You know speaking of appropriateness how is drow a playable race for saving Neverwinter appropriate? They are an evil scheming race of tyrannical cults. Drizzit was an exceptional exception. In the NWN2 Dalelands Beyond PW they made a very moot point in how people need to role play the Drow appropriately and that saving villages on the surface does not constitute appropriateness and the surfacers need to be outright hostile to players of the Drow race. It's like saying we should welcome known Al-Quada with open arms and hugs in America. Maybe I'm wrong as I am no loremaster but from games and books that is how the Drow are portrayed. DDO got away with it as the Drow seemed like some tribal community with no hatred for the surfacers but then again I don't know jack squat on Eberron lore besides that I don't really like it.
It would be nice if Cryptic did two separate distinct worlds like the Underdark for those Drow lovers and was the dark evil side while the surface is you typical goody lil two shoe happenings.
Have you read Gauntlagrym yet? That area of the realms is pretty damn tolerant...besides races that are all evil or all good are boring IMO
Have you read Gauntlagrym yet? That area of the realms is pretty damn tolerant...besides races that are all evil or all good are boring IMO
I'm pretty unfamiliar w/ 4e setting which I've only read the first 2 books of the Undead series or whatever the trilogy that deals with Thay. But from a cultural perspective having 1/2 the players being Drow makes no sense when you look at the culture of the Drow as a whole. A onesie twosie exception isn't grounds for a massive population of a very uncommonly seen race. While there a good aligned drow goddess worshipers but that would be small.
Drow are by far and large mischievous, murderous, scheming and have a hatred for surfacers. Drow are cool so they must be playable is something I don't like and there should be a setting appropriate for playing a drow, hence like in Dalelands Deyond they have a whole separate area to play the Drow in the Underdark.
"Drow are a decadent race of dark elves whose beauty and sophistication fail to mask hearts all too often stained in evil. The vast majority of dark elves base their behavior and attitudes on the worship of the chaotic evil goddess Lolth, also known as the Spider Queen." That doesn't sound like you'd meet a whole lot of goody Drow.
Yeah I know fat chance in hell of this ever happening but like to stir the pot just for the sake of it or attempt to.
I'm pretty unfamiliar w/ 4e setting which I've only read the first 2 books of the Undead series or whatever the trilogy that deals with Thay. But from a cultural perspective having 1/2 the players being Drow makes no sense when you look at the culture of the Drow as a whole. A onesie twosie exception isn't grounds for a massive population of a very uncommonly seen race. While there a good aligned drow goddess worshipers but that would be small.
Drow are by far and large mischievous, murderous, scheming and have a hatred for surfacers. Drow are cool so they must be playable is something I don't like and there should be a setting appropriate for playing a drow, hence like in Dalelands Deyond they have a whole separate area to play the Drow in the Underdark.
"Drow are a decadent race of dark elves whose beauty and sophistication fail to mask hearts all too often stained in evil. The vast majority of dark elves base their behavior and attitudes on the worship of the chaotic evil goddess Lolth, also known as the Spider Queen." That doesn't sound like you'd meet a whole lot of goody Drow.
Yeah I know fat chance in hell of this ever happening but like to stir the pot just for the sake of it or attempt to.
Could you just for one moment imagine what would happen if they didn't offer Drow??
DDO has had playable Drow for years and that game hasn't fell into the Abyss.
Always Looking for mature laidback players/rpers for Dungeon Delves!
0
zebularMember, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 15,270Community Moderator
edited May 2012
Just like not all gold elves are good, not all drow elves are evil. In fact, there are/were quite a few "good" drow through out Forgotten Realms history. One has already been mentioned, another one of importance would be Qilue' Veladorn, one of the Seven Sisters (7 Mortal Daughters of Mystra, 6 were human the 7th was a drow) - a chosen of Mystra as well as of Eilistrasee.
