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

[Lacrymas]

What a shitshow this game's announcement turned out to be. It was predictable, though, given the recent developments at White Wolf. Why couldn't they just make a good game instead of following the most annoying trend in existence and without making ridiculous "political" statements? Want to have gays in your Bloodlines game? Great! (not really, but whatever) Bloodlines 1 had gays without being an ass about it.

Or maybe it's an ingenious PR move, get everyone possible triggered so they talk about it.

 

[Luckmann]

Indeed, the verdict is very much still out on whether this will be a dumpster fire or not.

I don't understand how you can say that. It's already a dumpster-fire.

If the player isn't railroaded into being 'ideologically compliant' then there may be some hope.

The issue isn't being "ideologically compliant" or not, but whether there are realistic options. Given how far up their own political asshole they are, it's incredibly unlikely that you'll get reasonable options when not being ideologically compliant and politically correct. The new source material is already beyond absurd in this regard, and it is abundantly clear that they have no interest in actually trying to understand the positions of others beyond their own, and that "their" position is the "objectively" correct one, and that they truly believe this - and reinforces it by painting any opposition to it as whatever pejoratives they can come up with.

 

[Infinitron]

What a shitshow this game's announcement turned out to be.

Codex echo chamber alert

 

[HansDampf]

Where did they say we are going to see gameplay in 2020? The game is supposed to be released in Q1 2020.

You are going to buy the game in Q1 2020? Yes?

I probably won't.

 

[Lacrymas]

Codex echo chamber alert

How is it the Codex echo chamber when every youtuber and blogger ever is either damage controlling or ranting about it.

 

[Luckmann]

so is bloodlines 2 oh-wawd or nu-wawd of darkness

Now, sit down and try to sort this out with me. I've only recently managed to wrap my head around this, myself. I'm sure you know some of this, so I'm sorry if I sound patronizing, but there's likely people that know nothing at all.

• First there was World of Darkness. This is used in the VtM:B, which is based on Vampire: The Masquerade, Revised Edition (IIRC).
• Then, White Wolf made a new World of Darkness, which they simply called World of Darkness, and it was very different from the established setting. This was usually referenced as "nWoD".
• At this point, what used to be called World of Darkness started to be referenced as "old World of Darkness", or "oWoD", and later "Classic World of Darkness". Vampire: The Masquerade is canned, and Vampire: The Requiem is born. There's a number of sister games that suffer the same fate/are rebranded.
  
• nWoD never achieved the popularity of oWoD, for a number of reasons that are irrelevant.
• Cue White Wolf being acquired by Paradox. At this point in our story, or a little bit later, they want to create what they call "One World of Darkness". After a while, they rebrand nWoD into "Chronicles of Darkness", also referenced as "CofD". The "One World of Darkness" that they create instead is considered a continuation of oWoD, which is rebranded as simply "World of Darkness" again.
• They proceed to publish what is called V5, which is the fifth "Edition" of Vampire: The Masquerade. This is the fucking abortion Bloodlines 2 will be based on. It is technically oWod/WoD, but it is also worse in almost every way, with a massive dose of SJWism, gatekeeping, and complete faggotry just to add to the controversy.

This entire franchise is a fucking mess, and it doesn't help that some of the better/older versions are massively outdated by now. For example, Mage: The Ascension, the only (Old)/World of Darkness version of Mage AFAIK, was published in fucking 1993 and corresponds with Vampire: The Masquerade 2nd Ed. (V2), which was in itself published in fucking 1992. While there's a newer version (Mage: The Awakening, from 2005), it belongs to nWoD/CofD, just like the newer versions of Werewolf and such.

And just to add to the confusion, they couldn't even stick to a proper version format, so the versions of Vampire: The Masquerade goes like this: 1st Edition (V1, 1991) 2nd Edition (V2, 1992), Revised Edition (V3, 1998). Then we have Vampire: The Requiem (2004) in a completely different universe (nWoD). Then we get a new version of Vampire: The Masquerade, also considered a bit of an abortion, called The 20th Anniversary Edition (2011), referenced as V20. And now where here, with Paradox's Vampire: The Masquerade (2018), which is referenced as.. V5.

I suggest calling it gWoD, for the gay World of Darkness.

