Firefly coming back as an MMO

Firefly was a fantastic series. I was less fond of the movie, but that's probably because I liked the series so much, plus the deaths in the movie meant .. well, no more series. Rotten!

Now here's some fun news: Fox and Multiverse have done a deal to turn Firefly into an MMO. A space cowboy MMO? Yes please!
 

(image from Wikipedia)

"Television series can be really good properties to turn into MMOs, because when you make a TV series, not only do you need great characters, but you need to create a full, rich, compelling place," Bridges 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."

... reports Wired.

Now, the space-based MMO area is a little crowded: Firefly online will have to compete with the Star Wars universe, plus the Eve Online universe. Still, space is almost infinite, right? Surely there's room for one more...

"We want to find someone who wants to do something  unique and fun and interesting, not just a re-skin of World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies," Bridges says.

Quite right too.

UPDATE: It's all off, and is a Buffy MMO instead. Er, okay.

Comments

[Groovymarlin]

Let's hope it's awesome. As long as it's NOTHING like SWG, it will be!

[inkgrrl]

Oh I'm so there. Wonder what the emote for licking Mal's naked chest will be?

[bob]

Much as I loved the show, I have a bad feeling about this.
The universe was essentially "19th century America in space," a moderately engaging concept, and one that could translate to an MMO pretty well. What really *made* the show, however, was the characters and writing- none of which carries over to an MMO at all.

[Andy``]

It won't just have to compete with SWG and Eve. It'll also have to compete with Star Trek Online, Stargate Worlds, and whatever else decides to turn up within the next few years.

Which isn't where the troubles will lie, however. The announcement seems slightly premature - they have a game engine, whoopdedoo, they haven't hired any developers yet. Graphically (call me shallow, I don't care, I still play Commander Keen) it'll struggle against both existing games and upcoming competitors. I've heard comments about the game engine not being that great, and the screenshots from the Multiverse site don't exactly comfort me much.

Mechanic-wise, they'll definately differentiate at least a little from WoW and SWG - that's a given, it's a sci-fi space/ground adventure with a reliance on ranged combat over melee combat. The thing is, STO and SGW are also both sci-fi space/ground adventures with a reliance on ranged combat over melee combat. Oops. How much they differentiate from existing games and upcoming competitors will probably be an issue of time and money, and whether all involved are willing and able to take the risks.

While I've only seen Serenity, so don't know enough about Firefly to pass a proper judgement so early on (like anyone should really do that anyway...), I still think it could turn out to be a great game. "Could be" isn't "will be" though, and whoever ends up developing the game will have a heck of a challenge on their hands.

ps: If you end up going so nuts about this game that you have to follow it, try to stay reserved about the game at least, and don't be reactionary. When you hear something that becomes "not quite what you wanted", you may end up accidently turning into the eternal pessemist. No, I'm not one of those people :P I've just seen it a fair few times now.

[David Hayward]

Augh! I think my eyes just got raped by spoilers. That'll teach me to be so far behind.

[Brinstar]

I have a bad feeling about this as well, but there is a lot of room for more genres in MMOG space.