Same with Forgotten Realms dragons, not all dragons are evil or neutral. One things special about Forgotten Realms is that no creature is subject to adamantite laws of good and evil, like you find in some other campaign settings. Any being can be of any alignment in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
Just like not all gold elves are good, not all drow elves are evil. In fact, there are/were quite a few "good" drow through out Forgotten Realms history. One has already been mentioned, another one of importance would be Qilue' Veladorn, one of the Seven Sisters (7 Mortal Daughters of Mystra, 6 were human the 7th was a drow) - a chosen of Mystra as well as of Eilistrasee.
And another ''not evil'' drow would be Liriel Baenre (Neutral Good wizard)
Could you just for one moment imagine what would happen if they didn't offer Drow??
DDO has had playable Drow for years and that game hasn't fell into the Abyss.
Ohh endless nerd raging and constant FAIL FAIL FAIL!!! threads I would imagine. I just thought that how Dalelands Beyond did Drow was very intriguing and would be nice if Cryptic would follow suit on but that won't happen I know. Hoping that one day that players will be able to create a PW of sorts and a social hub in the Underdark that is true to what the actual Drow culture is becomes available.
And also, there can be eveil drows in neverwinter also if they think that helping it will bring more power for them. There are numerous options for good neutral and evil drows in NW IMO
There was a very long discussion about it in some old thread b/w me and truthseeker. To make the whole story short, what I understood and learned is:-
In 4e, alignment does not matter a lot for player character. It is very easy to change your alignment, or you may be good and be forced to do evil things, or do them willingly due to carelessness changing your alignment. Change of alignment does not bring any penalties unlike older editions. Even clerics don't get their power because of their deity (they just come because of worship). So doing anything against the alignment doesn't mean they would loose their power.
Though there are some artifacts which require good alignment but are pretty much balanced by presence of similar artifacts (and the fact that alignment can be changed).
So alignment depends on the role-play now. Expect to see the boundaries between good and evil diminish - as it is in real life.
EDIT: I expect you are already familiar with the fact that alignment in 4e has been changed to basically good/unaligned/evil. No neutral, or order/chaotic thing exists. There is LG,G, Un, CE, E alignments which represent various qualities (freedom/order etc.)
There was a very long discussion about it in some old thread b/w me and truthseeker. To make the whole story short, what I understood and learned is:-
In 4e, alignment does not matter a lot for player character. It is very easy to change your alignment, or you may be good and be forced to do evil things, or do them willingly due to carelessness changing your alignment. Change of alignment does not bring any penalties unlike older editions. Even clerics don't get their power because of their deity (they just come because of worship). So doing anything against the alignment doesn't mean they would loose their power.
Though there are some artifacts which require good alignment but are pretty much balanced by presence of similar artifacts (and the fact that alignment can be changed).
So alignment depends on the role-play now. Expect to see the boundaries between good and evil diminish - as it is in real life.
EDIT: I expect you are already familiar with the fact that alignment in 4e has been changed to basically good/unaligned/evil. No neutral, or order/chaotic thing exists. There is LG,G, Un, CE, E alignments which represent various qualities (freedom/order etc.)
I know it full well, i knew it before i first time checked NWO forums (long before i made first post) and i for one was shocked when i saw it, but then again it makes sense to alignments
Have you noticed that since the webiste update it's been a bit more... quite here? Well, we all await new information, but I wonder...
Well they updated the news section just a couple days ago, but yeah Cryptic is dragging their feet on providing information for a game that is suppose to launch in six months and honestly this is Cryptic's last chance for many, they can prove that it was Atari and not them that caused the horrendous launches of CO and STO, but they need to start talking to us.
Honestly all we have seen lately is Stormshade getting miffed because Andre didn't like the page and we haven't heard Jack since. I hope they aren't keeping quite because they are buying into the lie that Diablo 3 news is going to dominate everything for the next few weeks.
They're likely gearing up for a whole <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> load of new releases. Several interviews have been commented on summer news releases and I'm sure there is a whole lot of planning that's involved. I just hope that they sart releasing info in June something and not mid/late July.
