Neverwinter MMO Opens to Everyone on April 30

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

Neverwinter MMO Opens to Everyone on April 30

The upcoming 60-hour Beta Weekend 4 rewards Neverwinter's beta testers with a profession system.

As Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios' Dungeons & Dragons MMO Neverwinter moves closer to completion, the free-to-play game is planning to enter the open beta phase, making it accessible to everyone. The Neverwinter open beta begins on April 30, with Cryptic Studios Executive Producer and COO Craig Zinkievich stating, "That's when the world we've labored for years to build comes to life--that's when every gamer can log in and play what we've worked so hard to create." According to a press release, there won't be any character wipes or restricted access once the open beta is underway, so interested parties won't have to worry about losing progress.

Those who have purchased the pricey Founder's Packs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121783-Neverwinter-Founders-Packs-Cost-Up-To-200] will have more to look forward to in the world of Neverwinter before it opens to all. Starting on April 12, a 60-hour special beta weekend will introduce the MMO's professions system, with four professions becoming available: Leadership, Mailsmithing, Platesmithing, and Leatherworking. This is the fourth beta weekend for Perfect World and Cryptic have organized for Founders, with Cryptic CEO Jack Emmert calling them "our biggest supporters."

The press release states that Neverwinter's creators believe "that Western free-to-play games, when built from the ground up, can compete with even the biggest boxed subscription titles." They expect the open beta will prove that theory; of course, only time will tell if Neverwinter leaves a lasting impression on MMO fans.

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[synobal]

Yes but how good are the free to play aspects? For me right now Tera Online and Planetside 2 are my F2P games of choice.

 

[KeyMaster45]

This sounds an awful lot more like a release date than the start of an open beta.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Yes, finally!!!
Excited to start playing, D&D ftw!

 

[Pebkio]

...I'll believe it's D&D when I see it for myself. Remember DDO? I played that, D&D it's not. A WoW clone with D&D elements does not equal D&D. I understand that the world can't feature a strategic turn-based rpg.... wait, not "understand"... what's the word... oh right: "accept". I accept that the world can't feature a strategic turn-based rpg because of "reasons and arguments bases on the assumption that no gamer likes to play anything but WoW clones". But maybe they tried, somehow, to get the D&D experience into a video game that's being... released in an era of twitchy... action-packed... develoh, who am I kidding, this is going to suck...

Why!? Why are you doing this? The only concept that came close to having a WoW clone that could unseat WoW was Star Wars. D&D just doesn't have the following.

I could be wrong, though. Maybe they somehow incorporated the FEEL of turn-based fighting without turn-based fighting. Maybe they actually made it a strategic turn-based combat with roaming in between the combat! Maybe it's nothing like Woh, who am I kidding, this is going to suck...

 

[Absolutionis]

Once Wizards pumped out D&D 4th Edition and made it basically like an MMO-turned-Tabletop Game, it wasn't super popular with the tabletop crowd. Ironically, they're turning the MMO-influenced-tabletopgame into an MMO this time around with hopes of making some money before they completely abandon 4thEd which they have already announced they'll do.

...I'll believe it's D&D when I see it for myself. Remember DDO? I played that, D&D it's not. A WoW clone with D&D elements does not equal D&D. I understand that the world can't feature a strategic turn-based rpg.... wait, not "understand"... what's the word... oh right: "accept". I accept that the world can't feature a strategic turn-based rpg because of "reasons and arguments bases on the assumption that no gamer likes to play anything but WoW clones". But maybe they tried, somehow, to get the D&D experience into a video game that's being... released in an era of twitchy... action-packed... develoh, who am I kidding, this is going to suck...

Yeah, I pretty much agree. Insultingly, it's using the name "Neverwinter" made popular by the Neverwinter Nights games which pulled off the idea of multiplayer electronic D&D much, much better with modules, super-customizability, and the option to allow pausing in your game.

 

[Pebkio]

Once Wizards pumped out D&D 4th Edition and made it basically like an MMO-turned-Tabletop Game, it wasn't super popular with the tabletop crowd. Ironically, they're turning the MMO-influenced-tabletopgame into an MMO this time around with hopes of making some money before they completely abandon 4thEd which they have already announced they'll do.

