AdvThruGames: You forget that Beamdog is made up of people that developed the original. They have every legal and moral right to make this remaster. Yes, it would be nice if they could keep it compatible enough for the original version's mods to work, but failing to do so doesn't automatically make this remaster pointless.
darktjm: I disagree with almost everything you said here. As I pointed out
earlier, I dispute your first claim. While they do have the legal right, moral rights are a matter of opinion, and I don't believe they did anything to earn that right. It is impossible for them to make substantial changes without introducing incompatibility, and, in fact, they have already done so with what few changes they have made.
This entire remake is pointless. If Beamdog had the skills you claim, and the desire to actually serve the players, rather than their own wallets, they would make a new game. Even this travesty of an update would be more acceptable if they included an actual content expansion of the scale of SoU or HotU (but, given SoD was a "new game", I'm not sure they're capable, and I'm sure they would sell it as a separate product). Obsidian made PIllars of Eternity as an homage to the IE games, rather than trying to claim ownership of BG and make unnecessary lore and engine changes. inXile made TIdes of Numenera rather than trying to claim ownership of Planescape: Torment and making unnecessary lore and engine changes. Both of those companies had more people involved with the original products than Beamdog appears to, and they did the right thing. Were their new games good? Who cares? More games is better than hanging on to the old stuff forever, especially if hanging on means making gratuitous incompatible changes.
mystral: AFAIK, there are no former Bioware or Black Isle employees in Beamdog, or at least none that had an important role in making the IE games or NWN.
darktjm: To be fair, from the credits and intro of NWN's manual:
Trent T. Oster
Producer—Neverwinter Nights
BioWare Corp.
It's always hard to tell how much executives actually contributed to the product, though, and they're always listed in the credits. Note that Cameron Tofer is nowhere in the credits.
AdvThruGames: Have they done everything perfectly? No. They need to be transparent and honest in future (as far as possible), and be attentive to technical support requests. It seems like they are trying to do that with NWN:EE at least, so this one last time, they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
darktjm: Ah, another "they've learned their lessons" believer. They have learned how not to anger some of the people over their decisions. No more SJW writing? Better QA? Neither of these affects me in the least. No, they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. When Stig79 called them for what they were going to do, people like you jumped in and said "give them a chance!" Then they made their announcements and FAQs, and showed that they were still pulling the same old crap. Apparently that still isn't enough to convince you that they don't deserve a chance.
Some of the players desire to be served an enhanced edition. You might feel differently, but there ARE people, myself included, who want a version that runs on modern operating systems with minimum fuss and hassle, has basic features like widescreen support, and has at least major bugs from the original fixed. Granted, Beamdog isn't guaranteed to deliver on that, but I guess it's up to each individual to decide whether they trust Beamdog enough to buy their remaster. It is unfortunate that they will most likely remove the option of buying the original version digitally, like they did in the past, but there's little we can do other than speak with our wallets. I for one do not mind supporting them, as no company is perfect, and they have apologised for some of the unnecessary and inflammatory words uttered by staff at the company. As for the "SJW writing", I assume you are referring to Siege of Dragonspear, but I am not sure where I fall on that as I have not played that game. I will say that including trans and LGBT characters is not automatically a bad thing, nor does it need to screamed against from the rooftops. Perhaps they didn't write as well as they could have, but I can only judge that by seeing said writing for myself.