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Firefly MMORPG Announced
bishiraver writes "Multiverse has announced that they have gained rights to a Firefly Massively Multiplayer Online Game. Multiverse is a company started by several former Netscape employees, and they have developed an engine/network that works for all of their games. They intend to break into the MMO industry by being an MMO publisher of sorts. By standardizing, they can provide a less expensive alternative to the tens of millions of dollars and several years it takes to currently develop an MMO. They have said they will hire out a studio to build the game for them. Corey Bridgets, Massive's Executive Producer, 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.'"
Will the music be unrelentingly corny?
Online citizen journalism from the inner city: The View From The Ground
Finally, a MMORPG that I might be interested in playing. Quick! Burn my credit cards before I become addicted!
It has an almost cult following these days, and those will be the ones playing it. Depending on the marketing for this (and I doubt there will be much), it may survive for a year or so before being scrapped.
Earth & Beyond was a great MMO, unfortunately, little to no marketing, and just a sort of "Die Hard" fan-base to live on. It just wasn't enough. I suspect this will play out similarly. Historically though, Sci-Fi ish MMOs don't tend to do very well.
Well, not compared to their Medieval-esque counterparts anyway.
"Corey Bridgets, Massive's Executive Producer"
Multiverse, not Massive.
But WOW. This will either be the single greatest MMO of all time, or a complete dunce. Maybe Massive should make it!
The show never really clicked with me (I think it was because it took the idea of a "space Western" a little too far) but the universe is perfect for an MMORPG, because there's a wealth of options for character classes.
this might live as long as nethack.
Oh, wait...
snarkth
I'll happily give you guys money just to float in an empty space that will soon be filled with Joss Whedon goodness. Here's a crazy idea, how about getting him to write the story arc?
How we know is more important than what we know.
omg win....something to get me off wow, it's getting old. hopefully gameplay is as nice as the story line.
Shiny!
This may be the first online life-sucking game I subscribe to.
I am going to start playing as a level 1 Kaylee...
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
I'm a fan of Firefly. I predict this MMOG is lame.
A cost-saving MMOG framework just doesn't seem likely to equal "fun".
i would much rather see comic books or novels that a fucking MMO -
the show was so good b/c of its writing, it was the well that stories were told.
there is just no way this can translate to a video game - less so for a fucking MMO
BAH!
Mikey
I've always been the kinda guy to fall for the girl dressed like an eskimo.
I've been lusting after new Firefly content for a long time, but I have to admit that a MMORPG is not exactly the culmination of my homes and dreams. There are so many dangling threads in the Firefly universe (Book, Blue Sun, etc.) that I'd give extremities to see explored/resolved. I just don't think that this kind of gaming experience is going to be able to give that kind of satisfaction. Not that the Firefly universe isn't interesting to explore on its own, but what made Firefly special was its extremely strong characters, and I don't see an MMORPG being able to advance the characters.
Hopefully they've learned better then to use contradicting props and noises. Powder firearms that fire bullets and make "Pew Pew" noises? I know a couple people that didn't like the series for that reason alone.
Firefly's setting isn't all that interesting. The appeal of the show was mostly the screenwriting, particularly the dialogue. Apart from that there's nothing especially imaginative about Firefly. It's the usual factions-vying-for-power thing, with some savage barbarians thrown in. I don't see how a Firefly MMORPG will succeed in an environment where a game based on a franchise as popular as Star Wars did not.
Yah, they'll get good performance out of that.
Seriously, when dealing with the c2k problem, people should run away screaming from Java. I guess they'll have to find out the hard way when they run into performance problems.
Inara character would probably for sure making the most gold/credits.. oh.. Inara.. can't wait to see you in the realm..
Will Joss Whedon be involved? It seems kind of pointless if he isn't. It was his skill that made the TV series what it was and I just don't see anyone else being able to pick up from him. The other issue is that there is a lot of secrets still. Only Joss (as far as I'm aware) knows what they are and he had where the series was heading planned out. It's a nice idea in principle but without his involvement it would just be a game using the Firefly name to generate sales.
