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World
of Darkness was officially announced years ago, but
ever since, little has been revealed about the game or the progress of
its
development. EVE Vegas may be all about EVE, but that didn’t
stop me from
cornering David Reid, CCP's Chief Marketing Officer, in the press room and drilling him with questions about
what we
can expect from World of Darkness. Fortunately, he was a good sport and
only
flinched slightly when I dragged out a blindingly bright spotlight and
metal
chair for him to sit in. At the time, I didn’t realize David
had been in the
Army, so that explains how he held up to my interrogation so well.
Gamers
that haven’t been following the project closely
will be happy to know that it’s been confirmed that World of
Darkness will
initially be set in the Vampire: The Masquerade timeline. Fans of the
World of
Darkness universe will have to wait and see if other White Wolf
projects such
as Mage, Exalted, Werewolf, etc. make their way into the game later.
David
didn’t rule anything out, but thoughts like this are so far
off in the future
that aside from some possible thought put to potential future technical
capabilities,
those other settings are not a focus.
Since
it’s been so long since we’ve heard any real news
about the game, I had to ask what’s up with the project and
why has the team
remained so silent. David was quick to let the development team off the
hook
for their silence and took all the blame himself. As David explains,
there is a
fine line to walk in the art of creating excitement about a
game’s launch so
for the most part, fans are going to have to wait a while longer before
he’ll
let the World of Darkness development team off the proverbial leash.
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The
moment you reveal a significant amount of information
about a game, it automatically creates an unspoken promise to continue
revealing information. If this reveal is too early, it’s next
to impossible to
keep everyone interested for an extended period of time.
We’ve all been there
and seen development teams start the hype train over a year before the
release
of their game. That kind of intense excitement and anticipation can
only be
upheld for so long before potential players begin to lose interest.
With
that out of the way, I immediately began asking
about what type of game we can expect World of Darkness to be. At this,
David
quickly lit up (and not just because of the aforementioned spotlight)
and
explained that “it is absolutely [leaning towards] the
sandbox side.” At the
same time, a lot of the PvE in the game is going to be much different
than what
players of standard MMO games are used to. He goes on to explain,
“World
of Darkness is a scary place.”
“There
are things out there you just
shouldn’t be messing with no matter how bad ass you think you
are.” This
leads him to talk about how some of the PvE content in World of
Darkness may
revolve around avoidance, rather than straight combat. You may need to
get an
item from a scary mob that you quickly realize isn’t going to
be taken down by
you, “no matter how many of your friends you bring
along”. You’re going to need
to explore different avenues of attacking the situation rather than
strictly
combat. Expect to see a number of things done differently in World of
Darkness
when compared to other MMOs.
This
sets up a number of new gameplay elements players can
expect to see. As a fan of the pen and paper version of Vampire: The
Masquerade, I can see why this fits into the spirit of the game
perfectly. The
campaigns I used to play in involved very little
combat, but there was tons of intrigue, politics, betrayal, and more.
Bringing
this to an MMO would certainly set World of Darkness apart from its
competitors.
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Before
I let David out from under the Spotlight of Truth,
I asked him about player created content. It may be all the rage right
now in
multiple games, but both Vampire: The Masquerade PC games (Redemption
and
Bloodlines) had a massive following of fans that used the storyteller
mode for
years. To me, World of Darkness is the first game that some form of
player
created content is mandatory, not an option. David couldn’t
go into details,
but he did give us a couple tidbits. Number one, there will not be a
toolset
like that provided in Bloodlines, or BioWare’s Neverwinter
Nights. The
player-created missions in City of Heroes is also
something it’s not going to be.
Second, “There are
things we are doing that
will reward players for creating content as it is consumed by other
players.” “It’s
something that we think can happen not
just in the game itself, but [also] on the web, on mobile devices, and
things like
that. How you as a participant in the World of Darkness universe are
creating
things that other people are consuming. Whether it’s items in
the game, whether
it’s stories that they’re reading, tips, and things
like that.”
As
they say, talk is cheap, but there is one
massive reason I’m willing to give CCP the benefit of the
doubt, not the least
of which is this – EVE Online is the only MMORPG (ever) to
have 10 years of
consecutive player growth. Companies out there are more than welcome to
argue
with me, but trust me… if they had steady growth in their
game’s population
year after year for a decade, they’d be as public with their
subscription
numbers as CCP is in regards to EVE Online. That tells me that the
company
knows how to create a complex and genuinely engaging game that
won’t appeal to
everyone, but will appeal to some. And those it does spark a fire in
will be
there for the long haul, not gone in a month to see what shiny new game has
shipped that they’ll also quit in a month. That is exactly
the types of game
players need. Personally, I can’t wait.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Darkness Game Page.