Smilies aside, this forum style is simply repugnant in my opinion. NOT a place I want to spend my time. Please change it.
After waiting many days to form an opinion, I can safely say old site was better. I find myself less eager to check this <some profanity> in the name of forum. Before, even without any news, I used to check and post on the forums, now I am just not motivated even when new post-PAX interview was released.
It is not only boring but demotivating. I wonder I would be here a lot even after they release some news on game which they promised with the dreaded word soon (we all should know what soon means). Apart from the fact, that after defending the forum design once, devs have not post anything at all here, no answer to questions etc... apart from the fact that dev-tracker doesn't work(or does it? we don't know as they probably don't post here anymore)... apart from those obnoxious smileys, this forum is just missing something essential to make it a place to discuss this game.
apart from those obnoxious smileys, this forum is just missing something essential to make it a place to discuss this game.
Why, yes, it is indeed missing something very essential... THE GAME!
People just have to accept that this is now a PWE game, and they have their own way of doing things. Which btw involves not giving much information about their upcoming games or their launch dates until the actual game is available for download. They even do that with their expansions - in FW, for example, each new expansion date was only announced at most one day before it went live. Why they do that? Hell if I know, it's just their style... That's why there is no more feedback from the devs at this point - and also the fact that the game is already pretty much finished at this point anyway...
Same goes about their forum design - it's just their standard forum design, and I don't really see how it lacks anything substancial at all... It's just people being upset that the site they grew used to changed. It's normal, people usually just don't like change - I know that after a year in PWE's site I find STO's and CO's sute layouts awful...
Also, the forum background and smilies will 95% change by the time CB launches anyway. Especially the background... just look at it, does it not scream "Coming Soon"?
Smilies aside, this forum style is simply repugnant in my opinion. NOT a place I want to spend my time. Please change it.
See, mods? He thinks its REPUGNANT. You should definitely change it now.
How much time do you really need to spend on a forum for a game that is still in Alpha? Go buy Diablo III and come back in 3 months when PWE has time to address the mostly cosmetic forum issues.
The last few posters have missed a point that many have raised that this site appears to be catering to youth 20-30 years younger than the audience thats expected to play this game. Some grown man that's played D&D in the 70s and 80s and early 90s may have absolutely no interest in a minimally designed forum that frankly a 10 year old can concoct, with preschool level smilies that cater to 3-7 year old school children.
If that's acceptable culture in China, than PWE better take a flight to the US and learn about our culture/marketing from the inside out, because this site is an embarrassment for a professional grade software title of any type, minus care bears and reader rabbit...
Hell, even THEIR SITES are (FAR) more professional.
I say this solely in the vain, I want to see PWE/Cryptic get SERIOUS about selling a title that will sell to a more mature (average age of the playerbase) playerbase than they are used to selling to.
The lack of information and the effort partaken by the organization (not so much the part time mod) to entertain the very slightly growing forum community is atrocious. If they arent serious about the forum, I say take it down.
See, mods? He thinks its REPUGNANT. You should definitely change it now.
How much time do you really need to spend on a forum for a game that is still in Alpha? Go buy Diablo III and come back in 3 months when PWE has time to address the mostly cosmetic forum issues.
There's no reason why we cant do both. We should certainly be able to come here and talk up a game thats due to arrive by the end of the year. Nothing at all bizarre about that.
I just think PWE is misunderstanding the American gamer. Maybe I'm wrong.
As for why I dont post here every day anymore? Why should I? I certainly dont come to learn more about the game, or to get excited about upcoming features of the game because the company wont talk about it.
I come here, as some will certainly back me up on this, because of the community WE created here.
The last few posters have missed a point that many have raised that this site appears to be catering to youth 20-30 years younger than the audience thats expected to play this game. Some grown man that's played D&D in the 70s and 80s and early 90s may have absolutely no interest in a minimally designed forum that frankly a 10 year old can concoct, with preschool level smilies that cater to 3-7 year old school children.
