I have really had it with Bloodlines. Not only do they interrupt the regular play of Second Life - no matter if I'm at Orientation Island helping new folks or at a ballroom doing a foxtrot with a random boy toy - but they are pompous and blithely ignorant about it.
Today, I was invited to be bitten by a woman named Karin. I asked her how she felt being part of a group that was rapidly becoming the most hated group in SL. She was shocked to hear such a thing. She was further surprised to learn that the nickname her ilk had inspired was "spampire." I followed her back to Warwick Village and conducted interviews with some of the people hanging around. The king of the village, a fellow named Mgcjohn (I assume that means Magic John, which puts me in mind of a self-cleaning toilet) and his sidekick, named Wild, seemed completely unaware that Bloodlines was an irritant to regular gameplay. The more I asked of Mgcjohn, the more incoherant his answers became. Wild, on the other hand, got irritated with my continued questions. At one point, he asked, "What's with all the questions?", to which I replied, "It's how I learn things."
During the interviews, I came up with an idea that I think is well worth pursuing. Since not a single Bloodliner I've interviewed has a problem with playing their game in every sim they can get their pale asses into, I asked Mgcjohn and Wild if they would mind, say, fifty furries wearing particles showed up in Warwick (which is beautiful and stark, by the way). They both agreed that visitors would be welcome; I countered by saying that such a clan would not be there to visit. They'd be there to flash particles, dance, play music and ask the vampires to join their clan.
Neither vampire seemed too awfully wild about that idea.
And, for me personally, I think fifty particle-wearing music-playing furries (or the like) in Warwick would look horrible and compromise the integrity of the sim. But fair's fair, right?
A third vampire I interviewed later said that SL is all about RP anyway and I should chill out. I disagreed, pointing out that when I have been RPing as a domme, I don't show up at the Universal Church of Christ. And when I'm feeling all Neko and wearing ripped hose and torn blouses, I don't tend to turn up at Avilion Ballroom. And when I'm shooting zombies and decked up with guns and combat gear, I don't turn up in, oh I don't know, a vampire sim.
So, I went on, if I can be that respectful of everyone, what's wrong with Bloodliners that they can't?
As with every Bloodliner I've had the fortune - or misfortune - to encounter, he didn't have a really good answer either. He bandied about some rationalizations - the training is bad, I could wear garlic, I could just say 'no' to being bitten, etc. - but nothing he said suggested that he could understand that RPers should confine their game to their specific sims.
I would not wish to put too much importance into any facet of SL - it's there for a laugh, after all - but I'm seriously considering spearheading some sort of virtual movement against Bloodlines, an organization that is known for simply sucking.
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6 years ago
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2 comments:
Hi madelyn, thank you for your post on this subject, i myself am a bloodlines player but not one of these spampires lol there is a lot to cover on a subject like this and it seems the vamps you met an interviewed i like some of the players on here and i must appologise for that, on the other hand there are many (i would say about 80%) of the player base that are fun and friendly and nothing like the spampires, and if you would be interested in following up on this articul i would happly be interviewed even tho im new to it myself i may not know all the answers but i understand both sides in this matter, if you are interested please send me a note card (Bowen Shim) as my IM's get capped regulary and we could arrange it, hope you dont start the "hate" campaign to early tho and i hope you have a plesent evening.
Thanks, Bowen, for your thoughts.
I have been routinely confronted with the 'but most of us are OK' defense and, while it is a good argument, it speaks volumes as well about how unregulated the vampire game is. To my thinking, abusing the game by victimizing newbies and regular players alike should result in an outright ban from the game.
As far as I know, there is no (or limited) consequences to the 'bad eggs' in your game. As a result, I have to reject your argument as meaningless - or at least as meaningless as the punishments that are NOT imposed on the 20% (1 in 5? that's a LOT) of the bloodsuckers that screw with people.
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