Its F2P. They inherently don't have the money to run gameworlds/servers the way that wow did. Instancing is the way to go for F2P.
Just one of many reasons not to play F2P.
Lag is a problem aswell.
I couldn't disagree more with this. While I am not a fan of F2P - this game is AAA. You can choose to nitpick a detail from any game and say you don't like it. That's fine. It happens all of the time, and it's part of the reason why player's expectations are through the roof. I also used to think that instancing breaks immersion, and that F2P games are just terrible. This game proves us both wrong.
The truth is if you went into this game (or any game for that matter) with an open mind and not knowing anything about it - you would probably slap yourself a few hours later after realizing that you just had a good time. Stop the assumptions, stop the nitpicking, and please stop believing that game is simply going to be terrible because it doesn't have 1 thing you might have been looking for. Try it. You might like it.
Originally posted by Leiloni If they had made the game less linear and less instanced it would have been worlds better. An open world game that you can run around in and explore feels much more like a place you can get lost in, but instancing and such a harshly linear design ruins the immersion.
Neverwinter started development as a multiplayer online game. Protector's Enclave was going to be the town hub and the other areas were completely instanced.
Perfect World forced Cryptic to make what they had into an MMO.
In an interview Jack Emmert explained that since their MMOs(CO and STO) did not turn out well they were going to make Neverwinter a smaller scale project.
So, its basically all meddling from Perfect World.
If they had made the game less linear and less instanced it would have been worlds better. An open world game that you can run around in and explore feels much more like a place you can get lost in, but instancing and such a harshly linear design ruins the immersion. As much as we all hate on WoW, that's one thing they did really right and gaming companies just don't seem to understand how important that is nowadays. But Neverwinter's world is far more closed off and linear than most.
Personally I have high expectations for graphics and combat following games like TERA, so those are issues for me as well with Neverwinter. But if they at least made a seamless, open world it could have improved the game experience so much more, allowing us to truly get attached to the game. It certainly has enough lore to make such a world come alive so it really just feels like Cryptic went the quick and cheap route with this game all around. They could have improved upon a number of things besides just world design and leveling experience. But changing that really would have made a large difference I think.
That's what the Foundry is for. Give those missions a shot, some really nice, detailed, lore rich missions that give the game all the non-linear questing one could hope for.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Originally posted by Gravarg This game would be perfect if it wasn't for mounts costing $40 or companions costing $35. I would gladly fork over ~$15-20 for a companion or mount, and I'm sure alot of people are like me. They'd make more money if they sold things for less...
This is something I whole heartedly agree with, even though I've spent a few $$$ in the Zen store, I would be much more willing to spend more if things were cheaper.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Originally posted by Gravarg This game would be perfect if it wasn't for mounts costing $40 or companions costing $35. I would gladly fork over ~$15-20 for a companion or mount, and I'm sure alot of people are like me. They'd make more money if they sold things for less...
This is something I whole heartedly agree with, even though I've spent a few $$$ in the Zen store, I would be much more willing to spend more if things were cheaper.
You can blame Perfect World for that. All their games have overly priced cash shop items. They have the most expensive mounts out of all F2P games.
Originally posted by Gravarg This game would be perfect if it wasn't for mounts costing $40 or companions costing $35. I would gladly fork over ~$15-20 for a companion or mount, and I'm sure alot of people are like me. They'd make more money if they sold things for less...
This is something I whole heartedly agree with, even though I've spent a few $$$ in the Zen store, I would be much more willing to spend more if things were cheaper.
The high-priced items will either be bought outright by impatient players (profit !) or thousands of players will attempt to "grind" for those special items.
But the grinds are long and drawn out, so those players will be tempted to spend on many other smaller things (profit !).
Of course, the common defense against any Cash Shop items is that "they are optional, you don't NEED them". And in truth, you won't ever have them unless you spend real money or play every day for 6 months or longer.
How attractive would the game be if everything in the Cash Shop was removed from the game ? Would people still want to play the generic MMO that would remain ?
