A little bit of news for the Firefly fans out there.

Wired News recently posted an article stating:

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. (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72263-0.html?tw=rss.index)

I find myself to be simultaneously flailing in excitement and anticipation as well as sinking into a deep, inescapable depression. My reasons for excitement should be clear. Firefly is some of the best science fiction ever made and I've often daydreamed in the hours before sleep of being an adorable yet very competent mechanic of a Firefly class transport ship. Or possibly living on the rim, searching for smugglers to eat alive and hang from the ceiling with chains and hooks. I do play horde in WoW after all.

However, I am slightly concerned with a few things that, if they occurred, may take this blessing and turn it into a horrible and soul-searing experience.

Multiverse is mostly untried. It's a MMO platform, and not a game company itself. The "free" part mentioned does not apply to us gamers and our ongoing battle against subscription fees, but rather, the game developers themselves. Multiverse will receive a portion of the subscription fee if the Dev's decide it will be subscription-based. Hope comes back to me when I see that the graphics on their demo looks like it has possibilities, but sinks again with the knowledge that it may be created by a start-up company with slim pickings for talented artists, programmers and world builders. I maintain hope for diamonds in the rough, however. The Multiverse client itself seems to be an incredibly neat idea. Being java-based, it will be both powerful and easy to port and run on a multitude of systems. (yes, even you Mac users. ^_~) Being that it is free to Dev's means that we all can create and make a game now, and I know I have a few ideas. I'd like to actually play with it myself to see how it works in the real virtual world, but it's not due to be released until 2007.

Second was the mention of Eve Online as a jumping off point. Many many many people adore this game. I do not. Mostly because I feel like I'm playing a user interface and not a game at all. But I'll put my personal feelings about game play mechanics aside for the moment. One of the failings I see in Eve Online is a lack of identity. You are your ship. Or a cloned pod in your ship, anyway, and not a person at all. When you look at the fans of the Firefly series, what most people immediately notice is the social aspect of them. They open up their houses to strangers for showings, they have scheduled meetings, they go to conventions and hug everyone-- there is a definite social dynamic. While it is the nature of MMOs to be social, many people inherently have difficulty identifying with a ship. In addition to the fact that in Eve Online everyone has their own ship, and that players aren't challenged to do their own part on the same ship is somewhat contradictory to the mechanics of the Firefly universe. What it boils down to is that I have to trust the development team who picks up this project to not re-skin Eve Online and make a game based on the pre-established mechanics outlined in the story, but I've been burned so many times by my high expectations that I'm cutting them off at the pass. I hope that the intent of Wired is to insinuate that it is a space-based game, (hence mentioning SWG and EO together, which are nothing remotely alike.) but I like to cover all my bases.

This game, if done correctly, will not be at a loss for fiction and content. This makes me giddy. I'm always hungry for more Joss-tales. Directly created by Mr. Whedon or inspired by him.

I have concerns. They are mitigated by the idea that it's Firefly and I'll accept anything I can get. I'm just holding out hope that this game will remain true to what we all loved about the show.

Still flying,

V

variance's blog | login or register to post comments