Neverwinter Nights 2 Post-Release Interview Part 1 at NWVault

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NWVault has teamed up with NWN2 Warcry for an interview with Obsidian on Neverwinter Nights 2. Here's an excerpt:

2. With one patch already released and at least one other in development, can you give us some insight on the process that comes with creating the patch?
[Ryan] Typical developer stuff here. We scour through the forums and find any issues that are new besides any outstanding issues we moved to a later patch. We get those issues into our database and weep a little. Then we prioritize them. Certain bugs will get more attention than others, e.g. "Teh Magik Shoppie" versus launching the game and formatting your harddrive.
We assign programmers to fix the bugs. They weep. Then we gather all the assets together and test the builds for a few days to make sure we didn't introduce anything really bad in our attempt to make things better.

It has always been Obsidian's goal to make sure that we support the community. You bring up the "At least one" patch in development. I can tell you right now, we will have dedicated personnel for at a 'few' more patches. We want to make things as clean (and balanced) as possible and we want to do it in a timely fashion.

It is my impression that both sides of the conversation are trying to ignore the plentiful criticism by community members much the same as it is with just a couple of reviewers rating the game below 8.

Just look at this:

9. What has been the most widely criticized by the community and do you take that into consideration for future development of the game?
[Tony Evans] People who have reached the end of the game may have been surprised by one of the game's two main endings. I can only be about as clear as mud regarding Obsidian's plans for future development, but I can tell you there is a good reason why it is such a departure from the typical RPG ending.
Obsidian is working on, as Sarah McLaughlin says, "building a mystery." And you wouldn't want us to reveal too much too soon because, to quote Tad Williams, "He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder."

There's nothing else I can say on this subject, but let's see… who else can I quote?

"Eb-dee eb-dee eb-dee eb-dee - That's All Folks!"

They can't seriously thing that the OC endings are the most criticised thing. If that were true, the game would be a huge success. The most criticised thing is the bugginess and crappy performance and the requirements to results ratio. Just for the sake of spelling things out. Not like I'm not looking forward to playing the game, but let's be honest for a while.

Read the rest at NWVault.

 

You can soooo tell that he's personally been reading the forums

 

I don't like that the crowd who yells the loudest are the ones who make out your opinion, Sir Chevalier.

Reading the main forums of any game a few months after a game has been released, does something to ones brain. Which is why I try not to enter such a hazardous zone. The constant posts of how crappy the game is, shows up everywhere because everybody else is playing the game and having fun - only checking the forum when at work. And they don't really feel like posting, since the nay sayers are currently occupying the forum. Sometimes you can see them try to lurk in a few words, afraid of getting attacked by trolls.

Such is the curse of a public game forum.

 

How does that make the OC endings the most criticised part actually, as opposed to what is really criticised, i.e. graphics, requirements and camera? You can agree or not with whether that criticism is valid, but it doesn't make it disappear.

 

And most of the criticism here has been very specific (not a vague "it's crap"). I think I would post more if I was having fun. I have probably posted most about IWD2 on these boards, because that is the game I enjoy the most.

 

Yes, sorry - I misread. The OC ending is probably the last thing I have heard anything about. I read between none existing lines and I take back what I said.