Originally posted by sigreth Open worlds have everything to do with WoW as it was the first largely popular MMO with an open world (meaning very little instancing). I agree that an open world works to keep the player immersed in the world. However, Neverwinter is not a traditional MMO and shouldn't be. The instancing helps keep the zone population down so that you do not have 3 to 4 hundred people in one area. Even in WoW they cull players into groups of "phase" so that people do not lag out. But really the instancing helps make the player feel as if they are 1 of few instead of 1 of many. This is simply my opinion, I don't expect everyone to feel the same way.
If i could slap some of you MMO babies I would, let stop using WoW as a damn open world example since IT WAS NOT THE 1ST , lets not forget Meridian 59 or even more open world 100% ULTIMA Online... damn im tired of you WoW babies assuming WoW was this 1st to do this and that "revolutionized" the gaming industry, .. WRONG wow did jack shit but Dumb it down, and make more cartoony. Ultima Online had real Pvp, UO had an economy that was useless after x amount of levels, because there were no levels, UO had Houses not instanced crap, Ill stop there because truthfully I'm sure myself and many other could keep going on how really MMORPG's have actually just simpler and further away from what they were and are supposed to be.
I find the Foundry which so many are talking about to be a great idea on paper but as implemented in game,it is still the same old as Cryptic's quests.I have played about 20 all were top rated for my levels,i am 22 now.
Everything is really just a lot of following sparkly paths and constantly opening your map because the layouts are a cluttered mess.
I have no idea how good the tools are in the Foundry quests but imo,i could easily make better quality quests.I have worked with game engines for about 15 years,so i guess i just have a better idea /feel for map layouts and ideas.I have not been the least impressed with any Foundry quest so far.I gave everyone a 3 just because i was feeling in a good mood and i don't want to discourage people from continuing to try.
I find the telegraph idea ok,when i heard about it for Wildstar i thought it would be a lot better once i got to try it out.Problem is once you commit to an ability,you have to follow through with the animation,so you never really get away too often.Some animations take 3/4 seconds.
So far i have played only two classes the Guardian and fighter,i find myself playing in a very generic mode.I like keybinds but i feel this game needs a traditional hotbar.
I found that as i play through the game,i see lots of small peeves that constantly look f2p.Example everything is instanced,models/meshes are repeated a lot,ALL AI seems identical and bosses seem to have their one telegraph move and not much more.Almost every mob is stationary there is the odd threesome wandering about,not often.Aggro mechanics seem extremely one dimensional they are all based on proximity and all seem to have the same proximity.
When i enjoyed combat in FFXi for example the mobs AI was much more diversified.I would fight a mob and it might heal itself,would try to bind me in place then follow up with nukes.Then it might cast Flash and try to blind me,it might cast blind on me,DIa to lower my defense,cast protect on itself to raise it's defense,Bio to lower my attack ect ect,just much more quality and depth put into the system.Within 5-10 seconds you have seen all these mobs have to offer.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Originally posted by sigreth Open worlds have everything to do with WoW as it was the first largely popular MMO with an open world (meaning very little instancing). I agree that an open world works to keep the player immersed in the world. However, Neverwinter is not a traditional MMO and shouldn't be. The instancing helps keep the zone population down so that you do not have 3 to 4 hundred people in one area. Even in WoW they cull players into groups of "phase" so that people do not lag out. But really the instancing helps make the player feel as if they are 1 of few instead of 1 of many. This is simply my opinion, I don't expect everyone to feel the same way.
If i could slap some of you MMO babies I would, let stop using WoW as a damn open world example since IT WAS NOT THE 1ST , lets not forget Meridian 59 or even more open world 100% ULTIMA Online... damn im tired of you WoW babies assuming WoW was this 1st to do this and that "revolutionized" the gaming industry, .. WRONG wow did jack shit but Dumb it down, and make more cartoony. Ultima Online had real Pvp, UO had an economy that was useless after x amount of levels, because there were no levels, UO had Houses not instanced crap, Ill stop there because truthfully I'm sure myself and many other could keep going on how really MMORPG's have actually just simpler and further away from what they were and are supposed to be.
