I wouldnt agree on it being a power fantasy, buuuut...when one plays Bloodlines it does become a problem when all female characters are dressed in skimpy outfits and the male vamps all wear suits or shirts. Like aside from one of the twin sisters, you never see a female vamp who wears a suit. So, I can see how someone would think this is a masculine power fantasy.
Eh. You know what I did? I simply modded the game so my female character used a different skin (It was some kind of hoodie thuggish thing if I remember correctly). Not because I hated the skimpy outfits in general, but because my imaginary character's personality did not match that style. If anything, I was disappointed you couldn't chose anything but mainly skimpy outfits (the char options were super lame), not that the options of skimpy outfits existed. There's a difference, but I have no hope the devs of this game understand it.
I'm a mite concerned about the fact you can set your pronouns. It seems to be a possible canary in the coal mine. It makes me wonder what other wokeness will be in the game as well, and worries me that they've spend disproportionate time and effort on being woke as opposed to making a good game.
Malkavians not being completely crazy would completely negate the point of being a Malkavian. They're supposed to be loonies, hearing voices, seemingly speaking gibberish and having strange behavioural patterns. That's the appeal of the clan, the famous "fishmalk" is named after it because you could roleplay as "lolrandum xd" and have it make sense in-universe, because Malkavians do not make sense in general, and is a Godsend for people who like to play as "Chaotic Neutral". Some Malks are so insane, they cannot function in Kindred society at all, and are locked up to protect the Masquerade.
At the same time, Malkav was believed to be clairvoyant, and their seemingly inane speech often hides wisdom that nobody but them understands. In VtMB, playing as Malkavian changes your dialogue options completely, to the point that the player can sometimes misunderstand what any given dialogue option is supposed to mean (which can be frustrating, especially to first-time players, but if you know the dialogue there shouldn't be much trouble). Instead of using names of in-game characters, player character will call them something different, usually with some sort of hidden meaning, and as you play the game, things your character says make much more sense in retrospect. One of the Malks you encounter very early predicts the entire plot of the game in rather vague terms, if you encourage them sufficiently enough. You can have them do fourth wall breaking and not break the player's suspension of disbelief. There are so many angles to this particular strain of the Curse, making it some boring Jared Leto's Joker quirky "gamers rise up" clan would make it boring to the point of tears, even more boring than something like Brujah (no offense to Brujah enthusiasts, I personally just don't like brawly strength type characters as much).
In VtMB, Malks are so exceptional (not r-tarded exceptional, although some can be) that a hefty chunk of NPC dialogue is changed just to comment on it, because they can barely undestand you. One other clan I can think of that has that many dialogue changes is Nosferatu, but even then it's almost exclusively humans. There are lots of additions that make the game feel somewhat different. Things Malks do that other clans don't include: talking to inanimate objects; hearing ominous whispers, such as "They're coming"; seeing strange objects and creatures. These are all small things, but they really add to the atmosphere.
I couldn't replicate this talking rat, so I think I'M going insane now. I'm pretty sure it appears in Hollywood sewers at some point, so maybe you can try it.
TL;DR - Making Malks into boring quirky gang weed Joker types will completely kill the depth and massive opportunities their insanity provides to play around with the tropes and make otherwise impossible jokes/add a weird angle to the plot and turn them into dull non-characters.
Also, turning Malks almost exclusively into weirdo trannies will further concrete the theory that all trannies are insane, eccentric and delusional, so we'll expect some funky articles from the usual suspects.
They did make Blacklight Retribution according to their website, looks like a free-to-play FPS that got shut down on PC due to low player retention. Take that as you will.
If it turns out anything like the original than it comes out as a hot, broken mess but the fans slowly work at it with modding and in ten to fifteen years it becomes one of the best CRPGs on the platform.
Wow you actually sold me on this. I played Blacklight, it had a good run for what it was and brought some of its own ideas to the table. had a pretty slick aesthetic too reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell.
Proven track record? Witcher 1 and 2 were mediocre at best and Witcher 3 gets way overhyped despite all it's short comings. Also, said gameplay footage wasn't even the real deal, combined that it didn't help just how generic it looked. So, can we stop sucking CD Projekts dick?
I liked the Witcher trilogy a lot. They had their problems, sure, but they were good enough that I'm looking forward to whatever CD Projeckt is putting out for the foreseeable future until they release a game I don't like. As for the Cyberpunk 2077 demo footage, it doesn't really matter what you think of it -- it showed off various game play mechanics, showed the direction the game was headed in, and in general gave the audience an idea of what to expect.
I liked the Witcher trilogy a lot. They had their problems, sure, but they were good enough that I'm looking forward to whatever CD Projeckt is putting out for the foreseeable future until they release a game I don't like. As for the Cyberpunk 2077 demo footage, it doesn't really matter what you think of it -- it showed off various game play mechanics, showed the direction the game was headed in, and in general gave the audience an idea of what to expect.
Mechanics that were already used in other games and probably half of 'em won't be in the game and just get tossed out, the direction the game is heading is towards a generic FPS/RPG from the looks of it and well what the fans can expect is a generic looking FPS/RPG that they are gonna over praise like they did with the Witcher games.
