Death of a Game: Sword Coast Legends

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

One of my loyal viewers opened their coffers and requested this video personally. It was not only intriguing as a concept/project but I was in a time of need and accepted. I would like to thank everyone for the continued support on the channel, detectives think of this as a bonus video coming just off the back of Battlefield 2042. And if you like CRPGs, Neverwinter Nights, or online DnD style RPGs you will love this video! - N.S.

[@hellhound78]

(^^♪ Then don't mind, if I enjoy.

[@Galardomond]

That's awesome! If I had a spare thousand dollars I would sponsor DOAG: Ragnarok Online ;)

[@ashwinnmyburgh9364]

Hey man, hope all goes well. Love your videos!

[@brojakmate9872]

Death of the game: Monster Hunter when?

[@benwilton5307]

DoaG Monster Hunter? What are you huffing?

[@GYIYGABITE.]

I had no idea this game ever existed until now.

[@nillman]

Yea… same.. this is the first time i heard about this game.

[@fatrobin72]

Seems to be quite a common issue with this game... I too had never heard of it until now.

[@totema6205]

Same.

[@Dracowinges]

Same

[@Munkee1980]

Same! my first reaction was, this sounds like something that would interest me. Why have I never heard of this?

[@notaword1136]

The fact that they kept their promises after basically dying is both impressive and depressing

[@Smaxx]

Probably someone pulling strings fearing of backlash (and more importantly) getting sued. At least feels like that.

[@krebskreblin4012]

@@Smaxx I mean who the hell they gonna sue, the company that made those promises no longer exists at that point

[@flametitan100]

@@krebskreblin4012 What the video missed mentioning was that Digital Extremes, the publisher, was pulling the weight of SCL after N-space floundered. However, they didn't really have any interest in reviving the game or even keeping it on life support; they just wanted to fulfill their obligations and announced promises

[@lordrevan571]

@@flametitan100 That's still far more honest and fair than most companies now.

[@daminit6]

ya know its gonna be a good video when its a game you've never heard of until Death of a Game mentions it

[@matiastolosah8182]

I was about to comment the same thing tho! This shit is going to be good!

[@View619]

What killed this game more than anything else was the thought that DM mode needed to be balanced to limit the Dungeon Master's power. It completely missed the mark regarding tabletop campaigns; I think everything else would have been forgiven if they actually managed to create a digital tabletop experience.

[@monsterfurby]

In my experience, there's a huge part of the D&D community that treats the game more as a strategy game or competition against the DM - and the devs may have been part of that old-school segment of the audience. I get where that view comes from, given that D&D is a very gamistic system, but as someone who is more interested in the role-play, worldbuilding and storytelling aspect of tabletop RPGs, I've never really understood the appeal personally.

[@aliceiscalling]

@@monsterfurby My DM likes to be challenged, so it's almost a game for us to do something game breaking or overpowered and for him to design even bigger challenges. We end up with 2 sources of play. One in character where it's just a roleplay, and one out of character where we get to plan what stupid lucky moves we're going to make next session.

[@monsterfurby]

@@aliceiscalling Totally legit, of course - I suppose the art of it is balancing the many aspects of the game in the way that's most fun for one's own group.

[@aliceiscalling]

@@monsterfurby Of course! I can imagine for some DMs, they don't like being competitive or want to be more hands off. Some players might also want to keep it simple or less stressful.

[@View619]

@@monsterfurby Fair, but I think there's still an understanding (for good DMs, at least) that the encounters are beatable at the party's current level. So instead of just throwing the book at them, the DM will naturally create a balanced encounter. DM mode in Sword Coast Legends acted like the DM's role was to kill off the party. Hence, it greatly limited what the DM could do in terms of encounter building as a result; instead of trusting that the DM would handle making a relatively balanced encounter himself.

[@mattevarnish7455]

I had a friend years ago whose dad owned N-Space. We met a year or two before the studio shut down. If I recall correctly the studio had to deal with a lot of other publishers not paying them on time or paying them a fraction of what they agreed on. There wasn’t much they could do since they were a small developer and dealing with large publishers. I did enjoy what little bit I was able to play, though.

[@Larry]

Would that be Activision mostly? They seemed to be Acti's work horse out of any publisher.

[@AzazelTheMisanthrope]

I am always extremely please to find comments from the Fact Hunt guy on random videos. It's gotten like an easter egg hunt for me at this point.

