Neverwinter - "A Coop Dragon Age" @ Eurogamer

Eurogamer has some quotes from Jack Emmert on Neverwinter:

Neverwinter may be an online multiplayer RPG, but what it aspires to be most is "a co-op Dragon Age with a touch of Oblivion's exploration", Cryptic's Jack Emmert has revealed.
"We aspire to that," said he to Eurogamer. "Ultimately it will be your judgement, but certainly that's what we're aiming for. This is an online RPG; a co-op Dragon Age with a touch of Oblivion's exploration. That is definitely our goal.

Thanks, Lucky Day.
More information.

He's starting to bug me. As far as I can tell, he's just throwing out the name of any game the audience might possibly be interested in, while side-stepping specific information on his own game.

Look at the name dropping in this one article.

"…a co-op Dragon Age with a touch of Oblivion's exploration…"

"…certainly a sequel" to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights and Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights 2"

"…"similar" to Guild Wars…"

"…one you could play leisurely with friends from World of Warcraft…"

Bleh.

Even without all the other-game-name dropping I smell one of those games that is overreaching the ability of them to actually produce all the content. Or even most of it.

"a co-op Dragon Age with a touch of Oblivion's exploration"

Is that even possible. That are two drastically different games.
It only shows he is just spinning names , and otherwise has no idea what he is talking about.

Its a shame game developers became so detached

Yeah, this was definitely the name drop of all articles, not unlike Bioware and their upteen "spiritual successors" that the new game is nothing like. We do know what he's aiming at: Borderlands in game play, Oblivion in sandboxness, Dragon Age in story style, not unlike that game by that developer who made a version of the sequel to the online game that was modelled after and used the tools of…

My guess is it will most resemble City of Heroes. In a couple of weeks I want to look at a trial of City of Heroes and the Mission Architect there.

I do not find the comment "Co-Op Dragon Age with a touch of Oblivion exploration" to be that strange.

We played Neverwinter Nights 1 co-op over internet, me and my friends.
NWN was somewhat free-roaming in it's basic structure. I can easily see a similar game to NWN1 with Oblivion-style map design. The only thing you need there is to change the map engine and voila.

It just surprises me that it haven't actually been done yet considering all the talk about a multiplayer Morrowind back in the days. There are no co-op massive-singleplayer RPG's. Or, wasn't Two Worlds like that?

Originally Posted by JemyM
I do not find the comment "Co-Op Dragon Age with a touch of Oblivion exploration" to be that strange.

I don't fear that this is unrealistic.

Quite the contrary: I fear that they might achieve exactly this.

I really doubt this game will be any good. They are implementing action game mechanics and loosely basing it on 4e. Now, I ain't a fan of 4e but it's still a total waste to make an action game with the D&D license. This game sounds like a huge failure from the start and I totally don't know why they're even bothering. Cryptic needs to just shut down or something, their games are all just generic garbage jammed into whatever franchise they manage to scrape together pennies from their last failure to license.

Everything they are hyping about the game does not interest me at all.

I wonder how many years it'll be until someone releases a real 4e game or at least something along the lines that we're used to like NWN or Baldur's Gate.

It's clear theyre talking about an open-world sandboxy D&D thing with instances that you can play w/ your friends.

Oh wait, isnt that that what DDo already is?

I'm usually an optimist. But I predict that at release there will be quest-givers with yellow exclamation points over their heads and the day after launch there will be speed-runs posted on Youtube.

It's a business thing.

Originally Posted by darkling
…Now, I ain't a fan of 4e but it's still a total waste to make an action game with the D&D license.

I'm not sure it won't be much different from NWN. At this junction there are stats running underneath combat etc.

This game sounds like a huge failure from the start and I totally don't know why they're even bothering. Cryptic needs to just shut down or something, their games are all just generic garbage jammed into whatever franchise they manage to scrape together pennies from their last failure to license.

Yes, a business that is making money should just shut down out of principal for the sake of certain fans…

Originally Posted by Ovenall
I'm usually an optimist. But I predict that at release there will be quest-givers with yellow exclamation points over their heads and the day after launch there will be speed-runs posted on Youtube.

It's a business thing.

I have read nothing anywhere yet to indicate this is the model it will take. I think its too soon in the planning stage to say they will do this.

Now, if that's what's going on in Dragon Age already or there other three games you might be onto something., especially if it is the latter as they are using they same tools.

edit

I stand somewhat corrected

Originally Posted by Arron Brady from the IGN article
Since we haven't yet had a chance to play the game, Emmert talked about how the gameplay will actually work. "Right now, it's an action-RPG, so there are no turns, no initiative rolls. We may add the pause feature that we have in Star Trek Online so that players can take a breath during combat, but that's not final. We're still playtesting." Brady added, "The moment to moment gameplay is all about teamwork and tactics. We're offering lots of ways for your powers to interact with those of your allies, and over time you'll learn to work together to use those powers to be a more effective team."

The IGN article was the only one I hadn't read in its entirety yet.

so..right now:there are stats underneath and its an action game with a potential pause option as exists in ST:O. I'm not against his model as it stounds now as this was NWN as well.

I will say it again this game sounds horrible. I try to wrap my mind around what he is talking about, but they've thrown in so many damn games I'm not sure what it is anymore.

Maybe it's an MMO now? They've thrown in Star Trek Online, WoW, and Guild Wars so maybe he just forgot to mention that it's a MMORPG or I missed the memo where he said it was a MMO.

Every gaming-instinct I have is telling me this will be utter crap.

I could be wrong, though

This guy is trying too hard. He should learn from Peter M, the master of hype. You can't casually name drop as many times in such a casual manner - it has to be more spectacular!

He does use some of that magic though, like: Everything we did before was crap!

That's a Molyneux staple

People change …