Originally posted by sigreth Open worlds have everything to do with WoW as it was the first largely popular MMO with an open world (meaning very little instancing). I agree that an open world works to keep the player immersed in the world. However, Neverwinter is not a traditional MMO and shouldn't be. The instancing helps keep the zone population down so that you do not have 3 to 4 hundred people in one area. Even in WoW they cull players into groups of "phase" so that people do not lag out. But really the instancing helps make the player feel as if they are 1 of few instead of 1 of many. This is simply my opinion, I don't expect everyone to feel the same way.
I think your confusing instancing (private instances of zones/areas) with open world (seamless loading in between areas shared by everyone). But even if you meant open world, there were a few before Wow. Asheron's Call was a large seamless world and one of the first MMOs.
Having been a tabletop GM since about 1993, and a tabletop player since a decade before that, I have to say that, although MMORPGs are starting to improve -and World of Warcraft's lame way of doing things were the catalyst to make this happen-, they still have quite a way to go to reach the open-world open-adventure/exploration sort of game. However, if they ever get there, I have a feeling it will be done on a more perfect level; there is NO video game that will EVER replace an excellent GameMaster, and there never should be, but I think they could get pretty close. Let's see what TESO does when it launches.
Originally posted by Gravarg This game would be perfect if it wasn't for mounts costing $40 or companions costing $35. I would gladly fork over ~$15-20 for a companion or mount, and I'm sure alot of people are like me. They'd make more money if they sold things for less...
This is something I whole heartedly agree with, even though I've spent a few $$$ in the Zen store, I would be much more willing to spend more if things were cheaper.
The high-priced items will either be bought outright by impatient players (profit !) or thousands of players will attempt to "grind" for those special items.
But the grinds are long and drawn out, so those players will be tempted to spend on many other smaller things (profit !).
Of course, the common defense against any Cash Shop items is that "they are optional, you don't NEED them". And in truth, you won't ever have them unless you spend real money or play every day for 6 months or longer.
How attractive would the game be if everything in the Cash Shop was removed from the game ? Would people still want to play the generic MMO that would remain ?
The point is, if you pvp then the items in the cash shop are not optional unless you like giving your opponent a 30% advantage all the time. I really have no problems with most item shops, just that PW's are overly expensive and always give the pvpers a distinct edge. One point in PW's favor, they don't rent items in the cash shop, you always buy them outright.
As for instancing...it's not as hated as you might expect. The load times are fast, and I like that there's so many instanced environments. In a game like this (D&D) it helps keep you immersed. The 'dungeons' feel like adventures tailored just for me, as opposed to having some guy named MRWIZARD7 running around, killing mobs and looting chests and trying to trade with me.
I appreciate the open world of some games, but by no means it it a 'must have'. To me, an mmo succeeds when it manages to make you, among all the thousands of others in the world around you, feel like the actual hero.
And in this, thanks to instancing and instancing alone, I think they succeed.
Have to agree with this, though not so much with being the hero but it does fit the theme.
I am more of a sandbox/openworld type of player, but regardless Neverwinter really entertains me. I like the graphics/animations and if I am in need to get some visual eye pleasing I have plenty of other games to load up.
Also I was expecting lots of instances, not sure if I even know of a open world game from Cryptic, is or was there any?
It's also the first game that feels truly free to play for me, I don't feel hindered in any way, I might not have the top gear for my level 22 Control Wizard to compete in PVP as I haven't done any PVP, but I survive pretty well with what is looted/crafted/bought ingame with ingame currency or Astral Diamonds in most of it's PVs.
Plenty of scrolls to identify new gear some needed some to sell, only thing I can't unlock seem to be lockboxes as they seem to need Zen (cashshop) Haven't looked if it might be possible to unlock them ingame without Zen?