[@mattevarnish7455]

@@Larry Unfortunately I don’t know the details. It seemed like they were going through a rough time and I didn’t want to dig deeper.

[@armntic]

It was Digital Extremes.

[@GeneralKong]

My god I still remember playing this game, despite its flaws and the gimping of the potential of the DM Mode, I still found it extremely intuitive, and would have loved if they at least kept the servers up and the game being able to be bought so I can atleast still play with friends

[@alexanderjbateman7340]

I quite enjoyed it, but you wanted to do anything meaningful as a GM you had to edit raw JSON files, which was just a PITA - if it had shipped with some decent tools to actually add content I think it could have been successful.

[@Draeckon]

Sadly, expecting a game and its servers to stay up when the company folds isn't really possible. Can't maintain servers forever like that, even if a few people buy the game here or there.

[@david21216]

Live service products ayo! Fuck having a product that exists longer than 3 years(i can't remember if they asked for moni for this but) AHHHHHH now i recognize all these games omfggggg those free multiplayer steam games, it was like everything i experienced after playing alien swarm (whatever its name is now) and spiral knights shit

[@njalsand133]

If only they included IP address connectivity

[@bgray1355]

Yeah to be honest I loved this game, I genuinely wish it had done better so it could have received further updates and work. The gameplay is smooth and can feel really rewarding, and the story actually gets really interesting and the characters are likeable. It's such a crying shame that this game failed.

[@ExarchGaming]

I got to talk to the legendary author R.A. Salvatore, possibly outside of ed greenwood one of the most famous D&D based authors and partly responsible with his Drizzt Do'urden series for it's popularity. I had noticed while reading the gauntlgrym series that ....something seemed off. He was going full on G R.R. Martin with the characters. But then the newer series came out where ....everything got kind of soft retconned and the party was back. He told me that 4th edition nearly "killed him" and many other D&D authors, describing it as a very poor environment for writing. He told me 5th Edition kind of saved him and the other writers by making people interested again in D&D. At the time Paizo which was at one point a 3pp for Wizards of the Coast, split off and took the D&D 3.5 ruleset, and updated/rebalanced it. Causing it to explode in popularity, that's how games like Kingmaker and most recently Wrath of the Righteous (two of the best campaign modules for the tabletop as well) got made. All of this kind of happened around 2010-2018. Damn near no one played 4th edition anymore for D&D and it looked like Pathfinder and their own homebrew world of Golarian (which I will say in my opinion is 10 times more developed than even Faerun and Forgotten Realms are. They've gone some SERIOUS work there.) was taking over the entire market, using D&D's 3.5 open gaming license. They even had almost every single addon to D&D like the Psionics Handbook, by outsourcing some of the communities favorite modules to 3pp's like Dreamscarred Press (my favorite) Rogue Genius Games, amongst many others. I think SCL came about in that transitional period before D&D 5th edition was just starting, as it had very very little content at first, in comparison to Pathfinders enormous library that had easy conversion rules to take 3.5 adventures and update them to Pathfinder's 1st edition (also known as 3.75)

[@markobucevic8991]

@@SkinniJ Not really.

[@lhb82]

@Mike will How do you survive in the real world?

[@ExarchGaming]

I mean it was kinda rushed, so there are some grammar and spelling mistakes but ....it's less than a page or two, if that's too long to you... okay. The message was aimed at nerdslayer not random commenters. (Though comment away!)

[@matttyler9963]

Mannnn I love the drizzt books, they're legendary

[@ExarchGaming]

@@matttyler9963 They really kicked off my love for D&D, I was obsessed with them in high school lmao. I havn't read anything newer than the companions of the hall series though.

[@dondavenport7077]

Thanks! I remember seeing demos about this game, but a couple years later I couldn't even find this game in searches. I thought I had dreamed the whole thing.

[@Bcgizmo]

Your channels so underrated with the amount of quality of content you put out doag is one of the best series on KZbin and you deserve recognition for the hard work you put into these videos

[@WhiplashSL]

He has gotten recognition twice now from Angry Joe.

[@Victimiser9000]

As a long time D&D player, when SCL came out I was still playing 3.5 in table top and had avoided even looking into 5E after being very nonplussed by 4E. SCL, and their decision to go with MMORPG style cooldowns for everything not only massively disappointed me (not even close to the experience I had expected), but it also left me thinking that 5E worked like that, and refusing to play it, for years.

