As a general question/comment/rant to those complaining about the vampire, what is wrong with WotC releasing rules options that you don't like? You simply don't have to use them. Don't like = don't use. It is just that simple. If you want Heroes of Shadow but the idea of a vampire offends your eyes so much, just skip over the pages or, if you have to, tear them out. Buh-bye, vampire. But what I don't get is why people get in such a tither every time WotC comes out with something that they don't like, especially something as relatively insignificant as a character class.
Don't get me wrong: My preferred thematic atmosphere of D&D is a hybrid of sword & sorcery and Tolkien, perhaps a bit more towards the former than the latter. I personally am not all that fond of Dragonborn, Shardminds, Tieflings, Wilden, and the other "Mos Eisley-esque" D&D races (although I do like Deva because they are aptly suited for the "Accursed Wanderer" archetype, but I digress) - or rather, I don't mind Mos Eisley, I just haven't been impressed with WotC's attempt at it (for a much better one, check out Talislanta).
To me it is quite simple: If I am a player, I won't play something I don't like; if I am the DM then I create parameters for my campaign world, which gives players a set of options that they can choose from. If I say "There are no Dragonborn in my world" and a player desperately wants to play a Dragonborn, I may say something like "OK, you can play a Dragonborn but you're virtually one of a kind as your people are from another continent or world" (A twenty dollar bill handed over under the table might increase their chances. jk). Or I might just say, "Tough luck, play something else." It would depend upon how much they wanted to play it and how much I didn't want to DM it.
Options are good. I can understand being annoyed if WotC doesn't produce any or very few options that you personally like, but if they produce an option, or some options, that you don't like, all I can say is: Deal with it. One cannot possibly love every single idea or concept that WotC churns out - I'm sure there are differences within the design team itself, whether spoken or not! D&D has always been, in the end, a toolbox game. Even if you play the RAW, you still are likely to place parameters on the game depending upon what races and classes are available, what your campaign setting is like, and even simply what foes the characters encounter.
To put all of this another way, and much more succinctly, there are lots of reasons to be annoyed with WotC these days but coming out with a new option like the vampire character class is not anywhere the top of the list in terms of legitimacy. IMHO, of course.
