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Neverwinter Nights is Gold

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the gimme-some-of-that-action dept.

Urthpaw writes "Neverwinter Nights, the D&D based RPG from BioWare (Makers of Baldur's Gate among other titles), for Windows, MacOS and Linux has Gone gold. The game allows players to make their own "modules", or adventures, and DM them for up to 64 friends. Server-linking features allow the assembly of distributed MMORPGs."

12 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Re:EBWorld by TBone · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Going Gold" means the Master CD's (which are, or at least used to be, gold in color) have been shipped to the publisher, who will begin to mass-produce them, along with the manuals, and stuff everything in boxes.

    It has nothing to do with any particular retail outlet, other than the outlets can probably expect shipments to start arriving in 7-10 business days.

    --

    This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U

  2. Who owns what? by WankersRevenge · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The game allows players to make their "own" modules, or adventures, and DM them for up to 64 friends.

    Who owns what module? Bioware? Or the consumers? Inquiring minds want to know!

    1. Re:Who owns what? by eddy · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is what the beta toolset said:

      Section 4(b):

      "By distributing or permitting the distribution of any of your Modules, you hereby grant back to INFOGRAMES and BIOWARE an irrevocable royalty-free right to use and distribute them by any means. Infogrames or BIOWARE may at any time and in its sole discretion revoke your right to make your Modules publicly available."

      I'm just the messenger.

      --
      Belief is the currency of delusion.
  3. Linux version delayed by Nilatir · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the press release:

    "The PC version of Neverwinter Nights will ship to retailers before the end of June. Linux gamers can anticipate the online release of the Neverwinter Nights server at launch and the client program shortly afterward. Linux gamers will still need the Windows version of the game to register at the Neverwinter Nights community site (http://neverwinternights.com) and to import essential game resources into their Linux server and game."

    --

    "We were half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take hold."
    -- Hunter S. Tolkien
  4. It's a little weird by Lord_Pall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They went gold right as their public beta testers started to receive their cd's..

    I'm wondering if they're planning on patching day of release to fix multiplayer problems..

  5. Speaking as a long time gamer... by sterno · · Score: 5, Funny

    I got into role playing in middle school, and let me tell you:

    YOUR MOM WAS RIGHT!

    It was such a nautral progression to go from fighting dragons with my ranger to sacrificing virgins to the great dark lord. I don't play as much anymore, but every so often when I get bored with smoking crack and drinking the blood of the unworthy, I'll get some people together for a game. It's a great game and I highly recommend giving it a try sometime.

    --
    This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
  6. yeah, you miss out on by Twister002 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    - The endless character recaps by everyone there before, during, and after the game e.g. "Baldac has a 16 charisma and an 18 wisdom with a +2 mace of boring"

    - The stench of geek BO, combined with smelly feet in the summer...ahhh...nothing like a rank basement to really bring out the geek aroma.

    - The challenge of trying to :

    a) figure out WHAT kind of food to get
    b) trying to find someone there who has money to PAY for the pizza (usually goes to the guy making $9/hour (e.g. "the rich guy") instead of minimum wage part time like everyone else.

    - Trying to herd everyone into the room so that the game can start/continue

    oh yes, I'll miss that. ;)

    --
    "For a successful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled." -Feynman
  7. Re:I don't get it. by Wraithlyn · · Score: 5, Insightful
    You answer your own question, albeit dismissively.
    • Play across distances. Yes! This is a great advantage.
    • Computerized dice roller. It's more than that. It completely handles the torrential rain of rules and tables that comprise D&D. Probably the biggest obstacle to people getting into P&P gaming is all the math they have to do. (Simple math, yes. But lots of simple math can still be tedious)
    • Pretty graphics. This is like asking why anyone would want to see a movie.. for the 'pretty pictures'?? Give me a break. Visualization adds a new dimension.

    So yeah, I think there's some pretty sizable reasons right there.
    --
    "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
  8. Couldn't they have waited??? by allism · · Score: 5, Funny

    We have to move in three weeks, and I know my husband is gonna be just WORTHLESS he actually gets a copy of this...I wonder how much it would cost to get them to delay the in-store availability to July 7--whatever the cost, it would be worth it so that I wouldn't have to pack and move our apartment alone...

    Thanks, BioWare, for making my life miserable...

    --
    Denver Isuzu Suzuki
  9. Re:I don't get it. by nick_davison · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Why would anyone want DM'd games online? You loose pretty much every benefit of P&P rpgs; loose pretty much every benefit of single player rpgs; for what? the ability to play across distances, a computerized dice roller, and some pretty graphics?

    That's pretty much the point of NWN - they've attempted to give back most of the features that you traditionally lose by moving to a computer.

    For example: The freeform interaction that a real world DM gives is brought back by allowing the DMs to take over characters, manually trigger events, adjust the difficulty via a slider to ensure everything's always perfectly balanced for interesting play.

    Where the computer gains the advantage is that it allows a lot of things to become automated. Think about those D&D games you played as a kid. Half the time the game degenerated while the DM focused on a single player, looked up a rule, etc. On top of that, they'd be dropping rules all over the place because they couldn't remember them or they took too long to figure out. Now all of that stuff's handled automatically.

    So, the end result is you get a game that [ideally] handles everything you don't want to handle or don't have time to handle, giving that postive aspect of computerised gaming and yet allows the DM to step in wherever's needed, keeping the benefits of traditional gaming. Of course, that's assuming everything's ideal, but they're looking like they're pretty close.

  10. Managing your addiction by sam_handelman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gaming can take over your life, or it can be an enriching escape from worthwhile, but stressful activities. My Summer is gonna be extra stressful:

    10 hrs/day Work (I'm a researcher / grad student)

    ouch! Once I've prioritized that, I can use my time management skills to arrange it so that playing this Summer's hot new games doesn't become a substitute for crack.

    4 hrs/day Heroes IV: Tournament of Honor
    4 hrs/day Neverwinter Nights
    4 hrs/day Master of Orion III
    2 hrs/day Smoking Crack

    all 24 hours a day are filled with stimulating activities, without displacing my drug habit. Also, by deleting wasteful food from my schedule, I'll be able to lose that weight without becoming physically active.

    --
    The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
  11. Re:Linux version not in-box? by startled · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't worry. Given the standard computer game release cycle, you'll likely get the Linux version around the time the game finally becomes playable.