Codex echo chamber alert

How far up your own ass do you have to be to think that this has been anything other than a shit-show? Yeah, all the SJWs are ranting about it, but they rant about anything like the soapbox faggots they are, but it never translates into anything, because what they're looking for is a political platform and signal boosting, they rarely give a shit about the actual hobbies involved, nor does it translate to good games or sales. Shit could be the worst trash in the world and they'd still laud it as long as it promotes cocksucking.

 

[ArchAngel]

They even said we are xpected to see gameplay in 2020... what are we supposed to discuss here for a year, wtf.

Inflator will find a way to make 20 threads about it til then.

He would if this was Obsidian making it. More likely is that this gets Disco Elysium treatment.

 

[glass blackbird]

Would have thought you guys would like WoD V5. seems like the kinda thing codex likes lol

 

[Infinitron]

How far up your own ass do you have to be to think that this has been anything other than a shit-show?

I don't know, this far up? https://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=popularwishlist

Of course there's a bunch of concerned people, but there's too much countervailing positivity surrounding this game's announcement for it to be considered a "shitshow". A shitshow is something like Siege of Dragonspear's release - review bombs, Twitter ratios, waves of trolling. We don't even know enough about this game yet to have that, gotta wait to see some gameplay first.

 

[True Ukrainian]

All this complaining is like saying a restaurant is bad because one of the chefs picks his nose in the kitchen. Its dirty and gross, but if nobody told you about it, you would have eaten the food anyway.

 

[Luckmann]

In case anyone needed a reminder why V5 and Bloodlines 2 is so fucking shit.

Also, they practically removed Smiling Jack, who now has a single mention in the V5 Anarch book, from being a major and important Anarch character, and replaced him with the literal fucking meme that is Damsel, who is now characterized as setting up fuckmeets with whyte mails just to kill them. Not even joking. It's cringe^200.

People are wishlisting a game, therefore it's popular and the announcement not a shitshow xD

Come now, Inshillitron, you cannot be this retarded.

All this complaining is like saying a restaurant is bad because one of the chefs picks his nose in the kitchen. Its dirty and gross, but if nobody told you about it, you would have eaten the food anyway.

Except the kitchen is in plain view, and the food looks awful. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, and you saw the chef put literal shit on the vegetables before cutting them, odds are that you're not just going to be reluctant to eat it, but that it actually tastes like shit, too.

 

[PhantasmaNL]

this game set a record time for going from 'wow, promising!' to 'utter and total garbage, day-1 pirate the hell out of it for lulz and funny YT vidz'

holy shit did you see that spec sheet for Rudy.

The cringe is so massive it is actually physically nauseating.

And, "White Wolf"

thats kinda racist. Should probably changed in Gender-fluid Wolf of any Colour but hWite (or orange).

 

[Lacrymas]

All those preorders are knee-jerk mindless reactions "because it's Bloodlines!". SoD's debacle was artificially made, while it's a more catechistic RPG than BL2 will ever be, everyone got a little bit too emotional over the tranny, this game looks like it will be like SoD, but 10x.

 

[Cael]

In case anyone needed a reminder why V5 and Bloodlines 2 is so fucking shit.

Also, they practically removed Smiling Jack, who now has a single mention in the V5 Anarch book, from being a major and important Anarch character, and replaced him with the literal fucking meme that is Damsel, who is now characterized as setting up fuckmeets with whyte mails just to kill them. Not even joking. It's cringe^200.

People are wishlisting a game, therefore it's popular and the announcement not a shitshow xD

Come now, Inshillitron, you cannot be this retarded.

All this complaining is like saying a restaurant is bad because one of the chefs picks his nose in the kitchen. Its dirty and gross, but if nobody told you about it, you would have eaten the food anyway.

Except the kitchen is in plain view, and the food looks awful. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, and you saw the chef put literal shit on the vegetables before cutting them, odds are that you're not just going to be reluctant to eat it, but that it actually tastes like shit, too.

Paradox offered the infiniteshill a free copy, mate. He's gonna be screaming the joint down defending the post-natal abortion that is V5 just as he did the HBS game, where kevin gave him a free poke.

