Vampire Launch Party Report Jamie "Thrrrpptt!" Madigan (3DActionPlanet) was lucky enough to be able to attend the recent Vampire launch party in San Francisco. Here is his report. Following are some photos of the event. With Vampire The Masquerade Redemption flying off the shelves like bats from the sunlight, Nihilistic Software and Activision have a lot of reasons celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than throwing a launch party? Sponsored by Activision and Nihilistic, the event was thrown as an opportunity for the Vampire and gaming community to celebrate the launch of this fantastic (IMHO) title, and as a way for fans to rub elbows with one another and see what's going on in the fledgling (pardon the pun) but strong Vampire community. Since GameSpy Industries received an invite, and since the party was only a short plane ride away in San Francisco, I grabbed my bags, a digital camera, a few cloves of garlic, and headed out. Here's a run-down of what went on. The party was held in down town San Francisco (at the corner of Harrison and First, if you're from there), in a large open warehouse area. The whole place was done up with red lights, decorations, and black tablecloths, which went a long way towards establishing a dark and gothic atmosphere. There were also projectors that displayed the Vampire The Masquerade, Redemption logo all over the walls, as well as the Activision logo. Despite the heat (no air conditioning and 95 degrees out --arg!), there were a lot of people in attendance, even if most of them were hanging out outside near the stairway where it was a bit cooler. To make the atmosphere complete, there was a DJ playing some nice, techno tunes that reminded me a lot of the music we hear in the game's Modern Nights chapters. And of course, there was food! And drink!Activision went all out and had a nice open bar, where you could quench your burning thirst with everything from soda to cocktails to a nice glass of blood red Merlot. The food they put out was also not bad. Instead of rats like our friends Christof and company have to dine on, we got to sample all sorts of vegies, sandwiches, and other appetizers. Much better than the still warm blood of your mesmerized and hapless victim. Sorta. I was a little disappointed, though, in how much treatment the actual game got at the party. There were four PC's set up in the corner where you could sit down and play the game, but I got the feeling that most of us there were already fans of the title and had already been playing it for a while. Some people did sit down and the guys from Nihilistic were more than happy to run through a demo of the game for you, but there wasn't any new information there. I had been hoping that maybe they would have more PC's set up and maybe spring a new custom multiplayer adventure on us, or at least coordinate a multiplayer game or two with some talented Storytellers. This is the only aspect of the game I haven't been able to really get into, since I haven't been able to find anyone who has had the time and talent to run a really good custom adventure. Given that the game is so new, though, there's still plenty of time for this part of the community develop. So, there you have it. It was a good party and a nice chance for fans of the game and those in the gaming business to get together and chat about the game and the industry in general. With games like Vampire on store shelves and others like Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and Dungeon Siege on the way, things look really great for the RPG community, and it's nice to see Nihilistic and Activision realize that supporting a community of players and websites is important. Here are a some photos from the event: