Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights, collected by NWVault (http://nwvault.ign.com). Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Georg Zoeller, Designer</font>

Will Online Authentication Become the Norm for All Future Games (http://nwn.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=407599&post=3372444&forum=86&highlight=)
<hr />For a case-in-point, Half-Life 2's required internet authentication didn't do anything to knock it out of the top 10 sales.<hr />That's a good point - as much as it depends on the customers, it's a question about how many people really care.

I mean, copy protection itself isn't popular ... still it's there.

I remember when I was still living in Europe and they started to shift out the standard game boxes for PC games for DVD boxes - you know, the stuff that console games come in, the ones without a real manual, etc. Everyone (including me) was crying "foul" on internet forums, etc, etc ... but a year later the move was pretty much complete and you would read "I actually like those boxes, they don't take up my space" on internet boards.

Point is - yes, it's a matter of what people are willing to accept and want (and don't forget, we game developers are customers as well) - but what you read on internet boards and the situation on the the market are two different things.

So, to come back to the premium modules - the reason for using this authentification scheme was because it was already in place in NWN's multiplayer code and not spending a lot of cash on a different system allows us to sell the modules at the current price point.