17 réponses à ce sujet

[neltymind]

I recently cam back to playing NWN after a long period of absence.

 

When I played NWN in the first 4 or 5 years after it's release, there were more Persistent Worlds than you could ever play on and there was Neverwinter Connections which was used for matchmaking for game with a Pen & Paper feel, meaning that a group of players (and possibly a dm) team up to play a game on a regular basis. I always found this way of playing more intriguing than PWs because roleplay was much more interesting that way and also the static quests on PWs were not really that interesting to play. They mostly involved grinding the same areas over and over again to gain enough XP to level up. And most PWs had DM events, of course. But those had to match your schedule and were often totally overcrowded by players which broke immersion for me.

 

Anyway... The Pen & Paper type of NWN game doesn't seem to exist anymore. I posted a request for this type of game here on the forums and I got exactly on reply as a pm. The good thing is that it lead to a regular game like I hoped for, but I wonder what I'll do in terms of playing NWN if this group ever stops playing and I also wonder why there is such an active community here if the only multiplayer activity seems revolve around a handful of persistent worlds. 

 

Is that really the only way to play m multiplayer NWN which is not dead? Do you guys really prefer playing single player instead of playing the same module with 2-4 other people, including a dm who makes the game so much more fun? Or do you play this kind of games, but only with people you already know and an outsider has no chance of knowing this game takes place, let alone becoming part of it?

[henesua]

you just need to meet more people. i am not currently doing a pen and paper style game due to other commitments, but it is my preferred way of playing as well.

[AndrueD]

We have group that play LAN cuz sumtime have lose PW connect but LAN stay up better.  They use swap DM each sesson so it stay fun.  These most are old PnP who canna drive so far to play on board today.

 

Still many gud PW on but ned to try many.  Am thinking PW that here now much better than b4 cuz balense seem better.  Like u say, they do PnP changes sumtime.  Same for the LAN. Gud balance like PnP.

 

Must remember sumthin, tho.  We not kids nemore so it get hard for plan game with all working nd mayb have grandkids even now for some.  Donna think ppl who get NWN from GOG take so serus as wen you play many year passd so there not new players to fill 4 all ppl that get busy.

 

Am thinking you ned to try more PWs but must talk to player lots b4 start out.  For me it hard cuz it must speak português else I ned sumone to help but still find ppl who like to play like me nd donna care.

[neltymind]

you just need to meet more people. 

 

Don't get wrong, I know how to meet people. In real life, that is. 

 

But if it comes to people who might be interested in playing NWN, all I can come up with is is this forum as it seems to be the one with the most active users. I already tried that with not so overwhelming results.

 

So what exactly do you mean bei "meet people" in terms of playing NWN in such a group?

[AndrueD]

 

So what exactly do you mean bei "meet people" in terms of playing NWN in such a group?

 

 

Must log to sum server where u see ppl list to make frends.  No other way today, Sry.

 

Sum ppl make facebook or sum site to help meet frends but am thinking they get too busy for it to keep werkin.

 

NNCS one place that have link list but NeverwinterConnections down for very long time.  That did wut u are looking for.

 

There still server list wut show how many ppl on nd have direct connect addy but I donna know url anymore (ne1 know wut link is for neltymind ???).

[TheFroggyOne]

I am having serious trouble logging onto a server. I have my cd-key and used the gog module re-installer. I have the critical rebuild patch installed. Every server times out afterwards. >.<

[henesua]

If you need to ask how to meet people that play NWN, then you DO need to ask about how to meet people in general because NWN is not a special weird thing. Its just another thing that people do and its cheap to buy.

 

You could:

• talk to people you know in the real world and try to interest them in NWN.
• stick around in this forum more than a day or two and actually interact with us to maybe try to scare up a game
• check out the neverwintervault.org forums
• check out irc: #nwvault channel on chat.freenode.net
• look up the facebook NWN page
• look up the NWN subreddit
• bring up NWN on any RPG forum you participate in

 

etc... etc...

it take patience and concentration.

if you've got those you can do anything.

