World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I’m glad I didn’t use a balding middle aged man gif or you would really be upset.

I couldn't tell the difference with that sixhead.

 

[NPC451]

Has there been any talk of mod tools for this game?
Even if the base content is banal, mods could turn this into a Skyrim-esque success.

 

[Yosharian]

NO WACKINESS ALLOWED

 

[Vincente]

Has there been any talk of mod tools for this game?
Even if the base content is banal, mods could turn this into a Skyrim-esque success.

They confirmed mod support

 

[Kem0sabe]

NO WACKINESS ALLOWED

Nor fun.

 

[thesheeep]

NO WACKINESS ALLOWED

Nor fun.

Good.
I hate fun.

 

[TemplarGR]

This game is going to be so bad, i am going to enjoy the butthurt with tons of popcorn....

 

[Thonius]

"How dare they attack someone's artistic career because they don't like his personal behavior"

"I'm going to speak out against this game because I don't like the personal tweets of one of the designers"

Pick one.

They are going to double down on POZ and ZOG just you wait.

 

[Vincente]

NO WACKINESS ALLOWED

Fishmalks get the rope

 

[Momock]

NO WACKINESS ALLOWED

Nor fun.

Good.
I hate fun.

Fair enough. But then don't call the game "Bloodlines" if it has nothing to do with it any more.

 

[Zombra]

They are going to double down on POZ and ZOG just you wait.

It's a matter of time x 1

 

[Semiurge]

If Malkavians aren't allowed to be fun anymore, then they'd damn well better make the malk experience akin to Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. That one is so immersive that it's the only game that's ever genuinely creeped me out. You're put right behind Jack Walters's blue eyes after the starting cutscene, and from that moment onwards you see everything just as the protagonist does, excluding the potential ending cutscenes as I recall. Every dark premonition and unfolding hallucination.

 

[Sardine Dev Poster]

MCA was the best, and only asset this entire project had. Now you've just got a fat retard reminding you that she's putting her foot in the door to massacre other series. Can't believe anybody's buying the game at all, let alone think it's decent enough to play. Reminds me of the same people who insist Metal Gear Survive is good because they themselves don't have standards for what they should be using their free time for, and write steam reviews defending it. Capitalism will make us it's bitch because of people like that.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

There's a new interview with Brian and Cara!

On Malkavians:
Mitsoda: "I looked at some Bloodlines 1 Malk replies and I was like, 'Wow - we would never approach them that way.'"
"They're not gonna be wacky, ever."
"There is a big twist with them this time."

Does Deb of Night return?
Mitsoda: "I don't know what I'm allowed to say .. I will say there's a radio show .. I'm very proud of the radio in this game .. the radio is very funny."

On the writing:
Ellison: "Basically, the game is filthy"

Is the cabbie Caine?
Mitsoda: "If I were to definitively answer that one, then people would stop arguing about it ... it's more fun for me if everyone argues about it."

Here's like my 10 Coolest Bloodlines Things From That Interview

:

There will be weird not cute things away from just vampires like how Bloodlines 1 had gargoyles and that really scary ghost

Jeanette is Cara's fav! Characters will get expanded if Brian likes the voice actor like he liked Officer Chunk's acting so much he brought him back as the head of security at LaCroix!

Damsel is one of Brian's faves! Originally she only had one small part but he liked Courtenay's performance so much he added way more with her which is so cool and originally she was just like a VSCO girl but he made her way more fierce on the 2nd draft! Cara wants to marry Nines but Brian won't put him in the sequel!!!

The game is really lgbtq+ because Seattle is really lgbtq+

There's twice or three times as many characters in this game as Bloodlines 1 and they kind of think the amount of character's will be way impressive for an rpg

The studio fight over who their fav character in Bloodlines 2 is all the time. Neckhole (or, like, maybe 'Neck Hole') is the name of one of them and he's like a himbo vampire

Translations into other languages and localisation and stuff is why they can't let you be non-binary in the game but there will be enby characters in the game

They don't know if there are trans main characters in the game but there will be in the dlc!

Cara and Brian want to have Native American main characters in the dlc but want approval from the Duwamish that live in Seattle first. Some of the main story has indigenous stuff in some way or Seattle's history with indigenous stuff!

Then the end was really boring journalism stuff so I stopped listening

​

 

[Fedora Master]

"The game is filthy" because that's the about the intellectual reach the average woman has. Muh vagina!

 

[Storyfag]

Cara and Brian want to have Native American main characters in the dlc but want approval from the Duwamish that live in Seattle first. Some of the main story revolves around indigenous stuff in some way or Seattle's history with indigenous stuff!​

They have not asked us Slavs for permission to culturally appropriate the vampires of our folklore.

