Paradox Interactive (the Crusader Kings people, not the Conan/Mutant Chronicles ones) buy the White Wolf properties [Merged x10]

[Jotnebane]

As of today Martin Ericsson is Lead Storyteller for White Wolf and the World of Darkness.
I do not know him myself, this only popped up in my FB feed because I know people who know him and his news got a lot of congratulations and this is what he writes:

Halloween in New Orleans seems to be the right time and place to tell you guys some excellent news that have been in the works for a some time now:
As of today I take on the position of Lead Storyteller for White Wolf Publishing and the World of Darkness.
To me this is nothing less than a life-long dream come true. I'm stoked, determined and full of dark ambition.
Now I'm off to the Anne Rice Ball with Tobias Andersson Sjogren, Business Lead and Studio Manager of White Wolf, to seek the blessing of the Queen of Darkness.

He does not say anything about the future of WoD in the Facebook post in which he tells his friends about his new position at White Wolf, but when asked if he will be involved with White Wolfs other IPs such as Exalted he answers "Exalted is included in the portfolio, yes. I have ideas".

That White Wolf has a lead storyteller implies that there are plans for WoD and also for Exalted.

[Leetsepeak]

I really hope this "One World of Darkness" talk is just PR speak or involves the Old World of Darkness without messing with the new.

The skeptic in me is very disheartened by this news. I like Paradox making videogames just fine, but I'd rather they not interfere with the excellent work that Onyx Path has been doing.

Combining the old and the new will only make fans of both unhappy.

[glamourweaver]

Yeah, those worlds have completely different thematic centers and a mosh-mash of both would just lose what makes either great.

It would also be a terrible sign if they were making statements about the future of the rpg lines without even talking to the creative people responsible for those lines yet.

[Selderane]

Paradox is the poster child for the digital distribution era. It's like worrying if a fish will lead a whale out of water.

Honestly, I am far happier with WW in Paradox hands than I was with them being in CCP hands.

And just how exactly do whales get beached? Tiny, malicious, fish with a taste for carnage.

[Erinys]

Hopefully "one World of Darkness" is just their video game plans, and won't affect the TTRPGs at all.

[Strill]

The line on white-wolf.com reading "Our goal is to centralize all aspects of the universe to manage it with the love and care it deserves. We’re now focusing on re-evaluating our business relationships to make sure we’re working with the best creators, developers and artists on the planet!" heavily implies they're weighing their options with The Onyx Path and any other companies that might have active contracts with White Wolf. Scary times.

God dammit. That better not be the case.

[Cielago]

its very early to guess at whats coming, but if i were to do so, i'd say that hoping for a disparity between digital and tabletop is probably overly optimistic, at least based on the verbiage they're using. it sounds very much like paradox wants to have a single, coherent world of darkness to work with. could be mistaken, of course, but thats how i read it.

[Charlaquin]

nWOD's problem i think is recognition, especially if paradox wants to do games and its pretty obvious they're looking to trade on white wolf's old school cred. no one writes articles ranking the vampire the requiem clans. it just never reached the kind of cultural critical mass that VtM did, and if (and thats a big if) paradox wants to dump down to a single line thats going to work against nwod. it certainly sounds like, for games at least, a single line is something they are interested in, but thats not to say that for onyx path that would be the case.

Oh, I agree completely. cWoD is a much stronger candidate for a video game than nWoD, for a variety of reasons. As for the tabletop games, they're different enough that they both merit being published simultaneously. But will that be clear to a video game developer? If either WoD gets the axe, I don't think there's any question it would be nWoD, which is what worries me as a huge nWoD fan. There's really not enough information to know if that's even on the table, but it's a scary thought.

[ArcaneArts]

Again, at this point, there's no real point stressing. We have no idea what's going on, might as well wait before getting our pants in a knot.

[CapitanTypo]

Re: this article http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/29/pa...wolf-from-ccp/

Couldn't find anywhere else to discuss this - any idea what the implications are for Onyx Path and existing product redevelopments?

[vampire hunter D]

Holden had a post about this on FB. He's as clueless as we are about what this means.

[Eurhetemec]

I really hope this "One World of Darkness" talk is just PR speak or involves the Old World of Darkness without messing with the new.

The skeptic in me is very disheartened by this news. I like Paradox making videogames just fine, but I'd rather they not interfere with the excellent work that Onyx Path has been doing.

Combining the old and the new will only make fans of both unhappy.

It's hard to think of any meaning that doesn't involve them basically stopping publishing either the oWoD or the nWoD. Their other statements, like about the age-range of players and so on suggest that they're more interested in oWoD-era players than nWoD-era ones.

So I'll be pretty shocked if the grand ending here isn't that, essentially, the stop the nWoD, stop anything more being made for it (probably continue to sell it as PDFs etc. of course), stop the "classic" oWoD stuff too, and create a very oWoD-like World of Darkness that is more modern and contains very little of the nWoD. I mean, the classic pop-culture vampire of today is far more oWoD than nWoD, werewolves and mages whilst far from either, are more oWoD (I'd argue), and the appeal of that is likely to be far broader - which matters a lot for an RPG.

I'd be unsurprised to see mages toned down and made a little less metaphysical and a little more Dr Strange-ish, too.

But this is all doomsaying and hopefully I'm being completely ridiculous. Still, if the endgame is selling computer games, the IP is bound to be developed differently than if the endgame is selling RPG books.

I wouldn't object to a new, more modern World of Darkness, mind, it might even be awesome (hopefully it handles any social commentary well). But I wouldn't expect either the nWoD or the classic oWoD to continue on.

[kinok0]

Oh, I agree completely. cWoD is a much stronger candidate for a video game than nWoD, for a variety of reasons.

Lore wise? Sure. Systems wise? I'm pretty sure nWoD is a much better candidate, espescially Mage (although the focus for the first game may end up being VtM, or any V for that matter rather than Mage but who knows, one can dream xD).

[Weimann]

Presumably, Paradox paid tens of millions Swedish Krona for White Wolf. That most likely equates to around 5 million USD.

For reference, 1,000,000 SEK = about $117,220.

[Murder-of-Crows]

Oh, I agree completely. cWoD is a much stronger candidate for a video game than nWoD, for a variety of reasons. As for the tabletop games, they're different enough that they both merit being published simultaneously. But will that be clear to a video game developer? If either WoD gets the axe, I don't think there's any question it would be nWoD, which is what worries me as a huge nWoD fan. There's really not enough information to know if that's even on the table, but it's a scary thought.

Well, nWoDs publishing run at the moment is pretty complete if you ignore the 2.0 books. I think integrating the fan base into one World of Darkness would in the end strengthen the community. nWoD is splintering in ever more obscure game lines that see only as many books as are kickstarted. I'd rather have more content for the big four: Vampire, Werewolf. Mage and Changeling than ever increasing obscure splats. So yes, I think the nWoD tree needs pruning.

[Leetsepeak]

I really hope people attending these events that the "new White Wolf leads and creatives" will be at impress upon these people the quality of work Onyx Path has been doing, and the importance of not disrupting that.