Created 274 days ago
by
HfxTenor
Gamer, Singer, Trainer, Storyteller, and all-around swell cat.
Been playing WoD since the original VtM came out back in 1991, though I've been into RPG's since the D&D red-box in Grade 6.
First book I ever read: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (I have the hots for sinister female leads thanks to this novel)
Favourite Movie: The Sound of Music
Favourite Computer Game: Any adventure game by Sierra On-Line, particularly the Gabriel Knight series.
Merit: 3 Flaw: 1
AI
Beta
CCP
Coffee House
Developer
Embrace
game mechanics
launch
MMO
PvE
Roleplay
RP
vampire
WoD
World of Darkness
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World of Darkness Blog
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One of the biggest unanswered questions we all have so far is how do we become vampires once in-game? We already know that everyone will begin the game as a mortal. This begs the question – if everyone’s mortal, how do we get Embraced (turned into a vampire)? The implication, therefore, is that there will be Kindred in the game already.
Even more interesting is the fact that the developers have stated they would prefer to leave the Embrace up to players. In other words, if you want to become a vampire you need to seek out another player who is already a vampire. This makes our original question even more perplexing – if everyone starts Mortal and only players can embrace other players, who gets to be Patient Zero and how does that happen?
Stop! Rampant Speculation Time! (aka RST)
copyright, all rights reserved, registered, incorporated, limited...umm, I can’t think of anymore.
Let’s examine (aka make shit up about) the pro’s and con’s of the three most likely scenarios (most likely in my brain). Do let’s!
Scenario 1: CCP Staff login for the first week or two of launch as NPC Kindred and embrace X number of players in each city to get the ball rolling.
Pro’s:
- Fosters the CoffeeHouse feel of socialization and roleplay
- Ensures an unbiased, even distribution of initial population numbers for each clan
- Allows for propagation of plot and storyline
Con’s:
- Requires inordinate time commitment from staff, taking them away from other duties
- Takes initial decision on who gets Embraced out of players’ hands
- Requires players to track down the right NPC and then convince them to Embrace
Scenario 2: AI-controlled NPC vampires in the game from whom players can receive the Embrace.
Pro’s:
- No time commitment required from developers outside of actual development
- Automated process means access for any player to become a vampire
- Plot and storyline can still be achieved through quest dialogue and cut scenes
Con’s:
- Turns the single most important roleplay moment of a character’s life into a PvE quest
- Kindred population likely becomes unbalanced in terms of clan numbers
Scenario 3: Beta participants who meet specific targets/achievements/etc. are rewarded with a Kindred “slot” for launch.
Pro’s:
- Promotes beta enrolment and participation.
- Rewards target behaviours such a socialization, game testing, bug reporting, RP, etc.
- Fosters CoffeeHouse socialization and roleplay
- Encourages players to develop their own plots and storylines
- Ensures first Kindred in the game are dedicated players, who will then pay it forward in terms of who they subsequently embrace
- No time commitment required from developers outside of actual development
Con’s:
- Less options to advance canon plots or storylines
- Fosters resentment amongst non-beta participants and antisocial non-rp’ers
- Potential for clan distribution numbers to be unbalanced
- Potential for the Embrace to become nothing but a game of RL nepotism with players only embracing their friends/guildies and gaining strangleholds on cities through sheer numbers at launch, breaking the 4th wall so to speak
As a consummate roleplayer who really doesn’t want to see the nepotism game occur at launch, I’m hoping for Scenario 1, but I’d be okay with Scenario 3. I really don’t want to see Scenario 2 – making the Embrace a PvE quest reward would turn the sublime into the mundane. Boo to that. CCP would need to make that a pretty epic quest chain with personal implications to each player for it be attractive to me.
Obviously none of these scenarios are factual. Again, simple RST on my part. I’d love to know if any of you have thought of other potential scenarios, or other pro’s and con’s to the scenarios I’ve presented.
14 Comments
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0 Merits
NemaN
265 days ago
I don't know what plans they have in mind and how they might implement the first PC Vampires but I want to talk about choosing a clan, I think it won't be necessary to be embraced by certain Kindred in order to play the clan you want. I suppose after being embraced you'll be sent to some section which will give you options to create your Vampire character. Now, there's a chance the mortal life of your character won't be boring. After all, they say you could be a Human as long as you want and they'll probably give you a reason to stay there, at least, that would be something useful, in that way, people won't be desperate to undie. If they'll decide to add Ghouls, it would be an interesting option for some people, especially for newcomers.
