Big Changes At White Wolf Following Controversy

Following an online backlash regarding the content of their recent publications, White Wolf Publishing has just announced some big changes, including the suspension of the Vampire 5th Edition Camarilla and Anarch books, and a restructuring of management.

White Wolf's Shams Jorjani made the following announcement about an hour ago:

"Hello everyone,

My name is Shams Jorjani, VP of Business Development at Paradox Interactive and interim manager at White Wolf Publishing. I wanted to inform you of some changes that will be implemented at White Wolf, starting immediately.

Sales and printing of the V5 Camarilla and Anarch books will be temporarily suspended. The section on Chechnya will be removed in both the print and PDF versions of the Camarilla book. We anticipate that this will require about three weeks. This means shipping will be delayed; if you have pre-ordered a copy of Camarilla or Anarchs, further information will follow via e-mail.

In practical terms, White Wolf will no longer function as a separate entity. The White Wolf team will be restructured and integrated directly into Paradox Interactive, and I will be temporarily managing things during this process. We are recruiting new leadership to guide White Wolf both creatively and commercially into the future, a process that has been ongoing since September.

Going forward, White Wolf will focus on brand management. This means White Wolf will develop the guiding principles for its vision of the World of Darkness, and give licensees the tools they need to create new, excellent products in this story world. White Wolf will no longer develop and publish these products internally. This has always been the intended goal for White Wolf as a company, and it is now time to enact it.

The World of Darkness has always been about horror, and horror is about exploring the darkest parts of our society, our culture, and ourselves. Horror should not be afraid to explore difficult or sensitive topics, but it should never do so without understanding who those topics are about and what it means to them. Real evil does exist in the world, and we can’t ever excuse its real perpetrators or cheapen the suffering of its real victims.

In the Chechnya chapter of the V5 Camarilla book, we lost sight of this. The result was a chapter that dealt with a real-world, ongoing tragedy in a crude and disrespectful way. We should have identified this either during the creative process or in editing. This did not happen, and for this we apologize.

We ask for your patience while we implement these changes. In the meantime, let’s keep talking. I’m available for any and all thoughts, comments and feedback, on shams.jorjani@paradoxinteractive.com."

White Wolf is currently own by Paradox Interactive, who acquired the World of Darkness rights in 2015 from previous owner CCP (who you might know from Eve Online) whose plans for a WoD MMO failed to bear fruit.

The recent Camarilla and Anarch books have met widespread criticism. The former, Camarilla, includes a section which appears to trivialise current real-life events in Chechnya, where the LGBTQ community is being persecuted, tortured, and murdered and uses that current tragedy as a backdrop for the setting. This comes after the company was forced to deny links to neo-Nazi ideology. White Wolf recently announced that "White Wolf is currently undergoing some significant transitions up to and including a change in leadership. The team needs a short time to understand what this means, so we ask for your patience as we figure out our next steps" and this appears to be the result of that decision.

 

[Jester David]

Back on topic slightly.

So... Chechnya itself is super not impressed:
https://en.crimerussia.com/gromkie-...-masquerade-game-for-sultan-ramzan-character/

And there are reports that Russian RPG distributors are being called to courts in Chechnya.

This is really not good.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Back on topic slightly.

So... Chechnya itself is super not impressed:
https://en.crimerussia.com/gromkie-...-masquerade-game-for-sultan-ramzan-character/

And there are reports that Russian RPG distributors are being called to courts in Chechnya.

This is really not good.

The Chechnyan government that actually created a purge of the LGBT community are offended by a book that highlights this?

Who'd have thought that?

Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov, in the article, has presided over forced disappearances, torture and whole range of human rights abuses. He has campaigned for a mass detention of LGBT people in Chechnya. He actually denies that gay people exist in Chechnya.

I'm not surprised he is offended by a book that uses a metaphor of vampires to explain his motivations. I am surprised that people think his offense is somehow justified, or that the people criticising White Wolf are actually in agreement with these persecuters.

 

[Jester David]

That is precisely what is going on, but the impact of which is that Vampire is now a dead duck as far as what happens next. The two supplements, Camarilla and Anarchs, will be adjusted, and reprinted, but a number of fans who preordered are already asking for refunds because they've simply been waiting too long. There will be no more books made by Paradox or White Wolf.

There are three supplements scheduled by The Onyx Path, based on a current Kickstarter than is currently raised just over $80,000 - which is not a big total at all. The situation is not good. The game is essentially dead.

It’s certainly going to hurt the line for a while, as they have to farm out to licence to other studios.
Even if they can pick up on partially written manuscripts, that’s still going to delay future books as everything is re-edited and new writers hired.

It’s somewhat of a shame. Mechanically, the new game was quite good. I loved a lot of the changes and thought it did a decent job of moving forward from the late ‘90s metaplot. I was rather impressed with how it handled hunger.

But the books were structurally a mess. So much wasted page space, and limited information. It struggled so much while trying to introduce so much lore while also updating existing lore that it was muddled. And so many clans saved for later splatbooks rather than be detailed from the start.
The uproar is actually emblematic of this. In a book dedicated to the Camarilla they apparently wasted eight pages on Chechnya, despite it not being part of that sect/ faction. It didn’t need to be there, it wasn’t expected content, and it didn’t add much. And now it got them all fired...

 

[TrippyHippy]

It’s certainly going to hurt the line for a while, as they have to farm out to licence to other studios.
Even if they can pick up on partially written manuscripts, that’s still going to delay future books as everything is re-edited and new writers hired.

