World of Darkness MMOG In Active Production

Laying the fears of tabletop gamers to rest, CCP (makers of EVE Online) has confirmed that they're already working on a Massively Multiplayer game set in the World of Darkness. The dark setting, a property owned by CCP's new purchase White Wolf Games, will be translated to the Massive genre some time over the next four to five years. There's no word yet on which portion of the setting will be used for the game, but the Eurogamer article hints that vampires will feature heavily in the title. "The World of Darkness MMO was announced when the two companies merged last year, with both the American and Icelandic operations staying quiet on the subject ever since. Fans have since speculated that the game isn't in active production - rumours Bergsson laid to rest last week. '[World of Darkness] is one of the reasons we were so interested in White Wolf,' [Magnus Bergsson] said. 'It's a very mature IP. It's a great title for us to take and make into an MMO. First of all there are no MMOs like it. We kind of like that, and we want to explore some new avenues with that type of MMO - character-based and not being fantasy, per se. It's a real opportunity for us.'"

Re:More developer interference?

[LordPhantom]

I suspect Grandparent was making reference to several infamous incidences of the CCP folks (specifically GMs) 'cheating' in EvE Online. The GM/dev incidents and the way CCP mods handled it are one of many reasons I canceled my subscriptions(and no you can't have my stuff, someone else does), and is the prime reason I'm not sure I can invest any time or money in a new effort on their part. I sincerely hope that they do make a great product and maintain the game world integrity - as far as MMOGs go, EvE is the most conceptually interesting game out there.

Just ... HOW???

[Opportunist]

Anyone who knows WoD games knows that they differ from the average tabletop RPG in many ways. First and foremost, the story is the focus, not getting the biggest gun. Actually getting the biggest gun usually only serves one purpose (if your ST is halfway "realistic"): You becoming the biggest target. Because, and that's another "feature" of WoD style games: You can dish out vastly more damage than you can swallow. Many fights are decided by the question who wins the initiative, because the first blow often already reduces you to pulp barely able to limp away from the scene (provided your enemy actually uses tools that can hit you well. Fire, radiation, silver, pick your poison).

Couple that with the fact that WoD games rely heavily on a cloak-and-dagger style, where every fraction has pretty neat powers but at the same time incredibly tight laws concerning their use, how would you want to create a good MMORPG out of it?

If you toss the "laws" of the supernaturals (i.e. Vampires, don't go out and have people know you are one, Werewolves, better don't shift in plain sight, Mages, casting vulgar is not only a bad idea because of paradox and Wraiths, don't even THINK about interacting with the world of the quick...), you reduce it to a goth-style cyberpunk world. Everyone will go berserk in minutes, Vampires going on a feeding frenzy in the mall, Werewolves coming up behind and shred what's left...

And how should battles run? In fact, NO MATTER how "high level" you are, a well placed shot can and will at the very least make your life very, very miserable. Despite regeneration and whatnot, an assault rifle at full auto reduces any Werewolf to a little pile of mush in very little time.

Personally, I don't think it's possible to create the "mood" in a MMORPG. It also doesn't work well together with the average mindset of a MMORPG player. Usually MMORPG players want to create the biggest, baddest, have-it-all character. And that is, if they recreate the rules verbatim, the surefire way to a quick death, because, no matter what group you play, killing such a top-level character is not a significant problem for a group of grunts and also offers them a LOT of benefits. Unless the "laws" of the supernaturals are enforced. But ... how?

Sorry. I don't see this game take off. Either it sucks as a MMORPG or it sucks as a WoD game.