General News

The latest NWN Podcast is out and available for listening pleasure. Featuring an interview with "FFBJ", the 'cast focuses on bringing worlds to life:

Hoist the anchor and hold onto the rail... There be pirates aboard the podcast! Dave, left defenseless at the helm, is unable to stop Skunkeen's mutiny... so he joins in... will the podcast ever be the same?

Bob aka FFBJ is subjected to Dave's rambling interviewing techniques which have been deemed torture by numberous human-rights organizations. Rest assured Bob weathers the storm and delivers an intimate look into making a world come alive.

Modders in particular will want to lend an ear.

In an unsurprising, and honestly overdue, move, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) has thrown Atari off their stock listings. Atari had been warned for the last year or so that the move was 'imminent' but had fought the delisting. The merger with Infogrames apparently came too late:

NEW YORK, May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), an interactive entertainment company, announced today that on May 7, 2008 it received a letter from The Nasdaq Stock Market stating that a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel has determined to delist Atari, Inc.'s securities from the Nasdaq Global Market and will suspend trading of Atari, Inc.'s shares effective on the opening of business on May 9, 2008. Atari, Inc. plans to request a review from the Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council, which could alter or dismiss the Panel's determination. However, such a request will not delay the suspension of trading. Atari, Inc. now expects to be quoted on the Pink Sheets, an electronic quotation service maintained by Pink Sheets LLC. The Pink Sheets allow continued trading of securities of delisted companies. Atari, Inc. expects its common stock to be traded on the Pink Sheets under the symbol "ATAR" or "ATAR.PK". Atari, Inc.'s common stock may also be quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board(R), a regulated quotation service for over-the-counter securities, provided one or more market makers apply to quote Atari, Inc.'s securities.

Read the rest of the Atari press release after the jump.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

One of the fastest growing fan sites for Neverwinter Nights 2 is Thieves Guild. Not only is the site a fine repository of information, walk throughs, crafting recipes, etc., but they have now entered into the "modding" business with the recent merger with NWN 2 Mods.

Because of their explosive growth, the folks behind Thieves Guild were natural targets for an interview by WarCry. Without further ado, here's our interview:

If you would, start with a paragraph or two about yourselves, the site, etc.

Thieves-Guild.net is a fan site dedicated exclusively to NWN2 including the Mask of the Betrayer expansion and the soon to be released Mysteries of Westgate adventure pack. There is vast amount of information on the site ranging from character creation (including base and prestige classes, feats, clerical domains), maps and walkthroughs, crafting guides, a Crossroad Keep guide, influence guides, item codes, cheat codes, and lots more. The site also has it's own dedicated forums where people can ask questions on a wide variety of topics. We like to think it is one of the most comprehensive NWN2 sites on the web.

The site is currently staffed by the site administrator, forum moderators and content staff including me. I guess I should probably introduce myself. I'm Dwight Kubach, better known as kgambit on the Thieves Guild and Bioware forums. I'm currently the content editor for the Thieves guild website and part time forum moderator (when I'm not busy building more content).

Read the rest of the interview after the jump.

The ninth in a series of articles by Ossian Studios designed to introduce NWN 2 players to Westgate has been published on the official forums. Entitled "The Rise of the Ebon Claws", the Ebon Claws are giving the Night Masques a run for the money:

You underestimate us, just as the Night Masks did before we uprooted them from the Harbor Loop. We may not be as strong as they, but we are many - and we have powerful allies that they do not know of. Yes, yes, very powerful and very well-placed allies.

- Altama, Ebon Claw Guild Member

Check out the story behind the Ebon Claws by clicking below.

Rob McGinnis has not posted a community blog in almost a month but to tide everyone over for the next little while, he has posted the notes for the upcoming v1.13 patch.

It's been a while since the last community update. As such, I thought I would give you a little teaser for some of the 1.13 patch notes, while I write the real Community Update. Please remember that this list is very much incomplete.

Bug Fixes

General

* The toolset and game now load hak files in the same order.
* Skills such as Search will no longer broadcast multiple messages to the chat window while in use. A single message will be displayed when turning the skill on or off.

Multiplayer

* The chat channel will no longer revert to Local when a player transitions to a new area or module.

The rest of the notes are posted after the jump.

The latest NWN Podcast is available and features a discussion with Ossian Studios writer 'Tiberius'.

This time Trey and Michelle bring you episode 53 of the one and only Neverwinter Nights Podcast!

This week we have Russ aka Tiberius as our main interview. Russ has been modding since NWN1 with the Hall of Fame hit, Saleron's Gambit series 1-5. Russ has also made the transition to NWN2. Along with his current solo project, (The Maimed God's Saga) He has joined Ossian Studio's, and contributes his talented writing skills.

* More news from BenWH at AME - The remaining NWN2 finalists for module categories announced
* AME IRC chat scheduled for next Saturday May 3rd 4GMT/11am EST
* NWNP and Realms of Annakolia DM Round Table Saturday May 3rd 10:00am EST/9:00am CST
* Adam Miller Lute Hero

Up Next: Robert Crofford aka FFBJ. Robert has been around for while, and has the NWN Gameworld Second God War, contest entry Mission to Askalon, and many many hakpaks, creatures, and scripts . He has also immortalized Knight Ashercon Zelo in his module Orillian Nights as an NPC! HA!

Until next time,

Get in game and level up!

The podcast can be downloaded at the link above. Check it out!

Thieves' Guild has posted an interview with Ossian Studios developers Brian Dunn and Alan Miranda. The interview covers a wide variety of topics. Ossian Studios is developing the first premium module or 'adventure pack' for Neverwinter Nights 2.

Here's a snip:

* Will the game be played entirely within the confines of Westgate or will the party travel to locales outside of the city? If the latter, where?

Alan: The game mostly takes place within the walls of Westgate, however, there are a couple of exceptions where the player leaves for a short time. You've probably seen the ingame movies we've released with the quelzarn attack - that happens out to sea a little from the port. The other case is a small jaunt during one of the sidequests. While we did consider making some rural areas just outside the city walls, we felt that we had our hands full with all the content (areas, quests, etc.) we needed to create within the four city districts, so decided to focus on that.

The rest can be seen at the link above. Enjoy!

Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.

A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.

Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.

Read more after the leap.

Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.

The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.

Read more after the leap.