[MUD-Dev] Persistent worlds in NWN (was: Retention without Addiction?)

[Dubious Advocate]

"Valerio Santinelli" <tanis at mediacom.it> wrote:

> I've got my idea from the way the devs at Bioware are acting in
> the forums.  They keep telling how much they would like to have
> database support in the game and all this stuff, but they always
> get down to a point where they say that any kind of I/O is not
> going to make into the game because there are other issues more
> important first.  Don't misunderstand me. I would love to see
> Bioware add support for any kind of I/O, but the lack of "real"
> response on this issue has made me think that way.

Agreed.  I bear in mind the soft responses posted in that journal
log, and remember the choice of words has been consistent since
beta.  Bioware are a classy act and I fully expect they'll
eventually come closer to a PW framework.  But I do get the
impression they are under the gun and creating a codebase that will
defy any attempt at extension or even orthogonality.  That chat log
is posted this month and they are brutally frank about the
brittleness of the codebase.

More likely at some point Bioware will bifurcate the product
direction and start from scratch with a framework codebase and
reusing "easy" stuff like scripted and graphical components.

If I were a publisher of multiple Central MOGs I'd think about
licensing or creating my own framework so I could create my own
spinoffs and further monetize customers already friendly to my
product formulations.

What I as a customer and dedicated genre hobbyist really want is a
zoning-free open world ala' UO or AC2.  But on clustered over my
rack, over my wires, supporting 300 of my closest friends, and
listed in directories on a thousand other player worlds... :-) NWN's
current room by room model is not drafted to this implementation.

As the consumerbase ages there are more hobbyists like myself.
Already product is geared more to the 20-30 crowd, something
currently lamented by ratings boards wanting to promote products for
children.

-----
Dave Scheffer
"Questions are a burden to others, answers a prison for oneself"

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