Neverwinter Nights (AOL game)
Encyclopedia
Neverwinter Nights was the first multiplayer online role-playing game
to display graphics, and ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL
.
series of games. Players would begin play by creating a character, and outside of character creation, game play took place in a screen that displayed text interactions, the names and current status of one's party of characters, and a window which displayed images of geography, marked with large or small pictures of characters or events. When combat occurred, gameplay switched to a full-screen combat mode, in which player characters and enemies were represented by icons which would move around in the course of battle.
There was one aspect of the game referred to as a Ladder, which was essentially a hierarchical ranking of players based upon prowess in battle. The most widely-renowned of such Ladders, the World PVP Council (WPC) Ladder, "rated as 'the' ladder to prove your mettle in Neverwinter".
, and TSR
(which was acquired by Wizards of the Coast
in 1997).
Neverwinter Nights was the first multiplayer online role-playing game
to display graphics.
Don Daglow and the Stormfront game design team began working with AOL on original online games in 1987, in both text-based and graphical formats. At the time AOL was a Commodore 64
only online service, known as Quantum Computer Services, with just a few thousand subscribers, and was called Quantum Link
. Online graphics in the late 1980s were severely restricted by the need to support modem data transfer rates as slow as 300 bits per second (bit/s).
In 1989 the Stormfront team started working with SSI on Dungeons & Dragons
games using the Gold Box
engine that had debuted with Pool of Radiance
in 1988. Within months they realized that it was technically feasible to combine the Dungeons & Dragons Gold Box engine with the community-focused gameplay of online titles to create an online RPG with graphics. Although the multiplayer graphical flight combat game Air Warrior
(also from Kesmai) had been online since 1987, all prior online RPGs had been based on text.
In a series of meetings in San Francisco and Las Vegas with AOL's Steve Case
and Kathi McHugh, TSR's Jim Ward
and SSI's Chuck Kroegel
, Daglow and programmer Cathryn Mataga
convinced the other three partners that the project was indeed possible. Case approved funding for NWN and work began, with the game going live 18 months later in March 1991.
Daglow chose Neverwinter as the game's location because of its magical features (a river of warm water that flowed from a snowy forest into a northern sea), and its location near a wide variety of terrain types. The area also was close enough to the settings of the other Gold Box games to allow subplots to intertwine between the online and the disk-based titles.
by everyday Americans drove new sign-ups. AOL diverted all its efforts into keeping up with the exploding demand for modem connections and online capacity. All game development at AOL other than NWN was suspended, and the game's player capacity was enhanced through server-side improvements but not through the addition of new playable areas. Nevertheless, the original game remained one of AOL's most active areas until a disagreement arose between AOL and TSR over future rights to the game. Thousands of dedicated NWN players rose in protest, some in national media, but to no avail. The gates of Neverwinter were closed in July 1997.
Much of the game's popularity was based on the presence of active and creative player guilds
, who staged many special gaming events online for their members. It is this committed fan base that BioWare sought when they licensed the rights to Neverwinter Nights from AOL and TSR as the basis for the later Neverwinter Nights
game.
NWN gained incidental media attention from AOL tech and marketing staff by appearing in the Don't Copy That Floppy
campaign by the Software Publishers Association
.
In 1998, development work began on a clone of Neverwinter Nights called Forgotten World.
After the release of BioWare's non-MMO Neverwinter Nights game in 2002, a group of former Neverwinter Nights players used the Aurora toolset included with the new game to reconstruct the content of the original Neverwinter Nights and host it online as a multiplayer game, albeit with limited player capacity. Neverwinter Nights: Resurrection now in its ninth year of operation, was modestly successful early on in drawing former Neverwinter Nights players, but player numbers have dwindled over they years as online gaming options have expanded and the underlying game technology has aged.
#179 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
In 2008, Neverwinter Nights was honored (along with EverQuest
and World of Warcraft
) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
s for advancing the art form of MMORPG
games. Don Daglow
accepted the award for project partners Stormfront Studios, AOL and Wizards of the Coast
.
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
to display graphics, and ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
.
Gameplay
Neverwinter Nights was developed to be played similarly to the Gold BoxGold Box
Gold Box is the name for a series of computer role-playing games produced by SSI. The company won a license to produce games based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game from TSR, Inc...
series of games. Players would begin play by creating a character, and outside of character creation, game play took place in a screen that displayed text interactions, the names and current status of one's party of characters, and a window which displayed images of geography, marked with large or small pictures of characters or events. When combat occurred, gameplay switched to a full-screen combat mode, in which player characters and enemies were represented by icons which would move around in the course of battle.
There was one aspect of the game referred to as a Ladder, which was essentially a hierarchical ranking of players based upon prowess in battle. The most widely-renowned of such Ladders, the World PVP Council (WPC) Ladder, "rated as 'the' ladder to prove your mettle in Neverwinter".
History
Neverwinter Nights was a co-development of AOL, Stormfront Studios, SSIStrategic Simulations, Inc.
Strategic Simulations, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit since its founding in 1979. It was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official computer game adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons, and for the groundbreaking Panzer General...
, and TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
(which was acquired by Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
in 1997).
Neverwinter Nights was the first multiplayer online role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
to display graphics.
Don Daglow and the Stormfront game design team began working with AOL on original online games in 1987, in both text-based and graphical formats. At the time AOL was a Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
only online service, known as Quantum Computer Services, with just a few thousand subscribers, and was called Quantum Link
Quantum Link
Quantum Link was a U.S. and Canadian online service for Commodore 64 and 128 personal computers that operated from November 5, 1985 to November 1, 1995. It was operated by Quantum Computer Services of Vienna, Virginia. In October 1991 they changed the name to America Online, which continues to...
