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

[PrettyDeadman]

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Also, can I just say re: Brian Mitsoda - what a testament to the power of connections. The man spends years and years out of the loop working on an indie project that turns out to be a humiliating disaster, but with one phone call from an old buddy he's back in the AAA saddle again.

Dead State was a pretty good game though? OR are you talking about other Brian Mistoda game. You mean nuPST?

 

[Cael]

Also, can I just say re: Brian Mitsoda - what a testament to the power of connections. The man spends years and years out of the loop working on an indie project that turns out to be a humiliating disaster, but with one phone call from an old buddy he's back in the AAA saddle again.

Pants dropping might also have been involved...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Dead State was a pretty good game though?

The story was probably the weakest part of the game.
I'm not aware of exactly what Mitsoda did on the project, but if that was his total contribution then… meh.

 

[Zombra]

It isn't, I was deliberately blowing something out of proportion to show what it looks like, glad you caught it

The game was banned in Australia because of an implied rape scene. Of course that's not Ellison's fault, she didn't ask for a ban (afaik). I agree with you there. But I just skimmed through her HM2 article and she did drone on about her safe space in a game where everybody gets horribly murdered (where one of the muderers is female, but she might not have been aware of that). What is even weirder is that she recognizes that the rape scene was part of a movie shoot and that framing made it apparently semi-alright, even though she wished the game could've provided that framing earlier.
So fictional rape, regardless of the artistic intent, is only okay if it's two virtual layers deep? Is only fake rape allowed and actual rape is tabu? What? I'm not automatically counting her out as a writer for video games since this is apparently her first major contribution, but this type of arbitrariness for the sake of being gender woke is just yikes to me and doesn't exactly instill confidence when Bloodlines is full of horrible shit that happens to both genders.

You're pretty much asking the same questions that Ellison herself was asking in her article. In order for a characterization of her as "arbitrary" to be valid, she would have had to make a conclusive judgement (e.g. "This game should be banned.") She never said anything like that. She certainly didn't paint the devs in a positive light, but is she required to? All she did was tell the truth, describe the scene, and observe that she found it disturbing. She even recognized the irony in being OK with overblown mass murder but finding sexual violence unsettling anyway. She liked the shooting but didn't like the rape. How is this substantially different from saying she liked the graphics but hated the music? She talked about it too long? Is that really the worst you can say about it?

Honestly, what would you rather she wrote?

 

[Riddler]

=

Also, can I just say re: Brian Mitsoda - what a testament to the power of connections. The man spends years and years out of the loop working on an indie project that turns out to be a humiliating disaster, but with one phone call from an old buddy he's back in the AAA saddle again.

Dead State was a pretty good game though? OR are you talking about other Brian Mistoda game. You mean nuPST?

What are you talking about? The game was painfully mediocre.

The turn based combat was puddle deep, the story shit and no characters were really compelling.

Furthermore, the system where every single character gets a turn even if they aren't involved in combat, in zones with 25+ units, makes exploration and resources gathering an absolute pain.

What exactly was good in the game?

 

[Sailor Woedica]

This sexy vampire game seems to have triggered a lot of the nosferatu members of the forum

 

[Popiel]

Okay, I've got things to do outside of stalking 'Dex all day every day, so a quick question: is there a serious threat of SJW contamination? Bloodlines is a bloody legend, if they'll fuck up Bloodlines 2...

 

[Saerain]

Nossies are sexy AF. If I can't get that Goldblum Fly look, it's an instant refund.

 

[Infinitron]

Okay, I've got things to do outside of stalking 'Dex all day every day, so a quick question: is there a serious threat of SJW contamination? Bloodlines is a bloody legend, if they'll fuck up Bloodlines 2...

If you even have to ask, the answer is "yes".

 

[Popiel]

If you even have to ask, the answer is "yes".

 

[PrettyDeadman]

=

Also, can I just say re: Brian Mitsoda - what a testament to the power of connections. The man spends years and years out of the loop working on an indie project that turns out to be a humiliating disaster, but with one phone call from an old buddy he's back in the AAA saddle again.

Dead State was a pretty good game though? OR are you talking about other Brian Mistoda game. You mean nuPST?

What are you talking about? The game was painfully mediocre.

The turn based combat was puddle deep, the story shit and no characters were really compelling.

Furthermore, the system where every single character gets a turn even if they aren't involved in combat, in zones with 25+ units, makes exploration and resources gathering an absolute pain.

What exactly was good in the game?

Don't know. I kinda liked it. I

 

[SpaceWizardz]

smallbrain opinion: writing will be bad because its written by sjws
galaxybrain opinion: writing will be bad because its written by modern video game writers

maybe one day you boys will learn to be as cool as me and not have any silly expecations about video game writers being good at their jobs

 

[Popiel]

smallbrain opinion: writing will be bad because its written by sjws
galaxybrain opinion: writing will be bad because its written by modern video game writers

maybe one day you boys will learn to be as cool as me and not have any silly expecations about video game writers being good at their jobs

I've almost written that New Vegas writing is superb (I'm playing it for the first time, and just now started Old World Blues - oh God it's good), but I remembered that it's a game from 2010. There is no escape from this hell.