[@spahghettiboi4150]

9:25 The main theme of DAO, was just... Chef's kiss. I also loved that he did the Narlmarches Battle Theme for Kingmaker.

[@nyanko2077]

Actually, the scripting in aurora toolset is the reason I am a software engineer today. I had faith in Sword Coast Legends back in the day but it soon turned out to be only ashes of its premises.

[@Mildriot]

I remember trying this then dropping it, but after really getting into CRPGs thanks to stuff like pathfinder: kingmaker and DOS2, I wanted to give it another try only to find out it was gone.

[@riptors9777]

The thing about neverwinternights longlevity was that the single player aspects werent that great but that people could create their own persistant worlds with the toolset that came along with it. Aka their own little mmos. Some of these worlds are still tuckering on till today. NVN gave you so much freedom with its editor that was unheard of at the time. An editor this powerfull would only apear again with bethesda games.. but those where single player only. By simply claiming they wanted to be a succesor to never winter nights, and then basically delivering a diablo esque game with clunky PnP game mechanics and bland nonsensical random gen dungeons (no seriously.. tilesets like the castle where just haphazardly thrown together random rooms that made you think that they found the architect in the deepest corner of an asylum for the mentaly deranged).. they couldnt have missed the mark further then they did. And this is also why i believe that the new DnD game from the Divinity team is not going to be able to fill that niche either. Its a DnD ruleset "inspired" game (aka divinity OS on the swordcoast) DM mode wont be anything more then in Original Sin either, so in the end its a linear campaign that doesnt allow you to really create your own campaigns or persistant worlds. There is such a huge gap in the market for a game with a editor powerfull enough to create your own gameworlds for you to host.. yet no one wants to do it... for the fear of losing out control or monetizing chances is my personal believe. Corporate suits seem to hate nothing more then a game that is successfull even a decade after its launch and not make a single cent of of it... (hence why bethesda really wanted to monetize the modding scene for their games)

[@Chessrook44]

Monetary reasons is likely it. An indie developer who specializes in RPGs, Spiderweb Software, released a version of their Exile and Avernum games called Blades of Exile and Blades of Avernum that really was peimarily a scenario builder and editor that the community used to build a ton of scenarios. Despite the fact that the community has cried for Blades versions of Spiderweb's other games (Blades of Geneforge more than any other), the owner Jeff Vogel has steadfastly refused under the reasoning that the Blades games were the worst-selling games he's made.

[@MetalGamer666]

Yeah, I didn't really like NWN's campaign. I can barely remember what it was about. But by the gods did I play NWN a lot! After I had found a PW I liked, where players were town guards and evil villains, I barely played any other games for years!

[@riptors9777]

@@MetalGamer666 And then the community created all that custom content in the community asset paks, adding even more content to the editor. The stuff you could get away with.. Someone even remade Diablo 1 completly in NWNs engine XD

[@tatuira93]

Single player aspects weren't that great? Hell no, The Prophet series, Aielund saga and a bunch of other community curated adventure modules are fantastic. The only sin NWN commits is not being party-based and sacrificing tactical depth for a more "personal" approach, not worth it, but it's a great RPG platform regardless.

[@riptors9777]

@@tatuira93 I was talking about the basic campaigns not player created content. Even then single player was very limited. You had no full party system for example, or that you could easaly break the game due to skills like knockdown or the broken implementation of "use magic device", there was little room for real roleplaying either in most of these because the game was mainly focused on the combat side of things. What it was great for was linear stories with little to no deviations. As i said my favourite module is still the diablo 1 remake and nwn was perfect for that. If you wanted an actual roleplaying experience though you had to go with persistant worlds in multyplayer.

[@Boom12]

Big kudos to your friend for helping you out. You rolled a Nat20 getting a pal like that!

[@CssHDmonster]

im a poor man, but i would love u to do a video covering the death of gamespy and how it left tons of games dead and unplayable

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

I would love to

[@daminit6]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss were do I fund this project this sound amazing, I want that video BADLY, a true deep dive into Gamespy and all the games it dragged down to hell with it

[@Abedeuss]

Man, this makes me sad. There has literally never been a game as great as Neverwinter Nights in terms of adapting DnD rules with a DM client, custom maps etc etc... even NwN 2 paled in comparison, mostly given how shitty the server and multiplayer options were at the time of release. I remember how NwN had 64-128 player maps that could be hosted on reasonably strong PCs, but NwN 2's maps had to be massively reduced in size AND you couldn't host even half as many players without running into RAM and performance issues.

