White Wolf and CCP merge...

[Piratecat]

White Wolf merges, plans WoD MMO

From Gamasutra.com:

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Eve Online PC MMO creator CCP, based in Iceland, has announced a merger with U.S. paper-gaming firm White Wolf, the world's second largest role-playing publisher, revealing intentions to build a World Of Darkness MMO.

According to a joint statement, the combined company "will introduce new online and offline gaming products across the science-fiction, horror and fantasy genres", indicating that multiple new products may be planned.

CCP was founded in 1997 and its massively multiplayer space combat/strategy title, EVE Online was launched in 2003. Although getting off to a slow start, the title has seen gradually increasing subscription and simultaneous player numbers, bucking the lifecycle trend of many competing MMOs. It also set a world record for most concurrent users in the same virtual environment with 30,538 in September 2006.

As for White Wolf, the veteran pen and paper RPG creator was formed in 1991, and has previously licensed its IP for PC and console games such as Vampire: the Masquerade and Hunter: The Reckoning. 'World Of Darkness' is the overarching name for their fictional universes used in those products, so it's likely that elements of both will be used in the new MMO.

It's also noted: "The merger will accelerate CCP's brand development of EVE Online as White Wolf will bring their expertise to the creation of EVE Online strategy guides, collectible card games, role-playing games, novels, and miniatures."

The combined company will continue to operate under their respective names. White Wolf will be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of CCP. Hilmar Petursson, Chief Executive Officer of CCP, will be CEO of the combined company. Mike Tinney, President of White Wolf, will continue as President of the independent subsidiary. Further, White Wolf will continue development and enhancement of their entire portfolio of gaming products.

"CCP brings industry-leading technical expertise and online game development experience to us," said Mike Tinney, White Wolf's President. "Together, we will create the industry's most innovative games leveraging both online and offline systems."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Repost

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm sure they'd do a WoD MMO justice in its own right, though I've yet to see a computer game do justice to the massive politicking and double-dealing that goes on in Vampire.

Raiding guilds in any MMORPG are full of the stuff.

Maybe. I think it's hard to say at this point. But I have a hard time believing that table-top roleplaying games are just going to die.

Why does it have to be about tabletop dying? Comics being turned into movies, now that the technology makes it look good, isn't about comics dying, it's about taking a good property developed in one medium and running with it in another.

 

[Eridanis]

Never had to merge an admin's thread before. Here we are, all together!

 

[Mark CMG]

Never had to merge an admin's thread before.

Gonna be tough to enforce the obligatory three day ban.

 

[Nightfall]

You are completely missing the point, here. This isn't about selling of souls. It's about a paradigm shift.

Funny I thought it was the same thing.

But I honestly don't see this as the end of TTRPGs so much as one company giving itself up to another...with out much hope of sustaining it.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Raiding guilds in any MMORPG are full of the stuff.

Yeah, but that's not the fun kind!

You clearly didn't spend enough time playing EVE. The heart of that game is in the player politics, backstabbing, dirty tricks and double dealing.

Maybe you missed this part of my original post:

Eve is a great game and was really a treat to play for the brief time that I did...

Emphasis mine. Brief = about 2 months, usually only on weekends. Edited defensive comments. Your post comes off as kind of... superior. Hopefully I'm misinterpretting that (damn interwebs makes it so hard to read people). You can think what you like, but the brevity of my play experience doesn't devalue its relevance.

Why does it have to be about tabletop dying? Comics being turned into movies, now that the technology makes it look good, isn't about comics dying, it's about taking a good property developed in one medium and running with it in another.

It doesn't have to be at all. I completely agree with you.

 

[Henry]

This is yet another step down the road toward the death of table top rolplaying games, I fear.

Sigh.

Personally, I don't think they're going to die any more than they already are. There will always be a contingent looking to get together, tell stories, roll dice, and crack jokes in person instead of online. It just won't be very large, and hasn't been tremendously large in 20 years.

 

[Mercule]

Personally, I don't think they're going to die any more than they already are. There will always be a contingent looking to get together, tell stories, roll dice, and crack jokes in person instead of online. It just won't be very large, and hasn't been tremendously large in 20 years.

True. This may be an effect more than a cause.

On the other hand, it may be part of some gathering momentum.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

On the other hand, it may be part of some gathering momentum.

Given how popular WOD LARP is, I doubt it.