Save Obsidian's NWN2 forums

[kirottu]

You get much better result for obsidian if you type "neverwinter nights 2" in google which is reasonable since obsidian is making it and had nothing to do with nwn.

[B5C]

You get much better result for obsidian if you type "neverwinter nights 2" in google which is reasonable since obsidian is making it and had nothing to do with nwn.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Most users type NEVERWINTER NIGHTS for news and information about the game. Because ATARI also wants the customers who do not know that there is a NWN squel in the works. Also ATARI is targeting the new RPG gamers that are comming on the market. Since NWN is a popular game and the news about the squel is very new. The search for NWN is much better than NWN2.

[kirottu]

Uh, I don

[B5C]

Uh, I don

[kirottu]

Marketing is boring. Japanese is the way to go. :cool:

[Judge Hades]

Personally I don't give a crap about marketing. I care about giving credit where credit is due. Obsidian is making NWN 2, not Bioware. Bioware only has a cursory involvement with this game. Game discussions belongs on its developers' forums, not their competitors. Friendly or not, Dragon Age is a competing product.

[Volourn]

"Personally I don't give a crap about marketing. I care about giving credit where credit is due. Obsidian is making NWN 2, not Bioware. Bioware only has a cursory involvement with this game. Game discussions belongs on its developers' forums, not their competitors. Friendly or not, Dragon Age is a competing product."

 

A. Obsidian is still gonna get credit for developing NWN2.

 

B. BIO has more than a 'cursory' involvement with the game though I guess that depends on how would define the line. Afterall, when NWN2 was first announced, I believe that Obsidian has scheduled 'progress reports' tp over with BIO supposedly and BIO was helping them with the Aurora Engine as well as 'continutiy issues' with the game including the campaign whatever that exactly means.

 

C. I do agree that ideally forums belong on the devlopers or publishers forums; but this isn't a bad compromise.

 

D. DA is not competition for DA. Not even close. Afterall, NWN2 will come out a FULL YEAR minimum before DA hits the shelves. No need to worry.

[Judge Hades]

Full year? last I heard from Ferret NWN 2 was looking at to be early 2006. Last I heard about DA it was going to be out sometime in 2006. Sounds pretty close to me.

[Volourn]

Late 2006 at the earliest. this is BIO. I don't expect it til 2007 Q1 if they 'rush'. Espicially if they plan to do all what they plan to.

[Judge Hades]

Well, from my lurking, since that is all I can do now, there are already people thinking that Bioware is making the game.

[Volourn]

That's because they are dumb.

 

Then again, remmeber, there are still some people who think BIO made PST and IWD or that BIS made BG.

 

Like I said, dumb people.

[Darque]

Well, from my lurking, since that is all I can do now, there are already people thinking that Bioware is making the game.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yuck

[Kevin Lynch]

Okay, have to say that I voted 'yes' to saving the Obs boards for NWN2. I happen to be one of those anal mods at Bio that understands there will always be those that will feel more at home in an environment more in tune with their own attitudes. I don't see why fans of the game (or those just wanting to learn about it or talk about it freely) can't have more than one location to express their opinions, for the bad or good. I understand Atari's reasoning here, I just think that there's room on the net for more than just a single set of forums for a game, especially, as mentioned earlier, when developers and publishers have often had different forums. Atari could have allowed Obs to keep their forums alive, explained that developers will be focusing on questions/answers in the Bio forums (since that seems to be the idea), and fans could link and/or bring over relevant content as needed to fill in things here (so developers wouldn't need to worry about answering the same things multiple times).

 

In the long run, everyone will settle into new niches. NWN2 is still early enough in development that the switch in forums won't hurt much, and Bio's fanbase (having several games including the original NWN out there) will have a beneficial effect on driving traffic to the NWN2 forums, and expose the game to a wider audience. Since, in the end, it's all about reaching your demographic and gathering in the sales, that can only be a good thing for future games.

 

As an aside, I use Firefox on a cable net connection at home and Bio's forums pop up 3-4 seconds. At work, it's IE and the same applies. Obs forums work at the same speed, so I can't recommend one over the other based on speed in my experience.

 

[Edit] I should have added that my personal preference, of course, will be the Bio boards since I'm there anyway. Much easier for me to jump around within those forums than otherwise, and I've certainly read and posted more in the NWN2 forums there since they opened than I ever did here. Why? Well.... "

[Ellester]

It

[FireFlash]

A comfort level is hard to find when every post is by a different person and every post contains posts by members you never see the next day.

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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.

[Judge Hades]

I have no problems getting people in the loop. They could come here and discuss it instead of the Bioware forums. Its not like Obsidian's forums are exclusive or anything. Its not like NWN 2 isn't being covered by the major NWN sites either. There is exposure to the game. The move was unnecessary.

[FireFlash]

I have no problems getting people in the loop.  They could come here and discuss it instead of the Bioware forums.  Its not like Obsidian's forums are exclusive or anything.  Its not like NWN 2 isn't being covered by the major NWN sites either.  There is exposure to the game.  The move was unnecessary.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

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.

