(no subject)

[vaxjedi]

It's another late night and I made the mistake of reading a few old RPGNet threads on the end of the World of Darkness.



What continues to astound me is the vehemence at which the announcement is being met. There are people who seem genuinely frothing furious about it.

Several people feel like they've been 'betrayed' by White Wolf. People are saying that White Wolf has an 'ethical responsibility' to make sure that the core books or clanbooks are readily available to new players. I wonder we never see those sort of responses to when other gaming companies stop printing books from a particular game. Where are all of the Space 1889 players rioting in the streets? Why is it so incredibly vital to 'preserve' Vampire such that people are demanding that White Wolf release their claim of intellectual property on it? Why is it such a crime for White Wolf to stop printing and not go public domain, but not a big deal for other game publishers?

And I think I have realized why people have reacted so violently. They aren't reacting to the end of the game as they are reacting to what they think is the end of a culture.

Vampire has been around for 13 years. It revitalized the gaming industry and all. But I think that people have under-estimated the culture that has grown around the game, fueled by the LARP explosion based on Vampire.

I am reminded of a little game I tried to start in Redlands, CA. Some people from Pasadena came up to play from a big independent LARP group there. They were veteran gamers and obsessed even by my standards. They guy with the photographic memory had read every WW book and committed it to memory (he claimed). One of them told me that they all worked for a Fortune 500 company and they had high stress corporate jobs. And she said that what they did after work was LARPed. That was pretty much it. This was the extent of their social lives.

And I can see those people being absolutely devestated by the WoD going away as we know it.

I was watching Harlen Ellison (curmudgeon that he is) on TV once. Someone was asking him what right he had to be such a jerk to the people who bought his books. They are, after all, his customers. He said something like "I have no responsibility to my readers other than to write the best damn story I can."

I see that applying to White Wolf too. They made gaming books. And then all sorts of other gaming related paraphenialia. They make stuff, we buy it. We aren't buying a contract. They aren't responsible for the cult we build around their creations.

Now, members of the Camarilla I can see being a bit worried - they DID buy a membership into a gaming organization. However, my sympathy for them decreased some when I found out that the Cam storylines have reset several times over the years. Starting over isn't an unknown thing to them.

I do think that the Cam should consider another WoD 1.0 chronicle - their membership would be very interested. But do they have an ethical duty to provide more than the best bang for a year's membership dues? Not really.

Maybe it shows how much of a geek that I am that this arguement enpassions me so. I dunno. But the gnashing of teeth about it just seems so excessive.

Comments

[hopeevey.livejournal.com]

I've never really cared for the WoD meta-plot anyway - so I don't really care that they're re-booting the fool thing. And yes, it means that a new set of books is coming out. They did that when they wrote new editions. Big deal.

Of course, if I went and read the wailing and gnashing of teeth, I'd probably have to resist the urge to tell the silly people how foolish they are - this is an arena where ignorance is bliss, at least for me :)

I've heard that with the end of the WoD, they'll no longer be publishing Changeling - and I love Changeling. It's my favorite WoD game. But just like I can play any other out of print game, I can still play Changeling - with the advantage of no longer hearing about any fool metaplot :)

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets me is that it's _not_ the end of a culture. Look at how many things expanded and became popular _after_ they were over. Star Trek, for instance.

I never actually got the full story on how the world ended. I guess I'll go look it up. But it certainly doesn't stop me from playing WoD the way I want to.

[vaxjedi]

I think people are forgetting that the culture doesn't have to end.

As for the end of the world, it hasn't happened yet. It kicks into gear beginning of next year.

[vaxjedi]

I think people are forgetting that the culture doesn't have to end.

As for the end of the world, it hasn't happened yet. It kicks into gear beginning of next year.

[baronsamedi.livejournal.com]

WoD gaming is a big part of my gaming. I don't see changeing anything when the offical metaplot ends

[vaxjedi]

Hallelujah brother :)

That's as it should be, in my not so humble opinion

[eleri.livejournal.com]

"So, you're such a slave to this company, that you don't have the creativity or imagination to keep playing the way you want it?"

Personally, I think the people freaking out about the meta-plot really need to get lives. It's Just A Game.

[the-confessor.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that my knee jerk reaction was a similarly "No you can't do this to me!" when White Wolf announced they were ending the
World of Darkness. I'd fallen in love with their setting, and I think in the back of my mind I'd convinced myself it was going to be around 'forever.' I even have the Toreador Clan symbol tattooed on my arm. I couldn't imagine a world without WoD. So, I was pissed.

Then I thought about it for a few days and I realized that Star Wars D6 is out of print and I still play it. I love Underworld, Men In Black, Shadowrun, and several other games that are either out of print or in reduced print. A shining example of that is Changeling: The Dreaming, which is by far my favorite RPG ever.

Just because the printing is stopped doesn't mean that the word is forgotten.

[ryoganox.livejournal.com]

Remember the Golden Rule. "If you don't like a rule, change it." You have the control over what happens with your game. The expansions they offer are only suggestions as to what is happening with their view of the world/meta-plot. But in the end it is your world not theirs.

Ry