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The immersion of Neverwinter.
bunnybacon
Member Posts: 5 Arc User
Hey, I want to start a discussion on the immersion of Neverwinter. By that I mean the feeling of being the character you are playing, and not just controlling them, and the game world having the right amount of realism and authenticity to. I am an immersionalist gamer, so i get a lot of value from the games ability to 'draw me in'.
I will mention a couple of factors that strengthen or weaken the character immerson of Neverwinter, and you guys can chime in with your opinions. I would also love to hear some developer feedback on these points.
Warning: Old mmo/dnd gamer rant.
Kickstart in character progression
If i start my quest as a relatively weak fighter, but through time and commitment develop into a powerful champion, i get a strong bond with my character. Sadly, in this game everyone starts as a hero who can beam down tons of enemies from the beginning. I know that this is to appeal to a younger or broader audience, but it comes at a cost.
Great Character creation & story
Being able to make a truly unique character really strengthens the feeling of uniqueness and individuality in the game world. It's cool that i can nerd out and write a story, too.
Instanced zones
The lack of consistency of the world really makes it less real. The fact that i can't go to a place i can see in the distance, and that i have to go through a loading screen to go to a new place really takes me out of the experience.
Foundry
A bigger variety of quests and challenges makes the game more varied and really deals with the problem of repetition that many MMO's have.
Locked animations
I love that movement plays such a big part in the game's combat, but unlike other mmo's where I can cancel a spell by moving, i have to wait for the animaton to finish before moving. This takes me out of my character, because my own reflexes are seperate to that of my toon.
Super cool combat
It's a blast being so actively involved in the combat, although i really miss the strict healing role.
Autonomous camera
This is a small detail but it has a huge impact for me. The camera is not fixed to my character, but rather the positon on the ground where my character is standing. This means that if i jump, the camera isn't locked in jumping with me, and if i strafe i can see my char move towards one side of the screen. If the cam was fixed to the core of my char, i would feel less like a spectator. I think it's okay when the camera moves in a dialogue, but the cinematics violate my immersion by making a roleplaying experience into a cinematic experience. If there is a setting that can change that please let me know.
Modest spell effects
Thanks for not giving anyone super over the top spells form the beginning. There are plenty of games where the developers think they can attract players with massive blue explosions, but it just ruins it for me. Seems like cryptic restrained themselves.
UI gets too much stagelight
In my opinion, the game forces you to give waay too much attention to the UI versus the game world and your character. This is especially true when the world darkens out so you can focus on the very button/text-heavy skill menus. UI clutter is an immersion-gamers nightmare.
Great art & sound direction + voice acting
Art and sound is what brings the world to life, and with this i must say you did a good job.
Make the art and sound shine, and keep mechanics and UI subtle.
Maybe i'm just old-school, but in my opinion an RPG adventure needs the quiet parts also, not just the action. You need to be able to just sit at a lake fishing and with a friend. Otherwise it's just a fantasy fighting simulator.
I'm a DND player too, and i love it for the stories and the characteres; dice rolls comes second.
Any other immersion-gamers out there? Have I just completely misunderstood the premise of the game?
*shuffles back into cave and plays vanilla wow*
I will mention a couple of factors that strengthen or weaken the character immerson of Neverwinter, and you guys can chime in with your opinions. I would also love to hear some developer feedback on these points.
Warning: Old mmo/dnd gamer rant.
Kickstart in character progression
If i start my quest as a relatively weak fighter, but through time and commitment develop into a powerful champion, i get a strong bond with my character. Sadly, in this game everyone starts as a hero who can beam down tons of enemies from the beginning. I know that this is to appeal to a younger or broader audience, but it comes at a cost.
Great Character creation & story
Being able to make a truly unique character really strengthens the feeling of uniqueness and individuality in the game world. It's cool that i can nerd out and write a story, too.
Instanced zones
The lack of consistency of the world really makes it less real. The fact that i can't go to a place i can see in the distance, and that i have to go through a loading screen to go to a new place really takes me out of the experience.
Foundry
A bigger variety of quests and challenges makes the game more varied and really deals with the problem of repetition that many MMO's have.
Locked animations
I love that movement plays such a big part in the game's combat, but unlike other mmo's where I can cancel a spell by moving, i have to wait for the animaton to finish before moving. This takes me out of my character, because my own reflexes are seperate to that of my toon.
Super cool combat
It's a blast being so actively involved in the combat, although i really miss the strict healing role.
Autonomous camera
This is a small detail but it has a huge impact for me. The camera is not fixed to my character, but rather the positon on the ground where my character is standing. This means that if i jump, the camera isn't locked in jumping with me, and if i strafe i can see my char move towards one side of the screen. If the cam was fixed to the core of my char, i would feel less like a spectator. I think it's okay when the camera moves in a dialogue, but the cinematics violate my immersion by making a roleplaying experience into a cinematic experience. If there is a setting that can change that please let me know.
Modest spell effects
Thanks for not giving anyone super over the top spells form the beginning. There are plenty of games where the developers think they can attract players with massive blue explosions, but it just ruins it for me. Seems like cryptic restrained themselves.
UI gets too much stagelight
In my opinion, the game forces you to give waay too much attention to the UI versus the game world and your character. This is especially true when the world darkens out so you can focus on the very button/text-heavy skill menus. UI clutter is an immersion-gamers nightmare.
Great art & sound direction + voice acting
Art and sound is what brings the world to life, and with this i must say you did a good job.
Make the art and sound shine, and keep mechanics and UI subtle.
