World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[Skinwalker]

Does this mean Dumpsterphyre is getting cancelled?

 

[Tyranicon]

You are speaking as if other places in tech are better right now, even though layoffs happen in Microsoft/Facebook/Amazon/etc every time.

Tech has always been a shaky place, but I know for a fact that many coders consider gamedev the bottom of the barrel for salaries. This is true across the board for most positions. Imagine being both wary of layoffs and being underpaid and crunch culture.

It's an entire industry that preys off the enthusiasm and dreams of the young.

 

[Paul_cz]

"Still wakes the deep" has a male protagonist and I would guess 95% of all NPCs are male too, because it plays on an oil rig...

There are about 5 or 6 NPCs and one of them is called Finlay and kinda looks and sounds like a dude, but they call him her, so..no idea if it is some butch woman or trans or whatever. The game does not elaborate on that at all (which I prefer tbh). Still it did made me do a double take the first time I noticed that and took me out of the experience a bit.

 

[Eirinjas]

Honestly I never paid much attention to this because I don't think Bloodlines needs or deserves a sequel and I could care less - but I'm now just finding out Malkavian and Nosferatu aren't playable in the sequel? What the fuck are they thinking? Those two clans being playable is one of the main reasons Bloodlines is worth playing.

Nosferatu are too much work and hardly anyone played one (most people don't want to be an ugly vampire). Malkavian is probably a DLC clan.

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

 

[Roguey]

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

They have their fans, but Tim Cain said that not a single person in Activision's QA team played one.

 

[Eirinjas]

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

They have their fans, but Tim Cain said that not a single person in Activision's QA team played one.

They should hire heterosexuals to do their QA.

 

[Baron Tahn]

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

They have their fans, but Tim Cain said that not a single person in Activision's QA team played one.

Haha wot? Isn't it their job to play them, especially lesser played aspects of the game? Bizzare.

 

[santino27]

You are speaking as if other places in tech are better right now, even though layoffs happen in Microsoft/Facebook/Amazon/etc every time.

Tech has always been a shaky place, but I know for a fact that many coders consider gamedev the bottom of the barrel for salaries. This is true across the board for most positions. Imagine being both wary of layoffs and being underpaid and crunch culture.

It's an entire industry that preys off the enthusiasm and dreams of the young.

I wouldn't have touched it with the standard-issue 10' pole when I was working. Better money and hours and way less bullshit in most other industries. Not sure if the latter has changed with DEI invading corporate culture everywhere.

 

[Wesp5]

They have their fans, but Tim Cain said that not a single person in Activision's QA team played one.

Haha wot? Isn't it their job to play them, especially lesser played aspects of the game? Bizzare.

They overlooked a game breaking bug that only happened for Nosferatu, so while they might have tested them some, obviously nobody in QA ever finished the whole game with them.

 

[Storyfag]

Honestly I never paid much attention to this because I don't think Bloodlines needs or deserves a sequel and I could care less - but I'm now just finding out Malkavian and Nosferatu aren't playable in the sequel? What the fuck are they thinking? Those two clans being playable is one of the main reasons Bloodlines is worth playing.

Nosferatu are too much work and hardly anyone played one (most people don't want to be an ugly vampire). Malkavian is probably a DLC clan.

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

OH SWEET LORD JESUS! <drops dead>

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Honestly I never paid much attention to this because I don't think Bloodlines needs or deserves a sequel and I could care less - but I'm now just finding out Malkavian and Nosferatu aren't playable in the sequel? What the fuck are they thinking? Those two clans being playable is one of the main reasons Bloodlines is worth playing.

Nosferatu are too much work and hardly anyone played one (most people don't want to be an ugly vampire). Malkavian is probably a DLC clan.

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

OH SWEET LORD JESUS! <drops dead>

These small, seemingly insignificant scenes together create the element that was the first Bloodlines was. This game was so cool not because it was about vampires, but because it said something about our world through vampires. Isn't it ironic that the old bar lady who thought she had seen it all dies after seeing the real monster, the one thing she couldn't predict? Life is full of things like this and that's why Vampire: the Bloodlines is a very life-like game. To create something like this you need life experience. Not literally, you're not a vampire, but it's about channeling experiences into fiction that bears the hallmarks of the experience itself.

What experience do the creators of Bloodlines 2 have? I bet their lives are a mix of Twitter, chatting in a hipster bar over a bowl of vegan noodles, hearing about black menstruation on the BBC, arguing about pronouns at work and those little moments when they actually work.

