Check out the new poll on the right. It's repeated on the Ossian Studios website. I'd urge you to vote on either or both. Please only vote once.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the DRM discussion below, except that one guy who said he would have bought MoW if not for the DRM and then proceeded to link to a torrent site instead. I removed his comment. As far as I'm concerned, if you bought MoW to support Ossian, I thank you; if you resisted because of the DRM, I salute you; but don't try to take the moral high ground on DRM and then pirate because you, my friend, are the problem.
About the Author
- Luke Scull aka "Alazander"
- Luke is currently Lead Designer with CRPG developer Ossian Studios. As well as his professional commitments, Luke is working on independent module projects for both NWN1 and NWN2. Luke is also working on his first fantasy novel, which he hopes to complete in late 2009.
Ossian Studios
The NWN1 AL Series
Neverwinter Nights Community Links
My NWN2 Module Scores
- Fate of a City - 9.00
- Lute Hero - 9.00
- Dark Avenger Chapter 1 - 8.75
- The Birthday - 8.50
- Moonshadows Chapter One - 8.50
- Stormchaser - 8.25
- FRW Character Creator - 8.00
- Vordan's Hero Creator- 8.00
- Tragedy in Tragidor - 7.50
- The Zelbross Affair - 7.25
- Grimm Brigade - 7.00
- Temple of Torm - 6.75
- Prophecy of Aracas (Demo) - 6.50
- Escape from Charnia - 6.00
- Shadow Keep - 5.00
The NWN Blogosphere
- Adam Miller's Website
- Amraphael's Blog
- Anduraga's Blog
- Berliad's Blog
- Berra's NWN Blog
- Dirtywick's House of Awesome
- Elven Rogue's Blog
- ENoa4's RPG/NWN Blog
- Hugie's Blog
- LadyElvenStar's Blog
- Lance Botelle's Blog
- Lorft's Blog
- Maerduin's Blog
- Markus Schlegel's Games
- Raith Veldrin's Blog
- Rashidi's Blog
- Rob McGinnis' Obsidian Blog
- Rogue Dao Studios
- Sir Elric's Blog
- Tiberius' Blog
- Wyrin D'njargo's Blog
Blog Archive
-
►
2008
(40)
-
►
March
(14)
- Mysteries of Westgate Spotlight #3: Merchants of W...
- Mysteries of Westgate: "As Worthy As Mask of the B...
- Dark Waters Released
- Mysteries of Westgate Spotlight #2: Cosmopolitan W...
- Mysteries of Westgate Intro Movie Released!
- Of Time and Death's Feast Module Review
- NWN Networking
- The Zelbross Affair Module Review
- Mysteries of Westgate Spotlight #1: The Legend of ...
- 4th Mysteries of Westgate Developer Diary
- Competition Time
- RIP Gary Gygax (1938 - 2008)
- The Blades of Netheril Companion Spotlight: Maganu...
- Swordflight Chapter One Module Review
-
►
March
(14)
11 comments:
My goodness, your last blog comments went ballistic! That must be a record and a sure sign that DRM is a very contentious issue.
My apologies to those I missed responding to in the last blog, but I will try to encompass a single response to all now.
I am a great fan of NWN1 and NWN2. I was probably one of the first 100 people to join the NWN forums when they opened and have been a avid follower for years.
I wholeheartedly agree that *if* the future of NWN2 depended on the sales of MoW, I would have most likely contributed. However, I do not believe this to be the case. I would hope Atari would recognise interest in NWN2 by internet volume as much as any other, or at least recognise the number of sales lost due to those people who do not support DRM in products.
My main reason for not supporting DRM is two-fold:-
1) I have experienced computer difficulties after a DRM product was installed and started to interfere with my OS. I posted about it in my own blog: http://worldofalthea.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-loathe-securom.html
2) I do not want to be limited to the number of times I play an item due to installation checks. As a similar example, I bought Hellgate to play with a friend. We only managed to play it once as the server was pulled. There is no LAN support and so this game is now a coaster as far as MP goes. If there is any chance I will be limited on installs, then (like others have said), I do not want to feel like I am "renting" something rather than buying it.
I hope people will know me well enough by now that I wish Ossian every success in their ventures, and hope this experience helps them in some way. I was pleased to read in one post that EA are not entertaining DRM - that means I should be able to buy DA with peace of mind. And like others have said, I hope the talents of everyone at Ossian are recognised and are rewarded in some way, even if it is not by immediate sales or via Atari.
As for me, I will continue to support NWN2 for some time, as I am really slow at writing a module. ;) I just hope there will be some players left around by the time I get my mod out. ;)
Lance.
Hiya Alaz....
The poll is somewhat tough. I realize this is inexact science howver the choices dont allow me " I will buy it" someday.
I would buy MOW in a smack dab nano second if my current rig would play NWN2. My box fits the minimum requirements but it is unplayable on for me.
So downloading MOW makes no sense when I cant play the OC let alone other expansions.
Regards and success to you and the O's.
Jfoxtail
I see many people chosed the other option. I think that's because of the download-only purchace. That's because I'm not going to buy it anytime soon too.
I know the sample size is smaller, but this poll strikes me as much more realistic in percentages than that on Ossian's website that shows a 5 to 1 ratio. Obviously, even the 1 to 1 shown here is problematic.
I, too, would like to see some details of what people mean by "other" when they choose that. Does that mean they use a platform that doesn't work? Do they not like digital download at all? Does the product just not interest them?
Hi, just want to clarify that my vote on "others" stands for "I will buy it as soon as it goes live on Steam, where I already have an account, or - alternatively - as soon as there is an official word that MoW will not be available on Steam I will buy it from another provider".
