It all makes sense.
Perfect World Entertainment sent out a bunch of Jewel of the North screenshots from Neverwinter.
MMOrning Shots is a (somewhat) daily line of screenshots from various MMOs. Most are taken by our in-house editors, but if you would like your screenshot featured, send it over to contact[at]mmofallout[dot]com with the subject “MMorning Shots.”
In case you hadn’t noticed, we are in what is essentially Neverwinter Week here at MMO Fallout. This week’s Community Concerns goes back to the actual community. In this case, user Shroom Mage over at the MMORPG.com forums gave a great explanation as to why Neverwinter, despite some complaints from gamers, is still a Dungeons and Dragons game.
These so-called “D&D purists” should probably think for a moment what D&D is actually about.
You think it’s about the “complexity”? The classes? The alignments? Turn-based combat? The specific list of skills each class gets? Ability scores? Feats? What?
If you take any one of these mechanics and replace it, you won’t have changed the core of the game at all. We can change the setting of a 3.5 campaign from Forgotten Realms to Star Wars, and you know what? Even without the same classes, skills, feats, and other mechanics, it still feels an awful lot like D&D. We could play AD&D, and… yeah, it still feels like D&D.
We can completely change the rules of combat (change the way dice are rolled, replace the dice with some other mechanism, play a physical game instead), and still retain that D&D feel. Is the transition to realtime really a factor? Surely a game can feel like D&D without turn-based combat.
The core of tabletop is in two things: dungeon-crawling and storytelling. By level 10, Neverwinter has more dungeon-crawling than any other MMO I can think of, and with fairly well-written quests, scripted instances, and, most importantly, the Foundry (which, using dialogue options and trigger items, will allow an incredible amount of complexity), I think the storytelling will be quite strong.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. As I said in our beta hands on of Neverwinter, if you are looking for a direct translation of the pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons, or a recreation of D&D Online, you will be sorely disappointed. Those seeking an action-oriented MMO might find themselves a new home in Perfect World’s upcoming game, however.
Community Concerns airs every Monday and focuses on thoughts by the community surrounding current events. If you have something you would like to talk about, shoot us an email: contact[at]mmofallout<dot>com.
Those of you who played Star Trek Universe may remember the controversy that Cryptic Studios caused by encouraging players to purchase multiple copies of the game in order to take advantage of the retailer-specific cosmetic items upon launch. If you wanted to get your hands on the Next Generation Enterprise, as well as an adorable Tribble, you had to buy one copy from Best Buy and one from Gamestop. If you didn’t, according to Cryptic, you would have to go without them. Shortly after launch, Cryptic launched most of the items on to the cash shop, to the uproar of the game’s community.
So with a couple of years behind them and a brand new MMO (and parent company), what has Cryptic learned from Star Trek Online? Judging by today’s pre-order bonus pack, nothing. Kotaku revealed that players will be able to choose from several packages ranging in price from $20 up to the inglorious $200 Hero of the North Founder’s Pack. The packages range in goods, from bags to exclusive mounts, titles and bigger head-starts, the usual fray. The $200 package has something players should immediately sniff out as suspicious: an exclusive race.
Exclusive access to ‘Menzoberranzan Renegade’, a Drow playable race like the legendary ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, complete with unique racial abilities and tattoo
Cryptic has pulled this stunt before, claiming an item to be pre-order package dependent and then going forward and placing it on the cash shop at a significantly reduced price anyway. Knowing Cryptic, the appearance of the exclusive race on the cash shop is just about inevitable. An exclusive race, and a whole lot of lock boxes.
I know what you’re thinking: Omali, I want to play the Neverwinter beta, but I don’t want to buy some ridiculous copy of PC Gamer magazine just to take part in the beta. Well good news, you can accomplish both. All you have to do is follow the instructions below:
This way everyone is happy. You got your hands on a free copy of PC Gamer and a beta key for Neverwinter, and a free horse mount to top it off. Meanwhile PC Gamer gets the satisfaction of bringing joy to someone’s heart, even if they are doing it for free. Granted this means nothing if you already subscribe to PC Gamer.
Raptr is one of my favorite apps to have running in the background, next to xfire. Essentially it is a simple program which tracks how much time you spend in games on your PC, Xbox and PS3, tracks your achievements, and ranks you in each game based on time played and achievements earned. It also has a host of other features, including chat and suggested/featured games to check out. But what I love most about Raptr are the coupon codes that the game hands out on a pretty regular basis.
