My opinion that NWN had a weak single player game compared to BG is supported by the fact that nobody ever talks about it in regards to it's single player RPG. Find any professional list of all time greatest RPGs, and BG2 is right up there somewhere. It is highly rearded by many many fans, and makes their amateur lists as well. Suggesting otherwise would be a little foolish.
The singleplayer is not highly mentioned because it's average... not very weak. Of course BG2 is a great RPG, but due to the fixed world its replay value limited. If you could only play one, two or three games of a single RPG your entire life then it would be BG2. If you could only purchase a single RPG to play repeatedly for the rest of your life then NWN would have a higher value.
How many people even remember the single player storyline in NWN? A single character? Some people, Im sure. But everyone who has played RPGs knows Minsc, Edwin, Imoen, and Jon Irenicus. Not to mention the gameplay inferiorities in NWN which yourself agree with to some extent, compared to the vastly superior tactical gameplay in BG.
As I mentioned NWN provides an average singleplayer game, but there's always new character builds, adventures, bosses, NPCs, items, weapons/armor, plots, towns, monsters, etc., etc., . There's been hundreds of RPGs and the majority have provided only fixed worlds where even the great RPGs eventually gets placed on a shelf only to be admired. Some games are memorable, but years from now, people won't just remember Neverwinter Nights--they'll also still be playing.
NWN IS celebrated, deservedly so, and it makes a lot of lists too, but for entirely different reasons. Not for the single player RPG portion of it. A lot of people I know, who owned all the expansions, never even played through the SP campaign. They bought them for PW support. To play with their friends. In multiplayer.
Of course NWN shines in multiplayer, but if someone who's interested in a singleplayer RPG which has extensive replay value... hence beyond three games I advise them to pickup NWN(Diamond Edition). If the individual rarely plays PC games and is looking for a singleplayer RPG then I advise them to pickup BG2.
Really, its silly to argue about this, especially when I agreed with you for the most part, that in the case of NWN, the game modding was driven by Multiplayer, and that that aspect of that game generated much more content, than will *probably* be generated for DO:A.
I don't believe we were arguing, but more hammering out differences while discussing three RPG games.
But thats not what Im buying DO:A. Im buying it for a superior single player gaming experience, which NWN was not. And as long as it delivers that, I dont care if a scrap of Multiplayer content is ever made for it. Truly great single player RPGs are much rare than average mulitplayer games now a days. And since when has it somehow become a poor value to buy what might be a truly great single player RPG, simply because there wont be mulitplayer mods for it?
I estimate DO:A has a good chance of providing a terrific singleplayer game and the editor will add to its replay value. Honestly the only multiplayer content which matters to me would be as long as multiplayer works, but even if multiplayer is never included I will probably still get the game. I never said DO:A was a poor value without multiplayer.
If DO:A sucks, however statistically unlikely that is, Ill be the first one here complaining about it. But Im not going to wring my hands and dismiss a game, because a potentially great single player RPG might not have enough *community* (mostly poor) multiplayer content made for it.
And thats all I can say. Beyond that, we disagree as to quality of NWN as a single player RPG experience, and we'll have to let it go at that. At least *I'm* letting it go. Respond if you like, but I think we've gotten about all we can get from this discussion.
Peace.
The vast majority of game content from the multiplayer community would be as equally valuable to the singleplayer gamers. The creatures, items, NPCs, shops, events, special effects and even most campaigns created can all be used by singleplayer gamers... the only difference would be if a special quest or riddle specific to the main plot required two human players to be in separate locations at the same time... which would be quite rare.
The only areas of improvement for NWN would be the battles and the character control, but those don't make this game weak. There's plenty of RPGs which qualify as weak due to game stability, broken quests, lack of strategies, limited character selection, too short, etc., etc., yet none of these exist within NWN.
