Wie bei MIDNIGHT DANCE nachzulesen ist, fand am vergangenen Wochenende das „Grand Masquerade“ Event von White Wolf in New Orleans statt. Und wer es sich nicht aufgrund des Eventnamens und ganz normalen Marketingerwägungen gedacht hat, erfuhr dort, dass White Wolf sich wieder deutlich zu Masquerade hinwendet – mindestens Online, und wenn sie auch nur ein Fünkchen was von Verkauf verstehen auch im Print.
Das neue Online-Rollenspiel „World of Darkness“ des White Wolf Eigner CCP Games, dessen erster Trailer auf der eingangs verlinkten Seite in abgefilmter Version zu sehen ist, wird also auf Masquerade-Basis sein und nicht auf Requiem beruhen. Da Letzteres im Print eigentlich „durch“ ist – alles, was für dieses Metaplotlose Spiel benötigt wird, ist längst erschienen – müssten die weißen Wölfe schon mit dem Klammerbeutel gepudert sein, um nicht vor oder spätestens zum Launch des „Vampire: The Masquerade Online Roleplaying Games“ eine Neuauflage von Masquerade rauszuhauen – basierend auf Requiem-Regeln natürlich, und vermutlich mit irgendeiner konstruierten Erklärung warum Gehenna dann doch ausgefallen ist oder nicht gar so schlimm war (übrigens sind schon für Oktober 2010 „Translation documents: Masquerade to Requiem and Requiem to Masquerade“ angekündigt).
Wundern braucht man sich jedenfalls nicht über die Wahl von Maskerade als Hintergrundsetting für das MMORPG. Wie ein Teilnehmer in den White Wolf Foren schreibt:
„While I prefer gaming with Requiem, Masquerade is a lot more blunt and thus easier to translate into an MMO. When you can give plain „We’re the Camarilla. We’re at war with the Sabbat.“ you can get the point of the setting across easier than „There are five major organizations uneasily co-existing.“ For the purposes of an MMO, Masquerade is a lot easier. Tabletop and LARP? Yeah, go Requiem there. You can manage the extra political complexity.“
Besser kann man es kaum ausdrücken. Man darf jedenfalls gespannt sein.
Technische Demo von CCP zur CARBON Animation für Haare und Kleidung beim WOD MMORPG
UPDATE 1
In den Diskussionen um das WOD MMORPG in den White Wolf Foren wird sich aktuell darauf eingeschossen, dass einer Aussage des Requiem Lead Developers sowohl WOD MMO als auch VtR BEIDE auf VtM beruhen würden, aber andere Bedürfnisse als Spiel hätten. Daraus und aus dem Fakt, dass WOD MMO (bisher) eben gerade NICHT VtM MMO heiße, wird geschlossen dass das WOD MMO möglicher weise nicht mehr Ähnlichkeit mit VtM haben wird als VtR, das ja ebenfalls auf VtM beruhe.
Außerdem postet User GrimDent im White Wolf Forum eine Reihe von Facts direkt aus den Händen der Developer, die in anderen Foren/Blogs aufgetaucht seien:
Direct MMO Stuff:
– the game has been in development for approximately 3 years.
– This has been slowed by keeping up with EVE
– Preparing to develop ‚Carbon technology‘ framework for what should provide state-of-the-art character customizations, unlike any seen in any game before, for the MMO.
– They are particularly psyched about the customization framework. They claim they have in fact, hired a fashion consultant, to help make the system more realistic and stylish.
– Another 1.5 years has been spent preparing the actual gameplay
– They have increased their staff by 6 times the previous head count
– They’ve put 629K man-hours into this MMO — so far.Regarding Coffee House, Sandbox and Themeparks that we’ve discussed on the forum, Burgermeister writes; „From what they said, these three spheres should be closely tied and interconnected together, essentially running the economy of blood in the game. “
The four overall themes they intended to have in the game are:
– Mystery
– Romance
– Power
– Danger„For concrete facts, we learned that the game will be ready, by earliest, 2012. The game will be based on Vampire: the Masquerade. Specifically, in the initial release of the game, there will only be vampires as supernatural, playable characters. There will however, be elements from Werewolf, Changeling, etc., likely in the form of environmental content, and NPCs.“
-One of their criterias for success is to make the game as accessible as possible. Specifically they want to get women involved in the game, as well as casual players. Also, they want to maximize the amount of human interaction that happens in the game.
-They confirmed that the game will not be combat intensive (unless you choose as such). Knowing, influencing the correct people is arguably more important than being the biggest brawler.
-They will not be catering to immaturity in the game, however, they would like to see these types of offenses policed by players, rather than in-game mechanics.
„I personally offered up one of the board’s suggestions of Permanent Death as a solution to controlling an otherwise glut of Kindred population within any one area. This was one of the suggestions that got applause from the audience. I also couldn’t help but notice two of the content developers smirking — I think permanent death is a serious possibility in the MMO. A lot of other fans made the same or similar suggestions. This remark also drew out a comment from the panel, suggesting that the game world would consist of one server rather than multiple servers, after someone else suggested that some servers offer this permanent death option while others did not. (His response „Servers? What servers?“) “
-They confirmed that factions and territories will almost certainly be a big part of the game.
-They confirmed that the game will definitely contain gay clubs. This is an excellent angle to cater to the gay and lesbian audience.
-They again, did confirm, that starting off there would only be Vampires, but one of the other developers also confirmed that there would be playable human classes — although nothing specific. I only can assume he means the likes of ghouls and hunters.
-The game will be fully PvP, i.e. there may be Elysium areas, but nothing like the flagging system, as seen in PvE WoW servers.
-In regards to the development cycles, some disciplines simply will not be included because they are way too complicate to implement well — specifically, Temporis.
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