2 other, like, NWN2 previews

[Gromnir]

if Gromnir is over-reacting it is 'cause we sees a void left by the folks we thinks should be reacting. am frankly disgusted that so many who we know does care 'bout this is just so damned complacent 'bout it. is why we keeps getting shorter games and buggier games: 'cause we lets the publishers and developers get away with it.

 

one thing that guts under our skin is when folks simply accept what they has been told or what they has been given. sure, when nwn2 comes out and it is short or buggy lots of you will complain, but it will be too late... 'cause you will have already bought game and proved to obsidian and atari that your post purchase complaints is just so much noisome wind... leave nothing but stench behind.

 

now is when you got a chance to get some meaningful answers that could leads you to making an informed choice. don't simply wait til game is released to complain... 'cause you lost any real power at that point.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Volourn]

"one thing that guts under our skin is when folks simply accept what they has been told or what they has been given."

 

Yeah, because that describes me to a tee. You know, someone, who just accepts what they're told, shuts up, and never says anything to devs. Uhuh. LOL :D

[Cantousent]

Asking questions millions of times has an effect. If you and all the other folks here asked the questions, then we would get an answer. If the folks over at the NWN2 boards spammed the questions in any significant number, there's no doubt but that Feargus would answer.

 

Frankly, I've sent out emails and mail to folks concerning the issue, but some of the folks I've asked have already given me an answer by publishing previews of the game.

 

So, yes, consumers owe it to themselves to agitate. If you really want pocket protector familiars, and it's an important aspect for your gaming pleasure, yes, you should agitate. If you can get a lot of other folks to join, you might actually have an effect.

 

Do you really think that these message boards don't have any impact?

 

At any rate, I'm satisfied with the news. I think it makes sense for Feargus to let these answers resolve themselves. It sure as hell beats taking a chance and responding. I say that even though I would much rather that he personally answer the question. Nonetheless, we're getting answers, which was bound to happen all along no matter what.

 

Even if this Codex nonesense hadn't reared its ugly head, we'd still get some word concerning the length of the campaign. It's just the strange manner in which we received the "information" that caused the uproar. Of course, as more reliable sources make themselves heard, and as the original source of the controversy is increasingly discredited, it's going to cease being an issue for more and more people.

 

I don't care about the original issue nearly so much now as I did a few days ago. ...And, damn, it hasn't even been the couple of weeks I said we should wait before we went completely hog wild.

 

The issue for me, now, is to address the idea that we shouldn't ask questions and keep asking until we get an answer.

[Gromnir]

"If Mr. U wants to give you answers he will. Asking questions over, and over can go from being an intelligent potential consumer to harassing."

 

anybody recall krazy? his dual-wield nonsense drove most of us a little nuts... but Gromnir were right there with him up to and until he actually GOT an asnwer. krazy only went too far when he refused to accept the answer he got... but we applaud him for pushing for a response.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Moose]

Maybe 'Mr.U' just forgot his password and can't sign in to reply... When was the last anyone saw him here anyway? Over a year?

[Volourn]

"Asking questions millions of times has an effect."

 

Oh. No doubt. Harrassment charges, bannings, and all sorts of things could happen. You might possibly even get an answer.

 

 

"Do you really think that these message boards don't have any impact?"

 

Not as much as many seem to think. It has an impact; but I doubt it's their number one thing they use to determine what their game(s) need.

 

 

"Maybe 'Mr.U' just forgot his password and can't sign in to reply... When was the last anyone saw him here anyway? Over a year?"

 

Ha.

Edited May 4, 2006 by Volourn

[Gromnir]

"one thing that guts under our skin is when folks simply accept what they has been told or what they has been given."

 

Yeah, because that describes me to a tee. You know, someone, who just accepts what they're told, shuts up, and never says anything to devs.  Uhuh. LOL :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

and yet you is telling Gromnir and eldar and others that we should just accept silence as our answer.

 

bah.

 

am not gonna act as if you is reasonable... is wasted effort.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Volourn]

"and yet you is telling Gromnir and eldar and others that we should just accept silence as our answer."

 

Because. You have asked your question. Numerous times. Mr. Sawyer gave you what his thoughts on his issue. Mr. U hasn't even taken the time to reply , and as you said , it would likely take a few minutes for him to do so, yet he hasn't. That should tell you soemthing. He obviously doesn't see this as an important issue.

