Paradox buys White wolf from CCP

[ADSixx]

Wow!

Anything has to be better than CCP's vaporware release(s)!  With Paradox (or Black Isle by proxy and rehire giggle) there might be a future for WW games.  Throw in some former employees from Silicon Knights and that would tickle me purple.

On a less squeee! note, well now I have my conspiracy theory confirmation that funds in the CCP accounts must be suffering hardcore.  A company doesn't just firesale a possible money faucet like the White Wolf IP without a very urgent reason for that much of a liquid asset boost.  I knew it, I knew they'd ganked themselves with the year of mini-expansion-chiggers combined with customer service that sukked more than usual...

I'd be content either way, single player or a more MMO game.  However, not to get flamed by the computer only gaming individuals, something released on the current gen consoles would also be a nice-to-have, along with bringing fresh blood (yes I went there) into the WoD fold.  Now 'Old' or 'New', that's the question.  I prefer Old/Classic, as do most that I know locally.  However I have zero clue how the overall average is in the community.

w00t frikken w00t, byebye CCP from WW, don't let the door hit ya in the butt on your way back to Iceland.

>ADSixx

[Ventrueloquist]

This is great news and as Paradox’s VP of Acquisition & Portfolio Strategy Shams Jorjani said, it's "gonna be great to give it some fresh blood". I've really enjoyed playing with the mods, but they can only add so much and Bloodlines is notoriously difficult to mod. I don't know what this will lead to, but it sure is a lot better than CCP's squatting behavior, neither doing something themselves or letting anyone else do something with the IP's. As it happens, I'm also Swedish, just like Paradox, so that's an additional nice surprise (as a Ventrue, I claim some of the credit/bask in the glory for that reason :P).

Yet another reason to move to Sweden

Lol, that was unexpected, but appreciated. You're very welcome, it's a great country. The World of Darkness starts at 4 pm (in late December closer to 3 pm) and it's quite chilly already.

Paradox's talk about unifying the WoD community is a fine idea, but we already have something like that when it comes to VtM here and it would be good for them to know that. While I could get in contact and write to Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester in Swedish, I think it would be better if some administrator contacted Paradox.

[Saphrax]

I'm optimistic about Obsidian; I haven't played much of their games, but the ones that I played were good.

KotOR 2 - One of my favorites. It was a flawed gem for sure, but it was great fun. Also liked the story, though it's unfortunate that the ending wasn't fleshed out.
Fallout: New Vegas - It was significantly better than Fallout 3. It was enjoyable, I started two characters, but I never got to it's end.
South Park: The Stick of Truth - Also great fun with good gameplay. I had significant amounts of laughs, but because it's South Park, some of the jokes were just too much for me.
Pillars of Eternity - Whenever I start to play a crpg with an isometric view and a lot of text with no dub, I have the illusion that I like these type of games, when the truth is that I get bored of them real quick. Now, despite that I still think Pillars of Eternity is good, I wouldn't want the new WoD game(s) to be these kind of games.

So, on to the topic of a new VtM game:

The ending of Vampire-Masquerade-Bloodlines leaves and opening for a sequel.  Indeed, the game begs for a sequel.  The riddle of the cab driver is never really solved: is he Cain or not?

And it should stay unsolved. This is one of the things best left unanswered, because of the mystery.

An ideal next VtM game for me wouldn't be a sequel to Bloodlines. Obsidian (if they will really be the developers of this game) should start with clean sheet and a new story, however Bloodlines should stay canon, and there should be hints at what happened in LA on those fatal nights. Also what I would really want is recurring npcs from Bloodlines; Smiling Jack, Pisha and Beckett (all three with the original voice actors from Bloodlines, if possible). Oh yeah, and some characters from the clan novels would also be nice...

[Grizzly_UK]

This is great news and as Paradox’s VP of Acquisition & Portfolio Strategy Shams Jorjani said, it's "gonna be great to give it some fresh blood". I've really enjoyed playing with the mods, but they can only add so much and Bloodlines is notoriously difficult to mod. I don't know what this will lead to, but it sure is a lot better than CCP's squatting behavior, neither doing something themselves or letting anyone else do something with the IP's. As it happens, I'm also Swedish, just like Paradox, so that's an additional nice surprise (as a Ventrue, I claim some of the credit/bask in the glory for that reason :P).

