Hi, folks. Anyone heard anything about Neverwinter Nights?
(http://www.neverwinternights.com/). Looks to me like yet another
step (in yet another direction) on the long road we're traveling --
when released, it'll be a 3D D&D game, which can be played by a
single player at home but can also be played by multiple players over
the network. The thing that makes it better than the multiplayer
killfest games out there is that it allows the option of having a
"DungeonMaster" (DM), a person who guides the action, sets up the
world, and can talk through the mouths of the NPCs. It looks to me
like it'll end up being essentially two kinds of games, neither of
which is quite what we're looking for:
1. Hack-and-slash unmoderated killfests, no storyline or characterization.
2. Online roleplaying games, with the computer as a GMing tool.
Kind of like Niven & Barnes' _Dream Park_ only online.
The part of the site that gives me hope for the game is this line:
>We want to challenge you, as DM, to
>have a deep emotional impact on your players.
Anyway, we clearly haven't Arrived yet, but the only missing step
here is replacing the human DM with a computer program. And for that
we only need true AI. No problem! :)
--jed
