Worst MMO Ever? - Neverwinter 

That was just sad. Josh sounded like he was legitimately hurting over breaking all this down and remembering what was.

"New players aren't playing through your memories." Man I felt that.

"New players aren't playing through our memories" is genuinely the most painful sentence I've hard to digest in a long time. Having spent years playing games that eventually turned into cashgrabs, it hurts realising nostalgia is the only reason you still remember a game

Seeing one of your favorite games just get turned into a cashgrab is one of the things that honestly hurt more than almost anything. And that "New players aren't playing through our memories" was just such a hard hitting line like that TKO'd my soul

How to enjoy Neverwinter: Step 1: Make a character you think looks & sounds cool Step 2: Level to Max Step 3: Stop playing. You've enjoyed everything that is enjoyable and you will forever continue chasing the same high.

In my experience, every case of "it's good if you have friend to play with" actually translates to english as "It's not good, but I like hanging out with my friends.". I once broke a rib whilst drunkenly falling down a hill with friends. I look back and laugh because it was a fun evening populated with people I liked and filled with banter about said hill. That doesn't mean falling down a hill was fun, it just means I had good friends!

The emotion in Josh's voice as he talks about the game that was such a big part of his life is so real and moving. Truly an inspired review.

Hello Josh, I saw this video the day it came out, and put in a comment over a year ago saying that I agree with you but was hopelessly addicted to the game. I'd like to say thank you for publicizing the issues this game has with its economy and pay to win style. You opened my eyes to have the strength to stop playing and I can comfortably and happily say that I haven't played this game properly in over a year. I recently tried to install it and play it but simply didn't enjoy it and after only 10 minutes uninstalled the game again. This tells me and shows me that I'm properly done. I love never winter and it gave me some excellent memories with my friends, but I'm also happy that I dropped it and won't be returning. Once again thank you Josh, keep doing what you're doing.

This MMO review is like Josh revealing his origin story and his modus operandi.

This man definitely deserves all the praise he gets. He took an mmo that he loved, one of his all time favorites and was able to show that it isn’t perfect and has flaws like every game he’s done before. 3 cheers for this absolute beast of a man

This video expresses exactly why, and how I feel, every time I wish I was back in my teenage room playing neverwinter nights multiplayer servers, or more strongly so dungeons and dragons online.. I wish I had friends that enjoyed those games as I did, or moreover that we were still friends for I had a guild back in the day and so many friends I knew more than I know my friends nowadays, I would still enjoy those games I'm sure, but those wonderful places are now empty deserts full of ghosts and shadows. I still try to go back from time to time, and right after it becomes evident how broken it is, I try to find another game I can play with friends, but it seems everything sucks... What a terrible crime it is, to give life to a dream just to let it wither away.

I remember genuinely enjoying Neverwinter back in 2017-ish. I don't usually like MMOs and prefer single-player games, but you could get to level 70 on your own with some luck and hard work. I stopped soon after reaching level 70 because it quickly became unplayable without a team, but I left without regrets and without having spent a dime. Seeing what it became afterwards is really saddening. I feel you Josh.

Bro, i wasn't expecting to be depressed for a game i never even played. That's gotta be one of the saddest videos i've seen in a long time, you can almost hear the narrator's heart slowly breaking as he goes deeper and deeper into the problems of a product that used to be his passion.

The further the video goes, the sadder Josh’s voice gets. It’s like the earlier points in the game are closest to his fondness for the game, but as it goes on, it goes further and further away from that

I used to play NW for years. I was a DC end game character and loved playing as a cleric. The ability to help hold a team together when buffing was brilliant. Unfortunately a few years ago they changed the cleric to a healer fighter. I was upset about losing my buffs, but tried to see the bright side about actually having a battle cleric loadout... Unfortunately this was short lived as the battle cleric seemed to put out less dps than my buff cleric solo loadout. Instead of healing, buffing and fighting, It limited me to pick either healing or fighting depending on the loadout. I didn't pay to play either. If you saved up your store currency which you could get a set amount each day and you wait until july 4th or black friday, you could get the 6 month membership for free. I had completed all the maps including castle ravenloft and would run dungoens for hours. I still miss playing, but it's just not what it was.

