tsgnurk: But how 1 could presume to claim nwn2 motb to have the "superior" story is still a mystery to me.
Novotnus: All I know is that I enjoyed MotB story far better than original NWN. I'm not that much into Forgotten Realms so I haven't read any books giving NWN interesting backstory and I can judge only by the game itself - an there the politics is really minimal - there is Desther who we know will turn out evil the first time we see him and after Desther is gone the cult seems to rely on brute force rather than on political manipulation. Example of interesting take on politics in RPG: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords.
That, and I don't really like "go and save the world" storylines.
In the other hand, MotB gives me what I really like: a mystery to uncover, a personal story to follow and moral ambiguity surrounding the Wall.
All that is of course my point of view and I'm not going to force it upon anybody.
The books are in the game m8, they are not "background info" from 3rd part sources.
This is not the case of "I prefere mystery to political strife" this is a case of the most complete story.
The material that went into nwn1 must at least be 10 times bigger, and when i speak of politics i speak more of certain books you will find that talks about how the power of the luskans are divided, and how it came to be etc, not of "deshter is evil"- such things have never been "good storytelling", not to any1 above the mindset of a 10 year old at least.
1 thing both games actually do well is the complexity of "evil", while most games really rely on a black&white way of looking at it, nwn1 and nwn2 motb both have issues upon which the evils are justified by cause, means or results.
The main difference is it's so much more of it in nwn1, we might write that to side of being "its a bigger game", but the justifications are to me also given in more unique ways, when you meet a villain in nwn1, you will more often than once find yourself saying "this is the bad guy, why the fuck is he killing all these people, lets just end him", but you might find a certain book in a later chapter explaining the reasoning.
While if you look at motb the guy will quite often through a very unnatural conversation proclaim his reasoning, or even worse his minion might do it for him in an even more unnatural conversation.
MOTB's story is about mythology, mythology has never been something that leant itself upon the complex story, but rather upon the grandeur of it, and I believe the creators knew this, so rather then have complex reasoning and true background information, they tried to create a sense of "mystique" and make your deeds feel like true greatness "I Beat a god!, im like hercules, just with less odds on my side"
It's as I said nothing wrong with prefering this type of storytelling, but we're not talking about preferences, we're talking about WHAT HAS THE BETTER STORY.
This is the areas i feel nwn1 wins out in:
1: complexity&reasoning
2: Background (and yes its included in the game for those who choose to read the items they pick up in the inventory, thats a choice you make though, do you really care about the story enough to do reading?)
3: Charechters, yes i actually feel nwn1 has more interesting charechters in general, the villains in this game is far more complex and you can get so much more information on them.
Now what does motb have in the element of STORY
1: Charechter development, Both your own and your companions, companions in nwn1 is Basicly just a tool to win in combat, they serve negligeble purpose for "story" in my eyes, while in MOTB They play all the part in world basicly :) And they do develop, allthough I do not think they are reactive enough to your actions, in a game which is SO centered around your actions and choices and your companions.
2: (If you played the previus game) familiar faces, in my eyes as the previuse game was not the best, this didn't play in to much favour in my eyes, but It might for some, and its important to include.
