Okay, so I read a lot about Bloodlines...

/me smashes head against a brick wall.

Sredni Eel--Prepare to be banned automatically at a lot of sims including Transylvania (ironic, huh?).

This is because Transylvania keeps to real RP and doesn't want people harrassed. They respect mortals. They even once created a group just for them called Translyvania Mortals.

Totally wrong, *every* other serious role-playing/combat (and I use that term very liberally with regards to Bloodlines) game on the grid is opt-in only. Every other serious role-playing/combat system HUD/Meter is opt-in only.

CCS, DCS2, Gorean Meter, CARP, DVCS, GCS, GLM, Honor RP...to name a few - none of them work against anyone who is not wearing the same role-playing/combat system HUD/Meter.

And yet the sims that use these meters are chock full of players and participants.

Sorry but there is no excuse for not having opt-in as the only way to determine players.

well there should be definitely a cooldown to the bite request when it is being refused, this way the spampires would ask you if it's okay for you before biting you.

Simple solution Vampires meters only work in vamp style RP sims. Fact if I want to play vamps I look up Vamps in search and I TP to the sim..is that not simple? If i dont want to play a Vamps dinner I stay away from a vamps RP sim.. I have heard BloodLine were planing some from of item sim owners could get to stop the meter working in their sim ( wonder of the cost) As was said before like other combat systems if you dont wear it your not included. If you want to get involved you ask. Surly ppl in SL are not that stupid that they cant seek out things that interest them as in Opt in options being simply going to a vamp RP sim. Im sure if those into kidnapping went about trying to kidnap in anything but a set up RP sim all hell would be let loose and complaints to the Lindens would be made so whats the difference here ?

Fact: Not everyone is going to run a search and teleport to some dedicated Sim which may just be run by the world's worst GM ... You know the sort: Utterly clueless, poor posting ability and very quick on the ban hammer when corrected.

Many Role Play chat rooms on AOL and Yahoo were not considered 'Opt-In' in terms of story, play and other factors as many of them were within the same base realm. The ones that were not were Opt Out only to boot as very few took the time to check and see if the room was using a different Realm/Rule System.

First off what has Yahoo and AOL based Role play got to do with SL .. not a dam thing
NOw as for your comment "Not everyone is going to run a search and teleport to some dedicated Sim " well if you cant be bothered then you dont play vamps then do you. I am sure ppl would be more than pissed if Goreans came into any sim, even Vamp ones, and started taking women as slaves and killing the men just because. Well guess what its the same thing I dont want to be a vamp i dont need to join bloodline to be a vamp in fact many places sell teeth if i buy a set wow im a vamp.
Simple fact the blood line System needs to work like the combat system in that it is useless if the sim is not set up for it. Then those who want to play vamps can and those of us who done wont be pestered by a game we are not interested and believe me a lot of ppl are not.

All role play chat rooms on AOL and Yahoo were opt-in, by virtue of the fact that you had to choose to visit that room in order to be exposed to it. That's their equivalent of visiting a sim in SL. Those chat rooms were not automatically forcing their way into other chat rooms the way the Bloodlines players are doing in SL by calling the entire grid their roleplaying area.

You know, it's the simplest thing in the world. All the Bloodlines creators have to do is code their HUD so it only works on avas wearing the same HUD.

You KNOW that's never going to happen, right?

i'm callin for backup
*HONK!!*HONK!!!*

Ah, breaker one-nine, this heres the rubber duck. you gotta copy on me, pig pen, cmon?

ah, yeah, 10-4, pig pen, fer shure, fer shure. by golly, its clean clear to SL, cmon. yeah,

that
Big 10-4 there, pig pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a Holy water convoy...

Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of june
In a kenworth pullin Stakes
Cab-over pete with a reefer on
And a jimmy haulin Rakes
We is headin for Vamp on i-one-oh
bout a mile outta SL town
I says, pig pen, this heres the rubber duck.
And Im about to put the hammer down.

[chorus]
cause we got a little holy water convoy
Rockin through the night.
Yeah, we got a little holy water convoy,
Aint it a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our holy water convoy
Aint nothin gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this Holy water convoy
cross the Grid this way.
Holy Water Convoy!

[on the cb]
Ah, breaker, pig pen, this heres the duck. and, you wanna back off That Garlic? yeah, 10-4, bout five mile or so. ten, roger. that Garlic is gettin in-tense up here.

By the time we got into tulsa town,
We had eighty-five trucks in all.
But theys a roadblock up on the cloverleaf,
And them Vamps was wall-to-wall.
Yeah, them goolies is thick as bugs on a bumper;
They even had a Vamp in the air!
I says, callin all trucks, this heres the duck.
We about to go a-huntin here.

