Jeanette Voerman from Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Screenshot taken from in-game.
Before you ask, no. They don’t sparkle.
It’s bad enough that CCP Games (The developers of EvE Online) cancelled their World of Darkness MMO earlier this year after almost a decade of development and PR silence, but now they go and squash a fan-made effort to reinvigorate a much beloved game because it’s ‘breaching’ the terms of their ownership of an IP they’ve been sitting on for ten years now.
But before that, some context is necessary. Back in 2004, a modern day take on the vampire focused roleplaying universe of The World of Darkness was brought to us by Troika in the form of the game ‘Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines’. As broken and half finished as the game was, it’s arguably considered one of the most compellingly dark, harrowing, atmospheric, funny and well written universes ever brought to the RPG circle.
A cult following followed this game to the point where the game today has been supported so heavily by the modding community, that the game has essentially been bug fixed, finished and beyond by fans of the franchise. Even today, 10 years after release, you can expect to see the game in the ‘most popular’ category of every Steam Sale that includes the game in its list of price cuts. You can read more about the history of Troika, Vampire and the game’s 10 years of continued bug fixing and mod support right here.
So, as you might expect: Fans wanted more. After the dissolve of Troika. CCP games ended up acquiring the rights to video game depictions of the World of Darkness universe. It was announced they were to develop a massively multiplayer online game. While many rolled their eyes at this, the game promised a plethora of innovative features such as beginning the game as a human (Which had its own viable meta-game) with the option (Or lack if you find yourself within the gaze of a so inclined vampire) of turning.
World of Darkness screenshot from http://bit.ly/126v4mB.
Players were to choose from a multitude of bloodlines of kindred, each with their own traits, advantages and disadvantages, and players were to be the sole guiding star for the game’s rules and structure. For example, an elected player would exist as the ‘prince’ of a city, and with the aid of their player controlled advisers, would have been able to permanently execute players they found to be breaching their way of running things. The game would have essentially been a sandbox for player driven political disputes, Second Life-esque social mechanics and support and a world completely open to a player’s desires and aims in what they would have wanted out of a truly open World of Darkness.
As the years went on, we heard remarkably little about the MMO’s development. Some tech demos here, a brief interview there, even some leaked screenshots from time to time. Then, word of completely scrapped alpha builds, and multiple reboots of the entire project began to surface. Lay-offs and employees being diverted from the project to EVE Online began to occur. At the beginning of 2014, CCP expressed desire at taking deep inspiration for sandbox games such as Day Z and Rust, and we all thought that the project was still moseying along at its own steady pace. We were patient. It was the most innovative sounding game I’d ever heard of, and I was willing to wait. I had faith. And boy, was I wrong to keep clinging to the hope that it’d ever see the dark of night.
CCP announced earlier this year, that the project had come to a close. We were sad. The WoD and Vampire community unanimously expressed disappointment at the long-time-coming close to such an ambitious project. While I was angry, having waited so long with so little for nothing, I understood. It was TOO ambitious. Especially for a developer with an already ambitious MMO to sustain of such a small user-base as EVE. This was okay. (A brief history of the World of Darkness MMO can be found on Wikipedia here, and a more detailed look at the game’s rocky development can be found here.)
What wasn’t and isn’t okay? Sitting on an IP with no expressed intention to do anything with it. CCP still own all rights to the World of Darkness, and there seems to be no sign of intention to develop or sell the rights to other studios. There is popular demand for this theoretical spiritual successor to Vampire: The Masquerade, and nothing seems to be happening. Disappointed, many turned to fan-led creations. There, just for a little while, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope: Project Vaulderie.
Project Vaulderie Screenshot from http://bit.ly/1vSnHgk
A small group of people announced an ambitious recreation of Vampire: The Masquerade within the Unity engine. Graphical enhancements, more content, polished game mechanics and even a multiplayer mode in the same vein as the WoD MMO – albeit at a much smaller scope. While the project went along slowly, it showed promise. It had an audience, it had an increasing amount of contributors, and it had momentum.
Then it happened. Last week, CCP shut the project down.
Notice the use of ‘sale of products’. A free, fan creation for the fans CCP refuses to cater to, despite sitting on the rights to is being shut down. DESPITE the project not breaching these terms anymore than the hundreds of Vampire mods that already exist, CCP used legal scare tactics to shut the project down despite having absolutely no right to.
I am so angry about this blatant abuse of copyright. There is no legal backbone to this claim, and I would urge the developers of the project to dispute these claims if I didn’t understand the fear behind just a few loosely connected individuals challenging a company as large as CCP. It’s absolutely sickening that CCP would scare a small group of loyal fans into forfeiting a fan creation that they had every right to create and share with the world just because they own a franchise they apparently don’t want the world to play anymore.
I expect more games from the World of Darkness universe will surface should they still be wanted, but I don’t expect them soon. Once more, we as fans are expected to wait patiently, oh so patiently… Oh well. I only hope that other developers, AAA, indie or otherwise see this void left in the market by CCP and act accordingly. Then again, the last time I hoped for anything, I was not rewarded.
If anything, this situation represents a growing issue with the state of copyright and copyright holders regarding intellectual and creative properties today. Tomorrow, I will be writing about a growing, more open alternative: Creative Commons.
Jordan Doyle: I like rambling about video games. 