Bloodlines,
Netherworld, Progeny, Vampire Mafia, Vitae, The Hunger, Eternal Conflict, Dark
Embrace, Masquerade, Embraced, Immortal Legions, Empower Immortals, Night Blood………
… they came, they went, precarious between the night
and the day, the real and unreal, some still stalk while others have crumbled
dust to dust and ashes to ashes, some burned brightly but briefly and others were
left behind remaindered but still clinging on to dear undeath, starved of blood, bereft of souls become ghosts, phantoms,
husks trapped in a never forever in defiant decay refusing to greet their
already fateful fate, and as for the rest, may they rest in peace.
Bloodlines still hangs on the dominant vampirical force in the
Second Life (SL) landscapes and remains
the most reliable despite not being cheap and far from affordable for everyone. Like all games and roleplays in SL it is not
what it used to be and has had to innovate to survive, nevertheless it’s still
the prime-cut whatever your temptation, be it Vampire or Lycanthrope or
extra-human as in a Bloodsoul, a Demon or Angel or combinations of any two:
quite clever really. It’s grid-wide and
not confined to a single sim which confers it some advantages but could also,
as has happened to many, just as easily be its downfall as in too big for its
boots (or fangs or claws!) if not
handled with the delicacy of a love bite. It’s HUDs frequently get updated and
lands currently being revamped and added too which hopefully all the better for
roleplay.
Progeny is now likely the second most played vampire game inworld and continues to grow though not
quite as exponentially as it did when it started, times which were rocky to say
the least. Recently progress has slowed to
a statelier but near snails-pace of growth leaving many frustrated who years
later are still waiting for things to happen that were promised and still
haven’t materialized. It is definitely less democratic than Bloodlines
and definitely more secretive and you still have to be invited to join but it is
also less costly, at least at the basic level of play. Progeny can be a bit
sluggish when it comes to new things even though it has lots of ideas but its
sim doesn’t match Bloodlines for functionality or imagination yet and its
website is still inaccessible and almost closely-guarded secret. Progeny’s
almost one-hand juggling doesn’t do it any favours.
The Hunger: first blood still lives and breathes, hanging in there, but only
just. It still functions though for whatever reason interest has waned. Their
website has been recently updated for the first time for ages which may mean a
possible reanimation is on the cards. What future plans they have are still
uncertain or at least kept under wraps, or underground! At least like Bloodlines
and Progeny
they do have a homeland of a kind and shop. Nevertheless, it still feels all a
bit on-hold and languishing in a stasis
waiting for a sunrise that may or may not come. Its main motivator was/ is
battle, conflict and competition but with so few are active its relevance hangs
somewhat limp . They do have a huge range of Races though to choose which could
be seen as spreading things too thin and just too confusing, or, likely to hook
a wider group of people. Regardless of any of this there are still vast numbers
who at least own one of their HUDs. Like Bloodlines though it is still too
costly for many to effectively take part, especially if you want to set up or
acquire your own clan which is blood-curdlingly expensive.
Eternal Conflict, subtitled ‘Angels and Demons’, is one on which
to keep a beady eye as softly, softly, quietly, quietly behind the scenes
appears to be growing in numbers and interest. In addition to those two Races
it is planning to add to its canon with Vampires, Lycans and Thralls under the subtitle
‘Afterlife’. Not exactly a new kid on
the block but new enough to still be novel for anyone looking for a change from
the older regimes and intriguing enough to attract shiny new converts. again
though there is a cost element which is a continuing problem in SL, not
everyone can fund their habits inworld
so easily. It’s quite secretive and low-key and you do need to be sort of
invited, as with Progeny, which means finding an active player to welcome you
with open wings.
Empower Immortals still lingers but only just and you’d be lucky if not
total amazed to find any active player or clan now inworld. Mostly a world of Vampires, Lycan and Humans but does
include other Races such as Fae, witches and Demons and there are similarities
to Bloodlines,
though not quite as close as Netherworld which it is obvious
poached a lot of their ideas from it. In all fairness to Netherworld they were
trying to make a more affordable version for those not with the deep pockets
required for Bloodlines. Bizarrely
their products can still be bought on SL’s Marketplace so in one sense it
clings on though likely its days are numbered if not already past their ‘best by’ date.