Firefly's universe would make an excellent MMO, but there is one line here which worries me:
By standardizing, they can provide a less expensive alternative to the tens of millions of dollars and several years it takes to currently develop an MMO.
I dunno, but when I think 'standardizing' I think 'making everything the same'. Generic. It's a good thing for some things (like data formats), but MMOs are already widely criticized already for often being the exact same mechanics with a different wrapper over the top. Surely 'standardizing' that would make this even worse?
A game that specifically supports the Chinese gold farmers native language!
Before anyone freaks out (in a good way), Multiverse has yet to ship a product. MMOGs take a lot of time, and a lot of money to produce. While I'm cautiously optimistic about this announcement, it's going to be a while before Serenity flies again.
Multiverse is making a platform for mmos, not a specific "firefly universe". they have merely obtained the rights to make one if they should so choose, but it is certainly not Multiverse's primary concern here.
The Firefly aspect is just a promotional stunt, It is bound to be terrible
Never underestimate the stamina, wherewithal, and sheer terrifying focus of horny nerds.
...Failed MMORPG?
This franchise has yet to succeed in the media it has been developed.
1) Start with a large fortune
2) Develop an MMO
I suspect many of the people who have seen it and are fans of it watched the DVDs... I watched a couple of the shows, but I didn't really understand what was going on, since it was shown out of order and at random timeslots. There seemed to be a lot of hype afterwards around when the boxset was came out, and - while I hadn't really like the show - I figured I'd borrow it and give the show a chance. Watching each episode in order was a completely different experience.
Come on guys the sun is shining it's a beautiful day out..... on second thought I just watched the news. Never mind.
It seems to me that TV executives just don't "get" science fiction. Star Trek was killed after three years. Farscape's "to be continued" almost never was. Firefly gets canned just as people are getting into it. And to top it off, they fill the SF airwaves with wrestling (wrestling? wrestling? Sheesh, reruns of Mork and Mindy, or Space 1999, or even The Starlost would have been better).
Hey TV Execs, we SF fans will watch re-runs just as faithfully as mundanes watch new shows. Remember that "Star Trek" show that you wanted to cancel? Ten feature length films, five spin-off series, shelvesful of books, $$$ that almost slipped through your fingers. So, go ahead, run the old Doctor Who episodes in prime time and just watch the numbers. How about feeding NASA-TV footage, or the Jetsons, or Thunderbirds, or the Prisoner, or Planet of the Apes, or...
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
It is a bit of an odd dance though it is possible to work out how the mods think. In your case your post may resurface at a good point rating later in the day; A good analogy is the first post is a very pretty woman walking down a very dangerous and dark alley late at night. You really have no idea what is going to happen even if it is a good post. Though unfortunately if your post does get saved the post you just made, and this one, will be driven into the ground as off topic (I have the karma to burn). I tend to consider the people that put the effort in to fix inconstancies like the ones you mentioned to be the best people here on /. as they give people the information they want though they don't always have the mod points when it's needed so don't rely on them.
There are a number of other oddities like for example you post a very informative post but in the proccess you call the person you are responding to a moron you will start to get informative points but then be killed off as a troll. If you want to stop this you simply post a strong reinforcement of your original post and its content and suddenly your original post and the one you just made will go up points wise as people who aren't looking for trolls but informative posts will mark it up. No one ever marks a >+4 post as troll. So there are ways that you can deal with mods who are unfair without resorting to abuse, spamming up threads, or tracking them down; Just watch how everything works and in general be a good poster.
I would like to use this post to also call to the attention of every one the seeming increase in people marking a post troll in political or religious debates and then going to ones history and using the rest of their points to mark down ones other posts.
I ate your fish.
Just throwing something out there for all you scoffers. Sure you may no like the game enough to buy it. But if it does succeed, it may well gather enough of a following (on top of the already cult like following) to merit another movie, or better yet, a second season. Just something to think about before you bash the brains out of this idea.
Behold, another webcomic!
I like the 'verse. I was hoping they'd do this. though someone forgot to tell them I do not pay to play.
Buying a game and leasing a game are two different things.
