"Economy of blood".
The phrase is enough to send shivers down one's spine, and possibly make one salivate at the possibilities in a vampire MMORPG. But let's face it - economics are complicated, and games are meant to be fun. How far do we really want the developers to run with this phrase?
I'm hoping far enough, but not too far. "Far enough" would be to make blood an integral part of every vampire's playing experience - they are, after all, vampires, and in spite of the many, many, many iterations of the myth, they have always needed living blood in order to survive. So: blood is integral to survival. It is to vampires what food, shelter, clothing, and air are to mortals. That's great, but you can theoretically get food, shelter, clothing, and air for free, to greater or lesser degrees. It's when you start asking for quality that things get economical. Anything more than bread and water costs somebody something somewhere, in time if nothing else. Let's work with this in the context of blood. Blood is pretty common, and can certainly be free if the vampire isn't particularly concerned with maintaining their Humanity or the Masquerade. Nab a mortal off the street, drain them, and leave the body somehwere inconspicuous - hey, vampires CAN get a free lunch!
The reason why that's so important is because blood is so valuable to vampires - it would be like living in an all-you-can-eat buffet, and it costs you nothing unless you want to tip. Without it, they wither and shrink and get really wrinkly, and eventually succumb to torpor. It allows them to wake up for the evening, powers their Disciplines, and can emotionally enslave another person who drinks of it three times. Lack of blood can make vampires cranky, paranoid, and can even lead to frenzy if they are truly desperate and starving. It is in every vampire's best interest to have some stable and consistent way of getting blood, even if that way is as simple as having a strong arm and a lead pipe.
But then let's follow this importance to its extreme end: blood is not only an integral part of every vampire's playing experience, it becomes the sum total of their playing experience - everything a vampire does is somehow connected, directly or indirectly, to blood. Politics become about blood. Combat becomes about blood. The mechanics all rely on ready access to blood. Your worth as a character is defined by how much blood you can afford to spend. Sound a little familiar? That's because that's how the economics of EVE Online work, only with ISK (the in-game currency) instead of blood points. In EVE Online, players spend MONTHS plotting out the finanical impact of undertaking a big action in the game - war aganst a rival corporation, investing in a new heavy ship, venturing through a wormhole and trying to establish a presence in new space. They have to keep track of every last credit they have in order to make sure it's being spent cost-effectively, and then they have to worry about the financial state of both their allies and enemies, because if there's a large discrepancy anywhere, it can really screw up one's plans.
Now, I love the idea of the whole WODMMO attaining that level of complication - but I don't want the economy of blood alone attaining that level of complication. In EVE Online it's fine, because the developers themselves have admitted that the game really wasn't intended as a game so much as an economic experiment. I want a little more potential for honest, simple entertainment out of the WODMMO. Combine together the economy of blood, player politics, and the influence of the Masquerade, and THEN the WODMMO can get to that level of complication, but having the game become that complicated in each of those three branches seems... excessive. Eventually there comes a point of diminishing returns, where no single player or even group of players can hope to master more than one facet of the game. If the economy of blood becomes overly economical, then players will be able to spend their entire experience only managing their own herd and blood assets. No time for player politics. "The Masquerade? What's that?" It's the thing that breaks when you frenzy because you don't have enough blood. "Better get more blood, then!"
I don't want any player to have to start counting out every last blood point they are planning on spending for the next week, so make sure that they don't have to hit up the "blood bank" before the first of the next month. I don't want to have to worry about the individual blood points I'm spending in a heated battle because I'm worried about how it will impact my blood-wallet. (It's a heated battle, see, so the less I have to worry about the better in my book.) I don't want players to have to become blood-misers and blood-bankers because the economy of the game itself is the economy of blood. It's not like there aren't plenty of other ways for players to establish some sort of commerce: both other aspects of the game have their own form of "currency" and power to store "assets". For player politics, there's prestation, favor-mongering, popularity, and how much influence you can exert on another player's behalf - if they pay you for the privilege. The Masquerade is where the two other fields - blood-mongering and favor-mongering - come together. Each vampire needs blood, but doing so can potentially breach the Masqerade; each vampire also has some sort of power they can use in order to keep the Masquerade intact - again, perhaps something as simple as a strong arm and a lead pipe. There's also the whole bit about cash-money, those little green pieces of paper that mortals really, really like, for some reason. Use them.
So in sum, an "economy of blood" sounds like a great idea, but I don't want the developers at CCP or White Wolf to take TOO much inspiration from EVE Online. Like food, clothing, shelter, and air, blood is integral to a vampire's survival, but as a species, neither vampires nor humans have had to worry about where their next meal was coming from for thousands of years. A little effort to hunt down my next meal is great - but I don't have to have to do that every single damn time, nor do I want to have to constantly worry about how my "blood income" versus my "blood costs" to calculate how much "blood profit" I'm making. It's possible to take this idea a little too far.
