The Future of the World of Darkness Interviews

Given the direction that White Wolf has been taking with the World of Darkness IP since Paradox Interactive purchased them, I think it’s likely only a matter of time before we receive an announcement for the development of a CRPG (and Obsidian Entertainment being on tap seems possible). But while we wait for any such news, there are a couple of new provocative interviews with brand architect Martin Elricsson for us to sink our teeth into, including one on imagonem:

Will you prioritize computer games, or will we see pen-and-paper soon?

Short answer is that the economic centre of the company will be computer games. Unless something weird happens and people start buying roleplaying books, WoD novels and comics like they were Harry Potter. As things are now tabletop publishing hardly breaks even. Spiritually the core will always be tabletop rpg and larp. The Bibles we’re working on for computer games are written as if they were texts for a new tabletop edition, and will most likely be released in that format. Combined launches of digital and tabletop also games seem to make a lot of sense. In the last few years, focused and easy-to-use products like Mutant: Year Zero and Lamentations of the Flame Princess are selling unexpectedly well. Their brevity and low threshold makes them perfect for introducing new players to the hobby, while the monumental classic-WW-style books generally sell poorly and are more read than played. If future editions of WoD are actively used rather than collected we have done our job.

What form will the computer game take? MMO? Are you able to bring over content from CCP’s (World of Darkness)?

All releases will be announced when we feel confident they will release on time, reach our very high bar of quality and have enough material to be discussed by the community in a meaningful way. We own all assets connected to WoD, including the CCP content that they kindly gave us as a bonus when we made the purchase of the IP. I for one intend to make sure those 8 years of work by a hundred exceptionally talented creators doesn’t entirely go to waste.

And another on WoD News:

WoDN: There are rampant rumors since the Facebook postings of the new White Wolf meeting with Obsidian Entertainment just before the turn of the year. Is there anything you can suggest or hint that may come from that meeting such as a, perhaps, PC VtM game for example?

TS: We will not comment on any rumors or announce any games before it makes sense doing it and we know when they will ship. But of course we are working on getting computer games done and naturally Bloodlines is on top of our mind.

Regarding who we are seen with let me explain this a bit, I have personally been in computer games business for 20 years now and I attend most of the trade shows and conferences for it as well as travel in business quite a bit to see both developers and publishers. I am just back from a computer games conference in Las Vegas and I met with a lot of people and companies presenting World of Darkness licensing opportunities and discussing ideas. The response was awesome and we will continue to spread the message about this among the game development community who most often knows about World of Darkness but perhaps not about the amazing depth in the lore and the massive amount of material out there. The more inspired people we have out there the better ideas and pitches we will see in the future.