 

When I complained about various issues, I didn't spam multiple thread pver and over, or start talking about how 'they owe me' 'cause they don't or sent emails to the moon.. We haven't bought NWN2 yet so we're owed nothing.

 

You are making this a 'federal case', and it simply isn't.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

All this from one questionable preveiw.

 

I don't disagree that asking questions is a good thing.

 

However look at the way things shape up.

 

There is always more than one preview from a variety of sources. You have E3 around the corner and people are going to be asking even more questions.

 

I'd call it an over reaction.

[Cantousent]

You know, I remember Interplay. If you think message boards and fan responses don't have an impact, you're nuts.

 

Now, we don't have anything of the sort of problem as Interplay had with the Fallout crazies, but message boards have an impact, my friend.

 

Anyhow, Vol, you'd be clamoring for answers too, if the issue were nearer and dearer to your heart. You can be quite a handful sometimes, can you not?

 

The issue of game length is not what's important to me. Where Gromnir is entirely right is that we should keep asking the questions.

 

I'd use myself as an example, but Gromnir's much more in your face, so I'll use him instead. Gromnir will undoubtedly keep hassling for an answer to this question. Not only is he pretty damned safe from any sort of harrassment charge, I seriously doubt if he gets an official warning for his posts let alone banned from the board. Nuts, Vol.

 

Anyhow, I'll take time to cool down. There's no point in getting angry about a message board issue. Especially now that it's mostly academic as the original point has lost some of its urgency.

[Moose]

That should tell you soemthing. He obviously doesn't see this as an important issue.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Dunno about that, he's probably just got better things to do than troll forums all day whilst the games still under full development. He's got peons to do that for him.

[Llyranor]

The Gamespy preview claimed that mp was 16 players only, which is completely false. Previews screw up often. Of course, people talked about it and a dev promptly corrected it.

 

Did that German preview screw up? Regardless, we've already had our official answer here. The lead designer has already said it's too early to properly assess the length at this point.

[Gromnir]

btw, is not like Gromnir needs fergie to tell us how many playable hours nwn2 gots. josh told us that fergie were talking out his arse when he came up with 20 hours... noted that fergie not had 'nuff info to makes a reliable guestimate... pointed out that nobody at this point gots power to make a reliable estimate. fine. we accept that. problem is that we still not know why fergie made his 20 hour estimate... or if he even did... and he ain't trying to clarify at all. fact is that we gots a german magazine article we cannot read... and we gots a german guy telling us what fergie said in that german magazine article. 20 hours.

 

1) 2 weeks ago fergie says 20. disturbing # of people is ok with that, but many complain.

 

2) josh informs us all that fergie cannot have made an educated guess 'bout hours of gameplay and many of you is mollified 'cause that mean that maybe you gets more than 20 hours, right?

 

3) now you sees in some preview that the guestimate is 40 hours and more of you is happy 'cause 40 hours sure sounds better than 20... but you seems to forget that josh were just telling you how improbable a current guestimate of playable hours at this point is.

 

4) Gromnir begins to thinks that many of you people is on drugs.

 

5 minutes of time for somebody to clarify.

 

oh, and vol, leave the job of trying to get eldar or Gromnir brought up on harassment charges to the da... 'cause you not know what in the hell you is talking 'bout... as is par for course. heck you admit that you is full of crap often nuff... maybe you tell fergie that doing so ain't so hard, then maybe we gets a response.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 4, 2006 by Gromnir

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

We all know that would not have been the end of it.

 

Feargus would be in a lose/lose situation.

 

If he confirms it's 20 hours everyone goes nuts.

If he says it's longer and then it turns out to be short, everyone calls him a liar.

 

Smart thing with all those other previews in waiting is to sit back and let them answer the question. It's not like the game is anywhere near release so anyone not buying it on some rumour is to use a phrase you use often, nuts.

Edited May 4, 2006 by ShadowPaladin V1.0

[Gromnir]

if fergie says he doesn't really know how many hours nwn2 gots and he pulled "20" out of thin air then he looks silly, but issue dies... for now.

 

fergie could also claim that the guy at codex is a liar, and that he never said no 20 hours... but if it turns out that the codexian weren't full o' crap...

