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

[Flying Dutchman]

If that is true, and with a huge chance that Rik Schaffer isn't involved anymore either (as he is publishing all his music with Sony now), they can pretty much stop calling it Bloodlines 2, because they were all that connected the two games.

If Womb Music is out, that also means the voice director, too, right?

I wonder if Damsel's voice actor is aware of all she stepped into on this one, oh boy.

 

[Roguey]

I wonder if Damsel's voice actor is aware of all she stepped into on this one, oh boy.

If all the writing's gone, her character might be gone entirely as well (and good riddance, her presence in Seattle felt forced). She still gets paid though so it's fine.

 

[Lambach]

If indeed they are throwing all the tumblr trash Cucksoda and his gender fluid mistress wrote, then this is a massive incline and the first great news one has heard about this project.

Bruh, they will all just be replaced by a nearly identical cadre of lesser-known Tumblr trash willing to work for less money, stop kidding yourself.

Besides, that's precisely the type of people who would be attracted by the source material they're going with (V5), so it's not like there's any hope there to begin with at all.

 

[Rean]

Yeah, the alternative to Mitsoda is not going to be something better, don't kid yourself.

 

[Chippy]

I know I already posted a coda, but this one's too funny not to share.

Lack of honesty by management
Jun 30, 2021 - Anonymous Employee

Pros

401k, decent pay if you're otherwise used to only knowing contract pay positions in the area, really nice coworkers.

Cons

Lack of drive by managment, lack of transparency by managment, false promises, poor morale, no room for growth, lots of talk of diversity but laid off most of their women/people of color/non gender conforming people while touting how totally diverse the studio is, poor structure and planning.

Advice to Management

You need to respect your employees. Don't keep stringing people along saying how there's "totally more work" down the line. The reason you're hemorrhaging employees is because of this lack of honesty. People know they can't trust upper management. If there is a problem with gaining or keeping work for projects, you are at the least obligated to communicate this instead of last second cutting people's employment to just save a few bucks on your end. People are owed that communication at the very least or a heads up to find other opportunities. This sort of treatment by upper management feels unprofessional and how quickly they let it happen can be incredibly damaging to real people's lives. Your employees are people too. Giving people a few days notice of layoffs is absolutely unacceptable and speaks to your respect of your employees.

This person will never stop to think about why those particular persons were the ones to get laid off during a cash-crunched period for the company.

Did I read that correctly: $401k a year for making RPGs?. I can't find out who the developer is, and where thay're based, so I'm assuming that's Venezuelen Soveriegn Bolivar or something...

 

[Infinitron]

401k is the American term for a pension fund.

 

[santino27]

401k is the American term for a pension fund.

More or less, although a pension is funded by the employer, while a 401k comes out of the employee's paycheck, pre-tax. (Albeit with a possible match from the employer up to a certain %).

 

[Monkey Baron]

This is two weeks old but it wasn't brought up here. Rik Schaffer did an AMA on reddit.

Pretty strong words from him. I think "Carla" is meant to be Cara.

This is a really lovely piece of trivia. I think we can all agree that the casting for VTMB was excellent.

 

[Wesp5]

Wow, thanks for those infos! I didn't know that Brian was already pissed off that much during Bloodlines 1 development . No wonder he might not have moved the way that Paradox wanted with Bloodlines 2 so they got rid of him...

 

[Delterius]

Marge Tang for president.

 

[d1r]

So it's safe to assume that their next take on Bloodlines 2 will look even worse?

lol

 

[Wesp5]

So it's safe to assume that their next take on Bloodlines 2 will look even worse?

Well, we could take a look at VtM Bloodhunt, their battle royale game breaking the Masquerade left and right as soon as somebody in Prague looks out of the window...

 

[Cael]

So it's safe to assume that their next take on Bloodlines 2 will look even worse?

Well, we could take a look at VtM Bloodhunt, their battle royale game breaking the Masquerade left and right as soon as somebody in Prague looks out of the window...

The Masquerade is a patriarchal construct. Black Weasel wouldn't want to support such a thing.

 

[Vincente]

their battle royale game breaking the Masquerade left and right as soon as somebody in Prague looks out of the window...

Blood Hunt mission in Santa Monica broke Masquerade left and right too.

 

[Wesp5]

their battle royale game breaking the Masquerade left and right as soon as somebody in Prague looks out of the window...

Blood Hunt mission in Santa Monica broke Masquerade left and right too.

Yes, but the affected area was much smaller and it was only a small part of a larger game. Bloodhunt is basically Vampire: Break the Masquerade !

 

[Roguey]

Chair-kicking moment is additional evidence that my ancient source who told me that Mitsoda was an egotistical primadonna who was difficult to work with was on the level.

 

[S.torch]

Egotistical primadonna? No, every artist can, should and often will be upset if his or her art is not respected, be it music, story, paintings, and etcetera. And if he is not, there is a problem here. Because it means that he doesn't stand for what he is doing.

 

[Roguey]

Egotistical primadonna? No, every artist can, should and often will be upset if his or her art is not respected, be it music, story, paintings, and etcetera. And if he is not, there is a problem here. Because it means that he doesn't stand for what he is doing.

If he was making art, he'd be making his own things instead of coming in as a hired gun for a licensed product. Turns out his idea of art was Dead State and Panic at Multiverse High, which was uh....

 

[Zombra]

Egotistical primadonna? No, every artist can, should and often will be upset if his or her art is not respected, be it music, story, paintings, and etcetera. And if he is not, there is a problem here. Because it means that he doesn't stand for what he is doing.

An artist can be a true artist and an egotistical prima donna at the same time. There's a reason it's called the "artistic temperament".

If he was making art, he'd be making his own things instead of coming in as a hired gun for a licensed product. Turns out his idea of art was Dead State and Panic at Multiverse High, which was uh....

Yeah, because no real artist throughout history has had to work on projects funded by other people. Oh wait

 

[S.torch]

If he was making art, he'd be making his own things instead of

Oh, I agree that if you're a creator in these times the best you can do is making your own thing. However the first (or the second) of these games was released in 2004. In that time:

- The indie scene in games had not taken so much force and impulse.
- Many people didn't think that the corpos would throw them under the bus later on as hard.

So, while I agree, I can still feel certain sympathy for people who in that time didn't see the writing in the wall. After all, they thought that it was an equal relationship betweem them and the corpos. In which they have a say. Now is more obvious than ever that corpos will get you the boot for whatever reason they like, even if you didn't do anything wrong.

But again, many people didn't neccesary think that back then.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah, because no real artist throughout history has had to work on projects funded by other people. Oh wait

Key parts of my post involved licensed settings and his own personal projects.

 

[agris]

Turns out his idea of art was Dead State and Panic at Multiverse High, which was uh....

 

[Zombra]

Yeah, because no real artist throughout history has had to work on projects funded by other people. Oh wait

Key parts of my post involved licensed settings and his own personal projects.

Well, if you want to pick that apart, we can. The writing and plotting in Dead State was perfectly good*, and Multiverse High was very obviously Annie's project, so your derision of Brian's essential creativity is baseless edginess. Your second implication is that no artist ever has to worry about money if they are any good, which is obviously idiotic. So I'm not sure what your actual point is.

*In b4 someone quotes a line or points out one character that wasn't that great.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Chair-kicking moment is additional evidence that my ancient source who told me that Mitsoda was an egotistical primadonna who was difficult to work with was on the level.

but ?

:: Tell me more, tell me more ::
:: Like was chair-kicking on par? ::

If it was Activision, though, I imagine that was a routine meeting.

 

[Roguey]

:: Like was chair-kicking on par? ::

No specific details, just general claims.