[@Iridescence93]

check out a little indie game called knights of the chalice 2 it uses d&d rules (3.5 I think) and he plans to implement user content modules a la NWN2

[@thatguywesmaranan]

see, one amazing thing about this channel, is that it covers games a lot of us have never even heard of... i love it... 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@monsterfurby]

I miss SCL. Having been very active in the community back then, it was a really frustrating experience seeing the game go down a path that would inevitably lead to its demise. There were many elements to it: For one, too much ambition coupled with inflated expectations of what a small studio like this could deliver. Secondly, a mistaken belief that D&D players were universally a specific kind - namely the type of player who treated D&D as a battle of wits and only played published, predetermined scenarios and never really wanted to break out of the canon world that Wizards of the Coast gave them. For a game that lived and died with the success of its DM mode, that's a dangerous assumption. That may have been the role-playing culture in the 90s, but these days, original settings and more storytelling authority - that also means: less balancing - are just what most players expect. Sadly, this failed even though the devs had their hearts in the right place. They misjudged the audience, hit some business troubles, overestimated their ability to course-correct and eventually failed despite having what could have been a great game. The Belaphoss statue I got with the collector's edition would probably fetch a few Euros on ebay, but I've kept it out of respect to the devs and because I wanted at least some part of this game to last in a way.

[@jonaswestman1245]

i've seen alot of your death of a game videos, and it would be interesting to see you do a "birth of a game" parody almost, where you look at games that was bad/forgotten, and for some reason got popular again

[@amygrindhouse4193]

i still play this game. once a year, i do the whole playthrough. its such a shame, this game isnt possible to be played online. the modules of other players where such fun😢

[@MosBaked]

Great video, this game had so much potential. I had to hide it from my steam library because it pains me to see it there

[@Lunar_Valkyrie]

Got excited hearing Owlcat Games mentioned with the other CRPG developers who've been on a roll. With Wrath of the Righteous they've earned a lot of respect from me and are a developer I keep track of now.

[@riverray4136]

First time I'm even hearing about this, though I got into TTRPGs like D&D after this died. Wild. Appreciate the Pathfinder shoutouts in this one too, both the tabletop and cRPG versions (with Owlcat's Kingmaker).

[@FretboardToAsh]

Always glad to see NWN getting mentioned. For those of you interested, Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition is carrying the torch and getting steady development. And there are numerous community driven servers for all play-orientations accessible for no fee other than purchasing the game itself.

[@StrukeTheDuke1294]

I discovered your channel with the 2042 video. I fell in love with your style. I've been watching all of your videos the past few days. Thank you for putting so much effort into your content. It's truly amazing

[@MrAskmannen]

If you guys wanna try to have a kind of "automated DM" experience you could try Daggerfall. It's really monotonous and weird, but you do get some stuff you dont expect from time to time, and there really is no other game like it.

[@kupokinzyt]

Having played Daggerfall since its release, this game makes it look automated? That scares me lmao.

[@MrAskmannen]

@@kupokinzyt Well i meant that Daggerfall kinda just gives you a lot of randomly decided stuff to do. Sword Coast adventures had a DM mode that was quite limited according to this vid at least.

[@Chibi1986]

@@kupokinzyt : Daggerfall at its most basic is much more reactive to your choices than SCL is, because the creators wanted the game itself to be the DM and built it accordingly. Wayward Realms, the upcoming spiritual successor to Daggerfall, is supposed to work the same way.

[@Squeek801]

I remember being so hyped for this game. Paying attention to all the little previews that were being released for it before launch. And yet when it finally came out, I played maybe an hour at most, because the combat wasn't round based as I had been hoping for, and that just killed my interest in it immediately.

[@charlieni645]

I bought the game at 95% off a week before it was taken offline. I was expecting a singleplayer CRPG but was greeted with server login and a big but empty list of community modules. I was like hmm what the hell happened here? Obviously this was a NWN styled community driven game. There must be a story. Thanks for covering it! Must be a niche topic for your channel.