Believe it or not that well-known online and
real-world vampire game of Masquerade can still be found inworld. At best though it is merely in
remnant form, though being the even more highly-secretive almost mason-like
world it is one can never really be sure. Inworld
it has no tools, weapons, HUDs, none of the bells and whistles found in the
others, and is entirely confined to roleplay, character-development and suspension
of belief.
Vitae was for a time a brave attempt at establishing something new in the SL
vampire community and while it lasted, which was actually several, was fairly successful
and in many ways worked far better than all the others. It was certainly
simpler and definitely cheaper, hence affordable to many and not
over-complicated but had plenty of toys one could indulge and interact with. Before its untimely death it did start to
offer everything for free in an attempt to rescue its decline and encourage
participation but in the end was defeated by the powers greater than itself,
apathy and indifference. It even had a
sim for roleplay but its creator had a meltdown from being the sole doer of everything,
which is no mean feat and basically impossible for any one person, even a
vampire, to sustain the demands of these things.
Vampire Mafia, Embraced and Night Blood and countless
others which at the moment I can’t remember are buried beyond all hope of
exhumation. Vampire Mafia was also a near copy-cat of Bloodlines, in fact
started by disgruntled BL vamps, which probably in part lead to its downfall
despite having its own impressive roleplay sim as well as being grid-wide. Embraced
was based on a combat-model of roleplay, the KROS system known as ‘Kindred’, like The Hunger in a sense but distinct and had a clever range of tools,
toys and fangs. It too faded away eventually, probably diminishing returns of
revenue and interest as at first was quite costly but towards the end did what Vitae
did and virtually give stuff away, but not even that saved it. As for Night
Blood, this was designed by a band of unapologetic and disgruntled Hunger-players
as essentially Vampire versus Lycan but barely bothered the competition before crumbling
in a heap of in-fighting and bitterness.
Vampires, what are they like!
Then there was Dark Embrace, one of SL’s best-kept
secrets for a while which of course meant it didn’t last but while it did functioned
as probably the friendliest of vampire games, which sounds a bit strange for
Vampires but worked regardless. It’s a simple vampire-only HUD-based system but
different from any other and whose ethos was to keep it simple and affordable
and most of all fun. It still exists, not in the form of a shop, or vendors or
a dedicated sim but in me, being probably the sole-player of it now still
wearing and fulfilling its objectives.
Lucky for me I had all of its bits and pieces bequeathed to me by the creator
on leaving SL, though sadly not the scripts to change anything. It still works though
and perhaps is closer to the true nature of vampire, loner, rogue, truly hiding
in shadows but very much up close and personal to unwary necks.
So there aren’t many now though there is no shortage
or vampire-themed sims and lands some post-apocalyptic, some based on literature such as Dracula, or
Television á la Buffy, Vampire
Diaries, Supernatural, or movies such as Twilight (cough!) or Underworld and some focused on some kind of mythology like
the inworld lands of Transylvania, Nocturne or Convergence.
None of these are grid-wide though but instead provide a kind of immersive
roleplay through their sim-specific HUDs and combat systems. Needless to say SL
is littered with various vampire clan lands so watch your step, and where you
land, your fate could be just a bite away.
So many roads of bones littered with unrest, abandon
and corpses, regardless it’ll all come to an end in the end, eternal life be
damned as it is anyway, one day proving immortality to be a just another contradiction,
misinterpretation, an exercise in wishful thinking, an altered state in which
only the sorely deluded are convinced they’ve evaded the epistemological silver
bullet or stake that was there all along plain as a new moon night.
© Anan Eebus
Note: if anyone remembers any other SL grid-wide
vampire roleplay systems that I haven’t
mentioned here get in touch and tell me as I know there have been more, leave a
message, email, IM inworld, whatever. Thanks for reading.
