Sci-Fi Channel Merging TV Show with MMO

Erik J writes "In a fairly bold (and quite possibly stupid) move, the Sci-Fi Channel has announced plans to use missions and campaigns of players in their own developed MMO to shape and guide a new 'ongoing' television show. They hope to have the project up and ready to air by 2010, as they work with game developer Trion World Network to create 'the ultimate merging of the TV and gaming mediums.'"

have you meta-moderated lately?

[pha7boy]

I say this could be rather cool. You have thousands of people who will be vying for the opportunity to tell their friends - "this was my mission." basically, you tap into an unlimited supply of writers, and all you have to do is cherry pick the best. Depending on who does the moderation, it could be a very inventive show.

Slight error in logic

[Dachannien]

I don't see the TV show becoming popular. After all, if you're a MMOG fan, wouldn't you rather be playing a game yourself rather than watching a TV show about other people playing it?

And that brings us to what will make this particular game better than the fifty bazillion other MMOGs on the market now: your character might get to be on TV. Except you won't care, because your character probably won't get to be on TV, and barring that, you'd rather be playing than watching.

Why don't they drop this schtick and give us a sequel to that halfway-decent D&D movie they made a few years back? (And no, I'm not talking about the one with Jeremy Irons.)

It's a gamble but

[Dragonshed]

it could be great, as long as the TV crew and leadership can use the material to create something evocative. A TV show that can frame Leeroy Jenkins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU) and Gnome Vasion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxD7p0rcBVM) in some sort of context and retain the original humor/drama/etc would absolutely be worthy of note.

Re:How many?

[Vectronic]

Actually, they should have comedies every tenth episode or something, in-line with Red Vs Blue, etc... "FTW HAX!!!"... people walking through walls, flying... and outtakes, take the best glitches from the game, and re-create them in real-life.

Re:What A Waste

[bleh-of-the-huns]

In fact, it would probably make money.. if they charged a monthly fee like the other MMO's

I don't know if I would get involved though.. I managed to kick the MMO habit (after many years of EQ and WoW)... The last thing I need (or rather my wife would kill me) is another MMO to detract from family time... Sure we watch TV together, but there are limits, we prefer to interact with each other rather then with computers .. (that includes mind in gutter activities....)

Re:Epic lulz

[JustinOpinion]

I mean come on why would you give the hordes of gamers, who act a fool just to show off to 3 friends the chance to do the same on cable tv? the temptation is just too strong.

Well, they are not going to just record in-game activity and then play it on TV without edits. That would be stupid (and boring). From TFA, it sounds more like they are going to use the in-game events to alter the storyline of the show. For instance the players in the game enter into an epic battle. Whether they win or lose affects the TV show. (An episode about retreating to the mountains vs. an episode about what to do with all the POWs they have.)

So, in principle even the actions of griefers could be intelligently woven into the storyline. Any GM worth his salt knows how to rationalize the actions of players, and make things fit into the storyline. A really good GM can even move the story in such a way that griefers will genuinely participate (or at least give up).

So for instance disruptions could be attributed to 'rebels' or 'a virus that is making our men go insane' or whatever.

Of course, that doesn't mean that this will be properly done. But I'm just saying it's certainly possible to implement this idea in a way that show-offs and griefers don't ruin the storytelling for everyone else.

Re:Say what you will....

[mlwmohawk]

"Big bang theory is awful. "

Well, any show that can make funny jokes based on "The dopler effect, SchrÃdinger's cat, the original time machine, social ineptness of geeks, and so on is not so bad.

I laugh at a lot of the jokes, while my wife just looks and asks "what????"

Re:Probably Not Stupid.

[Arccot]

Given that people in general love to feel "famous", and given the popularity of MMO, this could at least be highly lucrative as far as a business goes, however, the quallity of such a combination remains to be seen. Depending on the "plot" of the show and game, I could see this being quite entertaining, especially for those envolved or even if you know someone envolved.

Agreed. As long as it's handled well, this could work out great. What is it modern MMOs are lacking?

1. Plot - Actually having real plot writers write quests instead of setting up "Kill X of Y" would be a big help.

2. Affect the game world - I'm sick of "you saved my family!" knowing the next schmuck coming along is going to do the exact same thing and save their family again. How about if I could make a more permanent change on the game world? Perhaps individuals can't, due to programming constraints, but a faction battle could change the world.

3. Changing world - WoW certainly hasn't changed much from day 1, short of changes to stats. Perhaps focusing on a plot would help with that.

I doubt that anything short of a massive budget could actually deliver on all of these, but a MMO combined with a TV show could at least address point #1 pretty easily.

Re:I hate to be a grammar troll...

[bennomatic]

Sigh; if you're right, a little part of me died, right there. Maybe we should invent a new group noun, you know, like a pride of lions, a coven of witches, a worry of mothers, etc... I'm thinking a cacophony of media. Or a flood. A monopoly of media? There's got to be a good word in there somewhere.

Re:What a great idea!

[Bat Country]

This actually might have worked with Ultima Online.

Being an entirely player-driven world, there were some epic wars going on between player groups, some fairly crazy action sequences (despite the fact that all movement was kinda stilted), and some really novel abuses of power.

As a result, the drama factor was pretty high, at least in a "drama queen" sense.

Not to mention some amusing publicity stunts would come out of it, like the original Bob & Jim war on the Great Lakes shard, which raged on for weeks, and was entirely comprised of one army of people named Jim and one army of people named Bob. (iirc)

Re:This annoys me

[jollyreaper]

i remember watching the news the day after Columbine - they had an "Expert" showing footage of how Doom was nothing but a murder simulator.. and how games destroy kids.. (all that lovely crap)..

i pointed out to my parents that the eye's on the hud where gold.. meaning the guy was cheating and had godmode turnned on..

they looked at me funny..

My parents thought that Doom was worse than a murder simulator, it was a devil worship game. I was impressed by the game so much that I went and bought a real copy through the mail, even though I already had the pirated one -- I wanted to show my support. Since I was all of 14 at the time and didn't have a credit card or checking account, I had to go and get a money order and mail that off. The mail got delivered before I got home from school and of course my parents opened it. Just from looking at the box art they knew it was evil and my stepdad took the disks out back and smashed them to bits with a sledgehammer. He then used razor blades to cut the magnetic media into little strips, just to make sure the evil was all gone. I'm not making this shit up, I don't have that good of an imagination. And my mom wonders why I don't go to church anymore.

Re:Say what you will....

[zegota]

I agree completely. Why a by-the-book sitcom can repeat standard nerd jokes we all heard in middle school and get high marks from the more intelligent viewers is beyond me. The show is awful -- watch How I Met Your Mother instead.