April Fools’ Day In Neverwinter: Playable Dragons

If you’re going to do an April Fools’ joke for an MMO, you may as well go all-in. Cryptic and Perfect World did that today by putting out a press release, screenshots and a video with oh so serious reasoning by the developers (which you can see below) on the introduction of the newest playable race in Neverwinter (but not really), Dragons.

Seriously, it’s hard to argue with logic like this from lead producer Andy Velasquez:

"All of our dungeons are playable, so why not dragons?"

Indeed. As the story goes, players will start their characters as Dragonlings, growing into full-sized Dragons as they level up. And they’ll be able to wear all fashion items and ride all mounts.

You can catch that last awesome sight in the video if you watch carefully. Or as the team behind the game put it in the press release, “the sight of a dragon riding a horse mount brings a delicate je ne sais quoi unrivaled in pretty much any MMO ever made.”

Of course it’s not all jokes in Neverwinter, which has an actual event going on that started today and runs through April 4. It’s called Respen’s Marvelous Game, and it gently pokes fun at the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG that started it all with an in-game tabletop game of sorts complete with snacks and Crystal Dice (redeemable for special event items) as prizes. Full details can be found here.

Or you can simply enjoy the video, possibly joining the YouTube commenters who were wishing this announcement was legit. When that happens, it’s April Fools’ done right!