[neltymind]

Thank you for your input.

 

Maybe I am just tackling the problem from the wrong direction. 

 

I really thought that people are willing to play NWN with someone without knowing the person in advance. That's obviously wrong for most people and some kind of networking is necessary. While I am willing and able to do that kind of stuff for my job or to find new real life friends, I neither have the time nor the will to network "just" to find someone to play a computer game with me. I just want to play it.  

 

Sure, I understand that playing with someone you don't know has some risks that your playing styles are not compatible (role player vs. power gamer, dialogue reader vs. rusher, disagreements over difficulty settings and so on) but it takes only 10 minutes of chatting or maybe an hour of play to figure out if there is the possibility of further playing together or not, so I don't think this reason makes much sense. Especially if you take the fact into account that it extremely limits your choice of possible team-mates.

 

So basically the same things that always annoyed me about persistent worlds seems to affect this style of play as well: You have cliques of players who keep to themselves and make it hard and frustrating for the new players to become a part of the fun. I find it bad enough that economy and society work that way. Is it really necessary to copy that behavior for computer games?

 

There was this website. I think the name was "Neverwinter Connections". It made it possible to become part of a group without much networking first. You just sent an application with the backstory of your character and if you had put some effort in it, you could join the fun. Sadly, this website is gone. There has never been a try to establish an alternative. Now I understand why. People want to keep to themselves.  

[icywind1980]

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nwncp

 

This group is full of interesting people.

[henesua]

I'm not following your reasoning at all. People don't want to keep to themselves. Meeting people is just the best way to acquire the info/connection to play in someone's game.

 

Neverwinter Connections was great, but its gone. I briefly considered creating a widget for NWVault that would add on to its calendar, but lost interest when I got a look at the mess of Drupal, and have been working on other projects since.

 

However if you want anonymous play you should be playing on a persistent world. There are far more of those than I believe you realize. Install NWNCX and browse through the list.

[neltymind]

I was not speaking about anonymity and I don't play on PWs any more. I've a lot of respect for the people running those projects, but it's just not for me. I found every PW I ever played on repetitive and immersion breaking  after a while. But that was a problem I have with the general concept of PWs, not faulty design or anything. 

 

I was speaking about my impression that most non-PW-multiplayer action seems to be run by cliques of people who know each other for a longer period of time and are obviously not interested in letting new people join their fun. I think this is quite obvious. All threads in this forum from the last two years of players looking for a group came from people who were (relatively) new to the forum (e.g. most likely not part of such a clique) and received no or very little attention. There is also not a single post of an already existing group looking for an additional player.

[henesua]

You are off base. People play with people they know because that is who they know. its not an exclusive thing.

 

If you want to complain just to complain, I can't help you. But if you want to get in a group you need to find a group. Its that simple.

[Gruftlord]

I think the NWN community and it's players over the years have all very much refined their taste of how the like their RPG, and found groups of likewise players, that they play with. It is a daunting tasks for a newcomer/returning player to find the group that shares a same kind of play than they like and where you can fit in.
Imho, there is little dynamic left in the "just hop in/out for an evening or two" kind of style in the NWN community. There used to be webpages dedicated to bringing these kinds of players together, but i don't know how many of those are still active. i'm mostly a PW player myself, so never payd too much attention to that section of our community.

however, if light and spontaneous dungeon delving in ad-hoc groups is your thing, maybe the new Sword coast legends (if generally poorly received) is just the game for you, to scratch that fix?

[AndrueD]

Ahhh... I C now.  You want LAN games.  Wanna just go chat to ppl on Skype or Yaho Messenger or sumwhere, then see if they have NWN to play PnP.  If not have it, it real cheap for em so worth a try. We do that sumtime but here is problem wut you mayb get...

 

LAN always base on sum campain or module wut seem very gud but mayb not debug enuf.  That mean u ned sumeone in group wut can fix things which not always ez to do.  Wen playing in group bugs can ruin fun. But even if gud debug, still ned a gud DM.  Old NWN ppl used to be gud with doin DM but it not so ez now find a gud one in chat. Our LAN switch around but sum ppl not really like DM nd just play.