 

[Latro]

MCA was warming infinitron up for this, so that he may be baited into shilling his soul away for bloodlines 2...truly this is a top 10 anime betrayal

 

[Luckmann]

All those preorders are knee-jerk mindless reactions "because it's Bloodlines!". SoD's debacle was artificially made, while it's a more catechistic RPG than BL2 will ever be, everyone got a little bit too emotional over the tranny, this game looks like it will be like SoD, but 10x.

Yeah, we have to remember that the vast majority are not involved in the discussions, nor keep track of any developments. They just think it sounds or looks cool. But if you actually take the time to look, they're on full-on damage control mode, and for good reason. Tons of even long-term fans of VtM, one of the TTRPG scene's biggest faggots and edgelords, think that V5 is shit.

There's a reason why Revised Edition and Anniversary Edition are still the most popular. Sure, they'll be overtaken by nu-fans at some point, especially due to the expanding PnP market and popularization of nu-RPGs in the wake of D&D 5e faggotry, but it's fucking crazy that so many, starved for so long, didn't jump on V5 right away, but instead shit on it relentlessly.

 

[Storyfag]

In case anyone needed a reminder why V5 and Bloodlines 2 is so fucking shit.

Also, they practically removed Smiling Jack, who now has a single mention in the V5 Anarch book, from being a major and important Anarch character, and replaced him with the literal fucking meme that is Damsel, who is now characterized as setting up fuckmeets with whyte mails just to kill them. Not even joking. It's cringe^200.

People are wishlisting a game, therefore it's popular and the announcement not a shitshow xD

Come now, Inshillitron, you cannot be this retarded.

All this complaining is like saying a restaurant is bad because one of the chefs picks his nose in the kitchen. Its dirty and gross, but if nobody told you about it, you would have eaten the food anyway.

Except the kitchen is in plain view, and the food looks awful. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, and you saw the chef put literal shit on the vegetables before cutting them, odds are that you're not just going to be reluctant to eat it, but that it actually tastes like shit, too.

Obligatory reminder that PnP material might have little bearing on the quality of the CRPG. Especially since P-dox nuked White Wolf completely now, and it was White Wolf who created xir Rudi.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Codex echo chamber alert

How is it the Codex echo chamber when every youtuber and blogger ever is either damage controlling or ranting about it.

Er, because YouTubers who talk about video games are part of the same reactionary echo chamber? I can’t watch gameplay footage of anything without their fucking algorithm recommending a dozen videos about “how SJWs are ruining [insert franchise here],” even though I’m very clearly not the target audience for this stuff (and YouTube should know this because as a Google subsidiary they’ve read all my goddamn emails). But right wing conspiracy/outrage mongering is apparently really good for YouTube’s engagement numbers. All the content you’re watching is pitched to the same audience, hence echo chamber.

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/youtube-conspiracy-radicalization.php

 

[Luckmann]

Obligatory reminder that PnP material might have little bearing on the quality of the CRPG. Especially since P-dox nuked White Wolf completely now, and it was White Wolf who created xir Rudi.

Obligatory reminder that Paradox nuked White Wolf because they weren't progressive enough. The whole "reee vampiric LGBT death camps"-thing, and so on. While White Wolf themselves were "bad enough", this is, if anything, another case of "the left eats their own", with Paradox reacting to "problematic" this or thats. Given that Paradox in general have proven to be extremely politically ignorant and reacted to criticism by means of insulation and doubling down, there is absolutely no reason to think that the PnP material might have little bearing on the CRPG, especially since V5 was formulated as a base for the vidya, which is hinted at in V5 Core.

 

[Cael]

In case anyone needed a reminder why V5 and Bloodlines 2 is so fucking shit.

Also, they practically removed Smiling Jack, who now has a single mention in the V5 Anarch book, from being a major and important Anarch character, and replaced him with the literal fucking meme that is Damsel, who is now characterized as setting up fuckmeets with whyte mails just to kill them. Not even joking. It's cringe^200.

People are wishlisting a game, therefore it's popular and the announcement not a shitshow xD

Come now, Inshillitron, you cannot be this retarded.

All this complaining is like saying a restaurant is bad because one of the chefs picks his nose in the kitchen. Its dirty and gross, but if nobody told you about it, you would have eaten the food anyway.

