is White Wolf's hype machine broken?

[Felon]

They are just starting to leak things about their Gen Con releases. We still have over two months to get all kinds of juices details so nothing is slipping yet. Now if we don't have anything by the end of July different story.

No, it seems to be the same story. The OP's point, stated clearly, was that Monte did a brilliant job of promoting Arana Unearthed for about a year before its release. People's appetites got whet just for those weekly design diaries. By the time the actual book was released, he had presales out the whazoo. It was outstanding proof that the policy of maintaining a rigid code of silence about a product until a few weeks before its release (at which time a ham-fisted glut of previews are released) is counter-productive. Unfortunately, it happens to be WotC's policy, and maybe White Wolf's as well if this is any indicator.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you pronounce that like "homage"?

I pronounce it "real Mage."

 

[teckno72]

Inconnu = (from Cassell's French/English Dictionary) unknown, strangers, or even unknown quantities for math. Kind of reminds me of the Unborn/Malfeans from the old World of Darkness. Sorry, I'm a French minor.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Initially, I wasn't even remotely interested in this, as I'd long since been turned off by WW's WoD. All the "secret histories of how the world really is" stuck in my craw almost as bad as the overbearing angst did.

But after reading the preview articles, I may at least give this a look if I spot it on the shelf. If nothing else, mundane humans should at least be able to hold their own against the monsters.

And I do like the notion of the "awakened" humans telling the Cthuluesque beasties "No, we don't want to play by your rules"

 

[Graf]

Initially (prior to looking at the thread) my interest level was zero.
Now it's low but a bit higher.

At least it looks like he's trying to do something.
The game desperately needs a new name though. If there is a deep and abiding need to make MC a brand I can understand that (sort of), but just call it Darkness or something.
WoD is a different brand, muddling it up with some sort of modern action-oriented-Call-of-Cthulhu-without-Cthulhu isn't their best idea.

It sounds a lot like Esoterrorists/Trail of Cthulhu or Heroes-but-supernatural-creatures-come-back. Or d20 Modern's Modern Arcana (or whatever it's called).

It's a weird niche to have everyone fighting over...

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I think it's just a typo. It is WWGS, after all.

Ouch. Touche'. While I loves WW's games to death (in general), they do have a bad tendency to slip in either typos or, worst yet, Page XX.

 

[Darkness]

Two new previews:

The Intrusion's Influence

Creatures of the Night, Agents of the Inconnu

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Intrusion preview seems like it was chopped in half, although it's amusing to note that there's now something interesting in South Dakota at long last.

The Agents of the Inconnu preview more than made up for it, however. I can definitely see running a McWoD campaign, although I'd definitely be replacing the Inconnu with the Galchutt and use Chaositech and the like.

 

[Pale]

Unfortunately, it happens to be WotC's policy, and maybe White Wolf's as well if this is any indicator.

That couldn't be further from the truth as applied to White Wolf. They have long been in the practice of "leaking" out tidbits about a setting for 2 to 3 months before a book is released. I expect that MCWOD is still further down the chain of releases and isn't due for that treatment as of yet. They also like to open up forums dedicated to a game before they even announce what it is (the Promethean boards were simply called "The Fourth Game" with the only hint being "It's something that we haven't done before." for at least a month before they made a concrete announcement).

I suspect that they put this out because it has been so long since the announcement. Also, since this looks like a proposal from Mr. Cook to White Wolf, I'm doubting that they have much in the way of concrete material to tease us with yet. Heck we don't even know if it's going to follow standard WoD creation rules for their supernaturals (Template + Born Type + Chosen Type) or not yet. This is nowhere near being a glut of information about the setting.

So... no, it's not an indicator of how White Wolf deals with these sorts of things.