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A true international game

danila14danila14 Member Posts: 15 Arc User
edited August 2012 in General Discussion (PC)
I am a big fan of "Forgotten realms" universe and i'm curious, for how many countries is this game? (not including English-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking countries)
I live in Ukraine and i assure you, there are a lot of fans of "Neverwinter" in Russian-speaking countries.
So, i want to know next things:
  1. Will the game have servers for other countries? What languages?
  2. (That's for me) From which country you are? How widely is Neverwinter known?

P.S. Anyway i won't quit the game, cuz it is a good chance to improve my English and to get a lot of fun :)
Post edited by danila14 on

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  • aandrethegiantaandrethegiant Member Posts: 3,364 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    A great question. In 2004 a very similar question was posed to D&D founders Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, just a few years before their passing...

    Gygax http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40077000/jpg/_40077263_gygaxhead203.jpg

    Arneson http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40081000/jpg/_40081427_arneson203.jpg

    The beginning http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40077000/jpg/_40077239_dd_books203.jpg


    BBCNews 2004 --

    In the 1980s millions of teenagers world-wide would battle dragons armed with just dice, paper and pens. D&D became part of youth sub-culture but as the game celebrates its 30th birthday, is anyone still playing?

    In 1974 two men in the US Midwest, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, created Dungeons and Dragons, the first ever role-playing game.

    Developed out of war gaming using table-top miniatures, the paperback rule books were an instant success, a genuine phenomenon which spawned an industry and influenced a generation of film-makers, writers and videogame developers.

    An estimated 20 million people worldwide have played D&D since it was created, with more than $1bn spent on game equipment and books.

    "I thought we would sell about 50,000 copies," says Gary Gygax.

    Co-creator Dave Arneson recalls: "When we started playing we thought we were kind of crazy. It seemed to start quite well and sold better, and better and better."

    The game spread by word of mouth and became a cult in schools and in universities across the globe.

    It was even a cult at a Wisconsin naval base. "At one time every nuclear submarine had a D&D group," says Arneson.

    D&D is a game in which a group of friends create and develop characters by rolling dice which determine skills and abilities.

    The characters are taken on adventures which are plotted by a separate player - the Dungeon Master.

    You can be a fighter, a thief, or a magic user, perhaps even a bard, a druid or a cleric. But there is no board or counters - just pen, paper and an active imagination.

    "I get to be braver, stronger, wiser, smarter, faster, handsomer, and just generally more than I am in real life," says current player, Joshua Turton, 29, from the San Francisco Bay area.

    "I can perform miracles, save damsels, slay dragons, cast spells, right wrongs, raid tombs, drink ale, and live dangerously."

    Brad King, author of Dungeons and Dreamers, which charts the influence of D&D on early videogames, says D&D should not be confused with board games.

    "It was the first really interactive game. If you play board games there is always an objective or goal.

    "D&D is the opposite. It's about sitting down and telling stories with your friends."

    At the height of its popularity in the 1980s the game became a target for cultural conservatives.

    The game was wrongly implicated in a missing persons case, a teen suicide and a number of murders. Some schools banned the game, and many parents refused to let their children play.

    The controversy inspired a 1982 TV film, Mazes and Monsters, starring Tom Hanks. A later cartoon series and a more recent film kept the brand name alive among non-players but were derided by D&D fans.

    In the late 1970s and 1980s, lawsuits began to fly - Arneson and Gygax sued each other over the development of the game.

    Neither man has any current official involvement in D&D - both selling their royalties to publisher Wizards of the Coast in the 1990s.

    Arneson says: "We see each other at conventions. He does his thing and I do mine. There's no stabbing each other in the back."

    D&D's popularity began to wane in the early 1990s as the videogame boom began.

    "D&D never went away," says Liz Schuh, marketing director for Wizards of the Coast. "It was huge in the 1980s and then dropped off the radar screens but it never went away."

    "D&D was so successful that it spawned an industry that ate it," says Mr King.

    There are now hundreds of different, competing role-playing games which have all taken a bite out of the market dominance D&D once had.

    But the game remains - even thrives. Wizards estimates that three million people play in the US each month.

    Angus MacDonald, a 45-year-old D&D player, who lives near San Francisco, has been playing on and off since 1975.

    "The game is social, it is a form of storytelling, and it has allowed me to develop deep friendships with people over the years."

    Delwin Shand, a 47-year-old who has been playing for 30 years, says: "The reason the game has survived is that it allows us the chance to play out a dream of being the classical hero - the slayer of dragons, the hero who saves the land from some terrible foe or danger."

    Gygax and Arneson are still actively involved in the industry and are revered by D&D players for their creation.

    Gygax says: "There is something in D&D that strikes a chord in many people; the call of adventure.

    "I am certainly happy that it has made people happy and brought so many people together. There is a great fellowship among role players."

    Ed Stark, special projects manager at Wizards, says imagination is pivotal to the game. "People often say playing D&D is like writing your own movie at a table.

    "But of course there are no million dollar special effects - so imagination must fill in the blanks."

    In the age of the iPod, mp3s, DVDs and online videogames, it is perhaps remarkable that a game based purely on pen, paper and dice remains so popular.

    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!
  • ryvvikryvvik Member, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 966 Bounty Hunter
    edited August 2012
    danila14 wrote: »
    I am a big fan of "Forgotten realms" universe and i'm curious, for how many countries is this game? (not including English-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking countries)
    I live in Ukraine and i assure you, there are a lot of fans of "Neverwinter" in Russian-speaking countries.
    So, i want to know next things:
    1. Will the game have servers for other countries? What languages?
    2. (That's for me) From which country you are? How widely is Neverwinter known?

