V Is for Vampire, and Five

A few months ago, the latest edition of a role-playing game I like came out.  I haven't mentioned it until now, because I have yet to get my hands on more than a brief preview.  That game is Vampire:  the Masquerade.  I have been a fan of it since the mid-90's, although I haven't actually played it with others.  It was originally produced by White Wolf, before the studio decided to end all of their game lines based in the horror genre (known as the World of Darkness).  They then re-started a new line of horror games, ultimately called Chronicles of Darkness, but at the time was just called World of Darkness 2.0.  Then, White Wolf got bought out by a video game company from Iceland, who later sold the rights to another video game company, possibly from Sweden.  White Wolf became a print-on-demand production, so I was left out on new products for years, barely keeping up with new product.  One of the reasons I opened a book store was to make sure I could get my game products without having to hope that my local game store remembered to get it in.  White Wolf later dissolved as a separate entity, but the game line continued with a secondary company, Onyx Path Publishing, gaining the rights to continue to publish new material based on the intellectual properties.  The company was started with many of the original developers, so they knew what they were doing.  They ultimately brought back the original World of Darkness in 20th anniversary editions, including new and updated books.  Still, I was unable to purchase them.  It is hard to get things when you don't have modern banking options.  Anyway, about a year ago, the Swedish game studio announced that they were producing a new edition of the World of Darkness games, starting with Vampire.  The task would be performed with a new subsidiary called White Wolf.  The production would all be in house, with a new set or writers and artists, as well as updating many of the old rules.  Much of the olde meta-fiction and background info would be kept, but new twists would be added, to update the styled and plot lines.  Onyx Path would be involved in the production of new product as a third party developer, but they would not have any final say.  Strangely enough, the new edition would be available through certain retailers, but I have yet been able to access them through any of my distributors.  Much of the sales are still online only, but I am hoping to get my hands on something soon.  You know, at one point, I wanted to be a writer for these games.  Part of me still would enjoy it, although with the company now controlled in Europe, there is less of a chance.