Magister Lajciak

Yes, a second expansion for NWN 2 seem the most likely possibility and I sure hope this possibility manifests into reality!

Indeed, these races being 'slightly more unique to D&D' and not grounded in mythology and fantasy accounts for most of my apprehension at their inclusion in the core. Still, I am not really opposed to them as both Tieflings and Dragonborn are rather interesting. Besides, I despise gnomes, so their removal does not leave me the least bit annoyed (though their inclusion would not bother me too much either, except as a waste of space, since I ban them in my games anyway).

I think George's LinkedIn profile was modified by himself. Hmm, in that case it might even mean he is no longer working for Obsidian Entertainment. Alternatively, however, it might mean that he is not ready to divulge what he is working on at OE at the moment. I guess we just don't know.

no, I think the so called "BioWare SW MMO" is really just KOTOR 3 (as in NOT an MMO). And I don't think LA is producing KOTOR 3 in house because of Force Unleashed. Thanks for clearing up the confusion. Bioware has stated it wants to concentrate on developing its own intellectual properties. On the other hand, the announcement of a collaborative project with LucasArts suggests that licensed games are still on the agenda.

A lot of players these days expect action in their gameplay and some RPGs are moving to accomodate this desire. Jade Empire, for example, was said to have real-time combat (one of the reasons why I did not get the game).

And I completely share your opinion of MMORPGs, but that does not make them a dying 'genre' (unfortunately). I have not enjoyed any MMOs at all, as I have never played one and don't plan on playing one regardless of the franchise or alleged awesomness of the game in question.

Ok, I see what you mean, but it might just mean that they don't know what he is doing now...

I too think that the collaborative Bioware/LucasArts secret project is a Star Wars game and most likely involves the KOTOR franchise, but I am not so optimistic it is not a MMO. A company can take on two MMO projects - after all Blizzard is developing a new MMO, although WoW is running strong and getting new expansions/content. Besides, we don't know the nature of cooperation between Bioware and LucasArts. Maybe LucasArts is not providing just the license, but is also to be responsible for running and servicing the new game (apart from expansions, which would come from Bioware). That would lower the burden on Bioware. To top it off, Bioware's MMO has been in development for some time and the development of the collaborative project is presumably only just starting, so it's not as if the two projects would run simultaneously during their primes.

They are going to add gnomes back into the game in another book - perhaps a supplement or PHB2.

How do we know that?

I am looking forward to the next NWN 2 expansion pack.

I don't really like the Steampunk genre, so I hope Obsidian Entertainment devotes its resources to other types of games.

Well, for me the issue is that if the combat is fully real-time, I will probably be unable to complete the game.

Do you mean Obsidian's secret project?

All trends seem to indicate otherwise... To me it seems that way too, but than again to many people playing any computer games seems like a big waste of time and money, so judging based on one's personal feelings is not the best way to determine a "genre's" success.

I know this topic has been done to death already, but I'll just add my voice to the chorus. There's already a Star Wars-based MMORPG (Galaxies). Making a second one with only very slight changes in setting (so fine, it's set 4000 years earlier, but it's all the same basic elements, with perhaps the exception that there is no Empire or remnant of the Empire and the Republic hasn't fallen or is in a state of being rebuilt) doesn't make much sense. I've never played the existing one (in fact I've only in my life ever played two MMORPGs), and I understand one of the complaints was it was too hard to become a Jedi. Then I heard they nerfed that due to player complaints and as expected the galaxy is now overrun with thousands of them. I guess they could make the KOTOR setting very "low magic" (i.e. low Jedi) but I don't think it will be a player draw. SWG is a dying game,it's time they start to make another one. Indeed - that's one of the reasons I think the Bioware/LucasArts collaboration will results in a MMO.

I think you will love the Mask of the Betrayer and am a bit envious that you have the experience of playing through it still in front of you. For those of us who have already finished it, all that remains is to wait for the next expansion.

I agree with both of the above posters' sentiments. Let's have another NWN 2 expansion of the same caliber as MotB!

In the interest of getting the thread back on topic, here are the latest three 'news threads' on 4E from ENWorld arranged from newest to oldest: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=217947 http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=217887 http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=217789

Not even KOTOR would make me get into the MMO scene. I guess there is some small chance that both KOTOR 3 and KOTOR MMO will be made, but the operative word here is "small".

"Don't be hatin'" I thought Darth's use the dark side of the force...

For everyone's reading convenience:

I would not be so sure. Companies abandon great franchises all the time (see Bioware and the Baldur's Gate franchise for example). Still, I agree that LucasArts is unlikely to throw away the KOTOR franchise - the key word being franchise, not series. They will probably leverage it to create a MMO game. I really hope I am wrong on this one, but that seems to be the trend these days. Sorry bad choice of words. But I completely agree with you. The real money is in MMO's these days and it would not surprise me to see them go in that direction. Unfortunately... This is not the case for me. I love the KOTOR franchise, I really do, but there are some types of games I just have no interest in and those are MMOs - they are simply not my thing.

Since Forgotten Realms is such a major campaign world and indeed the setting of NWN2, I thought it deserves its own thread. Here is some new information on Forgtten Realms in the 4th edition: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080130a

Ok, thanks for the confirmation.