..which again all asks the question of "Five years for WHAT?!"
They've milked the publisher(s) that they've had, thrown around a lot of hype, and even try to deter bugs from being posted, paerticularly ones that would be vital for any GM to know about when they create their module.
Any obvious effort on the game is suspiciously missing, and the game shipped with a good number of bugs, and material that had to have the end-user put efforts into it to make the game better. Woe be the person who bought the game without ability to download any of BioWare's additions, or anything else to make the game worth the money, however ironic that statement is.
I adopted the bit in my sig because of this, and here's the most comical statement from Gamespud: "Neverwinter Nights is among the first computer games to use Wizards of the Coast's 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rule sets, and while it takes a few liberties with the system, it does a good enough job of translating the occasionally labyrinthine Dungeons & Dragons rules into a surprisingly accessible role-playing game. This accessibility is one of Neverwinter Nights' most remarkable features, and although it belies the game's hidden depth--Neverwinter Nights lets you create many different kinds of characters in the single-player game and also features a full editor to let you build your own adventures--just about anyone with any interest in role-playing games can pick it up and start playing."
Translation:
"Neverwinter Nights is among the first computer games to take Wizards of the Coast's 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rule sets, and while it skullfucks the system mercilessly to fit into their shitty real-time combat and pathfinding, it does a good enough job of translating the occasionally labyrinthine Dungeons & Dragons rules into a surprisingly accessible role-playing game pandered down to a level so even the most inbred moron could go back to the same mindlessly banal gameplay they have come to expect of BioWare, yet created by those who are BioWare's target market - the lowest common denominator. Thus, it almost guarantees that you'll be looking for a long time for someone with enough talent with design to create something good of the game, who also has the patience to run such a buggy product. BioWare is hoping that anyone with any sense of design, world cohesion, or can craft any NPC smarter than a rock (they ran out oof design ideas), cam make up for the crappy first-player module the game shipped with. Oh, let's not forget those mad development skillz when it comes to having modders out-program and out-mod the core development team (who love to use excuses about what they can and can't work on...while creating retarded FPS-like mini-games that have nothing to do with any serious role-playing mod). Go-go-BioWare!"
It's also pretty poor to judge a game by its editors, especially to make up for the shortcomings. The common excuse is that the editors make up for the rest of the game, in a surprising common act by the fanboys to the point of making me wonder if it was perpetuated by some hype(r) at BioWare, much like the gangraping of anyone who brings up critical bugs.
Want to judge something by its end-user possibilities?
In that case, might I please present the Best RPG for 2003:
mIRC!