Has Bloodlines Become Second Life's Next Tringo? 69,000 Players, Mid Six Figure US$ Revenue Suggests So

There once was a Second Life game called Tringo, an elegantly clever cross between Tetris and Bingo, and back in 2005, it became so additively popular in-world, that many Residents began complaining (somewhat paradoxically) that it was harming SL culture.  Created by a Resident named Kermitt Quirk, it was so popular, in fact, that a real world media company bought the non-Second Life rights to it, and turned it into a Game Boy Advance title. Many SL games have been created before and since, but from my observation, none of have come anywhere close to reaching the same level of controversial popularity as Tringo, when it possessed the world four years ago.

Until, it seems, now.  The Thirst: Bloodlines is a vampire-themed roleplaying game set within Second Life, and by every measure, its popularity seems to be just as phenomenal.  According to lead creator Mars Bracken, 69,000 unique players have tried it out at least once, and it's avidly played by about a third of that number. "If we had to make a conservative guess on the 'active' day-to-day players," Bracken tells me by e-mail, "we'd say about 23,000." When I ask how much revenue the game has earned in US$, Bracken answers, "Mid six figures."

This success comes despite the fact that none of the Liquid Designs team (by Mars' estimation at least) has a game development background.  With those numbers, however, Bloodlines is arguably more popular than several prominent MMORPGs made by professional, well-funded studios, such as The Matrix Online (50K or less) and Anarchy Online (60K or less.)

Bloodlines is an MMORPG that is played across the world of Second Life, be it in castles or shopping malls.  To gain rank, you need to possess willing victims, which have caused some to suggest it's a pyramid scheme.  Others are just annoyed that Thirst players often show up at dance clubs and fashion emporiums, looking for fresh necks to bite.  In fact, one irked shopkeeper created an anti-vampire "Buffy" bot, to scan for and boot Bloodlines players before they begin Bela Lugosing on the clientele.  (Bracken and the Bloodline development team, Liquid Designs, have since introduced a "garlic necklace" that Residents can activate, to inoculate themselves from unwanted bite requests.)  Game reviewer Vidal Tripsa had a mixed reaction to Bloodlines, disliking its "level grind" quality, but admiring its roleplaying culture.

So how did this game come about, and why has it become so successful?  After the break, Mr. Bracken discusses that, what additions are to come, and the fascinating emergent gameplay elements that have evolved around it.

What inspired this game and who developed it?

Mars Bracken: This is our first game. The people working on it have backgrounds in film, web development, engineering, and graphic design. I personally played a fair amount of Dungeons & Dragons growing up, so that probably helped a little as well.

The impetus for the Bloodlines game came from a few directions. Liquid had been making scripted accessories in Second Life since the beginning of 2007, and the vampire accessories were some of the most popular, so it made sense to explore that further. We also had the idea that perhaps people are looking for goals and structure in Second Life, and that it might work to create a game that gave actual consequences to people's actions within the SL platform. And finally, we thought it would be an interesting social experiment to see how a vampire curse might spread.

What are some of the more interesting examples of emergent gameplay you've seen from your players?

MB: Our players continue to surprise us! The level of organization of some clans is astounding. The intensity of emotion and drama between players is also surprising, and has definitely resulted in adjustments to the game. In fact almost all of the product releases since the initial launch have been in response to emergent gameplay that we've observed, or suggestions we've received from people eager to expand their roleplay in ways that we didn't anticipate.

One example is the use of the virtual soul. Originally souls were immobile; once a vampire took a human's soul, it was owned permanently. However it became clear that in addition to the "point" value, players were ascribing real emotional sentiment to their virtual soul, and were eager to have it owned by friends, partners, siblings, etc. In response we created a group of accessories and potions to facilitate this, and suddenly a whole new range of conflict, drama, economics and roleplay sprouted up around the souls.

Another example is the Blood Doll role in the society - some humans prefer to retain their humanity, but serve vampire culture as a renewable source of blood. We eventually created Apples that humans can eat to regenerate blood, and are working on adjusting the profiles so that they have separate status and attributes within the RP system.

And of course there's the negative emergent gameplay which we've been surprised by - vampires hanging out at noob or welcome areas, or players running around sending out unsolicited bites. It's been a challenge to try and adjust the game to reduce the impact of these things in "normal" SL society, without damaging the basic principles that make the game playable in the first place.

Have you been approached by game publishers etc. to take this game outside SL?

