Back in June 20, 2013 Perfect World Entertainment released Neverwinter, the second MMORPG based upon the Dungeons & Dragons universe. We, frankly, loved it. Lorehounds new and old, experienced and newb MMO players, gave it a spin with many of us hanging on. Thus the numerous interviews we’ve done over the years. What few of us expected was that the action RPG, action MMO, whatever pigeonhole you want to put it in, would contain our interest four years later. How has developer Cryptic Entertainment and publisher Perfect World Entertainment pulled this off?
Simply put, I believe it’s been foresight. It was realized that video games, frankly, perhaps sadly, all of them were moving towards bite-sized content experiences years ago. It wasn’t obvious, AAA titles and MMOs at large continued to see inflated budgets, failures and closures, taking them in wrong direction. Neverwinter came onto the scene looking the other way, to deliver an action experience in a universe often associated with meticulous planning and undeniable passion for the smallest rule changes. Or perhaps they read this Lorehound article from 2011. Who knows.
The point is, Neverwinter went all hipster and deconstructed the MMO. The game design team found the key parts that keep us coming back and packaged them up into its own interpretation of the Forgotten Realms for launch. Loot, dungeons, lore (if you want it) initially. The holy trinity begot achievements, raids, customization, companions, guild housing, the list continues because the company listens and reacts. Heck, we’ve even got the current holy grail in video games coming soon. I’m speaking of dinosaurs naturally.
Tomb of Annihilation because #dinosaurs are the new #zombies in video games https://t.co/uFMUWQOInq @NeverwinterGame https://t.co/FvTylxrFxM
— Lorehound FTW! (@LoreHound) June 2, 2017
I’m not sure where the game will go from here, but having added 3 million players since Q4 2016 pushing them over 15 millions, I don’t think they’re short on cash. In fact, the addition of consoles has revitalized and expanded the playerbase in ways few expected. Here’s to the next four years.
We’ll be back in the world of Neverwinter for Instance Gratification on June 24. We’ll be doing giveaways live on Twitch.tv/Lorehound and would even be happy if you jumped on the crew.