They're using their grammar skills there.
World of Firefly?
MULTIVERSE FAQ
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions. If you have further questions that are not answered here, please send them to us at info@multiverse.net, and we'll add them to our FAQ or other pages at our site.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Q: What are the minimum system requirements?
A: The Multiverse Client requires:
* Operating System: Windows XP
* Processor: Pentium 4 with 1GHz or greater (2GHz+ recommended)
* RAM: 512 MB (1 GB+ recommended)
* Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible. Pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 128MB of texture memory (256MB recommended).
* Sound Card: DirectSound compatible audio hardware
Important: The most common problem with running the Multiverse Client is not having the proper graphics card. See Multiverse Client Release Notes for a list of supported graphics cards.
Q: Does Multiverse support 64-bit Windows?
A: Yes, the Multiverse Client now supports 64-bit Windows.
Q: Does Multiverse support localized (non-English) versions of Windows?
A: Yes, the Multiverse client and tools now support localized installations of Windows.
Q: What type of Internet connection will I need?
A: You should have a broadband connection, such as DSL, Cable, or better.
Multiverse seems to be like all the other freeware engines out there, homemade. And this isn't even a real game announcement, just a sort of open invitation for someone to come along and develop a MMORPG for them.
Until they actually announce a studio willing to develop it and sign the final licensing contracts this is not news. A vague wish to hire someone else to develop a firefly game (which they don't even own the concept of), for their homebrew freeware engine is not a frontpage slashdot story (unless the crappy homebrew engine happens to run on linux).
----- 70% of all statistics are completely made up.
it'll suck. just like firefly did.
/.ers in the room stand up, thier chairs falling over behind them.
And suddenly, all the
The bartender ducks behind the bar, and the theme to 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly' can be heard in the background.
Them's fightin' words, mister.
Technoli
No matter what one may think of it as a story, a scifi with no aliens doesn't exactly strike me as the best choice for an MMORPG. And it's not like it's been a big success either.
I think I just had a nerdgasm.
Mom says there are bad people out there, and they can hurt me. But my friend Bill says that there are real girls at the mall that I can talk to.
I am going to try it. Call 911 if I don't come back.
By standardizing, they can provide a less expensive alternative to the tens of millions of dollars and several years it takes to currently develop an MMO.
Yay! So instead of each MMO being a drastically different experience we can expect all the MMOs from this company to be horrible rehashes of their prior product with some new graphics. As if the MMO market wasn't becoming flooded with crappy games already, now we can expect this company to churn out horrible MMO's at a rate of 1 or 2 a year!
Good luck with the naming scheme since Firefly also happens to be a VOIP software product developed by Freshtel. At first I wondered if Freshtel was going to start something different, then I read the article ;)
I sure hope so.
everyone's favorite consumer good sucks.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I believe this will never take hold in comparison to what would be its principle competitor already in existence; eve online. Second only to warcraft in numbers its already got a firm hold on the scifi space mmorpg and should always remain much more developed than some generic mmorpg engine those netscape guys are touting as a way to reduce costs...
Also, I've found the best way to avoid being labelled a troll or having someone mod you out of existence is to always add something like:
"I'll probably be called a troll for this, but..."
"...but I have the karma to burn"
"This will probably get buried..."
It is like subliminally telling people "if you think this is a worthless comment, then you really aren't looking close enough or aren't wise enough to see the true value in it". Out flows the ++ mods who of course ARE wise enough to see all the value. Either that or the truly insightful poster is just too paranoid and self critical to see their own arguments as valid.
Of course, this will probably get buried offtopic, but I've noticed it too often to stay quiet...
It seems that whatever Joss Whedon does, for some reason /.ers generally love it - I have no idea why...
:(
I tried to watch Firefly but it just didn't seem right, I mean introducing us to 12+ characters in 15 mins is a joke. Oh and they all speak the same style of dialogue.
I just hope he doesn't screw up the upcoming Wonder Woman film...
