Is a Neverwinter Nights MMOG in the Works?

Things aren't looking too good for Atari but sources say the company has one more big trick up its sleeve - a massively multiplayer version of the hit Dungeons & Dragons game Neverwinter Nights.

MMOG developer Cryptic Studios, which Atari acquired at the end of 2008, has been hard at work on the MMOGs Champions Online and Star Trek Online but was also apparently attempting to revamp older titles from Atari's catalog, to be released in 2011. Which games were planned for resurrection, however, was unknown.

But sources have now said that what Cryptic is really working on is a massively-multiplayer version of Neverwinter Nights, the BioWare RPG published by Atari back in 2002. A central component of the game was its multiplayer options, which let players create persistent world "mini-MMOs" of their own; translating that to the MMOG space seems like a natural extension of the experience.

It's a significant risk for Atari, however, which continues to suffer from well-documented cash flow problems and may have difficulty seeing the game through to completion or maintaining it in the crowded, highly-competitive MMOG arena. But with the technology already established and the bonus of a well-established franchise name, Atari may view this as a good opportunity to establish a second-tier MMOG and a regular revenue stream as well.

The sources say this is the main reason Atari acquired Cryptic, so Atari is obviously committed to the gamble. As a D&D fan I'd love to see the creation of a Neverwinter Nights MMOG. I'm just not sure whether Atari is the right company to be doing it.

Source: The Cut Scene

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that news was better than sex...

Really hope this pans out. Although, I'm currently having some "cash flow problems" of my own. Hopefully I'll be less poor by the time this comes out, if it comes out.

dogstile:
that news was better than sex...

I'll take whatever you would have gotten then.

This could be...very interesting.

NWN is awesome. I just don't like MMO's. All that is needed is a easy to use custom map/mission maker that makes user created content faster and more detailed. There were some great ones from NWN1 but it took ages for them to be made.

As long as I don't have to pay monthly or anything, I'll get it.

Well, I can't say I'm suprised. Seems like MMOs are the thing everyone wants to make these days, trying to make the big bucks.

I think I'll pass though, tried MMOs a couple of times in the past, tend to lose interest fairly quickly.

I dunno, the whole thing about NWN is you can be your own DM and create your own worlds. A NWN MMO would just be a vanilla Forgotten Realms MMO...

Then again, 4.0 would make a great videogame.

Kukul:
Why the hell would they make another MMO?
Every resonable gamer will either play SWOR if it's any good or stick to WoW for the next few years (and switch to World of Starcraft or whatever). I guess their target audience will be freaks, who play a few MMOs at the same time or people, who bear some silly grudge against Blizzard.

Not every MMO has to sell as many copies as World of Warcraft to be successful or profitable, just how not every FPS needs to sell more copies than Half Life. Sure they would all love to be the next big thing, but there is plenty of middle ground between that and failure.

I'm not sure about this. D&D online is already out there and doing well. This game doesn't have the appeal of being made by Bioware either who add big bags of awesome to anything they make. So is there really a market for this? Saying that it might turn out to be super-duper incredibly awesomesauce and loads of people will play it.

The one big advantage WoW has is the relatively accessible system requirements.
I remember NWN2 was a bitch to anyone who did not possess the most expensive graphics card and memory capacity - I try to play it on my XPS 1330 and still can only have medium settings.

I hope that, if they really want to do this, they don't break the bank accounts of their potential customers!

Story breaks the same day that Turbine announces D&D Online will have a substantial free-to-play expansion soon.... Is there really enough room on the interwebs for two D&D MMOs?

I think Atari has a bad habit of bullying their developers to release games that aren't ready. The same will happen with a Neverwinter Nights MMO, the way they forced Obsidian to release NWN2 and KotOR2 before they were finished.

However, it's all moot when the greatest thing about NWN is the free to play and host, player created online worlds... an MMO format effectively squashes that.

I just wrote a ridiculously long post about what NWN could learn from WoW, but becoming an MMO was not part of that. What NWN really needs is a graphics engine that allows characters to move about the world like WoW, with jumping, swimming and mounts both ground based and flying. It also needs a faster, more intuitive interface without ridiculous command menus. WoW's button-based interface would be fantastic. A better crafting system. And maps that can load dynamically so that we don't have to see load screens. Basically, NWN should play very similarly to WoW without looking like WoW. D&D should be fast and exciting. Dynamic and Fluid. And most of all it should feel like fantasy. World of Warcraft probably looks a lot more like a D&D world than any Neverwinter Nights campaign or module ever has because the ridiculous requirements of the graphics engines resulted in wall to wall blandness.

4.0 was designed with a videogame mentality, and the 4.0 artwork is high illustrative and stylized. It makes sense to stop trying to create realistic character models that end up looking stiff and plasticky in favor of those more illustrative models. They would ultimately require less system resources and they would move through the environment like they bloody well should.

In my mind I see the WoW interface, with Azeroth replaced by a D&D campaign world, and with appropriate D&D races and classes. Game fixed.

Nice

WOOOOOOOOO

Please, PLEASE 3.5 rules and Neverwinter Nights 1 graphics from Hordes of the Underdark. That's all I need. Screw NwN 2 graphics, they sucked. Also HUD and radial menu from NwN 1 was much better.

...Damn it, first Star Wars, then Champions Online, now Aion and NwNO.

Leftnt Sharpe:
I'm not sure about this. D&D online is already out there and doing well. This game doesn't have the appeal of being made by Bioware either who add big bags of awesome to anything they make. So is there really a market for this? Saying that it might turn out to be super-duper incredibly awesomesauce and loads of people will play it.

Yeah, it's doing so well they are going with a "freemium" and an item shop. DnD is too paced and combat is unrewarding (meaning you don't want to fight monsters...). NwN had great multiplayer modules that at times felt like real MMOs, maybe thanks to the fact that monsters DID give experience points.

Isn't it just going to be D+D online again........?

WrongSprite:
Isn't it just going to be D+D online again........?

Maybe, but it will use Forgotten Realms (Faerun, I think) and it probably will give exp for monsters. Because honestly, how many people are going to do quests over and over again?

Abedeus:

WrongSprite:
Isn't it just going to be D+D online again........?

Maybe, but it will use Forgotten Realms (Faerun, I think) and it probably will give exp for monsters. Because honestly, how many people are going to do quests over and over again?

not many- it of course may or may not work

I enjoyed the story of NWN and it was a great game for making custom maps and playing with friends but i just dont think the D&D mechanics could make a good mmo. I am sure it would be a quality game outside of the combat, im from eq and eq2 since just about the beginning and as bored i am of eq and would love a new mmo just dont believe the turnbased type thing could appeal to people like me.

TsunamiWombat:
I dunno, the whole thing about NWN is you can be your own DM and create your own worlds. A NWN MMO would just be a vanilla Forgotten Realms MMO...

Agreed. Also, you usually have to pay monthly fees for MMOs. I'm not paying for the same game more than once.

Not exactly the best direction for them to be taking now, since I'm positive we're going to see the death of many MMOs in the next few years. Unless they bring something drastically new to the table, this NWNMMO is just going to be another pay-to-play game in an already crowded online game market. Don't get me wrong, I liked the last two NWN games a good deal, but why does this need to be an MMO now? I'd rather have a good game that I know I can play 5 years after release, not an MMO that's going to tank and be unplayable in two years.