Maybe i'm just old-school, but in my opinion an RPG adventure needs the quiet parts also, not just the action. You need to be able to just sit at a lake fishing and with a friend. Otherwise it's just a fantasy fighting simulator.
I'm a DND player too, and i love it for the stories and the characteres; dice rolls comes second.
Any other immersion-gamers out there? Have I just completely misunderstood the premise of the game?
*shuffles back into cave and plays vanilla wow*
Post edited by bunnybacon on
0
Comments
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?126011-A-bit-of-nostalgia-for-old-timers&highlight=nostalgia
Now to touch on your post. I can appreciate the approach on your post. Tactful and subtle. I love the use of color to make likes and dislikes stand out and easy to read.
For me, I'm now to the point of realization that this is not the game I was expecting. It's nothing like D&D, so my list is much longer than yours, with a ton of red lettering.
But, if you can overlook the part where it's nothing like D&D and just play it for "another MMO", you'll get some use out of it. Mileage may vary.
I'm enjoying hacking and slashing stuff, for awhile; but I already know it won't hold me. I need character depth and a non-easy mode.
I actually like games that you can make a character that sucks. Where's the challenge in no-fail character creation.
It actually meant something when you got "good at building" a character. In this game, anyone can throw any of the limited skills/feats together and have a character that is just as good as the next guy.
I miss games that let people pump up their Intelligence stat when making a fighter. For all the people who wanted to make a "smart fighter" who outwitted his/her opponents. (of course true D&D players would know this is when you lol and str is desired main stat for a fighter).
A bit of nostalgia for the old timers.
PVP guide - Keeping it fun with the basics.
ty for a nice post on this Forums, they are rar XD
Voices are great! i cant remember wich dwarf it was but there was one i was having so much fun listen to him that i aborted a quest just to hear him again talking. I have never done that before in any other MMO with voice from questgivers
Cool post. We are of the same stuff you and I
i agree with the locked animations it ****s up your psyche and puts your nervous system out of tune because the game is unnatural in its combat to moving relation.
but the voices. some are so bad they made me want to throw up and never look at this game. some are on top of it all but nothing really stands out. the voice acting for a game of this par is really aweful and it feels like you ordered university students to do the acting
This and probably the lack of aesthetic variety in gear are probably my two biggest 'gripes' (well, other than every second being subtly pointed to the cash shop, but its F2P so that can be forgiven to a certain extent). Other than that, really high quality, entertaining game.
Very balanced way of bringing up good points. I'm not a very experienced MMOer but by and large I agree. (I think I'm more positive overall but hey). Stupid question though -- what's UI?
User Interface.
This is true: I should probably play some more before drawing conclusions, i just couldn't resist ranting on the forums ;P
Rogues - So you won't set off every trap in the dungeon.....
Neverwinter is very different in terms of overall style, character progression and so on, but the key is still to try to get into the mindset of the character in order to get immersed.
Don't like the UI, there's a button to hide the HUD isn't there? Controlling the character should be mostly automatic (WASD etc), after a while your fingers just do it without you having to consciously think about it.
Camera angles. Yep, getting knocked back so you can't even see 'yourself' on screen any more is somewhat immersion breaking. So far tho, I've managed to make that mental leap into 'first person perspective' when that happens. It's all a case of not letting the little things spoil that 'willing suspension of disbelief' that's key to roleplayng your character.
Fishing? Did a lot of that in UO (and over in FW). Would be nice to have some kind of activity like that to do as a 'social' exercise (perhaps with some material gathering aspect to it as well). Maybe something like that will show up in the future.
It's early days yet tho. I've managed some 'classic' RP already, over in The Moonstone Mask. That can be quite immersive (except for the folks that come running in spamming combat animations and jumping on the tables and bar!). Even tho I'm on the 'unofficial' rp server, I totally get that 98% (or more) of the other players out there cant' even spell 'roleplaying'. That and the open chat channels are completely swamped with folks asking basic questions (which is only to be expected this soon after 'soft release').
Great read, thanks! It gives me hope that other people also find this important.
Glad you liked it.
Immersion here is working for me, now that I'm past the initial 'play testing' fro the previous beta weekends and into 'permanent' characters.
I'm finding subtle little things that really help are already in place. My main character, elf rogue, is already feeling imersive because there are NPC rogues and NPC elves out there that give quests with storylines that actually make me feel like I'm an elf rogue instead of someone playing a video game. Same for my alts. My half orc is running into the same things. They may seem 'small and trivial', but walking into the cloak tower region as a half orc for the first time and fining myself embroiled in an argument between a guard and another half-orc (both NPCs) about half-orcs not being trusted there had me wondering if at some point some guard was going to tell ME (in the role my a half orc, not that I look anything like one irl!) I wasn't welcome because I might be a 'many arrows' sympathizer.
So, while most folks are running around simply taking quests to go 'kill things' or 'set fire to things', I'm taking the time to understand the reasons behind all of that.
The 'tutorial' portion kinds of does that when you get that quest to pick up tavern supplies only to find yourself in a surprise party s a 'thankyou' for that fight at dragon bridge (or where-ever it was).
Those are the touches that make it immersive, as long as you pay attention to them.
RP things, had a fun half hour in the moonstone mask as my main character interacting with a really grumpy dwarf. My character , although a wood elf, doesn't have the 'haughtiness' of classic elves, because her backstory has her working for a living. That dwarf, on the other hand, was superb and veiled insults, grumpy reactions and picking up on the scene. As the player tho, I was *resisting* the temptation to as kif he'd been called 'Happy' when he walked in and would now be called 'Grumpy', or make dwarf puns. I was too immersed in the character to do anything except be her.