After seeing all of the monetization, I just picture a board of directors sitting in a room and cackling maniacally as they add more cash shop traps. I get having a cash shop, but making it so the currency costs just over the bundle price, forcing you to by more, just annoys me to no end. And there are real life people somewhere making this happen, purposely.

That honestly sounded like it hurt at the end. Thank you for making this Josh, and I'm sorry that greed destroyed a game you loved.

I can really hear the anguish in Josh's voice over this. It's a feeling I've had before with games that I loved ruined by predatory pay-to-win mechanics, until I couldn't take it anymore and left. But Josh spent most of his *career* on Neverwinter, it's beyond that I could have possibly felt at that point.

God, I remember getting into this game right around the time the whole "predatory monetization" thing was starting to pick up. It was so much fun until you reached the endgame. It's actually shocking to see how much worse it's gotten since.

I used to play Neverwinter with my family. We had a small guild and we used to try to fight dragons. We always failed to kill one or two, but it didn't matter. It still holds a special place in my heart, long after we stopped playing.

Neverwinter should be one of the best MMOs out there, if it wasn't for the extremely predatory and scummy systems that hinders every step you take so you'll feel the urge to pay real money.

As a former BIS endgame player what keeps me from this game is it's astral diamond hard cap. Making money in this game is one of the most terrible and difficult experiences I've had in any MMO. However, what made me quit the game is when they put my hard earned BIS artifact in the Zen store for real life money...I can't tell you how devastated I was and how cheated I felt that anyone could swipe their card and get the best artifact in the game that I worked so hard for. I quit that day.

Hey Josh, I remember when I started playing Neverwinter watched a couple of your videos, it really helped me with my gameplay, one day I got into you twitch stream, there was like 10 people watching you playing one of the dungeons, I thanked you for helping me and left. Well, Neverwinter almost cost me my college degree, I got into it and didn't want to do anything else, didn't leave my room, didn't studied, didn't go to any parties, the game was amazing, but something didn't ring me right... I played a lot, every single day. but I didn't achieve anything, everytime an update came I looked at what I had and it was like it meant nothing the hours I spent grinding. I got my friend into it, I didn't had any money to spend on online games, but he had, in about 1 month he surpassed me, new mounts, new artifacts, new companions, I had to grind a week to convert enough AD to get anything at least usable, he was already maxed out. The game literally broke me, finished college, got a gf, but everytime I played a RPG it remembered me of Neverwinter, it was a hell of a good time, it even taught me English (main language BR portuguese), but it also taught me that I can't love a game too much, anyways... Thanks Josh for getting me into this amazing game!

This definitely hurt me too. I absolutely loved Neverwinter because of my obsession of DND at a younger age. Before ESO, this was all I played. It hurts that this game will never live again, but it's comforting that one of my favorite RU-vidrs can also relate to the wonderful memories this fossil created for its players.

The bit about 'it's better if I forget' is heartbreaking. That's how I feel about WoW. The hope and promise of a return to a better time in a game is so damaging to so many people.

Even the rating at the end sounded more despondent than snarky. It's never easy, looking upon something you once loved and knowing it barely resembles what it once was.

I really enjoy your Worst MMO Ever series. A lot of what you have to say is insightful -- it's so much more than just someone complaining about a game. Your sarcasm is on point and I often find myself actually giggling at my desk at the sillier moments. But this, this was a gem of RU-vid autoplay. I felt real feelings at the way you said goodbye at the end, because as a gamer who has spent thousands of hours in MMOs, it hit a nerve. My first MMO was Ultima Online and sometimes I still have dreams about it -- I made a TON of gold designing homes and decorating them for other people. I camped rare item spawns, participated in the really cool GM shard events, held events of my own, and was consistently featured on UO Stratics. I know they still inexplicably have a die-hard player base, but I could never go back. The door has to stay firmly shut so I can keep my memories in that "good old days" haze and not have a, "How has it come to this," LotR moment like you just did.

It's funny because the endgame inaccessibility is what put the final nail in the coffin for me. I knew the game was hella monetized (I used auction house to get around some of this), I knew community was shoddy at best (joined a big guild and loved it, up until I realized I was the only one ever contributing to the guildhouse's coffers and nobody was ever online when I was. They gave me some cool mounts though so cant complain), I knew the shift to 5E royally messed up my character design and invalidated my entire journey from level 1 to level 70 (every stat and boon was indicative of my character's growth in the world; there was RP alongside the mechanics, and just suddenly wiping the slate clean telling me to reallocate my stats felt like a slap to the face), but realizing how unbalanced the endgame content was if you weren't a pay to player basically cemented my departure. I was so excited to go to Chult, but after arriving I got killed by beach crabs. I tried again, I got like 1 hit in, then got absolutely murdered by beach crabs - I had really high gear that gave me stat buffs and did a lot of damage, but the very entry level creatures were beyond the scope of a level 70 player who didnt pay to play. In the background was a veteran player with purchased gear and companions - crabs and dinos attacking him, he hardly took damage as he just ran to the next area; he just straight up murdered the things. The massive gap in gameplay you get from buying your stuff vs grinding it was insane - I tried a few times to come back with a couple other new level 70s, same deal though - we got a couple hits in then got basically one-shot killed by these beach crabs. At first I was thinking "if I grind really hard I can get the high level gear, at least enough to progress" - then I realized the massive effort needed to get just one piece of high end gear through astral diamonds, and even then its reliant on availability in the auction house. I basically stopped caring at that point; the world is fun and beautiful all the way up to level 70, at that point I just accepted I'd beat the game and moved on. Never did finish the main storyline.

I never expected to feel anything from an MMO review. But the way you delivered "This review score will cost you 3,500 Zen... out of 10." Just... that was painful to hear. Josh, this review is phenomenal. I have no doubts that it was hard to make, but you did an incredible job with it. I never played Neverwinter, and now I'm a bit sad that I didn't... back then. Not now.

I never played Neverwinter, but yeesh, this episode got PAINFUL. I know the feeling of a game starting amassing, and then slooooooowly degrade into pay-2-win, I outlived 5 games like this before I was done playing MMO altogether precisely because of this trend. I feel your pain, brother-in-games. We're all in this together.

This was the game that introduced me to the drow and tiefling (things I’d never heard of before and now totally love in every setting and iteration). I could never truly understand the game as I didn’t have the patience or understanding to figure it out, but I always wondered (and still think) about it every now and again.

I never played this game. Even so, this one hit hard with how relatable what Josh is going through is. I'm there with you Josh. The feeling of seeing your favorite game fall into ruin. Not being able to recommend something you used to hold so dear, and probably still do. Wishing to see the glory days just one more time. Maybe I'm projecting, but hearing the pain in his voice, especially at the end, broke my heart. I wish I could have played this game in its glory days.

Genuinely it's heartbreaking seeing and hearing someone feeling betrayed by a game they loved. Seeing it crash and burn knowing that the devs don't give a dam about the players. I played neverwinter a lot a few years back and enjoyed it a lot, I never thought it would get this bad. Keep up the great content and I hope the next mmo you fall in love with doesn't end up breaking you down

my partner and i got to know each other through neverwinter. we both started new characters and played to max level (70 at the time). i remember my partner deciding to buy a 1 month VIP pack and even though we continued to only play together, they ended up waaay ahead of me. it was really disheartening. while i was struggling to keep up, they were plowing through enemies with little to no effort. we dropped it at some point and after we moved in together, we decided to give it another go to check out the changes and for the nostalgia. we barely made it to level 5. it was awful. everything that made the game fun was stripped. we both uninstalled and haven't looked back. RIP in peace private wilfred. i still miss you. i still have a screenshot of his memorial of where he died to valindra. best NPC.

This game broke my heart. Every time I scroll past it in my games list it breaks it all over again. It was so fun to me. To some the combat might be meh or serviceable, but I actually liked it. This was my favorite D&D video game and I was even a DDO: Stormreach founder (when it was a paid and not ftp game). Nothing else quite scratches my D&D itch now, but Neverwinter did. Initially the insane grind for endgame forced me out because I don't have the RL time for all of that. Then the P2W was slammed down on top of it and I refuse to be anyone's whale. Now, from what i've been told, a final nail was driven into Neverwinter's coffin. They removed content, squished the level cap, and in doing so broke the fun gameplay. Now there is nothing left of Neverwinter. The city may as well have fallen...

I started playing when I was in middleschool and remember everything you talked about in this video from the good old days. I've been away for college a few years now and just today logged back in and it looks so different now. Your video was an unexpected emotional ride and I wanted to let you know I deeply empathize and appreciate it.

