Neverwinter Nights Forum News (Dec. 18, 04)

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Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

David Gaider, Designer

Bioware's Comercial Campaign

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I just have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading Georg's post in this topic. That was great.

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Yes. Georg is my hero. I remember when we put in the advert page for the expansions in one of the patches prior to their release, there were a few people who protested. Which is fine, as some people just don't like the idea of advertising, period (I don't care for TV commercials, myself). There were, however, no "oh no you've ruined the magic of NWN" comments... which is just darn funny, really. We need more of those.

Derek French, Live Team Producer

XP1 becomes unplayable after Interlude-Chapter 2 transition (Hot Fix)
NWN 1.65.8066x
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This special build of NWMain and NWServer is to fix an issue with the SoU Official Campaign in Chapter 2. Please back up you existing nwmain.exe and nwserver.exe files before using these new executables. These files are multiplayer-compatible with the other 1.65.8066 patches. Please report any success or failures of this to nwbugs@bioware.com Thanks!

http://supportfiles.bioware.com/NWN1.65.8066x.zip

language pack
There is no such thing. If you want the English version, you need to purchase the English version.

Rob Bartel, Senior Designer Live Team

Bioware's Comercial Campaign
Okay, everyone, please tone down the rhetoric. Some people don't like the new menu screen and that's fine. A variety of options have been suggested as to how you can circumvent it. We won't be removing it, however, as it is one of the only ways we have to communicate with a large portion of our community. With the original version of the Witch's Wake module, the bulk of its sizeable download count came via the patching process rather than by direct download from our site. That's a simple reality that we need to take into account when promoting our premium modules. Some people have questioned whether or not the premium modules are officially supported and I'll confirm that they are. We were hoping to release a 1.1 patch to all three modules this week but some last-minute bugs have unfortunately pushed that into the New Year.

Some people have suggested that this is the first piece of advertising to find its way into NWN and that is false. Both expansion packs were advertised in the load screen hints, for instance, and the main menu was altered to showcase them. Also, there are roughly six logo movies that you have always had to click through whenever launching NWN (more, I think, once you installed the expansions). Be grateful we didn't add any more there and that there are workarounds that allow you to circumvent those movies. For that matter, NWN itself was advertised in Baldur's Gate 2, both in the loadscreens and through an in-game character called Lord Foreshadow. The SoU expansion to NWN had a skeleton in the Crypt Tower that made references to the Witch's Wake module. In other words, this change introduced in 1.65 isn't anything particularly new and it's actually one of our less blatant attempts to promote our titles. Go ahead and feel shocked if you want but it's really not that shocking.

Lastly, while discussion of free markets, communism vs capitalism, the wealth of Norway, a free Tibet, elections in the Ukraine, and democracy in Latin America are all very interesting topics, they're also very off-topic. Please keep them to the off-topic forum.

Robin Mayne, Webmaster

Internet connection -- what if I don't have one?
At the moment, no. An internet connection is required while playing.

ShadowGuard bug & patches

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Are there patches for this modules, do I have to load them separately.

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There will be updates to all premium modules, scheduled for release in January. Once they are released, you will be able to login to the store and download the updated versions.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Bioware's Comercial Campaign
A good day to you. I will give you a long answer on your quite unprecise and angry rant above, because I have the feeling that you have not been following NWN and the premium modules very closely during the last few weeks.

I also take insane delight in bombarding people with armies of letters if they try to tell me I should shut up.

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oh that's a very good business approach: force your patrons to make a choice between two ridiculous options.

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You are not forced to update. The options I gave you are not ridiculous, they reflect the reality.

We have explained it before, but I will explain it for you again, step by step
- NWN support is financed by the premium modules, because supporting a game that has not montly fee more than 2 years after release is not an option without opening other income streams.

- Without the premium modules, patch 1.63 would have been the end of the line.

- To continue to support NWN we want to ensure the premium modules continue to sell well, and we do that by putting a notice on the NWN start screen to inform people who are interested in it about these modules.

- If we don't pursue these options, we are limiting the potential of the modules on the market, which is not an option, because if the modules fail, we will have to terminate free patches and new content additions for NWN as it is not economically feasible to leave some of our best people (the Live Team) working on a product that does not generate sufficient to maintain the level of support revenue anymore.

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your obvious lack of business acumen is laughable. are you trying to say that "you" (officially representing bioware) would threaten purchasers of your merchandise with no upgrades unless they were willing to wade thru ads???

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If you feel threatened by this simple statement of facts, so be it. And nobody is "wading through ads" as the Premium Module notice does not requires any interaction from you to play your game.

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sorry, but that is not only a piss-poor business decision, I think you personally have overstepped your bounds as a representative of Bioware.

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Oh sure.

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Quote:
again, threatening your customers I am sure is not official Bioware policy.

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Sure.

Threat

1. An expression of an intention to inflict pain, injury, evil, or punishment.
2. An indication of impending danger or harm.
3. One that is regarded as a possible danger; a menace.

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An absolutely ridiculous statement on the face of it.