Yet another reason to move to Sweden

Lol, that was unexpected, but appreciated. You're very welcome, it's a great country. The World of Darkness starts at 4 pm (in late December closer to 3 pm) and it's quite chilly already.

Paradox's talk about unifying the WoD community is a fine idea, but we already have something like that when it comes to VtM here and it would be good for them to know that. While I could get in contact and write to Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester in Swedish, I think it would be better if some administrator contacted Paradox.

I'd be very surprised if Paradox were completely unaware of this site/forums, especially when it's pretty much been the sole lifeline for VtM for so many years.

I do, however, wonder what this news means for Planet Vampire. I've been a member of PV for a good few years now, going back to when the site was part of IGN, so I'd hate to see PV close for any reason!

[Radical21]

This is great news and as Paradox’s VP of Acquisition & Portfolio Strategy Shams Jorjani said, it's "gonna be great to give it some fresh blood". I've really enjoyed playing with the mods, but they can only add so much and Bloodlines is notoriously difficult to mod. I don't know what this will lead to, but it sure is a lot better than CCP's squatting behavior, neither doing something themselves or letting anyone else do something with the IP's. As it happens, I'm also Swedish, just like Paradox, so that's an additional nice surprise (as a Ventrue, I claim some of the credit/bask in the glory for that reason :P).

Yet another reason to move to Sweden

Lol, that was unexpected, but appreciated. You're very welcome, it's a great country. The World of Darkness starts at 4 pm (in late December closer to 3 pm) and it's quite chilly already.

Paradox's talk about unifying the WoD community is a fine idea, but we already have something like that when it comes to VtM here and it would be good for them to know that. While I could get in contact and write to Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester in Swedish, I think it would be better if some administrator contacted Paradox.

I've been there for roughly 3-4 weeks hiking in northren swedish Lapland , even if the winter is the long dark, still worth.

I think the best thing to unify the WoD community and even expand it is a LARPish multiplayer game in the style of VTMR. At 2000 or so the internet lobbies of that game were very active and the game had an extensive modding community that attracted Roleplayers as well as Action-Adventure gamers .
it took over 10 years for VTMR to really dwindle  and that is mostly due to the Game Engine's Antiquity.
I think with today's engines its very possible to improve upon VTMR Multiplayer in terms of Visuals, UI/UX, Modablity and Functionality that can make a multiplayer game like that even more of a success: Giving Bloodlines Players the tools to create their own chronicles to play as singleplayer or Co-OP and giving Roleplayers the ability to GM and Play a type of TT/LARP(or I should say CARP) Chronicle online or in LAN with their friends.

The key thing that would distinguish it from other platforms is accessiblity : it can be like league of legends matchmaking where you can invite people to your game or play with randoms with different modes(Roleplay, Hack&Slash, Custom Roleplay) and keep a friends list  so you can chat with people.
I know it sounds counter-intuitive next to Open-world MMOs but I think it builds a larger community that way : by giving them more freeroom to individualize,mod build their circles. As long as they don't get too greedy by making everything microtransactions it can be a hit or cult classic the way VTMR was.

I would have made a game like that if I could but I am only now building my first 64bit machine so I couldn't take advantage of UE4's Blueprint system to try to make something like that .. yet.

[Nanaloma]

I'm personally ecstatic with this news, I really do hope Paradox make good on their promises in the press releases to engage with the communities of WOD. I'm currently preparing a newsletter to send out to the forum members via email. EDIT: Sig's done it already!

We live in interesting times it seems. My personal hope would be they could do like Redemption did have a SP game with a community attached to set up your own RPG using their tools. I had some great multi player sessions before the plug was pulled

It is still possible to play online using Tunngle and selecting 'lan' instead of 'Internet' in the game multiplayer menu. I personally play each week on a Friday night on a chronicle that has been running since the days of WON.NET, courtesy of Tom Rogers, a very devoted storyteller. There's not many games released in this day and age that have that option for when an official online service dies, I would hope Paradox would take note here if/when releasing remasters!

