Interview: Jay Watamaniuk - The First Round

I felt the gaming public needed to hear the truth about the interview that was conducted by Tipsykitty with myself at GenCon. A few details were missed and I wanted to set the record straight.

She said:
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.

The Real Story:

She said:
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.

Tipsy evidently forgot the initial questions:

Tipsykitty:
What's my name?! What's my name?!

Jay:
(Valiantly shaking off the concussion) Tipsy… tipsykitty?

Tipsykitty:
Say it with a capital "T" thrall!

Jay:
Tipsykitten! …I mean <shot to the kidney> Owch! Tipsykitty! Tipsykitty!

She said:
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.

Stuff that was edited out:
Obviously BioWare is in it for the long term with NWN as they have committed a great deal of resources to ensure NWN realizes it's potential. Out of consideration for our publisher partner, Infogrames, we really can't comment on any possible expansions.

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.

Stuff that was edited out:
BioWare spent a great deal of effort to duplicate the 3rd edition rules in the making of NWN and the 6 second combat round is one of the fundamental points of combat in that system. I think people are a bit taken aback initially seeing how long six seconds is in live combat as there experience previously was only pen and paper tabletop. I think the 6 second rule works out very week as more attacks are added as a character gains levels of experience. Cutting the time down to one second would begin to look pretty darn wacky at 20th level. Are you going to eat those nachos? <shot to the kidney> Owch!

The encounter system works very well but cannot match a real, flesh and blood person operating the monsters. The DM Client ability to possess creatures allows for this sort of human intervention to make each of the combats very exciting and different.

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, there's 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.

Stuff that was edited out:
We have a great deal of projects that we have been planning and working on that are now beginning to see completion. The release of the game was really the just the start of all things we have planned and hope to bring to the NWN community. In addition, the community itself is nothing I've ever seen and we will be watching to see what folks do with NWN.

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.

Stuff that was edited out:
We are really pleased to see the community embrace NWN and run with it in directions that nobody could have predicted. The only concern I have is trying to keep up with all the demands for content, utilities, tutorials and so people can work on their own projects. One of the Live Team's goals are to be supportive to the community in whatever way we can and right now that means giving people the tools to do what they want. I expect in parallel will the idea that the NWN Community Site become the central hub for NWN fans to get the content and material they need.

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

Stuff that was edited out:
I'd like to see more module with monkeys <shot to the kidney> I mean kitties.

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.

Stuff that was edited out:
As I mentioned there does have to be a ceiling on content we add to the game before we have to wrestle the game away from the clawed hands of the sound designers. I expect any perception of a lack of sounds will quickly evaporate in the face of the relentless community if custom content creators out there.

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.

Stuff that was edited out:
Kittens? That's dumb <shot to the kidney> I mean great idea, I'll get to work right away.