Life in Faerun
For years, the game flourished. Neverwinter Nights had a unique combination of elements that made it a natural for true role-playing, like a large (but not too large) audience and a persistent world where as much attention was paid to character as to action. To oNwNers, perhaps the most important element was the game's turn-based combat. Not only did the slower pace make for more thoughtful, strategic battles, but the baiting and bantering between attacks became as important as the fighting itself.

AOL's NWs posed quests, hosted "booths" where a prize could be a few pieces of gold or a rare piece of armor, held scavenger hunts and monitored conflicts between players. As the community grew, players formed guilds to group like-minded adventurers. The Soldiers of Light, whose motto is "Peace Through Aggression," were founded to "keep the worlds in which we travel safe for all the good people of all realms." The Servants of Mystery ("May Mystra Guide Thy Magicks"), The Shadow Alliance ("Neutrality Uber Alles") and KAAOS ("Killing As An Organized Sport") all had their own rules, goals and legends. Players fought and died, were knighted and got married -- they became part of their world's mythology. People didn't just play Neverwinter Nights. They lived it.

The End of the World
But by the mid-'90s the writing on the wall spelled the end of hourly pay systems. With ISPs like Earthlink promising unlimited access for a flat monthly fee, AOL's hourly system was outdated, and ultimately doomed. Once AOL switched to a monthly billing system late in 1996, all of a sudden gamers were a liability rather than an asset. Hundreds of people who'd been conditioned to stay online for hours at a time were suddenly just taking up bandwidth -- bandwidth that AOL could ill afford now that monthly rates were bringing in new users by the thousand.

On July 19, 1997, AOL launched their "premium" games channel, charging $1.99 an hour for games that used to be free; Neverwinter Nights was dropped altogether. The oNwN faithful were outraged. Gamers organized an AOL boycott, and even threatened a lawsuit, but this was definitely a case of the little guy against the really, really big guy. Neverwinter Nights was dead.

Next page: The Neverwinter diaspora