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That's a good summary of your post, yes.

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this is all you should have said, period.

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We have a tradition of communication open with the people on these boards, and that includes that we offer our reasoning and opinions, including unpopular ones, just like anyone else. If you can't stand that, I suggest you avoid any thread with the blue B in front of it.

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yeah, like praying for a business that will actually LISTEN when a PAYING customer makes a complaint, instead of telling him to shut up.

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You didn't pay for that patch and the new content and functionality that came with it, it was free for you, sponsored by the people who bought the premium modules.

We listen to our customers, otherwise we wouldn't be running this forum, add new features to a more than 2 year old games. However, we not only listen, we interact, talk, offer our opinion and, oh my god, disagree if we see things we can not agree. Not companies have such an active and open communications with their community, so I can forgive you that you are irritated by it.

However, if you closely read my above post, you will see that I never told anyone to shut up, through I get the impression that this is what you are trying to do achieve here.

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Your attitude, if truly representative of Bioware, is totally reprehensible! if you worked for me, you wouldn't.

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Oh scandal! Someone is talking the blunt truth with a customer instead of smooth PR speech! Think of it, employees at the supermarket could tell you to bugger off if you try to humiliate them next time. Someone stop it or it will trigger a revolution!

Since you played the quite old and not so sharp "paying customer card", I want to specifically call attention the EULA that accompanies NWN and how it does not include any sections about "In exchange for the license fee, BioWare employees forfeit their right to disagree with the licensee and will not use unblunted facts on their message boards to avoid accidentally damaging the licensees view of the corporate world or their ego."

The EULA also, does not contain any section barring us from making changes to the game through patches, and it also does not include any section that promises life long free content and patch support.

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this is all aside from the fact that rampant advertising in a PAID for product is, in my opinion, a bad trend that has been increasing steadily.

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Rampant indeed!

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I already paid for your product!

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Yes, and you are free to play with it in the form you bought it. You did however not pay for this patch, and these patches don't pay for themselves.

To sustain NWNs continual support we created the premium modules and we are making sure that people who still play NWN (and update) get to know about them, because if they are not successful, NWN support will no longer be feasible. (And if you take that as a threat, I suggest you attend classes and get your english straight).

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if i want to see constant advertising, i'll buy shareware instead.

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Constant indeed.

You really need play NWN again or maybe you need check your PC for adware, because there are neither rampant, nor interrupting nor constant ads that you have to wade through in NWN. There is one on the Launcher and on the start menu and that's it and you can bypass the launcher if you feel like it. If you think that this picture is constant, rampant and interrupting advertisement, then I don't know how you survive TV, your daily drive to the office and your trip into the coffe shop next door.

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I hope they pull you as a moderator of this board

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Feel free to contact Jay Watamaniuk, our community manager with any feedback you might have about these boards or our moderation policy.

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, as your attitude has really detracted from my opinion of Bioware as a whole.

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Oh gosh, a company with employees that speak openly on the boards without PR filter and don't get whipped for it - what a miserable sweatshop this must be.

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If you allow this kind of thing to happen, and DON'T complain, then your game of the future will start having advertisements interrupting your game while you are playing it! man, you folks are dense.

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"Interrupted" by a image on the start menu background. Indeed. Anyway, I think after reading this post you got enough of a clue to understand that "no premium module image" means "less premium module sales" and could lead to "no NWN support anymore".

So here's the deal:

If you want no Premium module image on the NWN stay at patch 1.64. If you want continued patches, you'll have to survive the evil picture on the background of the start menu or find out about NWN's great modding capabilities and replace the start menu picture.


We want to continue our free support for NWN, release the massive amount of new content that is in the pipeline, several more premium modules and some other things and we are willing to alienate a small faction of people with things like this image in order to ensure this greater goal. If you have an issue with that, well, your options are listed above.

Oh well, it was only 8 bucks

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It's probably just me as usual, but I don't see what the problem really are. All I want to know is what makes these modules so much better than the rest. Is it the story? Are there scripted evens far beyond anything in the custom modules? Are there new models that looks and sounds better than those in CEP? Are there a lot of replayability and/or multiple sub-quests? (just sub-quests, or class-specific, gender-specific etc)

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There are a lot of reviews all over these forums and the Vault, just in case you missed them. Many of them specifically answer your question about replayability, etc. Considering the amount of posts you create, I find it interesting that you managed to avoid our answers on the other questions such as new models and sounds on these boards.

Craig Welburn, Live Team Programmer

XP1 becomes unplayable after Interlude-Chapter 2 transition (Hot Fix)
There does appear to be a problem with SoU Chapter 2 and the 1.65 patch. We are currently looking into the issue and hope to have some sort of temporary solution available soon until the 1.66 patch can be released. Check back in for an update on this issue in the near future.

Got Critical Rebuild now SoU doesn't work!
SoU doesn't use custom talk tables at all. Are you sure you aren't trying to load a user made module (that might have custom content)? Have you modified the SoU campaigns at all to add any custom content such as the CEP? If so, that might be causing your problem.