Neverwinter - Interview @ The Escapist

The Escapist has an article-format interview with Jack Emmert on Neverwinter.  I still get the feeling they haven't actually planned out a lot of things but it's nice to see talk about puzzles and non-combat play:

Part of what makes playing D&D around a table with your friends fun is the crazy things that you imagine you can do. I was worried that that magic would get lost in a game like Neverwinter, where the streamlined MMO story can feel really impersonal. Emmert addressed that concern for Neverwinter: "There's a lot of choices that you make depending upon the things that you learn along the way, that affects how you progress through the main storyline. Interacting with people, finding out about them. Really, it's a matter of exploring the world of Neverwinter. There are tons of things which you'll find out that are applicable to the main narrative storyline."

That idea of exploring the world and slowly learning the story is key to many a D&D campaign, but I was still worried that the focus might be more on combat in this type of game. "With Neverwinter, we're going to put puzzles in. We're going to put in things that you need to figure out. We're going to put in clues. Most certainly, Neverwinter is going to involve more than just combat," Emmert said. When I asked about how diplomacy and interaction with NPCs might work, he said that branching dialogue trees is the direction they are currently headed but that it may change. "You'll have to wait and see."

Thanks, Lucky Day.