 

[Cael]

That's a class action suit waiting to happen right there, fren...

 

[jackofshadows]

The game is really lgbtq+ because Seattle is really lgbtq+

Fascinating. And here I thought alphabet-people is kinda recent thing about which vampires doesn't give a slightest fuck.

 

[Roguey]

There's twice or three times as many characters in this game as Bloodlines 1 and they kind of think the amount of character's will be way impressive for an rpg

Brian made this mistake with Dead State; too many characters and his writing becomes really bland and terrible. I recall Avellone saying that one of the things Alpha Protocol did right was keep the cast of characters small.

Edit: here we go

Chris Avellone: Class, my lecture and/or discussion is entitled the "kitchen sink theory of game design and gamer perception," and what I learned way back when at Black Isle (groans from class, followed by "not BIS again").

The lesson is this: you can achieve an equally compelling and I'd argue, more compelling story with fewer, deeper characters than a thousand shallow ones.

That, however, is only one of the points I learned and applied concerning a title I worked on back at Obsidian Entertainment before they rose to power and took control of the Western Seaboard (hushed fear from class).

The first point is making fewer characters that are deeper and more reactive creates a more quality experience. We didn't have 40 companions in Torment, we had less than expected for similar titles, and I worried about that decision at the time. In the end, the choice was the right one. It's not just that, though.

Way back in 2010, once upon a time at an IGDA forum panel on story, I was asked what makes a good game story. I argued that a good game story can be achieved with a lot of reactivity, however you choose to implement it. If the story has the player's actions in the game at the forefront, the positive feedback loop is much stronger than a passive story the player is subjected to. I firmly believe that. That was the goal in Alpha Protocol 1, and it delivered, as evidenced by the recent releases of Alpha Protocol 12, Alpha Protocol: Hidden Agenda: International Politics Simulator, and Alpha Protocol: Global Thermonuclear War.

The second point I want to make is something that's largely either given the finger ("what's that," someone whispers, "is that an old symbol of disrespect in the 21st century?"), viewed negatively, or else given a dismissive shrug by the gaming community when you explain why you haven't included a feature in the game.

For example, you may be tempted to ask why don't you include a thousand deep interactive characters? We're paying for this shit, after all, it's the least you can do.

So right you are, you are paying for a quality experience... you in the back, shut up for a second or I'll activate the educational restraint collar... in a blue sky world (back when the skies were blue), having thousands of characters in a game with thousands of ways to interact seems ideal. Great.

The realities of game production, however, give you bookends and force yourself to ask how can you develop the same emotional reward without a ten year development cycle and a two year testing cycle? The unfortunate reality is you have X years, X languages, X amount for voice acting, and X people to make it happen. Your goal is to create a compelling story. Again, my answer is to add reactivity.

So in Alpha Protocol we achieved this by reducing the cast, not only because it complimented the genre (the central cast list in a Bond, Bourne, or Bauer production isn't large - although in 24, the emotional switchbacks among the cast are very high) but because it would create a better story.

Class dismissed.

The game is really lgbtq+ because Seattle is really lgbtq+

Fascinating. And here I thought alphabet-people is kinda recent thing about which vampires doesn't give a slightest fuck.

All the elders are getting slaughtered in the middle east, nothing but relatively young vampires around.

 

[Storyfag]

The game is really lgbtq+ because Seattle is really lgbtq+

Fascinating. And here I thought alphabet-people is kinda recent thing about which vampires doesn't give a slightest fuck.

All the elders are getting slaughtered in the middle east, nothing but relatively young vampires around.

"Relatively young" in this case would mean individuals who remember a world without electricity. Case in point Lou Graham/Grand who is very much around.

As a sidenote, this whole plot point resulting in the removal of so many interesting characters from the setting is not the best thought out move, I think. But oh well, yahr null everywhere I guess.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

The game is really lgbtq+ because Seattle is really lgbtq+

Fascinating. And here I thought alphabet-people is kinda recent thing about which vampires doesn't give a slightest fuck.

It’s way more fascinating how you jump to conclusions just to be upset. If you actually listened to the interview you would know that Cara and Brian already say that most old vampires don’t care about sexuality stuff because they’re way more interested in blood and power.

 

[Sardine Dev Poster]

There's twice or three times as many characters in this game as Bloodlines 1 and they kind of think the amount of character's will be way impressive for an rpg

Brian made this mistake with Dead State; too many characters and his writing becomes really bland and terrible. I recall Avellone saying that one of the things Alpha Protocol did right was keep the cast of characters small.

Edit: here we go

Chris Avellone: Class, my lecture and/or discussion is entitled the "kitchen sink theory of game design and gamer perception," and what I learned way back when at Black Isle (groans from class, followed by "not BIS again").