 

is a number of options for fergie. come clean and admit that he were talking out his arse when he gave estimate might be a bruise to his ego for a second, but we would respect him more than we does now.

 

oh, and for the record, being the suspicious kinda fella we is, we does note that shortly after we seen a good 'mount of feedback here and at bio suggesting that 40 hour would be much preferred for nwn2 as 'posed to 20, we now suddenly sees a preview from gamespy that says 40... or maybe you thinks gamespy reporter pulled 40 number out of thin air too?

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 4, 2006 by Gromnir

[Volourn]

"Regardless, we've already had our official answer here. The lead designer has already said it's too early to properly assess the length at this point."

 

Bingo. You win. "

 

Eldar & Grom: That's all good except in this case, you got an answer. Mr. Sawyer gave you an answer. Why don't you just accept it? That's what the problem is currently.

Edited May 4, 2006 by Volourn

[Llyranor]

Well, I still can't accept that NWN2 is real-time Just because it's there doesn't mean I have to like it.

[Gromnir]

"Regardless, we've already had our official answer here. The lead designer has already said it's too early to properly assess the length at this point."

 

Bingo. You win. "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

too bad you is getting an answer to the wrong question.

 

looks at the two previews linked.

 

one says 40

 

other says at least 30.

 

these preview guys is getting these numbers from somewhere. if no estimate can be given, then why did fergie give 20, and why does obsidian keeps giving out estimates to reporters? was 20 the mistake? maybe 40 were... or 30. they get another preview that say 10 and future one that says 50 and obsidian will be able to comes back after game release and simply say, see, we were right. pretty much gotta be with a range like that.

 

lead designer tells us that some areas of game had to be cut... but gameplay hours has seemingly doubled. go figure.

 

and again, if no gameplay hours is possible to estimate, then why is the damned developers continuing to give out estimates to reporters? maybe we hear from josh that nobody at obsidian gave out the new estimates... which means that either the reporters is liars, or they got their numbers from atari... in which case the only estimate we still got from obsidian is the fergie estimate.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 4, 2006 by Gromnir

[alanschu]

Thirty hours will do, seeing as a life line was dropped back into the multiplayer aspect of the game again.

 

According to Frank Kowthingyman PWs will be able to support roughly 40 areas per a gig of RAM, not taking into account all final overheads etc, so roughly ~150-160 areas (max size, which tbh nobody makes) for a 4Gig set up. Certainly adequate.

 

The thing that's obviously a concern is the length of time a player has to spend downloading on an area transition. Average area size is something 7-9Megs per an outside area, which is like 10x larger than the old setup. Still we'll see, maybe they'll add some uber compression techniques.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If it's already sitting in memory, then I doubt load times will really be that significant.

[Azarkon]

I think part of the reason devs don't want to confirm or deny game lengths is that it tends to drastically differ between gamers. If I say that you'll at least play 20 hours, I'm making a guarantee - which in turn will lead to disappointment if some guy beats the game in ten.

 

Lower estimates, in this case, tends to be "safer," since you won't be left in a situation ala HoW, which might've motivated Feargus playing it safe this time around by underestimating the game length. We also have to factor in any non-linearity, since the playthrough gamer might ignore side quests and go straight for the goal, of course, and that might make the range of gameplay vary widely between 20-40+ hours.

 

To be honest, I tend to believe Sawyer in that even Obs don't really have an accurate estimate of the actual game length.

Edited May 4, 2006 by Azarkon

[Junai]

Weee...

 

It's 90 hrs if you play it 3 times!

How cool is that?!..

 

What do they think people are idiots?

 

J.

[Volourn]

Replay time should count when talking about 'value for money base don time played'.

[kirottu]

am just not sure why you jokers is letting him get away with this crap.  if you honestly thinks 20 hours is an okie dokie new standard for a sp crpg, then fine... sit back and enjoy.  but if 20 hours bothers you we don't knows why you wouldn't be banging on doors and sending emals and posting on boards.  fergie only stirs when people makes a big 'nuf stink.  is unfortunate but true.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That

[Darque]

40 hours eh?

 

That'd be fine by me.

 

30'd be a little short... 40'd be fine.

[metadigital]

Is it still due to be released: 09 June 2006 (i.e. just over five weeks)?