Are Vampires Overused?

[darkconsole]

 

Yeah, nothing like having a 35th level vampire spawn right on top of your 8th level character.  And whatever DEV decided it was a good idea to have vampires spawn inside the cities and then massacre quest-related NPCs needs to have his credentials pulled.  What you described is THE REASON I refuse to install Dawnguard this playthrough.

 

 

the cultists from dragonborne are even worse. you can run away if you see them coming, but they will spawn in every city you go to until you interact with them. and they are even tougher than the vampires - two heavy armour mages who will have you dead before you can close in on them.

 

thank god for Locational Damage mod with archery headshots enabled.

[Kendo 2]

On a side note, the master vampires are leveled, the lowest being level 12, and the whole business starts after reaching level 10 anyway, so with level 8 you shouldn't have any vampire spawns in cities to begin with.

You may call me a smartass now.

I've had them spawn on me at level 6 inside the gates of Whiterun.  There I was with my crappy starter spells and my steel sword and my leather armor and there they are, with the vampire dog and their super powerful drain spells.

 

And the 'vampire amulet' mod and whatever the hell Arthmoore tried to do with making NPCs run inside just don't make the grade for me to install a DLC that intentionally breaks quests.

 

the cultists from dragonborne are even worse. you can run away if you see them coming, but they will spawn in every city you go to until you interact with them. and they are even tougher than the vampires - two heavy armour mages who will have you dead before you can close in on them.

 

thank god for Locational Damage mod with archery headshots enabled.

 

When I played Dragonborn I was already 48th level and a maxed-out dual wield death machine.  I was playing vanilla on Expert settings and nothing could stand up to me so the Cultist and everything else in Dragonborn was kind of a cake walk for me.  Legendary tempered Daedric gear and 150 Extreme Healing Potions on a hotkey and I had might as well have been God Himself.  I should have installed Dawnguard then and got a little payback.  But then I would still have dead NPCs everywhere..so yeah, fuck Dawnguard.

 

Another 'ambush that won't go away' is the initial Cultist of Boethiah.  He does the same thing, no matter where you go...there he is.  I was running off of cliffs in GodMode or barreling through giant camps just ditch him.  None of that worked.    And all of this is way off topic.

[ToxicKetchup]

 

personally i felt vampires have been over used for years.

 

when i first played skyrim, i had no experience with previous elder scrolls games at all. ran into the companions and found out they were werewolves i actually said out loud "at least there are no vampires."

 

10 minutes later a vampire master spawned inside the gate of whiterun and killed half the NPCs i needed to finish the opening quests. and then proceeded to oneshot me every time the savegame loaded.

 

so yeah.

Yeah, nothing like having a 35th level vampire spawn right on top of your 8th level character.  And whatever DEV decided it was a good idea to have vampires spawn inside the cities and then massacre quest-related NPCs needs to have his credentials pulled.  What you described is THE REASON I refuse to install Dawnguard this playthrough.

 

There's a lot of gamebreaking stuff like that. And instead of patching it, like any decent developer should, they make us do it ourselves.

 

Thank god for Timing Is Everything. I disabled vampire attacks entirely.

 

I'm actually working on a mod to improve vanilla vampires without breaking other vampire mods via an interesting mechanic: Parasitizing ancient vampires to steal their powers. They're boss battles where each ancient has its own signature power that it uses during the fight. Once you kill them you drain their blood and gain a new power.

 

I'm also thinking of adding a couple weaknesses as well. Weaknesses to things like garlic, piercing weapons, damage while in chapels, etc.

[Jormungandr]

 

On a side note, the master vampires are leveled, the lowest being level 12, and the whole business starts after reaching level 10 anyway, so with level 8 you shouldn't have any vampire spawns in cities to begin with.

You may call me a smartass now.

I've had them spawn on me at level 6 inside the gates of Whiterun.  There I was with my crappy starter spells and my steel sword and my leather armor and there they are, with the vampire dog and their super powerful drain spells.

