Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Hey all was bored and surfing the net when I found this little gem. I do not know about you but I would be interested to see what they do for D&D in the future! Would love a new D&D like this one where we can make PWs but with less bugs and a system designed to handle large immersive worlds with tons of players!

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/wizards-co ... ons-579461

i am unsure how much they will put into this. it is not like it used to be. big companies are not willing to invest that much resource into the industry anymore. the consumer base is in alot of ways responsible for this. look at NWN2 PW's. it has hundreds of people all working for essentially free (to WOTC) to keep a 20 y/o game alive. if a company like WOTC puts all their eggs in a digital basket it will likely crush them. and all the eggs is likely what they would have to do to even be acknowledged. the gaming world is crowded with tiny projects. big projects get lost in the minute by minute updates and releases of these penny games. creating something ground breaking will also crush WOTC (see EQNEXT). sony has big legs to stand on and was able to sell the rights before it hurt them too badly. without doing something that makes players excited, i think most people would be happy continuing to play what we have here. in contrast, doing something that makes the game stand out and players excited would most likely be the end for them. the returns just aren't there anymore.

Beamdog recently entered into a beta phase on a game, which could mean an EE or a new game outright. If it's a new game, from what I understand of the legalities between them and WOTC, it would have to be a 5E game (Siege of Dragonspear was considered to be an expansion). David Gaider is working with them as a creative designer, so I personally have high hopes that it's a new game. That said, the smart money would be on an EE http://blog.beamdog.com/2016/12/testers-wanted.html.

I have a little bit of insight into this!

After Atari lost its rights to DnD in 2011 (mostly because they were delaying everything because their approval process for the holding company that owns the Atari brand is awful {{I never officially said this}}) WOTC decided to pull back from the digital realm. Leaving Neverwinter and DDO as their main DnD online experience after the 4e tool failed to deliver the promised online play experience.

The current ongoing dnd titles unfortunately did not reflect where the company was at with their product. Enter Sword Coast Legends! Now that Hasbro is the sole owner they and WOTC have a bigger say over the finished product of digital title, they can push whatever design philosophy they want on video game designers on any new titles they licence! Most people say yay when they hear that because it will be "more DnD like" but unfortunately you get designers and producers that have little idea how to work on a digital title.

From what I know WOTC feels there are enough online means out there for a DND player to get their MMO experience they desire from the current existing settings. The recent release of the mini DnD campaign setting pdf for the Magic the gathering setting was them getting a feel for them merging IP's. Mixing the two will allow them to have the planeswalkers be represented by whatever rules set they are promoting at the time utilising base DND classes. Letting them sell a bunch of books, digital expansions for their possibly online title, and extra errata that they don't need to pay out royalty/licencing fees for the last holdouts of DND of old with their new content.

Will this mean Greyhawk, Eberron, or even the Forgotten Realms will die off? Probably not, at least the last option is too big of a money maker to get rid of anytime soon, while the others have been minimally supported since 5e started. Up until now, they have been focused on generating classes, races, and core concepts for 5e to worry about where you play your game. Now that they will possibly have a digital experience that they can control expect to see those places you love to go to get less and less support as DnD evolves.

Interesting detail 404ninja, thanks for sharing. Sad how poorly the D&D franchise continues to be managed, with no ability to hold to a single direction and constant false starts caused by the need/desire to constantly introduce D&D 'next'. Here's hoping 5e sticks around for a while and doesn't get bastardized by mixing it with a card game... Would be nice to get D&D CRPG's again, but at the same time the last few they've released have been so far and away below the quality of non-D&D CRPG's that it may be better if they really do just stay out of the market and stick to PnP...

Who knows when the next good D&D CRPG will be out. With Bioware owned by EA and Obsidian finally willing to go out and make their own things, I don't see any good candidates on the horizon. My ideal candidate would be http://stoicstudio.com/ since they are now big enough that they have made a solid impression on the gaming world with the Banner Saga series. They are able to tell a great narrative, keep the experience immersive, keep it fun, and make it look good.