Don't knock White Wolf back too much.
For those who have no idea what the heck we're talking about, White Wolf Game Studio is the publisher of
Werewolf: the Apocalypse, a role-playing game about werewolf society. That game was created as a followup to their highly successful
Vampire: the Masquerade. (Both games are now out of print, but the same publishers have now put out a new version of each, using a different world setting but the same basic game mechanics.)
Werewolf: the Apocalypse first came out in 1993, though two revised editions followed, along with numerous spin-offs, at least one alternate version set in the Old West, and countless suppliments. Needless to say, they have been accused of being so prolific for the sake of marketing.
But, I have waded through a lot of werewolf fan fiction, and many elements seem to be inspired by White Wolf's concepts. Before they published that game, the only other well-known storyline to pursue seriously werewolves as a society rather than one rogue individual and the ubiquitous guy who gets bitten is the
Howling movie series, and past the first (which really rocked), believe me, the game doesn't look bad at all.
But, White Wolf's game went a few steps further in laying groundwork. It's the first well-distributed and well-published source outside of
Teen Wolf to portray werewolves benevolently, and in fact portrays them as tragically heroic figures. (It still is a very violent game, however. Werewolves actually have Rage points. I kid you not.) Furthermore, it's the first well-published storyline to promote the concept of werewolves as defenders of Earth's biosphere and life essense, and the storyline has an extremely strong environmentally conscious theme. (The werewolves are very metaphysical, worshipping Gaea, basically the Earth Goddess, and fighting against the Wyrm, a corrupting force. One of the most prominant villains aligned with the Wyrm is the corporation Pentex, a conglomeration of companies with the secret ultimate goal of world domination, and the first step of that plan is to destroy Earth's natural environment so that humans are totally dependent on machines and technology.)
It laid a lot of ground-work for getting werewolves out of the monster mythos and into something more metaphysical, and its publishing date conveniently falls fairly close to the start of the therianthropy movement. (alt.horror.werewolves was started in late 1992; I was there. The concept of spiritual therianthropy emerged gradually over 1993 through 1995, though I do admit that discussion of the game was if I remember right limited mostly to brief reviews.)
Granted, someone else probably came up with a lot of this stuff long before, but White Wolf's game was the first contemporary bit of work to popularize it. For that reason, I feel it deserves more than the usual bashing. Yes, White Wolf horrifically mangled some lore. (My gaming friend Thomas rants to no end on that point.) Yes, they sued
Underworld, and I'm not fond of anyone who sues over intellectual property rights unless it really has harmed them (and the movie was really more free publicity.) But, to their credit,
Underworld was a rip-off. (I can do a blow-by-blow. It was originally scripted as an adaptation of White Wolf's two games, but the game publisher backed down, so in order to save a good idea, they tried to edit out the specific references, but they did not do so completely. For example, they used heavily the term "abomination" to describe a lycanthropic vampire; that is the specific world-specific jargon lingo of both werewolves and vampires for a combined werewolf / vampire, and
Underworld didn't just say it once, they flaunted the word choice. Before I saw the movie or knew any of this, my very first impression was that it was or might as well have been a movie about the two games. Not that I'm defending an idiotic law suit, any more than I'd sue any patient who refers other people to my medical practice.)
But, White Wolf's game deserves more than the werewolf fandom community has been giving it, considering how many of you probably played the game at least once or twice. (Admit it!)