Unless you have satellite I-net - then the delay and bandwidth use are killers. 

[Nanaloma]

Great news!

Here's hoping that we'll get a bloodlines kind of game, or failing that, a redemption-esque vampire game at least.

The only downside for now is, of course, the waiting time...  I have enjoyed most of Obsidian's games and I trust the studio will do a great job with the IP, assuming that it is Obsidian that will take on the game's development in the end.

The riddle of the cab driver is never really solved: is he Cain or not?  Was he in the sarcophagus or not?  And who will become the next prince of L. A.?  Jack?  Nines? 

I don't think it was actually Cain, and to my understanding, there was no vampire in the sarcophagus at all. I mean, however cool it would be, why would Cain bother with the petty politics and ideological wars among relatively young vampires in L.A.? Also, Jack and Nines are anarchs, I doubt they would be interested in a camarilla title.

In any case, I would rather have the game set in another city and preferably span multiple eras a la redemption. I have been seeing bloodlines' set of characters for 11 years now, a change of scenery and cast would be nice if you ask me.

Why stop at the dark ages (~400 - 1000 AD)?  I could see an interesting game in the bronze age and other ancient times.  Nobody has done a vampire in the native cultures of Central and South America to my knowledge either.

[Nanaloma]

I'd be very surprised if Paradox were completely unaware of this site/forums, especially when it's pretty much been the sole lifeline for VtM for so many years.

I do, however, wonder what this news means for Planet Vampire. I've been a member of PV for a good few years now, going back to when the site was part of IGN, so I'd hate to see PV close for any reason!

CCP probably warned them about us.   

[NemaN]

It's great news, time will tell what they'll do with the IP,
they now have several gamelines in their hands, so they have many possibilities.

They might also revive the MMO, they bought everything that CCP developed for it, too,
they don't necessarily need to give that job to Obsidian or any other studio
which they'd already worked, they could find a new partner, after all,
they said two interesting things, they know the IP is perfect for any kind of media
and they'll revaluate all the licenses, the latter is a little concerning,
because of Onyx Path and the tabletop game, even if they no longer have the name,
they're White Wolf in their essence and taking the tabletop game away from them, would be bad,
also, Paradox wants to revive White Wolf Publishing within their own company.
Other licenses, like those for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Rage,
Kindred: The Embraced, the comics, necessarily need a new approach.

Now, I know some people loves VTMB (I do, too), but the World of Darkness setting can offer
much more than just a remake or another sequel to a game, which even it wasn't fully developed
as the makers wanted, it's still great. WoD's a huge universe, the setting is as big as the real world,
that's why VTM Redemption and VTMB happened in different cities and ages, in the case of the first.
Another Vampire: The Masquerade game in modern nights or a Vampire: The Dark Ages
or one in Victorian Age: Vampire game would be better.

This is nothing but good news. Even if the whole thing was bought for under $10 million, which is what it looks like, a company (especially one the size of Paradox) doesn't spend that kind of money without having some plan in place to make it back.

That wasn't dollars nor euros, it was in kronas, the currency of Sweden, it was about $1.2M.

The ending of Vampire-Masquerade-Bloodlines leaves and opening for a sequel. Indeed, the game begs for a sequel.

Not really, you missed some points about the VTM's lore and the Bloodlines chronicle,
which are explained in the game. Well, there are some small details which can be fully understood
if you know the lore from the original tabletop game. Now, no offence, I can see you're influenced
by Bram Stoker, that's why you think the Camarilla is the most important club
that every vampire wants to be part and being the Prince, it's like being the Master of The Vampires,
only the Ventrue may fall in that category, they decided the path of several historical events.

The riddle of the cab driver is never really solved: is he Cain or not?

Everything points out it's Caine, even the folder where his dialogues are installed, heh!
People can argue if it's him or not, it's the kind of thing the tabletop game does,
letting things open for interpretation. In the metaplot, the Gehenna was near,
Caine officially appeared in the novel VTM Gehenna: The Final Night in 2004,
which's set after the events of VTMB in Los Angeles and what really happened to LaCroix.
That novel was part of the series Time of Judgement, where White Wolf ended the tabletop game,
that's why the Gehenna happened in that year. Note: The game was later revived in 2011.