Razorfist has posted his opinion on this game - it's about right where you'd expect it to be. And look, he's finally cleaning up his room.
As for myself, gonna be honest: while I own VtMB (got it for like $4 in a Steam sale), I never really got into it so I'm going to probably sit on the sidelines and watch this with some disconnected interest.
On the plus side, if this is going to be a SJW wankfest, then I'd subscribe that truly there is nothing that better encapsulates their existence than a game where they play as a bunch of smug, self-righteous, bloodsucking parasites.
TL;DR - Making Malks into boring quirky gang weed Joker types will completely kill the depth and massive opportunities their insanity provides to play around with the tropes and make otherwise impossible jokes/add a weird angle to the plot and turn them into dull non-characters.
Also, turning Malks almost exclusively into weirdo trannies will further concrete the theory that all trannies are insane, eccentric and delusional, so we'll expect some funky articles from the usual suspects.
This. I'd like to emphasize the fact though that the Malkavians are insane, but not random; the archetype they invoke is more of the mad oracle, the holy fool, speaking in tongues, that sort of thing- the idea that they're mad, but that madness gives them insight denied to mundane minds. Hell, the powerful insight of Malkavians is actually what causes a major plot point.
And if you look at the alternative dialog for the newsman, you realize that he's literally telling you how the game ends if you side with any of the major factions.
Tbf, GTA5 can at least laugh at itself and doesn’t try to lecture me on why Tommy Vercetti, Niko Belic, etc were all white Cishet misogynerds. And GTA5 has the glorious SJW trustfund baby parody known as impotent rage that is actually more topical in 2019 than it was in 2013.
Oh gods. They'll make the Malks all totes random Tumblrinas, the Brujah into antifas (who will all have plot armour so they can get the creator's pet I Win button), and the Nosferatu into some sort of godawful fat acceptance thing, like "why doesn't the Masquerade let us out in public? It's so fucking ableist REEEEEEEE" or suchlike.
Tbh, I think Rockstar would have a much cooler interpretation of vampirism in an RDR2 expansion than Paradiliation could ever do with “VAMPIRES ARE AN OPRESSEE MINORITY SIMULATOR 2020”. Mainly because of all of the weird ass ways they could subvert the ...”divisive” stat cores with weird vampiric shit and how they could turn the animal hunting . mechanics into human devouring ones. I know RDR isn’t an RPG, but it’d still be cool and a certain side character in it would help make vampirism work in it
Tbh, I think Rockstar would have a much cooler interpretation of vampirism in an RDR2 expansion than Paradiliation could ever do with “VAMPIRES ARE AN OPRESSEE MINORITY SIMULATOR 2020”. Mainly because of all of the weird ass ways they could subvert the ...ldivisive” stat cores with weird vampiric shit and how they could turn the animal hunting mechanics into human devouring ones
Honestly, I'd say the biggest issue isn't even the whole "Vampire opress minority 2020" BS, the real issue lays if they seriously are gonna take the 5th edition. Because, one could probably work in this "concept" of oppressed if you say playing a clan that goes "Hey, we're tired of -insert clan here- running the show! We wanna take over!" and from there you can work you way up top a specific clan or find ways to overthrow the clan controlling the city. But, again the problem lays is that they picked 5th edition which is pretty much trash.
The comments on mental illness lead me to believe they are going to absolutely ruin Malkavians. They are not going to let the clan who's flaw is literal insanity stay untouched. It wouldn't vibe with their PC bullshit. They'll probably try and play them all off as quirky, special snowflakes instead of the utter madmen they are
There's a reason why 'Fishmalk' became such a prevalent term and why DM's outright banned most players from choosing the malkavians as their bloodline.
They're better used as a plot device than anything and if the devs were smart they'd keep it that way.
Honestly, I'd say the biggest issue isn't even the whole "Vampire opress minority 2020" BS, the real issue lays if they seriously are gonna take the 5th edition. Because, one could probably work in this "concept" of oppressed if you say playing a clan that goes "Hey, we're tired of -insert clan here- running the show! We wanna take over!" and from there you can work you way up top a specific clan or find ways to overthrow the clan controlling the city. But, again the problem lays is that they picked 5th edition which is pretty much trash.
The entire setting is building to a big apocalyptic event. You can see it with how Thin Bloods exist and are said to usher in the apocalypse. They did eventually write in the big apocalyptic event and retired the setting so they could do another one. They also did this with all of their tabletop rpgs set in World of Darkness like Werewolf.
While they wrote official ending scenarios, I and everybody else I've talked to either ignored them, or didn't hear about them/not buy those products. Everybody seemed to like the Y2K doom and gloom, but never actually end it & just started new campaigns again and again in the same time bubble.
While they wrote official ending scenarios, I and everybody else I've talked to either ignored them, or didn't hear about them/not buy those products. Everybody seemed to like the Y2K doom and gloom, but never actually end it & just started new campaigns again and again in the same time bubble.
Sure you could ignore the official ending to the setting but at the same time they wanted people to transition to Vampire the Requiem which nobody liked