The lesson is this: you can achieve an equally compelling and I'd argue, more compelling story with fewer, deeper characters than a thousand shallow ones.

That, however, is only one of the points I learned and applied concerning a title I worked on back at Obsidian Entertainment before they rose to power and took control of the Western Seaboard (hushed fear from class).

The first point is making fewer characters that are deeper and more reactive creates a more quality experience. We didn't have 40 companions in Torment, we had less than expected for similar titles, and I worried about that decision at the time. In the end, the choice was the right one. It's not just that, though.

Way back in 2010, once upon a time at an IGDA forum panel on story, I was asked what makes a good game story. I argued that a good game story can be achieved with a lot of reactivity, however you choose to implement it. If the story has the player's actions in the game at the forefront, the positive feedback loop is much stronger than a passive story the player is subjected to. I firmly believe that. That was the goal in Alpha Protocol 1, and it delivered, as evidenced by the recent releases of Alpha Protocol 12, Alpha Protocol: Hidden Agenda: International Politics Simulator, and Alpha Protocol: Global Thermonuclear War.

The second point I want to make is something that's largely either given the finger ("what's that," someone whispers, "is that an old symbol of disrespect in the 21st century?"), viewed negatively, or else given a dismissive shrug by the gaming community when you explain why you haven't included a feature in the game.

For example, you may be tempted to ask why don't you include a thousand deep interactive characters? We're paying for this shit, after all, it's the least you can do.

So right you are, you are paying for a quality experience... you in the back, shut up for a second or I'll activate the educational restraint collar... in a blue sky world (back when the skies were blue), having thousands of characters in a game with thousands of ways to interact seems ideal. Great.

The realities of game production, however, give you bookends and force yourself to ask how can you develop the same emotional reward without a ten year development cycle and a two year testing cycle? The unfortunate reality is you have X years, X languages, X amount for voice acting, and X people to make it happen. Your goal is to create a compelling story. Again, my answer is to add reactivity.

So in Alpha Protocol we achieved this by reducing the cast, not only because it complimented the genre (the central cast list in a Bond, Bourne, or Bauer production isn't large - although in 24, the emotional switchbacks among the cast are very high) but because it would create a better story.

Class dismissed.

The game is really lgbtq+ because Seattle is really lgbtq+

Fascinating. And here I thought alphabet-people is kinda recent thing about which vampires doesn't give a slightest fuck.

All the elders are getting slaughtered in the middle east, nothing but relatively young vampires around.

Dead State's problem was never that it had too many characters, man. Dead State's problem was that the gameplay never evolved beyond scavenging in post apocalyptic Texas with a slow ass combat system that took ages to reach your turn, the Torque engine literally made in some guy's garage, the bugs that made events repeat, the repetitive music that never changes regardless of what your current game state is, the general un-fun nature of upgrading facilities in home base, and the overall lack of things to do in the game that just resulted in a purgotory-like state of never ending repetition that caused most people to call the game done midway.

The writing was fantastic, and I highly doubt Annie wrote for more than any of the characters who were just female wish-fulfillment sex fantasies, so my hat goes off to Mitsoda for surprising me.

The problem with these seemingly decent to good-tier old-school narrative designers, i.e. Mitsoda, Avellone, is that they're intensely autistic sperglords or beta males that #standwithwomen.

Avellone might be a legendary writer, but you can't trust him to keep his fucking mouth shut to the twitter mob, nor generally be a likable person on the dev team that anybody wants to "agree to disagree" with, so to speak. Mitsoda's like the Bernie Sanders of the industry. He just has to keep letting other people go first with their contributions, especially da poz.

 

[HansDampf]

Then why bring it up?

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Because the young vampires and humans in the game still care about this stuff. And being inclusive is cool

 

[Roguey]

Dead State's problem was never that it had too many characters, man. Dead State's problem was that the gameplay never evolved beyond scavenging in post apocalyptic Texas with a slow ass combat system that took ages to reach your turn, the Torque engine literally made in some guy's garage, the bugs that made events repeat, the repetitive music that never changes regardless of what your current game state is, the general un-fun nature of upgrading facilities in home base, and the overall lack of things to do in the game that just resulted in a purgotory-like state of never ending repetition that caused most people to call the game done midway.

The writing was fantastic, and I highly doubt Annie wrote for more than any of the characters who were just female wish-fulfillment sex fantasies, so my hat goes off to Mitsoda for surprising me.

When I stopped playing Dead State, I had found 13 allies and the only one I can remember is Dwight Schrute. It's pretty bad when the only memorable dialogue from the entire game is from a rip-off of a sitcom character.