World of Darkness MMORPG unveiled

With True Blood getting solid ratings and the Twilight films blowing up the box office, vampires are a hot commodity these days. So hot, in fact, that the undead trend is now spawning a massively multiplayer online game based on White Wolf's popular supernatural role-playing game franchise, World of Darkness. The game is in development at CCP Games, developer and publisher of the sci-fi MMORPG Eve Online, which merged with White Wolf in 2006.

According to a report and video (see below) on the MMORPG blog Ardwulf's Lair, CCP used White Wolf's annual Grand Masquerade event in New Orleans to unveil the new game. Slated for release sometime after 2012, the game is also now officially listed on CCP's Web site along with some early concept art similar to that found in the trailer.

Though CCP reps were unable to comment on the Ardwulf's Lair report as of press time, the blog did report some details from the Grand Masquerade presentation. Titled World of Darkness Online, the game will be a sandbox-style MMORPG with an emphasis on social interaction and "player politics." It will not arrive before the year 2012 and will be largely based on the older version of World of Darkness, Vampire: The Masquerade.

[UPDATE] CCP reps confirmed the title is actually simply "World of Darkness" but would not reveal any other details about the game.

World of Darkness will be the third video game based on White Wolf's horror RPG series, following 2000's Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption and 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. According to Ardwulf's Lair, it will let gamers play only as vampires initially, not their werewolf foes.