Except the kitchen is in plain view, and the food looks awful. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, and you saw the chef put literal shit on the vegetables before cutting them, odds are that you're not just going to be reluctant to eat it, but that it actually tastes like shit, too.

Obligatory reminder that PnP material might have little bearing on the quality of the CRPG. Especially since P-dox nuked White Wolf completely now, and it was White Wolf who created xir Rudi.

Reminder that- Damnit! Fucking ninja'd by Luckmann...

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

In case anyone needed a reminder why V5 and Bloodlines 2 is so fucking shit.

ah no wonder they went with more SJW content and PR. they think that this is their target market.

lol, so this is what people were talking about with the gay muslim stuff. oh wow. be a shame if someone told their local imam about this.

 

[Feargus Jewhart]

In case anyone needed a reminder why V5 and Bloodlines 2 is so fucking shit.

Also, they practically removed Smiling Jack, who now has a single mention in the V5 Anarch book, from being a major and important Anarch character, and replaced him with the literal fucking meme that is Damsel, who is now characterized as setting up fuckmeets with whyte mails just to kill them. Not even joking. It's cringe^200.Come now, Inshillitron, you cannot be this retarded.Except the kitchen is in plain view, and the food looks awful. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, and you saw the chef put literal shit on the vegetables before cutting them, odds are that you're not just going to be reluctant to eat it, but that it actually tastes like shit, too.

If I could, I would rate this post edgy. I hope someone does it for me. I feel like half of the people talking about Bloodlines here are wearing some strong nostalgia goggles and not remembering how caricature a lot of the characters were. Smiling Jack didn't basically get removed, he became a pirate once again and sets sail to Libertatia in Madagascar to revolutionize the Anarch movement. That was in Beckett's Jyhad diary.

Damsel was always this edgy and her going to kill white males is pretty much what her personality was always like. Even in the original bloodlines she wants to go out and kill fascists, anyone part of the "establishment" and she makes a point about it a few times, that the only thing stopping her from doing that is Nines. For fucks sake, her character inspiration was Che Guevara and during her questline she won't even engage in a proper conversation and only screeches and shouts at the fledgling until the fledgling does exactly what she wants.

Damsel is an anarch brujah who was a constant cunt during the whole game. She had fits regularly towards the player and would threaten about doing super edgy things

Spoiler

Kue-jin dialogue where she threatens to go tie the "demon whores" eyelashes to her ass hair among other things, her getting triggered and screeching audibly whenever someone mentioned LaCroix, calling him a fascist dandy prince among other things, or when she rants about caping for the establishment ten times and hopes anyone non communist gets ripped to shreds, or if you side with camarilla she states that if nines hadn't told her to stop her sperging that she would rip you to shreds there and then for being part of the "establishment".

 

[Ismaul]

"Rudi: Wait for your turn, Tobias. It's you next Karina."

lul at the obvious agenda

And then I read the next page. Who the fuck describes themselves seriously as a cishet white male?

 

[Black]

Antifa vampires, because the trash cans are too close to finding out about the kindred.
And fuck roads too for good measure.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Smiling Jack didn't basically get removed, he became a pirate once again and sets sail to Libertatia in Madagascar to revolutionize the Anarch movement.

Poochie went back to his home planet. A rose by any other name.

Damsel was always this edgy and her going to kill white males is pretty much what her personality was always like.

Even in the original bloodlines she wants to go out and kill fascists, anyone part of the "establishment" and she makes a point about it a few times, that the only thing stopping her from doing that is Nines.

The establishment has nothing to do with race though. It has to do with wealth, power and influence. Racial elements have been added only in order to deepen the divide for politics. And you can tell it's only about politics because its only discussed so far as political correctness will allow. Many of the world's wealthiest are Jews, but you will never hear an ANTIFA member ranting about Jewish bankers.

This is especially odd to see in the VTM setting, as this is a world of vampires. They're not even human and can't reproduce conventionally. It doesn't matter to a vampire anarchist if white person is in charge or if it's Ogoo Boogoo the sub-Saharan nigger.

What matters is that they enforce the Masquerade at gunpoint and are ruling the world from the shadows.

Kue-jin dialogue where she threatens to go tie the "demon whores" eyelashes to her ass hair among other things

Weird how she isn't cheering on a "woman of color" for taking on the white patriarchy, isn't it?