Neverwinter Wonders

The the first 10 levels are Heroic. Right now we're sticking primarily at Heroic levels and we'll extend it from there. You'll go no higher than 10, certainly.

Right now, Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Cleric. I traditionally have played tanks in MMOs, so I tend to go towards the fighter.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

I would say we're being inspired by D&D, not slavishly trying to copy. Where possible we're trying to use the abilities and powers and monsters and some of their behaviours. But it's not going to be a one-to-one correspondence.

For instance, there's no two-hit roll. We've used boons in a slightly different manner. Hit-points aren't exactly the same. But, by and large, the structure is similar. It's not turn-based.

There are dice rolls going on, but it's not turn-based in the sense that you can pause it. You target something, you attack, you swing. The random aspect is going to be how much damage you do, and that's affected by your feats and abilities.

It's not an action-RPG, but it's also not straight D&D where you roll a die to hit.

Oh yeah. Just take a look at my background: I started gaming with pen and paper role-playing games. I've been playing D&D since 1979.

No, no, I don't do the dressing up. I have my limits.

I am a huge gamer. If you come to my office you'd be shocked.

It's going to be a little bit stylised: realistic-stylised - ha! I don't know if that's a term. We're trying to get some of the qualities that some of the Spanish fantasy authors have done in the past: your Vallejos, etc. That has an influence which will suggest a little bit of what people can expect.

We feel that this is the finest art we've ever done. Some of the things in Star Trek were frankly spectacular. I'd rather have a smaller zone or smaller dungeon that is spectacular than spend time making a large and mediocre experience. We fully understand we've got a lot to tackle, art-wise.

Basically Neverwinter is broken into a number of zones. There are other players in those areas, social hubs, where we plan for people to interact. There will also be various search mechanics similar to what we have in our other MMOs to allow you find your friends and what people are doing what quests and so forth.

Five, and you can fill a group with henchmen or friends or some combination thereof.

Everything that's part of the narrative. Everything.

You're exactly right. Where that comes into play is the user-generated content. We also have a full slate of content we're going to continue to bring after release. We don't think people will find themselves at a loss for things to do. Dungeons can be repeated, too - they are persistent.

Right now we're not sure that in our user-generated content you can make your own items and weapons. There would be very strict controls on that.

What currently the UGC is intended to do is for people to attach their quests, their stories into our world. You're right, it's possible for people to create bad content, and that's why we'll have rating systems - similar to what YouTube does - because the best stuff is just going to float to the top naturally.

You can do all those MMO things in this particular product, yes.