    P.S. Anyway i won't quit the game, cuz it is a good chance to improve my English and to get a lot of fun :)

    question 1. http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=8441

    Question 2 I am from Australia, D&d has been with me (my red box) since a young child, im now nearly 40.
  • ausdoerrtausdoerrt Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Hey there. I'm stuck in Ukraine these days, as well.

    I think I heard something about a separate NWO server in Russia, though I can't confirm that for sure. I would prefer to play the official rather than the localized version though. There will also be a separate Chinese version as well, IIRC.

    I do hope they add some sort of comfortable payment option for those of us outside US and EU, but we have what we have.
  • warpetwarpet Member Posts: 1,969 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    russian players probly wont be able to play this on PWE or PW servers like all PW games PW will partner whit some russian publisher probly for rusian version ,sry for bad enghttps://support.perfectworld.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1635/kw/baned%20regions%20russia
  • ausdoerrtausdoerrt Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Well, Ukraine ain't Russia, so I spit in the general direction of their localization b:laugh
  • gillrmngillrmn Member Posts: 7,800 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    ausdoerrt wrote: »
    Well, Ukraine ain't Russia, so I spit in the general direction of their localization b:laugh

    Yes. IP ban for admnistrative purposes is from PWE side, not cryptic. Russia is part of the list of disabled regions but Ukarine is not. I don't see a reason why it won't be allowed to play.

    List is here.


    btw, can swallows transport coconut?

    ps though people who have already a cryptic account may or maynot be allowed like in STO.
  • qumi0qumi0 Member Posts: 154 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Also, in the interviews the devs say that there will be one server. Just one for all. So while I guess there might be translations of the game itself, the players will speak generally english or their mother language.
  • ausdoerrtausdoerrt Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    One server? b:shocked How are they going to deal with the huge numbers of players?
  • qumi0qumi0 Member Posts: 154 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    They do that with other games, at least that they said in the interview.
  • gillrmngillrmn Member Posts: 7,800 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Its not actually one server, but a number of servers which seem as a single server. This is the new technology which is sustainable, less expensive and resourceful too. I must have written about how it is done elsewhere, but its like taking renting the parts of various servers which are not used and then combining those shards as a single server. Most successful hosting companies use something like that.
  • vindiconvindicon Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    ausdoerrt wrote: »
    One server? b:shocked How are they going to deal with the huge numbers of players?

    Well, if they get to the point where the playerbase simply can't fit in a single server, they can always open new ones. PWE has multiple servers in California, East Coast and Amsterdam, so it wouldn't be too much of a problem opening one or two more there if need be.

    Though, they could just fit everyone in a single server, if the server has the necessary hardware capacity. Of course, they would also need a hell of a lot of realms as well, to spread players so that they don't lag-crash everytime they enter the Neverwinter city area.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • gillrmngillrmn Member Posts: 7,800 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Here is some info on how a single server system in cryptic works. Again, it is only at frontend you see a single server. There are many physical 'hardware' thingies doing stuff in background.

    Hopefully, it will also reduce the downtime once game is operational.
  • aandrethegiantaandrethegiant Member Posts: 3,364 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    James Portnow, game designer, formerly of Activision wrote a great article about 'Single Server' MMORPGs, which even tho is from 2009, and contains a bit of pioneering chatter, pertains to some challenges Neverwinter will no doubt face.

    http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/05/opinion_designing_a_single_ser.php

    But when it comes right down to it, what's going to make this single server MMO not crash and burn? How will they keep PvP off my damned screen?

    It will be interesting to see how Neverwinter handles these challenges. Single shard (or dimension)?

    One thing is certain there are many servers behind the "server" that we see. And some very fancy network code.

    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!
  • stormshadestormshade Member, Banned Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    We've been using a "single server" architecture at Cryptic for some time now. In fact, we've been doing this since Champions Online launched in 2009.

    It has some pretty serious upsides. For instance:

    If you and 6 buddies all want to play Neverwinter, you don't have to worry about which server to choose. You'll all be on the same server.

    We find that this tends to be incredibly convenient for our players, and works very well from an operations standpoint as well.

    Thanks,

    Stormshade
  • ausdoerrtausdoerrt Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    Thanks for an update. Sounds like some curious IT stuff I don't fully understand b:laugh Obvious upsides, I guess we'll see the downsides when we see how well it performs at launch. Hopefully pretty smooth, the combat design really needs smooth play.
  • zeuxidemus001zeuxidemus001 Member Posts: 3,370 Arc User
    edited August 2012
    stormshade wrote: »
    We've been using a "single server" architecture at Cryptic for some time now. In fact, we've been doing this since Champions Online launched in 2009.

    It has some pretty serious upsides. For instance:

    If you and 6 buddies all want to play Neverwinter, you don't have to worry about which server to choose. You'll all be on the same server.

    We find that this tends to be incredibly convenient for our players, and works very well from an operations standpoint as well.

    Thanks,

    Stormshade

    Yeah its like this one game I sometimes like to play until I realize the reason why I quit playing it would say the name but PWE doesn't allow it to be put in a forum I'm guessing since its main game is a competitor of it. If you find some person you wanna play that game with there is like a 1 in million shot that person plays the same server and they charge you 20 bucks if you want to move to that server.

    Thats one reason I love Cryptic's setup with server... I play STO and really love super heros and stuff but just my opinion but I think due to a lot of licensing <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> to me the game doesn't feel like I am playing a super hero... The way I view it though its not Cryptics fault its just the deadly cost of what happens when dealing with something this popular when it comes to games like champions and even STO.

    Just hope it won't be like that with this game.
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