Our aim is to continue developing direct communication between Beamdog and our followers, to keep the community informed on studio news, sales, updates, and upcoming events.
If I may ask, how do you plan to do that? As far as I remember, the weekly streams were introduced to improve communication with players and forumites. I must say that I did enjoy some streams and especially the recaps posted on the forum. I will miss both of them.
By the way, can this livestreams visit other Beamdog employees? We always see almost same faces. It's okay, but you have bigger company than 4-5 employees. So at least I want to know/see other faces and that they told what role they have in the Beamdog.
By the way, can this livestreams visit other Beamdog employees? We always see almost same faces. It's okay, but you have bigger company than 4-5 employees. So at least I want to know/see other faces and that they told what role they have in the Beamdog.
The availability of any information or news from Beamdog since sometime in 2017 has essentially been limited to what we heard in these weekly livestreams. With the streams now gone, I guess we won't be hearing anything ever from Beamdog other than when it gets to be time for a pre-order announcement.
In a way it makes sense. Other than the NwN EE subforum and ironically the Off-Topic subforum, the rest of the forum has been pretty much dead for months now since there really isn't anything useful or interesting to discuss.
I must admit, this announcement the day before the next livestream was supposed to broadcast comes as a complete surprise to me. On one hand, I understand your reasons for cancelling the weekly livestreams. On the other hand, I can only wonder what events transpired since the last livestream for you all @Beamdog to reach this decision. As Aedan pointed out, this was a means for improving communication between the game developers and the players of those games. To have the CEO of a game development company actually converse with players and answer their questions regarding the progress of certain titles over a weekly live feed, was something I have never seen or heard of.
Back in the early-to-mid-2000's, I participated in a D&D 3rd Edition campaign that really rubbed me the wrong way. The experience left me jaded, angry, and bitter towards the people in my gaming group. So much that not only did I stop playing my favorite character, I stopped playing altogether. The one thing I didn't stop playing, that I felt I could still "trust" for lack of a better word, was Neverwinter Nights. It was my outlet to help me process the dark place I was in for many years. But, there was something missing. I just wasn't having fun playing the game like I used to. There had been a void where my love for gaming used to be.
Years later, I discovered Beamdog and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. I found myself registering on the forum and participating in discussions. After much deliberation, I purchased my own copy of the Digital Deluxe Edition. My passion for gaming had been rekindled. The one thing that sealed the deal, however, was the weekly Beamdog Livestream. The interaction between the developers and players, the openness in which all the feedback was provided made me feel an instant connection. It's as if I wasn't just a consumer or end user, but a friend and close neighbor who just happens to reside in a very distant geographical location. Although I am still fairly new to the forum, I already feel a strong kinship thanks to the livestreams. I will cherish the memories created by them, but most importantly having fun being a gamer again. Just promise me that one of the special occasions you have a livestream will be on BLACK FRIDAAAAAAAAAAY! It is a moral imperative. Thank you for reading, and happy gaming to all.
The one thing I find odd in all of this was that only in last week's stream we were asked what we wanted to see in the streams. Now less than a week later, they are cancelled. To quote the Beatles ("Penny Lane") - Very Strange.
Now when the weekly livestreams are cancelled, we want to continue developing direct communication between Beamdog and our followers, to keep the community informed on studio news, sales, updates, and upcoming events.
This is why we'll start publishing monthly recaps on our blog about what's happening around Beamdog.
As a part of that blog, we'll have a regular Q&A segment for community questions.
Please ask in this thread: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/74182/ask-beamdog/ - everything you want to ask Beamdog (in the similar way as it's been done for the livestreams). We'll try to get answers from Luke Rideout every 2 weeks, and then will directly communicate them back to you. Later, a part of these answers will be included into the appropriate montly recap.
Of course, I'll continue to reach out to all the forum folks each week for new questions.
Julius, these use to be weekly even before the streams.
Edit: I’ll also echo what others have said that the live streams were unique and a great way to communicate to your audience. Unfortunately I personally couldn’t watch them since I work on Friday but it was the one place to grab scraps of information about the company.
I won't mind the absence of the streams, as there hasn't been much news on the streams recently that was relevant to me. Frequent updates don't mean much if the content of those updates is so scarce that the phrase "work on the 2.6 patch continues" becomes a weekly reminder that there is no news about the games that I want news about.
Hopefully, this change in communications also means that we'll see more updates about the IE games. Don't get me wrong, I like NWN, and I've played it many times, but it's not a game that I'm interested in anywhere near to the same level as I'm interested in Baldur's Gate.
Shucks, right when I finally got around to setting up a desktop specifically to remote into so I can watch Beamdog's Twitch streams from work (I work during stream times) and get around the game site blocker, this happens! :P Just my luck.
PS - You guys can make it up to me by finding the Icewind Dale 2 source code
I am quite disappointed in this, it felt like the Neverwinter Nights community was coming back together again... just to have the rug pulled out from under us. Yes it is nice that you guys are going to still give us info and keep us updated in other ways, and yes, we will still be able to put our feedback in... but thats not the same as a live stream. The FEELING of a community is lost a bit with its absence. sad day
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
Comments
If I may ask, how do you plan to do that?
As far as I remember, the weekly streams were introduced to improve communication with players and forumites. I must say that I did enjoy some streams and especially the recaps posted on the forum. I will miss both of them.
here it is possible to see some of the beamdog team
In a way it makes sense. Other than the NwN EE subforum and ironically the Off-Topic subforum, the rest of the forum has been pretty much dead for months now since there really isn't anything useful or interesting to discuss.
TR
Back in the early-to-mid-2000's, I participated in a D&D 3rd Edition campaign that really rubbed me the wrong way. The experience left me jaded, angry, and bitter towards the people in my gaming group. So much that not only did I stop playing my favorite character, I stopped playing altogether. The one thing I didn't stop playing, that I felt I could still "trust" for lack of a better word, was Neverwinter Nights. It was my outlet to help me process the dark place I was in for many years. But, there was something missing. I just wasn't having fun playing the game like I used to. There had been a void where my love for gaming used to be.
Years later, I discovered Beamdog and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. I found myself registering on the forum and participating in discussions. After much deliberation, I purchased my own copy of the Digital Deluxe Edition. My passion for gaming had been rekindled. The one thing that sealed the deal, however, was the weekly Beamdog Livestream. The interaction between the developers and players, the openness in which all the feedback was provided made me feel an instant connection. It's as if I wasn't just a consumer or end user, but a friend and close neighbor who just happens to reside in a very distant geographical location.
TR
This is why we'll start publishing monthly recaps on our blog about what's happening around Beamdog.
As a part of that blog, we'll have a regular Q&A segment for community questions.
Please ask in this thread: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/74182/ask-beamdog/ - everything you want to ask Beamdog (in the similar way as it's been done for the livestreams). We'll try to get answers from Luke Rideout every 2 weeks, and then will directly communicate them back to you. Later, a part of these answers will be included into the appropriate montly recap.
Of course, I'll continue to reach out to all the forum folks each week for new questions.
Julius, these use to be weekly even before the streams.
Edit: I’ll also echo what others have said that the live streams were unique and a great way to communicate to your audience. Unfortunately I personally couldn’t watch them since I work on Friday but it was the one place to grab scraps of information about the company.
Hopefully, this change in communications also means that we'll see more updates about the IE games. Don't get me wrong, I like NWN, and I've played it many times, but it's not a game that I'm interested in anywhere near to the same level as I'm interested in Baldur's Gate.
PS - You guys can make it up to me by finding the Icewind Dale 2 source code