"I don't regret playing it, not for a second" God that's exactly how I feel about Tree of Savior. Spent hundreds of hours on it, amazing combat feel, my favorite visuals on an MMO ever, but the absolutely ruthless paywall in the endgame stops me from recommending the game to anyone and it stopped me from playing anymore. But I had an amazing time leveling my first character.

Man, I remember trying Neverwinter after launch and thinking it was awesome. One of the few non-WoW MMO's to really capture me. I spent hours on the dungeon maker every day, making my own campaigns.

Hi josh, I found my way to you through the "was it good?" series and I love all the videos and your way of breaking down games. I recently discovered this channel which I really enjoy watching as well, even though I've never really gotten into mmorpgs. After you mentioned the shared currency "Zen" and star trek online in context to it, I wondered if there will be an episode of "worst mmo ever?" on star trek online. (im a huge Star trek nerd) I tried getting into it multiple times over the span of its existence abut it never really hooked me and the quality seemed to degenerate extremely between every one of my "visits". Keep up the amazing work you're doing! ❤

I just found your channel and wanted to say thank you. So much interesting content and commentary, and so many MMOs I've sunk hours into being shred to pieces, it's awesome!!

This... hurt to watch, emotionally. You can hear how defeated Josh is and goddamn. I just bing-watched all of his Worst MMO series in one go, and this is the most recently uploaded and... oof. Here's to the next review not being so hard to go through, Josh. See you next time.

Ever since his passing, I have had a TotalBiscuit-shaped hole in my heart. I never expected anyone to fill that hole. Josh, I feel that I can give you no greater compliment than to say that I was wrong.

I am gaming for 36 years now. Flightsim to MMORPG. Air refueling to COD MW2. Neverwinters raids to Valindra, the spider queen, fire dragon and all other cool bosses gave me wonderful experiences. Met so many great ppl. Amazing memories up to today. They introduced the dragon race, and i left the game. My top dps glass cannon GWF was nerved too much . When i see you running around solo in those epic dungeons that i remember sooo well, my heart is bleeding ! Age of Conan and Neverwinter thank you for the countless hours of joy !

I've recently started watching the Worst MMO Ever videos and this one really, really hit hard. The emotion in all of this. I bet it was great, back in the day. It's sad to see something like this happen.

I met my husband on this game 6 years ago. We both quit about a year after we met and now after watching the video I feel so sad that it’s completely different. I have such fond memories of what this game was.

Ya know what? After watching Josh break down this god-awful "game" that I used to love playing, it makes my heart sing that I abandoned/uninstalled it well over a year ago. Have been tempted to return to it, to see how the state of the game is, but then I watched this video, I came to my senses, cos it translates to... nothing has changed in NW, in fact, it's probably gotten worse. Thanks, Joshstrifehayes, you've helped me save a ton of money and (inadvertantly) spared my sanity at the same time. Sad, though, cos NW used to be so much fun, but now...?

Great video, played this game for a few years the cash shop and all the extra areas needing dozens/hundreds of tokens with only a few quests for each got to me after a while. Tried some cash shop stuff, got a good boost in 2017 until around 2019 and they changed a lot of stuff, sometime around The Cloaked Ascendancy I started getting board, sometime around Infernal Descent I gave up and quit. As a casual I couldn't keep up with the power level creep even after I put some money into the game. The Guilds are what bother me the most, you needed A LOT of people to grind A LOT to equip a small number of top characters with the best items, and those top characters were the only ones who could handle the medium and higher dungeons/raids. These top characters were crazy op compared to me... and a lot of the new monsters were scaled the be a challenge to them... so I get 1-2 hit killed with nearly useless damage after I spent money... so I quit... eventually. Also the developers never lived up to the promise of D&D, they never put all the official 5e classes (9 of 13... except they don't really match what they do in D&D so we will call it half... so 4.5/13 not including common extra classes like Blood Hunter) and half the official 5e species/races in, not even including multiclass characters which are a very big part of the game. When D&D is treated seriously it is very flexible on roles..., ex. a high lvl paladin + warlock + sorcerer can do a lot of tanking and dps + some heals + some support. You should be aiming for an ultimate 20th lvl abilities for staying pure with one class (the ultimate abilities have to be very overpowered to be worth it), or you should get a lot of amazing abilities for multiclassing. Whenever they talk, they talk about new monsters and new areas... but that's only half of what the game needed. Neverwinter MMO started out as a game that was D&D 4e inspired, you couldn't see all the content but you could see an extra 200 hours of content if you used the auction house and $200 on a sale day to skip all the expansions. In 2019 they changed it to be 5e inspired and objectively worse, $200 would mean almost nothing. Action Points, Encounter Powers, Daily Powers... was all 4e stuff and not 5e stuff at all. It bothered me a lot when my serious heavy armor wearing 4e Great Weapon Fighter was reduced to a Barbarian who famously does not wear armor and is usually dumb/angry all the time. Common issues... I wanted the game to have shaper physics, allow flying and ranged attack, allow me to dodge attacks more if I move a a foot or two away or behind cover, ability to travel around without monsters knocking me off my mount all the time (maybe space the mobs slightly farther apart so I can choose to avoid them or maybe they aren't all instantly super hostile) Lastly, I do not like extra-long quests where you need 50 of something but can only get 1-5 a day.