If that's acceptable culture in China, than PWE better take a flight to the US and learn about our culture/marketing from the inside out, because this site is an embarrassment for a professional grade software title of any type, minus care bears and reader rabbit...
Hell, even THEIR SITES are (FAR) more professional.
I say this solely in the vain, I want to see PWE/Cryptic get SERIOUS about selling a title that will sell to a more mature (average age of the playerbase) playerbase than they are used to selling to.
The lack of information and the effort partaken by the organization (not so much the part time mod) to entertain the very slightly growing forum community is atrocious. If they arent serious about the forum, I say take it down.
Let me ask you this: why is the game supposed to be aimed at a mature audience?
It is indeed true that the traditional D&D audience is probably well into their 30s or 40s... However, this also means that they have much less free time to dedicate into their hobby than they used to have back when they first started to play D&D.
The ones that MMOs generally aim at are people between 12-25 years old. Why? Because those are the people whose schedules allow to frequently log on to the servers.
F2P game companies seek 2 types of players: those that play a lot of hours each day, so that their game worlds are always filled with people and don't end up looking like wastelands. And those who will spend loads of cash for in-game services and items. They do not want casual players that will only log on whenever their job and family allow so, and who will only maybe buy a couple fashion items just for the heck of it, if even that, because any more would be a waste considering how few and far between their playing sessions are - those players are little more than a waste of server bandwidth for the company.
And quite honestly: how many old D&D fans can fall into one of these 2 categories in the year 2012, compaired to teenagers who have quite a lot of free time and quite a lot of allowance to spend on anything they want?
Yeah, I believe you get my point. The game is not aimed at old D&D fans, it is simply D&D based. It is aimed at anyone that can appreciate a D&D game, and a 14 yo newbie can appreciate it just as much or even more than a 45 yo veteran. And the thing is, that newbie is more important from a buissiness point of view...
Also, if PWE misunderstood the WESTERN (Americans seem to forget this quite often, there are things called "countries outside the USA" that also belong in the western civilisation, and in which PWE does bussiness as well) market, then it would have shown years now. But on the contrary, it is among the most succesful f2p companies in the west so, no, it's doing things quite right.
Finally, your point about this site looking like it's aimed at youngsters is completely irrelevant. What do you base it on? Aesthetics? Aesthetics are completely subjective, and even with that in mind, in 1 year in FW's site (which looks EXACTLY like this one, except more brown-ish collor patterns) never once did anyone complain about the site or forum designs...
Also, the arguement that the bear smilies are childish is just wrong... Yes, they are cutsy and do not match with the rest of the site, but childish? Since when cute=childish? It's the same dumb arguement that Anime is for kids ...
BTW, the Chinese PW site and forums look like this for anyone wanting to compaire western and chinese site design... I'll just say that I'll take PWE's minimalistic design over Wanmei's flashy mess...
Let me ask you this: why is the game supposed to be aimed at a mature audience?
Because that is what will create the real playerbase of the game. How else would it be any different from 100 other MMOs? It is competing for a market which it was not traditionally targetting. Read some marketing campaign of neverwinter to get more info on it.
And quite honestly: how many old D&D fans can fall into one of these 2 categories in the year 2012, compaired to teenagers who have quite a lot of free time and quite a lot of allowance to spend on anything they want?
Don't mistake your perceptions for facts as they are obviously wrong. It is however, true that the game would be newcomer friendly, but it doesn't mean it would be for the kids to play.
Why, yes, it is indeed missing something very essential... THE GAME!
Finally, your point about this site looking like it's aimed at youngsters is completely irrelevant. What do you base it on? Aesthetics?
The game was not there before when there were old forums. Also, I assume you have not used the previous forums before the change that you fail to understand that it is not based on aesthetics but functionality. Did you even read the forums about the new changes and what all the functionalities are lost? It is a massive step backwards, especially when only thing they have to show about the game is the forums.
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gothisphereMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 17Arc User
edited May 2012
Wow! I stay away from these forums for a week and this is still being discussed. b:cry
Because that is what will create the real playerbase of the game. How else would it be any different from 100 other MMOs? It is competing for a market which it was not traditionally targetting. Read some marketing campaign of neverwinter to get more info on it.