[@themurmeli88]

This was the biggest reason I never took any interest, aka. I never heard anything about it having a solid single player campaign. All I heard that it was just an "online game", that that pretty much killed all interest.

[@_Pikalika_]

I would love a deep dive into a game I used to play ages ago as a kid, Fly for fun Idk how popular it was at the peak but it’s gone now

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Classic. One of the only MMOs to tackle verticality

[@TheMrbrutalbutters]

Just what I needed in the middle of my 9 hour drive, god bless

[@gmjaken]

I remember briefly being interested in this game. The DM mode looked so lackluster that my interested ended before launch and I forgot it existed until this video.

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

YES, I heard that last sound clip! Glad something that I recommended is getting covered (Even though you probably already planned on covering it)

[@oxmor]

Keep pumping these videos out n imma lose my mind! So much good content yall been dropping!

[@Jago-pl7op]

Damn! The detective brings another mysterious case. Good job nerdslayer and editor.

[@V4N6U4RD]

13:53 Yeah...about that...On Easy difficulty mode, any allies inside the AOE spells suffered knockback, on Normal mode they took 50% damage (on type) and on Hard mode they took 100% damage (on type) so If an ally was 15% vulnerable to burn damage, and they were inside the AOE is a fire spell (even from an ally) they get 58% of the damage on Normal mode and 115% on Hard. In SCL I was that team-mate that dealt Boss-killing damage, survived every enemy-wave, knew all the secret passages, and I had all the best gear for my class (Paladin) but if you did something dumb as a player (or I didn't like as a LG Pally, if the group was RP'ing) I just didn't heal you and laughed as you died...My greatest moment was when my whole party, told me it was my job to soak up damage, and they would kick me if any of them dropped to half health...I put on a helm that made me +15% vulnerable to mental attack, let a succubus mind control me, then I killed each of my team-mates, and I danced over their dead bodies. They didn't even have a chance to notice I was mind-controlled, I slaughtered them and laughed. 17:55 If the console servers are still running, I might return to Faerun. I remember I had a mid gear'd L20 Ranger on Xbox and a lightly geared L20 Ranger on PlayStation. On console the best class to play was Ranger, and on PC the best class was Paladin (it was a Gamepad vs KB&M design issue)

[@curseofzeal]

That main menu theme brings on a wave of repressed nostalgic frustration - I spent a lot of time in the singleplayer character creation, deliberating on what I wanted to play (for all of a handful of hours before I got bored of the game and uninstalled for the first, second, then third time), listening to that goddamn ~5 minute loop over and over. Didn't know they pulled it from Steam. Maybe I'll give it a serious go to play through the game fully someday. Just not someday soon.

[@NotsagF]

This game had so much promise, I loved it on release and DMd some games on it, then it imploded

[@codycigar6542]

Just did a 15 hour shift. Came home and made some chicken, rice and squash and see my fav series is here. That's some bliss.

[@slehbencheikh2950]

I’m so happy the money that viewer gave you will be able to cover for ur future expenses! I want these videos to keep going for a long time ❤️

[@EithanMcGarrity]

Damn you pumping out amazing content at an amazing speed

[@foxfire9937]

We find it interesting that DDO is still going despite coming out earlier than SCL. Granted that's more along the lines of an auto attacker FTP MMO but it still brought Eberron into the MMO space and modified the 4e rules in a way that made plenty of sense.

[@combat.wombat]

DDO is 3.5...

[@foxfire9937]

@@combat.wombat you're right sorry it's been since like 2015 since I played

[@Rylatar]

Neverwinter Online is still going too and it's the one based on 4th ed (loosely but still).

[@denzelpanther240]

DDO just understands D&D way better than most D&D games of the last decades. A hub + seperate modules with narration just gets the feel right. Also there is some good customisation and transparent mechanics. All things that neverwinter fails at, while it still had some different aspects that were worth a look. The way they slowly and silently move the rules from 3.5 to 5 is also quite clever

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

Didn't know this game existed. Wish there was some way for people to be able to play it singelplayer. Nice video. Keep up the good work.

[@xota-prebs4593]

As a DnD player/DM, and never have heard about this, makes me quite sad. But damn, neverwinter nights, and hordes of the underdark ha a close place to my heat :)

[@nogardmarith]

I played it when it came out. I'm old school cRPG and D&D fan playing Baldur's gate series. None of my other friends really got into it, and end up playing other games with them.

