Originally posted by Shane on the V20 Blog
So I’ve been trying to sit down and write about the important moment I think a lot of people have been experiencing in the last week since we made the V20 announcement. Its been nothing short of astonishing to watch the Internet explode and the reactions that vary from ecstatic wild disbelief to that of a jilted lover who just showed back up on your doorstep. But to honest the reaction from literally across the globe has been astounding and is an incredible testament to what Vampire: the Masquerade has meant to so many people and how much it was a defining part of their lives. I think few things in the word really have the ability to have long standing emotional effects like Vampire did. I don’t even think we understood at the time how much it mattered to people. Perhaps in much in the same way that musicians don’t often fully understand the gravity of the music they have created until well after the fact. Allot of games are escapism but Vampire was something else. In most games and settings the goal is to be a hero, a larger than life character in a fantasy world. Vampire has always been about trying to be human when you felt out of place and nothing seemed to be going right. It spoke to people in ways that few, if any games did before. It was more like discovering a love for music, fashion, or culture when the world around you seemed dreary, pointless and uninspiring. I’m sure some people reading this might think that’s just old White Wolf pretension at it’s finest. And lto be fair we always did wear our pretention on our sleeve as something of a badge of honor back in the day. But to fully understand the deep ingrained passions that Vampire invokes I think we had to step away from it and not be so close to it day in and day out.
V20 is not some cheap tawdry trick that’s little more than a cash grab. It really is a labor of love and we’re enjoying every minute of it. It’s taken awhile to fully realise and completely understand that when Vampire: The Masquerade went away for some people it was like watching your favorite band break up and stop making albums together. This is not meant as a slight to the games that came later but to acknowledge that Vampire: The Masquerade meant allot to people, especially to the generation that came of age in the ’90’s. It took us awhile but we get and understand how that effected people and I honestly believe that the single most valuable thing we stand to gain from releasing this book is that it reminds people (including us) as to why they fell in love with Vampire in the first place.
I’ll close this out with some recommended reading. Out of the plethora of blogs and twitter/facebook/forum postings I’ve read about Vampire this one really hits home as to what it’s all about. This is the Blog I would have written had I not come across it myself.
And this is a great one from Justin on the Vampire Community:
http://justinachilli.com/2011/03/26/on-the-communitys-esteem-for-vampire/
Did Vampire have a profound effect on your life too? Whats your story? What personal thing makes it that important to you?