Download efurtado_2003_1.pdf

Contents : Neverwinter Nights: Bioware Brings the Tabletop to the Desktop By Eric Furtado 3/18/03 1 "With Baldur's Gate we sparked a role-playing renaissance now a multiplayer revolution!" These are the words spoken in the opening of an early trailer for Neverwinter Nights released for the PC in June of 2002. Even at the point when the trailer was released in 2000 anticipation for the game was already running high. In 1998 Bioware the developer of Neverwinter Nights had almost single handedly resurrected the ailing computer roleplaying game (RPG) market with its great graphics excellent implementation of the AD&D 2nd Edition rules and remarkable story. The aforementioned trailer for Neverwinter Nights although not the first trailer was included on the CD of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. The video clearly states Bioware's goal in its creation of Neverwinter Nights: to recreate as accurately as possible the feel and play style of pen and paper (or PnP) roleplaying Dungeon Master included on the PC. Were they successful The answer is a resounding yes. For this reason Neverwinter 2 Nights stands as model for future games and stands as a landmark in the history of computer RPGs. Word of Neverwinter Nights first surfaced in 1999 at GenCon along with an announcement by Wizards of the Coast about the new 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rule set. However the idea for Neverwinter Nights was created in 1997 as "the ultimate pen-and-paper role-playing game simulation." Up until this point computer role-playing games had been primarily single player affairs or had multiplayer gameplay tacked on at the end of their development to allow groups of people to progress through the single player portion of the game with friends but there was nothing that allowed them to create their own adventures. This seemed to completely remove the main draws of pen and paper role-playing games: creating and participating in grand stories of adventure and heroic deeds whilst in the company of friends. Neverwinter Nights circa 1999 Inspired by these tabletop games Bioware aimed "to capture the subtleties of a pen-and-paper roleplaying session in a computer game including a fully featured Dungeon Master with full control over the game world as it unfolds and an extremely approachable toolset to allow nontechnical(sic) users to make basic content" (Greig). These two features the Dungeon Master and user created content were really what had separated pen-and-paper roleplaying from computer roleplaying in the past and what 3 would separate Neverwinter Nights from other games in its genre. In addition Bioware knew they needed a thriving and avid fan community to make the game succeed. During its development Jonathan Tweet the lead designer of the 3rd Edition D&D rules said of Neverwinter Nights " this is the computer game that we paper role-player game designers have talked about as a concept and as something of a bogeyman for years" (Sones 48). There had been previous valiant attempts at games that allowed users to create their own content Adventure Construction Set in 1987 by Electronic Arts and the first for D&D Unlimited Adventures by SSI in 1993 although both products were plagued by the same two problems. The first problem was that at the time there was no real way for people to get their own content out and about and available to other users. Friends could swap disks with homemade adventures on them but that was about the limit of exchange possibilities (Brockington). Pen and paper adventures (called modules which is also the moniker that Neverwinter Nights adopted for its user-made content) were routinely published in various fan magazines which often incorporated fan submissions. Computer games didn't have that possibility as mailing computer disks to subscribers would not have been a cheap venture. The second problem was that both of these programs only allowed users to create singleplayer pre-scripted adventures. While such modules could be quite good they could never hope to recreate the feeling of sitting down at a table for hours with a group of friends and having everything be coordinated by a real live person. Part of the problem was that these modules were static and unchanging. Every time a person would play through a module it would be the same. The Dungeon Master in pen and paper games helped alleviate these problems at the tabletop. The DM could spice up the game at his will throwing down extra monsters or presenting new 4 traps and obstacles at his whim. He could also change the story if he wanted. None of these options were available in a computer roleplaying product. Thankfully both of these problems were solved making way for Neverwinter Nights with one great invention: the Internet. The Internet solved the problem of availability allowing users to transfer their creations electronically and have access to a wider range of people with NWVault A Popular Community Site whom to share. The Internet also allowed multiplayer gaming to take off since people could play with others from around the world. However Bioware knew none of this would work if their users couldn't figure out how to make their own stories come to life. They wanted people to be able to create professional quality content as was being created in the Half-Life community (a first person shooter by Sierra) but in the large quantities that people were able to create their own simple maps for Starcraft (by Blizzard). Bioware knew that in order for the product to succeed they had to get a significant number of people creating content. If very little content was available the game would never work (Brockington). From the beginning a major goal was to provide a powerful yet fairly easy to use toolset. "The same tools we use to make our modules you can use to make your modules " said Trent Oster the game's producer and senior artist in an early interview about Neverwinter Nights in Computer Games Magazine (Vanous) . In comparison to their previous project

INFO HASH : 9cb86e93185f862920ea93f9a80f2e251396809a

Download now

File Size: 2.3 mb