Who cares what the mods think? Just keep posting what YOU think. There's nothing less interesting than navigating into a discussion and reading two hundred attempts at reflecting the un-official group consesus of Slashdot. It's interesting to hear intelligent individuals put forth their ideas and test them against counter-argument. Slashdot is supposedly a website that "smart people" read. There's nothing smart about being a sheep or a dictaphone. I quote Captain Picard: "If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for who we really are."
I'll probably get modded insightful for this, but I think you're right...
The Farewell Tour II
I am a game developer and a browncoat.
Please can I have a job.
Please make an cross-platform, free software, open source MMORPG (Massively-multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game), with both the client and the server released as FOSS (Free Open Source Software).
== Environments ==
Arctic (ice, snow, cold, iceberg)
Desert (sun, hot)
Tropical (forest, rain?)
Space (gravity, dark?)
Underground (cave, dark, water?)
Sea (water, cave, mountain)
Mountain/Lava
The player can break ice with a pick. The player can dig in sand with shovel. The player can climb in mountain maybe. The player can swim in water and dive under water to underwater caves.
The environment contains grass fields, sand deserts with hot sun, arctic places with snow, and tropical environment with jungle and deep forest. Deep dark dangerous caves.
Geisers, rivers, seas, lakes. Teleporters, magic, runes, spells, NPC's, doors, bridges, gates, ports, boats, etc.
Ice berg, whirlpool/maelstrom, natural environment with rain, wind, storm, hail.
And once again you wish you could mod the moderation +1 funny
Let me say that whoever thinks that the network engine is the most expensive part of a MMO is either a snake oil vendor, or genuinely deluded. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's trivial, but it pales in comparison with other money sinks and bug oportunities. E.g.,
- The sheer quantity of content there. Compare the surface of WoW, including instances, to, say, NWN2. And NWN2 was a long one. A SP game is meant to be played for 10 hours, maybe even 50 hours in some cases (e.g., NWN2), while a MMO is meant to be played for 6 months on the average. (That's about how long it takes for an average player to get bored anyway and quit. Mind you, like with all averages, some quit after a week, some stay for 6 years.) So you actually have to have content for all that time. Even if it gets more time sinks at the end, you have to, you know, still keep people there and excited by the time they get to the endgame grind, or they won't be goaded into it.
And while sheer terrain surface can be algorithmically generated, the next parts can't:
- Quests and scripting. A world which is just populated with hordes of respawning monsters to kill repeatedly, just doesn't cut it any more. You may find your 10,000 player niche that way, but you'll never be the next WoW. The aspect that the world is essentially a static one is a turn-off. It takes much work and scripting to get the player to suspend disbelief and believe "yay, I saved the elven girl" just as he watches the next group member standing in line to deliver the same cure again.
Ok, so it's not that bad, but you want the quests to be _interesting_, and _believable_, and make the players feel like they've discovered a bit of the story or background or whatever. Copy and paste, mass-produced quests... well, ask Sony how well that worked for EQ2.
- Balance. It's not just for Blizzard any more, folks. In a SP game it's less problem if everyone plays the Godmode class, though even there it _will_ piss off everyone who picked the Pussy class and can't even get to an enemy before being nuked. But in MP a game where everyone plays the same class is boring. Doubly so if it has PvP.
Worse yet, in SP you can give the player a known mix of party NPCs, so you can know what abilities combine with what other NPCs ability. In MP you can have (and _should_ have, because otherwise again it's uninteresting) all sorts of possibilities to combine the abilities of any two classes. Is there some uber combination you've never foreseen?
Are there some items which are horribly unbalanced? E.g., if, say, you give players an ice sword which applies a slow effect, what happens when 5 players with ice swords hack at the same NPC? Does it stack, effectively being able to freeze someone solid for as long as you wish? Does it stack with other slowing abilities, like a mage's Slow spell? If not, do your items make a class completely obsolete as the same spells and effects are available from items? Does it stack with, say, applying an ice oil to that sword? What is the trade-off if I use that sword, compared to another?
Basically, balance is more work than most companies realize or are willing to put in their game. But it makes a hell of a lot of difference.
