Firefly MMORPG Announced

bishiraver writes "Multiverse has announced that they have gained rights to a Firefly Massively Multiplayer Online Game. Multiverse is a company started by several former Netscape employees, and they have developed an engine/network that works for all of their games. They intend to break into the MMO industry by being an MMO publisher of sorts. By standardizing, they can provide a less expensive alternative to the tens of millions of dollars and several years it takes to currently develop an MMO. They have said they will hire out a studio to build the game for them. Corey Bridgets, Massive's Executive Producer, says: 'If you're doing science fiction, you have to really think it out and create an incredibly rich environment that is compelling in its own right, and worth exploring and going back to week after week. That's what Joss Whedon did with Firefly.'"

This could work.

[Quietude]

The show never really clicked with me (I think it was because it took the idea of a "space Western" a little too far) but the universe is perfect for an MMORPG, because there's a wealth of options for character classes.

Sign me up. Right now.

[QuantumG]

I'll happily give you guys money just to float in an empty space that will soon be filled with Joss Whedon goodness. Here's a crazy idea, how about getting him to write the story arc?

Re:Because it did so well.

[TheViewFromTheGround]

That, and judging by the screenshots and terrible marketspeak on the site, the platform it will be built on looks pretty crappy [multiverse.net].

It has all the makings of a debacle, which is too bad, because Firefly was a superb show.

Pew Pew

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully they've learned better then to use contradicting props and noises. Powder firearms that fire bullets and make "Pew Pew" noises? I know a couple people that didn't like the series for that reason alone.

Re:OMG! Firecrack!

[cloricus]

To be honest there isn't a market left...Any one who is really after a good space game is already playing EVE Online [eve-online.com] and I know from people I come across there is already a huge Firefly fanbase in the game. Hell every member of my squad is an out right addict of Firefly.

So the question is how do these people think they can get the depth and sophistication of EVE to draw people away from characters they've already put at least a year into developing. My answer is that I doubt they can for a very long time; EVE is very complex and very well thought out plus by the time this mob have a game out EVE will probably have the FPS areas added. I really can't see myself moving away from it for a simple name branding of Firefly on another game.

Re:Because it did so well.

[Kelson]

If you were to believe what people say /now/, the show must have had more viewers than any other show in history, and that just isn't true.

Oddly, another of Joss Whedon's shows brought up this very issue:

Spike: If every vampire who said he was at the crucifixion was actually there, it would have been like Woodstock. I was actually at Woodstock. That was a weird gig. I fed off a flower person and spent the next six hours watching my hand move.

I saw a 15-minute clip of the pilot episode at a convention. It must have been the wrong 15 minutes, because it left me with no interest in watching the show when it aired. A year or two down the line, I got talked into watching it on DVD. It took a couple of episodes, but I was hooked. Soon I wanted to get my own copy of the DVDs. This happened all over the place, hence the post-broadcast fan buildup and successful DVD sales.

What's interesting is that the fan base that drove the Firefly DVD sales didn't translate to Serenity movie tickets. It did OK, but wasn't the massive success people were expecting. But I recall hearing somewhere that Serenity also did fairly well on DVD.

Re:OMG! Firecrack!

[hitmanWilly1337]

What MMOs really need, IMHO, is unrestricted PvP. You want an evolving storyline? Complex politics? bingo. Plus, its all real time. None of this is scripted out by some clueless writing team. Thats what MMOs should be. Not just item hunts. Feel free to flame away.

Re:Failed Show, Failed Movie...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Failed MMORPG? This franchise has yet to succeed in the media it has been developed.

Isn't Serenity one of the bestselling HD-DVDs of all-time?

Re:OMG! Firecrack!

[aussie_a]

And this immediately proves you wrong. [slashdot.org] So nice try, better luck next time. You may have had valid points, had you not spoken in absolutes.

Re:OMG! Firecrack!

[cloricus]

I personal think EVE is very good, it has its flaws like everything though on the whole its very good and has that 'complete' feel to the world. They are adding a FPS element to the game in the near future that includes very realistic sprites that allow you to walk around in stations and interact with the other hundreds of people there. Also atmosphere flying (yay!) and in the distant future full cities on planets that you can walk around and do things on etc. What I like best about that is that each new feature they add is very tightly integrated so it should be good. I'd like to note that walk around inside your spaceship outside of the protection of a station would be a very dangerous idea; EVE is not a safe place and if your not ready to jump away to safety at any moment you will die - so the time it takes to run to the bridge would be way to long!

I can currently play EVE under Cedega - low fps compared to Windows native - and can also play it under WINE (just) - graphical corruption and low fps. Though WINE is making great strides to fixing the few remaining issues. :D

Paul

[DeadboltX]

By standardizing, they can provide a less expensive alternative to the tens of millions of dollars and several years it takes to currently develop an MMO.

Yay! So instead of each MMO being a drastically different experience we can expect all the MMOs from this company to be horrible rehashes of their prior product with some new graphics. As if the MMO market wasn't becoming flooded with crappy games already, now we can expect this company to churn out horrible MMO's at a rate of 1 or 2 a year!

Re:But...

[TheViewFromTheGround]

Thanks for the intelligent reply. What always got me was that there was a certain lack of subtlety in the music -- it felt to me like it drew too much attention to itself, and pushed the whole "it's the Wild West, it's a fusion of cultures!" trope too far, or at least too into the realm of being obvious and just a shade patronizing. On the other hand, I watched the series around the same time that I found The Wire (easily the best show on TV, imho). That show doesn't use background music at all unless it is part of the fictional environment, and I felt that strategy removed a great deal of the artifice from the proceedings and makes The Wire feel more like a documentary. Given some of Firefly's themes and attempts to be gritty and nuanced, I think something similar might have worked really well on the show. But that's definitely not Joss Whedon, and his vision is also what made Firefly excellent TV.

Re:But...

[bogjobber]

Generally speaking the show had good music, but the intro theme was unbelievably corny. I don't think it took away from the show because it just played over the credits, but every time I hear it my friends and I crack up. There's something to be said for a little subtlety in lyrics. It is like a caricature of a cheesy cowboy song (speaking as a fan of country and folk music). I'm not sure if that's what they were going for.

Re:REAVERS!!!!

[geekoid]

So you like to play games in easy mode? That's cool, personally I've been playing video games far to long to play in easy mode.

Re:Love Firefly, can already see this failing....

[geekoid]

of course it is possible.

This is the EXACT same issue the TV shows must dael with, and that has been done successfully.

I can think of several ways to do this, so I am sure there are game makers that could figure it out as well.