This article considers Marx’s vampire metaphors through the tabletop game Vampire: the Masquerade (1991; 2018), and one of its video game adaptations, Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines (2004). Examining the vampire mythos from a Marxist perspective partly through Marx’s own conception of these supernatural creatures, this article argues for an examination of role-playing vampirism as a symbol for alienation from urban capitalist society, as well as a potentially demystifying metaphor for the exploitative system itself through the parasitic relationship present between vampires and humanity. Weaving through vampiric metaphors relating to capitalism with player agency in solitary and collaborative play, this article engages with the representational potential of gothic gameplay. As part of the Gothic genre, these games provide useful instances of monstrous play, wherein role-playing as the monster gives way to a greater understanding of what is monstrous in society, one of the core purposes of Gothic media in general.
Taylan Umut Doğan (2026) studied this question.