MB: We haven't been approached by anyone, no. We might consider an offer, but it would depend on the details. In the meantime, Liquid Interactive is internally developing a version of the game that works outside SL. 

 Any big product announcements/upgrades planned any time soon?

MB: Yes, we plan on releasing a similar system for werewolves and for vampire hunters, as well as a combat system that allows all three races to fight each other. We plan on having all three of those out this year, but we don't have a firm release date we can announce yet.

More about Bloodlines on the official site.

Comments

[Judi Newall]

"69,000 unique players have tried it out at least once, and it's avidly played by about a third of that number"

So 2/3 of the 'players' don't actually play? Many people object to buying a garlic necklace and registering yourself on their database simply for not wanting to play. (See any SL forum for complaints!) Others advocate getting bitten just so you don't get aggravated by vampires pestering with bite offers. Many new people aren't savvy enough to click no to the offer to bite, then they want help to remove the 'stain on thir soul' (seriously!) Given those figures I'd really question this popularity. There may be some decent players, but I consider it akin to a virus and not one I welcome on our sim. Anyone hassling visitors will get booted!

[FlipperPA Peregrine]

I find it annoying; akin to spam. I didn't opt-in, and I shouldn't have to opt-out. Spam is unsolicited commercial communication:

Unsolicited? Check.
Commercial? Check (see: six figures).
Communication? Check.

A pyramid spam scheme. Kudos to those who enjoy it - for every one of them, ten of us are annoyed.

[koxinell lane]

This is a real issue, as most of these vampires DO NOT RESPECT our signs indicating that they are not welcome.

The creators don't want to take their responsibilities, and just offer an additional marketing tool with this garlic necklace.

A simple thing would be to add a function to their tool : any sim owner that doesn't accept Bloodlines on his estate should be able to register his sims as no-bloodlines area. Their HUD wouldn't work on these sims.

But maybe there is too much money behind this, it doesn't worth to respect other people's freedom ?

Anyway, as long as they will harrass newcomers on orientation islands, this will never stop. We are now taking this problem seriously, and working with Linden Lab so as to find a solution.

Koxinell Lane
France3d
SL Community Gateway member

[Arcadia Codesmith]

People who are rude and annoying are rude and annoying with or without virtual fangs. Blaming Bloodlines for their behavior is like condemning the game of tennis because it produced John McEnroe.

But really... if you wanna be a leech in SL, just be a leech. You don't have to shell out real bucks for scripted accessories to roleplay. It's more fun if you're not distracted by mechanics anyway.

[Julia Banshee]

If the creators of Bloodlines would like to score some points with the community, particularly with the shopkeeper community, they should produce a free script we can toss into a random prim that would protect everyone at a location. A sort of "holy ground" where everyone is safe, whether they're wearing a garlic necklace (yuck) or not. Those of us who don't want to host random biting at our locations can dispense with the "no-biting" signs and simply have Bloodlines disabled in our places of business.

Incidentally, I'm not anti-Bloodlines in general. I've been bitten and it was perfectly in-context RP where it happened, and in such contexts I think it's harmless fun. But there are places where I'm obviously not RP'ing, and it would be nice if there was some way to prevent random bite requests from those players who don't quite get basic RP etiquette.

[Nimil Blackflag]

they should really just make bloodlines like most combat meter scripts.. dcs only works in sims that are set up with dcs, bloodlines should be the same.. then bloodlines players can play on sims that allow them, and they will leave the rest of us alone!

they give a bad name to vampire roleplayers. this is not roleplay its spam.

[Alicia Chenaux]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Bloodlines is not the new Tringo. I've never run up to some random person in a store and sent them a request that flies to them to my sim, shoves them on a seat, puts a tringo board in front of them, and takes $20L out of their account to put into the tringo pot. LOL

Bloodlines is just annoying. Tringo is fun.

[Seven Shikami]

Bloodlines is spam. No game should be opt-out; the only responsible and ethical way to build it is opt-in. Otherwise, you're basically admitting that you're less a "game" and more a "pyramid scheme".

If you want to be a player, then go ahead and get the tools and become a player -- that's how every other game on the planet works, get software, play game.

Yes, there's garlic, yes, it's free, no, I shouldn't have to go out of my way to get some garlic just to never be bothered by this thing again. That's the kind of mentality that large-scale commercial spam houses have. "It's fine to hammer you with ads you don't want since there's an unsubscribe function" does not cut the mustard.