By the way, the fate of Christof and which one is the real ending of VTM Redemption
can also be found in the books, despite it's narrated as rumours about him,
you can still realise which one it's the real ending of VTMR.

Was he in the sarcophagus or not?

There was a mummified ancient king in the sarcophagus, it was Messerach,
Jack even uses dark humour with him in some of the endings:
"Hey, Messerach, I'm talking to you. You don't really talk too much".

The Sarcophagus was found by Jack and "Caine..." to deceive any Cainite and particularly
the Camarilla and LaCroix. Based on the words of Jack, "Caine..." was the one who planned that,
Jack: "It happened just like you said. They never even knew what hit 'em".
"Caine": "Remember, wherever we go, it is the blood of Caine, which makes our fate. Farewell, vampire".

And who will become the next prince of L. A.? Jack?  Nines?

Caine the new Prince of a small place in the world? Caine who has godlike powers?
Caine who was cursed by God to wander the Earth for all the eternity?
Caine who can return sevenfold any damage he receives?
Caine who rejected his own progeny, because they started to kill each other,
since the times of 3th generation? That Caine as member of a Sect in a small position??
No. He's over and above all that.

Jack liked to create chaos and dedicated his time to overthrow Princes,
then he used to give the territory to those without power, that's what his story says
and that's why he was a legend among the Brujah and Anarchs.

L.A. was Anarch domain, the Camarilla was thrown out from it a long time ago,
if it wasn't the Kuei-jin weakened the Anarch front, the Camarilla wouldn't have show their faces
and acted as it was their domain (even the Sabbat took the chance), in a Camarilla domain,
a Prince usually allows the Anarchs to exist within their domain and do their own thing
in their parts of the city, that's how LaCroix and the Camarilla acted when they arrived to L.A.,
meanwhile in Hollywood, the Camarilla wasn't allowed to put a foot on it,
because Isaac Abrams loathed the Camarilla, in the same way the Tzimisce
wouldn't allow a Tremere Chantry in their territories, they loathe the Tremere,
because they usurped the vampire "gift", through diablerie, all of that infuriated the Tzimisce.

The Camarilla's organised with Princes, Archons, Justicars, Inner Circles and other positions,
the Sabbat, Anarchs and other Sects have their own ways of organization,
whichever Sect that claims a domain as theirs and have the power to keep it,
impose their own rules to other Kindred in such "City". Those who fight for the Prince's position
are only other members of the Camarilla in a particular city. Every Camarilla domain has a Prince.

If you play with the Tremere ending, who or what is putting the orders or thoughts in Maxmillian Strauss' head during the ending sequence?

The Tremere have a strict hierarchical organization and they move as a united force,
Maximillian Strauss is in the lower part of that hierarchy, he was a Regent,
the one who controls a Chantry within a city and he was just over the Apprentices.
The Lords are over the Regents and they're assigned the control of small countries
and a couple of states within big countries. Over them it's the Pontificies
and at the top the Councilors, who are only 7. It's said some orders come from Tremere,
the Clan founder (3rd generation), himself. Who gave the instructions to Strauss?
Probably, his respective Lord transmitting the orders to him for the Clan and Camarilla's sake.

With the Kuei-Jin ending, does your character escape and return, or spend all eternity in the bottom of the bay?

As the Kindred don't need to breath, they can exist underwater, there's a Gangrel bloodline,
who particularly do this, they're called Gangrel Mariners. As the character was chained
and thrown into the ocean to never return, because it was a huge menace for Ming Xiao
and the Kuei-in, without blood, it'd go into torpor and it'd spend the time there, until the Gehenna.

Side note: Kindred: The Embraced, the TV series based on VTM, has a part in the 1st episode,
where Daedalus, the Nosferatu Primogen of San Francisco went after Alexandra Serris,
who was escaping the Blood Hunt called on her, he caught her in a taxi he was intentionally driving,
she accepted her fate and surrendered, later at dawn, he used his Dominate Discipline on her
and he ordered to her: "The water is your sanctuary", then when the sun was burning her,
she jumped into the ocean, later when she was underwater opened her eyes and the episode ended.

