Written by: Ian

 

 

 

For me, it all kicked off with Baldur’s Gate. Maybe a few months earlier I had got into Warhammer, but for me, it was Baldur’s gate that really got me interested in both RPG playing and fantasy worlds in general.

 

In fact, over ten years later, I still have some Warhammer, I still read fantasy novels, and whilst I haven’t really got the time to play any tabletop RPGs anymore, I wish I could play a ‘proper’ RPG.

 

And by that, I mean an RPG game that is licensed from one of the many pen-and-paper RPG systems out there.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Fallout 3 & Fable 2 were my two main contenders for GOTY in 2008, and Dragon Age won it in 2009. Mass Effect 2 & Dragon Age DLC and expansions will see me more than satisfied in 2010, not to mention some of the JRPGs that are out, or out soon like Star Ocean, Tales of Vesperia, and indeed FFXIII. What with all the new releases, and the re-release of FFVII onto the PSN, I shall probably spend a large proportion of my summer being a pasty geek wasting hours playing through some of those aforementioned titles.

 

However, what strikes me as odd is that there are no new games coming out using licensed systems and worlds, despite the mini-resurgence of table-based RPGs.

 

D&D 4th Edition is out now, Warhammer Roleplay is stronger than ever with a fantastic new system, and there is a new Warhammer 40K RPG, Rogue Tradee, focusing on trading and intergalactic travel. Call of Cthulu is as strong as ever, but Betheseda has shown no signs of releasing another game based on the system. Yet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you couldn’t move for Forgotten Realms games, or other D&D titles. So what’s happened?

 

It doesn’t help that Bioware, the kings of the D&D game (Baldurs Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale 1&2, Neverwinter Nights) have said that they will probably never produce another D&D game, and neither will their friends at Obsidian, who made NWN2. To be honest, they wouldn’t be able to anyway, as Bioware are now part of EA, and the rights to D&D in particular are still held by Atari. (although Hasbro are trying to take them back).

 

Atari themselves have been in difficulties for years, and therefore it’s no surprise to see that some of their last D&D games were pretty lacklustre, both critically & in terms of sales. The D&D MMO never made great inroads into WoW, and whilst it’s recently been announced that it will become free to play for new players and be beefed up with a massive new patch, I doubt that this will have much effect.

 

The last ‘proper’ new release was NWN2 way back in 2006, and whilst the hardcore community has been supporting the title as ever with modules on top of the official expansion packs, the last console titles was the action-focused Dark Alliance 2 way back in January 2004.

 

To be honest, it’s this issue that’s most aggravating to me- I don’t have a powerhouse PC, but at the same time, as Bioware has ported Dragon Age over to the 360 & PS3, I don’t see any reason why something like NWN couldn’t receive the same treatment, whilst the XBL marketplace and PSN are also the perfect ways to sell new quests and new items to the (relatively small but) utterly devoted fanbases that these games have.

 

For me- I think that there has to be no-one else to blame other than Atari. They have released other games in the timeframe, since 2004/6, and even other RPGs. The Witcher, for example, is an excellent RPG, and even uses modified Bioware technology, but does not use the D&D rules.

 

There’s also no game in development (at least that has been announced) that is planning on making use of the 4ed ruleset. This in itself seems utterly bonkers given the fact that thoses rules made the game easier to play by streamlining the rules and with a faster pace of combat. These changes seem ripe for being exploited in a computer game, and especially in the console market, where even the most hardcore players seemingly desire a slightly faster pace of play than many a PC gamer.

 

If I was in charge of Wizards of the Coast (holders of the D&D licenses), I think that they should be removed from Atari immediately (although letting them continue to support D&D online if they choose to do so), and passed back to Bioware, by essentially selling them to EA.

 

With the new 4th edition ruleset, Bioware back behind the helm, Bioware’s new found love for console development, and the financial clout of Electronic Arts, a new 4th edition game would reignite passions for the genre and game, both from the video & tabletop aspects.

 

Frankly, I can’t see it happening, as the license is probably still regarded by Atari shareholders as one of their most important assets, but I’m just hoping that one day, in the hopefully not too distant future, that a new D&D (or other pen-and-paper based system, particularly Warhammer, given the popularity of the video games based on the strategy games) game gets greenlit by a publisher out there.

 

To be honest, whilst there is an action RPG set in the 40K universe in development at THQ, and EA hold the rights to the Warhammer MMO, I’m surprised that neither of these studios (again, Bioware, I’m looking at you!) have chosen not to ever consider a fantasy based Warhammer RPG.