Originally posted by SpottyGekko 

Most F2P publishers use the same tactics as you do. PWE will most likely announce quite soon that NW now has "over 1 million registered players". That's the beauty of F2P games, the "amount of registered players" will only ever increase. Five years from now, NW will have 5 million registered players, but only 50 of them will actually be logging-in and playing...

That is purely speculative.  You don't really know what you are talking about.  You (and perhaps all your friends) have decided you no longer want to play the game and that's fine but don't be so arrogant to assume your tastes in games is the barometer of which all games are judged.  The game itself is fine now that they fixed most of the balance issues.  It's a fun game to play but there have been challenges during open beta.  It was too easy to get everything in the open beta so people who started on day one are basically "done" for now.  Even if you throw all of the currently playing players out, the game is still a good, solid game that has great potential through the foundry and big group stuff like Gauntlgrym.  

Reality check:  The number of players playing each month will always vary and not likely continuously grow.  This is not a subscription game and they have NO FINANCIAL MOTIVE to keep people playing month after month.  They could have a completely different set of people playing from month to month and that would be perfectly okay.  This game generates revenue most when people are starting new characters and getting started for the first time.  So think about that a bit before you blast it.  Once you have your level 60 guy and have all the gear and stopped buying stuff for it, you no longer matter to the game provider unless you spend a little bit of money from time to time or do something to feed their systems like selling stuff for AD.

Let's be realistic.  The game is still in beta even though it's actually a "live" game that is collecting revenue for Cryptic and PWE.  I don't know how much longer it will take to complete the necessary polish, bug fixes, and content needed for the official "release".  In many ways it's very close and in others you really would rather seem them get it right than get it quick.  It's a fun game to play as is but once you've spent enough time with it you'll be longing for them to get some of the betaness ironed out.

It's fair to criticize the cost of the game because while it's F2P and you really don't need to pay anything to play, you really will want (demand) certain items that Cryptic has chosen to monetize that games with a traditional subscription just give you.  I don't see how anyone wins an argument about business models because we know some people won't play P2P games because of the subscription and some people won't play F2P because of the cash shops.  Ultimately it's a business offering a gaming service and if anyone was in their shoes they would need to develop a financial strategy that will support the ability to deliver the service.  It's much harder to do than it is to criticize.  I think most people just want a fun game and they don't care if it's F2P or a peanutbutter sandwich.  I personally don't think the cost to play Neverwinter is any more than the cost to play subscription games so long as you are keen to give yourself a $10-15 budget per month.  That said it will absolutely punish impatience, min/maxing, and gamblers.

Originally posted by Fendel84M

I'm convinced you haven't actually played Neverwinter. There is certainly nothing that suggests a "pay us to stop kicking you in the balls" method. Really don't see it....at all.

I have to agree.  None of the Cryptic games are actually "pay us to stop kicking you in the balls".  I wish people would stop giving their unqualified and uninformed opinions but I know that's not going to stop ever.

Originally posted by Jetrpg

Case and point, games ment to grow and stay offer fluff, character slots, acount based benifits (gw, lol, poe, etc)  in hopes of funding a game. NWO here set up a game system where in the case of the aforementioned guardian  would need to respec ~3 times a day to just play with some freedom (pvp, solo, and group specs are vastly different) so your talking tons of money or more realistically a non-viable system. But viablity of the system is not important getting as much $$ as fast as possible is. There goal is people will do this a few times to try some diffrent stuff out, they collect the money but the player has nothing to show for it. (the time to farm such money in-game is a week ).

You are talking out of the side of your neck.  If you need to repsec 3 times a day you really and truely do not understand the game you are playing.  You need to stop bringing your World of Warcraft baggage to every MMO you play.  YOU DO NOT NEED RANK 3 of EVERY SKILL TO WIN this game.  You do not need to MIN/MAX anything in this game because at level 60 there is very little difference and it all will come down to how you play not what you spec or what gear you have.

gearscore is controversial but not universally panned as a bad idea.

it's very easy to form your own group and not have gearscore be part of that process at all.

but i can tell you that this is not a game system problem, it's a people problem.  you have people who play these games who are assholes who min/max everything and will whine or leave if other people are not playing exactly how they want them to play.  there is no way to remove assholes from the game so no matter what you do in this area you're still going to have jerks looking at what other people have on and judge them for their gear.  it would be nice if there was some way for the community to down vote those players and when their reputation gets low enough those assholes can't find any groups anymore.