Now see, I happen to like D&D 4.0. They made it into a template such as that would fit well into a video game, and I really wanted a good D&D video game. But the ONLY 4.0 video game I've ever seen is the horrible Xbox Live Arcade version that was real time and not strategic. All they fucking had to do was make one tiny Tactics-like game with some skill-check puzzles but they fucking couldn't because they don't believe D&D FANS would ever like such a thing.

Dammit, I'm so pissed off... this game is going to suck so badly...

 

[delroland]

Once Wizards pumped out D&D 4th Edition and made it basically like an MMO-turned-Tabletop Game, it wasn't super popular with the tabletop crowd. Ironically, they're turning the MMO-influenced-tabletopgame into an MMO this time around with hopes of making some money before they completely abandon 4thEd which they have already announced they'll do.

Now see, I happen to like D&D 4.0. They made it into a template such as that would fit well into a video game, and I really wanted a good D&D video game. But the ONLY 4.0 video game I've ever seen is the horrible Xbox Live Arcade version that was real time and not strategic. All they fucking had to do was make one tiny Tactics-like game with some skill-check puzzles but they fucking couldn't because they don't believe D&D FANS would ever like such a thing.

Dammit, I'm so pissed off... this game is going to suck so badly...

If you want D&D, go play D&D. If you want to play D&D digitally, go download MapTools.

They're not making a game to appeal to just you, and if they did they certainly wouldn't make any money based on your narrow requirements. Granted, as yet another fantasy MMO the odds favor tepid mediocrity, but save judgement until you've actually tried it.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Ah, Perfect World and Cryptic.

I wonder how many lock-boxes people will get within the first few minutes?

Lock-boxes that are so prevalent that you can't sell them in game and you start to accumulate so many that they become a storage hog that you just have to throw them away. Lock-boxes that drop so often that you wonder what normal loot you could have got if those boxes didn't drop almost every other time you got a loot drop. Lock-boxes that start showing up in all sorts of flavors, all equally useless, because the good items they might contain are like a one in ten million or more drop.

If you wonder what I'm talking about, it has to do with Star Trek Online.

Of course it did produce a funny reworking of a famous Star Trek tribble scene.

 

[Xarathox]

I'm skeptical about this particular title. Cryptic is a good studio, but Perfect World Entertainment is an abhorrent publishing company. They have no interest in maintaining balance and have turned every single game under their banner into "pay for power" piles of shit.

I played PWI for about 3 years and left after $1000 "gear" became available in the cash shop... that a majority of the endgame players bought up like candy, unbalancing the game and economy into a complete mess.

 

[Jburton9]

Once Wizards pumped out D&D 4th Edition and made it basically like an MMO-turned-Tabletop Game, it wasn't super popular with the tabletop crowd. Ironically, they're turning the MMO-influenced-tabletopgame into an MMO this time around with hopes of making some money before they completely abandon 4thEd which they have already announced they'll do.

Now see, I happen to like D&D 4.0. They made it into a template such as that would fit well into a video game, and I really wanted a good D&D video game. But the ONLY 4.0 video game I've ever seen is the horrible Xbox Live Arcade version that was real time and not strategic. All they fucking had to do was make one tiny Tactics-like game with some skill-check puzzles but they fucking couldn't because they don't believe D&D FANS would ever like such a thing.

Dammit, I'm so pissed off... this game is going to suck so badly...

Sorry about your frustrations, I can understand. I have been in the last two betas and for me personally it feels very distant to anything related to D&D. To me as an old school pen and paper gamer I did not feel like I was in Neverwinter, it felt like a generic fantasy setting. I kept waiting for something to pull me into that world but it did not happen, maybe it was the hub design where things felt more disconnected or possibly not seeing NPC's that I know and love from that setting, hmmm.

There are some neat aspects to the game, I was able to get pick up groups quickly so I could see the instance events. Also it uses the same cryptic wide social system, so if you have friends in the other games they will pop up as friends in NWN. Ignore lists work the same way as well. One thing to look out for is the loot system needs work, right now anyone can click need even if their class can't use it so we all know what that means. "I better need on everything because if I don't and someone else does I instantly lose the roll for loot" type problem.

Lastly, NWN like in other Cryptic games is using similar monetization methods. For example, treasure boxes that need purchased keys like in Startrek Online.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I played NWN and NWN2 hard in their days, so am very interested in this. I can't decide how much to spend on the Founder's Packs. I've been disappointed before but don't mind spending the money up front for permanent in-game stuff. So $60, $200, or $260?

Anyone else bought a Founder's Pack?