FireFlash

7.000 members after half a year with daily news posting about NWN2 and links to these forums on the Vault, *the* major NWN site. I think Atari got worried and having the option to either spend a lot of $$$ on PR or to get a free grab at the huge NWN community at the BW boards they couldn't pass on that one. I don't think Atari or BioWare had much choice in that matter - Atari owns NWN. Add to that that some people apparently contacted Atari and voiced their concerns http://www.dladventures.net/iB/index.php?s...opic=2414&st=34 and you get the picture. Don't misunderstand me, I am not happy about this move either, I stopped posting at the Bio boards a long time ago after my PW module got stolen and I just don't want to go to the place anymore where the thieves are hanging out. I don't like it, but I see that it makes sense and I understand that it was probably necessary because Atari can save a lot of PR $$$ with this move.

But isn't being able to work under the restrictions placed upon you the point? It's certainly possible if you try Adam Miller's Demon module... It was too restrictive sounds like a cheap excuse to me. A: "I can build a better house than you can! You suck! " B: "Show it" A: "Well, you know, that, 120.000 $ limit is kind of restricitve...., but you still suck" It can't be soo bad when Obsidian decided to use it for NWN2.

But ... but ... according to the stories Hades is telling the poster should have his legs broken by their Mods already.

Your wish, in the end, is probably incompatible with Atari's and Obsidian's goals. Having a small and contained forum community with only familiar faces may be nice for the few people participating, but if you want to sell a product like NWN or NWN2, you want as many people in the loop as possible. If you have the choice between a nice and cozy forum with a few hundred regular posters or large exposure that will help you like 50k to 100k additional copies leeched of from the community of NWN - 50$ x 100k = 5M, not a sum you get idealistic, especially not as a startup. A business is about making money - setting up a few vocal minorities on the way is justified , as the ferengi say. I'd say 95% of forum regulars don't care where the boards are or if they are cozy or no, they just want information. But anyway, it's a matter of perception. I have been posting on the NWN boards a lot when I still had my own PW and I remember chatting a lot with the same people - I just avoided the "general boards", they had a lot more noise than the Toolset forum.

Hmm, but you just posted there.

Game companies do not accept scripts or ideas sent to them. Most of them state that they will destroy things sent to them without request immediately without reading them to protect themselves from "they stole my idea" claims later on.

That's quite of a naive interpretation of Mr. Mellon's paper. My interpretation would be: EA played (and probably payed) Mr. Mellon to deliver them fresh meat right to their doorsteps. It's obvious that some as Mr. Mellon would not be really "embedded" during his term at EA, he would not have to sleep under his desk, nor would he get to see this. Why? Because no company in this business can run with 75% newbies from right university, unless they just want to use them as "fresh meat" to produce sequels. Everyone with a bit of knowledge about the gaming industry and the IT industry knows just how important veterans are. The only setup where you wouldn't need veterans (and I mean, significantly more than 25% veterans) is when you don't to innovate anymore but create games as a manufacturing job rather than a creatiive process. Then you can have a few managers run a team of slaves. Want to know why making games at EA isn't like making games at Obsidian, Troika or BioWare? Why EA tanked with all their MMORPGs? Why EA doesn't put out RPGs? Because RPGs require more than an overhaul in the graphics engine to sell again, unlike SportGame 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 .... You can't take KotOR, rename it Kotor II, III, etc and sell it a year later with a graphics update. It requires work, experience, talent and a lot of creativity to create RPGS, it requires veterans training newcomers and it requires understanding of what makes RPGs great. None of these things is of interest for EA - they churn out sequels for the mass market, and every once in a while buy a successful newcomer who has a good franchise that you can convert into a sequel fest (Battlefield anyone?). Why did EA scrap all the MMORPGs they started? Think about it - if you have a 50+% turnover rate, you just can't do it, it's a long term commitment - and EA is, as far as I can see, more interested in short term, shareholder pleasing quarterly results. The smaller RPG companies seem to have a much smaller turnover rate, I could only find information on BioWare ( http://pc.ign.com/articles/549/549530p2.html ) - but 3% sound like a lot more happy workenvironment than 50% if you ask me. Sorry, this has nothing to do with "weeding out 75% slackers", it has something to do with getting 75% stupid fresh meat that's not burned, enthusiastic and too blinded to see that the recipe to make games at EA is "burn out and throw away". I hope this thread is not seen as "EA bashing", it's not meant that way - it's meant to explain the business model EA has chosen to adapt, and from a pure, american point of view (capitalism regulating itself), it's a valid model, especially if the market accepts it - and it does, otherwise, why do all the sequels sell so well...

I'm angry just from reading this... http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/

Power of observation? You posted that alt yourself here on the boards and giggled about how cool you were. Need a reminder? http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...56entry142456 When I first saw the post I thought "the world is full of little ****" - it doesn't take much to remember **** like that. No, your mental capabilities don't support that conclusion. Maybe read your post on the other forum again, the one where you tout about how smart you are using different styles and how cool the post was that got that account banned. I didn't think it was cool at all to post "Happy New York Bombing Day" on 9/11 into a forum frequented by US citizens. What's that - an excuse for childish behavior? Grow up, that helps.

So what you are saying is "I'm a 10 year old kiddy that wants attention and I register fake accounts at other boards and troll until they ban me and brag about it on other boards so my new friends will find me cool". I remember seeing the 9/11 "happy new york bombing day" post from your BooYa98 alt on the KotOR board and failed to see anything cool or funny there, just a sick little kiddy in need of attention - and the other posts for that alt aren't really bright at all - so better stop bragging about how cool you are. I hope Obsidian is going to ban you from their boards and I sent a PM to one of the BioMods to make sure they see this thread here - then we can find out if they can really delete your CDKey or not.

I think the decision to have the Xbox version for a holiday release makes perfect sense. not only it will sell more, it also avoids having to go head to head on the market with Jade Empire, which is also slated for a Q1 release 2005 and both games are competing for the same group of buyers. Wait ... doesn't that count as a reason to blame bioware? :D

Yea, that would be cool. btw, if you click on the developer icon in the bio forums, you get a view of all developer posts in a thread, I'l like to have something like that here.