[@mercaius]

I remember this one. Eventually I couldn't progress in the game as certain bosses outstriped my party even when I stacked up a ridiculous amount of potion use -- and I've never found stacking consumables to be a fun RPG experience even when it works.

[@fingolfin8287]

Awwww man, I really did enjoy my play through of this game.

[@CheetahBoomLP]

Great video, I love the Death of a Game series. :D Oh, I see. The next case is going to be another very recent one. :) Thx, Amazon.

[@universalperson]

wait, is it actually New World? EDIT: It is... well, cross that off the list.

[@PatricktheDookie]

I was one of the ~40 people who nearly killed themselves over this title. Amazing to see so much interest. Thank you.

[@HighPriestFuneral]

Does that mean you... worked on it? Or that you were so... upset with it to the point where you nearly ended it all...? I'm a little confused here.

[@PatricktheDookie]

@@HighPriestFuneral I worked on it. I probably know more about how the game was pieced together (from code to scripts to designer implementation) than anyone.

[@PatricktheDookie]

A lot of memories, a lot of headaches, and a ton of lessons learned.

[@HighPriestFuneral]

@@PatricktheDookie Oh, I am sorry for your loss. Seeing something you so passionately worked on being wrested from you, must still hurt a great deal. I'm sorry for my earlier callousness.

[@PatricktheDookie]

All good. I landed well. :) I actually haven't watched the video, because it's a bit of an embarrassment. I kind-of believe if I could go back in-time, knowing what I know now, I could save the game. Silly, I know, but I can say that everything Iearned on that project has helped me become who I am today. One lesson that stands out is that everyone thinks that working on their favorite genre and IP is a dream project. It's far from that - the joy of making games is working with peope you love to try and solve impossibly complex problems. Whether it's D&D or Barbie, it's overcoming that shared challenge that is the real joy. n-Space did not pay well, but I would have stayed there forever, because everyone there (well, almost everyone) was like family to me. :)

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

My wife LOVES Crpgs and DnD and we've never heard of this one lol. Glad the genre isnt going anywhere and is actually having a resurgence. They arent for everyone but they are great value and a ton of fun

[@PhriekshoTV]

N-space? Man, I didn't know they were still around much after Geist and the DS CoDs

[@Roxaddie]

5:50 am upload absolutely pristine

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

only 11:50am here in Spain :P

[@Chray0]

I remember my friend making a group of us get this and quitting after the first level because of the frame rate problem

[@KittyPuppy]

Hey, I remember these NSpace guys! They made a super generic ARPG on 3DS that had a lot of hype called Heroes of Ruin and when it flopped they declared there was no audience for ARPGs on handhelds. I think they got the wrong take away from that situation. I'm gonna remember these guys as a "so close yet so far" studio. If they executed SCL better they could have been the people to make the Mario Maker of tabletop games. The industry is still waiting for someone to come and crack that code, whoever does wins.

[@pitching]

Here before the video removed like death of family guy game and many more

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

lol

[@danlaskey6743]

idk if it’s on your radar but cod zombies has had a rather large fall from grace, love the channel

[@DrPluton]

I remember looking forward to buying this game only to find that it was shut down before I could. Solasta: Crown of the Magister will have to do for 5th edition D&D on a computer until the full release of Baldur's Gate 3 next year.

[@YEUWYU]

I played this game back when it was still alive, and I remember on that week the online lobby consisted of just me, a rl friend and 2 other people

[@spooky_co]

Cool to be early, been following since the SW Galaxies DOAG. Your work is rad and getting better.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

wow long time fan

[@spooky_co]

Bruh i think u had less than 10k? Idr im amazed uve kept it up for so long keep it up boss

[@jamescarter6468]

Didn't know I'd get a vid worth watching at almost 3am lol

[@hellhound8157]

Please look into No Man's Sky. Its not exactly Death of a Game I think but rather how they brought a game back from death despite breaking trust and not delivering on their marketing promises. A month after release their player base dropped by 92% because they lacked basic features they promised but they went to work on the game until this day, bringing the community back, even achieving a player gain of 1,305% 2 years after launch. They seemed to have brought their player base back from 500 at their all time low to now over 15,500.