City's/towns feel alive even though a game like Age of Wushu let's city's feel allot more alive since NPC's actually do more then just walk around, especial nice when bumping into people in AoW.
But I also have to be fair as I am playing this game mainly solo which brings me back to me being more of a sandbox player where I feel the ingame community is differently committed towards the game compared to a themepark game like Neverwinter there for I am allot more social in a sandbox games then I am in a themepark game cause to me themepark games feel like my usual multiplayer experience, you hop in have some fun and come back when ever.
in SUCH a game i also prefer the instancing which limits the amount of adventurers - it keeps you immersed... i think a truly open game is very welcome for a true sandbox game where you basically are just thrown into the wild - a very large wide wild...but for themeparks or themepark-sanbox combos as 90% of games are, it simply results in a huge cluster of players on certain spots and the fighting for the mobs there - this kills any atmosphere to me...being one of a few adventruers in a dark dungeon loaded with deadly traps and monsters on the other hand is right up my ally
Originally posted by Grym People hate instanced content because they want an "open world"..... up until their group/guild is in the middle of tackling that boss mob and some clown trains the entire freakin' dungeon into the room.
Yeah I am one of those folks who find instance / phasing far less of an "immersion-breaker" that the problems that they were created to circumvent in the first place. The idea of the adventure zones being dangerous or lost places where hardly anyone goes seems hard to reconcile with having 500 lolplayers with names like pwnzUgudXxX and every imaginable mis-spelling of Legolas and Drizzt bouncing around like fleas on meth and slaughtering the wildlife as fast as it can respawn.
Originally posted by Nemesis7884 in SUCH a game i also prefer the instancing which limits the amount of adventurers - it keeps you immersed... i think a truly open game is very welcome for a true sandbox game where you basically are just thrown into the wild - a very large wide wild...but for themeparks or themepark-sanbox combos as 90% of games are, it simply results in a huge cluster of players on certain spots and the fighting for the mobs there - this kills any atmosphere to me...being one of a few adventruers in a dark dungeon loaded with deadly traps and monsters on the other hand is right up my ally
My sentiments exactly, obviously a pure sandbox would make little or no use of instancing or phasing almost by definition (at least by what seems to be the most widely accepted definition round here) since the existence of multiple divergent copies of any significant part of the world would make persistent changes to the world arising directly from player actions impossible or meaningless; but given the intrinsic absurdity to the themepark MMO form no matter what design approach you take, I'd prefer instancing to spawn-camping, queuing for or fighting over quest mobs and having the bandit chief respawn out of nowhere 2 minutes after you kill him.
EDITED TO ADD: This is a general comment and not specifically directed at Neverwinter which I haven't played.
Originally posted by Grym People hate instanced content because they want an "open world"..... up until their group/guild is in the middle of tackling that boss mob and some clown trains the entire freakin' dungeon into the room.
There's quite a few of us who enjoy that openness and the situations that can arise from them.
I'll take old school RunnyeEye dungeon trains , screams of Griffon to inn 3 in the east commons , and who the F pulled that hill giant over to our orc camp any day over the instanced , watered down , vanilla mmo's of today.
I made a forum post basically saying the SAME EXACT thing this article says and I got a warning for trolling, so if we feel a game sucks and doesn't reach expectations we are trolls but if the mods feel the same way they get an article?
I made a forum post basically saying the SAME EXACT thing this article says and I got a warning for trolling, so if we feel a game sucks and doesn't reach expectations we are trolls but if the mods feel the same way they get an article?
Originally posted by MysteryB I made a forum post basically saying the SAME EXACT thing this article says and I got a warning for trolling, so if we feel a game sucks and doesn't reach expectations we are trolls but if the mods feel the same way they get an article?
If they had made the game less linear and less instanced it would have been worlds better. An open world game that you can run around in and explore feels much more like a place you can get lost in, but instancing and such a harshly linear design ruins the immersion. As much as we all hate on WoW, that's one thing they did really right and gaming companies just don't seem to understand how important that is nowadays. But Neverwinter's world is far more closed off and linear than most.
