Firefly fans rejoice?

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » December 7, 2006, 11:42 pm

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72263-0.html

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 communities like FireflyFans.net, the show's premier fan site, have generated an endless stream of fan fiction, art, blogs, pod casts, meet-ups and even a fan-produced documentary, Done the Impossible, which briefly broke into the top 1,000 in DVD sales on Amazon.com.

The announcement comes just in time for this weekend's second annual gathering of Firefly fans at the Hilton hotel in Burbank, California. The "Flanvention" has already sold out, with 500 prepaid attendees signed up.

Bridges shrugs off the pressure; he just wants to make "something worthy of the show," he says. "This all springs from the genius that is Joss Whedon. It's rewarding beyond words to be able to hopefully be a footnote in the history of Firefly."

Well now, that came from nowhere.

Kaldaur · Post by **Kaldaur** » December 8, 2006, 12:19 am

Holy shit.
Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.
If it doesn't suck balls, I will play this game forever. That is really exciting news, especially if it becomes story driven. I know Masteen was talking about how Eve was like the UO of the space MMO; perhaps taking Eve's basic idea and enhancing it. Eve was similar to the concept behind Firefly: get a ship and do whatever the hell you want, much like Mal did. So if they can improve upon this idea, Firefly the MMO will be great.
Now, just find a way to market it so people hear about it.

noel · Post by **noel** » December 8, 2006, 12:44 am

I hate this idea. People need to stop taking shit that's good and making it into bad MMOGs.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » December 8, 2006, 12:49 am

I dunno, the whole freelancer thing may work, as long as they do not nerf the Saffron character class...

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 8, 2006, 1:21 am

Dunno yet. Transform the "guild" concept into more of a smaller "crew" concept and give them upgradeable guild ships to roam the solar system in search of shady missions to conduct might be fun. Allow a group of around six or eight to form a "crew" for pick up adventures and head off.

I'll take a wait and see on this one and try for the beta whenever it's posted.

Midgen · Post by **Midgen** » December 8, 2006, 1:40 am

As much as I loved Firefly and Serenity, I really cant get a good feeling about this.

What made firefly good was the characters, and the mystery behind them. There really isn't much to the show or the movies outside of that.

I just don't see a lot there to make an interesting game out of.

I guess I can hope, but I'm honestly not very optimistic.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » December 8, 2006, 2:28 am

I'm really apprehensive about this as well.

A - Joss doesn't seem to be involved in the slightest.
B - If it bombs or sucks badly, the license will be less attractive for other potential venues.

I wish Fox would just re-transfer the rights back to Joss so that he can get something else going with it.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » December 8, 2006, 3:40 am

Depends on who develops it, but it could be descent as a small group type MMO. Eve certainly proved that there is a market for something sci-fi out there. But, a lot can go wrong.

Ransure · Post by **Ransure** » December 8, 2006, 4:30 am

Shit, I didnt think Eve was anygood... maybe I should try it...

But honestly, with no coments from Joss in that release... that means to me hes not involved, and he gave this story/universe life... without him, its a dead husk....

They are counting on the MMO geeks, and the Joss geeks being the same people and trying to use what he created, that they own, to make money.

Great idea for our capitalist society, but its gonna suck ass in application.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » December 8, 2006, 7:23 am

This will be crap if it ever gets out of vapourware mode.

I just want 4-5 more seasons of TV shows please.

Midgen · Post by **Midgen** » December 8, 2006, 10:02 am

Hmm,

These are the people putting this thing together?

http://mulitiverse.net/

This doesn't give me a warm fuzzy.

mulitverse.com wrote:Make a complete MMOG or virtual world for less money and in less time than you ever dreamed possible.

mulitverse.com wrote:Our development tools are in beta.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » December 8, 2006, 11:28 am

Midgen wrote:Hmm,

These are the people putting this thing together?

http://mulitiverse.net/

This doesn't give me a warm fuzzy.

mulitverse.com wrote:Make a complete MMOG or virtual world for less money and in less time than you ever dreamed possible.

mulitverse.com wrote:Our development tools are in beta.

I saw that yesterday. To be fair they aren't developing it but that's the toolset that will be provided to whatever developer wants to make the game.

Fux hurting the license yet again =(

miir · Post by **miir** » December 8, 2006, 11:31 am

Because this franchise has such a rabid fanbase, it's going to be impossible to please them.

I feel sorry for the developers.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » December 8, 2006, 12:59 pm

I'd rather see the money being diverted into bringing the show back then thrown into a product that will probably end up sucking.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » December 8, 2006, 2:09 pm

noel wrote:I hate this idea. People need to stop taking shit that's good and making it into bad MMOGs.

this

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » December 8, 2006, 2:20 pm

I don't have high hopes for this. The market is becoming far too saturated with MMOs, it's almost asking for it to fail. I bet Joss is rolling his eyes at this one.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 8, 2006, 2:22 pm

I think Joss has given up on Firefly. He'd be willing to do another project in the Firefly universe but I don't think he's actively pursuing it anymore. The movie took a lot out of him.