If Bloodlines patches their game systems to work in an opt-in method I retract every object I have. I still wouldn't play it, but I wouldn't behoove anyone else playing it because they're all consenting.

[Riven Homewood]

The role play qualities of Bloodlines seem very cool, but I hate the pyramid scheme aspect. Having trouble understanding why you were surprized that this would get out of hand and annoy people. Garlic necklaces are a good idea, but far from enough to correct the problem.

[John Branch]

The consensus in the comments seems pretty clear--residents don't want to have to opt out of this. (And I agree, in principle.) But it wasn't clear to me, though I saw hints, how many of them have had a vampire problem in practice. I haven't.

More interesting point: This whole discussion reminded me that the basic idea of vampires _is_ a pyramid scheme.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I still don't see any difference between this and being offered unsolicited friendship/groups/hugs/kisses/catfights/unspecified physical acts.

If somebody's being a jerk with any of these, you go after the jerk, not the creator. This is like whining at Disney because the playground bully wears a Mickey Mouse watch.

You could have a configuration option to reject all animation permission requests by default. But it'd be up to the user to remember to enable permissions every time they wanted to hug a friend.

Bet it'd double the number of newbies mewling piteously because they can't figure out how to dance.

Maybe the solution is simply to have the bite request responses be "yes", "no" and "never", with "never" having the same effect as the garlic necklace?

[Murphy Alderson]

Bloodlines is nothing but a pyramid scheme. You have to keep biting people, or else buy blood form..who? Oh, right the creators. Get bitten but want your soul back? No worries, just drink a potion that you buy from..right, the creators.

Get bitten, and you don't want your name in their database? Tough, it ain't coming out, period. They will not remove it. Course, I haven't yet tried having my attorney write them spampire creators a letter, perhaps that might catch their attention, but probably not, since they don't give a flying leap about roleplay, or people, only their own pockets.

Mind you, I have nothing against people making money, goody for them, they created a gold mine and I am truly happy for them in that regard. I only wish they would remove my name from their stinking database.

Sure, I can activate the garlic, but only hides my name on their website, not removing it from their database. Oh, and for you not yet bitten and entered into their database - wearing the garlic will get you entered into their database - they won't tels you that though will they?

I have to wonder what kind of security does that thing have anyway? any clues? my guess is that any 16 yo hacker could break into it and steal all their data - of which we have zero idea exactly what is stored - does it track where you go? who you meet with? who the hell knows?

I'm certain the creators of the spampire scheme won't tell you anything except that no matter how much your beg, plead or offer to pay, they won't remove you from their database. The reason? "To protect the integrity of the roleplay" Integrity...yeah...right.

[Sylvia Trilling]

I remember reading an article on designing role play games which said this: figure out what behaviors you want your players to do and reward those behaviors. Bloodlines appears to be a game where annoying non-players is the behavior that gets rewarded. IMO the designers and sellers of such a game are responsible that non-players get annoyed. Surely there would be other ways to design a vampire RPG so that non-players have no value and are not bothered by players.

[Murphy Alderson]

Of course there is. They could make the HUD work only in sims that want that style of RP. Like the DCS and other combat systems do. But, they don't care. They don't care one little iota that their game is designed to annoy people who don't want anything to do with it, especially newbies.

All they really care about are

1) the money (no issues with people making money, hats off to creating a massive income generator)

2) getting and maintaining data on anyone who is bitten (whether they even want to play the game or not) in their database.

Yes, everyone bitten is put in their database, they don't have to buy the HUD. The stupid "i wanna bite you" notices do not tell you that.

[Amara Parmelee]

I seriously never had an issue with Bloodlines or their users. I just click "no" when asked, and I'm not bothered again. I have to agree with Arcadia though. Blaming the creators for a few users acting like idiots isn't right.

We don't blame Linden Lab for an annoying griefer, do we?

No, we blame the actual griefer. It ain't M, Philip, or Torley Linden's fault you got caged; it's the the person who caged you. If we accept that kind of logic for a situation where someone or something bothers us, why is it absent suddenly when on the topic of Bloodlines?

[Qie]

Spam as "emergent gameplay?" No, the whole "game" is a spam-based viral multi-level marketing scheme, not role play at all. Patsy-participants feed L$s to "soul farmers"; agreeing to a bite request is trading in a marketable commodity. And by spreading the spam origins across participants, the game creator avoids an account ban, and prevents non-participants from controlling receipt of the spam.

