Now that Vtes is officially out of support, I think everywhere around the world Methuselahs are struggling to keep the game alive by holding their respective play group together. Well, this is no easy work we're talking about here - once a game is out of support, recruiting new blood become next to impossible, and older vampires eventually go torpor, and with nothing new in the horizon, it is really tough to keep people in the game.
So what are some of the stuff that play groups are doing to keep Vtes alive? Or at least preparing for it's inevitable complete torpor, and await the arrival of the day when it is rescued by somebody?
1. Keep playing.
Easier said than done. With nothing new, nothing new coming, and nothing new ever to come, its easy to lose interest in the game. Of course, we can all talk about the vast supply of old cards available to put new decks together, but hey, that's stale at best, and not exactly economical. New players won't join the game resulting in the same environment with the same group of Methuselahs playing, eventually one will get tired and move on. And I assure you that this has a snowballing effect - when 1 goes, several will eventually go, and finally all will go torpor.
We can keep playing the game like a social boardgame, but I mean, how often do you play social boardgame for over a year? Over here at least, unless the playgroup meets very rarely, a game is rarely played more than a couple of times before something new comes along. In the case of Vtes, nothing new will come along to spice it up.
2. Creating new format of play
What G1 is doing is creating a "draft box" format similar to that of Magic. Not to sound pessimistic, but I think it will only add a little spice to the game and will not be instrumental in maintaining the interest. Perhaps the group will play a little more for a while, but everyone knows in their heart that the game is dead, and a new format isn't going to help much except creating a "let's draft for a Vtes game since we've nothing better to do" situation.
3. Go for other games
This is risky. If one can find a similar, or just a substitute game for Vtes, and get everyone interested, this may be able to keep the group together until Vtes leaves torpor. I have no doubt that if and when Vtes leaves torpor I'll probably jump in line to get the game back on its feet again, but if that's gonna take a couple of years (or Caine forbid, decades), then some other new games (like AGOT) might have captured my interest and commitment to the degree that I might not ever get back into Vtes again.
All in all there're no easy answer to keep Vtes alive. I'm shedding tears of blood here.
Darn you, CCP~
(o.o)
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