The real playerbase will be the people who will play the game, once it launches into Open Beta. And from what I've seen so far, I can guarantee you that more than half of the original D&D fans will quit before the game launches. Look at the discussions and suggestions and you will see that many expect a 100% true D&D adaptation and not a D&D based game, and are set for a first class disappointment as soon as they log in for the first time...
Don't mistake your perceptions for facts as they are obviously wrong. It is however, true that the game would be newcomer friendly, but it doesn't mean it would be for the kids to play.
12-25 yo isn't kids, it's teens, and it will be those who will primarily play it. It doesn't matter what MMO of what franchise, teens will always outnumber adults because of the simple reason of time restrains... This is an undisputable fact, period.
The game was not there before when there were old forums. Also, I assume you have not used the previous forums before the change that you fail to understand that it is not based on aesthetics but functionality. Did you even read the forums about the new changes and what all the functionalities are lost? It is a massive step backwards, especially when only thing they have to show about the game is the forums.
PWE and their rules were also not there in the old forums.
I was in the old forums about a month before the change and I can honestly say I much prefer this new forum layout. It's more standarised and better connected to the rest of PWE site, more minimalistic, and I'm much more accustomed to this design. You are only seeing it as a step backwards because you are used to something else. It's just another example of humans not liking change, and that's normal... Don't worry, it will go away with time...
As for functionality, the only thing it's lacking thus far is the ability to put pictures in a post, which will probably be addressed sometime in the near future. It still has good PM and Search functions, it still shows you what threads have been created or updated since you last logged off, it has signature support, it will allow you to use avatars corresponding to the race, class and level of your characters once the gam launches, plus it gives you direct access to Core Connect, which has all the player profiles, achievements, guilds, characters etc...
What more could you want from a forum is honestly beyond me...
Comments
Have you read Gauntlagrym yet? That area of the realms is pretty damn tolerant...besides races that are all evil or all good are boring IMO
I'm pretty unfamiliar w/ 4e setting which I've only read the first 2 books of the Undead series or whatever the trilogy that deals with Thay. But from a cultural perspective having 1/2 the players being Drow makes no sense when you look at the culture of the Drow as a whole. A onesie twosie exception isn't grounds for a massive population of a very uncommonly seen race. While there a good aligned drow goddess worshipers but that would be small.
Drow are by far and large mischievous, murderous, scheming and have a hatred for surfacers. Drow are cool so they must be playable is something I don't like and there should be a setting appropriate for playing a drow, hence like in Dalelands Deyond they have a whole separate area to play the Drow in the Underdark.
"Drow are a decadent race of dark elves whose beauty and sophistication fail to mask hearts all too often stained in evil. The vast majority of dark elves base their behavior and attitudes on the worship of the chaotic evil goddess Lolth, also known as the Spider Queen." That doesn't sound like you'd meet a whole lot of goody Drow.
Yeah I know fat chance in hell of this ever happening but like to stir the pot just for the sake of it or attempt to.
Could you just for one moment imagine what would happen if they didn't offer Drow??
DDO has had playable Drow for years and that game hasn't fell into the Abyss.
Same with Forgotten Realms dragons, not all dragons are evil or neutral. One things special about Forgotten Realms is that no creature is subject to adamantite laws of good and evil, like you find in some other campaign settings. Any being can be of any alignment in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
And another ''not evil'' drow would be Liriel Baenre (Neutral Good wizard)
Ohh endless nerd raging and constant FAIL FAIL FAIL!!! threads I would imagine. I just thought that how Dalelands Beyond did Drow was very intriguing and would be nice if Cryptic would follow suit on but that won't happen I know. Hoping that one day that players will be able to create a PW of sorts and a social hub in the Underdark that is true to what the actual Drow culture is becomes available.