- Support. If your whole game's premise and repeated business incentive is that it's a persistent world, and people should get attached to their possessions and character, then you'll have to deal with whatever unfair stuff happens to their character or their equipment. Don't underestimate the costs of that, because few things piss a player off at your game than falling in some hole and the understaffed support not answering for a week. And it's not only because of getting attached to that, but while in SP you'd just curse and reload a previous save, in a MMO you don't even have reload.
- General code quality. E.g., did you make sure that the game glitches don't double your support requests? E.g., if in a SP game it's possible to duplicatee items or money, well, (A) it doesn't affect anyone e
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Zoe (Gina Torres) was Dozer's wife in the Matrix, not Morpheus'.
I know, I know: "whoosh -- the sound of the joke flying over my head".
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
What's worse than that the client is written in c#. All the gargage collection goodness of Java with none of the portability ;)
That post actually helped me understand why I got modded down recently for a first post that kinda made fun of Apple and was modded down as a troll (although after looking back on my wording, I wasn't careful and was pretty un-flattering) even though all of the replies to my post agreed with what I said and reiterrated my point while getting modded up. It seems to me that if you are going to be the first post, you had better say something neutral or else someone will come after you.
Then again, picking on apple is probably going to bring some hard core apple devotees down on you.
The game will still contain Mal-ware.
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
I bet they're all over the shows that have space ships soaring around in space making whooshing noises. FFS, you can't get EVERYTHING right. It's an imagined future, with imagined weapons and imagined physics. You can only instill that with a given amount of real science before things start to get contradictory. That's why it's called FICTION.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
This isn't going to be out 'til 2008 at the earliest. People could quite concievably have got bored with Eve Online by then, and be looking for something new.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
With a MMORPG, everyone should get the chance to marry YoSafBridge!
Sometimes people are actually NPC...
Guild Wars might make up more than 3% of "the market" had it been included. It is not included in the MMOGChart.COM charts since it is not subscription based, and the developers doesn't categorize it as a MMORPG.
Probably a relatively cheap license to get, plus all the fan base.
And the only name that would make sense to me: The Verse
But seriously, it seems like a very difficult task. Gameplay does trump graphics, but only barely, so they'd better have some money to spend on art design and graphics.
And I sincerely hope that they allow atmospheric ship flying. I want to chase down canyons and threaten bar brawlers with imaginary weapons...
What if the game is set agianst the background of the Civil war? That could be very interesting! I am always excited at a prospect of a new game comming out, but there is a lot we do not know yet.
Please please please... do not fuck this up!
Please.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
This MMORPG will make or break Firefly as a franchise. If it gains millions of players and able to keep them for indefinite period, it will show Fox that Firefly can be profitable. BUT I highly doubt the game will be successful because of Serenity's box office reports. The game could attract more people to the franchise. And that is good news for DVD sales.
\
Why? The reason I loved FireFly was that it had an actual cohesive story that was constantly moving forward through it with minimal sidetracks into other plot arcs.
One thing you can NEVER have in an MMORPG with today's technology and level of developer commitment is a world which actually changes. Every MMORPG to try this has failed (Horizons anybody?) because to have the world changing means constantly redeveloping the content that newer users come through, and that isn't feasible.
I can imagine it being a great and fun game for trader types, A little action. Can't seeing it doing well.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
What MMOs really need, IMHO, is unrestricted PvP.
That's great if your audience is just a niche of hardcore playes, since they are the ones most rewarded by this.
Personally I play City of Heroes largely because PvP only happens in certain zones and doesn't effect leveling up. I'm a casual player, and I want to just play some coop or solo stuff now and then without having my fun ruined by someone else. Yeah, I'm a 'carebare', I don't play to get abused by some 14 year old, and it is a big chunk of the market too.
I have no problem with some MMOs doing unrestricted PvP, I'll just ignore them, but MMOs in general certainly don't need it.
Besides, in and of itself unrestircted PvP doesn't give you an evolving storyline or complex politics, you need a lot more than that. Storyline and politics don't even need PvP as such anyway.
Man, what a bunch of geeks. This is so pathetic. Losers.
