Now, on the heels of that product, Blackdog is wrapping up a public beta test of a new RP HUD called "Empower Immortals". The website blurb I first encountered reads:
Immortals walk among us!
You may have reached this page by receiving an Awaken or Feed request from an Immortal. If so, click here for information on what it means to roleplay with Immortals and how to opt out if you do not want to receive further requests from them, or read on to learn more about the system. This system is currently in Beta testing, with a release planned mid 2013.
In this Second Life Role-Playing system, get the HUD, choose your species, select your abilities and begin the adventure! There’s a lot more than Humans, Vampires and Lycans out there. Fae, Dragons, Angels, Witches, even Gods, Devils and Demons to name but a few.
The game doesn't work on you if you don't opt-in. The opt-out system is rather simple: a TP, touch a prim at the home store (where the game itself has been disabled) and the none of the players can target you. While looking into it, I I caught the usually pixie-looking Blackdog in a few quiet moments to do this interview, continued by e-mail and copied here.
Arth: Another vampire HUD? Why develop "Empower Immortals"?
BDA: I was approached by one of my "Empower Magick" users who wanted a "better vampire HUD", since the current offerings didn't meet their needs. It seemed like a great opportunity to go a step further - there's a lot more than Humans, Vampires and Lycans out there and the existing systems don't support them. So we've done it in a way that supports Vampires, non-vamps who like to role play with Vampires whilst maintaining the integrity of who and what they are (e.g. Fae, Angels, Witches - you name it) and even made it relevant to those who don't like Vampires and want to be able to deal with them as an equal when they encounter them.
Arth: What issues did the players have
with the other vampire systems in SL?
BDA: Well, the main objection was having to pay to play. We've designed
Immortals so that once you purchase the system, it is complete and
self contained. All of the items you need to go with it are
available for free. You don't pay for Vitae, which is the life
force that fuels Immortals - Vampires think it's in the blood,
whereas an Angel may consider it to be Eternal Light. You don't pay
for refilling limited attacks. You don't have to buy the extra RP
items, such as Gems to store Vitae or Cages to hold souls - these
are all available for free. Over time, third party providers may
well sell special versions of these and we don't object to that, but
there will always be a free version available.Another of the guiding principles we were requested to follow was that the system should not encourage groups to have their members gather so much of this or that in order to remain members. So souls in our system have no value other than sentimental. It's all about the Vitae, which can be obtained for nothing.
Once we decided to have the system support so many different species, the limited choices available in the current systems turned out to be another objection people had, they just hadn't mentioned it until we suggested it.
We were also asked to include as many of the relevant special effects as possible - animations, sounds, particles - all of which are used for turning, changing or the various other functions the system provides, so that people didn't have to go and buy something else to get the effects they want. This is a tough one, but we've built the system in a way which means people can customize a lot of it and make it work just the way they want.
Arth: There is also the issue of Vampire systems (like Progeny and Bloodlines) being treated as a banning offense on many sims because they see the systems harassing and spamming non-players. Will Empower Immortals be any different?
BDA: It sure will be. The systems you've mentioned come under attack either because they prompt for permission, or because they don't, so it's one of those things where you can't please all the people all the time. Our approach has been to not prompt people who are already using the system and ask those who aren't for permission before acting upon them. Since this can still be contentious, we've also allowed land owners to control the system's behaviour, or even whether it's allowed, by adding a short string to their parcel description. In addition to that, individuals can opt-out of the system entirely without having to purchase anything, simply by clicking on a crystal in our store. They will then never be prompted again and are "off limits" to all Immortals RP. Similarly, if they want to play along for free, they can opt-in in a similar manner. That gives them access to our website and lets them choose their species, without having the full experience available when purchasing a HUD. For many who just want to RP with Immortals, that may be all they want.
Arth: Will owners of your "Empower Magick" HUD have any advantage in "Immortals"?
BDA: Immortals will be available as either a standalone HUD or a module
that Empower Magick users can load into their existing HUD. It
works with Empower Magick, but it is in no way required that you
have them both. One doesn't really have an advantage over the other
and we've made sure that owners of other spell HUDs aren't
disadvantaged, but the two do work nicely together as you'd expect
from two products made by the same people.
Arth: How did you settle on the name "Immortals"?
BDA: We wanted a name which encompasses Vampires as well as the various other
species that the system supports. Even Humans are powerful in this
system, so it needed to be a term that set them apart from the mundane,
rather than anything specific to a particular class or species of
character. Of the many attributes which define Vampires, the one which
seemed to cover all the other "Specials" that the system supports was
immortality. Even a human may be elevated to Immortality, allowing them
to deal with Vampires on their own terms.Arth: When and how did you begin the actual work on the Immortals HUD?
BDA: The initial request came through on 3 June 2012 and I cut the first line of code on 9 June 2012. Since I take a very collaborative approach to the work I do, I started out by consulting with my closest advisers from Empower Magick, some of whom are Vampires, then extended it to a small group of core Vampire RPers, those who RP with them and more importantly, those who have absolutely no interest in Vampire RP. By the end of June, we had our first design and a prototype HUD up and running. It's been through a lot of changes and refinement since then, of course, but the core is much the same. Of course, I had the advantage of having the Empower Magick base to build on and it really accelerated our ability to get this up and running fast.
Arth: So, after a year of development and play-testing, what happens next?
BDA: We want to see the system run for a good time with no changes. We're already locked down to "bugfixes only". We'll need a little time to work on packaging and marketing and we're still considering sales models - in-world only, marketplace, only from other Immortals who are prepared to train those they sell to - but however we do it, it's not far away now. After that? Well, we're very much driven by the requests of the users of the system. As you noted with Empower Magick, where we have the same approach, this resulted in quite frequent updates adding new features in its early days. I'd expect Immortals to go along similar lines. Although it's had a good soak during Beta and that resulted in a lot of improvements, we already have quite a store of requests and great ideas which we had to refrain from implementing to ensure stability as we prepared the system for release. The sky and the imagination of our team and the community of Immortals is the limit.
Arth: Blackdog, thanks for taking the time to chat with me. Good luck with your release.
You can visit the store to find out what's happening, and get some freebies at Blackdog's Smallhaven sim.