In 4e, alignment does not matter a lot for player character. It is very easy to change your alignment, or you may be good and be forced to do evil things, or do them willingly due to carelessness changing your alignment. Change of alignment does not bring any penalties unlike older editions. Even clerics don't get their power because of their deity (they just come because of worship). So doing anything against the alignment doesn't mean they would loose their power.
Though there are some artifacts which require good alignment but are pretty much balanced by presence of similar artifacts (and the fact that alignment can be changed).
So alignment depends on the role-play now. Expect to see the boundaries between good and evil diminish - as it is in real life.
EDIT: I expect you are already familiar with the fact that alignment in 4e has been changed to basically good/unaligned/evil. No neutral, or order/chaotic thing exists. There is LG,G, Un, CE, E alignments which represent various qualities (freedom/order etc.)
I know it full well, i knew it before i first time checked NWO forums (long before i made first post) and i for one was shocked when i saw it, but then again it makes sense to alignments
Well they updated the news section just a couple days ago, but yeah Cryptic is dragging their feet on providing information for a game that is suppose to launch in six months and honestly this is Cryptic's last chance for many, they can prove that it was Atari and not them that caused the horrendous launches of CO and STO, but they need to start talking to us.
Honestly all we have seen lately is Stormshade getting miffed because Andre didn't like the page and we haven't heard Jack since. I hope they aren't keeping quite because they are buying into the lie that Diablo 3 news is going to dominate everything for the next few weeks.
Maybe PWE will be nice enough to give the green light to more info more regularly.
What Bear smiley faces??!!! Release the Krakren!
LOL
Wrong movie. That's from Clash of the Titan not Pirates of the Disney, err Caribbean. Fixed the Quoted link above.
Oh, and I'm having firewall issues, what's the Company's excuse for no new info posts?
Smilies aside, this forum style is simply repugnant in my opinion. NOT a place I want to spend my time. Please change it.
After waiting many days to form an opinion, I can safely say old site was better. I find myself less eager to check this <some profanity> in the name of forum. Before, even without any news, I used to check and post on the forums, now I am just not motivated even when new post-PAX interview was released.
It is not only boring but demotivating. I wonder I would be here a lot even after they release some news on game which they promised with the dreaded word soon (we all should know what soon means). Apart from the fact, that after defending the forum design once, devs have not post anything at all here, no answer to questions etc... apart from the fact that dev-tracker doesn't work(or does it? we don't know as they probably don't post here anymore)... apart from those obnoxious smileys, this forum is just missing something essential to make it a place to discuss this game.
Why, yes, it is indeed missing something very essential... THE GAME!
People just have to accept that this is now a PWE game, and they have their own way of doing things. Which btw involves not giving much information about their upcoming games or their launch dates until the actual game is available for download. They even do that with their expansions - in FW, for example, each new expansion date was only announced at most one day before it went live. Why they do that? Hell if I know, it's just their style... That's why there is no more feedback from the devs at this point - and also the fact that the game is already pretty much finished at this point anyway...
Same goes about their forum design - it's just their standard forum design, and I don't really see how it lacks anything substancial at all... It's just people being upset that the site they grew used to changed. It's normal, people usually just don't like change - I know that after a year in PWE's site I find STO's and CO's sute layouts awful...
Also, the forum background and smilies will 95% change by the time CB launches anyway. Especially the background... just look at it, does it not scream "Coming Soon"?
Must you be so literal about everything?
chill out please.
See, mods? He thinks its REPUGNANT. You should definitely change it now.
How much time do you really need to spend on a forum for a game that is still in Alpha? Go buy Diablo III and come back in 3 months when PWE has time to address the mostly cosmetic forum issues.
If that's acceptable culture in China, than PWE better take a flight to the US and learn about our culture/marketing from the inside out, because this site is an embarrassment for a professional grade software title of any type, minus care bears and reader rabbit...
Hell, even THEIR SITES are (FAR) more professional.
http://www.agkidzone.com/care-bears
http://www.broderbund.com/
I say this solely in the vain, I want to see PWE/Cryptic get SERIOUS about selling a title that will sell to a more mature (average age of the playerbase) playerbase than they are used to selling to.
