NWN2 Mask of the Betrayer: a shot in the arm or across the bow?

With NWN the expansions infused a lot of cash into Bioware's coffers and compelled them to keep improving the game. In fact, new versions of box sets kept coming out and it proved to be a boon from Bio and Atari. New Digital Downloads provided more revenue and convinced Atari to spin out two more box sets. Since the ending of the DD program the company has moved on and has been promising a phantom patch 1.69 for over a year now.

At the time of the release of the first expansion for NWN, Shadows over Undretide, all was completely rosy.

Shadows was controversial in that it was late and it didn't have a compelling reason to be bought. Worse, it flagged any new modules made to require the client have the expansion installed and made Vanilla copies of NWN virtually unplayable in multiplayer.

It didn't help that most PW's were using the independent Hardcore Ruleset scripting system to make up for the shortcomings compared to PnP games and multiplayer problems. The expansion/simultaneous patch 1.32 changed the functionality of several scripts breaking a ton of scripts and greatly discouraging that end of the community that scripted and hosted the modules.

I don't think this last problem will ever occur again (if Obsidian has been forewarned). Most modules have personalized scripting instead of relying on some huge community based initiative that can't get updates out quickly enough.

However, the first problem I mentioned could be a serious issue. With around 650 users daily at peak MotB could cause some damage to multiplayer. Gamers who refuse to buy the expansion would be left out in the cold and irreparably harm what is already too small a multiplayer base.

NWN's growth picked up again after SoU had been out several months and thanks to the popularity of the second expansion, Hordes of the Underdark. Bio's continued support, the abandoning of HCR, and especially cheaper versions of the expansion helped repair the community considerably.

Can NWN2 afford such a loss of players with MotB as SoU caused?

The problem with SoU was that it sucked. If it had been a high-quality expansion that's enjoyable on its own merits *and* if it had introduced lots of genuinely interesting assets for the community to play with, there would have been no problem.

Going by the buzz, it looks like MotB could be both things, but we'll see when we'll see, of course.

I expect MotB to be quite a hit and draw in a lot of people who put off or avoided purchasing the original release because of the various issues. I guess this should mean a shot for the MP player base but I'm not in tune with with MP fans.

It sure is highly anticipated and given the competition that Bio has from Oblivion,Gothic 3 etc,I think it will be a hit!It has to be good,NWN2 didn't have the success of the first game(i haven't played Underdark,but Undrentide was awfully easy..) and it will struggle to gain a bigger share in the market.

To pull the rug out of my own theory, I believe the MP gamers now are the hardcore bunch and so there won't be much of a dropoff. In other words, since it hasn't much of a player base now, it doesn't have much to lose. There is no NWN2 equivalent of the HCR for break and these are veteran builders by now.

As well, since it adds 10 extra levels and that became the big selling point of HotU, I think that will help matters. It also leaves another 10 for the next expansion.

Obsidian went out of their way to destroy NWN2 as a multiplayer focused experience. Not only did they ruin the main campaign in that regard, by making it an excercise in frustration to play cooperatively, they also introduced a ton of technical issues based on their lack of experience with such things. They're all about a focused singleplayer experience, which has been evident in everything they've done, but they lack the technical expertise and design flexibility to appeal to a broader audience.

In a way they remind me quite a bit of Troika, except Troika was more about design and Obsidian is mostly about a strong story.

If only they could get together and hire some talented coders, we'd have a ton of brilliant CRPGs in store.

NWN worked like any other expansion-based game. If you look at FPS games, the MP components get updated with patches and expansions and if you want to stay playing you need to keep current.

Personally I liked all of the expansions, but then I am single-player focused. And am looking forward to MotB.

That said I certainly understand that they have failed to deliver a MP component that is going to sustain the community that NWN built, and I hope that with MotB they are finally able to make some headway in that regard.

The MP part of NWN2 is more then a componet to me. It was an advertised and supposedly, equally availabe part of what I paid for. I guess that is what makes me so angry. If they had said it was fubarred prior to selling it, I would not feel so cheated.

Cm said:

The MP part of NWN2 is more then a componet to me. It was an advertised and supposedly, equally availabe part of what I paid for. I guess that is what makes me so angry. If they had said it was fubarred prior to selling it, I would not feel so cheated.

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I think that many share that feeling - and while I am SP focused, my referring to MP as a 'component' isn't meant to downplay its' importance: I consider there to be 3 components for NWN / NWN2 - SP, MP and tools. Each is as important as the next to the total experience promised by NWN and by the developers.

Not yelling at you txa1265, it is just a bit of venting on the lack of response so far that any of the devs have given as to why the game was released in the condition it was.