I have been eagerly waiting for so long to play it that I can wait one more month for the luxury of sticking with a provider I am accustomed to, but I will buy it at all costs, since I am sure it is an awesome product.
regards,
Nacaal
I also vote "other" for reasons similar to jfoxtail. My current PC is not young enough to play NWN2 and although I really enjoyed the work of many Ossian people with NWN and would have gladly bought any Premium module from them, I'll skip NWN2 and upgrade my PC in order to play Dragon Age
I'm voting others for the digital download, which I refuse to use. My credit card number stays with, and me only.
Nevertheless, I wish Ossian well and would like to buy it if not for that little problem.
Hi Alazander,
Just so Im not leaving an Anon messages, I go by Todde on the NWN Vault.
I have been a big fan of both your mods and the mods of the folks you work with at Ossan. I would love to support you guys in doing what you love for a living but sadly I cant. Its got nothing to do with the copy protection, and everything to do with the fact that I find NWN2 to be a truly horrible game and Obsidian to be a less than stellar company.
I know opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and the same stuff comes out of both, but for my money NWN2 is a poor imitation of NWN1.
And yes, I had played the game and I did attempt to give it a go but found it lacking.
NWN isnt just a game but a brand and with brands the buyer assumes that they will be getting various things with a brand. NWN was not a game. It was a very versitile toolset packaged with a game. Period. The toolset was a very empowering thing for the gaming community. It was simple enough to use and master but was capable of doing much more complex things as the player got better at using it. Im sure there are accomplshed modders out there who started out at total noobs with the toolset but because the toolset had a fast learning curve those 'noobs' stayed interested in the toolset and exploring it and soon learned the skills to mod and code in a complex way. The evidence is in the sheer number of mods on the vault. Sure not all of them are good but they are at least there. Compare the number of mods out there at this point in the NWN2 timeline to the number for NWN1 that were on the Vault of that same amount of game release time.
NWN2 has a very user unfriendly toolset. Sure the game is more complex than NWN1 but if Atari cared about carring the NWN brand forward they would try to keep intact some of the key elements in the NWN brand. They didnt. And its clear why, with a useable toolset the players dont have to pay for more content, they can just make their own. No money in that. Also a user friendly toolset keeps the game going for a long time and thus players dont need to buy or are eager for new games in the series.
Ok sure you can accuse me of simplsitic thinking on this issue but I feel that NWN2 is a deeply flawed game in that it doesnt carry the NWN brand on and the biggest reason is money. Atari doesnt care. Why sink the money and effort into a game that is the next step up from NWN when there is more money in the console market. Get the lesser game out make the dough and move on.
The answer to the question of "why do they....." or "why dont they..." is ALWAYS money. The only thing that confuses me in you guys dealing with them is why Atari waited so long to get your Xpac out? My guess is that we are lucky (or you are) that it even saw the light of day. I suspect it was in limbo because Atari was thinking of not releasing it at all. Either way I wont be picking up your work because Im voting with my dollar and not supporting Atari and the lackluster game that NWN2 is. For my money it would have been better for NWN2 to never have come out if Bioware wasnt going to keep creative control over it.
Sorry mate but it seems that you and your very gifted friends in Ossan got delt a bad hand and ended up tied to a bad company. I hope that your young company can recover and that you guys as a game studio can and will be able to make games after all the dust has settled around this.
It seems to me that if NWN2 was more the game that NWN was (a better game) then DRM wouldnt be much of an issue for people because they would be getting something worthwhile dispite the hassle that DRM can create.
For me, honestly, I will think twice about buying a game that is created by Obsidian and/or shipped by Atari. I for one have been left with a very bad taste in my mouth by both companies.
True, Neverwinter Nights 2 was DOA on release in big part because the development was handled by Obsidian Entertainment. These guys and gals at Obsidian may be good at some things, but not enough to overcome the things they are really bad at, needless to say I'm never touching an Obsidian Title ever again, I don't care what genre it is...
Fact: they didn't have a clue what Neverwinter nights was about... heck, leaves one to wonder if they ever even played the damed game, see for yourselves
http://pc.rpgsite.net/previews/60/40.html
Feargus:
"So fast forward to about 2003 or 2004 and Atari approaches us and gives us the great opportunity to do Neverwinter Nights 2. And so first of all, hey, yeah, wow, that's cool. Then we tried to think about it; well what does that mean? Like, what do we do? Like, okay yeah so, as it is, there are thousands of people playing it online. They've modules going and it became a repository for a lot of people making modules as it evolved.... And so, it kind of became a thing of elation to 'What the hell are we gonna do?' And I think it all became easier once we sat down and talked about it.
You know our job in making Neverwinter Nights 2 is not to go nuts. It's not to make it into something it's not. It's to take what it is and move it forward. That was our whole thing. So we had to decide on what is Neverwinter Nights. It's a single player game that takes a whole long time to play it, with a story. It's a multi-player game for people to get online and play with their friends.... And it provides toolkits for people to finally make modules the way they would want to in their heads on the computer." --Feargus Urquhart, Obsidian Entertainment"
So, sorry for you guys at Ossian, but you chose the worse game as an attempt to get yourselves started.
I guess better luck next time.
I don't get what all the fuss is about with this DRM question.
If your activations run out, simply send a mail to Atari tech support, they'll give you unlimited fresh activations if needed.
People who complain about DRM (they're most often also the same people who whine about Steam) are either a bunch of paranoid nerds, or complete computer noobs.
Honestly, all this DRM whining makes me sick... the game is only 10 bucks FFS!
Anyway, I bought MoW a few days ago and I'm enjoying it so far, excellent module.
Now when does AL4 come out? ;)
(It'll still come out, right?)
Well, NWN2 is on sale for 5$ on Direct2Drive and I plan to update my PC soon so it's a really good time to buy your module as well and enjoy the work of Ossian Studios!
Post a Comment