Since the game is already planned, I hope it's decent but if not, no biggie. Shitty Lord of the Rings games never hurt that franchise.

As far as I know, Whedon is directing Wonder Woman is is taking over the writing responsibilities for Runaways early next year after his run on Astonishing X-Men ends. I don't read his blog (if he has one) so don't know what else he's up to.

I'd like to see another Whedon directed TV series in the future even if it isn't Firefly.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 11, 2006, 8:11 pm

Penny Arcade Firefly:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/11

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 12, 2006, 2:29 am

I'm on a Firefly roll. Coolest Cast ever? Very cool of them to go party with the fans. Read on :

From The Movie Blog: (most entertaining daily movie news site)

http://www.themovieblog.com/

Best Fanservice Ever as Firefly Convention is Cancelled

I am a BIG Firefly fan. Unfortunately, despite being a big fan of Joss Whedon in the first place, I didnt jump on the Firefly gig when it first came out. Since then, I have seen the collected DVD set, and the movie. I love this show. I hate that it was cancelled. That being said, there is still a fan following more passionate than Trekkies (well Trekkies NOW anyways) and they have their very own convention in California. Until last minute it gets cancelled with no reason given.

CNet reports:

Word comes from Burbank, Calif., that passionate fans of the Joss Whedon TV show Firefly from all over the world have ponied up money to help pay to carry off "Flanvention," the fan convention that was scheduled to begin Friday but was abruptly canceled Thursday.

According to Corey Bridges, the executive producer at Multiverse Network, who was in town for Flanvention, people had come to Burbank from all over the place, only to find when they arrived that the event had had the rug pulled out from under it.

But never to be told they can't have what they want, the show's fans, known as "browncoats," scrambled and found a way to make it work.

Now this is only half of the story. Big convention for fans of the show, gets cancelled, and the guy who is running it is now the most hated man in the Verse.

The fans rally together and decide to hold their own replacement gig at another location. Just a bunch of people hanging out to talk about Firefly.

BUT WAIT! Over at Whedonesque we are told:

There's no simplier way of putting this. Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Mark Sheppard, Jonathan Woodward, Christina Hendricks and Adam Baldwin have all turned up and are partying with fans at the hotel bar into the night at the cancelled convention Flanvention.

The Amazing thing about this is that these actors are not even getting PAID to be there. The Convention was cancelled, no refunds issued, and talent wasnt paid to appear. Many of those cast members who DID appear were not even scheduled to be at the convention. Alan Tudyk (Wash) had a scheduling conflict and declined an appearance, but he couldnt resist when he heard that these fans were shafted.

These guys just SHOWED UP anyways. Now THIS is how fans need to be treated. The cast of Firefly are dedicated to their fans in a way that sets an example that makes other stars look bad for ignoring those who MADE them famous.

There is even a Livejournal post from one of the attendee's showing pictures of the event. She tells about how the cast members brought memorabilia that they salvaged from the set and were just giving this stuff away as "prizes". She posted all the event pictures Here

I tip my hat to the crew of the Serenity. They have my respect, and just bolstered my fandom.

http://embers-log.livejournal.com/134391.html

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » December 12, 2006, 8:30 am

How can you not love this cast?

Talk about a nice thing to do for the fans.

Kaldaur · Post by **Kaldaur** » December 12, 2006, 11:35 am

I was watching an episode of Lost, near the end of the half season mark. Nathan Fillion played Kate's husband, and I was very excited about the episode. Well, it gets to a point where Nathan had to do a fall, and he fell exactly like I remember Mal falling from the show. I'm a rabid fan, and I was laughing when he did it because it seemed just like the hundreds of times Mal was knocked out or drugged or shot. Anyway, the stories I've heard from this cast make them all sound like excellent people who really loved what they were doing. Kudos to them for making this party for the fans a memorable one.

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » December 12, 2006, 12:38 pm

Yeah, that was a seriously classy move. Especially from Alan Tudyk showing despite scheduling conflicts, because the original fan faire got hosed.

Seriously, that alone should maybe show some guys in hollywood that the show got a serious fan base, and actors interested in doing more

.
And hopefully tell the hollywood bosses that the actors actually care about their fans, unlike most of the established hollywood cast that would require major cash and bring a squad of bodyguards for this. Thats gotta be worth something when you look for a actor for a major role next time

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » December 29, 2006, 5:14 pm

I heard a rumor that some Blizzard employees (I don't know how many or *who*, so take from it what you will) left Blizzard to work on the Firefly MMORPG. Anyone hear anything about it?

I may be the only one on this board excited about the prospect of a Firfly game, but humor me with any infoz you hear!

Truant · Post by **Truant** » December 29, 2006, 11:20 pm

Oh, i'm excited...but i also see a huge potential for let down and suckage.

I do hope it turns out great, and if it does..i'll play the hell out of it. But I'm just not holding my breath.