While this year’s Eve fanfest was devoted to the sci-fi shooter Dust 514, CCP held a panel on its upcoming MMO based on the World of Darkness series of tabletop RPGs. Senior Producer Chris McDonough, CCP founder Reynir Harðarson, and Chief Marketing officer David Reid answered some questions about the upcoming MMO before revealing the first in-game footage, which may be seen below.
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The footage was the climax to a 40 minute presentation (which may be viewed here) that shed some light on CCP’s plans for the World of Darkness MMO. First off, they officially confirmed that the game was set in the Vampire: the Masquerade universe rather than in the New World of Darkness setting. Like EVE Online and the Vampire: the Masquerade source material, World of Darkness will focus on “vicious politics.” Players will be able to use intrigue (and some violence) to become Prince of the Vampires in any of the real world cities featured in the game.
Princes have great powers, including the ability to call bloodhunts on players, condemning their characters to permadeath. Power struggles are expected to be intense, especially in lower populated cities where a power vacuum emerges.
While CCP did express hope that they could entice numerous women into playing the MMO with aspects like character customization and fashion, World of Darkness is certainly not going the Twilight route. The developers expect it to get an M rating, and this seems very plausible as nudity and violence abound in the concept art shown.
The presentation also confirmed that the World of Darkness’ other supernatural denizens, like Werewolves and Mages, will eventually be incorporated into the game. The inclusion of the original Camarilla vampire clans has also been confirmed, though the opposing Sabbat sect of vampires hasn’t. Perhaps the Sabbat and various non vampires will appear in the player versus environment sections of the game.
Other highlights from the video include the promise that World of Darkness will have an easier learning curve than EVE online, that there won’t be a conventional leveling system, and that blood is basically the monetary resource of the game. The final point suggests that struggles over territory are more geared towards control of the human herd living there rather than other bonuses (like influence in industry, transportation, or financial sectors).