Well, my donor identifies much more strongly with the werewolf legend than any other myth, and I've known a few people who really gravitated to that myth. And a wolf shaman whose main totem was the wolf, and who considered himself a shape changer on the astral plane. And I personally prefer playing LARP Werewolf to LARP Vampire if I'm doing White Wolf for fun, and not for picking up dates...still, on the whole, I do think you are right, Corvus.
I've also noticed a lot of vampires using White Wolf terms such as "embrace," "childe," "neonate," etc while saying that they have never role played and don't know the details of Vampire: The Masqerade. No wonder the vampire community seems defensive and up in arms against role players who actually ROLE PLAY (as opposed to phonies who don't admit to role playing and try to pass off personae in real life, often unsuccessfully). White Wolf has almost cannibalized our vampire pop culture. I rather like the Vampire game, and I would like to be charitable and think that the reason in-game terms are so often used by non-gamers is that they sound poetic and seem appropriate - in short, we've stolen them for our own use. Still, I imagine the gamers have kind of borrowed from our community too.
It's a powerful game, as evidenced by the way we react to it - enough vampires say "I don't know or play or like White Wolf" that it's safe to assume that most of us, if we don't play the game, at least know of the game. And its stereotypes have crept into our society. White Wolf terms are to vampire society what butch/femme is to lesbian society - not everyone believes in the concept, or likes it, or agrees with it, but nearly everyone reacts to it. "Neutrality" is very rare indeed. And more people secretly believe in the stereotypes than will ever admit to belief in public.
What I am trying to discern is this : (and yes, I realize that it would be impossible with a clever individual)... who is playing a game, who is living a lifestyle, and who is actually a Vampire?
And who wants to actually admit it?
Geeks unite! I'm a vampire and a role player and I'm damn proud of it. I still have my first edition Masquerade book! (Unfortunately I don't have my first edition AD&D stuff, but my fiance does, so that's cool.)
Read : Has a need, not a fixation, for blood or energy
Kinda hard to tell the difference, isn't it? I think of it like an addiction. I can't tell whether it's a psychological dependency or a physical need - I just have the craving and feel weak and "not really myself" when it isn't met. It's hard to tell whether it's a good addiction or a bad addiction, too - is it like heroin, which I don't need but would probably need if I got hooked on it? or is it like oxygen, which I've been hooked on since birth? It's a bit late now to say, because I'm hooked regardless, and don't want to give up the habit.