I recently received via email my issue of the Bioware newsletter. Inside was a pretty big announcement.
Bioware is releasing some new modules for Neverwinter Nights. Here is the catch. They are charging for them.
Between $5-$8 US dollars for these additional modules is the price. And some gamers are up in arms over this. As far as I can remember, Neverwinter Nights wasn't really focusing on the SP aspect of CRPG gaming. Sure, they included a SP campaign in the original package, and extended that through 2 expansion packs. But I always got the impression that Neverwinter Nights was more about the Aurora tool-set.
This powerful tool-set made it relatively easy for folks to jump in and start creating their own games. I know people who have weekly NWN gaming sessions with a dedicated group of players. They play it in a manner similar to pen and paper gaming, with a dungeon master and persistent characters. And then there are all the fan made modules, downloadable addons to the game that anyone can make, upload and share with others.
And these modules have always been free. Which is why some gamers are seeing red about these new modules.
I think they are stupid.
Bioware has made a brilliant move in my mind. They are spending the time to make premium modules, that include cut-scenes, voice acting, and solid stories and dialog, and then just asking folks to pay a little bit for them. At least I think it is a little bit. I am by no means well to do, so that statement is coming from a pretty stingy grad student, not someone out in the workplace making lots of dough. $5-$8 US dollars for 5-10 hours of quality PC gaming sounds like a fair deal to me. We willingly pay that much or more for a 90 -120 min movie that we would have to pay for again if we wanted to watch it again. Scores of people payed $55 for DOOM 3 (which I have heard from many sources can be reasonably completed in 20 hours), paying more than $2 per hour of gameplay.
And many of these same people are whining about these modules. Just another example of the bane of electronic distribution (another article I plan on writing).
I hope it catches on. I would love to see some of my favorite games instilled with new life with additional campaigns, professionally done with good sounds, voices, and cut-scenes, that I could download for $5-10. I see this as a huge advantage that PC games have over console games. Instead of pumping out a game, only to dump it and then pump out another, developers could extend the life of some of their most popular games with these premium addons.
I love the idea. Bravo Bioware.