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DragonLance for Neverwinter Nights

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the raistlin-and-fistandantulus dept.

Kthoris writes "Well, it looks like the team at DLA has finally decided to show us what they are made of. Starting a 10 day series of interviews with some of the project leaders, they are releasing their first major previews of what they've spent the last year doing. The first interview starts with the projects team leader/coordinator, Steel_Wind. It also looks like they will be having a house of commons chat on Neverwinter Connections IRC channel next saturday. Thanks Maximus for finally convincing these guys to show some of their stuff. I hear they also have a Full-Motion Video, Teaser trailer? Can anyone else confirm this?" Unless I was looking too quickly, I missed any shots of a floating city, but the new objects they have created are still pretty sharp, including catwalks between trees.

20 comments

  1. Uh, copyrights? by MightyTribble · · Score: 1


    This looks cool and all, but as I recall doesn't Hasbro own the D&D copyrights now? How long until their clueless-but-brutal legal department sends the Cease & Desist order?

    1. Re:Uh, copyrights? by Palshife · · Score: 1

      Dragonlance != D
      NWN != D
      canSuckIt(Hasbro);

      --
      Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
    2. Re:Uh, copyrights? by Palshife · · Score: 1

      and apparently because "Plain Old Text" means "Strip out special characters"...

      Dragonlance != D&D;
      NWN != D&D;
      canSuckIt(Hasbro);

      --
      Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
    3. Re:Uh, copyrights? by MightyTribble · · Score: 3, Informative

      Heh. Yeah I'm aware of the semantic differences *but* that doesn't affect ownership of the IP...

      WOTC bought TSR. TSR held pretty much all the IP for the D&D universe, including the DragonLance stuff.

      Hasbro bought WOTC, then licensed back bits of the IP to BioWare to make NWN. Check out this bit from BioWare's Legal page:

      http://www.bioware.com/legal/copyright.html

      "[...]Neverwinter Nights, Forgotten Realms, the Forgotten Realms logo, Dungeons & Dragons logo, Dungeon Master, D&D, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. and are used by Infogrames Entertainment, S.A. under license. [...] All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners."

      I quick check with WOTC reveals similar language that specifically mentions DragonLance as TradeMarked and copyrighted:

      http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=company/web si telegalnotice

      So I stand by my initial statement. Hasbro owns the DragonLance IP. They did not license these modders to make this mod using the DragonLance names, locations, characters, etc, and so would be well within their rights to issue a C&D if they wanted to. Which is a shame, because the mod looks very cool.

    4. Re:Uh, copyrights? by jtkauff · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, Weis and Hickman, the authors that originally created Dragonlance, still hold the rights to it. Hasbro/WotC actually are licensing it from them. Needless to say, Weis & Hickman are just a slight bit more approachable about projects like this...

    5. Re:Uh, copyrights? by GuJiaXian · · Score: 1

      Well, the project's head, Steel_Wind, is a lawyer. A copyright lawyer, as I recall. I'm sure he has the copyright issues well in hand.

    6. Re:Uh, copyrights? by Shkuey · · Score: 1

      I believe they had issues like this, but got them cleared up. That could be why they are only recently showing off their work.

    7. Re:Uh, copyrights? by rtrifts · · Score: 1

      The ownership of the copyright in DragonLance remains a property of WotC, a subsidiary of Hasbro.

      The license right to make computer games based upon D&D, including all of the published worlds & settings in WotC's stable (ie. DragonLance) is subject to the exclusive 20 year license purchased by Infogrames when it bought Hasbro Interactive (approx 18 years left to go on that license).

      All by way of saying,the license rights to make any DragonLance computer game lie exclusively with Infogrames - now known as Atari Corporation.

      If Atari Corporation, the publisher of Neverwinter Nights wants to stop DLA's mod - then that is what they will do.

      --
      .Robert
    8. Re:Uh, copyrights? by DarkFencer · · Score: 1

      Actually, though Weis and Hickman do still write in the Dragonlance world, Hasbro (which bought WotC which bought TSR) DO own the rights to the world.

      There have been some times where Weis and Hickman did NOT like how things were done in their world but were overrulled since they didn't really own it anymore.

      That said they do have a lot of creative control over it since their Dragonlance novels have probably outsold the combined total of all other authors works in the DL world.

  2. screenshots.. by simoniker · · Score: 3, Informative

    ..aren't immediately obvious, and there may be more hidden away, but here are the tree catwalk ones Cowboyneal referenced.

    1. Re:screenshots.. by xxxj03yxxx · · Score: 1

      Those are of the city of Solace. And, might I add, they looked *very* sweet.

  3. Yay by HunterZ · · Score: 1, Informative

    Gotta love how noone will see this post due to the fact that its category doesn't show up in the default list, and almost everyone is too lazy to change their preferences.

    I'm glad to see that people are working with the NWN engine though. It got off to a slow start with the weak single-player module and lack of good online modules (the users were just beginning to make good ones when I lost my broadband connection a year ago). Now they're making a Star Wars RPG using the engine too, so I guess we'll be seeing the NWN engine around for a while.

    --
    Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
    1. Re:Yay by nekoes · · Score: 1

      Yeah I have to say I was very disappointed in the beginning after finding out how limited bioware seemed to make content creation to the modders. Yes map making and scripting is rather easy, but you have to work in their world, not with your own actual custom content.

      The single player was crappy but yeah, finally decent stuff is coming out, glad the 50 dollars wasn't COMPLETELY a waste.

      --
      Hey, it's my OPINION that dogs have eight legs and make a sound like a car horn every time they take a piss.
  4. yay! by xxxj03yxxx · · Score: 1

    This is awesome! I've been a huge fan of DragonLance for quite a number of years now (books, AD&D modules, etc). Neverwinter Nights is a good RPG engine, and I have high hopes for a DL game.

    1. Re:yay! by TrueBuckeye · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I think this will be great, but the one downside is that I generally play single-player and this is designed for multi. Oh well.

      --
      Was that night on the marge of Lake LaBarge I cremated Sam McGee...
    2. Re:yay! by rtrifts · · Score: 1

      The module will support Solo play and full party control.

      See Q. 10 here:

      http://nwvault.ign.com/features/interviews/Steel_W ind061903.shtml

      Changes in 1.30 by Bioware have opened up the radial menu and our party AI system can be implemented. More details on that on Day 9.

      While it is still best in multiplayer - it WILL be solo supported.
      --
      .Robert
  5. Re:Where are the fsckin' screenshots? by rtrifts · · Score: 1

    The screenshots are here:

    http://nwvault.ign.com/features/previews/DLA/Day 1. shtml

    http://nwvault.ign.com/features/previews/DLA/Day 2. shtml

    http://nwvault.ign.com/features/previews/DLA/Day 3. shtml

    http://nwvault.ign.com/features/previews/DLA/Day 4. shtml

    --
    .Robert
  6. Re:Uh, copyrights? - mod parent up by MightyTribble · · Score: 1

    Straight from the Dragon's mouth, as it were. :)

    That's a much better situation than I feared. I think it's less likely Atari/Infogrames will stomp on DLA than Hasbro (Atari should at least understand the mod community better than the House of Barbie). Of course, if Infogrames have any in-house DragonLance plans, you're probably screwed.

    Kudos on what looks like an excellent mod, by the way.

  7. SCO's already sent a letter... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SCO has already sent them a C&D letter claiming that "...adventures of any kind are a proprietary feature of Unix(tm)(r)(c)(ymmv)(ianal)"

    In fact, I could get sued just for saying this...