WoD News interviews Eddy Webb

There hasn't been a lot of news to report (and there still isn't), but I haven't forgotten about this blog yet.

Over the weekend the website World of Darkness News posted an interview with White Wolf World of Darkness MMORPG designer Eddy Webb. Though the interview contains pretty much no details on the MMO. Here's an excerpt talking about the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines computer game:

Q: Did you feel they captured the essence of the clans and their disciplines in Bloodlines? Why or why not?

EW> More or less. I feel that certain clans got a little more focus than others, but really it’s hard to spread engaging content and design across seven different archetypes. Some of the fan mods, like the Clan Quest mod, do a great job in addressing stuff like that, though. However, like I said before, changing a property between mediums means that some things are just going to be lost. Mind’s Eye Theatre disciplines, for example, aren’t quite the same beast as their tabletop analogs, and powers that are great in tabletop just don’t work well in LARP (or vice versa). I think the same is true for video games, and Bloodlines did a pretty good job in making the core of the disciplines feel accurate, even if individual powers weren’t the same.

Q: Do you feel another Bloodlines type CRPG will ever be produced or started within the next several years?

EW> Honestly, single-player computer RPGs just aren’t as common as they were a few years ago – many companies are converting their IPs into other genres or moving into the MMO space. It’s possible we might explore that space, sure, but certainly not in the next several years. We have this other Vampire computer game to make first. ;)

For something else not directly World of Darkness Online there's the EVE Online character creator. The Incursion expansion for EVE pretty much just went live, and now players can make new portraits with the new character creator. Right now that's just portraits (the "walking in stations" bit presumably comes with Incarna in the summer), but it does have the full character customization. And from the looks of it it's not only the most detailed, but also one of the most attractive character creator. Ten Ton Hammer has an article explaining more. Here's an excerpt:

What It Is And Is Not

Right now, the feature consists solely in designed a new character, customizing his or her body, face, and clothing, then taking a single picture to use as an in-game and forum avatar. Eventually, we will be able to walk around with ours character, conducting business or socializing inside of customizable portions of stations. It seems likely that at least some aspect of this will be introduced by this summer. It is taking some time, sure, but it is a major undertaking.

As I've said before, this is mostly interesting sicne it's likely to be similar, if not the same (barring UI and specific choices) as the World of Darkness Online character creator due to CCP's technology framework approach.

Can't wait to see more.

More, which I'll post here when I come across it (though that could be quite a while from now).


[link] to interview with Eddy Webb at World of Darkness News.
[link] to EVE character creator article at Ten Ton Hammer.