Darcy Pajak speaks on HotU official campaign

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(Originally posted by chevalier)

Darcy Pajak, Bioware's Assistant Producer, has posted a new sticky in which he addresses problems people have with HotU campaign being single-player only, providing reasons why that decision was made.

I’d like to take this time to address the concern some people have brought up about the fact that the Hordes of the Underdark campaign was developed for single player only.

I will describe the process we went through in coming to this decision so people how it came to be. I don’t believe it will please everyone and we cannot control that, all we can do is tell you why we did what we did and leave it to you to agree or disagree.

First I want to be clear, that many of the features added on the Hotu Disc are for Multiplayer. We have added crafting skills, we have added more heads, we have added robes, added skyboxes, more monsters, and more scripting commands and upgraded some toolset features to make Module building better. So please do not think we ignored the multiplayer aspect of the entire Neverwinter Nights game.

The biggest problem all software developers have is how to make a high quality product in a set amount of time with a set amount of money. We wanted to release Hordes of the Underdark for X-mass 2003 because of the potential increase in sales this would provide. In addition, we wanted to time its release with the North American release of the Gold Version of Neverwinter.

When deciding what to include in this expansion pack we looked to the community for inspiration and requests. Many polls were sent out, and certain community leaders were consulted. We also looked at what the most popular downloads people were getting for the game. We were surprised by the overwhelming request for a greater single player campaign with an in-depth story and rich characters. This was the #1 feature people wanted BioWare to make for them. In addition, we had more people dissatisfied with the single player campaigns for both Neverwinter and Shadows of Undrentide, because we adapted them for multiplayer. (They were both still critically acclaimed, but not as much as previous stories our writers and designers created). Also at the time, the most popular modules for download were single player based.

We looked into what would it take to make a kick *** single player adventure and came up with the story Hordes has, (and extra cinematic features). We then looked at what it would take to make it compatible in multiplayer. The effort to make the story as in-depth, personal, and rewarding as the single player was immense. (Who would get the relic of the reaper? What happened if that person left the game? Who would see the cut scenes, what happens if all the players were not at the right place at the right time?) We would have to change the plot, change the new systems (cut scenes), or make the plots more generic to support the mechanics of multiplayer. All solutions led to the realization we could create a great single player experience, or a great multiplayer experience, but not both in the time we had.

We were worried about the community response if we removed multiplayer support for the campaign, but we were more worried about the community response if we didn’t create a great single player experience because far, far more people buy the game for the single player experience then the multiplayer experience. (A ratio of about 100 to 1). We cannot be expected to please everyone, so we have to take what TIME and MONEY we have and use that to please the vast majority.

Let me be clear on this point as well. This does not mean that only 1 out of 100 people play NWN in multiplayer, it means that only 1 out of 100 people wanted to play the official campaigns in multiplayer.

We hoped that the community of module builders would take these elements and create some fantastic Multiplayer modules. We are not going out of our way to place this burden on them, but trust them to make modules and adventures that cater to their friends, and fans.

In addition, setting the expectations for the small minority who only want Hordes to play multiplayer was done as well as we could be expected to. We used what tools were available to us to tell people what Hordes IS. We did not have the resources to reach every person who bought Neverwinter to tell them what Hordes IS NOT.

What is difficult is to show is how much the rest of the game would be compromised by making it work in multiplayer. I cannot supply enough information to put into context specific instances where multiplayer would break down the rest of the game. It has to do with time, money, personalizing the single-player campaign, the environment at the time of the decision, and the information we had at that time.

Going forward we will not patch the game so that Multiplayer will work in the three Modules included on the Disc. Our priorities will be to take care of the needs of the majority of people who bought Hordes for what it is now.

I understand by reading some posts that feel very strongly about this, and we do hear you, we hear everyone who comes to our forums or sends us messages and is constructive and reasonable. And for those people we regret having to say no.

I am sorry If you are so disappointed with this decision that you feel you must return the game or will never buy it. I still hope you will try the game and enjoy it for what we did include, and not judge it by what we did not include.

Read the rest at Bioware.