 

That why PW so gud.  Admin always fix problum fast cuz they worry to lose ppl nd like to keep it playing gud.  PW DMs usually real gud cuz have lots of practis wit many kind of player. Sum did PnP long ago. That why most online player do PW.  Plus PW will make surpise quest sumtime, but person who get your LAN loaded knows how module work so not so many surprise for that person if want to play with u.

 

Mayb I not say this all rite, but PW just so much bargain, PnP LAN take so much time for bilding and making work rite.  But like u say, if u want to get chat frends to play ur game, mayb they not like PW too so a better match on LAN. 

[Gruftlord]

is that how the words come out of your fingers, or do you take effort to write like this? It certainly requires some effort from me to follow your writing. Whatever you are trying to achieve here, it's not helping with making your posts understandable.

[AndrueD]

Mayb I shud wait for sis to show.  She the only one who type gud English nd fast.  My LAN group type nd read português so am gud there. 

[neltymind]

It is a daunting tasks for a newcomer/returning player to find the group that shares a same kind of play than they like and where you can fit in.

 

Yeah, that' exactly what I mean. Those groups might still exist, but it's pretty hard to find any as there is not platform where you can contact those players.

 

 

however, if light and spontaneous dungeon delving in ad-hoc groups is your thing, maybe the new Sword coast legends (if generally poorly received) is just the game for you, to scratch that fix?

 

Thanks, but that's absolutely not my kind of game. My kind of game is a stable group of players (there might be someone leaving or joining from time to time, but this should not happen on a regular basis and it should be role played) playing a campaign module. Having a DM in such an environment can be a big plus, but is not absolutely necessary. I also prefer a heavy emphasis on rp and more specific role playing adventurous characters (that does not necessarily mean epic, but it does mean that you don't spend all day beside campfires but at least try to be either a hero or a villain and it also means that the characters are no crafters, merchants or pacifists). So basically a computer emulation of a Pen & Paper group with rp focus.

 

The only games I've ever played which had those kind of games were the Baldur's Gate series (but the multiplayer was flawed and the last time I've seen games like this was in around the year 2000) and the NWN series. 

[Faerinaal]

There are indeed a great many refined tastes that have emerged over the years as, stated above.

 

I myself come from a Pen and Paper Background; I migrated from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons into the later editions and did a hard stop at 3.5, like most.

 

I agree that a Persistent World can have several problems in terms of repetitive activities that lead to a break in immersion.  I think there is a special blend of setting choice, design, and play style that can compliment one another in this regard.

 

The Persistent World I have designed is one that takes advantage of a setting that has repeatable challenges, and my own attitude that nothing is sacred.  For example, night spawns are not always in the same places, and the foes might be deserters who have ample reason to be there, and your PC can take actions to remove these NPC deserters from the game entirely.

 

I think many PW builders have been guilty of the sin of their monsters, dungeons, and other challenges being called too precious; more precious than player fulfillment.  In other words, if you come to my server and slay every last goblin in existence? I'm going to acknowledge that the same way a pen and paper DM should, instead of ignoring your efforts or impact and keeping my goblins to the point of nausea.

 

In fact, all of our plots are steam-driven, I tend to run events from 6pm EDT right til about midnight, consisting of various elements.  PCs in my plots might be required to travel, investigate, ask questions, learn, have a victory, or suffer defeat, etc.  You can probably avoid or flee from combat most times, but as in pen and paper, combat is most rewarding. Some of our most enjoyable sessions have been smaller groups or even single players taking decisive action and affecting the course of events whether it was simply affecting the flow of information or conquering a rogue power.

 

I'm a bit old fashioned so I greatly value the cohesiveness that emerges in a solid party, and the depth that can be reached with PC generated plots and dynamics. To bring these considerations and general mindset into a Persistent World to me means to create a place where people can enjoy the experience of authentic, kitchen-table style D&D and do so together, regularly, one would hope.