Don't Boycott NWN2 Says DLA

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Steel_Wind, Dragonlance Adventures team leader, has posted the following appeal on the DLA boards:

Please. Let's not do this.

Buy the game if you want to buy the game. I know I will (seeing as I somehow now doubt that Atari or even OE will be sending DLA a free copy).

I spent four years doing this. And while there are a whole complex layered number of reasons as to how and why and motives and assumptions as to why I got involved in all of this...

There's no way I would ever have done any of it without loving this damn game, what it was about and what it could become - or loving being a part of this community too.

And the rest of the folks at DLA think the same way. Their motives, hopes, dreams and talents may differ - but that golden thread runs through each and every one of the people in DLA. They love the game and the community that has grown around it and that they are very much a part of.

We tried to make the game better and the community better and give you great toys to play with and - we hope - a great adventure you'll enjoy playing. We are not going to bail or walk away in a snit without delivering on that.

No way in hell will we let that happen.

But I would hate to have someone point at DLA as a rallying cry to wreck this community or somehow diminish it. Even in a small way.

Don't do that. Please. Not in our name. That would be a sad way to repay something which has been such a large part of our lives.

Read the rest at DLA if you have an account. The quote is also a part of Kalia's bigger post at RPG Dot, similar to the one at NWN2 Warcry.

 

What's all the boycott talk stemming from? This is the first I've heard of it. Although not thrilled with the changes to NWN, the gameplay, the radial menu, etc...I still loved playing NWN in multiplayer, and I look forward to the same with NWN2.

I have no love for Atari - they butchered Temple of Elemental Evil, and it still wasn't a terrible game...Once Circle of Eight cleaned it up.

So...Where's this boycott coming from? Why? Where'd it start? What's the reasoning behind it?

 

There is no specific spot where it started. It seems like every time something is announced, in this case the cancellation of further premium modules (and some terrible treatement of the DLA team), people begin to talk gloom & doom. Last week it was the 'lack' of a DM client (false---it will be there for download on the day of release rather than in the box). This week, it's the abysmal treatment of contracted developers for the premium mods.

People assume that if something offends their sensibilities, they should boycott the game. It's silly and juvenile but it's the Internet.

 

Eh, Kalia, you're starting to talk a bit like Rhomal now. Sure, it's juvenile to talk offence at some unfortunate decisions or tough choices, but the thing with Atari is that it expects to screw the customers and the customers to be happy with it. That's the kind of attitude that really makes you ask yourself if you should contribute to Atari's further existence by supplying your part of sales revenue and if you really want to have anything to do with Atari. If you're dying to play NWN2 and then suddenly decide to hurt yourself by not buying it in order that Atari would be hurt (a bit like kicking the wall with a bare foot), that's juvenile. But if you decide you can live without NWN2 and Atari's attitude, without a potentially rushed game and potentially never coming patches, and that you can play something else or work or study or spend quality time with your family instead, that's not juvenile IMHO. Or a collective action on the part of customers deciding to ignore the release and bring Atari down by denying it the much needed cash, that wouldn't be juvenile at all. Shaking fists, kicking the wall and shouting obscenities is juvenile, but shrugging your arms and refusing to put up with further lousy treatment is not.

That said, I surely am not going to skip NWN2 just so Atari would be hurt. If there were a bigger action, such as, let's say, 10000 people deciding not to buy the game, then I would certainly at least consider joining in. Not in the name of DLA, not even as a way of showing a middle finger to Atari, but as a collective and tangible display of disappointment leading to concrete consequences for Atari (losing customers as a result of crappy attitude), sending the message to Atari in the only language it understands, which is money -- to paraphrase what general Schwartzkopf said about Ghadaffi being talked to in the only language he understood, which was bombs. This is because Atari will ignore any and all feedback apart from direct financial kick in the teeth and I'm not even sure of that one. What I know is that I won't get out of my skin to find the time to play it like I did with the IE games or the KotOR ones or NWN expansions.

As a newsposter, I'll certainly strive to provide complete, detailed and multilateral footage, as well, but I won't be creating a fansite, looking for interviews, posting five topics a day in the NWN2 game forum (not the news one).

Well... And the ultimate childish act would be buying NWN2 just so as not to be boycotting it. We should avoid that extreme, too.

[ May 30, 2006, 14:55: Message edited by: chevalier ]

 

The main reason that I think boycotting a game like NWN 2 isn't the wisest move on the planet is because the only one, IMO, that will really get hurt is Obsidian. Atari is already going down the slippery slope to bankruptcy so they aren't going to profit much from the undoubtedly stellar NWN 2 sales, boycotts be damned. In the long run, only OE is going to feel the pain of a boycott when Atari withholds payment for the game they've spent these years making.

At the very least, I want to see the game come out and for Atari to lose the DnD licence so it can be sold to a producer that is a bit more *coughs* reliable and so that, hopefully with strong sales despite Atari, OE can support NWN 2 for as long as Bio's been able to support NWN.

 

I second that, like many will. Atari is..... Well what can be said that is not already said. I can think about a lot of things but we all have a different angle on what we want.

Before the year is over NWN2 will have a pace on this site like the others and will grow to be a classic. Never boycott a good game.

 

I share that sentiment and yeah, it would be nice to see NWN2 sold to a more sensible publisher. And bad to see Obsidian unpaid, sure.

 

Well if Atari goes under soon (as many are predicting), then all of it's primary creditors will get first dibs at the $$$ from NWN 2 sales. I imagine that Obsidian would be near last on the list of payees. So, from a near-term financial point of view, Obsidian may very likely be $*&#$*(&# anyway

But consider the longer term ....

If NWN2 sells well, that will be good for the D&D / FR franchise and for Obsidian's reputation, and by translation good for the RPG genre in general. So think about the bigger picture and the future of quality RPGs on the PC. Of course I'll buy NWN2 even if it's unpatched and buggy, just like I did ToEE.

Atari's fate is probably already sealed, no matter what we do as customers. Although someone could buy the name...