The lack of information and the effort partaken by the organization (not so much the part time mod) to entertain the very slightly growing forum community is atrocious. If they arent serious about the forum, I say take it down.
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There's no reason why we cant do both. We should certainly be able to come here and talk up a game thats due to arrive by the end of the year. Nothing at all bizarre about that.
I just think PWE is misunderstanding the American gamer. Maybe I'm wrong.
As for why I dont post here every day anymore? Why should I? I certainly dont come to learn more about the game, or to get excited about upcoming features of the game because the company wont talk about it.
I come here, as some will certainly back me up on this, because of the community WE created here.
TYRS PALADIUM - A Premier Neverwinter Online Guild
No Drama. Camaraderie. TEAM Focus. That's the TYRS way. If that's your style, come join us!
Research our Guild here: Read our official Recruitment thread | Sign up here: Tyrs Guild Website! | NEVERWINTER GUILD LEADERS: Join the Fellowship!
Let me ask you this: why is the game supposed to be aimed at a mature audience?
It is indeed true that the traditional D&D audience is probably well into their 30s or 40s... However, this also means that they have much less free time to dedicate into their hobby than they used to have back when they first started to play D&D.
The ones that MMOs generally aim at are people between 12-25 years old. Why? Because those are the people whose schedules allow to frequently log on to the servers.
F2P game companies seek 2 types of players: those that play a lot of hours each day, so that their game worlds are always filled with people and don't end up looking like wastelands. And those who will spend loads of cash for in-game services and items. They do not want casual players that will only log on whenever their job and family allow so, and who will only maybe buy a couple fashion items just for the heck of it, if even that, because any more would be a waste considering how few and far between their playing sessions are - those players are little more than a waste of server bandwidth for the company.
And quite honestly: how many old D&D fans can fall into one of these 2 categories in the year 2012, compaired to teenagers who have quite a lot of free time and quite a lot of allowance to spend on anything they want?
Yeah, I believe you get my point. The game is not aimed at old D&D fans, it is simply D&D based. It is aimed at anyone that can appreciate a D&D game, and a 14 yo newbie can appreciate it just as much or even more than a 45 yo veteran. And the thing is, that newbie is more important from a buissiness point of view...
Also, if PWE misunderstood the WESTERN (Americans seem to forget this quite often, there are things called "countries outside the USA" that also belong in the western civilisation, and in which PWE does bussiness as well) market, then it would have shown years now. But on the contrary, it is among the most succesful f2p companies in the west so, no, it's doing things quite right.
Finally, your point about this site looking like it's aimed at youngsters is completely irrelevant. What do you base it on? Aesthetics? Aesthetics are completely subjective, and even with that in mind, in 1 year in FW's site (which looks EXACTLY like this one, except more brown-ish collor patterns) never once did anyone complain about the site or forum designs...
Also, the arguement that the bear smilies are childish is just wrong... Yes, they are cutsy and do not match with the rest of the site, but childish? Since when cute=childish? It's the same dumb arguement that Anime is for kids ...
BTW, the Chinese PW site and forums look like this for anyone wanting to compaire western and chinese site design... I'll just say that I'll take PWE's minimalistic design over Wanmei's flashy mess...
Because that is what will create the real playerbase of the game. How else would it be any different from 100 other MMOs? It is competing for a market which it was not traditionally targetting. Read some marketing campaign of neverwinter to get more info on it.
Don't mistake your perceptions for facts as they are obviously wrong. It is however, true that the game would be newcomer friendly, but it doesn't mean it would be for the kids to play.
The game was not there before when there were old forums. Also, I assume you have not used the previous forums before the change that you fail to understand that it is not based on aesthetics but functionality. Did you even read the forums about the new changes and what all the functionalities are lost? It is a massive step backwards, especially when only thing they have to show about the game is the forums.
Answers above, in red.
SS, if you see this, do us a favor and lock the thread.