121

I’m with Brian. The old game is better. It had a lot more flavor. And yeah, having NPCs that you should NEVER mess with was fun. It forced you to focus on non-combat solutions. Vampire is one of the few RPGs I’ve played where I could complete scenarios without a single physical confrontation. I won a tournament once with a Ventrue character that just used Dominate and Presence to solve everything in creative ways.

I think Requiem is a huge step back. And yes, I have read the rulebook. SOME of the changes are good. But overall, I think it lacks the awesome flavor of the original. That’s preference, though.

122

See, that’s the part I don’t get. I feel that what you describe fits Requiem much more than Masquerade…

The older system and setting was /far/ more centered around twinked out combat and resolution thereby. Requiem steps away from the power-gamer munchkininess that had come to define Masquerade, and sticks closer to its horror roots.

But yes, it’s largely a matter of personal preference.

123

Wait, this game started pre-production in summer 2008. Three years later and they are still in pre-production? What the hell have they been doing over there*?

Hint: not doing very much work on Eve*
**Or on Dust514.

124

Counting money perhaps? I hear tell it takes a lot of time to do so!

Anyways, I’m interested in this, but yeah, 2015 is probably not that bad a guess at release.

125

Or on WoD for that matter.

The infuriating bit to me was how they appear to acknowledge that Incarna was just a prototype. So not only did this “module” take away so much resources from Eve, in return Eve is not even getting the best stuff, just a 2nd grade prototype.

Gee, thanks CCP, glad my Eve monthly subscription helped pay for that.

Or, I might be reading too much in the use of the word prototype.

126

With all due respect, how would you like them to pay for the development? Any business takes its money it has earned, and spend it to expand. Thats not shitting on the customers, its just it would be silly to borrow money for something that you have money for already.

Granted, an MMO is a tricky case story to apply this too, but I think the point still stands.

127

I am aware of this, OTOH if you stop supporting a game, people will stop paying for it (like I did).

It is CCP decision, I simply feel bad about them neglecting this amazing and unique game/universe and letting it decay whilst investing almost all their resources in some other game I have no real interest in.

Anyway, sorry for derailing the thread. Long live WoD (just don’t expect fantastic execution)

128

CCP isn’t a small company. It has four studios employing over 600 people. It has also borrowed a lot of money specifically to finance the expansion of the product range. It was announced in 2006 that work had begun on the WoD game - even Blizzard generally have something beyond pre-production after five years of development.

129

Blizzard usually doesn’t tell anyone what they are working on until they’ve had five years of development…

130

The problem is not that they’re using money from Eve to finance WoD it’s the perception that they’re not re-investing any of that money, or very little, back into Eve. They should be able to fund both, not starve one feeding it the scraps from the other.

131

Yeah, I understand that, but the game is still running, still get updates right? So SOME effort is being made to make the game better, or more profitable at least ;-)

Anyways, I’m no EVE player so I’m probably to unbiased to be having this conversation.

132

And how do you know this?

133

Funnily enough, RPS has a nice article about the White Wolf gettogether The Grand Masqurade which is being held in New Orleans these days.

There’s a smalltattering of info about the game as well.

134

Guild Wars 2 was announced in 2007, and if we’re lucky we might see a release next year…

135

Machinima Realm @ The Grand Masquerade: World of Darkness MMO Interview

Joel talks to Chris McDonough about the new World of Darkness MMO that will cover the world of Vampire: The Masquerade.

136

oh hey still no footage, yeah great wake me up never

137

Well, there is footage. It’s the EVE walking in station interface. It took over three years to create, and currently can render a single avatar in a single crappy apartment.

…Yeah, it doesn’t bode well. I’d honestly be shocked if the game ever launches.

138

The odds of CCP managing to get that game out with their major case of Not Invented Here are pretty low.

The Incarna engine is loltastic.

139

As we reexamine our outward relations, we are also taking time to reevaluate our internal goals. In doing so, we have come to the conclusion that we are attempting too many things for a company our size. Developing EVE expansions, DUST 514 and World of Darkness has stretched our resources too thin.

Rather than allowing this to persist, we have made the decision to sharpen our focus. Sadly, this means reducing our staff. We estimate that around twenty percent of global positions will be affected by this process. These will be predominantly in our Atlanta, GA office, although select positions in our Reykjavik, Iceland office will be affected.

We are very sad to lose some of our talented and dedicated colleagues to this necessary process. Naturally we are making every effort within our means to help them find alternative employment. Decisions like these are difficult for all those involved and extraordinarily sad for all of those whose lives are affected.

Following this reorganization, we must do a better job by focusing on these priorities:

For the immediate future, our mission is to enrich the vast EVE Universe by strengthening the continuous development of EVE Online while preparing to bring DUST 514 to market on the PS3. We do this in order to realize our ambitious and challenging plan of joining the two in a cross-platform, truly massive online world.

World of Darkness will continue development with a significantly reduced team. This team will continue to iterate and expand on the gameplay and systems they have designed. We will also redeploy creative teams in Atlanta to support the launch of DUST 514.

Second, World of Darkness lives on. Its concepts are revolutionary. CCP continues to believe that it will alter the landscape of the MMO as significantly as EVE has done but we need more time to continue to develop them before dedicating the substantial resources required to bring this experience to market.

140

Interesting. Has EVE experienced a decline in subscriptions? I know they’ve had some rocky moments of late.

I guess World of Darkness is on the ten year plan now.