 

And the 'vampire amulet' mod and whatever the hell Arthmoore tried to do with making NPCs run inside just don't make the grade for me to install a DLC that intentionally breaks quests.

 

 

What the fuck? At level 6?!  This actually shouldn't happen. O_o

 

Not sure what mod you're talking about, i use one that completely disables the vampire attacks. No spawn no hassle, nothing.

I got kinda pissed the day i noticed that vampire spawn turns into a CTD crapfest at the execution of roggvir in solitude. No idea why, but the game can't stomach that combination, at least for me.

 

[ecto1]

I think the OPs question has pretty much been answered at this point but I did want to address some of the comments about the Buffy TV series. As someone that grew up watching the series, I want to say that you shouldn't dismiss the show so easily or speak poorly of it (seemingly) without watching it first.

 

The show tackled a lot of really important topics that teenagers will deal with while growing up and it did so in a very positive, mature manner. I highly recommend watching the show or at the very least, reading this article for a better understanding of the show.

[enkephalin07]

Vampires used to be good horror antagonists, and then it became cool to cast them as byronic anti-heroes until that was overdone, and I'm afraid even good examples of their use has contributed to that. They 'byronic' label indicates this isn't the first time in history this has happened -- though I don't think history has ever produced anything as contemptible as the Twilight or Anita Blake series -- and vampires just need to cool down from their media overexposure before they can become cool again.

 

Zombies are headed this way, too. They used to be reliable objects of dread and terror, and now they're a plot framework for interpersonal drama. There are excellent examples of their use for that, zombie apocalyspes are going to become worn out and tired if they keep occuring with frequency.

[Guest endgameaddiction]

There isn't anything in this day in age that isn't overused. I do actually want to see the TMNT movie that's out, but I don't expect to have high hopes on it. I never have seen any of the transformers. These movies are just too stupid with animation. at this rate the tech in movies are going to be 1 billion light years ahead of us and were still driving on terrain. I'm not against futuristic, but the crap that's out today just isn't appealing to the stuff back then like Total Recall. Tribewbatrops was hawt tho. I'd suck on that third pacifier.

 

The remake wasn't all that spiffy. Kate Beckinsale was the only reason I even watched the remake.

[ToxicKetchup]

This is kind of unrelated, but does anyone know where I could find a free high-quality crucifix model?

[Kendo 2]

This is kind of unrelated, but does anyone know where I could find a free high-quality crucifix model?

Look in the Oblivion section and search for Krista's mods.  Someone has a list of links somewhere here on LL.  If that fails I can send you one.  I have it stored on a disk so PLEASE try and find that links page.  If you can't, PM me and we'll take care of it.

 

[Kuunkulta]

Zombies!  Seriously, screw vampires, next TES must have a zombie DLC! No Draugr, ZOMBIES!! Ok some Draugr. But moar zombies! Headless zombies! Zombie zombies! Zombies!!! Rawr!

[ToxicKetchup]

 

This is kind of unrelated, but does anyone know where I could find a free high-quality crucifix model?

Look in the Oblivion section and search for Krista's mods.  Someone has a list of links somewhere here on LL.  If that fails I can send you one.  I have it stored on a disk so PLEASE try and find that links page.  If you can't, PM me and we'll take care of it.

 

I found it, but I was thinking more along the lines of something you hold in your hand. Like the combat crosses that one guy on the nexus made.

The ebony one in particular, I think it's ripped from Lords of Shadow. Something like that that can be held like a staff.

 

 

 

[Kendo 2]

Do you want this for Skyrim?  I'm not doing mesh work for Skyrim.

[ToxicKetchup]

Do you want this for Skyrim?  I'm not doing mesh work for Skyrim.

Yeah, I just need somebody to point me to a good resource and walk me through the process of setting it up to work ingame.

 

I'd ask the guy who did the combat cross if I could use his, but he's not the kind of person who shares his assets, unfortunately.

