adjust to the proper diameter.
* Don't ram your dick in to the bottom at first. Go slowly, and try to restrain yourself as long as possible, fucking a just a little deeper at a time. Each time you stroke a little deeper, the PseudoCunt is a little tighter, and incrementally warmer. The sensation is fabulous if prolonged. I like to keep the last inch or so unpenetrated until I'm just at the point of cumming, then grunt and howl and plunge to the bottom and blast my sperm into the tight warmth deep down inside.
* Sound effects, if authentic, can really heighten the effect. Porn videos just don't do it for me. Too contrived. I have a few audio tapes that do, though, and once in a while I'll put on the headphones while fucking my Pseudocunt. One is a tape I made by concealing the microphone in the headboard of the bed before fucking my wife doggy-style (you should consider trying this; it's incredibly arousing to hear the rutting grunts and screams of a woman you know). The rest are recordings of phone-sex conversations with two former girlfriends -- one in particular, whose panting and gasping and whimpering as she masturbates is truly phenomenal.
* Shed all inhibitions. Admit to yourself that, while this may seem truly bizarre behavior, it feels incredibly good. Get hedonistic. Get totally naked. Or wear leather, or panties and a bra, or clothespins on your scrotum, whatever makes your dick throb and ooze.
TROUBLESHOOTING
If you experience problems with your PseudoCunt, the fault most likely lies in your choice of materials, or lack of attention to proper construction techniques.
Commonly experienced problems usually have simple solutions:
Too hot for comfort
If too hot, allow to cool at room temperature. Don't get impatient and put it in the freezer, or outside in a snowbank. If it cools unevenly, you're in for a very unpleasant surprise.
Not warm enough
If too cool, place jar in a pan of water on the stove and simmer for at least 30 minutes. To spread heat more evenly, make sure the water covers at least 2/3 of the jar, and place a wire rack beneath the jar to raise it off the bottom of the pan. If a glass jar is used, you can heat it in a microwave oven for a minute or so. [This procedure is not recommended if using a waxed cardboard milk carton.]
These heating techniques, by the way, are handy for repeated use of your PseudoCunt between washings, unless you're too squeamish for sloppy seconds.
It's also occurred to me that a hair dryer might be a quick alternative, but I haven't tried this. I'm not sure I could maintain a hardon or a straight face kneeling there naked and blow-drying a jar of spaghetti.
Bits of greasy spaghetti cling to your dick on withdrawal
This is normal. While the problem cannot be eliminated entirely, the effect can be minimized by several means:
1- Make sure spaghetti is packed in VERY tightly.
2- Use a high-shouldered jar (see above) to help keep the spaghetti in place on the out strokes.
3- Make sure hole in Saran Wrap is not too large. Punch, do not cut, this hole to prevent tearing.
PseudoCunt makes distracting slurping noises
You used too much butter, or oil, or both. Or you've gang-banged your PseudoCunt one too many times and you need to clean it out and start over again at Step 2.
Of course, if you want to fantasize about oral sex, this could be regarded as a design feature rather than a problem.
Greasy stains on sofa cushions
My wife responds to greasy stains on upholstery by immediately dumping a big pile of talcum powder on the spill, letting it sit for a while, vacuuming it off later, then calling in a professional furniture cleaner to finish the job. I try to avoid stains by making sure the Saran Wrap is tightly secured with the rubber band, and by spreading a towel over thleading edge of the sofa cushion pile. I'd rather not have to explain PseudoCunt stains to my wife.
Fetid stench
Throw away the spaghetti and wash the damn thing. Unless mold and bacteria growth play an essential role in your sexual fantasies, repeated use of the PseudoCunt is not recommended beyond, say, 24 hours. Refrigerate after use.
WHY I CREATED PSEUDOCUNT
No, I'm not a social outcast or a phobic recluse. I have a normal sex life (pretty fabulous, actually) so I should explain why I continued to experiment with masturbation techniques in adulthood, long after abandoning the clumsy remedies most teens invent to draw off excess spunk. One reason is simply that I'm a very sensuous person with a vivid imagination. I've found that I can occasionally attain amazing heights of sexual arousal when I masturbate. At the risk of sounding immodest, I've induced some of the best orgasms I've ever had.Another reason is that I am aware of absolutely no physical or psychological reasons not to masturbate, and can't help wondering if the world might not be a better place if more people did. Whether they use fists or balloons or spaghetti.
Finally, it provides a fabulous way to indulge certain sexual fantasies that just can't be shared no matter how skilled and understanding one's lover may be. Know what I mean? If you're inclined to give this thing a try, I hope it enhances your own secret fantasies as much as it does mine. If you have a technique of your own, write it up and post it for others to share. If you find the whole concept disgusting, why did you read this far?
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
You'll see a few intresting titles / names, does anyone know what these were licensed for?
* Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes - This one I really don't understand, Bill didn't license anyone C&H...
