Polygon's Interview with Lead Producer, Andy Velasquez.

ashrox10 · February 2013

Hey!

As I know some of you don't use Facebook, nor follow Neverwinter on there I thought I'd share this for you (posted recently).

http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/20/4006018/neverwinter-from-top-down-rpg-to-action-mmo

Enjoy.

belzub · February 2013

Many thanks!

strainzed · February 2013

"Our lead combat designer, Kevin Stocker, has a copy of Bayonetta on his desk right now."

A controller-friendly MMORPG running on a computer capable of streaming onto a television could help Neverwinter find a backdoor into the living room; a realm that's largely eluded the genre.

"It's something we've talked about a lot," Velaquez said. "It's something that we're probably not tackling for launch, but one of the things I think Cryptic is really good at is listening to our players post-launch and providing them updates that really make sense ... If that is something that comes up that our fan base is really interested in, then absolutely."

How about that? The people that said this looks like it was built to be a console game were right.

wulfster42 · February 2013

Argh, I hope that the statement that the beta allowed only 3 characters to be played doesn't mean we won't get to try the other 2 classes in the next 2 beta weekends. I was really hoping to have them to try in the early levels so I wouldn't play too high with any one character before they are wiped.

I will say that NWO has way better action combat the GW2 or TERA....as strategy seems to be a bigger part of how you fight then in either of those games, especially early on. Even right from the start positioning and what skills you use make a big diff in NWO....while in TERA I just felt like I was running up to things, sometimes circling around them, and holding down the attack button.

I think there are alot of ways to improve/expand on what NWO has already, especially in the customization department, but the combat system is great.....really great. It's a great base to work off, and I just hope everything else gets expanded on over time.

tinbender02 · February 2013

At the moment, Velasquez said, the studio is leaning towards making its largest content updates — like additional classes to bring them closer to the 12-strong sweet spot — will be free of charge. Other aspects, like more microtransaction-based content, will be determined and priced by Cryptic's interpretations of player response.

If they are leaning toward making it free that means they are thinking about charging for it as well. I'm starting to see a bit of a distrubing trend here. First I read the FAQ and find out drow may never be a free race to play. That 60 day is a minimum not a maximum. Then I go back and re-read this article and it looks like they are still thinking about charging for content or maybe I am wrong and the prebuilt characters they call classes are actually cosmetic. I'm not into conspiracy theories but it seems to me Cryptic is trying to either back pedal from the it is all free or I've misunderstood what they meant by it will all be free.

nethershadows · February 2013

I think the article is poorly worded or you guys are just reading into it. Devs have been heard, on record, on streams, etc saying all the content of the game will be free. If they back peddled now they'd be signing there game's death warrent 100% and although the company can be greedy at times, they're not stupid.

ichbin · February 2013

nethershadows wrote: »

I think the article is poorly worded or you guys are just reading into it. Devs have been heard, on record, on streams, etc saying all the content of the game will be free. If they back peddled now they'd be signing there game's death warrent 100% and although the company can be greedy at times, they're not stupid.

This is also Cryptic we're talking about... Greed is the main drive of the day, fun & expression are 2nd.

chili1179 · February 2013

They used the word content as a generalization, bundling it with cosmetic items, classes, races and QoL items.

It would be really, really bad if they do not offer all the game's playable content (maps, quests, areas) for free, especially with the foundry churning out quality content.

shiaika · February 2013

tinbender02 wrote: »

If they are leaning toward making it free that means they are thinking about charging for it as well. I'm starting to see a bit of a distrubing trend here. First I read the FAQ and find out drow may never be a free race to play. That 60 day is a minimum not a maximum. Then I go back and re-read this article and it looks like they are still thinking about charging for content or maybe I am wrong and the prebuilt characters they call classes are actually cosmetic. I'm not into conspiracy theories but it seems to me Cryptic is trying to either back pedal from the it is all free or I've misunderstood what they meant by it will all be free.

No, they are not. It only means that they want "core" content like classes to be free while having optional content as paid (and oriented to player's response). It doesn't guarantee with a 100% possibility that it will be always that way (PW is the Publisher/Owner, so they can overule Cryptic anytime about anything*) but it's, at this point in time, Cryptic's plan. Like no charging Foundry users for any extra content (there was a nice video somewhere by Cryptic dedicated to how big a mistake would be to try to charge content creators).

Also, the FAQ doesn't say A N Y T H I N G about the drow never being free race to play. It has changed what was said before but it still says that it's free. The change seems to be that the Menzoberranzan Renegade background is going to be playable only by Founders and that the regular drow will be delayed for a while to allow Hero Founders to have some "exclusivity" about drow characters (about 60 days and then releasing the regular drow for free). And even then, it's still a plan that may change. I personally don't care about exclusivity but surely many would thank delaying the drow for the non paying players (less Drizzt clones on release).

* it doesn't mean that Cryptic may not be "evil" (from your point of view), just that there are bigger "evils" out there (EA vs BioWare?).

doctorcomics · February 2013

Free vs. Not Free: remember how astral diamonds and Zen work. Every player earns astral diamonds in the game, and these diamonds can then be sold for Zen on a player-driven market. That means Cryptic can put anything it wants in the Zen store and call those items Free, because you can get them by grinding astral diamonds, which are indeed free.

It is a question of real money or time. If you want to spend real money, buy Zen. If you want to spend time, grind diamonds. But you must spend either money or time.

nikkal · February 2013

shiaika wrote: »

Also, the FAQ doesn't say A N Y T H I N G about the drow never being free race to play. It has changed what was said before but it still says that it's free. The change seems to be that the Menzoberranzan Renegade background is going to be playable only by Founders and that the regular drow will be delayed for a while to allow Hero Founders to have some "exclusivity" about drow characters (about 60 days and then releasing the regular drow for free). And even then, it's still a plan that may change. I personally don't care about exclusivity but surely many would thank delaying the drow for the non paying players (less Drizzt clones on release).

What??? Where was this change said? This is the first I've heard of it.

Polygon's Interview with Lead Producer, Andy Velasquez.

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