[chorus]
cause we got a great big holy water convoy
Rockin through the night.
Yeah, we got a great big holy water convoy,
Aint she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our holy water convoy
Aint nothin gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin holy water convoy
cross the SL grid .
Holy Water Convoy!

[on the cb]
Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that, pig pen? negatory, pig pen; youre still too close. yeah, that Garlic is startin to close up my sinuses. mercy sakes, you better back off another ten.

Well, we rolled up info hub 44
Like a rocket sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets,
And left em settin on the scales.
By the time we hit that chi-town,
Them vamps was a-gettin smart:
Theyd brought up some reinforcements
From the expansion pack werewolf V3.05 .
Theres Bite requests, and spikes, and newbs,
And rigs of every size.
Yeah, them info hubs was fulla vamps
And bats filled the skies.
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin trucks
An eleven long-haired friends a jesus
In a chartreuse micra-bus.

[on the cb]
Ah, rubber duck to sodbuster, come over. yeah, 10-4, sodbuster? lissen, you wanna put that micra-bus right behind that suicide jockey? Yeah he's haulin' dynamite and he needs all the help he can get

Well, we laid a strip for the Region shore
And prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with vamp
But I didnt have the dog-goned time.
I says, pig pen, this heres the rubber duck.
We just aint a-gonna pay no toll.
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says let them truckers roll, 10-4.

[chorus]
cause we got a mighty holy water convoy
Rockin through the night.
Yeah, we got a mighty holy water convoy,
They Aint Gonna get a bite?
Come on and join our holy water convoy
Aint nothin gonna get in our way.
We gonna roll this truckin holy water convoy
cross the SL Grid.

Holy Water Convoy! ah, 10-4, pig pen, whats your twenty?
Holy Water Convoy! omaha? well, they oughta know what to do with that Garlic out there fer shure. well, mercy
Holy water Convoy! sakes, good buddy, we gonna back on outta here, so keep the spike out your ass and the Vamp off your pass...
Holy water Convoy! tail. well catch you on the flip-flop. this heres the rubber duck on the side.
Holy Water Convoy! we gone. bye,bye.

I would never own up to knowing ANY of the words to "Convoy".

i live in Tennesse..it's on the radio all the time lol

You know, that should make some sort of sense ... but no one can tell me why, in upstate NY, all the classic rock stations insist on having "Sweet Home Alabama" on their playlists.

I've always loved the 'friends of jesus' part-

Except that all of these systems are generally based around equal and fair role-play - where anyone has the potential to beat anyone else, albeit possibly based on levelling up.

Vampire role-play isn't like that - in classic vampire RP (and fiction) a non-vampire has basically no way to resist being bitten by a vampire. Unless they are Van Helsing, but there's only one of him, and funnily enough vampires don't typically try to bite him.



I could certainly understand an objection to the culture that if you want to engage in an RP, you have to either spend US$1000+ and US$295 a month, or follow the rules of someone who has.

I'm confused. What does roleplay have to do with Bloodlines?

Lol Yumi you are just showing as usual that you have no idea about combat systems, roleplay, what roleplay is going on in SL or about vampire legends.
The HUD/meter you wear is only a combat system.
The combat system isn't the thing that enables you to roleplay, it enables combat only and combat should be balanced (note: not the same as fair). It is used to give realism to combat so that you don't have to use roleplay to work out fight scenes.
All the decent vampire roleplays in SL *are* already using CCS or DCS2 for combat.

You also fall into the mistake of thinking that what you term "classical" vampire story is the only way to play at being vampires/victims. "classical" stories are nothing more than a handful of pop-culture books and films of the last century of which all comform to some degree to a certain type of cliche of vampire mythos.
There is so much more to vampire folklore and myth than Bram Stoker, Nosferatu, Hammer House of Horror, etc.
Historically stories about vampires have been almost as varied as stories about everyday people.
Even within modern popular fiction there is so much variety in vampires and what they are capable of.

The point being that in free form roleplay, you don't get to say what whether a vampire character being played by someone is "correct" or not. If a person chooses to play a vampire a certain way differently to another vampire in the same roleplay this can almost always be accommodated within the story lines. Variety is almost always welcomed in such roleplays. The mark of a good vampire character is like with all characters, you look for the following things...is the character:

*) Believable (not realistic, just plausible)
*) Consistent within its own set of rules
*) Not all powerful, has some discoverable weaknesses

Typical A-Hole response one expects from a Bloodline 'RPer' (RPer? har har, best one I've heard all day!). This kind of response is usually sent via snarky IM after you turn down their third or fourth spammed request. Here's my response to the above points.