It’s somewhat of a shame. Mechanically, the new game was quite good. I loved a lot of the changes and thought it did a decent job of moving forward from the late ‘90s metaplot. I was rather impressed with how it handled hunger.

But the books were structurally a mess. So much wasted page space, and limited information. It struggled so much while trying to introduce so much lore while also updating existing lore that it was muddled. And so many clans saved for later splatbooks rather than be detailed from the start.
The uproar is actually emblematic of this. In a book dedicated to the Camarilla they apparently wasted eight pages on Chechnya, despite it not being part of that sect/ faction. It didn’t need to be there, it wasn’t expected content, and it didn’t add much. And now it got them all fired...

The way I read it, they were trying to illustrate the monstrous aspects of the Banu Haqim using contemporary events in the telling - and in all good faith, were using the text to genuinely try and highlight the horror of the real world situation to their reading audience.

While your criticism is interesting, and I could have a worthwhile debate on the things you raise, but at this stage it's all by the by. For me, Vampire was the best single RPG release of 2018. But now it's done.

 

[Jester David]

The way I read it, they were trying to illustrate the monstrous aspects of the Banu Haqim using contemporary events in the telling - and in all good faith, were using the text to genuinely try and highlight the horror of the real world situation to their reading audience.

While your criticism is interesting, and I could have a worthwhile debate on the things you raise, but at this stage it's all by the by. For me, Vampire was the best single RPG release of 2018. But now it's done.

I liked it a lot more than I expected. But having not looked at my VtM books in a decade, I really felt lost in terms of lore with the new core rulebook. And I still knew a lot of the nouns.
I can’t imagine how hard it would have been for a straight newcomer.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I liked it a lot more than I expected. But having not looked at my VtM books in a decade, I really felt lost in terms of lore with the new core rulebook. And I still knew a lot of the nouns.
I can’t imagine how hard it would have been for a straight newcomer.

I'm actually the same. Regardless of controversy, when I read some of the playtest stuff I basically thought meh to a lot of it. Ditto to Vampire 20th, Vampire: the Requiem and Vampire Revised before then. But the final V5 product - particularly the gameplay in the system - was brilliant and it's tone was reminiscent of the original editions of Vampire, but set in the 21st century.

I remember a reviewer of Wraith: The Oblivion, in the Interactive Fiction journal (of about the mid 1990s), being highly skeptical about White Wolf games generally but as he read through the game being won over by it's qualities. He ended up decrying that the game wasn't commercial enough for White Wolf (he was proved right) and how he wished it had just been produced by a smaller company with integrity, that could develop the game without all the pressures of maintaining sales and a large fanbase.

I kinda wish the same had happened for this version of Vampire too. I think the commercial pressures and the underlying issues within the existing fanbase has prematurely killed it, sadly. But it's a brilliant game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

what did i do. i attacked no one foe their race, gender, nationality, ethnic group, sexual orientation. i even support gay marriage. my group was slandered by calling us fascists which we are not.

Remember how I said “don’t post in this thread again”? And reacquaint yourself with the rules of use, here?

I even provided a link.

But you:

1) posted in the thread again

2) challenged moderation in thread.

BOTH no-no’s.

Plus, your profile says you’ve been here since 2004, so you should really know better. Therefore, the slack I was going to cut you before I noticed that fact will not be given. Have a week off.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

The hysteric internet mob strikes again...

I though ENworld was a place for discussion, not for drive-by posting. This is a serious problem - marginalizing an ongoing, murderous campaign in such a way. Especially when you know the history of the authors of the book.

Blaming it on "outrage" is sad and nonsensical.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I though ENworld was a place for discussion, not for drive-by posting. This is a serious problem - marginalizing an ongoing, murderous campaign in such a way. Especially when you know the history of the authors of the book.

Blaming it on "outrage" is sad and nonsensical.

Folks, Morrus already asked Darren not to post here again. Please don’t continue responding to his posts in here. Thanks!

 

[barasawa]

Can't say I've got those particular books yet, and will hold off making my own judgment before reading them. (If I ever get to see the controversial versions.)

However, what's a conflict in the story without a villain to struggle against?

Of course, Vampires, even in the WW games, aren't exactly paragons of heroics, and at best usually only qualify as antiheroes, or at least not the worst thing out there.
After all, they regularly assault and even murder people.
As such, the even worse evils that make them seem to be the lesser evils isn't going to be some jaywalker or even a bank robber.

But again, I haven't read the actual relevant paragraphs or chapters, just some people giving vague descriptions and saying it's bad for some reason.

To be honest though, I'm a bit jaded regarding corporate apologies, as well as skeptical when people start screaming about something and I haven't been able to check it out myself. Too many corporations just treat "apologies" as a way to reduce dissent and outrage. While the furor some people create over events has been many times based on false, or at least misleading and incomplete information. (Like a particular dev I won't name that got fired for going ballistic on a polite poster that had a differing opinion and politely asked her a question.)
Since I can't tell from the incomplete and third hand information that's been doled out to us, I'm going to remain neutral at this time, and I'd advise others to do so as well.

If anyone has the actual pages from those books relevant to the discussion, I'm sure myself and others would appreciate seeing them so we can judge for ourselves. Please do not break any copyright laws, but there is a fair use clause in many countries that may apply. (Just the relevant pages if you can, not the whole book. The whole book would definitely violate copyright laws anywhere.)
To be honest, I doubt anyone will, and they'd probably be hit with a DMCA even if it's legally fair use where ever they are, and fighting that would be a HUGE and expensive pain.

Well, thanks for reading my late night ramblings.