Personally I have high expectations for graphics and combat following games like TERA, so those are issues for me as well with Neverwinter. But if they at least made a seamless, open world it could have improved the game experience so much more, allowing us to truly get attached to the game. It certainly has enough lore to make such a world come alive so it really just feels like Cryptic went the quick and cheap route with this game all around. They could have improved upon a number of things besides just world design and leveling experience. But changing that really would have made a large difference I think.
If they had made the game less linear and less instanced it would have been worlds better. An open world game that you can run around in and explore feels much more like a place you can get lost in, but instancing and such a harshly linear design ruins the immersion. As much as we all hate on WoW, that's one thing they did really right and gaming companies just don't seem to understand how important that is nowadays. But Neverwinter's world is far more closed off and linear than most.
What does the average person spend 95% of his time doing in WoW? Sitting in a queue waiting for a dungeon/bg/raid/arena to pop,
so why is an open world so important again? For that 5% of the time you spend leveling a character? Yeah, I'm not buying it.
I just recently played the game. The starting area was fun, but I hated not being able to explore. So I beat the big giant guy on the bridge. Then I enter the city and lost interest. I am totally losing interest with games that have cash shops. Just IMO, but hope there will be a game in the future that does not have one.
In hindsight, i think my biggest problem with Star Wars was that there weren't more instances. Open world content is really lame. Kill this many this, collect this many of that. There's no story to be told usually (GW2 did agood job of getting around this with dynamic quest chains, but the one offs feel very uninteresting most of hte time).
I've grown to realize that the problem with MMOs is that I don't want to play them with everyone. When I first heard about mmorpgs i assumed everyone playing them was rpg fans, and that has not grown to be the case. So things like story and immersion are only interesting to a handful of us. I prefer instances because Ican get that story and immersion without dealing with everyone else. I"d just prefer games either go all one way or all another but not make these mismashes where to get to good instances, personalized content i have to go do 100 mundane tastes that have nothing to do with the real story. I've realized that I don't like the mMO player and rarely want to intereact with the average person. If I have friends and family, I love playing with them, but its player aeralim8 that seem to populate most games and make MMOs less interesting for me.
I've played NWN for 3 hours so far, so far so good. I like that a good many parts of the game are instances or isolated instanced. It does feel a bit linear, but i'm mostly playing it to see what the foundries offer.
I think that's the bread and butter, as, unfortunately, publishers have been very sad at providing really good adventure stories in mmos.
I think my idea game would be chained dynamic quests and instances small dungeons.
Comments
I couldn't disagree more with this. While I am not a fan of F2P - this game is AAA. You can choose to nitpick a detail from any game and say you don't like it. That's fine. It happens all of the time, and it's part of the reason why player's expectations are through the roof. I also used to think that instancing breaks immersion, and that F2P games are just terrible. This game proves us both wrong.
The truth is if you went into this game (or any game for that matter) with an open mind and not knowing anything about it - you would probably slap yourself a few hours later after realizing that you just had a good time. Stop the assumptions, stop the nitpicking, and please stop believing that game is simply going to be terrible because it doesn't have 1 thing you might have been looking for. Try it. You might like it.
Perfect World forced Cryptic to make what they had into an MMO.
In an interview Jack Emmert explained that since their MMOs(CO and STO) did not turn out well they were going to make Neverwinter a smaller scale project.
So, its basically all meddling from Perfect World.
That's what the Foundry is for. Give those missions a shot, some really nice, detailed, lore rich missions that give the game all the non-linear questing one could hope for.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
This is something I whole heartedly agree with, even though I've spent a few $$$ in the Zen store, I would be much more willing to spend more if things were cheaper.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
You can blame Perfect World for that. All their games have overly priced cash shop items. They have the most expensive mounts out of all F2P games.