Wow, +5, Insightful, well done! How did you know that the mods were thinking what you wrote? ;)
I just got that much harder to Google.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
This seems to be a running theme for TV shows and movies. The Studio execs don't want to spend the money or think that video games just can't handle a good story so they make a MMO without a solid storyline. Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Matrix, Firefly, the list goes on. The reason these series and movies did well, for the most part, was compeling stories. I know for some they just get sucked into the lore and they'll be happy with a bland repetitive facade of a game that esentially is the same as the others with tiny variation and a different theme. But some of us want stories. I send out a plea to Studio Executives. Please support in depth games with compeling stories! Let your writers work on the video game story lines. There is still a massive audience that like to play games with stories.
It's called EVE Online, and it rocks. Take that.
I wonder how many failed MMOs its gonna take before they leave good franchise alone ?
... please leave the classics alone so we can still enjoy them!
Pen & Paper D & D : Failure
Star Wars : Failure
LOTR : Failure (I know the MMO isnt out but so far all LOTR games arent all that good)
and know, they're hitting on firefly. *sigh*
If you're really hurting for a good MMO title, Give me Tradewars 2010 !
If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
If there isn't a decent linux client I have no doubt that my wife is a rabid enough Firefly fan to gnaw somebody's leg off with her fangs until they produce one.
Well, if this follows the Firefly curse. It'll be lauded by fans, praised by critics, have the license yanked prematurely and have zero backing from the studio.
Can I play as a REAVER???
yes, I am Horde on WoW.
I'm very interested in new massively multiplayer content, and I think the world of Firefly would be fantastic to play in. I have a lot of reservations however. Here is an open letter to all MMO developers:
/ rg1
Dear MMORPG developers,
I am a recovered Everquest player. I spend hours staring into the face of my spellbook. Dealing with 'downtime', struggling to find the game within the game. Please do not copy the dreadful time sinks that have plagued this once promising genre of games.
I now have a hard and fast rule for my games. If I am 'playing' your game, and I run/fly/do nothing for 10 minutes in a row, I uninstall your game. If it happens in the first few hours of gameplay, I return it.
This is an article written by Dr. Richard Garfield, game enthusiast, and designer of the card game Magic: the Gathering
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily
Please think this issue over. I look forward to playing a game that works to entertain me, not throw up obstacles that prevent me from playing.
Thanks,
Greg
heh yeh, but being modded down for challenging the group-think gets frustrating after a while. one of the things that gets ignored frequently is that everyone is entitled to an opinion, however much you disagree with it.
back to the actual topic: if they do this game right, i think it will kick ass. i loved firefly, and its a great setting for a sci-fi MMO. however, firefly has some rabid fans, and if this games sucks, they will _crucify_ this company for f'ing up firefly..
sometimes, i wonder if i'm the only conservative on teh intarweb. ah well, back to mah hogs and warmongerin'....
I played SWG happily for months, always dreaming of opening my force-sensitive slot and trying to make myself a Jedi character whilst being hunted. Frankly that mission took over, and was all I really wanted to do after a while.
When they finally released details of just how the slot is unlocked - by grinding 3 randomly-allocated professions to mastery - it all seemed so horribly futile I basically quit in disgust. I hung around just long enough for them to give away to everyone a clue item that would tell you one of the professions, but then just walked away without even using it or trying to sell it.
because you would be the worst kind of person on the team. People who are fanantic about something can't look at the big picture, or imagine why a customer would want to do something outside you perception of the series.
Writers who are browncoats would be good, artists who are browncoats wuld be good, not developers.
So What I am saying is:
I am a developer, I enhjoy the world, but am not a browncoat*. Can I have a job?
*I perfer to wear Hawaiian shirts to firfly events.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Heh. A crappy show...being turned into a crappy game...which won't be out for 3+ years anyways, where even more of it's fanbase will forget about it...
Why are they wasting money?
He quoted Picard.
in many Pen and Pencil games through out the world.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That is a fine, fine idea. A MMO is far to big to have all of fine details get the Whedon polish, but if the overall story arc and editorial control were in his hands, that would be a step in the right direction.
