The multiplayer RPG experience

[Animal]

So, back in the day there were NWN modules. You could go in a persistent world and battle monsters, joined up with whoever was around and even engage in guild wars and roleplay, if you were so inclined.

Then it started to die out. NWN2 didn't took off on the multiplayer side and, nowadays, it's mostly a handful of roleplaying servers.

I turned to WoW, but that was only ever fun for a month, until all I could see was boring grind, not helped by an uninteresting lore and an impersonal experience.

Is anyone nostalgic of the NWN multiplayer days? Have you found another game that could approximate that experience? Am I an old nostalgic dumbass who should go play my backlog of single player games and stfu?

 

[Aothan]

yes, I really enjoyed NWN 1 & 2 online, servers could be lively with no more than 50 - 120 active players (if not less at times). I imagine there are still active servers for NWN 2 and most likel NWN 1 as well. There is a lot to say here but I'm a touch rushed for now.

my main concern with the NWN experience is that unlike other games we might play for years, when you finally walk away from these online games there is no skill transference whatsoever. At least nothing particular to the games themselves, earlier experiences with Starcraft and the likes did help to develop strategies and analysis, but D&D NWN is very much self-contained.

even so, if I really wanted to squander time I would return to NWN 2 servers, in some ways I still find the character development of those games more complex and layered than more recent games.

 

[Rahdulan]

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption essentially had NWN1-lite multiplayer, except for lack of comprehensive and simple any editor with interface which bit it in the ass. I think there's a mod that lets you play the entire campaign co-op so that's something to perhaps consider if you haven't experienced it yet. Although game itself is far more on hack and slash side of things so that's probably not what you're looking for and certainly not the same compared to persistent servers.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

The problem with MMORPGs is you can't mod them. They don't really have difficulty levels either--although they do frequently have easy/hard versions of instances, but this misses other details which an overall difficulty can satisfy. They tend to be tailored for EVERYBODY and to pool everybody together, doing the same things. This is because the game is stored on the servers and it's an MMO. It's competitive or at least social-oriented. It's not a customized experience for yourself.

And I do think story/lore/etc sometimes is drowned out by the competitive aspect. And mudflation also impacts it. Mudflation is the cure to the illness but eventually the cure becomes just as bad as the illness, making it low quality.

MMO's just seem like they want a ever larger audience. They're more greedy somehow. And they also seem to want to milk their players as mcuh as possible, producing the least amount of quality content necessary.

But to be fair, many players play the MMO's for social and/or competitive reasons. The RPG aspect is less important. WOW, in its heyday (2005-07), was so successful because it has huge amounts of quality content. And it offered this content in such a way it was accessible, but still challenging and social. MMO's of late seem to be more single-player oriented--which social/competitive players don't like--and yet older ones, like WoW, are suffering from mudflation and old age.

 

[Ninjerk]

I've been thinking how nice it would be to have a game like Diablo or Diablo 2, but designed with the possibility of players choosing competing objectives per Act rather than just having PvP flagging (or flatout enabled) within the regular "kill tbe bad" storyline.

 

[Eirikur]

I played the NWN PWs "City of Arabel" then "Escape From the Underdark" for years. A bit nostalgic about those.

The creators of those PWs (or perhaps it was just CoA) had big plans with "Tales of Moonsea" in NWN2. Too bad it didn't work out very well.

 

[Animal]

I'm not very into Role Playing. I mean, I don't mind focusing on killing stuff and leveling up in a RP environment, but I'm not much into just typing stuff.

As far as I know, the RP scene is alive and well in NWN2, but the more action focused servers are non existant. NWN1 still has a lot of people, but I'm burned out on it's engine.

http://www.nwnlist.com/

It was a very pleasurable experience just doing your thing, leveling up characters under D&d ruleset and grouping up with people along the way, but I think no other game can do that.

 

[Aenra]

Animal
if you're not into RPing or the "social aspect"..why bother with (M)MORPGs at all exactly? The very medium is such that a watered-down/simpler form of combat, questing, world interaction, pretty much everything in fact, is all but required. Why force yourself through it if not for the one thing they have a potential for?

there are plenty of online shooters if "action" (you mention it just above) is what interests you. You need not suffer through the prerequisites inherent in an MMO for just that.

edit: may be missing the point, unless you simply hoped there are more games like nwn2 that a) offer multi options, b) have enough people? Wrong era mate

 

[Animal]

Animal
if you're not into RPing or the "social aspect"..why bother with (M)MORPGs at all exactly? The very medium is such that a watered-down/simpler form of combat, questing, world interaction, pretty much everything in fact, is all but required. Why force yourself through it if not for the one thing they have a potential for?

there are plenty of online shooters if "action" (you mention it just above) is what interests you. You need not suffer through the prerequisites inherent in an MMO for just that.

edit: may be missing the point, unless you simply hoped there are more games like nwn2 that a) offer multi options, b) have enough people? Wrong era mate

I like feeling immersed in the game and roleplaying the combat and exploration aspect of it. I also like to party with people along the way and engaging in pvp. Diablo bores me to death, but NWN action modules present me with the right balance of action and character building. I also like how the combat plays out and the way the game adapts the DnD mechanics.

I'm just not into roleplaying social interactions while standing around in town. Nothing against people who do, but it's not appealing to me, unless it's something light in between killing 3 dozen skeletons.

IRL I'm a lover, but in RPGs I'm a fighter! :D

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

As far as NWN2 actiony online concerned, you should check out Realms of Trinity. It's one of the most solid mechanically NWN2 online projects. There's a consistent online of 10-20 people who are up for grouping for whichever content past initial 1st chapter.

Otherwise, exactly whatever you are looking for is not feasible in current NWN 1-2 community since it is no longer an attractive learning and experimenting tool and it's sure as hell not flexible enough to actually help develop ideas.\

I played the NWN PWs "City of Arabel" then "Escape From the Underdark" for years. A bit nostalgic about those.

The creators of those PWs (or perhaps it was just CoA) had big plans with "Tales of Moonsea" in NWN2. Too bad it didn't work out very well.

Kinda curious but, whatever went wrong with Tales of Moonsea ? Why didn't it take off lightly?

 

[Animal]

As far as NWN2 actiony online concerned, you should check out Realms of Trinity. It's one of the most solid mechanically NWN2 online projects. There's a consistent online of 10-20 people who are up for grouping for whichever content past initial 1st chapter.

Cool. Thanks!

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Cool. Thanks!

Mind you, it has all the faults of NWN2 combat...but if you can get past it it's p. good.

 

[Animal]

My main problem in NWN2 is with party control.

Controlling a single character is not so bad imo.