Celebrating
eight years in SL, Bloodlines is the largest and the most
popular of the vampire RP currently found in SL. Bloodlines is a MMORPG played completely
within the confines of Second Life.
There are people playing as Vampires, Lycans, Hybrids, Humans and
Warriors all around other members of Second Life society as they go about their
everyday metaverse lives. This RP game
has not only been on the grid since 2008 but has doubled it’s membership and is
an ever evolving dynamic MMORPG experience.
When
Bloodlines began in 2008 it was exclusively
Vampire only RP [The Thirst]. It is
brought to us by a group that was new in game development the time, Liquid
Designs. During the year prior to the
release of Bloodlines,
Liquid Designs had been making and selling items on Second Life
Marketplace. The most popular items they
designed were their vampire accessories.
It was a natural progression for them to investigate and to design RP in
this genre. In a 2009 interview with
Wagner James Au, the CEO of Liquid Designs, Mars.Bracken, told him “that the
move was because his group sensed a need for goals, structure, and consequences
of a RP game to be joined with their products.
He also said it would be an interesting social experiment. Their group has learned and improved their
product through observation of the emergent behavior of the players”.
Liquid
Designs has been very observant. The Lycan
component [The Rage] was released about a year after the initial Vampire
release. Then in 2010 The Human HUD was
released, then most recently Bloodlines War HUD. A player can also participate as a “Hybrid”
by using both The Thirst and The Rage HUDs. Liquid Designs maintains a dynamic website
with statistics that may literally change at any time. The top of the main page displays membership
in each group, then lists several accomplishments by player and by family. There are also Gods, Demigods, Royalty,
Bloodline and Blood Wealth on display.
This RP has evolved well beyond the original The Thirst.
I
caught up with Mars Bracken to talk about where Bloodlines is at the eight year mark to
discuss Bloodlines. I began the questioning first after seeing
the statistics of the Blood Doll [The Human] population. It is over 100 thousand, more than three
times the amount of vampires listed. I
was also curious about his thoughts on the growth of the game, which is now
double the population it was in 2009.
Joining me now is Mars Bracken:
Seersha Heart: I noticed that Blood Dolls are the greatest
population. What does your team think about that?
Mars Bracken: It’s
an interesting development. Since the Vampires and Lycans need victims in order
to sustain themselves, a healthy population of Humans or Blood Dolls seems to
be a good thing to have. However, it has definitely prompted us to work on more
options for the RP; we initially didn’t anticipate such a large Human
population, and had originally focused on tools for making the Vampire and
Lycan roles possible. It’s been fun to see the game population dynamics change
over the years.
Seersha Heart: Has the
level [membership] of participation hit a ceiling? Are new players
joining the game?
Mars Bracken: The
population is always in flux, but generally those who bow out of the community
are replaced by new players interested to join. We’ve had a rash recently of
people who originally played in 2009 coming back to participate in the
community again, and we still haven’t quite figured out what that’s about. We
are having more and larger events now than ever before, so that might have
something to do with it.
Seersha Heart: In 2009, you remarked on the emergent
behavior of soul importance becoming prominent.
What emerging behaviors has your team experienced since 2009?
Mars Bracken: Other than the
growth of the Human / Blood Doll population, we’ve definitely seen a shift of
priorities. Initially the game was all about getting the most souls or bites,
but once we introduced Achievements, the activity in that sector of the game
quickly overwhelmed the rest. Admittedly souls and bites are included in some
of the achievements, but people definitely seem excited to collect things. In
general, with Gacha and Rare items becoming so popular, I’d say that a
collector mentality has blossomed in Second Life in general.
Seersha Heart: You
have said that the clan structure has become very complex. Will you share with me what you mean by
complex clans?
Mars Bracken: When
we first started the game, there was just Vampires, so clans were homogeneous.
Then we created Lycans, then Hybrids, and finally Humans. As each population
exploded and then found its equilibrium, the composition of clans changed.
We’ve also added Roles which can be assigned, so in addition families becoming
less homogeneous and more complex in terms of RP dynamics, they’ve also gotten
more intricate in their hierarchies.
Seersha Heart: What would you love our readers to know about
Bloodlines?
Do you feel Hunger has presented a serious competition?
Mars Bracken: We’re
excited about some new releases coming up, but I can’t talk too much about
those. I can say that we’re almost done updating our 5 RP sims, and we’re
aiming to have a lot more community events there. Also our weekly parties have
gotten kind of massive, partly due to the great DJs and our amazing theme
artist AnnaMargeaux, and partly because we’re doing Rare item giveaways now.
And we've got a Bloodlines University sim where people can come and take
classes and learn about the nuances of the game. All of this of course can be
found in notices on our blog at http://blog.slbloodlines.com.
Seersha Heart: Thank you
for answering my questions and congratulations on the success of Bloodlines.
Population statistics from the 2009 interview
were at approximately 69,000 players with an estimate of 23,000 doing day to
day RP. At the eight year mark there are
slightly more than 157,000 players
[Vampires 33K, Lycans 6K, Humans 102K and Hybrids 17K] assuming the same
relative relationship that would be an estimated 52,000 doing day to day
RP. Liquid Designs has every right to be
excited as their RP continues to evolve and be not only an aspect of Second
Life but a force of Second Life nature.
IMPORTANT LINKS
SLURL:
URL:
www.slbloodlines.com
Twitter:
@slbloodlines
Additional
help with Bloodlines, please send a notecard to LiquidDesigns Resident
Reporter Sources:
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