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

[Sailor Woedica]

 

[Nines_Anarch]

 

[Sailor Woedica]

I forgot to include that in my post.........

 

[Wesp5]

I forgot to include that in my post.........

This is basically what they showed to me and all the press people when they first announced the game. I wonder why they don't release a full video already? Pretty much everybody interested in B2 has heard about this now...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I forgot to include that in my post.........

This is basically what they showed to me and all the press people when they first announced the game. I wonder why they don't release a full video already? Pretty much everybody interested in B2 has heard about this now...

Glad to see they're keeping the original VTMB developer in the information loop

 

[Life of the Party]

How Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Updates Its Treatment Of Sex Workers

TheGamer managed to sit down with Cara Ellison, Narrative Designer on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, at PDXCON 2019 to talk about the game. When we asked how the portrayal of sex workers might have evolved since the first game, she was happy to discuss.

Before we got into that, though, we needed to discuss one new aspect of the game, Resonance.

Nearly every human in the game can be fed on by the vampire main character, but they don't just provide nourishment in the form of blood. Human NPCs also have Resonances, representing dominating emotions or states of mind, which can be picked up on by heightened vampiric senses.

Explains Ellison, "So we have Delirium if you take a drug, or Desire - people standing outside a club might have Desire. You've got Rage, for obvious reasons. We've got Pain, for example."

The Resonance of a human the player feeds on will have a mechanical effect, but it also makes for a useful way to convey emotion at a distance.

"We didn't want to get rid of the sex workers, because we thought that would be disrespectful. What we do this time around is we let you see the state... people are in. One of the most interesting decisions we made is to have Johns have a 'Desirous' Resonance… and the sex workers are just bored, you know?"

In the original game, sex workers were basically blood bags you could pay for. The main character could hire one (for an unrealistically low charge), take them into a darkened alleyway, and suck their blood to replenish themselves. The game actually made it clear that the blood of these people is of a lower quality, and even so far beneath some upper-class vampires that they'd vomit after drinking it.

One questline in particular involved a cult of vampires that were deliberately spreading a deadly sexually transmitted illness by hiring sex workers to infect them, and by extension, all of their clients. Though it gave an insightful and positive depiction of a sex worker's personal and dating life that is rare to find in media, it also showed a sex worker dying because of her work. In light of the real dangers of STIs and the vulnerability of sex workers, this questline was in poor taste.

It seems there's nowhere to go but up with Bloodlines 2's sex workers, however, and this time around, at least some of them will play a much more important and respectfully depicted role in the story.

"I also have fully developed characters who are sex workers and actually a main character. Basically, I think the answer is to just have the player be able to actually actually talk to the character... about whatever it is they're concerned with, and make them a part of the narrative instead of just exclude them.

So the way that we are approaching it is hopefully more thoughtful and less like they’re a resource. Because they're just like anyone else: they are, you know, a person on the street and they are usually just as susceptible to all the labor issues as anyone else, susceptible to the cold, susceptible to health care issues, just like any other human.

We just have to treat them respectfully."

https://www.thegamer.com/vampire-masquerade-bloodlines-2-sex-workers-change/

 

[Lacrymas]

I can't wait to respect all the whores.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

One questline in particular involved a cult of vampires that were deliberately spreading a deadly sexually transmitted illness by hiring sex workers to infect them, and by extension, all of their clients. Though it gave an insightful and positive depiction of a sex worker's personal and dating life that is rare to find in media, it also showed a sex worker dying because of her work. In light of the real dangers of STIs and the vulnerability of sex workers, this questline was in poor taste.

Video games are no longer allowed to parallel real life because it's "poor taste"

 

[Ibn Sina]

What kind of retard do you have to be to even think of such a question.. Concerned about the treatment of pixelated whores in a game about vampires and monsters.

 

[Vincente]

Hey, what about the bums? Fuck the girls, give Crab Nipple his own plot.

 

[santino27]

I definitely want to play Bloodlines 2 because I'm concerned about the prostitutes' health care issues and susceptibility to the cold.

 

[Nerevar]

Using the doublespeak term "sex worker" instantly designates you as a SJW provocateur or a useful idiot for SJWism.

Hookers, Prostitutes or whores are all perfectly fine terms to use for those "people".

 

[Neanderthal]

Lady of negotiable virtue.

 

[Zer0wing]

Night fairies.

 

[bertram_tung]

all women

 

[Prime Junta]

the neckbeard is strong in this thread

 

[Lord Commissar Alexer]

Oh boy, it keeps getting better and better...

 

[santino27]

the neckbeard is strong in this thread

I don't have a problem with the general idea of making prostitutes more than blood bags in-game. Or calling them sex workers. But game development is a battle for resources, and it really seems like Cara is fixated on spending those resources on some seriously random fringe shit rather than the core game.

No shock it's been delayed.

 

[Prime Junta]

I don't have a problem with the general idea of making prostitutes more than blood bags in-game. Or calling them sex workers. But game development is a battle for resources, and it really seems like Cara is fixated on spending those resources on some seriously random fringe shit rather than the core game.

No shock it's been delayed.

I doubt making a game woke-r costs any more than making it less woke.

 

[bertram_tung]

I don't have a problem with the general idea of making prostitutes more than blood bags in-game. Or calling them sex workers. But game development is a battle for resources, and it really seems like Cara is fixated on spending those resources on some seriously random fringe shit rather than the core game.

No shock it's been delayed.

I doubt making a game woke-r costs any more than making it less woke.

you completely missed his point. he didn't say it would be more expensive. he said they would spend their limited resources on the wrong priorities.

 

[santino27]

I don't have a problem with the general idea of making prostitutes more than blood bags in-game. Or calling them sex workers. But game development is a battle for resources, and it really seems like Cara is fixated on spending those resources on some seriously random fringe shit rather than the core game.

No shock it's been delayed.

I doubt making a game woke-r costs any more than making it less woke.

By definition, if you're spending resources on one aspect (aka fleshing out minor gameplay elements like prostitutes), you have less to spend on other facets. So either they budgeted for careful respectful street walkers or they're spending time and resources on those instead of something else. It's not about it being more expensive.

 

[Neanderthal]

I vant to suck your soy!

 

[Prime Junta]

By definition, if you're spending resources on one aspect (aka fleshing out minor gameplay elements like prostitutes), you have less to spend on other facets. So either they budgeted for careful respectful street walkers or they're spending time and resources on those instead of something else. It's not about it being more expensive.

It doesn't take much longer to write "I am woke self-employed tax-paying sex worker, hire me for $100" than "I'll blow you for $20, I need my fix."

 

[Lacrymas]

20 dollars? That's some high end blowjob.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Yeah, never could see the point of this kind of reasoning from ideologues who also happen to be game writers. Only write sunshine and rainbows about any class they feel is marginalized/oppressed.

Hannah (the prostitute from the pestilence questline) dying was IMO one of the most emotionally impacting character deaths in a game (which is how you know it's good characterization). It was harsh and sad but that was par for the course given type of quest it was, part of Bloodlines charm was not shying away from depicting some of the worst of society's underbelly (sprinkled with fantasy elements of the settings obviously).

Generally speaking, Bloodlines has some of the most stellar writing and characterization for female NPCs you're ever gonna see in the gaming industry. i sincerely doubt the sequel is gonna measure up in that regard, instead we'll get boring woke cliches, meh.