Wow, this one hit home for me. I started playing this game in open beta. Some of the pay to win mechanics existed back then, but I still loved it because of the amazing combat mechanics and the legendary PvP (despite the fact that there were only 2 PvP maps and both were domination, it was still the best PvP I've ever played in an MMORPG, even to this day). However, during the beta the cash shop was very limited, so the extent of the pay to win nature was not really anything too extreme, and it wasn't too difficult to become as powerful as the pay to win players simply by grinding because there were no cash shop races, and the AD costs of things weren't very high yet. But then, when the game released out of beta, the pay to win aspects became more profound and even more noticeable. I tried to look past them, but it started to get difficult to do so. My friends and I ended up quitting the game completely about a week after Sharandar was released simply because the game was so explicitly pay to win that we couldn't even enjoy it anymore at that point. Now we look back on it fondly, while also laughing and joking that Neverwinter was the only game in the world to have been a better game in beta than it was after release. I agree with your rating, 3,500 zen / 10 sounds right for this... wonderful work of art that could've been so much more if it wasn't completely corrupted by insatiable greed on inception. It will not turn itself around, unfortunately. Cryptic as a studio has a track record for this kind of garbage.

I promised myself I wouldn't cry, but he sounds so devastated. "But there are only two that matter: Zen and Astral Diamonds" Ah shit, this again

Someone give Josh a hug! Hearing him being so heartbroken over this game breaks my heart too.

I used to love this game. I was one of the most powerful Devout Clerics, when they were still called that, when the Cleric was all about more than doubling your entire teams power. I have such fond memories of going on hunts with friends I made in game in the Ravenloft expansion and that stupid boss in Castle Ravenloft that was bugged for months after releasing. Oh! The Fang Breaker Island Dungeon. Good times 😊

The only issue I got with this video is that Neverwinter seems more related to 4e, not 5e. Everything else is depressingly accurate.

I remember playing neverwinter throughout the same time period. My goal was to build an extremely tanky and self sufficient oathbound paladin because I wanted to be able to solo endgame content and dungeons. It's really satisfying to cast abilities that synergize together and feel so powerful being able to face tank millions of damage. I specifically remember that fight with orcus at the start of the video, there's these roaming balls of DPS that will melt anything and they all converge at a certain spot. I literally stood in that spot and face tanked millions of damage and I felt like my build was exactly what I wanted. But I still had a long way to go before reaching the limits. What really made me quit, which must have been around 4 years ago was when they nerfed my character to the point where my goals were no longer possible and my character felt like it had it's power just ripped away and could no longer do anything well, much less do anything special.

“Because returning to the bank is such a poor person thing to do!” That killed me lmao! 😭😂

I would love to see you take a look at DDO (dungeons and dragons online). It's gone through a lot of changes, i played it when it required a subscription but now it has gone free to play. The game required a party to complete most of it and everything was instanced. Now I think you can probably do most of the early stuff solo, up to a point.

