Hello,

 

I noticed that the all of the NWN2 forums were moved to Bioware's website today. In my humble opinion, this is a pretty bad PR move. Obsidian was just starting to form a NWN2 community and Bioware seemingly 'stole' it from them. Many Obsidian community members are getting very upset with this, even up to the point that they don't intend to follow the development of NWN2 anymore. As I understand it, the decision for moving the forums did not come from Obsidian, but from the publisher - Atari, so I would like to propose a solution which could possibly satisfy both parties.

 

My suggestion is as follows: how about restoring the Obsidian NWN2 forums AND keeping the new ones at Bioware as well? Nowdays, it is not uncommon for developers and publishers to have two separate official forums for the same game (i.e. Ion Storm and Eidos for Thief 3, Lucas Arts for KotOR1/2... etc). Why not attempt a compromise and do the same here? Create one set of forums at Bioware but retain the NWN2 boards here on Obsidian as well. That way, Bioware can keep their large NWN1 fanbase involved in the NWN2 project, and Obsidian can still build a community of its very own. IMO, such an approach would benefit both companies much more than the current situation.

 

 

Note: I've already sent this as a PM to the forum administrator (Guildmaster) but I was wondering what other people thought about it. Would you like Obsidian's NWN2 forum restored or do you prefer the new Bioware hosted forums? Vote, and post your thoughts.

Though I cannot argue with the logic of this thread and its intent, I must add the proviso that I would request that ALL posts remain constructive. Please articulate all thoughts without reference or divergence into posting behaviour that would limit a productive discussion. In other words ... if you cannot say what you want without profanity and respect, don't post so I don't have to issue warnings and shut stuff down

 

FLoSD.ObE

BTW, it's been a while so bear with me, but how the hell does one 'quote' on the Bio Boards? <_<

There is a quote button next to the profile and message buttons under signature.

I don't understand.. When we posted in the Neverwinter Nights 2 forum on this board, we could get answers from the developers sometimes. It was highly informative and.. entertaining. (It was especially fun to torment Brian Lawson in the Graphics and Art discussions)

 

Will the developers now go to the Bioware boards to answer questions and endure torment?

I don't understand.. When we posted in the Neverwinter Nights 2 forum on this board, we could get answers from the developers sometimes. It was highly informative and.. entertaining. (It was especially fun to torment Brian Lawson in the Graphics and Art discussions)

 

Will the developers now go to the Bioware boards to answer questions and endure torment?

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We certainly couldn't function at optimal levels without or daily recommended dosages of questions and torment.

I don't understand.. When we posted in the Neverwinter Nights 2 forum on this board, we could get answers from the developers sometimes. It was highly informative and.. entertaining. (It was especially fun to torment Brian Lawson in the Graphics and Art discussions)

 

Will the developers now go to the Bioware boards to answer questions and endure torment?

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We hear you. We've always heard you guys and when possible we'd tell you what we could.

I'd just like to throw my vote in the hat for keeping the Obsid NWN2 boards open.

(I moved this post from the Announcement forum, because this seems a more proper place for it)

 

If Atari wants NWN2 boards over at BioWare, that's fine with me. I just don't see why BioWare must have the ONLY NWN2 boards. Why couldn't there be two forums? Truth be told, I don't like the BioWare boards. Beyond the time-consuming and poor performance of the massive board itself, they have a couple of official moderators over there who are rude and unpredictable. I've found it a nerve-wracking place to post, and a generally unpleasant place to hang out.

 

Would it not be possible to have NWN2 forums here and at BioWare as well?

(I moved this post from the Announcement forum, because this seems a more proper place for it)

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I was wondering for a moment, there...

I don't like the BioWare boards. Beyond the time-consuming and poor performance of the massive board itself, they have a couple of official moderators over there who are rude and unpredictable. I've found it a nerve-wracking place to post, and a generally unpleasant place to hang out.

 

Would it not be possible to have NWN2 forums here and at BioWare as well?

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I think you have a good point there. Two boards would be more time consuming for developers, but bioware boards are just awfull.

I like this idea. Atari has their NWN all in one location, and all of us can discuss the game in a good forum.

I'd also be quite happy for a "unofficial" NWN 2 forum here.

Yup, need a form of boards back here - it had a nice vibe.

 

The only thing is devs might find it too time consuming to browse numerous boards, or either their attention is spread thinner. Either way, many posters would gravitate to the baords that the devs favour.

