WorldOfDarkness.com Closing Down?

White Wolf has had a terrible year. As a result, they're issuing apologies, recalling books, changing the management, being absorbed into parent company Paradox, advertising for a new Brand Manager, and now... it looks like they're closing down WorldOfDarkness.com.

The message below went out to subscribers of White Wolf's online book reader service. Thanks to Distant Shore for the scoop!

 

[Aguirre Melchiors]

Get Woke
Go Broke

 

[TrippyHippy]

Get Woke
Go Broke

This being another mantra quoted ad nauseum online, currently.

The complaints themselves were that the game wasn't "woke" enough, by the way.

I'd say that the politicised attacks on both sides made it fairly untenable to build a succesful market for the game. As I say, I think the bottom line was more in the lack of sales, possibly because of more mundane factors (like pricing, etc). However, the continual opprobrium in the fanbase - the "Edgelord vs SJW" wars - was offputting to say the least.

If there is one silver lining to the sad demise of White Wolf in 2018, it's that at least there is no reason to bother interacting on the matter any more.

 

[Nifar1]

Good riddance to bad writing

 

[Morrus]

Get Woke
Go Broke

Don't post in this thread again, please.

 

[Jer]

This is the only answer I received from Paradox till now: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NZYVKqHg233iUbJ28

Wow - that's some response:

I would like to ask: is http://worldofdarkness.com really no more? The site will really be shut down tomorrow?

Correct - at least in its current form. We hope that the (poorly) run services there will be run better in the future through other places.

I had a free subscription via the Vampire Humble Bundle the other month and I have not been impressed with the interface - it was hard to browse through books, the reader essentially was serving up static page images - I don't think I would have been able to use it to actually run a game. I certainly wouldn't have paid for a subscription after my essentially free trial was done.

This response calling that out suggests to me that there was far more going wrong at WW from Paradox's POV than just the Vampire v5 stumbles, and that perhaps those were just the visible straw that broke the camel's back...

 

[Maximillian Ventrue]

Outstanding. Now they can have a future without being tainted by some of the hateful ugliness that was holding the game back. I only wish it happened sooner, but better late than never.

 

[GloomyGus]

Get Woke
Go Broke

Yeah, 5e has really been struggling ever since they started pandering with their "trans acceptance in the core rules" and their "gay characters in their adventure books", and all that multiculturalism everywhere. Unlike World of Darkness, those guys smartly defied the oversensitive politically correct masses, and now they're reaping the rewards, earning both acclaim and monetary riches for their trouble.

 

[Anthro78]

Maybe Lisa Stevens at Paizo would look at purchasing White Wolf? That would be an interesting turn of events.

 

[Egg Embry]

Here's the latest press release from Modiphius and Paradox:

https://www.modiphius.com/modiphius...ess-announces-the-fall-of-london-v5-chronicle

 

[Akodoken]

Yep, Modiphius just announced they are the stewards for VtM 5E and listed the books they will be releasing during 2019. All in all, it looks like VtM will do fine even with the shake ups at Paradox.