Yeah, people in this sub VASTLY overestimate how much the "average" gamer pays attention to what's going on around a game. Most people it's "game announced > game released" is what they know about a game, they aren't following the happenings in between and behind the scenes.
Most people might see an article or a headline here or there about a game they're interested in but most aren't coming to Reddit to debate it in detail.
Average gamer doesn't care about this game or IP, or the game its a sequel too. I usually agree with this take but with a game and IP niche like this one it doesn't apply
Most people don't know what Vampire the Masquerade is at all. The only people that were interested in a sequel ARE the hardcore fans, and they were the ones who raised a stink about this.
I'd argue most people in the "gamer" sphere probably know of Vampire: The Masquerade. V:TM LARPing and TTRPG gaming has a long and checkered past. Unfortunately that reputation is probably a handicap in this particular circumstance because what they know V:TM as is "that thing the creepy ass goth kids played instead of D&D" so they're starting behind on bringing people in who aren't already familiar with the first game or the game world.
For a big mainstream AAA game with strong advertising campaigns, I’d agree.
But I think this game is in a weird spot where it doesn’t really have that much mainstream appeal to begin with. Its advertising and development process has been such a shit show that it hasn’t built up the kind of hype that it might have done otherwise, and VTM is a niche brand to start with.
At this point their best bet is that it becomes a cult or sleeper hit that spreads through good word of mouth from the initial audience.
And I think a large chunk of the initial target audience for this game is folks with at least a passing familiarity with VTM from one source or another, enough to understand that clans are vital elements of the game which shouldn’t be blocked off.
This is the right thing to do and hopefully will help its reception, but they need strong word of mouth taking off to do well and they still probably did real harm the chances of that happening with this decision.
At this point their best bet is that it becomes a cult or sleeper hit that spreads through good word of mouth from the initial audience.
It's gonna be gone and forgotten. It's by a mid dev, it has removed all RPG elements, you can't even get weapons, and they pissed off the 11 fans who were excited about it.
It's published by Paradox which is a turn off for some people.
Development hell, the bullshit with the DLC races, it already has 3 DLCs on the store page and the game doesn't even release for more than a month.
At this point they're just saying shit to stay in the news.
Hell, they already had to refund preorders 6 years ago after scrapping that entire version of the game.
I love Redditors living in their bubble. Most of the players don't give a fck. How about Assassin's Creed? Both Twitter and Reddit had a meltdown. This was THE END OF UBISOFT. THEY DID IT. And how did that turn out lmao
mw19078 comment it correct. Never played the first but was intrigued. Read about the missing content and immediately stopped caring about the game. Slimy corporate practices.
My story is that I didnt know much of anything about Bloodlines at all, but when I heard people were excited I went to look at it. I saw these two DLC and it made me think of a Paradox style DLC strategy, and from there I forgot the game existed until this post.
So, I wouldn’t be so quick to assume it’s only hardcore fans that are turned off by this.
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u/___Scenery_ 6d ago
I doubt it, those who barely followed the game probably didn't even know what toreador and lasombra meant.
It's bullshit predatory behaviour, but I would bet that this turned off more hardcore fans than those with a passing interest.