Tired of vampire bites? Read this!

You're preaching to the already converted. I'm a big fan of horror, vampires in particular.

You was speaking generally. That's cool. I was speaking about SL's Bloodlines, or rather asking about it.

Let's just agree that Bloodlines is crap.

I can certainly agree to that

I seem to remember reading a very old story in which it was explained that iron was harmful, or at least stifling to vampires. I think the vampire in question wore an iron cross around his neck to control his urges/lust/madness or whatever, until night, when it was time to go nuts, and then he simply took off the iron cross, which enabled him to do the vampire things.

I don't hear too much about iron any more when it comes to vampires; likely because people figured out that human blood is iron-based.

Unlike Bloodlines, the vast majority of those wearing a DCS hud seem to know the primary purpose and appropriate use of the hud. I have yet to see any of those wearing a combat hud of any kind do anything on my parcel - most disconnect it shortly after arriving, so I guess there are a lot of RP people coming to my parcel after combat. If one were to do anything, they would be gone and banned.

The Bloodlines people don't get the simple fact that what they do is more annoying to many, many people than what people who are deliberately doing low level griefing. And they compound it with a recurring attitude that there is no wrong place to do it. Well, guess what, on a lot of parcels it is inappropriate even if both sides are consenting because it is RP that interferes with the appropriate RP for that site. Not that many BL people seem to realize that...

Iron is considered a 'dead' or 'grounding' metal in a lot of folk traditions, and it is often picked up as such in modern fantasy stories. I'm not surprised that it would be picked up in one vampire lore or another.

I have a Wicca friend who avoids iron as much as possible for similar reasons. Calls it a lifeless metal. When you think about it, that would sort of make it a nice vampire metal, wouldn't it?

Sorry Gabi. I didnt want to Quote the whole thing....

Did you ever happen to read Montague Summer's "The Vampire: His Myth and Kin".

Kinda odd if you think about it.

Iron is a very common metal. Very Earthy. Most natural metal I can think of. Occurs everywhere. Its like avoiding Air.

I think it is from the feel of it when it is concentrated in one artifact. Then, again, if she is choosing gold, silver or even pewter over iron and lead, that would be reasonable enough. Especially if purchased by someone else.

As a Bloodlines member, I take strong exception to this. Yes, there are problem BL members out there, just as there are problem players in all other walks of life. Before I joined Bloodlines, however, I could count with the fingers of one hand the number of times I'd been solicited for a bite, and still have fingers left over. I can't say the same thing for the number of times I've been asked to "cyber" with someone, or been unwillingly caught up in some Gorean's roleplay. Perhaps we should ban all sex and sex-related items from the game, and THEN we can turn our attention to the "spampires".

I am no longer active in Bloodlines. When I was, I was always courteous, asking permission before sending a bite request. But I allowed myself to become "destroyed" when, more and more often, my asking permission was met with open hostility.

It seems that some people around here have completely lost their grip on the fact that Second Life is, first and foremost, a game. While I take a very dim view of anyone who neither can nor will take "no" for an answer, I have come to expect that people in SL can and often will behave in strange and bizarre ways, or partake in strange or bizarre activities, because this is a game.

To Mr. Binder, and anyone else with similar attitudes toward Bloodlines members: Since you take such a bold and hostile stance toward any and all Bloodlines members regardless of their activities, might I please inquire as to the name of your store, so that I know where I am not welcome to shop and so that I may not needlessly burden you with my hard-earned Lindens?

Why do I never get asked for cybor...?

To be fair, if I got a pop up every 10 mins with "Randomperv would like to cybor you. Say Yes to accept!" I'd probably be equally annoyed.

Anyways, it's gone past the stage of being infantile but harmless, beyond the point of regular annoyance, into the stage of me finding ways to wind them up and making fun at their expense. So it's all good.

Everyone is welcome in my store, simply do not use any weapons or bother customers with HUDs... that is all...

I think actually the title is:

"The Vampire: His Kith and Kin"

and yes I have but the information presented here is also available in many texts on the subject though perhaps rarely as coherently or as in such an entertaining fashion if I recall correctly.

I suggest you read some of the many other experiences of people being reported with regards BL. Your experience of BL members is not typical at all.
It has been recognized that in past posts that some people do not cause problems for people and are involved in the game. Most of us have no problem with them despite how it may read.
You are right that in any group there are a set of people who give the rest a bad name but this is a slightly different case. In this case that there is a minority of people who are not griefing using the HUD, the vast majority are causing major headaches for a lot of people. The reason for this is simple to understand. The game itself is designed in a way that encourages this behavior in order to maximize profits for the company and give maximum benefits to the players. The company could at any time change the game so that the greifing of non-Bloodlines members would cease but they despite being asked persistently have only come up with an suboptimal opt-out solution that is not being very well received so far.
Being associated in any way to a system that encourages rather than discourages bad behavior is going to make the most well behaved of people get a bad reputation.

Perhaps try putting on a robe and wizard hat!

On the serious side, unlike Katheryne, I have only been asked once for cyber, and I've never even seen a Gorean yet. But I've gotten several bite requests.

I understand your experience may have been different, Katheryne; however, the majority of people I know who have gotten a bad impression of Bloodlines did so as a result of contact with its users, not because somebody somewhere has told them they should. Gabriele is right: certainly it's unfair to judge "all" BL users based on the actions of a few, but the data seems to suggest people are judging based on the actions of the majority of BL users. If the only BL'ers we meet are spampires, and even the people who actually run the system are so cavalier about our concerns, then tell me: what are we SUPPOSED to think? Believe something despite the lack of any evidence, save an occasional "well *I* don't play that way" anecdote?