Josh sure sounds like a man who found the woman of his dreams, then had to break up with her after many happy years, due to the actual reality finally reaching him that she wasn't so perfect for him after all, and that there were compatibility issues that he couldn't get past, so he finally left. It's a sad story, one as old as time, retold from the perspective of MMO game play. Kudos

I think this really shows just how good Josh is at being a reviewer and why more people should watch this channel. Like, this was genuinely painful for him to make and I think we can tell. He's able to step back and actually see what this once great game has become. Thanks Josh, love the video.

Looking at this game now- it's just so unrecognizable. I remember the day finding out about the "new" update to the Divine Cleric class, and just how much they dumbed down my favorite of all time class. It was the *only* class I enjoyed. I loved using it, the buffs, the nuance, all of it disappeared under one update claiming to try simplifying the class for beginners. I didn't just *hate it,* I felt it break my heart. I've never felt the melodrama of betrayal until that moment, and all of those years, all of those adventures and memories, and even the money I dumped into this game to help my silly little guild- it meant nothing. My love for the game meant nothing. I felt as if my character died, never to return, never to be redeemed. When you stated that the new level cap was 20, I felt so confused, until I realized that this has been years since I tried moving on from this game. I can't overstate how heartbroken I felt over all this. The game that Neverwinter once was to ***me*** is a hole that will never be filled, even as I find new love within Star Wars The Old Republic (here's hoping that new update coming February doesn't pull the same thing that Neverwinter did to me! Ha-... Haha... ha... We'll see how well this comment ages...).

Talking about the foundry reminds me of the mission architect system from City of Heroes/Villains. Unfortunately the release of the mission architect system ended up being exploited by players, who made farming maps and ended up creating a community of max level player who had no idea how to use their powers, and currency became worthless.

13:57 I remember this glitch from the Build Engine, specifically Duke Nukem 3D.😅

Just found your channel and as someone who has played MMOs her entire life, I related a lot to the content and binged most of it. Gotta say, this is the most sombre episode of this series yet. The worst part is that I've been going through this same feeling with MapleStory lately. I'm a 15 year veteran of the game, and I dropped it entirely a couple months back because the company that owns it is horrible and the game experience is so far from what it was that it's become physically painful for me to play it now.

If Josh is doing an episode on this game, he *has* to do one on its brother Star Trek Online.

Most MMO's start out as heroes, but they usually live long enough just to become villains.

Neverwinter used to be my favorite mmo back in 2013 control wizard spell storm was my passion and I had a lot of fun with pvp (BTW, I was a free to play player). Back in the days I did pvp a lot to grind for its currency and get the its pvp gears with my friends. It was fun during before I get to higher level, until one day I hit 70th level and did some pvp within that pvp match almost everyone was pay to win players and my team were humilated me for not having a better gear that can be acquired by spending Zen (they were basically called me a broke noob or something that have similar meaning) I kept playing for sometime but the fun was gone, I realized that the way to get good at this game was to spend my hard earn money. It also broke my heart to watch this video it reminiscent the good memories I have with this game and it also reminds me why I stop playing it in the first place. Thanks for such a good and honest video.

“this game could be so much better, if they weren’t so greedy” i feel like i say that exact line for literally almost every game that has come out for the past 7 years. all triple A game companies are the embodiment of greediness these days

I'm not an MMO junky (life long single player gamer), but these videos are extremely fascinating. Thank you for these.

I used to play Neverwinter when it was new, and played through all the expansions, while they were released, up until Rise of Tiamat. By then there were those artifacts, that you needed to feed with the items to power up, and it was so much of a grind. This and doing all the boons. But the Foundry was absolutely bonkers.

This video made me so sad. I remember when I was there on the release of Tyranny Of Dragons and until a few months after the release of The Maze Engine. I remember the friendships that I've built in this game, the nights that I didn't sleep cuz I needed to grind...It was a hard time of my life and this game helped me through, and seeing the road it took pains me so much. It was the game that got me into D&D. I'm not a big fan of piracy but I wish there was a "classic neverwinter" private server where I could ease my mind again with everything the game had to offer.

Played Neverwinter for several years shortly after it came out. Haven't played it in quite some time and this very painful and honest review is a masterpiece on where Cryptic is failing and why I won't go back to Neverwinter unless things seriously change. It's very sad because Neverwinter was really such a good game when it was still pure.

As someone who has witnessed their favourite MMO slowly and painfully die, this just breaks my heart.

I feel you bro, at least we ha fun, and wholesome memories to keep and share, love your channel keep growing, and can I suggest that Pokemon 3D MMO?

