Paradox aquires White Wolf from CCP
- Thread starter Chariot
- Start date
decoyplatypus
Member
I think they still have capable writers. Several characters in PoE showed promise, but a misconceived and badly structured story gave them few opportunities to reveal/develop their relationships to the Watcher or the world. Too much of their dialogue was expository and too little was tethered to the central action (except by theme). I know it's strange to argue that a bad plot should give you more confidence in Obsidian's writers, but the way I see it, the writers were hamstrung by a high-level problem that may not reoccur and does not necessarily reflect on their ability to create lively characters. I mean, drop a figure like Durance under a bridge in a Vampire game, and I think he'd be plenty lively.
From the whitewolf site:
Had they been doing the live action stuff recently, or is that a bit of a revival for them too?
Vincent Grayson
Member
Here's my thinking:
First, you need to go turn-based, just to simplify some of the complex stuff you'd be doing gameplay-wise. Then, you let players use a spellcrafting system that allows for a number of major variables (say, target: self/melee/ranged(sphere)/ranged(line)/etc, modify attributes (including health for immediate damage/healing, physical/mental buffs and debuffs), time, and so on.
You could even have pre-built options for players who would rather pick stuff and maybe tweak it.
Then you build some kind of unique stealth system for the whole "don't openly use magic" thing. Or did that change last time WoD got a rewrite?
Plague Doctor
Member
There's definitely a Silent Hill Real World transitioning Otherworld vibe that could be used for Promethean. And the creature design could be fantastic if done right.
So what you're saying is Obsidian would be the perfect developer for a sequel?
Seriously, though, that's super shitty. Troika was a great studio, they didn't deserve to go out like that.
The main problem here is that spells are too combat oriented. In Mage you'd mostly use spells for utility and crazy creative solutions. Maybe going with more of a problem solving system rather than pure combat system will work better?
It was the first game that came out using source iirc predating hl2. It was a little bit janky but I never saw the issues a lot of people complain about.
You must have good luck. Vanilla Bloodlines is basically unplayable because of the many gamebreaking bugs.
AmaterasuOni
Banned
Oh yeah! Vampire: The Masquerade. Give!
decoyplatypus
Member
Well, we don't know how much of Durance's final text is Avellone, although he certainly feels like an Avellone character, so I'll concede I chose a poor example. But I think Hiravias and Kana are also as vivid as many of the NPCs in Bloodlines. It's the context (so-so personal missions and little to contribute to the main storyline) that lets them down. Their distinct goals, sensibilities, and language patterns would pop in the small roles required of most Bloodlines NPCs.
Well first off they got an established brand with fans. An existing product line still sold for way too much money at bookstores around the world. All the tech for WoD got pushed into EVE.
White Wolf had production ties to CCGs and that afforded Eve to have for a brief time a decent CCG. I still have all my cards.
It got them their offices in Atlanta here in the States where a the state of Georgia gave good tax breaks to media companies trying to drive more IT jobs to the state.
Furthermore, CCP are competant. Not all things have to have a Cinderella story.
I guess I got lucky. I played it at launch and other than having to reload saves because I got literally stuck in the hotel once I don't remember any issues.
decoyplatypus
Member
I can't speak for people generally. I think Pillars of Eternity has a lot of good writing (by the medium's standards anyway). But the story is a mess, and that has serious knock-on effects.
LuciusAxelrod
Member
At last, someone can do something with the Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game IP!
I can't wait for Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game: The Game.
I played the game from the launch day and didn't had any major problems or bugs with the game.. texture clipping, some crashes and some sound files missing were the worst when it came to this.. and after some time they did release the 1.2 patch and after that the game was running better and faster, so I think it was ok.. game was in better state than many modern games
I would love to see the game handed off to Harebrained for the writing and Larian for the technical development (or just use their engine from Original Sin) if it's an isometric RPG. If they're going first-person like Bloodlines, I sincerely hope it's not on Bethesda's Euphoria used in Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Please find something else.
Also, to everyone immediately jumping to attach Obsidian to the project, what was the last game of theirs you really enjoyed? Pillars of Eternity? Fallout: New Vegas? I don't think they've been extremely impressive in their last releases, and the people responsible for them are gone now anyway. The studio is mostly trading on its name, and I doubt Obsidian can capture half of what Troika did with Bloodlines.
Also, to everyone immediately jumping to attach Obsidian to the project, what was the last game of theirs you really enjoyed? Pillars of Eternity? Fallout: New Vegas? I don't think they've been extremely impressive in their last releases, and the people responsible for them are gone now anyway. The studio is mostly trading on its name, and I doubt Obsidian can capture half of what Troika did with Bloodlines.
I can't possibly get any wetter tonight.
hmmmmm indeed.
It's impressive really that just seeing the .gif I immediately remembered the song.
VtM:B was such an amazingly atmospheric game.
hmmmmm indeed.
please oh please oh please oh please
Preferably modern or urban setting
pyros
Member
hmmmmm indeed.
My dream come true, a new mascaraed game, done by obsidian
CPP actually did one worthwhile thing with VtM and WoD in general: as already mentioned earlier in the thread, they licensed it out to Onyx Path - a company comprised of a few White Wolf veterans, who over the last couple of years not only produced a lot of great new material for the new WoD (they published two new game lines: Demon: The Descent and Mummy: The Curse, with a third one - Beast: The Primordial - just released to Kickstarter backers today), but also resurrected the old (or classic) WoD by publishing 20th anniversary editions of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Vampire: Dark Ages and some supplements for VtM 20th (Wraith and Changeling are on the way).
Guys, there was no White Wolf before this, so there is no one to be happy other than new employees from Paradox. For the last couple of years White Wolf existed only on paper - all writing and publishing of new material has been done by Onyx Path. Let's hope that Paradox and this new White Wolf will still want to continue working with Onyx Path - there is a strong community and talent around them after all, so it would be stupid to ignore it.
pyros
Member
CD project = Witcher, CCP = Eve Online, or am I missing some inside joke
You're missing the joke. Geralt is called in-world "The White Wolf".
I think he's going to be a vampire in The Witcher 4.
alexandros
Banned
There's an article on VentureBeat with some more information. These two paragraphs are especially interesting:
This is honestly very worrying for the pen and paper side of things. It seems to imply that Paradox is going to ignore the new WoD and focus solely on the old one. Furthermore, the comment about analyzing licensing agreements is quite strange - Onyx Path is the only licensee, so it would seem that Paradox is questioning their abilities, which is frankly kind of insulting.
This is honestly very worrying for the pen and paper side of things. It seems to imply that Paradox is going to ignore the new WoD and focus solely on the old one. Furthermore, the comment about analyzing licensing agreements is quite strange - Onyx Path is the only licensee, so it would seem that Paradox is questioning their abilities, which is frankly kind of insulting.
Pilgrimzero
Member
hmmmmm indeed.
I came.
I don't know, I like the old WoD more than the new one.
hmmmmm indeed.
So many dreams are coming true this generation.
DeviantBoi
Member
Read that as CDPR.
My first thought was, "Why the hell hasn't CDPR made a WoD RPG?!?!"
My first thought was, "Why the hell hasn't CDPR made a WoD RPG?!?!"
About Obsidian, if you've missed it: Pillars of Eternity is currently on sale, $22.5 on Steam
If there's one thing I've learned from this thread, it's that everyone should make a WoD RPG.
Delusibeta
Banned
Yeah, it was increasingly clear that CCP wasn't going to do anything with the IPs, and frankly I can't think of a better buyer as far as gamers are concerned.