Interview by Tipsykitty

Friday afternoon, I had the honor of having a wonderful interview with Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights. Jay was extremely friendly and very up front about the questions I asked. I thank him profusely for allowing me to take up his time, so that I could share with you some information.

Tipsykitty: Now that NWN is out and things are bit calmer on production side, what do you think the strengths and weaknesses of the beta test were, if any?

Jay: The beta was very useful to point out very obvious overlooked errors. Overall the Toolset beta test was a lot more useful because it lasted longer. It was a lot harder to get results in the actual beta because there was less contact with the people. It's a lot easier to get results when you can be closer to the people that are testing.

Tipsykitty: Is there a possible expansion for NWN in the works?

Jay: We're very interested in the near limitlessness of NWN, but I cant give any specifics on any. Possibly. On a side note, I would love to include more information from the [D & D] 3rd Edition handbook, as in more spells, feats, items and so on.

Tipsykitty: Some people have complained that the pace of combat is too slow and that some encounters are too easy, specifically the dragon encounter. Do you have anything you could say in response to this?

Jay: Well, we had to take the rules of the other company into consideration because its their intellectual property. Combat in table top games can go a lot faster obviously, but the length of rounds is specifically stated and we are bound to stay true to the companies wishes.

As far as the encounters being easier in some cases then expected, the best I can describe it is this. In a pen and paper game, your friend runs the game and is able to judge such things. But in a computer game you have AI so it's a lot harder. There has been a lot of time spent game balancing, between using the rules and making it fun for everything. You at one extreme has the people who absolutely love the Baldur's Gate series, and on the other side you have people who are dedicated to the Diablo series. We had to find a balance between the two.

Tipsykitty: Now after release, whats going on with you and the rest of the NWN team?

Jay: The "Live team" has a lot to do now, theres an enormous amount of do, such as organizing and producing tutorials, exploring possibilities like matching up players, working on the website. The community is determining where its going to go. We're looking for the evolution.

Tipsykitty: So how's the response been overall since the release?

Jay: For the most part it's been tremendous. The adjustment for some people has been difficult because either they're expecting NWN to be a Baldur's Gate 3 or a game similar to Diablo. But the reviews have been great, and the responses we've gotten at GenCon has been fantastic.

Tipsykitty: I know that BioWare has been reviewing some of people modules. What do you think of the ones that you have viewed so far?

Jay:There has been excellent use of the toolset, using whats there. We've been looking to see that people do use what we have but to use it to do something thats truly original, some have been great. I'm shocked at some because the toolset hasn't been out very long either. Some are amazing.

Tipsykitty: Some people have been complaining about the overly repetitive sounds in some of the scenes. Are you able to comment on why this is?

Jay: We only had a certain amount of time so it is what it is. We couldn't keep delaying to add in more sounds. We're looking forward to sharing with the community to improve where things can be improved.

Tipsykitty: Ok, now for the burning question .... why are there no kitties in the game? I mean little kitties.

Jay: *laughs* Well we went on the boards to ask what people wanted for creatures. Some of the said beholders and along that line, but we were really surprised that one of the highest was house animals such as cats, dogs, parrots, etc. Horses was another big one. But no one said monkeys though, so I took the initiative to recommend that one.