 

[Prime Junta]

Seriously bros. Contra. Points.

She's a millennial Marxist trans feminist, formerly genderqueer, formerly of 4chan, who makes a mint with baroque videos on YouTube, portraying such diverse characters as Tabby the Antifa Catgirl, Abigail Cockbane the TERF, Freya the Fascist, Leonora LaVey, Dark Mother, and Lady Foppington. Her productions include such gems as, "Are traps gay," "Pronouns," "Incels," "The West," "Jordan Peterson," and "What's Wrong with Capitalism."

If there's somebody else who embodies the Zeitgeist of 2019 more perfectly, I want to know who xe is. Seriously.

ContraPoints, the only hope that VtM:B2 won't be anodyne pap. They need to hire her, stat.

 

[hivemind]

Marxist

not really

formerly of 4chan

really not really

 

[Lacrymas]

You're pretty much asking the same questions that Ellison herself was asking in her article. In order for her to truly be "arbitrary" she would have had to make a conclusive judgement (e.g. "This game should be banned.") She never said anything like that. She certainly didn't paint the devs in a positive light, but is she required to? All she did was tell the truth, describe the scene, and observe that she found it disturbing. She even recognized the irony in being OK with overblown violence but finding sexual violence unsettling anyway. She liked the shooting but didn't like the rape. How is this substantially different from saying she liked the graphics but hated the music? She talked about it too long? Is that really the worst you can say about it?

Honestly, what would you rather she wrote?

There are two main problems with what she wrote.
1. Art is not a safe space, at least not when you are voluntarily subjecting yourself to it, knowing what to expect. If we were in the Renaissance or the 18th century, where artists are payed by the aristocracy to create works which they've specified, then it is a safe space wherein violations are undesirable, but we aren't. In a capitalist environment (which is detrimental to artistic endeavors), where artists create stuff out of their own pocket, they are free to create whatever they want with no obligated considerations, especially Cara's safe spaces. Meaning she misjudges the product by viewing it through a completely false and misguided lens and shows hypocrisy while doing it. It's poor taste and that's abominable.
2. She's (probably) aware of the power she holds as an ideologue and spilling virtual ink to basically bully the developers is ...not good. It's an attempt at censorship, plain and simple. It's not a review because the entire piece is slanted towards that rape scene from the very beginning, clearly showing bias and where the important for her moment is. Is she required to not be biased? As a """journalist""", yes, but that's besides the point. She isn't required, but we also aren't required to not point out the disastrous consequences of her uneducated scribbles. What this tells us is that she shouldn't write ever again because she can't judge correctly and her incompetence makes the world a worse place.

I'm specifically avoiding the whole woman vs man violence thing because I think it's inconsequential and it's not why that "article" is bad writing.

RE: ContraPoints - she's intelligent and an aesthete, but that doesn't mean she can write fiction to explore the issues she directly talks about. Maybe she can, I don't know.

 

[Reinhardt]

Nossies are sexy AF.

In brave new world they may be actually closest to human looking characters.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I am still cautiously optimistic about this game. The studio who is making it, the Hardsuit Labs, doesn't have any experience with RPGs. The only game they've made so far was an online shooter. We know that Brian is involved as a narrative lead, which is good, but he is not the only writer and good writing (still no sure bet) won't make a good game. Bloodlines was great not because of its writing, but because it allowed you to use multiple paths and skills to solve quests (at least in first half of game). Rick as a composer - this is great news, but again, when Mark Morgan came back, he didn't produce anything on par with original Fallout or PS:T soundtrack...

 

[hivemind]

best part about bloodlines was literally voice acting, facial expressions of the characters, and the music

 

[mondblut]

you know what i'm excited about?


port of vtm:b to the vtm:b2 engine

That would be such a glow up!

Bloodlines would be like

Except weighting 300 pounds and a bulge beneath that skirt.

 

[Lacrymas]

Except weighting 300 pounds and a bulge beneath that skirt.

There is a buldge beneath that skirt.

 

[Cael]

you know what i'm excited about?


port of vtm:b to the vtm:b2 engine

That would be such a glow up!

Bloodlines would be like

Except weighting 300 pounds and a bulge beneath that skirt.

Nah. He mentioned glow. It would be more like:

 

[hivemind]

OBSESSED

 

[mondblut]

If anything, Bloodlines 2 ought to be a time capsule of 2019 if they want to realize WoD's theme of vampires being a part of modern society; that inevitably includes youngsters being into politicking again, big tech having an even greater grasp on our lives than before, people trying to find their identity outside established conventions of gender and sexual preferences, alienated loners trying to find their place in the world, and all that SJW entails. Anything short of that would be stepping on eggshells and merely pretending. I mean, this shit writes itself.

So I can vote Trump, shoot up mosques and troll transformers online into pretend suicide attempts? Whoa, cool.

Except that it won't be. It will be a "time capsule of 2019" as seen through the eyes of a very specific kind of insufferable douches.

Well, at least it will blow like Jenna Jameson and hopefully leave everybody involved penniless and neck deep in debts.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Honestly, what would you rather she wrote?

"The game contains content that I'm not comfortable reviewing."
Anything else is un-American and therefore communism.