* Peter Townhend - Tommy
* Mario, Luigi, The Princess, Yoshi and Koopa are trademarks of Nintendo of America, Inc
* Rodney Dangerfield Copyright © 1997 Dangerfield Entertainment
* Statistics provided by STATS, Inc. © 1998. All rights reserved
Makes you wonder what these chacters are used in / licensed for...
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
You are clearly a homosexual. I refuse to join you and your ilk at your Gay Renessaince Faires that someone like you certainly attends. But hey, have fun at Ye Oldetyme Pavillion of Buggary or whatever you fruits call it.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Well at least when he's writing insipid headlines he's not censoring posts, so maybe its a good thing?
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
And you find this suprising because...? Has Slashdot ever had reliable or goof information? Once they were almost on time with a report of a new kernel coming out, but other than that, I'm hard pressed to think of anything.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Infogrames(a french company) owns the rights to D&D computer games. Once Interplay was bought by Titus (another french company) it was obivous things were going to get ugly. I still think NWN will get released.
Standing in the Sunlight Howling at the Moon
All the Marines I knew who were into D&D all had bad 70s porn star moustaches. Do you have one too? Oh, and I might mention that the Marines regularly get sodomized by not only the Air Force, but also Coast Guard recruits, too.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
...and what website are you reading at the moment?
posted with a palm vii+, fuckheads.
Put Baldur's Gate and Rogue side by side, and you see that Bioware has done more than just computerize D&D. They've greatly enhanced the user experience with sophisticated interaction, simulation, and non-player character engine. And they've also created a story that is sophisticated enough to engage but simple enough to be managed by a "Dungeon Master" that's just a piece of software, and thus has no ability to improvise. That last is not technically sophisticated, but it's what impresses me the most.
The correct address for OpenRPG is http://www.openrpg.com, not openrpg.org. In any event, OpenRPG is a generalized Roleplaying system, not something specially tailored to D&D 3e, so its capacities for D&D3e are less than what MT possibly would have had.
----------
Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
That's just a declaration of who owns copyright to things seen on the site.
Black Isle (which is related to Bioware) tried to use GURPS (it was to be the foundation for Fallout) but Steve Jackson games were apparently too much of a pain in the ass to deal with so they striped out the gurps system and created their own.
fuck linux, and fuck you!!
I hope Bioware and Interplay can make friends out of this and get the game out. The remake of Pool of Radiance sucked because of it's technical problems. Damn big business software!
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
The legalese merely states that D&D, the D&D logo, etc. are property of Wizards and Hasbro blah blah and Interplay is using them under license from the trademark owners. Interplay absolutely does NOT have exclusive rights to publish D&D electronic games.
Derek
Regarding our recent announcement of Neverwinter Nights contract termination with Interplay, we can't comment on this, except to say that BioWare is looking forward to releasing Neverwinter Nights on schedule, early in 2002. Development at BioWare is continuing on both Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic as well as on other as yet unannounced projects."
I'm thinking people are jumping the gun.
Everybody's complaining and, dare I say it, whining about the headline being misleading...
:)
Thank (insert favorite deity here) it isn't! Something interesting for a change! Had enough of this terrorism business.
On a more related note, can't wait for NWN!
I am BelDion's
How does releasing the product as a non-commercial, open source game, suddenly make it legal to violate the trademarks, and copyrights that Hasbro holds on the AD&D gaming system?
Just because you're not charging for it, doesn't mean you can steal someone elses works to include. Just try and include some Metallica MP3's, in an open source projet of some sort, and see how well that flies.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
Special Forces?
Do Marines get to ride the short bus to the war?
You don't need a fucking license to use the AD&D ruleset, because it's *not patented*. You can't copyright a set of rules. And who cares about the worlds? Mostly, they're an attempt to be as generic as possible...
Black Isles isn't related to bioware you idiot. Too many geeks here dont know jack. Black Isles is the rpg division at Interplay. It has no association with Bioware except for Interplay stickin the black isles logo on the all Interplay published internal/externally developed rpgs
Black Isle isn't so much affiliated with BioWare... Black Isle is a division of Interplay.
-JacobC
Interplay are stupid, they deserve to die. The once great software house has lost the plot.
How about makers of MMORPGs come up with something remotely new and inventive? Stop dragging out the Dungeons and Dragons license for the 50,000th time. You know, there are some rather interesting things you could come up with.
Eat my ass, you humorless simp. Somewhere a violin is playing for your injured spirit...
Slashdot lacks wang. Let's go there instead.
lol, nice nihilist definition. wish i had a mod point for ya.
When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one's self." And what was easy, "To advise another."
Neverwinter Nights isn't an MMORPG. If you knew anything about the game, you'd know that Bioware is designing it to emulate tabletop games first. Massive Online Roleplaying wasn't even intended originally.
This is not the article about the museum TLDs.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Wow. What a great link. I've read Chick's stuff before, but that's probably the most insane one I've ever seen. I'll definitely post it to my gaming group.
ok moron, read what it says again, if it still looks the same to you, go take reading lessions.