Perhaps if they started a few new sections on this board, but without the Neverwinter Nights 2-references? Like perhaps a "Obsidian Graphics & Art discussions", a "Obsidian Story & Writing suggestions" and so on? Much like the ones we used to have, but without the Neverwinter Nights 2 logos, just so we'll be able to communicate with the developers?

If Atari wants NWN2 boards over at BioWare, that's fine with me. I just don't see why BioWare must have the ONLY NWN2 boards. Why couldn't there be two forums? Truth be told, I don't like the BioWare boards. Beyond the time-consuming and poor performance of the massive board itself, they have a couple of official moderators over there who are rude and unpredictable. I've found it a nerve-wracking place to post, and a generally unpleasant place to hang out.

 

Would it not be possible to have NWN2 forums here and at BioWare as well?

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i 100% agree with this statement.

 

if, god forbid, we the customers have any say whatsoever in it, id vote for keeping the nwn2 forums open on this message board, even if they have to be labelled the "unofficial" nwn2 forums.

The short answer is 'no'.

 

The long answer is that I think it was a good decision on everyone's part to move the official from these relatively desolate message board to one populated by the massive majority (2+ million) of NWN's fans and Bioware customers.

 

I don't think it was a hostile takeover. I don't think Obsidian Entertainment is dying (folks, there's such a thing as turnover). I don't think Bioware's taking over the project. It's just a sensible approach to popularize NWN2 and keep it within reach of the customers of the series.

 

It's a good decision, all in all, though the deletion of the posts (rather than the archival thereof) on the Obsidian Entertainment forum is regrettable. It's certainly a good enough indicator of tabula rasa, however - which is certainly something NWN2 could work with.

a few posts in this (and the other thread about the move) thread have got me wondering about something and hopefully either an obsidian employee or a mod/admin from this forum could answer it:

 

this forum has been, by in large, very tolerant and isnt so anal about bannings and warnings. from what i gather (and the small amount ive seen by just lurking on the bio boards), their moderators are anal and uptight (abuse of power, or whatever). so my question is then, does obsidian or the current mods here have any say whatsoever over there? if one of the "regulars" from here gets banned for a relatively minor offense (ie. something that would be overlooked here after maybe a pm warning), will they be able to step in and undo the ban? or are the bio mods going to have the all mighty power to do as they please?

The long answer is that I think it was a good decision on everyone's part to move the official from these relatively desolate message board to one populated by the massive majority (2+ million) of NWN's fans and Bioware customers.

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Yay, 2 million users eh? Currently, there's 419 of them online. Not such a drastic increase of users from these boards. And at least here, people visited the boards for either NWN 2 or Kotor 2. Who knows how many of the supposed 2 million users will bother with NWN 2 boards.

So what if 2 million aren't logged on at any given time? It still holds true that Bioware has far more users than these forums ever will. It certainly gave NWN2 a popularity spike. For awhile now, NWN2's been sitting in the back, behind the hype and attention of Dragon Age.

Could we try to discuss the topic at hand without reverting to the sandbox? The sandbox is so boring and eventually the teacher has to separate everyone ...

 

FLoSD.ObE

I agree, duel forums would be the best for the fans, but not best for the developers.

 

The BG games after the BIS/Bio split each had their own BG1 and BG2 forums with each developer. The fan then could use whatever forum he/she felt more comfortable with to ask his BG questions. This scenario is the best for the fan.

 

But for the developer, this would take too many resources keeping up on two forums. Too bad. I just hope after the game is release Obsidian can host NWN2 forums again. After release it would be ridiculous if they couldn

It still sucks.

It still sucks.

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Oh, I agree 100%. I too think it sucks.

Seriously, though, the calling people "crybabies" and whatnot needs to stop. There were many productive members of the OE NWN2 forums who have had both their community and those ideas/concepts that they contributed to ripped up and moved to another forum where a significant number of the posters say things like, "Why change NWN's formula at all?" and, "That concept art SUCKS!", as well as being 6 months behind on the info for NWN2 and not caring to do what is necessary to catch up. I think, given the history involved here, it is only natural and to be expected that there would be community members who feel some grief over the breakup of their e-neighborhood, and I think that it isn't too much to ask that said individuals be given a proper period of time to air their grievances. So, please, everyone, lighten up on the name-calling, and let people speak their minds.