Smile
The high-priced items will either be bought outright by impatient players (profit !) or thousands of players will attempt to "grind" for those special items.
But the grinds are long and drawn out, so those players will be tempted to spend on many other smaller things (profit !).
Of course, the common defense against any Cash Shop items is that "they are optional, you don't NEED them". And in truth, you won't ever have them unless you spend real money or play every day for 6 months or longer.
How attractive would the game be if everything in the Cash Shop was removed from the game ? Would people still want to play the generic MMO that would remain ?
If i could slap some of you MMO babies I would, let stop using WoW as a damn open world example since IT WAS NOT THE 1ST , lets not forget Meridian 59 or even more open world 100% ULTIMA Online... damn im tired of you WoW babies assuming WoW was this 1st to do this and that "revolutionized" the gaming industry, .. WRONG wow did jack shit but Dumb it down, and make more cartoony. Ultima Online had real Pvp, UO had an economy that was useless after x amount of levels, because there were no levels, UO had Houses not instanced crap, Ill stop there because truthfully I'm sure myself and many other could keep going on how really MMORPG's have actually just simpler and further away from what they were and are supposed to be.
I find the Foundry which so many are talking about to be a great idea on paper but as implemented in game,it is still the same old as Cryptic's quests.I have played about 20 all were top rated for my levels,i am 22 now.
Everything is really just a lot of following sparkly paths and constantly opening your map because the layouts are a cluttered mess.
I have no idea how good the tools are in the Foundry quests but imo,i could easily make better quality quests.I have worked with game engines for about 15 years,so i guess i just have a better idea /feel for map layouts and ideas.I have not been the least impressed with any Foundry quest so far.I gave everyone a 3 just because i was feeling in a good mood and i don't want to discourage people from continuing to try.
I find the telegraph idea ok,when i heard about it for Wildstar i thought it would be a lot better once i got to try it out.Problem is once you commit to an ability,you have to follow through with the animation,so you never really get away too often.Some animations take 3/4 seconds.
So far i have played only two classes the Guardian and fighter,i find myself playing in a very generic mode.I like keybinds but i feel this game needs a traditional hotbar.
I found that as i play through the game,i see lots of small peeves that constantly look f2p.Example everything is instanced,models/meshes are repeated a lot,ALL AI seems identical and bosses seem to have their one telegraph move and not much more.Almost every mob is stationary there is the odd threesome wandering about,not often.Aggro mechanics seem extremely one dimensional they are all based on proximity and all seem to have the same proximity.
When i enjoyed combat in FFXi for example the mobs AI was much more diversified.I would fight a mob and it might heal itself,would try to bind me in place then follow up with nukes.Then it might cast Flash and try to blind me,it might cast blind on me,DIa to lower my defense,cast protect on itself to raise it's defense,Bio to lower my attack ect ect,just much more quality and depth put into the system.Within 5-10 seconds you have seen all these mobs have to offer.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Preach brother. Preach.
http://thewordiz.wordpress.com/
I think your confusing instancing (private instances of zones/areas) with open world (seamless loading in between areas shared by everyone). But even if you meant open world, there were a few before Wow. Asheron's Call was a large seamless world and one of the first MMOs.
https://www.therepopulation.com - Sci Fi Sandbox.
The point is, if you pvp then the items in the cash shop are not optional unless you like giving your opponent a 30% advantage all the time. I really have no problems with most item shops, just that PW's are overly expensive and always give the pvpers a distinct edge. One point in PW's favor, they don't rent items in the cash shop, you always buy them outright.
Have to agree with this, though not so much with being the hero but it does fit the theme.
I am more of a sandbox/openworld type of player, but regardless Neverwinter really entertains me. I like the graphics/animations and if I am in need to get some visual eye pleasing I have plenty of other games to load up.
Also I was expecting lots of instances, not sure if I even know of a open world game from Cryptic, is or was there any?