There was a time when I loved never winter, they eventually did a re-work on the combat stats and after the re-work classes sucked and they forced you to invest in making your character playable again and kept on doing this till eventually you were spending way too much money and time.

Finally, an MMO I’ve actually played that’s ended up on the Worst MMO Ever. I must have good choice in games.

The Foundry was the best idea for an MMO that I've ever seen, and on top of that, it was perfectly matched with the general idea of people creating their own adventures in DnD games. I cannot overstate how good some of the fan-made maps were. I did not know that they had removed it. The last time I played NWO was when they turned my warlock into a healer (?), which I just couldnt get behind. I loved the customization for each spell that you got, the talents, the passives... how you could mix and match them to make your char your own. Such a damn shame.

The Foundry and the Gold Coast website were some of my favorite things in the game early on. I was really sad to see them go and seeing those things killed off made sure that I never played again.

I've been watching all of these videos as I grind out Grand Chase Classic, an MMO you should definitely do a video on. This Wednesday (May 24th, 2023) they will be releasing an update making the new player experience much quicker, easier, and with more loot making it the perfect time to check it out! Elsword was technically a sequel to Grand Chase, but I never personally got into it. It would blow my mind to see this game get some attention! I even named my son after one of the main characters! This video was incredibly sad and reminds me of the days when they shut down Grand Chase back in 2015. Even a little bit again when they re-released it end of 2021 missing a lot of content with many paywalls. But the high majority of those issues they got rid of once they came to their senses. They've even made the new player and grinding experience far easier than ever before as well as adding loads of new content which does increase power but didn't actually add any dungeons that were overwhelmingly difficult to FORCE you into all that added grinding just to even experience it.

As an mmo fan, I can really appreciate the effort it takes to honestly criticize the ones you love.

A slight correction, the name "Daily Powers" is meant to tie in with the 4th edition of D&D, not the 5th. Almost all of the combat abilities share the same naming scheme as 4th edition, free, encounter and daily.

The only memory i have of this game was playing it during launch and remember getting this pet gifted that would actually help in battle. I think we did a dungeon or a raid, and we wiped but the damn pet kept fighting, the boss wasn't able to target it meaning we were still in the battle. took a long time but the boss fell to this winged pet lol

Josh in his clip from his dungeon guide vs Josh at the beginning damn near brings me to tears

3 minutes in and I must say: as a warframer, I loved your critique on it and you were on spot when it comes to it's flaws. You now taking the punishment is just awesome. You are the best critic i know and i highly recommend you to every warframer or mmo player in general i know. You, sir, are doing it right. Everyone deserves to know what they're into playing. I cannot stress enough how highly I treasure your content.

Aw man, I could actually hear your heart breaking at the end. As a WoW player, I feel that pain very acutely and my heart goes out to you. Props for being able to be honest about things. That's harder than it seems.

This was so sad to see. Neverwinter was one of my favorite mmos that I played soooo much. I played every single class and got to end game on all of them just to experiment and have fun with all the different combat styles. It was fun grinding and running dungeons with your guild mates. Really sad to see what it has become. I quit after the massive update that changed how boons and mounts and skills and essentially how everything worked because I was frustrated that I finally spent so much time grinding an end game build to perfection just for the game to change literally everything. Was a fun time while it lasted. Also as a side note, I hope Josh eventually covers Wakfu or Dofus. Wakfu was the other mmorpg I spent the majority of my youth playing and I absolutely loved their turn based strategic grid based combat. Wish other mmos had their combat system.

I think I played in the very early days when it was fairly new. I made an elven control wizard, focusing mostly on the lightning skills, and got him right up to the level cap of 60 (as it was then). That was a fun time. Sad to see what it's become now.

Dude, I *feel* you on the loss of the Foundry The Foundry missions I played back in STO were some of the best examples of storytelling I've ever experienced and I think on them fondly to this very day

This one did hit hard. I played Neverwinter since launch for a long period of time, found a wonderful experience, new friends, a place I could relax and have fun. It did help me out crippling depression due to the loss of my father. Enjoyed every last moment of it and it deeply saddens me the state of it, and the greed that has befallen such a wonderful game. I completely understand how you feel towards it and share your pain.