Mutes and ARs against low-level participants are as ineffective as obsolete email address filters as a means of managing this spam. And the odious "garlic necklace" opt-out is another thinly-veiled marketing ploy.

Removing any doubt that the bite-request harassment is intentional is the plan for a "vampire hunter" follow-on. The more annoying the "vampire," the more incentive to become a "hunter." Spam plus arms-trading tactics.

If the game creator will not act responsibly and make participation strictly opt-in, the game artifacts must be blacklisted.

[Dedric Mauriac]

Oddly enough, I haven't heard of this yet. This sounds much like tiny empires. The addition of attachments to augment the game though, that's a scripters dream. It sounds like you can mold the game in any way you like.

[Vixen]

I have played bloodlines for about a month. I think the best thing is to give storeowners the ability to disable the vampire huds, which I have been in areas that do that and it works well. I can still shop for the latest fashions vampire or not. To try to identify certain designated areas to play it will kill the game. Who is going to deliberatelly want to be bitten? Part of the vampire mistique is politeness. I have turned away newbies when I felt it was harmfull to them. I have councelled people on how not to be bothered by vampires. I also do however find the game quite fun. Don't blame the creator of the game for trying to make a buck and certainly don't hate all vampires for the rudeness of others. If you come across me in the game I promice to say please, only take a tiny bite and will use a napkin to wipe my mouth when done.

Some of you out there need to quit crying!

[Kimiko]

Well, at least in Bloodlines, it asks people if they want to get bitten and they have to give permission.

In another SL vampire game called the Hunger, you can bite anyone twice without asking permission. If you alternate bites with another Hunger vampire, you never have to ask permission and can drain a victim of all their blood. The difference is that there is nothing really permanent. If you bite someone 3 times you get a message saying the system is asking their permission, but if they have not opted into the game buy buying the HUD they are not asked and the bites are not really registered.

Funny thing is Bloodlines players hate Hunger players because they view Hunger players as virtual rapists, biting victims without permission. Bloodlines players believe their system is better because they cannot bite without permission. However, the reality is that with the Hunger if a person doesn't own the HUD, they are not affected and there is no record of them ever being bitten or their "soul" being stolen. So, even though Hungler players bite without permission, the victim never knows it and nothing happens.

So, which is better?

Neither, they both suck.

[beez1717]

I hvae to say that this game is very fun, and if you play it right then you should be able to have a good time. My only issue with the game is that there is no way to even once steal back a soul from someone period and not do any exchange: aka the potion you use to steal your soul back from a player who isn't playing anymore or stuff. That needs to be solved. Until then I say that's the only issue....

I happen to have my avitar be an angel, so i just aid that I gae away a synthetic soul to become a vampire via the rules of heaven, so I wouldn't "die", but I'd rather have my soul back and give it to someone who should be owning it and not somene who isn't playing the game anymore.

[jenifur]

I'm a new vampire in bloodlines, but for one thing the clan does make you feel very welcome and you don't even have to leave the lands to dance, play, or socialize, to be bitten you have to be asked first and say yes, unlike hunger another sl game that you get bitten without knowing, so at least we ask you first, and most people being bitten are doing it to play the game, for a family, or just to do another game with in a game on second life, i think its great, and i would never give up my family (clan) or leave the bloodlines game, if you don't know what it is about then find out before you judge, I see so many lonely second life player out there wondering around with no where to go and hang out, its just an option I chose, and Love.

[Arcadian Vanalten]

The problem, Arcadia, is that the game is engineered to keep pressure on the players to bite non-players to keep blood levels up. Whether you're playing or not, online or off, your blood is constantly degrading. I don't even do high-maintenance PEOPLE, much less games, but this is a way needy game. Thus, the drive to spampirism. You CAN buy blood barrels & amulets from the creators to refresh without biting, but that's a fairly expensive proposition that appears to be beyond the means of many of the players.

Further, the game seems to have recurrent events that ramp up the "membership drive" even more. I'm compelled to revisit this right now myself b/c another drive is going on currently. Players with whom I've long ago reached an understanding (No, I don't wanna be a tick and ain't interested, thanks) are suddenly going high-pressure salesman on me trying to get my soul to boost their tallies for some sort of inter-clan event or somethign, and they won't friggin' take no for an answer. I'm about to walk off one job and pull out of another RP group over it just b/c suddenly none of them will STHU and take "no, thanks" for an answer. My soul is technically in Limbo, b/c long ago someone bit me and I never joined. I've had 10 people this week beg me to get the Wormwood potion to make my soul fair game for a game I don't even want to play. Garlic wouldn't deter them either from asking me to please reconsider. I'm rapidly closing in on unfriending and muting some of 'em I've known for years due to this stupid event.