It's also the first game that feels truly free to play for me, I don't feel hindered in any way, I might not have the top gear for my level 22 Control Wizard to compete in PVP as I haven't done any PVP, but I survive pretty well with what is looted/crafted/bought ingame with ingame currency or Astral Diamonds in most of it's PVs.
Plenty of scrolls to identify new gear some needed some to sell, only thing I can't unlock seem to be lockboxes as they seem to need Zen (cashshop) Haven't looked if it might be possible to unlock them ingame without Zen?
City's/towns feel alive even though a game like Age of Wushu let's city's feel allot more alive since NPC's actually do more then just walk around, especial nice when bumping into people in AoW.
But I also have to be fair as I am playing this game mainly solo which brings me back to me being more of a sandbox player where I feel the ingame community is differently committed towards the game compared to a themepark game like Neverwinter there for I am allot more social in a sandbox games then I am in a themepark game cause to me themepark games feel like my usual multiplayer experience, you hop in have some fun and come back when ever.
They have been experiencing problems with the servers. May be expected as it's still in open beta.
But the latest one - occurring now - is apparently affecting all Cryptic games, according to their Admin twitter post.
https://twitter.com/NeverwinterGame
Yeah I am one of those folks who find instance / phasing far less of an "immersion-breaker" that the problems that they were created to circumvent in the first place. The idea of the adventure zones being dangerous or lost places where hardly anyone goes seems hard to reconcile with having 500 lolplayers with names like pwnzUgudXxX and every imaginable mis-spelling of Legolas and Drizzt bouncing around like fleas on meth and slaughtering the wildlife as fast as it can respawn.
My sentiments exactly, obviously a pure sandbox would make little or no use of instancing or phasing almost by definition (at least by what seems to be the most widely accepted definition round here) since the existence of multiple divergent copies of any significant part of the world would make persistent changes to the world arising directly from player actions impossible or meaningless; but given the intrinsic absurdity to the themepark MMO form no matter what design approach you take, I'd prefer instancing to spawn-camping, queuing for or fighting over quest mobs and having the bandit chief respawn out of nowhere 2 minutes after you kill him.
EDITED TO ADD: This is a general comment and not specifically directed at Neverwinter which I haven't played.
There's quite a few of us who enjoy that openness and the situations that can arise from them.
I'll take old school RunnyeEye dungeon trains , screams of Griffon to inn 3 in the east commons , and who the F pulled that hill giant over to our orc camp any day over the instanced , watered down , vanilla mmo's of today.
Mystery Bounty
Mystery Bounty
Perhaps the delivery, rather than the message?
What does the average person spend 95% of his time doing in WoW? Sitting in a queue waiting for a dungeon/bg/raid/arena to pop,
so why is an open world so important again? For that 5% of the time you spend leveling a character? Yeah, I'm not buying it.
In hindsight, i think my biggest problem with Star Wars was that there weren't more instances. Open world content is really lame. Kill this many this, collect this many of that. There's no story to be told usually (GW2 did agood job of getting around this with dynamic quest chains, but the one offs feel very uninteresting most of hte time).
I've grown to realize that the problem with MMOs is that I don't want to play them with everyone. When I first heard about mmorpgs i assumed everyone playing them was rpg fans, and that has not grown to be the case. So things like story and immersion are only interesting to a handful of us. I prefer instances because Ican get that story and immersion without dealing with everyone else. I"d just prefer games either go all one way or all another but not make these mismashes where to get to good instances, personalized content i have to go do 100 mundane tastes that have nothing to do with the real story. I've realized that I don't like the mMO player and rarely want to intereact with the average person. If I have friends and family, I love playing with them, but its player aeralim8 that seem to populate most games and make MMOs less interesting for me.
I've played NWN for 3 hours so far, so far so good. I like that a good many parts of the game are instances or isolated instanced. It does feel a bit linear, but i'm mostly playing it to see what the foundries offer.
I think that's the bread and butter, as, unfortunately, publishers have been very sad at providing really good adventure stories in mmos.