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1 Merits
Noah
271 days ago
The bowels of my cranium, in all of it's gray matter... I've mined them for so long, contemplating on how this could work. And then I had a thought about it. How it could work. How you can get embraced, without worry of what clan you end up in, because you will definitely end up in the clan you want. Here's the idea: So, the game comes out. You get it, install it, you turn it on and go into character creation. You set your character up, from appearance to the stats you can put together at this point. While you do this, you get A menu, which asks you questions based on your character's mindframe (To see which clan you'd be most suited for) ... Eventually, after a few hours of playing as a human, you get approached by a certain fanged one and get turned. That's option 1. Option 2 would be something I am most interested in, if that is what it could be: You make your character, set up his stats and all as you do in MMO's and then you start playing the game. You walk around the city, playing your character (in character might I add, rp wise) and you have him do, what a vampire of the clan you wish to be part of, would do/say. Sooner or later, your behavior and actions are taken note of from the GM's and wouldn't you know it? If you play a crazy character - Malkavian. If you play a partying character - Toreador. If you play a character, interested in magic - Tremere. If you play a character, a bit too overconfident in how pretty they are and what they can do with that? - Nosferatu If you play a business savvy character - Ventrue. If you play a rather wild, freespirited character, who explores as much as they can - Gangrel. And if you are playing a rowdy, proud fighter character - Brujah. Granted, that'd be stereotyping.... And I may not make sense.
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1 Merits
Reaper
271 days ago
I guess a combination of scenario 2 and 3 can work together. A player could either try and find some real player for the embrace(and he should be rewarded for doing so like having a real sire to give him info and someone to start working with if both want to, or any other advantage) or get the embrace from some npc an easier but not so promising event.
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0 Merits
DoPo
273 days ago
First, a minor pet peeve (sorry): "This begs the question [...]" - "to beg the question" is a logical fallacy, the wording you're after is "raises the question". Apologies again. Anyway, a somewhat interesting solution might be the following: people have to play for a little while before they automatically get the opportunity (possible for the first character only). WoW does something vaguely similar with the Death Knight class, I think, and with the soon-tobe-released Pandas - they get to play on their own for the very first bit of the game, before joining the rest of the world. So everybody is happy - new players get to play as vampires soon, but also everybody has a shot at mortals from the beginning, And if it is restricted for the first character only, then any of the subsequent ones would have to rely on the player taking the initiative. And I don't know if the if the MMO will have micropayments, but perhaps the "Embrace pack" can be sold for something like $5 or another small sum. That can be in addition or alternative to the previous "play for a while" system. Essentially, if people want vampires, they get to be vampires, if they don't want to pay, they still get to become one of the undead, they would only need some more play time.
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0 Merits
HfxTenor
273 days ago
Thanks for the tip! I should have known better, considering how phrases like "thus far" aggravate me to no end. With CCP as the developer I think we can pretty much be guaranteed that micro-transactions will have a significant presence in the game. That said, there are also rumours that (similar to EVE) we will only have one character slot per account.
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0 Merits
DoPo
273 days ago
Hmm, if that is the case (micro transactions + 1 character), then it can still work beautifully. In fact it may just grow out "informally" at first. You can probably trade with somebody for an Embrace. It sounds a bit cheap and underwhelming, but it would happen, if a lot of new players are forced to wait for vampirism - expect announcements like "Will trade X for Embrace by a Toreador". There needs to be some mechanic to help players become Kindred. I see it as a problem otherwise. One easy(-ish) solution is that maybe mortals can pursue a quest that introduces them to the occult - that would flag them as preferable Embraces (they might break the Masquerade otherwise, for example). Or maybe upon completion of the quest, they will be granted vampirism in some way - moved up the "potential Childer" list or something. Well, this is only required for the very beginning of the game, with the big surge of new players. Later on, it would be more manageable.
