but you made me murderous, viciousness showed itself in me

I had other things to talk about, I did...and then this came along.

Frankly, would it have been just too much to ask for there to be more than, oh, say, three people with any integrity in their souls for this? Vampires on the grid who've been vampires before it was The Next Cute Marketable Thing? Or maybe, just maybe, not invite anyone from Bloodlines? Would that have been so hard?

I'm offering some scattered comments to tell you the approximate level of intellect in this "vampiric" brain trust. From "D" in the newly established "Vampire Forums":

"Hello I would like to say hi to everyone. I have many friends that Enjoy the bloodlines games and I feel they have had a bad rap. So on my sim I have built a Vampire Retreat named [D's] Dark Shadow Forrest Vampire Retreat. My Partner a master builder spent many lindens puting this together. The reast of the sim is a no hunting no recruiting so I need a very special place for my friends to enjoy there RP and the fine art of Blood. I would hope three things happen.
1 I would like to find a good manager or a couple good moderaters to help out.
2 I would like some feed back on are work.
3. info on keeping it classy because that is what the rest of the sim is."

Translation: "I'm not that bright but vampires are cool and classy, and I want a cool and classy sim with vampires. If anyone can help us out, that would be great, we're taking applications all week. Spelling is so not an issue lol."

I have no words. Other than, they can't be serious. They just can't be.

From "W":

"I have never seen Twilight. I don't know what the fad is about an emo-tween and an emo-vampy with funny hair having what could be, the most romantic movie ever made since Titanic."

Good gods, I hope she's being sarcastic, but that hit my gag reflex, so we move on.

From "r":

"You can join bloodlines and when you in you never can go back only by wearing the garlic necklage.
Why isnt there a posion like the wormwood for people who want there soul back?????"

Please be kidding. I note 'r' can't spell, either. And unless they've badly revised the code, yes: if you've been bitten once, you can go back by wearing the garlic necklace; however, if you've joined and become a "full vampire", you know you you get out of being a Bloodlines vamp?

Stop friggin' playing Bloodlines. It really is exactly that simple. It's a pyramid scheme, not a vampire house. Get over it.

From "B":

"It seems that vampires are quite popular in our pop culture today. Twilight, True Blood, Underworld something, to name a few."

....

Underworld 'something'? You can't even just say 'Underworld' and leave it at that? And the fact that in her head, Underworld, Twilight and True Blood exist on the same playing field...that's just profoundly sickening, and it's also profoundly sad.

And then this--they get the full name because of who they are. From "Linden Lab":

"Have you come across any great vamp-themed machinima that's less than 1 minute in length? If so, share the YouTube or other link here. Thanks!"

Um, don't you have a publicity department for this kind of nonsense, or did you fire them too? And just SL-focused vampire-themed machinima under one minute in length? Have you lost your tiny minds?!?

I'd also recommend anyone interested read this--to date, it's only two posts, and especially the first post shows exactly why this was such a staggeringly bad idea in the first place.

Perceive. There are many different ways to play non-human characters, especially vampiric ones. Some were born into their powers. Some gained them through "turning" (a phrase I revile in RL, as much as in SL, but hey, it's their mythology). Some vampires were cursed (it's a small subset, but there are a few examples out there). Some were brought over with ceremony; some were brought over by a single bite in a back alley.

However avatars get there, they get there, and that should be the focus of the event. Why do people want to play vampires? What does vampire life give them that their physical lives don't?

And from there you can get to the stuph that lines the pockets, like what sims fit the lifestyle? Who's making prefab castles, who's making really good cloaks, capes, and blood-drop jewelry? What RP sims are doing top-notch work making the genre engaging and powerful?

Instead, what do we get? Buy Bloodlines. This man owns a lot of sims, he must be a vampire success. This vampire "expert" is blond and tanned, you should trust him because he has piercings.

Even one of the few folks I grudgingly respect involved in this catastrophe pretty much turned in a chirpy "buy from these stores, they're big on copyright violation!" post. The hell, people.

I don't know why I expected better from the Lindens, or from the folks on the grid, but I did. This has been very much like watching people I don't know nor care about trample a beloved pet snake to death while telling me that they're bringing life and interaction to the grid. Something I loved still had to die for them to do that.

And the Lindens were all on the sidelines, cheering the sacrifice on.