My current thoughts on the matter? (prior post here)
It was all about the publicity. Good, bad, didn't matter. So long as V5 was being talked about. Some have said they'll never come near it now and some have embraced it but many more have talked about it.
And yes, I fed the beast. I may be feeding it again today, but I feel a follow up is needed, at least as far as highlighting some of White Wolf's response. You can read the full White Wolf blog post here.
Last week we released it to the world, and we are grateful for all your survey responses, emails, social media comments, and reviews. Now we are working on the alpha playtest for GenCon 2017, but your feedback on the pre-alpha makes it clear that we need to provide some context for the playtest and for V5.Context. K.
Our oversight, for which we apologize, was not providing this context so that our players could see why and how we made these decisions. We needed to clearly state again that the material was intended for mature audiences, and to label it that way. We should have stated again that our vision for V5 brings Vampire back to its roots as a morality tale about evil, set in the darkest places of our own world. Contemporary, real-world horrors and atrocities are an important part of the setting and by extension – its characters.
We’ll communicate this and other design-choices better as we go forward. We can and will make the game’s contents transparent for those who need them to be by giving you fair warning.I'm assuming you need to be 18 to download the playtest material. Or am I wrong? In any case, the genie is out of the bottle.
V5 Pre-Alpha QA
We answer some of the most common questions about the V5 Pre-Alpha. Feel free to send us more questions.
Q: Why is Amelina a pedophile?
A: She’s not. She has an obsession with young (recently embraced) Kindred and a feeding restriction that forces her to feed from children and young teens.
Q: Why did you use the term “triggered” to describe someone easily offended on ideological grounds?
A: Because that is the common usage of the term in everyday language, no disrespect intended.
Q: Why are so many characters children (“Club Kids”)?The first answer seems forced to me, like one of those answers thought up AFTER the question came up, but whatever.
A: The term Club Kid (at least in Sweden) means a youngish (roughly 18-25) person who spends all their free time at clubs, often under the influence of drugs.
The use of "triggered" is amusing, as I wasn't the only one to come to the conclusion that Amelina was a pedophile (there were victims of child abuse when they were younger that came to the same conclusion) so there was some "triggering" that was not part of the scenario but because of the scenario.
As for the Club Kids definition - never heard it used prior, not my social circle. Interesting that its being defined from a Swedish perspective. I guess White Wolf really is international now.
Ah well. Hopefully this puts a stake in the drama. Wait! Stakes still kill vampires, right?
Stakes don't kill vampires anymore. The death penalty does after they are found guilty of pedophilia on an apparently massive scale :)
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't forced. There is no implication that having a feeding restriction directly correlates to a sexual preference. Have you played a Vampire game before? This isn't an entirely new concept in either Masquerade games or vampire literature from the last 100 years.
ReplyDeleteThe term Club Kid is used in America too, and has been since the 90s - google "Michael Alig" because he stopped being a club kid in 1997.
White Wolf has always been popular in Europe, if that's what counts as being "international" then yeah, they really are international and have been (also) since the 90s.
Pedophilia? Perish the thought. It's perfectly respectable *pedophagia* and you're a complete milquetoast for being offended by such a widespread practice. Just ask Mr. Swift about his Modest Proposal.
ReplyDeleteI agree on your assessment on the first question ... it sounds like it kinda bit them in the ass... a bit more flack than their soun doctors wanted ...
ReplyDeleteAs to point three I can tell that the term is used at least in the Nordic countries as well as UK ... how much it's used in the US I'm unsure of ...
That should be spin doctors ...
ReplyDelete"The use of "triggered" is amusing, as I wasn't the only one to come to the conclusion that Amelina was a pedophile (there were victims of child abuse when they were younger that came to the same conclusion) so there was some "triggering" that was not part of the scenario but because of the scenario."
ReplyDeleteI think you are confused here. This answer is in response to an entirely different controversy swirling around the beta.
In the rules document, Brujah vampires can fly into a rage that is referred to being triggered. A lot of people on the Internet saw this as mocking them. It's about something in the beta, not responding to people being triggered by the beta.
As a Gen Xer, I can also say that club kid was not that unusual slang in the late '80s and '90s in the US.
I buy the Club Kid definition. I have heard it used throughout my life in the 80's and 90's. There was even a famous NYC scene of personalities in the 80's that was referred to as Club Kids. They were famous for their nightlife adventures, fashion, and drug use.
ReplyDeleteWell, they inadvertently pushed me to create my own vampire RPG, so I'm good.
ReplyDeleteSeems like it could go a long way for WW to just acknowledge that, whether or not they realized it, they ended up pushing the envelope pretty far with the character simply due to the sexuality that will probably always be inherent in vampire fiction.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not they change things...well, whatever, not my call, but maybe it would help to at least note that they actually hear the other side of the conversation.
(Okay...inherent in vampire fiction EXCEPT for Bunnicula...)
DeleteDon't forget Count Duckula.
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