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Firefly
Tarka
Member Posts: 1,662
Recently more and more discussions have been raised about how WoW is dominating the "fantasy" genre and a number of voices shouting how the MMO industry needs to shift its focus into other genres, especially the Sci-fi genre. So I began to think about this a little and wondered if the concepts in games such as Anarchy Online, Eve and SWG Pre-NGE could be taken to create a more up to date Sci-Fi based MMO. Perhaps one that is land based, space based or even both. Of course, one needs a background on which to fix these concepts. Which got me thinking about the recent annoncement that Multiverse has put its Firefly MMO on hold. Personally, I never believed Multiverse would do it justice, but that's beside the point which is that I believe that this IP is a perfect foundation for a Sci-Fi MMO:
- Rickety ships being held together by second hand parts bought from dodgy dealers (player driven economy and crafting).
- Hand guns, multiperson vehicles, different classes (engineers, pilots, thugs, priests, pirates, scientists and entertainers).
- Different towns and space stations to visit in varying technological states (progression) .
- Sectors of unlawful space housing gangs of pirates (PVP)
- Space travel and battles (possible group travel on a semi-realistic basis).
- Invasions by rabid races and the obligatory evil Corporation as the protagonist (faction, lore and quests).
- The Firefly universe has all the ingredients but the lore has not been nailed down very much. Thus the IP has the breathing room to expand without stepping on much of what has already been written.
I think the time is right for an MMO dev company to take the what was done in previous games like Anarchy Online, Eve and SWG and do a "WoW" on them by refining such concepts into a well packaged and delivered product.
Comments
Ever played Freelancer? That game was made back in 2002ish and it still has a strong community due to its modability. The best part about Freelancer is how simple it is to play. Ship steering and shooting was done by the mouse. You open up your map to target things in space, then press the "go-to" button for auto-pilot to take you there. There is no skill system; if you can buy it, you can fly it. In that regard, it is better than Eve because it relies on player skill rather than some silly number that restricts you.
I think if Freelancer could be updated, it could make a great MMO without requiring the IP rights to some sci-fi story.
True. The same goes for X3. It's a beautiful game even now and could be used as a background for an MMO. However, if I recall correctly, X3 is completely space based and the player never really gets out of the pilots chair.
Firefly however isn't solely based around the pilot of a space craft. Which opens up the possibilities I listed. Firefly is more like Starwars Galaxies in that respect than it is to X3.
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No please don't. May Firefly and Serenity rest is peace! I wan't to preserve the memory of that perfect little series and movie as it is. Nobody can do it justice as a MMO.
The thing that made the series and the movie so great for me was the crew all those unique personalities and acting was good you could really feel the emotions that were going on there they felt genuine to me!
You CAN'T do that with a MMO. It would just be a rape. I do hope that the crew will get together again and continue the series or make another movie! That would be fantastic tho!
R.I.P Chikaca Whachuchu
Oh don't worry. I personally would envisage that you wouldn't see ANY of the main characters from the series / film. The Firefly universe would just be used as a background for the game (lore would mention the war, the player would interact with the evil corporations, etc, etc). I would also envisage Joss Whedon obviously getting on board with the project. It needs his "vision" of Firefly for it to succeed.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
It would be a cool niche game, I'd try it. But the sci-fi fanbase is quite....strange. It's not like the fantasy genre fans where we play whatever comes out as long as there are elves, dwarves, humans, etc.. It doesn't matter if the name is Everquest, or popular IP's like warcraft, warhammer, lord of the rings, etc.. If it's fantasy based people tend to pour into it and at least give it a good shot.
Sci-fi fans are quite loyal to specific IP's, such as those that like star wars may not like startrek, vice versa. Firefly (and Serenity the movie) should've done well but yet the scifi fanbase didn't come out to support it. Low ratings caused the tv series to get cut, low movie showing made it almost impossible for us to have a second Serenity.
Scifi is just a weird genre to dive into imo, and anybody who makes a MMO based on Firefly would probably only capture a small niche playerbase.
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R.I.P Chikaca Whachuchu
All things considered, I highly doubt Firefly will ever be turned into an MMO. Joss Whedon also seems to have turned his creative efforts elsewhere, and I doubt we'll see any other movies/series.
However, if you're hungry for Firefly action, I highly recommend you go to your local game shop and pick up the Firefly pen-and-paper RPG. It is one of the better MMO's I've played. If people keep playing it we can get more modules and source books published, slowly and deliberately expanding our little sci-fi niche.
Wow this has to be the worst MMO idea I've ever heard of, since someone suggested a Schindler's List MMORPG
Being constrained by the universe, and inevitably failing to be Firefly, would make this a bad idea. Same way I felt about LOTRO, really. The IP is the thing that moves it forward (tremendous appeal) and the thing that holds it back (too many preexisting constraints, and expectations.)
Really it'd be best for a developer to create a new and interesting sci-fi universe specifically tailored to provide optimal gameplay.
Or you can cheat like Bioware and take an existing IP (Star Wars) and retailor it for optimal gameplay ("Oh...and uh...we're at a point in SW history where there's a crapton of Jedi and Sith. Yeah, that's the ticket!") But doing things this way will inevitably still result in players complaining that "it's not star wars" because there are so many people around using the force.
IPs whose value is grounded in script, character interaction, and/or good acting just tend to be poor videogames.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
So you're basically saying using an IP causes problems in a multplayer environment because IP's based on TV series / films e.g. Firefly, Lord of the Rings films and Star Wars are centred mainly around main characters, thus anything outside of that scope of interaction is just window dressing around those characters. So, if you remove the main characters from the equation (because its not possible for EVERYONE to be Luke Skywalker) then you're left with not enough to encourage customers to try it? I can appreciate your logic, perhaps thats the same logic that encouraged LA/SOE to change SWG in the first place. However, I don't necessarily agree it. After all, LOTRO seems to be doing relatively ok even though the films were centred around a small group of individuals. Yes SWG failed, but that was for a number of reasons. It wasn't necessarily what it changed into that caused the exodus, just that fact that it changed so radically from what it used to be.
Personally I dont think SW:TOR will suffer the same fate, mainly because that part of the lore has been previously expanded on prior to the games launch. Notice how Bioware are going to great length's to flesh out the lore prior to release, which helps players to feel that the game universe is not just centred around the characters from the KOTOR games. Someone has obviously realised that the KOTOR universe as it stands in the first two games isn't enough for an MMO. Therefore, there's nothing to stop other MMO devs doing the same and fleshing out their game universe prior to launch.
Likewise, with the Firefly universe, it probably feels "shallow" because of the fact that there was only one season filmed which gives it the impression that there's not enough "lore" to flesh out an MMO game. Had there been more seasons then perhaps we would have seen greater depth in the Firefly universe. After all, the film did expand on it too. Not to mention the books and stories that have been written. But that doesn't necessarily stop the MMO devs from using people like Joss Whedon to flesh it out (just like Bioware are doing with Lucasarts), it just needs the correct management of the project to get it done in time.
However, I take your point that you could in fact take the general concepts used in the show that I listed in my OP, but just not place them in a "Firefly" universe, and thus eliminate problems concerning IP constraints and expectations. However, the MMO devs then still have the same issue in that they need to "flesh out" the lore to build that illusion of a living breathing environment that functions beyond the view of the player. Using an IP just helps with that.
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Sadly, I have to agree.
People asked for this IP years ago. It is now off the radar and will not happen.
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)