If you represented even the bulk of BL users people meet, this thread wouldn't be like 200 posts long, ya know?

Katheryne, I'd like to respectfully point out that everyone isn't playing the same game on SL. (you pointed out that SL is first and foremost, a game) I don't want to be bothered by vampires but I"m sure there's many who want to be prey or whatever. But I'm not playing 'that' game so why should I have to deal with the game another is playing. Got my own game going, and I don't try to constantly solicit others into it.

Also like to point out that my next door neighbors at one of my land parcels, are the main clan castle for Los Diablos clan. They own a huge land parcel, have members coming and going all the time and are so respectful of me and my adjoining land. Never a bite request, they just leave me alone. One of their 'kings' told me that all I have to do is let him know if I ever have a problem or a request even and he will take care of it. I've never had a problem or any contact at all, really, and we share the sim easily. Why is that, I know that Los Diablos are also a huge clan but they don't cause problems, but all these people are complainng about Bloodlines? I really am curious about the difference in the clans/groups.

Well today I met up with a female vampire and implied I was available 'as lunch' during sex.... that put her off...




shame

Gabriele, et al:

You all bring up some very good points, and I understand where you all are coming from; in fact, I understand now better than I had before.

I still stand by my statement that booting and/or banning people for no other reason than association to a specific (and rather large) group is a rather poor way to conduct business - one that itself could be construed as harassment. There's a fine line between being proactive and judging someone guilty before he or she has even committed an offense; but going too far in one direction will alienate about as many potential customers as the owner was trying to prevent. Once word gets out that a business owner categorically ejects whole groups of people for no other reason than having fangs, that owner's business is done.

well you like to generalize to It is NOT about people wearing fangs, or being furries, or being female, male, muslim, jewish, hindu or even christian or atheists... It is about people that HARRASS people in stores that want to go shopping and not bitten... think about the Fistlines game I mentioned would be nice for you if you get bleu menus that ask for that favor? All I AM ASKING for is... DO NOT use the HUD in my store or on my land... wear it... sure... I don't care but leave my customers and guests alone, if you really don't get that... well then you might re read the whole thread... but it is easier to tell someone he is doing it all wrong and "Harrasses" others then to admit that this game has a very bad reputation that it has done to itself by its users not the shop or landowners... lol...

"This store should go down, as I am not allowed to kill people in there!!!" yeah right

You might not want to be quite so dismissive about the solution at hand. Just go someplace with scripts enabled, such as the cul-de-sac at the Hidden Lakes Telehub in Waterhead, wear the necklace, click "Activate" on the blue dropdown, and remove the necklace. You can even throw it away and empty your trash and it remains effective.

okay, hang on....

most rp games occur on sim specifically designed for rp. and most rp games have some sort of combat, and thus use combat meters. now... nobody from [insert name of popular medieval rp] goes around the main grid to modern clubs and such "thee"-ing and "thou"-ing and trying to attack people with his combat-enabled sword.

(okay, granted im sure that SOMEbody SOMEwhere DOES, but for the most part... rp is contained to a set area and a set of participants.)

in order to fight with anyone, the other 'someone' has to have the same combat hud.

NORMALLY, people who want to rp certain things gather together in a place made for doing that, and buy all the equipment to interact with each other as needed.


the problem as i see it is... bloodlines does not have a "home." now you can buy a private sim, or a sim cluster, and you can demand that everyone who goes there buys into this bloodlines game and plays it. but you CANNOT just go and say: okay, everybody on the grid is going to be considered part of this game.

haha, well okay, they CAN, because they DID. not surprising that not everybody is okay with this.


you know... people who have weapons that do 'real' or pretend damage to other people (whether it is damage for damage-enabled land, or pushing, or just something that hits you and particle blood sprays out), and who go and attack other people without the victim's consent... are called griefers. so... yeah, unsolicited vampire attacks can be considered griefing, or at least harassment.


so i have to agree. the design implement is flawed. those that want to participate in vampire rp should have to buy the vampire rp system their co-players are using. oh, and those that don't want to pay ANY money to anybody? don't. you don't need a hud and a database to rp with your friends. just.... you know? pretend? play... the role...? ya know? (as an aside, you dont need talking 'bits' to cyber, either :X )

And the offered solution to the issue, the garlic necklace is just as flawed. You see, it adds you to yet another of the Bloodline's databases, the "Do Not Bite" database. If I wanted to be a part of their databases, I'd just join the farking game.

They could have designed a secondary hud that is called the "Victim" hud. Or they could have changed it so that they have prim blood dolls or that you can bite a person more than once. Instead, they created a system that is pretty much an easily abused pyramid scheme, with people creating alts to sell their 'souls' to vampires. And lets not mention the people who hang out at the welcome areas and spam newbs for bites.

I have no problem with respectful Bloodlines players in my store. I will not ban the hud. I will, however, ban the idiots that spam bite invites. If I don't just set the land to damage and show 'em my own form of RP.

/me thinks of Ralph of the Honeymooners sending Alice to the moon

I haven't been keeping up with this thread. Is it going well?

It was coughing up some nasty yellow stuff last night, but I think it's going to pull through.

As far as I can tell, some people are still trying to excuse the inexcusable, and some others are still trying to explain the fundamental point of the argument to them and failing.

+ some other stuff.