Neverwinter PvP a Highlight of Cryptic's Game

Summer Festival in Neverwinter can be a messy affair

Once more I found myself enthralled by Neverwinter this evening, and it seems to be quickly becoming my No. 2 mmorpg right behind DDO. Currently we are in the middle of the Summer festival and I participated in the water contest which was quite fun.

Prior to doing so I jumped into some PvP in the 5v5 arena and for once it was an evenly matched contest. We lost but only by a few points, in fact it was the closest match I have been involved since becoming eligible for PvP. One of the knocks on this game has been that some perceive it as P2W. 

I am not sure that this criticism is fair, from what I have seen at least in the lower level brackets, some of the matches are evenly matched considering the composition of the teams. It is true that control wizards and other casters seem to be very powerful, but sometimes it is just my fighter against another fighter or cleric and or rogue and it seems as though it is a fairly even contest, especially if we all work together

I really wish I had more experience but I think it takes practice like everything else. Another aspect of PvP I enjoy in the game is that it isn't as dependent on gear as World of Warcraft. In wow, it seems that you may be in the same level bracket but you can still lose because you may not have the greatest gear, but this does not always seem to matter in Neverwinter. 

I won't pretend that it's all easy and effortless, it's an intense experience and there have been many times when I went toe to toe with enemy players who got the best of me one on one, but it's a pretty good thrill and thus far I am enjoying the battles. I think it gets more intense in higher levels, but I will have to wait and see. My friend is still playing RIFT and I have yet to experience warfronts in that game, but for the time being Neverwinter will be the go to game when I feel like pvping because DDO is not designed for PvP.

The eternal question: Sandbox vs. themepark

Lieutenant Morkag-Khor

First, my apologies for not posting sooner, grad school has eaten a large chunk of my playing time. I hope to blog more steadily now and into summertime. Second, I have been following the debate over what elements should be incorporated into the upcoming mmorpg Camelot Unchained by famed DAoC developer Mark Jacobs. In fact, the discussions over whether it's wise that it feature only RvR (3 faction pvp like in DAoC) and gloss over PvE elements has also sparked the old debate of themepark vs. sandbox mmos.

My inbox has been flooded of late from posts and bloggers who have weighed in on the issue, but that's one of the things that I love about playing ddo, Turbine has taken care of making the gameplay radically different than most mmos, but not too different that it won't satisfy a fantasy action junkie like myself. What makes DDO unique in the sandbox vs. themepark debate is that it doesn't neatly fit into any one category.

Since DDO is mostly composed of instanced dungeons with wilderness areas and no significant pvp to speak of, one would be tempted to say that it's mostly a themepark, you do follow a linear pre-designed pattern, i.e. starting off in the Korthos island tutorial and early level content before graduating to Stormreach Harbor. However, DDO has some sandbox elements. For example, you don't have to do quests in order, per se, although I suppose you do if  you want to progress onto capping a character, but seeing as you have relatively more freedom to quest in Stormreach either solo, with a party, or engage in other activities such as collecting, etc, DDO feels less like a linear quest hub to quest hub than World of Warcraft to me.

Last night I decided to finish some of the quests I had not yet completed in both the Harbor and House P. After unsuccessfully going after Lieutenant Morkag-Khor and party wiping in elite in the tear of Dhakaan quest, (we came ever so close) I managed to do a few more quests, including going back to the Harbor to run "Kobolds assault" in elite. Had a blast earning a few more ranks on my warforged Barbarian, which I seem to prefer playing over the spellcaster, mostly because I am still not as adept at wizard game mechanics in ddo. What can I say? I like to wallop stuff in melee.

So say what you will about DDO, but I don't think that I can firmly place it anywhere in the Sandbox-themepark continiuum with absolute certaintity, but I don't think that is at all a bad thing. 

Our party gathers at the Harbor after a long quest chain