Tonight's sunset was the last of it's kind you will ever know.Tonight's sunset was the last of it's kind you will ever know.
When the sun set's tomorrow, it will open up a World of Darkness. This new world will be very different from Norrath. The Vampire game set's to change and evolve the genre from one of 'hack and slash' or 'kill, rest, repeat' to one of character development and high role playing.
The world of Vampire is a very flushed out one. Far more so than EQ. While EQ took their basis from D&D, they took it from a much broader base than the Vampire world is set in. In essence, EQ tried too do too much, too quickly. There is no real defining society of each of the races in Norrath. Sure they have slightly different architecture, does that really mean anything? No. They all say the same things in each bank, each armor vendor, etc. Is Kunark really any different than the original EQ release? No. They still claim you have ruined your own land and you'll not ruin theirs.
The Vampire game sets to evolve the genre in that it is "Story" based. That meaning each 'game' has a set beginning, a path it follows, and an end. Unlike EQ where you just run around and camp monster x and kill it over and over repeatedly. (They are somewhat unclear on this and other aspects of the multi-player games.) The thrust of Vampire is based around the characters, how they interact, and the society that has evolved around the Vampire myths. There is no comparison in EQ. Sure there are guilds in EQ, but these guilds are nothing compared to the hidden societies of Vampire.
Vampire promises to be full of mystery, intrigue, character exploration, and character evolution. There is a "storyteller" who can join the game and allow players to do logical, but non-pre-scripted things. An example the site gives is that a player breaks off a leg of a table and uses it as a stake. The world is not built to compensate for that, however through the power of someone being the "storyteller" they can make the table appear broken, and supply the player with a stake, and thus the action took place.
Summary / Solution / Truth
Vampire shows extreme promise in that it will be of 'high role playing' caliber, unlike EQ which has little to no role playing aspects at all. But being so player driven will it actually live up to it's potential, or will the players be d00ds and drop the ball as it were? Will players make good "Stories" or will it be 'you walk into a bar, get in a fight, kill the vampire lord, and the game is over, you get c00l l3wt 3, and 5000 experience'?
The potential for Vampire to be so much more is there, the first evolution into a true role playing experience. Will the players make the game succeed with great success? Will the game makers supply enough new material to keep it as interesting as Verant has done with EQ.
Certainly so far the fan base is eager, ready and willing, to make it a success. Already several fan based sites are growing following the original high role playing myths and stories the original pen and paper evolved.
Is Vampire for everyone? Certainly not. I expect maybe less than 5% of EQ players will even try Vampire. I know of all my friends, who mind you were all at one time hardcore pen and paper gamers, I am the only one who pre-bought Vampire. I am the only one who is not hooked on EQ so much to take a 'I'll wait and see' attitude towards it.
For me, gaming in EQ was always an attempt to role play. However, with the 'failure' of the expansion in my eyes, I know that potential will never be reached. EQ is much as D&D was to me when it first was beginning back when I was around 10-12. You make a character, you make a few stats straight 18 00s, you blow through monsters and gain loot x. Later in life, as the pen and paper gaming genre evolved, I found it was much more interesting to cause a character a psychological trauma or victory, over one of loot. It was more fun to describe in detail how that surprise orc band mangled their comrade, and taunted them with it, to watch their character 'loose it' after so many adventures of being together.
For most people this is a matter of wiring. Do they want the intellectual gain, or the virtual stuff / quick non-stress gain.
If Vampire is half of what it promises, my time in the world of Norrath will drop to next to nil.
Will Vampire succeed at being the first high role playing on line experience? The setting of tomorrows sun will tell. Will the moon welcome you to a World of Darkness? or just another way to get c00l l3wt?
In anticipation and excitement at the new world, I've started a site, On a Shadowed Hill. In the event I do switch to it enough that there will no longer appear any rant's here, fear not I will post it.
Welcome to the night, tomorrow your world changes...