[Seifer]

I am not sure if this has been posted already, but here you go:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/161249-White-Wolf-CEO-Interview

[Nigama]

I am not sure if this has been posted already, but here you go:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/161249-White-Wolf-CEO-Interview

""Vampire and Werewolf are the strongest ones, but there's definitely a lot," said Sjögren. "I think that's a strength of this kind of IP catalog. There are all of these different ways into looking at this universe. We're intending to work with all those IPs."

I'd love to see the other splats get a chance to shine. Even Werewolf has been largely ignored over Vampire, but getting to see some Wraith stuff or Changeling (the Lost, the one gem of NWoD whose only fault is its forced connection to the Christianity of the NWoD) would be badass.

[Radical21]

I am not sure if this has been posted already, but here you go:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/161249-White-Wolf-CEO-Interview

""Vampire and Werewolf are the strongest ones, but there's definitely a lot," said Sjögren. "I think that's a strength of this kind of IP catalog. There are all of these different ways into looking at this universe. We're intending to work with all those IPs."

I'd love to see the other splats get a chance to shine. Even Werewolf has been largely ignored over Vampire, but getting to see some Wraith stuff or Changeling (the Lost, the one gem of NWoD whose only fault is its forced connection to the Christianity of the NWoD) would be badass.

There has been a vaporware Werewolf game in the past. didn't make it, don't remember why.

Wraith is good if you take Wraith the Oblivion as a tell-tale adventure game but I think with today's technology what holds the potential for great visual and story appeal is Changeling, mostly because the artwork in some of the changeling books is so conceptually strong.. and its an IP even none-horror fans can connect to.

[Nigama]

I am not sure if this has been posted already, but here you go:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/161249-White-Wolf-CEO-Interview

""Vampire and Werewolf are the strongest ones, but there's definitely a lot," said Sjögren. "I think that's a strength of this kind of IP catalog. There are all of these different ways into looking at this universe. We're intending to work with all those IPs."

I'd love to see the other splats get a chance to shine. Even Werewolf has been largely ignored over Vampire, but getting to see some Wraith stuff or Changeling (the Lost, the one gem of NWoD whose only fault is its forced connection to the Christianity of the NWoD) would be badass.

There has been a vaporware Werewolf game in the past. didn't make it, don't remember why.

Yeah I recall seeing pics of it back in the day.

Wraith is good if you take Wraith the Oblivion as a tell-tale adventure game

I think you're being very kind calling Tell Tale's projects "games." They are more like (promotional) comic books that try to give the appearance of letting you make decisions when none of your decisions matter. It's not a game, it's a book, when you do that. Don't get me wrong, I love books, but I'd like a Wraith game.

but I think with today's technology what holds the potential for great visual and story appeal is Changeling, mostly because the artwork in some of the changeling books is so conceptually strong.. and its an IP even none-horror fans can connect to.

Most definitely.

[Saphrax]

I think you're being very kind calling Tell Tale's projects "games." They are more like (promotional) comic books that try to give the appearance of letting you make decisions when none of your decisions matter. It's not a game, it's a book, when you do that. Don't get me wrong, I love books, but I'd like a Wraith game.

As much as I like Telltale 'games', I have to agree with you Nigama. If your ingame decisions would really matter, developing each episode would be a lot more work, and they wouldn't be able to release new episodes every second month. Like in the first Walking Dead season, you were able to choose from two of your companions which one to save, but no matter what you do, the one you saved eventually dies two episodes later...

Anyways, if you play the Game of Thrones Telltale project, on the end of episode 5 there is really a significant decision, so now for episode 6 we have to wait four months instead of two. So I have my hopes up that that decision really mattered.

[Radical21]

I think you're being very kind calling Tell Tale's projects "games." They are more like (promotional) comic books that try to give the appearance of letting you make decisions when none of your decisions matter. It's not a game, it's a book, when you do that. Don't get me wrong, I love books, but I'd like a Wraith game.

Over half the RPGs I played are like that, even the ones that pretend to give choices.