Buffy MMO Announced, Firefly MMO Delayed 209
Zonk brings word that Multiverse, the developer who in 2006 acquired the rights to make a Firefly-based MMO, has announced that a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer MMO is now under development. An interview with Corey Bridges from Multiverse seems to indicate that the Firefly MMO, though delayed, is not dead. He also provides a few details on what the Buffy game will be like. Quoting:
"What we're doing with the Buffy game then is releasing it in stages. It will first be a flash-based virtual world, with the full Multiverse server behind it. ... So it will start as a 2D flash-based MMO where you can go on missions and interact with other players. This will extend even once we have the 3D client working, where you can both interact with players using the other point of view. We're going to have these shared spaces where 2D and 3D people can interact. All of this will come out in phases, with staged gameplay coming out. We're sort of blazing a path with this concept, and we're really interested in what this might mean for players of the two versions. ... I'd love to get [a public beta] out to players by the end of the year."
Re:repeat after me (Score:3, Interesting)
If someone could invent an MMO that was immune to being overtaken by koreans and 13 year old boys (of any age), perhaps I would want to play it. As it is, the AGGR0, LULZ crowd ruins every single one of them -- there's no way to pretend you're part of a story when a kid runs up to you and asks you whether you want him to powerlevel you "reel cheep", or is named YO M0+H3R.
As for the kind of people who are Buffy fans, that should speak for itself.
Most MMOs (Score:5, Interesting)
First, the combat in the Buffyverse has always been minimal. Buffy explains in painful detail to the vampires why they can't win, and she'll kick their heads in if they try anything. Once an episode, one of them tries somethings. Buffy kicks heads in. End of episode, at least as far as fighting goes.
As for skills, well, there's not much of that in the series, either. Buffy has always been killing vampires. It's what she does. Giles is always the librarian who has read every book on the occult, but still never notices anything wrong until someone points it out first. +3 intellect/+1 cluelessness. But I am getting silly here.
The point is, the game will either conform to the Buffyverse, or the game will distort the Buffyverse to make it work. Either way, it cannot end well.
Re:Buffy? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, I don't know about Buffy, I think Firefly could be a much more complex and creative universe with people owning ships and being sent out to do job.. maybe even jobs against each other. There is so much there to work with..
give us Firefly ! (Score:4, Interesting)
Spacesim genre on PC has been basically dead since the late great FreeSpace 2. Okay, there was Freelancer which was semi-decent, but nothing compared to the old great hits like Tie Fighter, best of Wing Commander, Privateer, Tachyon, Independence War or even all the way back to Elite series.
Do not even start about recent flops like Tarr Chronicles, SpaceForce : Rogue Universe or even the entire X series. Eye candy and insance technical requirements bundled with unworkable control schemes not a playable game make. ( A side note: EVE is not a space sim, not the kind that im talking about here )
Now Firefly universe would be a perfect setting for Privateer-like game. You dont even have to be goddamn revolutionary game designer to pull a triple-A hit on this. Just use the best gameplay elements of the past, make a good story ( hey its not like good sci-fi writers are hard to come by), half decent graphics and playable controls and you have a sure winner on that currently barren field.
Yes, i we know Elite 4 and Infinity ( infinity-universe.com ) will be ready Real Soon Now (TM) but i dont think advances in life prolonging medicine are happening fast enough to tide all us space simmers over until then.