 

[J1M]

How does it work? You fire people from senior positions and ? Who's gonna do their work now?

If the narrative wasn't designed by this point, the wrong person was working on it.

 

[J1M]

'Oh, your done? No more narrative to construct? Fkn see ya LATER!' And just booted them out the door.

Who would even want to work for them if that was the case?

People who have an ideology to push instead of a family to care for.

 

[Raghar]

"Still wakes the deep" has a male protagonist and I would guess 95% of all NPCs are male too, because it plays on an oil rig...

There are about 5 or 6 NPCs and one of them is called Finlay and kinda looks and sounds like a dude, but they call him her, so..no idea if it is some butch woman or trans or whatever. The game does not elaborate on that at all (which I prefer tbh). Still it did made me do a double take the first time I noticed that and took me out of the experience a bit.

I just saw that played on cohh stream. Bunch of people with IQ 90 were running around and random character was screaming at main character how he should repair stuff while he's working hard by looking at random controls to find fault in electricity wiring. While third one played as a random monster and was running around and screamed "I'd get you for all two years when I was menially working while you two were killing your asses in the office." Or something like that.

(There would be probably romance with some 170cm 90 kg IQ 90 whale who got love interest with main character and he positively responded thus the game had happy ending.)

It's fucking parkour game.

 

[The President]

If you don’t truly have a love and passion for games, it’s not a business for you. Remote work has helped a lot where if you have to change jobs (quite common) it’s not a major relocation constantly, but it’s a fight until you have enough clout to be safe and offered good jobs.

 

[whydoibother]

If you don’t truly have a love and passion for games, it’s not a business for you. Remote work has helped a lot where if you have to change jobs (quite common) it’s not a major relocation constantly, but it’s a fight until you have enough clout to be safe and offered good jobs.

If you have the skills to be a good video game developer, you can probably make 2x the money per hour by developing some accounting/warehouse/finance software, by yourself or as a hired worker.
Nobody should be joining video game develpment for the money, there's better money elsewhere. Its like learning to play guitar for the money. Yes, 20-30 people on the planet get rich doing it. You probably won't. If you have no passion for music or sports, don't do music or sports. Almost nobody gets rich doing it. Same for gamedev.

 

[Baron Tahn]

Well it goes quite a long way to explaining why games are shit if all the talent is making business software. Thats like my industry, all the talent is making advertising.

 

[whydoibother]

Well it goes quite a long way to explaining why games are shit if all the talent is making business software. Thats like my industry, all the talent is making advertising.

Which is the better business model: negotiate a plan and get paid for it, then fulfill it; or work for 2-3 years on something, with zero income but payng full wages, and then release it to see if it sells? Because the former is advertising, the later is video games.

 

[Wesp5]

How does it work? You fire people from senior positions and ? Who's gonna do their work now?

If the narrative wasn't designed by this point, the wrong person was working on it.

This might be true for the main game, but isn't Paradox known for making many DLCs and announced two for BL2 already?

 

[The President]

How does it work? You fire people from senior positions and ? Who's gonna do their work now?

If the narrative wasn't designed by this point, the wrong person was working on it.

This might be true for the main game, but isn't Paradox known for making many DLCs and announced two for BL2 already?

They did announce at least two from I remember. Paradox is also known for making tons of DLC for their products, but that’s for their in house studio games. Who knows what they’ll do with this as it’s a third party developer.

It was also Sumo digital that initiated the layoffs. Paradox didn’t have anything to do with it.

 

[S.torch]

This game was so cool not because it was about vampires

Nope. One of the reasons Bloodlines was cool was because it's about vampires. And I would say every single piece of fiction gains a few points if they include vampires too. Vampires are a cool archetype that borrow themselves for a different type of story from the ones we're so accustomed to see today. They're suited for a darker tone, reminiscences of the past, and the presence of strict hierarchies.

Take them out and what you've left is some cheap worldbuilding and milquetoast "capitalism bad" takes. Precisely what these guys are doing with this "sequel".

 

[Vincente]

Take them out and what you've left is some cheap worldbuilding and milquetoast "capitalism bad" takes. Precisely what these guys are doing with this "sequel".

We haven't seen anything related to both of those.

 

[Semiurge]

Honestly I never paid much attention to this because I don't think Bloodlines needs or deserves a sequel and I could care less - but I'm now just finding out Malkavian and Nosferatu aren't playable in the sequel? What the fuck are they thinking? Those two clans being playable is one of the main reasons Bloodlines is worth playing.

