And the hacks continue. Aaryn Flynn, Studio GM of BioWare Edmonton has sent out e-mails to registered users, informing them that "hackers gained unauthorized access to the decade-old BioWare server system supporting the Neverwinter Nights forums." Although Flynn assures users that "we immediately took appropriate steps to protect our consumers’ data and launched a thorough ongoing evaluation of the breach... information such as user names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, mailing addresses, names, phone numbers, CD keys and birth dates from these forum accounts on the system may have been compromised, as well as other information (if any) that you may have associated with your EA Account."

As is becoming standard practice, EA is recommending that you change your password, especially if "your username, email address and/or password on your EA account are similar to those you use on other sites." In the coming weeks, EA recommends "all of our fans to always be aware of any suspicious emails or account activity and report any suspicious emails and account activity to Customer Support at 1-877-357-6007." Read more »

Over at GameBanshee you can find a Q&A with Obsidian's Josh Sawyer, who is asked about the Neverwinter Nights 2 module The Black Hound. This was originally the title of a D&D RPG at Sawyer's previous company Black Isle Studios.

Even though the Premium Module program had supposedly ended, BioWare let us know that Wyvern Crown of Cormyr is now available. The $12 module promises a 18-20 hour singleplayer campaign, and features a new prestige class, new art, and new creatures among other things.

New patches for Neverwinter Nights are now available, updating the original game and expansion packs to v1.68. There is also an updated dedicated server.

Neverwinter Vault has another Q&A on the Darkness over Daggerford module, which was to be a premium Neverwinter Night module until Atari cancelled that program. This time the entire team gets to have a say about Ossian Studios, the development team, the cancellation of the premium module program and other related topics.

The guys at Neverwinter Vault have posted this Q&A with Alan Miranda, former BioWare producer who is now the CEO of Ossian Studios. His company worked on a premium module called Darkness over Daggerford for Neverwinter Nights, however due to Atari's premium module approval stop this addon is now available for free.

Neverwinter Vault has posted a Q&A with Chris Priestly and Stanley Woo, asking the BioWare Quality Assurance team members about the recently released Infinite Dungeons premium module for Neverwinter Nights.

Neverwinter Vault has a Q&A with Jason 'Elidrin' Lowry, co-creator of the recently released Infinite Dungeons premium module for Neverwinter Nights. Lowry is asked about his community origins, and working with BioWare on this project. About the future of the premium module program though, Lowry says this: "It's too bad we could not keep that system working into NWN2 and beyond, it was good for both the company and the consumer, a win-win, those are hard to come by".

Neverwinter Nights 2 News has posted a Q&A with Neverwinter Nights 2 lead designer J.E. Sawyer. Questions are about the influence from his work at Black Isle Studios, the future of CRPGs, his favorite CRPGs, the cyberpunk setting and other topics. Thanks Blues News.

Over at FileShack you can now download new Neverwinter Nights patches, updating the original game and the two expansion packs to v1.67. The update offers new content and additional Aurora toolset scripting commands among other things.

BioWare today announced that they are looking to hire new writers. Instead of people sending their resumes however, BioWare is looking for people to create Neverwinter Nights modules. These modules must offer a well paced plot, with proper dialogue and a non-linear structure. People have until January 30th, 2006 to submit their modules, after which the community will vote on the 8 best modules. The writers of those eight modules will then be interviewed by BioWare though even if you aren't hired you'll receive a bunch of swag.

Anyone who has dreamed of writing professionally will find this a unique opportunity to get their work noticed by the right people. We are looking for exceptionally talented writers to help develop our award-winning roleplaying games. BioWare's Director of Design James Ohlen and Assistant Director of Design Kevin Barrett have agreed to make the process of submitting work as easy as possible for writers looking to work for BioWare.

BioWare's Neverwinter Nights online store now offers Pirates of the Sword Coast, which they describe as the "Biggest Premium Neverwinter Nights Module Ever". The $9.99 download is all about pirates, parrots, and peril, and was written and developed by BioWare, features new music, multiple endings, and should provide 8-12 hours of gameplay. It can be played solo or with friends.

BioWare has released new patches for Neverwinter Nights, updating the original game and its expansion packs to version 1.66. You can find a changelist here.

The BioWare website has new patches for Neverwinter Nights and its expansion packs, updating them to v1.65. You can find the change list here. Thanks Blues News.

BioWare sends along a note announcing that the BioWare online store is now officially open for business. The two premium modules immediately available are Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker and Neverwinter Nights: ShadowGuard. Kingmaker costs $7.99 or $5.99 for the Lite version, while ShadowGuard costs $4.99 (and you get the Witch's Wake module included with that as well).