1) they cost money, if they were free and offered along with the bite itself, maybe, just maybe you'd have a point.
2) You are both interrupting what I am doing and annoying me with unwanted popups. If I don't know you, I am not going to interrupt you and generate popups on your screen and appreciate the same courtesy in return
3) And last time I ran into ANY of the the above was several months ago, I run into bloodlines cockroaches every time I go shopping. A nuclear war wouldn't wipe them all out.
4) When it interrupts my game and annoys me with unwanted popup spam, I know enough about it and the kind of person that plays to comment....and quite negatively..'tis the only way of possibly (though unlikely) getting through the thick skull of a bloodlines user.
5) Afraid I predate Bloodlines and am not going anywhere. Why not go back to whatever point n' grunt game you came out of that considers clicking on strangers to be the height of RP?

LOOK OUT!! BLOODLINE SPAMP BEHIND YOU WIFF A SPIKE!!!!

FEAR THE HOLY CHEESE CAKE YOU SPAMP!!

\Well, gee whiz folks. I start a business and when it is conducted halfway ethically, it fails. Bloodlines becomes history or the 'players' learn how to keep it going other than irritating the crap out of everyone else. Yumi, can you understand that none of us, absolutely none of us, owe BL the time of day? What about this don't you grasp?

I hang up on telemarketers, I don't contribute to charities just because Safeway has a new cause of the week, I don't give L$ to freeloaders. Now I admit to some degree of amusement when chucking a BL ass off my property and they certainly aren't the worst thing I run into, even on a given day, but I will be glad to do whatever necessary to toss their backsides into some common dumpster where they can play together. And if I run into a courteous one, well, I guess I probably won't even know, so live and let live in that case.

*chortles* There are some that actually do roleplay. Kinda hard to prove they exist, however, since they don't spam people with bite invites.

I've met them. They are both really nice people!

Oh, I disagree. Some way of resolving conflicts is going to necessary for role-play to be anything more than a) purely social (not that there is anything wrong with purely social RP, but not everyone wants it), or b) a constant OOC quest for "permission", which quest inevitably eclipses anything that happens IC.



Sure, but one thing that is fairly standard is that there are very few vampire stories in which mortals have no reason to worry about vampires because you can just mace them and run away. It wouldn't work very well in fiction, either - can you imagine a lot of vampire fiction ending with ".. and then he had a bad month, didn't manage to bite anyone and starved to death. The end."?

If there is really any vampire fiction in which every single victim of a vampire is a character developed just as well as the vampire then I would be very surprised - yet that is what would be required for an opt-in vampire RP system.



Actually, you do. This is an important distinction which appeared on rpg.net. "Freeform" means that the group are free to choose a form, but they nonetheless _can_ make that choice, and once chosen it must stick. An RP in which no-one can ever tell someone else that their vampire doesn't fit, thereby leaving no way for the group to have any control over the form at all, is "formless". Now, of course, the selected form may be one that accomodates all forms of vampire but it is not necessarily.



Indeed, you do not. You do not have to be bitten, you do not have to have BL players on your land if you do not want to. There are also many reasons to object to BL existing at all - the misleading of new users, the "to opt-out you must opt-in" database, etc. But saying that BL should not exist at all because having others ask you permission to play the roles they want to is such a huge hassle is going to a huge other dimension because if that's the case, nobody can play any role at all - since it means no-one can play any role at all, as they'd have to ask permission first. (Ok, if they asked in chat rather than using a dialog you wouldn't be disturbed and could just ignore it, but you ignoring the permission request would be equivalent to a no, and thus they couldn't play the role)

Also, BL has arisen because the people involved have found the RP model in SL unsatisfactory and we ought to at least pay attention to that. Many social anthropologists will tell you that the RL social mores evolved through centuries of working together, external influences, and internal conflict and war - but are we going to say that SL's social mores will be stuck static forever because we'll only care about a conflict if someone actually starts a civil war and nobody can do that on SL? How will we ever develop a social paradigm for the virtual world, rather than the real, without that aspect? Obviously we don't want to have civil wars on SL, but we can pay attention to the conflicts without needing them..

I dabble with bloodlines now and then, I've never spammed anyone for a bite. One thing that can't be denied is that bloodlines is popular. Now if someone wants to come up with a more popular system that isn't as annoying feel free, you'll be onto a winner.

That is not what I said, so I would prefer that when you want to extrapolate from something I said, be clearer. I said that if people chose to not opt in and Bloodlines died a natural death, that is absolutely fine by me. If they find a way to exist (coexist might be a better term), that is also fine by me. But saying, gee, they should be allowed to roam about spamming people for no other reason than the other person is in SL and a convenient target, no, that's not fine. It would get you arrested in RL in many places. Right now many of them continue to be a bloody nuisance and the originators appear to encourage them to do so.

And, by the way, SL is no more or less than what it is. This is just my opinion from reading your posts here, but you seem to spend far more time speculating about SL than actually experiencing it. Nothing wrong with that, but this is a lot like a social scientist in California telling me about the impact of panhandlers at Union Station.