Originally posted by Lexite

Hello guys, today I downloaded this game with my brother just to try it, i wasn't expecting much. We are both surprised at how the game runs and how fun it is. 

All the F2P title we played had a wall we once hitted and had to pay for some things, individually or simply sub to a the game.

Is there a sub to this game? if not is there anything later on that we absolutely need to pay for to continu enjoying the game?

People need to adjust their expectations when going into a free to play game.  Be prepared to spend $12-15 a month when you are playing the game and things will be much more enjoyable.  If you don't have money to spend but have alot of time to play the game you can still get items like bags and bank slots off the cash shop by selling your astral diamonds to other players for zen.  All of Cryptic's games have a way to exchange a time currency (i.e., astral diamonds) for a cash currency (i.e., zen).  Spend a little bit of money a month and you'll be okay.  There are no zones, quests, or levels locked behind a subscription or that require you to buy a special token.

Originally posted by Elevenb4

Just got done downloading the game. I couldn't play 10mins without getting a headache because of blurriness. No, I dont' need glasses. The UI was crisp and fine, but the graphics were blurry. Anyone know why? I messed with the advanced setting for about 30mins going from lowest to highest to just turning stuff on and off, messing with resolution, etc. What is the deal?

My specs if it matters:

8 gigs ram 1333MHz,

NVidia 550m 2gb

i7-2670QM 2.2GHz

Win7

 

Not a great laptop by any means but I can play SWTOR maxed setings without shadows, Skyrim on high with 40fps, GW2 high with some settings maxed. I just want to play this game, or at least try it out. Been a fan of D&D lore for years. Any help would be appreciated.

SWTOR does not have very demanding hardware requirements.  Your 550M will meet the minimum and maximum requirements for that game.  But if you look out on the internets you'll find resources that show you that your 550M does not meet the minimum requirements for many games.

http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA+GeForce+GT+550M/games.  

That said make sure you have the latest drivers installed.  Nvidia put out a beta driver just before Neverwinter went live that was flagged as the Neverwinter launch driver.  It's beta but might fix some of the issues you're experiencing.

Also it's quite possible that there will be more engine optimizations to come with the game client.  This is "live" but it's still beta and you really should be directing your issue with the graphics to them so they can work on a solution, if one can be coded, instead of here where you're only going to get suggestions to try 3rd party programs that bloat your system up.

On my system the game looks fantastic.  I have an i5 3570K cpu, gtx 670 gpu, and 16 gb ram on Windows 8.

Originally posted by 4bsolute

"Indepth" just kidding:

• Character customization not existing
• Way too many zones
• Linear map design "Ohh I'm allowed to jump over this rock, but the entire map is surrounded by walls I can not get up"
• Repetitive combat due to...
• Skills to use you can count on one hand - and this is the main thing, it is SO dulling! You really dont need a brain to play this game. Dodge the markers on the ground and spam away yer skills! ...
• THE FOUNDRY!! ... ENDLESS CONTENT!!! .... yeah, no thanks.

Your points are shallow and convey a clear lack of understanding of the product you are opinionating on.  What you should do, since you are such an expert at game design, is start your own studio and create your own game.

lol.  just stop playing free to play games if you don't like the reality that these games are in no way, shape, or form actually free to play.  you'll either spend real money for cash currency (zen) or you'll need to play alot to build up the time currency (astral diamonds) in the game in order to convert it to cash currency.  either way it is not free and what you want to buy will determine if you need the zen or the astral diamonds.  whether you pay with your time or your money is completely up to you and your situation.  if you go into this game expecting to pay $15 a month like a sub game you'll be much happier as a player in any free to play game not just this one.

one last thing.. you cannot go into a free to play game with pay to play expectations.  of course you're going to see convenience and vanity items you want and covet.  of course.  it's how they pay the bills and feed their kids.  they completely eliminated the barrier to entry for everyone but the community that plays this game does need to support it financially.  everyone should spend at least a little bit of money if you like the game.  the end.