If no one has noticed, and I'm certain no one here who has posted has -- Interplay owns the exclusive computer game license to Forgotten Realms, not D&D 2nd or 3rd Edition. So Bioware can either get Interplay's nod to publish the game with someone else, make the game not Forgotten Realms, or the multitude of other options they have.
I think its wonderful that Bioware has finally figured out what a bunch of @#$@# those guys at Interplay are. I cannot stand their 'for gamers by gamers' slogan. I'm not going to get into how they are such a crappy company, because the problems they have are also shared by Sierra, Eidos, and just about every other publisher out there! It basicly gets down to corporate greed.
DOH sorry about that
There are 2 other companies that could publish Neverwinter Nights...
Ubisoft still has a license for another game.
Infogrames owns the rights to all Electronic Hasbro Properties for the next 15 years.
So it's not like BioWare is without a publisher..
As for the Open Gaming License.. it could be used. But BioWare would have to remove ALL Forgotten Realms references from the game since Forgotten Realms doesn't qualify as Open Content under the Open Content License of the Open Gaming License. (Hows that for confusing?)
I already placed an order for NWN with tuxgames...
grah
The NEW Advanced Angels and Saviours! The only Christian Role Playing Game! (from the makers of Advanced Path to Allah!)
Leading Brother:"Great! You have enough experience points for a level 12 cleric. Your character is a 'Prophet of Christianity'!"
Player:"Cool! My 'Water to Wine' spell worked! The Roman gaurds see the light of God! I'm going to cast 'Manna From Heaven' on the Roman governor now!"
Leading Brother:"OK. Roll the twenty sided... You'll need at least a 15"
{Player rolls a 1}
Leading Brother:"The spell fails and they crucify you!"
Player:"Doh!"
If this offends anyone, oh well. Consider it my revenge for six years of trying to play D&D at catholic school.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Why doesn't bioware just distribute it via shareware? It worked for doom and wolfenstien. Like a dope dealer, first hit is free, second one is gonna cost ya.
it wasn't Interplay that got it nixed - it was Infogrammes and Hasbro's deal. Interplay had nothing to do with that.
InThane
Bioware isn't stupid. If they NEEDED Interplay they would've worked something out with them. Obviously, however, they don't.
No, this isn't flamebait. I'm glad that they might get out of the AD&D business, and back to writing original, interesting, and easy-to-use adventures. Baldur's Gate was ok, but it was too tied to what it tried to reproduce -- AD&D, without going all the way.
Fallout was excellent because it was a role-playing game, but it wasn't any RPG you'd ever seen, short of pen-and-paper. What made Fallout great were the multiple conversation paths and the options you'd get, based on how knowledable or personable you were. It also helped that it was structured, but not overwhelmingly linear.
Yes, it had flaws, but the gameplay more than made up for it, and that's what I want to see more of.
I suppose 3rd Edition rules ill generally be referred to as D&DfR, Dungeons and Dragons for Retards, based on what I've seen. I could be wrong though. What do I know, I've only been playing D&D since 1975...
corby stated that "Interplay is apparently the only company with rights to distribute games under the AD&D license" while this is only partially true.
I'm pretty sure that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro split the Dungeons and Dragons lines into several different developers' hands. Interplay owns only Forgotten Realms (which includes the Baldurs Gate games, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights) and Planescape.
Due to a grandfather clause, SSI (the company to first publish D&D games, including Eye of the Beholder, Shattered Lands, Menzoberranzan, Strahd's Possession) can still produce Forgotten Realms games. They publish through Mattel, NOT Interplay. Take a look at the Pool of Radiance site for more information. Oh, and Pool of Radiance will also use the D&D 3rd Edition rules (and is the first and only video/computer game out currently to do so).
I believe that other companies (not Interplay) have rights to other D&D worlds, such as Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Birthright (Sierra owned this one a few years ago but the line may be dead), and Greyhawk.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
BTW, Wizards of the Coast is a division of Hasbro now. WotC bought TSR with the fortune they made from Magic: The Gathering, and then Hasbro swallowed them up.
... Hasbro does that:
...WotC's staff have always been enamored with D Peter Adkinson, CEO, is supposedly a really good Dungeon Master. The world he created had a group of wizards who called themselves the "Wizards of the Coast."
oop. MTG didn't give too much money to wotc (not enough to buy the near-bankrupt TSR and survive with a chance of success). It was Pokemon and WotC's alliance with Nintendo that raked in the cash. It was Pokemon that Hasbro bought WOtC for. Magic and D&D were just "bonuses"
Hasbro bought Microprose to get into the computer game industry, Avalon Hill was suing over the rights to the name of competing games called "Civilization" - so Hasbro just bought Avalon Hill rather than fight them. The entire development team at AH was scrapped as was almost the entire product line (except, of course, Diplomacy).
here's a fun fact for ya: Wizards of the Coast made unofficial D&D accessories (and greetings cards) before picking up a certain Richard Garfield and introducing the world to Magic.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
You might have an entirely new language! ..D20... D&D...AD&D ... WOTC...EOL
AFAI(K-R)