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0 Merits
JustFiyen
273 days ago
I can't even begin to speculate how it would work. However I know that I want to be able to choose, not matter what, what clan I belong to. If it turns out you end up whatever clan some person turns you, and not what you choose. (For me if I'm not a childe of Malkav, I won't play it...sorry, it's shallow, but I just won't. Ill restart and make a whole new character, delete the old and try again untill I get it the way I want...my character is mine, and I should be able to choose in a game....(Sorry for the rant...)) (The only other clan I'd ever think of playing as EVER is Ravnos...but I don't think they are including them, are they?) I want to think that, you'll be able to choose. Set your stats as you wish, hoping for character sheets similar to table top.Perhaps set you generation though background...Choose derangement's, merits and flaws, demeanor and nature...that all effect game play. I can only hope. Again sorry for the rant... ♠
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1 Merits
HfxTenor
273 days ago
I strongly suspect we'll be able to choose our clans by way of finding someone from that Clan in-game to Embrace us. At the very least, if we're about to be Embraced we'll be able to say Out of Character "Wait, what clan are you? Sorry no, I don't want to be that". Ravnos will not be playable at launch, no. I doubt we'll have much choice in Generation, though, since it will be 100% dependant on who Embraces you.
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0 Merits
Morpheus
273 days ago
I dunno. WoD IS being presented as a "Vampire game" so players who don't get a chance to be a vampire straight off the bat are going to whine and grief. Unless they make a truly immersive sandbox experience game where even the mortals have plenty of stuff to do, scenario 2 seems to be the most logical option through a marketeer's point of view. Though I am more or less leaning towards Scenario 3 with a "some people waited years for this game to come out hogging every news that ever slipped out of CCP and jumped right in for Beta when it was available so quit yer whining bub" attitude towards would-be-whiners.
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1 Merits
HfxTenor
273 days ago
I love that idea Xaglacion - extended mortal existence oblivious to the world behind the world until one fateful night. But let's be honest - people will come to this game so that they can be a vampire. If they can't become a vampire relatively soon after character creation, they're gonna abandon ship unless the game is really amazing. I'm not talking about the superfans like most us at WoDNews, who will really relish our mortal lives in-game, but the non-WoD fan who never played the PnP
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0 Merits
Xaglacion
273 days ago
True, a lot of people won't want to go through a long time as a mortal, they'd want to jump into the vampire action straight ahead. Which makes me wonder even more how they'll make the Embrace system work. Pretty hard to imagine how that kind of system will work.. How to have the perfect balance between efficiency and player interaction.
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3 Merits
Xaglacion
274 days ago
I thought about this a while ago, and what I believe could happen is: We all start as mortals, therefore we have no knowledge of vampires. Instead of running around, being Vampire-fangirl/boy and trying to get embraced as soon as possible, we play the life of our mortal character, we lurk around the cities, trying to get money, maybe start a business, meet other normal people, hang out in a bar, etc. Then one day, a GM-controlled Vampire bumps into you and turns you into a vampire after a certain event. Maybe you could even try to survive the Vampire's attempt to turn you into an undead creature, who knows? Personally, that's how I'd imagine things could be like. Whether it is a practical option or not is another question.. Also, in my scenario, I wonder how the Developers would make living the mortal life fun. And if you become a vampire, make you feel like you'll never have the normal life you were enjoying, etc.
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-1 Merits
273 days ago
I like the idea of doing some sort of questish task before your character is Embraced - whether this is done real-time with a developer-character or beta-tester-character, or done as an extended PvE chain is fine. Xaglacion has a good premise for the quest: you have to find and uncover a vampire before they'll Embrace you. ---- It's foolish and totally immersion-breaking for people to run around yelling "I WANNA BE A GANGREL!!!!" and accusing everybody they meet of being a dark childe of the night to get their immortal hickey. ---- On the other hand, I don't want players who WANT to be a vampire to have to work extra special hard for it. It would also break the game and ruin the experience for a lot of people if they log on to the game and nobody wants to/can Embrace them. ---- I am most in favor of Scenario 3, but with developer oversight along the lines of each beta tester is REQUIRED to Embrace X amount of people in the first three months of play in order to keep their vampiric character. After that, I fully expect it to snowball. In fact, I'm wondering how we're going to STOP people from Embracing.
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3 Merits
Xaglacion
273 days ago
To stop people from Embracing, I believe the Developers will simply go with the Masquerade. You can't Embrace another player unless you go ask for the Prince's permission. Which might be a way to manage the Vampire population. In example, you send a message to the Prince of your city and persuade him to give you his permission to Embrace another player that you choose. Also I hope players will have a good sense of judgement. I'd hate to see players bribing Vampire players(out-of-character) so they get Embraced. Or worse, Embracing a player that does not Roleplay or does sloppy RPing.
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