Neverwinter Interview
<p>Neverwinter isn't technically an MMORPG but an OMG. Which means the Codex can cover it. Right?</p>
<p>Massively <a href="http://www.massively.com/2010/08/23/massively-exclusive-jack-emmert-speaks-about-neverwinter-and-a/" target="_blank">interviewed Cryptics COO Jack Emmert</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Massively: We weren't expecting Neverwinter to be a cooperative RPG; we were expecting another MMO from you guys -- so why the sudden departure?</strong>
Jack Emmert: First of all, there's the IP itself. Neverwinter originally was more of a cooperative RPG, although it has an MMO accent, where players could set up their own servers and so forth. Nevertheless, predominantly, it was smaller groups of people. From our point of view, we just had to take a look at ourselves and kind of change the way we were doing things, and with the tools and the resources with our previous MMOs, we knew that Neverwinter had to be the highest possible quality, and we had to improve, dramatically, everything that we did. The best way to do that was to sort of change the style of gameplay so that the focus wasn't on hundreds of hours of mediocre (some would say even worse than mediocre) content, but instead create a rich story-driven multiplayer game. We want to make a great game -- the original Neverwinter is a true classic, and it's really important to hold to that standard.
<strong>You've described the game as not an MMO but a cooperative RPG.</strong>
(laughs) An OMG.
<strong>Right, an OMG, the online multiplayer game, yes. We also have these open spaces, public space, and privatized spaces. They aren't instances, and it's not an open world, and I'm trying to wrap my head around this, could you explain it a bit more?</strong>
We'll have worlds that are certainly cooperative. How many players will be in a particular area will be a little bit up in the air. There will be, for lack of a better word, dungeons, that you and your teammates go in, that will just be for you and your teammates, so more like a traditional instance would be in an MMO. Players will have lots of controls over whether something's public or private and so forth, and we're working on those various options now. As we go into beta and get feedback from people actually using the tools, we'll add more, but the idea of a large zone with hundreds of players, that isn't what Neverwinter is, no.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A rich story driven multiplayer game, instead of hundreds of hours of worse than mediocre content. Sounds like a plan.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/99394-neverwinter-interview.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>
<p>Neverwinter isn't technically an MMORPG but an OMG. Which means the Codex can cover it. Right?</p>
<p>Massively <a href="http://www.massively.com/2010/08/23/massively-exclusive-jack-emmert-speaks-about-neverwinter-and-a/" target="_blank">interviewed Cryptics COO Jack Emmert</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Massively: We weren't expecting Neverwinter to be a cooperative RPG; we were expecting another MMO from you guys -- so why the sudden departure?</strong>
Jack Emmert: First of all, there's the IP itself. Neverwinter originally was more of a cooperative RPG, although it has an MMO accent, where players could set up their own servers and so forth. Nevertheless, predominantly, it was smaller groups of people. From our point of view, we just had to take a look at ourselves and kind of change the way we were doing things, and with the tools and the resources with our previous MMOs, we knew that Neverwinter had to be the highest possible quality, and we had to improve, dramatically, everything that we did. The best way to do that was to sort of change the style of gameplay so that the focus wasn't on hundreds of hours of mediocre (some would say even worse than mediocre) content, but instead create a rich story-driven multiplayer game. We want to make a great game -- the original Neverwinter is a true classic, and it's really important to hold to that standard.
<strong>You've described the game as not an MMO but a cooperative RPG.</strong>
(laughs) An OMG.
<strong>Right, an OMG, the online multiplayer game, yes. We also have these open spaces, public space, and privatized spaces. They aren't instances, and it's not an open world, and I'm trying to wrap my head around this, could you explain it a bit more?</strong>
We'll have worlds that are certainly cooperative. How many players will be in a particular area will be a little bit up in the air. There will be, for lack of a better word, dungeons, that you and your teammates go in, that will just be for you and your teammates, so more like a traditional instance would be in an MMO. Players will have lots of controls over whether something's public or private and so forth, and we're working on those various options now. As we go into beta and get feedback from people actually using the tools, we'll add more, but the idea of a large zone with hundreds of players, that isn't what Neverwinter is, no.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A rich story driven multiplayer game, instead of hundreds of hours of worse than mediocre content. Sounds like a plan.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/99394-neverwinter-interview.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>