[deganawida]

Steel Wind's first post, from August 17th. At no point does he attempt to change the situation though example (though he does contact the moderators or admin, judging from what he says); on the contrary, he fans the flames of trollism. The more that I see, and the more DLA members join up just to troll those of us who have been posting here, the more convinced I am that some CC creator got his feelings hurt because some OE poster didn't worship the ground that he walked on ("Wow! You made the ultra-realistic big-breasted jiggy nudie hak? You are a god!") and instead challenged him, and then said CC creator went off in a tantrum to complain to Atari. Rather childish behavior, if you ask me, and which makes me, at least, less likely to purchase NWN.

[Drakron]

Then Atari is being really stupid.

 

NwN was designed as a moddable game, like The Sims but unlike The Sims the modding failed to support the game sales.

 

Its not the "NwN CC" that are going to make NwN 2 a sales success, BioWare already come to the conclusion that the NwN model is impratical and abandoned it in "Dragon Age".

 

What I feel is happening is that Atari so far had one sucesseful game (NwN) of all released D&D titles (and only 2 were actual RPGs) and since NwN was their only D&D online game they must be thinking it was the online ability that made the sales as in fact what did was the many BG players that picked up NwN based on BioWare track record.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Then Atari is being really stupid.

 

NwN was designed as a moddable game, like The Sims but unlike The Sims the modding failed to support the game sales.

 

Its not the "NwN CC" that are going to make NwN 2 a sales success, BioWare already come to the conclusion that the NwN model is impratical and abandoned it in "Dragon Age".

 

What I feel is happening is that Atari so far had one sucesseful game (NwN) of all released D&D titles (and only 2 were actual RPGs) and since NwN was their only D&D online game they must be thinking it was the online ability that made the sales as in fact what did was the many BG players that picked up NwN based on BioWare track record.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The whole mod culture is very short sighted from developers and publishers. Sure all that free publicity is nice but if people are playing something they wont be buying.

 

When I was playing MMPORGS I never bought other software I never needed other software because they were a full time occupation. Add to that you can only seriously ever play one MMPORG at time.

 

Since I gave up , well last year I bought over 70 games, wonder which year does the best for the industry..

 

People shouldnt confuse hostility with apathy. I couldnt really care about the NwN builder stuff I never use it so it's of no advantage to me.

 

One of my major reasons for becoming primarily a console player is because there the games are very focused single player for the most part and they will stay that way for the next generation at least.

 

Where as PC games are becoming wishy washy half and half things. I've done the PW's , I've done the MMPORGs and the MP stuff. Family life really dosnt allow for that sort of commitment from me anymore.

 

When people call NwN a huge success I just point to Dragon Warrior and grin a lot

 

Unless you can get some sort of financial support from your long term projects. DD is a start but nowhere near the success story bioware wanted it to be (because your not reaching the offline majority). Your going to shoot yourself in the foot when it comes to the future. Seriously why do you think developers are so eager to work for Bill ?

[Drakron]

True, the only game with extensive modding that keeps selling is The Sims but not only its a offline game but EA ships out a expansion with new base objects, interactions and things that are impossible to be done by modders every six months so they keep selling the game.

 

I have no doubt that BioWare tried to copy The Sims model in NwN but failed.

[Arkan]

I have no doubt that BioWare tried to copy The Sims model in NwN but failed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And how!

[Dethangels Shadow]

Might I make a suggestion... ?

 

Despite whatever differences in opinion some of us may have, and regardless of your opinion of BioWare, should you want a place to discuss NWN2 freely, you may go to www.nwn2news.net and discuss the issues at length... no fear of reprisal from either camp, as we are independent from both BioWare and Obsidian.

 

Likewise, for live discussions, you can visit our IRC server...

irc.nwn2news.net:6667

 

That's irc.nwn2news.net for the server, port 6667... this is for IRC clients (such as mIRC and XChat)... if you want to use the Java applet, you can find it here.

[Volourn]

"comfort level is hard to find when every post is by a different person and every post contains posts by members you never see the next day. The only people who are recognizable on the NWN forums are the mods like Beerfish. I think Volourn and Vis were the only two members with enough spamming power to get noticed in the sea of NWN forum members. A comfort level is hard to find in that situation."

 

That's a good point. It's not cool being unknown you say? Meh. Still more people means more likeliness of a good point or opinion being brought up than having the same 10-20 people post basically the same thing every day. Of course, youa re also gonna see more silly posts too. HEH.

 

 

"in fact what did was the many BG players that picked up NwN based on BioWare track record."

 

That doesn't explain its continued sales and accolades several yeas after its release does? This exuse that NWN sold solely based on BG is just plain retarded with so little facts to prove it. It sold a combination of factors - solid advertsiing camapign, BIO's (not BG's) reputation, D&D (the true big reason), and it was offering soemthing that people wanted. Good word of mouth to the chagrin of the vocal minority also has helped its continued sales.

 

 

"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."

 

Those guys are being crybabies much like some here. You all deserve each other.

[Drakron]

Ah Volourn is talking crap again ...

 

BioWare own online survey pointed out that the large majority played NwN for its single player and BioWare reputation was build on the Baldur