[@ineptsparrow]

I remember being excited for this game yet never realized it had released and subsequently died. Sad :(

[@SoDopeStavi]

I still have this on my steam library. What a shame what happened to this. So much damned potential.

[@nateno5112]

As a dm that mostly does campaigns in the forgotten realms and a huge fan of the old classic rpgs I'm really bummed I never knew about this. Would have totally played.

[@Hylanvahr]

As a little something to add to this case, I remember people talking about this game on the Warframe forums and in my clan chat many moons ago (Warframe being Digital Extreme's then and current flagship title) and how DE was banking on SCL's developer to help them branch out to the CRPG genre. DE, known for their smash action game successes with Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and Dark Sector, was still nursing their wounds after their disastrous Star Trek video game published by Namco, a failure so bad that even Hollywood director J.J. Abrams blamed DE for the less than stellar box office sales for Star Trek Into Darkness. As great as DE was and still is, I think SCL's devs could have partnered with a more appropriate publisher, another studio that had more experience with CRPG games. DE simply was not that studio.

[@RogueLG]

Dude hope is everything alright love the vids and two within a week was a great surprise.

[@yomejjuan]

I recall hearing about this game exactly once, what weird little piece of gaming history.

[@philipford6183]

I was lucky enough to purchase Sword Coast Legends on both PS4 and PC (via Steam). Consequently, I can still play either version (obviously SP only). The PS4 version didn't have all the DM content - just the SP campaign and a few other gameplay modes. For what it's worth, I still think SCL looks great - I really liked the visual style and thought the developer did a very nice job in world creation. The SP game with A.I. companions is enjoyable enough if nothing special. It was an accessible game, which I think was laudable, especially for those of us not too knowledgeable about all things D&D. Another game in my collection fated never to receive any more updates, abandoned by its developer, frozen in time forever more.

[@archsteel7]

This is, in my own opinion, yet another victim of the Multiplayer Hype Trap. Basically, the multiplayer hype trap is what happens when a game made by a small publisher without a large enough fan base, attempts to cash in on the insane success of various multiplayer giants. You see this all the time in the RTS genre, where games constantly try to be “the next StarCraft 2.” But in the process, they make their game too reliant on multiplayer and doom it. Games that release with mediocre or non-existent stories and single-player experiences, that exist briefly then die in silence. They neglect every aspect but multiplayer, assuming that a player base will just appear out of thin air. But multiplayer alone just isn’t enough if you don’t already have a massive dedicated fan base. You need single player content to hold on to people, because even if there aren’t enough people playing the multiplayer a good single player mode will keep people playing in some capacity and keep the game from being forgotten. A good single player campaign will keep people buying the game even if there is no multiplayer community at all, and if people keep buying then eventually there will be enough people for multiplayer. Too many game studios treat single player as an afterthought to multiplayer, when it has to be the other way around. Multiplayer needs the community that single player creates, but single player doesn’t need multiplayer at all. You have to have single-player before you can have multiplayer, otherwise you’re just rolling dice and hoping for a miracle. But for every Dead By Daylight or Among Us, there’s 10 Natural Selections or Evolves.

[@warcrome]

I love this game, more than anything because it filled the void of a Dungeon Siege 3 (Obsidian disaster...), and the fact that I only wanted a single player experience.

[@XarantaurTheWitness]

only reason I knew this game existed was due to digital extremes promoting the dm mode once on a stream. I didn't even know /must've forgotten it had an online component 😂

[@JohnDoe-vm5rb]

Oh, something I played. It was pretty fun overall, though I went in expecting a game set in DND, not NWN3

[@saltycomet]

Posted just as I'm about to farm in bl2. Thank you 😊

[@childesinthev.761]

As part of the NWN crowd we've been through years of looking forward to the next possible challengers, but from the Dragon Age toolset to Legends of Aria there's just been nothing except that oh so lovely and ongoing Enhanced Edition refresh. Sword Coast Legend even if it had worked was just too limited in the DM tools, with too centralized hosting, and so intent on nickel and diming for most pieces of extra content that it seems dubious they would have been gracious about the community creating and distributing its own.

[@dramaexterminatus]

The game had insane potential and even now the modules are fun as fck. It saddens me to this day.