 

[Guest aaatrunks]

Overused... No.. Predictable, Yes.

 

As long as it's done right and it isn't sparkly vampires *cough* Twilight *cough*.

Thing is, most people use either of them. sparkly twilight vampires, or typical blood-hungry brutal vampires.

 

I have to say though, vampires are always interesting!

[Sarathis]

Vampires have been used too often in modern fiction. They've lost their edge in the interim. Vampires in European and even Asian lore were horrible creatures, freezing to the touch, horror inducing, with rotten breath and blood red glowing eyes. They were able to hypnotize people to allow them entry and drained people to near death. It required three feedings for victims to turn into undead themselves. They were entirely unholy creatures hence the weaknesses to sunlight, holy objects, garlic and running water, all of which were said to be sacred.

 

All of these traits are conveniently forgotten in modern literature and movies because they're simply not romantic enough. It's a shame, too. The last horrific yet interesting vampire story I can recall would be Steven King's Salem's Lot. Vampires can be darkly erotic in that they're night time intruders who sap the wills of their victims to take from their bodies but to romanticize them and turn them into emo kids, just like us only misunderstood *sniffle!*, is silly and overused. To go to the extent that they did in the Twilight movies is beyond silly. Sparkling in the daylight? Really? 

 

I don't have a problem with bending some of the lore to fit the more modern contemporary settings. Getting rid of a weakness to garlic or running water is understandable. But if you take away all of the darkness and insidiousness of the creatures, what's the point?

[splat_phastkyl]

Well, I'm really, really late to this topic, but it caught my attention so I couldn't pass it up.

 

First, to offer my opinion to the actual question:

Yes, vampires are sorely over used.

It's not just in movies, tv shows, and video games. It's in literature. I work in a used book store. Part of my job is to sort the paper backs, the pocket sized books. I go through a few hundred books ever day and I could not even begin to tally the number of 'vampire' books/titles that I see.

It is a flooded market.

If your character is a vampire, or half vampire, I would highly suggest that that state of being be integrial to the overall plot and not just a mechanic to make your character unique or different or outcast. This trope has also been over used. While it didn't really start the avalanche of those character types, a certain Drow who wanted to be Good pops to mind...

 

The core of any good protagonist in a story is not about what he is, but who he is (or She, if it's female, etc.). It's about the actions they take, the choices they're faced with, and the flaws and merits of their personality that causes them to rise up as individuals that we love, hate, fear of, and pity. And, the changes, for good or for ill, we seek in reading is not their goals but how they change within.

 

If you are even reading this post any more, I hope this helps.

 

Now, on to the reply section to other posts.

 

There were so many that I couldn't get a multi quote going so I just cut and paste some choice ones I wanted to respond to. There were more but some else usually responded in a similar vein to my own, so I figure why duplicate?

 

 

 

xthejester

I blame the romanticism of this on Stoker and his Dracula. And to a lesser degree on the whole notion of Gothic Fiction and its counter cultural backlash against Judeo-Christian morality. "What you call a curse, I call a blessing."

 

On the matter of Gothic Fiction, I believe the literature/media you are referencing is not actual Gothic Fiction. It is merely fiction that has been labeled 'Gothic' by the marketing industry and the actual category that it falls within is sometimes, properly, referred to as CRAP. (see above, ref: working in a used book store, for origins of my opinion).

Traditional Gothic Fiction deals with contrasts between civilization and wilderness. The setting is usually inside some place, a castle or manor, but it is isolated from the greater population. it involves ancient secrets, decay, moral questions. Such as crimes of the past, questionable actions that test the limits of social and spiritual morality.

Iconic works that are considered Gothic Fiction are Castle of Otranto, The Monk, Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein. A modern-ish example is The Shinning.

Moving on...

 

 

jxm

Damn, I wish so hard for a game or movie or series that is based on The Masquerade ... with actual powerhungry vampires that are seducers, abominations, puppet-players, cursed by god and driven by the lust for blood and fear of the eternal death...

