Game News Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 RPG & Narrative Stream

[thesheeep]

No accompanying blog post to just give us the revealed facts.

They did actually https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...de-bloodlines-2/news/rpg-and-narrative-stream

Not really. Unless those few paragraphs of text were all the information you could get from the video.
In which case it being 17 minutes long would be remarkable

 

[Tyranicon]

Me: Thinking my vampire game will get some nice traction once VtMB2's marketing ramps up.

VtMB2's marketing team: wet fart.

Yeah I don't know who thought two dudes talking for 17 minutes was a good idea, especially when they're dropping bombshells like a fixed protag, full voice, and awful animations.

 

[Roguey]

Not really. Unless those few paragraphs of text were all the information you could get from the video.
In which case it being 17 minutes long would be remarkable

That is the case, it was a lot of rambling about nothing of substance.

 

[Zeriel]

Fixed protag is like the worst choice you could make for a tabletop-inspired game. The whole point of the genre, and appeal, even if you are half-assing it and just providing cosmetic choices (ala Bioware), is to allow you to roleplay your own character.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

I’m guessing nearly no tight bouncy titties in this game.

Closest you'll get is manboobs, probably. Phymales look like this:

I'm calling it now that Phyre (and probably every elder via some eventual retcon) has the ability to choose his/her sex as well as gender.

I'm not sure if they'll make it a gameplay feature, but I think the male model will likely end up looking very similar, just more masculine.

In before they reveal this was one of Caine's original powers, and that he was always nonbinary/queer etc. I almost expect them to have said this by now.

 

[Ismaul]

With a fixed protag, I guess Nosferatu is out of the question.

 

[Kev Inkline]

It's all just for product placement:

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Is Phyre & Iyce the new Gen speak? Ebonics? Ubonix?

 

[thesheeep]

It's all just for product placement:

At least with vaping, "fire" makes some (very) remote sense.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'm calling it now that Phyre (and probably every elder via some eventual retcon) has the ability to choose his/her sex as well as gender.

I'm not sure if they'll make it a gameplay feature, but I think the male model will likely end up looking very similar, just more masculine.

Is that a prediction or a fabulously optimistic hope?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So much for tits. Well, fuck!

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

So much for tits. Well, fuck!

These fat lumps are so 2010.

What good do they do? They keep transmen* from looking like wymyn, and add surgery costs for transwomen to 'be their best self'.

I wouldn't be surprised if doctors just started removing them like tonsils.

Spoiler

*ffs, it's in the spellcheck.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I didn't think it was possible in today's age of sliders at character creation, but they somehow made character customization worse than it was in 2004! CRPGs in the early 2000s didn't have much in the way of character customization. But Troika worked with what they had and gave us the choice of over a dozen different character models to represent the PC based on our choice of class and gender, each of which was further customed with three additional outfits. That's over fifty total models and textures they had to make! They didn't need to do that and it undoubtedly added to their workload (and some of the models were still retextured to use as generic NPC models), but it was a really nice touch for the time and put them well ahead of a lot of other CRPGs of the time.

No surprise the video has a 30% ratio. Paradox has well and truly screwed themselves. They've already invested so much and burned so many bridges that they can't hire a new dev to fix the problems that Chinese Room has made without losing even more face. This is going to kill the brand. If their previous crappy licensed games haven't scared devs and players alike away from the brand name already, then this predictable disaster definitely will.

So now there's really only one important question left to ask. Is this disaster going to inspire other frustrated devs to make better "magical creatures in the modern day" CRPGs, or is it going to kill that genre for another two decades? I really can't spend another two decades waiting for something like Troika's Bloodlines to get made. That sounds absolutely horrible.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

I think we're going to start seeing more fan games crop up as AI gets better.

All the previous boundaries to a sold fan game are slowly being erased. Voice acting can be done by AI. Art can be done by AI. Environment textures can be done by AI.

It'd still require autism to do for free, and it'd need to be free if it were to stick with the same IP. But it's looking more like a realistic possibility than ever, and knockoff, for-profit games are becoming more possible for the same reasons as well.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I think we're going to start seeing more fan games crop up as AI gets better.