. Online graphics in the late 1980s were severely restricted by the need to support modem data transfer rates as slow as 300 bits per second (bit/s).
In 1989 the Stormfront team started working with SSI on Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
games using the Gold Box
Gold Box
Gold Box is the name for a series of computer role-playing games produced by SSI. The company won a license to produce games based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game from TSR, Inc...
engine that had debuted with Pool of Radiance
Pool of Radiance
Pool of Radiance is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc in 1988. It was the first adaptation of TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game for home computers. It is the first in a four-part series of D&D computer adventure games...
in 1988. Within months they realized that it was technically feasible to combine the Dungeons & Dragons Gold Box engine with the community-focused gameplay of online titles to create an online RPG with graphics. Although the multiplayer graphical flight combat game Air Warrior
Air Warrior
Air Warrior was an early multiplayer on-line air-combat simulator. A player is able to fly a simulated World War II aircraft, fighting with and against other players, each flying his own simulated aircraft. It was introduced in 1986 by Kelton Flinn and his company Kesmai. At this time the internet...
(also from Kesmai) had been online since 1987, all prior online RPGs had been based on text.
In a series of meetings in San Francisco and Las Vegas with AOL's Steve Case
Steve Case
Stephen McConnell "Steve" Case is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online . Since his retirement as chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003, he has gone on to build a variety of new businesses through his investment...
and Kathi McHugh, TSR's Jim Ward
Jim Ward (game designer)
James M. Ward , is an American game designer and fantasy author. He is most famous for his game development and writing work for TSR, Inc., where he worked for more than 20 years. In 1989 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame...
and SSI's Chuck Kroegel
Chuck Kroegel
Chuck Kroegel is an American computer game designer. He was an executive for many years with SSI, and played a role in developing their position as an industry leader in war games and role-playing games...
, Daglow and programmer Cathryn Mataga
Cathryn Mataga
-Biography:Mataga has worked on Neverwinter Nights. She was born William Mataga and at some point underwent sex reassignment surgery.- Credited games :*Grand Theft Auto Advance , Rockstar Games, Inc....
convinced the other three partners that the project was indeed possible. Case approved funding for NWN and work began, with the game going live 18 months later in March 1991.
Daglow chose Neverwinter as the game's location because of its magical features (a river of warm water that flowed from a snowy forest into a northern sea), and its location near a wide variety of terrain types. The area also was close enough to the settings of the other Gold Box games to allow subplots to intertwine between the online and the disk-based titles.
Sales
The capacity of each server grew from 50 players in 1991 to 500 players by 1995. Ultimately the game became a free part of the AOL subscriber service. Near the end of its run in 1997 the game had 115,000 players and typically hosted 2,000 adventurers during prime evening hours, a 4000% increase over 1991.Expansion and popularity
The original Neverwinter Nights was expanded once, in 1992 by programmer Keith Ledbetter. At about this time AOL’s subscriber growth started to expand exponentially, as the adoption of emailEmail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
by everyday Americans drove new sign-ups. AOL diverted all its efforts into keeping up with the exploding demand for modem connections and online capacity. All game development at AOL other than NWN was suspended, and the game's player capacity was enhanced through server-side improvements but not through the addition of new playable areas. Nevertheless, the original game remained one of AOL's most active areas until a disagreement arose between AOL and TSR over future rights to the game. Thousands of dedicated NWN players rose in protest, some in national media, but to no avail. The gates of Neverwinter were closed in July 1997.
Much of the game's popularity was based on the presence of active and creative player guilds
Clan (computer gaming)
In computer and video gaming, a clan or guild is an organised group of players that regularly play together in a particular multiplayer games. These games range from groups of a few friends to 1000-person organizations, with a broad range of structures, goals and members. The lifespan of a clan...
, who staged many special gaming events online for their members. It is this committed fan base that BioWare sought when they licensed the rights to Neverwinter Nights from AOL and TSR as the basis for the later Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights , produced by BioWare and published by Infogrames , is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that is based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms rules. It was originally to be published by Interplay Entertainment, but the publisher's financial...
game.
NWN gained incidental media attention from AOL tech and marketing staff by appearing in the Don't Copy That Floppy
Don't Copy That Floppy
Don’t Copy That Floppy was an anti-copyright infringement campaign run by the Software Publishers Association beginning in 1992. The video for the campaign, starring M. E. Hart as “MC Double Def DP,” was filmed at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C...
campaign by the Software Publishers Association
Software and Information Industry Association
The Software & Information Industry Association is a United States based software trade association. The organization lobbies United States policy makers as well as conducting surveys and research and many conferences and webcasts....
.
In 1998, development work began on a clone of Neverwinter Nights called Forgotten World.
After the release of BioWare's non-MMO Neverwinter Nights game in 2002, a group of former Neverwinter Nights players used the Aurora toolset included with the new game to reconstruct the content of the original Neverwinter Nights and host it online as a multiplayer game, albeit with limited player capacity. Neverwinter Nights: Resurrection now in its ninth year of operation, was modestly successful early on in drawing former Neverwinter Nights players, but player numbers have dwindled over they years as online gaming options have expanded and the underlying game technology has aged.
Reception
The game was reviewed in 1992 in DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#179 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
In 2008, Neverwinter Nights was honored (along with EverQuest
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...
and World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
A Technology and Engineering Emmy Award is given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement in technical or engineering development...
s for advancing the art form of MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
games. Don Daglow
Don Daglow
Don Daglow is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He is best known for designing a series of pioneering simulation games and role-playing games, as well as the first computer baseball game and the first graphical MMORPG, all between 1971 and 1995...
accepted the award for project partners Stormfront Studios, AOL and Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
.
External links
- Neverwinter Nights on MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
- The Original Neverwinter Nights
- UGO & GameBanshee interview on history of original NWN