Nosferatu are too much work and hardly anyone played one (most people don't want to be an ugly vampire). Malkavian is probably a DLC clan.

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

OH SWEET LORD JESUS! <drops dead>

Hold on, that's problematic right there - featuring playable characters so ugly, that their mere presence can cause heart attacks. This is oppressive towards all those 1-3 people in the attractiveness scale. Some of them play games too, and have the right to a safe space within World of Darkness.

Honestly I never paid much attention to this because I don't think Bloodlines needs or deserves a sequel and I could care less - but I'm now just finding out Malkavian and Nosferatu aren't playable in the sequel? What the fuck are they thinking? Those two clans being playable is one of the main reasons Bloodlines is worth playing.

Nosferatu are too much work and hardly anyone played one (most people don't want to be an ugly vampire). Malkavian is probably a DLC clan.

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

OH SWEET LORD JESUS! <drops dead>

These small, seemingly insignificant scenes together create the element that was the first Bloodlines was. This game was so cool not because it was about vampires, but because it said something about our world through vampires. Isn't it ironic that the old bar lady who thought she had seen it all dies after seeing the real monster, the one thing she couldn't predict? Life is full of things like this and that's why Vampire: the Bloodlines is a very life-like game. To create something like this you need life experience. Not literally, you're not a vampire, but it's about channeling experiences into fiction that bears the hallmarks of the experience itself.

What experience do the creators of Bloodlines 2 have? I bet their lives are a mix of Twitter, chatting in a hipster bar over a bowl of vegan noodles, hearing about black menstruation on the BBC, arguing about pronouns at work and those little moments when they actually work.

You don't need life experience for creating a fun game, in fact most historically succesful game writers/designers were very young and thus lacking in experience. You just need a working imagination, a passion for the art and the lack of a IQ90 committee of DEI-tokens hampering your efforts.

 

[S.torch]

Take them out and what you've left is some cheap worldbuilding and milquetoast "capitalism bad" takes. Precisely what these guys are doing with this "sequel".

We haven't seen anything related to both of those.

I meant in general, isn't like the source material is too great either.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

This game was so cool not because it was about vampires

Nope. One of the reasons Bloodlines was cool was because it's about vampires. And I would say every single piece of fiction gains a few points if they include vampires too. Vampires are a cool archetype that borrow themselves for a different type of story from the ones we're so accustomed to see today. They're suited for a darker tone, reminiscences of the past, and the presence of strict hierarchies.

Take them out and what you've left is some cheap worldbuilding and milquetoast "capitalism bad" takes. Precisely what these guys are doing with this "sequel".

Bloodlines 2 has vampires and somehow it doesn't look cool. What can be said about every new game in this universe.

Now imagine that the original Bloodlines was not a game about vampires but about the mafia and its branches. Still sounds cool, right?

Honestly I never paid much attention to this because I don't think Bloodlines needs or deserves a sequel and I could care less - but I'm now just finding out Malkavian and Nosferatu aren't playable in the sequel? What the fuck are they thinking? Those two clans being playable is one of the main reasons Bloodlines is worth playing.

Nosferatu are too much work and hardly anyone played one (most people don't want to be an ugly vampire). Malkavian is probably a DLC clan.

Nosferatu was not only interesting to play in Bloodlines, but I never laughed harder in any game I have ever played. If you haven't played as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines, you haven't lived.

OH SWEET LORD JESUS! <drops dead>

Hold on, that's problematic right there - featuring playable characters so ugly, that their mere presence can cause heart attacks. This is oppressive towards all those 1-3 people in the attractiveness scale. Some of them play games too, and have the right to a safe space within World of Darkness.

You don't need life experience for creating a fun game, in fact most historically succesful game writers/designers were very young and thus lacking in experience. You just need a working imagination, a passion for the art and the lack of a IQ90 committee of DEI-tokens hampering your efforts.

Experience is always needed when you create. The trick is to transcribe your inner experience into fiction. Victor Hugo was not a hunchback bell ringer in medieval Paris, nor had he seen medieval Paris. But his novel is true in the sense that it is saturated with the life truth that only art can convey.

I realize that no one at Troika had the experience or inner life to write "Notre-Dame de Paris", but they had enough of them to make a cool game about vampires, tits and shooting. These guys from the UK seem like human shells. There's nothing inside there. Just a little woke.