WHY ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS?!! (Firefly MMORPG)

Stolen from Wired and noticed on Penny-Arcade.

"Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game.

Now that's shiny.

Multiverse, maker of a free MMO-creation platform, plans to announce Friday morning that it's struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into an MMORPG in the fashion of Star Wars Galaxies or Eve Online.

The "Browncoats," as Firefly's most devoted fans are known, have been campaigning to bring the show back almost since the moment it was canceled in late 2002. Now they'll get their wish, albeit in a new form.

"We see virtual worlds as an extraordinarily promising new entertainment medium," said Adam Kline, Fox Licensing's vice president of media enterprises in an e-mail. "We believe Multiverse can deliver an experience that will remain true to the original series, while enabling a whole new level of personal involvement for fans."

Canceled in the United States after only 11 episodes, Firefly has become the Star Trek of 21st-century sci-fi fandom: a show that seemed to remake the genre even as it stayed faithful to the conventions of "hard" science fiction, like engine room problems and menacing hordes lurking on the edge of known space.

What made the show special was the wry, often self-deprecating humor of its characters, from the captain with the checkered past to the unwittingly sexy engineer, the dull hunk of a mercenary with a girl's name, and the mysterious young woman passenger with special gifts.

The online version will move away from those central characters -- after all, there's only one Mal Reynolds. In an MMORPG, "everybody has to have their own story," says Multiverse co-founder and executive producer Corey Bridges.

"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."

The universe of Firefly and its spinoff film, Serenity, featured everything from Old West-style towns to futuristic urban environments, gritty spaceships and pastoral retreats -- freedom fighters, oppressive government agents, smugglers, outlaws, mercenaries, trader, townsfolk, futuristic geishas and a race of corrupted humans known as the Reavers.

Bringing those environments and character types to life as an online game will be a challenge: Multiverse is not a game developer, but rather a platform provider whose product is still in beta. Instead of making the game itself, the company will hire a development team that will craft the virtual galaxy using Multiverse tools.

"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.

Because the underlying technology is already in place, "I feel confident that we'll see something the public can play sometime in 2008," he adds.

Founded by several early Netscape employees, Multiverse hopes to do for virtual worlds what Netscape did for web pages: provide a universal browser that lets users access any world built on the Multiverse platform using the same client software.

Already, some 7,000 development teams have registered for the Multiverse beta, according to Bridges, and more than 150 are making MMOs and non-game virtual worlds on a full-time basis. The tools are provided for free, with Multiverse taking a cut of revenue only if developers charge for their games, or for virtual items available within their worlds.

Landing Firefly on the Multiverse platform would seem to be a sure-fire promotional move. But satisfying the show's committed fans will not be easy. Online communitie

 

and what a great hat it is...
I think it would be cool to see a Firefly mmo... Dunno how theyre gonna do it, but it'd be cool.

 

I would buy it.

 

Isn't that the show that cancelled so Family Guy could get back on the air?

 

If it's free to play after initial purchase I may consider buying it if it's good.

 

Family Guy is worthless compared to Firefly.

 

Eh, I'd heard of it, but really not interested, despite loving Firefly. I was a fan of the characters, not so much the universe. If I'm paying for an MMO, it'll be for Stargate Worlds, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, or Star Trek Online.

I reaaallly hope they don't screw up the Stargate one

 

It will probably suck as much as galaxies.

 

I have yet to start playing any game that must be payed for monthly, and I probably won't start now. Unless Firefly ends up being as addictive as WoW, but I doubt it. Basically, for me to even touch this game it would have to be the greatest MMO in history. But I do love Firefly...

 

if i had a new computer i would give it a try depending on reviews, but i can't be arsed, i don't have the time for grinding like hell, i hate grinding

 

I want to be excited about this. I really do. But I've seen so many crappy MMO's, I'm not going to hold my breath on this one until I can see a finished product.

 

If that's why it was cancelled, the trade-off is no where near worth it.

 

I really don't see how this could work.


I'd love for it TO work, but......i just don't have faith.

 

I'd give it a test play, but I too don't see how this could work. I mean how many pirate ships can there be in the 'Verse?

 

Yeah, because all you do in WoW is kill Orcs...

Think outside the box. There's a huge amount of potential for creating some mischief against the alliance, living on the fringe, dealing with unsavouries. Plenty of scope for a good MMO.

E_S

 

Well, I've never played a MMORPG so I have no idea how they work. For all I know all killing Orcs is all you do in WoW

If there are various planets I can see it working to a degree. But how would you deal with people on ships, surely you can't play more than one character at a time so getting together to fly it at the same time would be a pain in the ass.

 

Well, you either have guild ships, so there'll always be people online, or you transit in shuttles between planets. I would imagine, anyway...

E_S

 

I might buy this, depending on what it offers and if it's a monthly-pay thing.

I hope whoever designs it actually takes things from the show/RPG/comic/movie into account. Maybe have it like SWG in that some of the minor characters (Saffron, that Alliance guy, but especially Badger) could be NPCs that give you quests. Also have it so that you can join the Alliance military, crime syndicates, the Companion Guild, etc. If they had all that I'd at least give it a try.

 

I'm torn.

I think this is a little cheesey, but it could make some fans happy.

I don't play MMORPGs, might wait for a while when it comes out and hear what it's like before I make any major decisions.

 

lol for some reason, even though I really disliked Serenity or Firefly, I think that the universe will work better as an MMORPG than as a TV series.

 

I've never played a MMORPG, but I'd at least give it a shot.

What Joss really needs to do though is expand the 'Verse into books, not comic books, since the one that's out rather sucked, but more like the Buffy books.

 

You shut your gorram mouth and never open it again or I swear I will spend my life ridding the earth of your seed.

 

Firefly was cancelled almost three years before Family Guy ws brought back. In fact, the opposite is probably closer to the truth; FG was cancelled the season before Firefly came out, and I think it took FG's spot for at least some of its episodes.

 

Sorry..I do like graphic novels/comics, but the one that was released just didn't work for me. It was disappointing.