Dude, I’m pretty sure we still fight Balendra. I forget what the mission is called but I remember all distinctly fighting my way through her minions like the red mages in through the clockwork draw missions with her voice animated in it and that eventually your face or in a big cylindrical room somewhere I just can’t remember what the mission is.

I started with a founder pack and some other stuff. But I found the combat super hard on my halfling rogue or Drow Cleric. I couldnt figure out how to find a group so as they added in the layers of cash shop complexity my interest in the game died.

It’s wild, sometimes the memories of our past MMO adventures are so haunting. The people, the places and the time can never truly be experienced again.

I do miss Neverwinter. Exploiting literally every boss to get the best loot and doing it all over again in the next expansion. Good times. P.S.: Shame you didn't mention them at all, there were some absolute hilarious ones, being out of bounds 99% of them.

Removing campaign specific perks is what killed it for me, when they generalized the entire campaign perks where you just get points for any perk instead of every campaign having its own board, I remember the jungle(I'm not sure the name) where you could get a perk to spread some of your damage to nearby enemies, I could clear low level mobs in seconds, then they took away all the best ones and I just stopped.

I played Neverwinter for years, completed almost all campaigns (and some of them took months of daily grinding), upgraded my stuff, runes, saved tons of coins to buy the best pets, exactly like you did. And from time to time, I had to leave it for a while. Everytime I came back, my high level badass drow rogue was again an average noob character. When they lowered the max level to 20, it killed my love for the game. I feel your pain brother.

This game is visually stunning, I am absolutely mezmerized by the expresivity and creativity in the animations. It's sad mmos always have to go down the road of being a cash grab

I can really sympathize with that pain of having to face the facts that your (once) favorite game just becomes so greedy and predatory but you stay. You stay for the dwindling playerbase, for the hopes of new (free) content, and the changes or additions to your main. Great video, grateful that I've found this series

You forgot to mention that they changed the "Cosmetics" system and caused cosmetics to just disappear if you weren't playing then. I had played at launch and bought the deluxe edition (on console) it came with either zen or a cosmetic, I can't remember which. But upon returning a few years later my whole cosmetic set was gone and I was told by support they updated how they were equipped / stored and they would not restore it because I wasn't playing during the time it changed over.

I returned to Neverwinter recently to check out what it was like now. I played for a good 8 years before quitting. To see this, to see some of my favourite adventure zones removed, to see the cash shop now.... I feel your pain, dude.

Even though this video wasn’t title “Before you buy” this is absolutely one of the best game reviews Ive ever seen and Ive watched many. It was done from the brilliant perspective of a player who has played and loved the game for several years and has simply not liked what the game. Brutal honesty from a player who truly still loves but offering a warning to anyone wanting to play the game. Josh offers many insightful tips to the game and the fun it offers yet at the same time the “General Surgeon’s” warning to playing it too long like what is on a pack of cigarettes. It’s a long video but watching it from beginning to end will be helpful to anyone with interest. Thank for the advice and plus youve earned a sub.

This really hurt to listen to, this was my only mmo for... years. Thousands of hours spent both playing the game and engaging with the roleplaying community, before we moved on. The writing was on the wall for years, but there wasn't anything else that really did what Neverwinter did, some of the environments for roleplaying built in the Foundry were the best places I've ever had the fortune to visit in an MMO, hell I even had my own map I spent hundreds of hours making for my main character. Then they just took it all away. Remember the Neverwinter Gateway? I do. Back in the days where it felt like it was about the fun, but every new campaign just made it clearer and clearer. For me,the Paladin release killed most content. I played a Divine Oracle healer, but once the paladin was out, no one wanted cleric healers anymore. Then the loss of the Foundry took away what little we had left. This was a beautiful game with beautiful memories, but now, those memories are all that's left.

I’ve played neverwinter on release on console, I was 11 back then I think, it was amazing, the guild system, the story, pvp, dungeon, difficulty. Can’t remember the number of sleepless night I’ve spent playing it. I quitted the game before the lvl 80 update. I wanted to get back into it this year with my old friend that I was playing with back then. Your review make me realize that I just won’t enjoy it as much, so I am going to keep the good memories. Thx Neverwinter and you Josh.

I use to play way back when for me without that fast travel sign post from VIP it was unbearable to have to run to the zone entrance every single time to change zones