Originally posted by Logansan
Sounds like a good honest review. I didn't get into Beta so I can agree or disagree with anything, but you have (sadly) confirmed what I expected the game I would end up like. I'll likely still end up trying it as a few of my friends are looking forward to it, but it's starting to looks like it may be one of those short one month visits to a MMORPG that seems to the trend these day.

It's a highly biased review from someone who had pretty much unrealistic expectations from the onset.  There was no way that this was going to be a game with free form classes nor was there any chance that this game would match the level of production value recently launched games that cost millions more to make.  If a fool gave a review, this would be what it looks like.

The game is fun to play.  The dungeons are cool.  The foundry stuff can really be amazing.  The graphics are actually very well done within the chosen art styling.  There could be a great deal of "replay value" here for a free to play game.  You don't need to put any money at all into the cash shop to get the full game.  You don't need to buy a founder pack either if you choose not to.  If I had to give it criticism I'd say it would be nice if there were 1) more character appearance options; 2) a wider visual variety of gear and weapons; and 3) more of the core classes from the players handbook at the start of open beta.  But all those things can get addressed throughout the open beta (soft launch).

If you are only interested in quick xp, getting to max level so you can start in on tier end game content then you should concentrate on the mainstream game in the genre that has that stuff in spades plus has cute pandas, built-in farmland, and built-in pokemon challenges too.

There will be adventures whether that be dungeon crawls, solving a murder mystery, unraveling political drama, or helping goodly folk in distress is completely up to you.  There should be plenty of adventure hooks throughout the game and as DM's create more and more UGC the potential for endless adventures is pretty exciting.  It's similar to Dungeons and Dragons if you ever heard of that.  ;)

As for the loot system that's an open question still. The last beta weekend I was on the Need/Greed/Pass system needed some tweaks and there were a few more "unidentified items" dropped than scrolls of identity.  Things die and drop loot as you'd expect from an MMO.  No really surprises there.  I do like seeing unidentified items (very D&D-ish).  Magic weapons, items, and armor can improve your character's performance as you'd expect from a D&D game.

There are all sorts of dungeons in Neverwinter from sewers to farm houses to caves to actual dungeons etc.  Most of the time you should be able to solo through them if you want.  There are some things designed for parties of 5 however that you cannot solo.  The dungeons created by users can be soloed and the xp/rewards/difficulty scale to your level so you can level and gear up your characters by playing nothing but user created content if you like.

The cash shop sells convenience and vanity items.  It's not pay to win but you'll hear folks argue that certain items under certain scenarios when you squint your eyes a certain way might be pay to win but the reality is that everyone who plays the game can convert astral diamond into zen and buy "cash shop" items without paying one single penny.

Originally posted by codejack

The Foundry is a great idea... ruined. You can make whatever adventure you like! As long as it is identical to everyone else's.

4th edition SUCKS. How much more needs to be said? Not that 2nd edition was anything to brag about, but each previous version was at least a recognizable improvement over its predecessor. 4th edition went backwards, and kind of off to the side. It is D&D with WoW mechanics. I guess I'm saying that I would prefer WoW with D&D mechanics, although please don't stretch that analogy too far!

DDO is awesome, but it's in the wrong world and developed by jerks. And they've borked the combat system so it's no fun anymore, but for 6 years, it was a D&D MMO. Oh, and they did rogues right!

NW is shaping up to be a bad WoW knock-off with some Forgotten Realms lore thrown at it.

 

And let me be absolutely clear: I was tremendously excited about this game. I've been playing D&D in every available form (PnP, the old board game, the Spellfire card game, almost every video game) for 30 years. This game just doesn't appeal to me, at all.

Opinions are like a-holes.  Everyone has got one.  It'd really be nice if folks who put forth arguments actually provided supporting evidence rather than backing assumptions with more assumptions.  But this is the Internets afterall so it's probably asking too much for people to actually make sense.

The Foundry is not ruined.  See I can make unsupported assumptions too.

