April 2001

Bringing in the Sheep
Posted Tuesday, April 17, 2001 by
PanzerMagi

Words from the Magi - Bringing in the Sheep

For this installment of my highly intermittent column, I thought I'd follow the wise advice of my guild brother Lightsedge. He'd suggested that perhaps it was time to pen a column with the intent of inspiring fellow Forgotten World adherents to invite more of our old Neverwinter brethren to come join us. But then I got to thinking.

Is that really such a good idea?

Now, don't get me wrong, I do think we should welcome all those dear friends to our new home... eventually. But where's the fire? Remember, we're talking about getting in on this thing on the ground floor. Anyone remember version one? I sure don't, but to hear the old timers talk about it, Pearl items practically grew on trees, and winning a pair of Boots was about as hard as the Lifegiver quest in version 2.22.

Do we really want to share that? We're the ones that have stuck to it through the long, dark, discouraging years of development. Don't we owe ourselves at least one festival as a sort of private party before we throw the doors open to the masses? The chance to cement our overwhelming knowledge of the game securely enough that we'll be able to dazzle our old friends when they get here?

Come on, when you move to a new town, you don't invite your friends from back home to come visit when you're still sitting on the floor and watching a 9 inch black-and-white TV. You wait until you've got the couch, the cable, the spiffy stereo.

We didn't sit around all this time to look like run-of-the-mill chumps. As the youngsters are fond of saying, we want our props.

Yes, clearly, the primary reason most of us are here is because we want Neverwinter - or a tolerably close facsimile thereof. There is nothing which would make me happier than to find that the Forgotten World really delivers on the dream we've all shared.

But I still want Boots. Or an e-crutch, at the bare minimum. And to be blunt, I think many of us have earned those sorts of things - surely loyalty through the lean times is worth rewarding? The completion of the game itself is the cake, but an e-cloak or a +3 ring would make for some *very* nice frosting. I'm sure many of you agree.

Dedicated fans of Neverwinter Nights are, on average, a fairly driven lot. I realize that I'm biased, but I've always felt that we were rather clever, creative and competitive. Whether that competitive itch manifested itself in a ladder-climbing PvP'er, a quip-trading role player, or a holder-dancing quest solver, most of us had it to some degree. Neverwinter was, at its most essential, a superb environment for competition between players.

Every competitor knows the advantage of a head start. Sure, it's not like we need it - we'd kick tail with or without it. We're the sorts that make our own competitive edge, thank you very much. But there's something satisfying about being granted great pole position.

And like I said, I think we've earned it.