9 Comments
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Seven
1 years 48 days ago
I like economics in game systems. I agree, however, that WoD is not and shouldn't be an 'economic' game to me. I want some level of economics and would enjoy partaking in that.. but I could live without it. I also keep assuming that economics of blood will be bound, somehow, to PvE activity and territory control. For instance, if you control a particular hunting ground, that theoretically gives you a certain degree of 'resources' (blood) that can be 'liquidated' (rofl). It gives you a supply of humans that can be used, given to others to feed on/as their territory, etc.
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Lord Raath
1 years 50 days ago
It might just be me but every time I hear of blood as a currency I read it as access to blood as opposed to the blood itself. To put it into tabletop terms, Backgrounds like Herd or Domain. Lore wise a kindred that stores liters and liters of blood in his basement is not considered wealthy, (in fact doing so could be very easily seen as a threat to the Masquerade!) however access to a prime hunting ground would be considered true wealth. What matters not is how much blood a kindred physically has, but the potential he has access to. There is very little I would do for 15 liters of vitae, but for permission to hunt in the West side of the commercial district, or better yet the transfer of a small holding in that area to me, I may be willing to arrange something for you...
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1 years 50 days ago
I keep trying to think of it in terms of "currency" and "assets": I don't want blood to become a currency - something that's actively traded around as a medium of exchange. I know quite a few other people who think it'd be pretty ridiculous to have liters of blood being passed from hand to hand. I think of blood as assets in EVE Online - something you can "own" and have access to, but it's not something you either carry around with you or have to worry about being pickpocketed. That's why I want to make sure and caution the developers to NOT think of blood like ISK - rather, the "economy of blood" would be control of the assets. Herd would be like ships; nightclubs and blood banks like stations; these are valuable things, and the measures of real power, but they don't get bandied around like ISK does. Save cash-money for actual currency. After all, "True power lies not in wealth, but in the things it affords you."
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CookieMonster
1 years 16 days ago
In the hypothetical future where they do treat blood as an asset rather than a currency, I still have something that's nagging at me. What's the feeding system going to be like? Will my blood level diminish over time so that I have to go out and hunt for it once and a while? (which would make the most sense.) Or will it end up being something that is completely impersonal, like whenever you get thirsty, you just rip open a blood bag from the bank down the street? I like the idea of being ABLE to drink from blood bags when in a jam (like in Vampire: bloodlines) but I think the primary source, should be FROM the source. (Hunting) The only reason I'm pondering this is because I don't think they've discussed it yet and if they have, then I completely missed it.
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1 years 15 days ago
I actually hope that there's going to be some sort of constant drain. Not only is that realistic and match tabletop, but it'll put pressure on vampire players to actually engage in the "economy of blood". If you want to play a "nice" vampire, or one who whines and bitches about being forced to drink blood, then I say "Welcome to torpor". This is in addition to spending Blood Points for some Disciplines (or all, depending on how they want to work it - they've mentioned Willpower will be in the game, but who knows to what extent it will be used). I remember spending Blood Points for Dominate in VTM - Redemption. To avoid the "sipping from a blood bag because it's the easiest thing to do, and doesn't require any active participation in player socialization on my part", I hope they strictly control how much inventory a player gets. As in, extremely little.
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CookieMonster
1 years 15 days ago
I agree. Giving you a constant drain would make the most sense with the lore. Also, I hope that blood bags are actually worth a lot so that people are more encouraged to drink from the living. As for inventory space, just enough to carry one weapon, some money and a bit of blood is good enough for me, although they'll probably give more. When fighting, I'll probably be focusing on just using vampiric powers instead of weapons, unless they give hand to hand weapons a huge advantage over bareknuckle boxing :/
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CookieMonster
1 years 15 days ago
I agree. Giving you a constant drain would make the most sense with the lore. Also, I hope that blood bags are actually worth a lot so that people are more encouraged to drink from the living. As for inventory space, just enough to carry one weapon, some money and a bit of blood is good enough for me, although they'll probably give more. When fighting, I'll probably be focusing on just using vampiric powers instead of weapons, unless they give hand to hand weapons a huge advantage over bareknuckle boxing :/
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CookieMonster
1 years 15 days ago
I agree. Giving you a constant drain would make the most sense with the lore. Also, I hope that blood bags are actually worth a lot so that people are more encouraged to drink from the living. As for inventory space, just enough to carry one weapon, some money and a bit of blood is good enough for me, although they'll probably give more. When fighting, I'll probably be focusing on just using vampiric powers instead of weapons, unless they give hand to hand weapons a huge advantage over bareknuckle boxing :/
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