[@Cr0wsMurd3r]

Played NWN online for a couple of years. Mainly on one PW mod called Prisoners of the Mist, good times. And a few months with NWN2 as well on another PW called Sigil: City of Doors (Plansescape Torment nostalgia). Both those games were really great, good single player. Even better online.

[@Ironclad6661]

I loved the game and I have like hundreds of fan made modules. Not sure why this game is gone. It wasn't a bad game. I enjoyed it. A good 7/10 or 8/10.

[@I_am_ENSanity]

God, I remember spending hours sitting In front of the family PC playing Neverwinter Nights.

[@misterbxiv]

The worst thing about the system is there’s no cap on cooldown reduction-so you could get 100% and just spam your best spell over and over to mindlessly charge through every fight

[@ltrpwd]

I can still play this, literally have it on my pc. Maybe I’ll give it a true shot but I never got into it at the time.

[@LeoDGH1]

Bought this game on release as I'm a sucker for NWN-style RPGs, sunk 13 hours into the game then walked into the infamous Cutlass Inn cellar, an inescapable room that promptly softlocked my entire game when it autosaved. Good times. Maybe one day I'll play it again. One day.

[@realradec]

Would you consider doing an episode on Destruction AllStars? It would be cool to ses you do a deep dive on that to see how that game progressed and how it was before the "big" January update

[@spahghettiboi4150]

Oh hell yeah. I recently got into POE. BG2, DOS 2, WOTR. These games honestly slap

[@HaesslichG]

I remember the original online D&D game, AOL's Neverwinter Nights, which gave up its name to the more famous one.

[@ProjectTenva]

As a big 5e fan I got the collector's edition, I felt conned but I did get an awesome statue of belaphoss (balor antagonist) for my games room so I'll call it quits. Not too hopeful baldurs gate 3 will turn out much better sadly.

[@HankHill11]

Why not

[@helgenlane]

@@HankHill11 because people don't know what they want and build unrealistic expectations. Baldur's Gate 3 is going to be an amazing game, just like Divinity Original Sin 2 was.

[@HankHill11]

@@helgenlane yeah i have 40-50 hours in in the early access, dont want to play the hell out of it to much until it comes out but yeah i love it

[@piperMcGuffin]

I really love this series, I only found your channel about 4 days ago and I binged watched almost all of your videos. However as a fledgling indie video game maker, I do hope I will never see any of my games on this series. No offense of course!

[@Frost_Surveyor]

I remember this game! I loved the companions and gameplay and it filled my CRPG urge. Thank you for making me remember.

[@baerthe]

I had totally forgotten this existed at all! Vaguely recalled, wrongly, it was some sort of expansion to Neverwinter, the mmo (due to being so similar in concept/themes). Which also just got me to realize DnD Online and Neverwinter BOTH still are running lol, though it seems WotC does not really advertise DnDO

[@counterspelled7577]

can we look at Titanfall next? I know its not dead, I still play it regularly but its just sad how the state of the game actually is.

[@Ryong84]

at the time icewind dale 2 came out d&D rules were so diluted that you had to spend a few hours on forums to read about most optimal party as anything else were a road to sure failure at one place or another

[@exaltx9406]

i heard about this game years ago from the cooptional podcast with projared as the guest. he gave out a few codes on the livestream.

[@christiamcruz7454]

My favorite genre in the entire gaming industry is ANY kind of RPGames in general and somehow i dint even knew this game existed till' now.

[@SM-qb2zg]

Interesting video. I actually purchased this on Xbox years ago and never got around to playing it. Installing now and will give it a whirl.

[@marcodoe4690]

Interesting to see this game coming up here. I played it back in 2016 and finished it all the way to the end. Seeing that only 7.4% of the players finished chapter 3 is a grim signal how bad this game must have been received.

[@pitching]

Can we get death of soical sim games like smallworld , habbo hotel , sims online , playstation home and more

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Habbo hotel was my first "mmo"/morpg, absolutely

[@BryceMousseau]

I still think this still has the best soundtrack of the CRPG Revivals.

[@pandoraeeris7860]

I remember having a lot of hope for this game. I still hope someone pulls it off someday.

[@xelldincht4251]

i seriously wanted to give this Sword Coast Legends a chance but by the time it was not available on Steam anymore. What a shame, the GM idea was pretty cool

[@lacunarikain2]

The fact NS loves SWG as much as I do warms my heart