 

Oh, you do not know what you wish for.

They actually did it: A Vampire the Masquerade TV series.

And it sucked. It sucked terribly. It was so awful, so terrible, that... that puss oozed out of my eyes and my skin curdled on the muscles. I had to drive thick nails through my thighs just to get through every episode as, foolishly, I kept hoping, praying, wishing, that it was going to turn around, get better.

But no, no it didn't. Instead, they canceled after 6 episodes and I was saved from sawing off my jaw and hanging myself with my own tongue.

 

As for the multitude of comments about sexy and sexual vampires...

 

I have to say that the fault of it all, despite my total love of the films, lies with Hammer Productions and Christopher Lee.

Christopher Lee made Dracula sexy. There's no doubt about it.

And he was quickly followed by Louie Jordan and Frank Langella.

Jack Palance was just ridiculous as Dracula, but even his performance could not turn the tide.

 

Well, that's my 2 cents for now.

[ecto1]

I don't have a problem with vampires being attractive and romanticized. What I dislike is the current trend to ignore their horrible, brutal side. Some posters have pointed to Dracula as starting this trend but I have to disagree. While yes, Dracula was attractive and romantic in some ways, the character was still very much a horrible, brutal monster. I think it's the combination of these qualities that make vampires so interesting. What makes them more than just a monster. Without one or the other they become boring.

[Brigade]

personally i felt vampires have been over used for years.

 

when i first played skyrim, i had no experience with previous elder scrolls games at all. ran into the companions and found out they were werewolves i actually said out loud "at least there are no vampires."

 

10 minutes later a vampire master spawned inside the gate of whiterun and killed half the NPCs i needed to finish the opening quests. and then proceeded to oneshot me every time the savegame loaded.

 

so yeah.

 

I wasn't aware my main Daggerfall character made it to Skyrim. She had a habit of doing that.

[FetishSergal]

Yes, they are overused, how about featuring disabled characters? Like pirates with peg legs... What about a dunmer with a peg leg? What if the dunmer had a peg leg with a hollow compartment for smuggling skooma?

[Captain Cobra]

That would be cool, but that would also require effort on Bethesda's part.

[Angrybird]

Badass vampires are awesome and we don't get enough of them.

 

Basically rape without showing any rape.

[DorkDiva]

...The Strain is some great Vampire stuff. 

 

 

Finally, Vampires that are really monstrous and freaky.

Badass vampires are awesome and we don't get enough of them.

 

Basically rape without showing any rape.

 

 

Love that actor. It is sad that he died not too long ago... 

[Angelvine]

many vampire person around for social with respect is well. if vampires women or men approach you just respect to good chat or social it's easy. same if vampire need for blood you must strategy to kill any animals use blood to keep in the potion until vampires woman or man appear approach you you can give it to vampire are easy many people aren't know deep from vampire behavior. if you want to cure vampire disease you require search in deep far in soils base to find use books cure disease from vampire change mortal or go search use plant medicine can prevent to vampirism disease Bible tell you if you are hard work you will find it but now they are lazy to search that is why

many vampire person around for social with respect is well. if vampires women or men approach you just respect to good chat or social it's easy. same if vampire need for blood you must strategy to kill any animals use blood to keep in the potion until vampires woman or man appear approach you you can give it to vampire are easy many people aren't know deep from vampire behavior. if you want to cure vampire disease you require search in deep far in soils base to find use books cure disease from vampire change mortal or go search use plant medicine can prevent to vampirism disease Bible tell you if you are hard work you will find it but now they are lazy to search that is why

[GSBmodders]

When I write a short story or character Bio I write of the things that I know something about. So regardless of vampires being done to undeath, if you know vampires then write about a vampire. Do not spend time asking peoples thoughts on it instead write it. 

[l1qu1d_d351r3]

Vampires add more bite than just the storyline2