[Queen]

I REGRET PLAYING THIS GAME.IT HAS COMPLETELY RUINED MY SL AND IT'S SIMPLY A WASTE OF RL MONEY!
HAVING SAID THAT, I'M A BLOODLINES QUEEN WITH OVER 500 SOULS

[White Wolf]

bloodlines sucks and it will be dealt with legally

[George Clark]

Most sims in Second Life (SL) are abandoned. That is reason enough to visit Bloodlines because at least Bloodlines is frequented by people. Just don't let yourself get bitten, but do enjoy being the center of attention from vampires who want to bite you.

In particular, SL offers two types of women for a guy to meet. On the one hand, there are pretty vampires, who don't want your money, but they do want to bite you and take your soul.

To that end, a guy can get a lot of female attention for free by feigning an interest in being bitten. But don't ever allow a bite because you will then be ignored once they have your soul.

The second type of woman in SL is one who dances in SL clubs for tips. That gets old, too, so take your choice between the two types of SL women.

Overall, SL would be better off without Bloodlines. Its players are exceedingly obnoxious. Their compulsive, never-ending need to recruit new souls ruins the SL experience for everybody who has no interest in the game.

To that end, I have reported at least a dozen unsolicited bite requests against myself alone, some of which have occurred in newbie orientation areas where vampires are forbidden. I have reported these bite requests to both Bloodlines management and to SL management. But to my knowledge, no corrective action was ever taken.

[FireIron Xenno]

God, I love Bloodlines but I am not alowed on Second Life anymore :( trying to find another virtual world as awesome as Second Life where I can fly and find a Vampire Clan to join that has a vampire mom and dad and many members and special powers that only the clan..no human..has! Any suggestions? And Mr.George Clark...SHUT UP!!! Bloodlines players are RESTRICTED from biting other players UNLESS told they can so do by said player. This INCLUDES within and out of the Bloodlines clan.

[Justine Edenflower]

This crap should be banned from our game. FULL STOP!!!

[creeper]

well im a bloodlines player, no that it not my avi name so dont bother searching it. in my opinion you all sound like opinionated a**holes who only take what you see and hear as gospel, yes i will admit that there are some seriously bad apples in bloodlines that give it a bad reputation, but there are also some really good honest people in it who do not go around offering bite requests to everyone they run into. if im in a club or at a sim where there are alot of people i will have a look around and have a look at a few profiles, maybe scan the odd few people if they seem like the type of person that might have a intrest in bloodlines, i most certainly do not offer a bite request outside of my clans sim.

as for it being a pryamid scheme, that total sh*t, you just dont understand enough about it to realise that so get your facts right first before you go throwing statements like that around

[Concerned]

IN DIRECT RELATION TO BLOODLINES - PLEASE READ

The Demon Clan knon as Ordo Atra Flamma - Created by Lord Chiron (DeomonScent.Resident)IS A SCAM.

The Clan utilises Bloodlines Priciples and in fact Choron plans on creating a merged Vampire / Demon clan - using Bloodlines type Huds.

As we know Bloodlines are banned from being active on most Sims on the Grid.

The Clan is also based on SATANIC BLACK MAGIC and not Natural Magig as you may have been lead to believe.

Please DO NOT SUPPORT THIS CLAN. Chiron only cares about making money - and turnng the Sim into a WEDDING SIM not a GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNITY.

Any Lindens that you or or friends spend within this Clan will go directly into funding BLOODLINES and NOT to nourish a new DEMON Clan.

Please fell free to pass this notcard to your fellow Demon Friends.

TY

[amberstarfield]

I've been a Bloodlines player almost sense the day I started SL and have really enjoyed it. However, recently SL ate my 100L blood tank containing just over 80L of blood. So far the support I received from so called Bloodlines "customer service" has been next to none. I will give them one more day to replace my tank valued at around 6000L. If they will not help, I will no longer be purchasing any thing from Bloodlines or adding to my clan. I have already started my clan in Vitae RPS and may be moving to this system permanently. If they do resolve my issue, I will remain a Bloodlines player and likely use both HUDs. I'll post back in a few days with an update.

[Vampire Kingdom]

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[Vampire World]

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Be sure you want it,
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no turning back...
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into a real vampire.

[Justin]

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