All the previous boundaries to a sold fan game are slowly being erased. Voice acting can be done by AI. Art can be done by AI. Environment textures can be done by AI.

Lowering the barrier to entry doesn't raise the quality. Creating good art still requires a coherent creative vision and a coherent direction. AI is good for replacing filler content that has lots of reference assets to duplicate, but you still need a skilled human being to curate the content and create anything that the AI cannot. We'll be inundated with even more content farm shovelware, while the gems will become even harder to find.

AI is good automating repetitive content that doesn't require abstract conscious thought, but making a good game still requires commitment, passion and intelligence. Otherwise, AI output looks like melted cheese.

Voice acting can be done by AI. Art can be done by AI. Environment textures can be done by AI.

Can it do fun gameplay? All those irrelevant jangling keys are worth shit if the game isn't entertaining.

It'd still require autism to do for free, and it'd need to be free if it were to stick with the same IP.

Why would you want to use someone else's IP that you can't profit off of when you can make your own IP with complete creative control and 100% take of the profits? It's not like this specific IP is worthwhile or hard to emulate without running afoul of copyright. There are numerous public domain resources and genres that you can draw from. Unless you're an uncreative zombie who doesn't read books.

But it's looking more like a realistic possibility than ever, and knockoff, for-profit games are becoming more possible for the same reasons as well.

Knockoff? Really? That word has a lot of negative baggage. Just because other games might be set in the same genre space doesn't mean they're lame knockoffs. How do you make a game about playing vampires in modern times without risking it being insulted as a knockoff? Introduce more magical beings into the setting so that it's not just vampires you're rubbing shoulders with but also werewolves, wizards, leprechauns, dragons, unicorns, etc? Judge games based on how entertaining they are to play, not their cosmetic similarities to other games.

 

[Terra]

Looks awful, as if more evidence was needed that classic IP revivals should never be in the hands of interloping hacks who clearly never interacted with the original game beyond a brief scouring of the wiki page. Paradox are on a roll lately, holy shit.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Lowering the barrier to entry doesn't raise the quality.

True, but fan creativity almost invariably does.

Take a look at all the mods that do fix games' lore, graphics and gameplay.

Sure, there are a hundred bad mods for every good one, but just don't download them.

Creating good art still requires a coherent creative vision and a coherent direction.

Which you're not getting from the studios anyway. Might as well let an amateur try their hand.

It's not like it's impossible. Small indie devs have made great games like Starsector. People have made their own fan games in the past. Empowering said devs to do more with less is a good thing.

Again, just ignore the bad ones as usual.

Can it do fun gameplay?

Sure, why not?

Why would you want to use someone else's IP that you can't profit off of

Why do people waste years of their lives making mods and supporting them? Because they like the IP and want to.

It's weird that you're trying to pretend that mods and free games don't exist.

Knockoff? Really? That word has a lot of negative baggage.

Ok. "Nigger rigged" then.

You're welcome.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Looks awful, as if more evidence was needed that classic IP revivals should never be in the hands of interloping hack who clearly never interacted with the original game beyond a brief scouring of the wiki page. Paradox are on a roll lately, holy shit.

In fairness, Mitsoda had hired some pink-haired SJW woman he was probably banging to run the original dev team into the ground, iirc.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Sure, there are a hundred bad mods for every good one, but just don't download them.

I don’t. They just clog everything up and make it impossible to find the good ones.

Why do people waste years of their lives making mods and supporting them? Because they like the IP and want to.

It's weird that you're trying to pretend that mods and free games don't exist.

I’m not pretending anything. Paradox’s itch.io fanfiction game program has produced nothing of value. The IP isn’t worthwhile anyway because of all the fandom backlash.

I prefer to devise my own IPs because it gives me full creative freedom and the ability to profit off my work. This IP doesn’t offer anything I couldn’t do better with an original IP.

In general, I find this obsession with monopolistic monolithic IPs to be inherently destructive to pop culture and creativity. We need more IPs, not more fanfiction.

There should have already been competing IPs by now. We shouldn’t have been waiting until Paradox, Disney, Paramount and so on screwed the IP pooch several times over before deciding to make our own.