4th Edition is fine but not everyone likes that a company buys an IP and wants to .. you know .. make it their own.  What's interesting about this is that you can probably write Wizards of the Coast a big enough check and you can buy D&D from them and set all these wrongs right for everyone.  So when will you fix this problem?

So DDO is awesome but the wrong setting, developed by jerks, borked, and not fun.  Interesting.

Neverwinter is not even remotely a WoW knock-off.  It you want to see what a clone looks like try SWTOR.  Neverwinter is anything but a WoW knock-off.  It's a fantasy MMO with dungeons and dragons and many of the monsters used in WoW find their roots in the D&D monster manuals but who is really knocking off who there?  You sound like that guy who went to see John Carter and hated that it knocked off Star Wars.

For your sake I hope you find something you enjoy about Neverwinter when it goes live or at the very least I hope you find comfort in another game or I wish you success in making that perfect game you can imagine in your minds eye but noone else can seem to make for you.

Originally posted by BrownAle

This, this looks fun, but i feel D&D needs an epic mmorpg first then they can start releasing dungeon crawlers and side games.

Much will depend on how successful the Foundry is but I do not believe that a D&D MMO would actually be an epic MMO but more like a grand campaign setting with a plethera of adventure hooks all over the game world that Dungeon Masters could use to build their quests and campaigns off of and share with all players of the game.  There is some very interesting potential with this game.

This is 4E neverwinter campaign settings for the most part.  So I'm looking forward to everything from an good old fashioned dungeon crawl, well written murder mysteries, political intrigue stories and whatever else comes forth from the imaginations of creative DM's.  :)

Originally posted by codejack

Is it just that WoW is getting so old that everyone is hoping that they will get to be the next big thing? Because it seems like they are trying too hard to appeal to everyone; make it simple, straightforward, easy.... and boring.

Guess what, guys? You aren't going to be the next WoW. You are going to be a niche game with a niche audience who are going to HATE what you are doing.

You will fail, and good riddance, but you will take the franchise with you, and that isn't fair to the fans.

I'm sure the game that codejack is working on in his head will be fantastic.  Can't wait to see that one go live.

I don't think the niche audience is going to hate it.  The mainstream may not flock to it, but the target audience will probably be mostly satisfied with it.  It's a well built game that goes quite a ways towards giving people an MMO that they can build their own adventures in (Foundry) and has an interesting enough adaptation of DnD to draw from as well.  It may not live up to codejack's high standards nor be anything close that that game he most certainly can make better than anyone else, but it should be pretty good for the people it is intended for.

It's hard to "fail" with free to play.  They didn't spend SWTOR money to build this thing afterall.

Originally posted by DJMantiss

Cryptic is known for making crap and this will stay in-line with people's expectations. A quick and free diversion for folks, nothing more. They don't want to make it anything more as that is not their business model. They crank out a game, add in a ton of nickle and dime cash-shop items and later will add items which are pay-to-win. 

I look forward to playing the game you make and put in front of the world.  I'm sure noone will criticize the design choices you make or disapprove at all on how you choose to monetize your product.

Originally posted by Ragnarockk

The only person whining here is you, about me.  I was telling other players what I thought of a game, on a forum, which exists for that purpose.  We are sharing information.  You're insulting me for it.  Does it make you feel good?   Well, like you said, to each his own.  Whenever you have info, step up, man.

In fairness the OP came off as an esoteric dissertation on the critical flaws of the game that will doom it to failure as if there was some authoritative source to actually judge such things by.

Just few words to the OP.

At some point the genre needs to offer something different.  It's not necessary that every single MMO have 10 action bars, hundreds of key bindable macros, unit frames for focus/target of target units, etc.  I'm sure it's tragedy that there is no ct_bossmod addon to tell everyone in a group when to GTFO and when to stop attacking too.  That doesn't mean that it's not going to be possible to organize a large group though.  It just means things will need to be done differently.  A long time ago before there was all the wacky automation and fancy pants unit frames there were MMO's with 80+ person raids and they organized just fine.  The key is adapting to the mechanics of the game as players have been doing since the 90's.

The bulk of the OP is subjective opinion used to pan the game which is fine however it's pretty presumptuous to discount the opinions of others as "unqualified" just because you see things differently.  There is no inherent right or wrong.