The Art of the Vampire

In SecondLife the word Vampire usually gets one of two reactions. First reaction could be a sort of acceptance and understanding.... the second could be outrage, intolerance and hatred. Now most Vampires in SL would wonder why they get mistreated by Vamp-Haters and usually end up hating their haters back. But why do the Vamp-Haters hate vampires?

Bloodlines is a vampire system in SL that is built almost exactly like a Multi-Level Marketing campaign (MLM). In fact... it is EXACTLY like an MLM except you don't make a percentage of the profits from your "down line". This in my opinion is what made Bloodlines immensely successful but also the key ingredient to why it is so hated by so many. Let's analyze this shall we?

I wont get into too much detail but to put it simply the way bloodlines works is you are A) bitten by a vampire then B) you choose to turn into a vampire then C) you hunt for blood to stay alive and finally D) you turn other vampires. Sounds simple right? But wait... there's more.

What made this game so popular and quite frankly easily abused is the driving force that compels vampires to not really care about being a vampire at all but more so pushes them to care only about one thing.... and that is the amassing of soul. I use the word "amassing" because that is exactly what these so called vampires are doing. They only care about having as many souls as they can and even go as far as buying them. That's right I said it..... these very very LAME wannabe Vamps are buying souls so they can gain status in bloodlines. But why buy souls you ask? For rank, status and entitlement.... plain and simple.

But let us not forget the ever present Curse that all vampires have. The curse is the loss of blood every night at midnight. Each vampire loses 1/4th of a liter of blood each night. This pushes vampires to hunt for more blood to keep from getting Destroyed. It is also a huge... let me say again.. HUGE underground market for Bloodlines and for vamps that have lots of it. Blood is like the currency of bloodlines and people buy and trade it like stocks and bonds daily.

Now the creators of Bloodlines although admitting publicly that proper vampire role play should be followed are laughing their way all the way to the bank. After running some calculations based on the amount of registered Bloodlines players I can tell you quite honestly they are making a mint..... and then some. I have to stand and applaud them..... because I really wish I thought of it first... LMAO :P

So after reading all this you must think I'm one of the vampire haters..... wrong. I am a Bloodlines Vampire and very proud to be one. But what separates me from about 80% of the wannabe vamps I meet is.... I role play being one. I don't care about amassing souls. If I did I would just go buy them like all the other lame vampires I see flaunting their "stats" for all to see their undeserved title. I dress the part... act the part... and the ones who play act with me appreciate that.

If done correctly being a bloodlines vampire is very cool and to put it bluntly wont lead to the inevitable burn out I have seen happen to so many. If you actual play the part you were given you can have so much fun being a vampire in bloodlines. The problem... is souls and blood.

So how can we fix Bloodlines? Get rid of the curse! And I don't mean making them pay $7,999 Lindens for the amulet either. I mean get rid of it all together and replace it with something like rewards. An example would be: X amount of blood equals a special prize or something like that. While we're at it... change the ranking as well. Having lots of souls these days only means you either earned them or bought them.... and 9 out of 10 times I see they are store bought souls..... LAME!!!!

So if you aren't a bloodlines vampire you mite read this and think "Oh hell no... not for me." and I can't blame you. But.... speaking from the experience of a vampire who actually RP's bloodlines is great. As most good RP systems know... it's not the system that makes RP great but the players that create the RP. So if you want to hang out with a cool vamp give me a call and don't worry.... I'm not after your soul.... MUHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!