Currently in beta, the Raptr rewards is pretty basic. The list is mostly populated with item bundles for Blacklight: Retribution and Lost Saga, but every once in a while the program has pulled in some great rewards. We’ve seen giveaways for Mists of Pandaria beta keys, 50% off TERA coupons, and free copies of Rift. The next bundle, set to go live September 4th, involves Star Trek Online. By achieving “newbie” rank or above in Star Trek Online, players will be able to claim the Bridge Officer Bundle. By achieving experienced or above, players will be able to redeem an exclusive cosmetic pet.
The Bridge Officer Bundle contains:
Raptr costs absolutely nothing and neither to the rewards. The only catch is that each reward is limited in quantity, so you’ll have to act fast once the giveaway starts September 4th.
(Source: Raptr)
Neverwinter is still alive. Announced back in 2010, Neverwinter has been thrown out as the MMO that Champions Online and Star Trek Online never were (polished). With all of the past events at Cryptic Studios, being discontinued by Atari and then sold off to Perfect World Entertainment, having their new executives delay the title until late 2012 so the game could have some polish and content, and then revising the game to be a full fledged MMO, the idea of Neverwinter being delayed a couple of times isn’t all too alien.
So Neverwinter has been delayed once again, the new release date being “early 2013,” when it will launch with a free to play business model.
(Source: Eurogamer)
It’s been almost two years since Bill Roper has had anything to do with Cryptic Studios, but with some of the recent money-related decisions made by the developer, you would never know he’d left. Not long ago, Cryptic introduced lockboxes, cash shop items that have the chance at offering valuable items to the players who buy them. Apparently the lockboxes constitute gambling in some countries, including the Netherlands, and according to several users on the Star Trek Online forums, are being investigated by various government bodies.
And if your laws do prohibit such gambling, Cryptic’s Borticus wants you to know that Cryptic is listening. Not so the company can react, just so they know which country to ban.
I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.
And I know what you’re thinking, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about for Cryptic’s bottom line. Your money wasn’t really that significant anyway.
Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.
And sure, some people might point out that Cryptic’s past monetary decisions didn’t prevent the company from posting six to seven figure losses, leading to them being dumped on the streets by Atari, but those people are missing an important point: Cryptic asked for your money, not your opinion.
(Source: Jupiter Force forums)
I don’t think I can be any clearer on this point. You the players don’t like it, we the developers don’t like it and all the data we pull from the servers backs up the statement as well. Now, we could start discussing why PVP is the way it is. There are lots of reasons, some you as players know and some you don’t. Discussing that particular topic wouldn’t move us forward, now is not the time to figure out who is to blame for what and why.
Can the player vs player element of Star Trek Online be saved? Literally. PvP has never been a major focus for Star Trek Online, in fact the section of the game is so unpopular that Cryptic is willing to remove it completely without impact to the overall player base. Cryptic’s Gozer is on the forums to discuss the bad news, noting that he is now the only resource standing between PvP and total death. In the weeks to come, he shall decide the fate if Star Trek Online’s PvP continues in a new form, or dies completely.
This situation is reminiscent of the Klingon faction support. Cryptic reported last year that they would not be supporting the Klingon faction due to low resources and low player interest, however the low player interest was due to the fact that the Klingon faction was released in a very unfinished state. So this seems to be another case of Cryptic releasing a portion of the game unfinished, only to cite low interest as a reason that they aren’t able to put resources into fixing it.
More on this as it appears.
(Source: Star Trek Online forums)
I don’t think I can be any clearer on this point. You the players don’t like it, we the developers don’t like it and all the data we pull from the servers backs up the statement as well. Now, we could start discussing why PVP is the way it is. There are lots of reasons, some you as players know and some you don’t. Discussing that particular topic wouldn’t move us forward, now is not the time to figure out who is to blame for what and why.
Can the player vs player element of Star Trek Online be saved? Literally. PvP has never been a major focus for Star Trek Online, in fact the section of the game is so unpopular that Cryptic is willing to remove it completely without impact to the overall player base. Cryptic’s Gozer is on the forums to discuss the bad news, noting that he is now the only resource standing between PvP and total death. In the weeks to come, he shall decide the fate if Star Trek Online’s PvP continues in a new form, or dies completely.
This situation is reminiscent of the Klingon faction support. Cryptic reported last year that they would not be supporting the Klingon faction due to low resources and low player interest, however the low player interest was due to the fact that the Klingon faction was released in a very unfinished state. So this seems to be another case of Cryptic releasing a portion of the game unfinished, only to cite low interest as a reason that they aren’t able to put resources into fixing it.
More on this as it appears.
(Source: Star Trek Online forums)
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