For all of the things that made Firefly awesome, I can't think of a single one that translates into a good MMORPG. Granted, I'm a snob and can't think of a single good MMORPG, but still... What makes anyone think it won't just be yet-another MMO version of Elite?
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
So what you're saying is that Firefly was rubbish because you weren't sharp enough to keep track?
Did you actually watch the real pilot first, or the Train Job?
Who cares what the mods think? Just keep posting what YOU think.
<sarcasm> You must be new here. Let me be the first to welcome you ... </sarcasm>
But seriously - with the majority of readers ignoring anything with a rating of less than +4 or +5, what's the point of making a comment that has no chance of being moderated up?
Not to mention there is no consensus on slashdot, official or otherwise. You may think there is after you get modded to oblivion for saying that Clinton was as big a retard as Bush, just in different ways, but that's just a group of assholes with agendas and mod points pooling together to try and censor you (which, I migth add, is impossible considering that anyone is free to browse comments at -1). Usually these same assholes get metamodded to oblivion, and never get a chance to inflict their totalitarian impulses again. It doesn't always work, but what system is perfect? If you know of a better one, by all means, let us know.
Nathan's blog
I would love the Firefly universe put into the Fallout series of games. As far as story games went, they were the top IMO. I'm sure something could be done with graphics (though I'm fond of the pixely look in Fallout, and I think it would lend itself well to a western feel), but the story was great, and I emphasized with the characters. Some Homeworld action for the battles in space maybe?
A MMPORG sounds like a good way to kill off Firefly forever - there's just too many ways to screw this up, and then those who were interested in funding a comeback will point at the game and say, 'eh'. I'd rather it all be left alone.
Have you seen Dr Who? I'm talking the earlier seasons, not the latest two. Costumes were cheap and set design was largely dumpster diving and spraypaint. And despite the obvious low quality special effects, and cheesy appearance, it is the longest running SF series ever. Why? Because SF fans will put up with lousy eye candy as long as they get a good story.
So, if the Execs would invest the $$$ in writing instead of gloss, they would see a much larger return on their investment.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Is there any chance that fans could download the development tools and contribute their own content to the game? That would be cool. I was able to download a few tools from their site. I'm going to start to look into this.
Go Gusties
I only recently became a fan of the show, when my Wife bought me Serenity as a birthday present. The next day, we went out and bought the series on DVD--and soon after I bought both the TV and Movie soundtracks. I liked the fact that the music went for something other than traditional John Willaimsish orchestration or futurized electro-rock. It added to the whole cross-culture-space-western feel of the show, and I'd hope the game would reflect that. Just thought I'd provide a counterpoint. Response to music is a very personal thing.
Make it playable and immersive like Microprose's Privateer universe (mutatis mutandis) and I'm sold. Throw in some original videos with the actors and / or voices for the occasional nostalgia, and it'd be gold for me.
Have you watched LOST? No? I have and I love it. It has around 15 characters that were introduced gradually over the episodes with focus on around 5 or 6 of them from the start.
That formula is how you write a great series; you don't shove characters in the viewers face and try to instantly make the viewer feel as though they should care about them... and the dialogue - don't get me started. Why the hell would you play with model dinosaurs when half the crew is doing something serious? Because it's never been done before? So it'll be regarded as fresh and inspiring?
Having 12(+) characters all claiming focus in the pilot is just weird. Farscape had the perfect balance with lots of unique characters and some of the best dialogue in any Sci-Fi show.
Try watching Space: Above and Beyond, and be ready to be amazed by one of best space-based Sci-Fi series of all time. It's also got no random camera zooming issues and shakiness that plagues the new series of Battlestar: Galactica. Of course that is for another discussion...
"No one ever marks a >+4 post as troll."
Actually, I sometimes run across a particularly moving post that I wish I could MOD up, but it's already at 5. So I MOD it a TROLL so that the next person such as I might have the satisfaction of MODDING it up.
(Just kidding!)
If 'the people' in Amendment 2 are 'the state' then Amendments 1, 2, 4, 9, and 10 benefit the state, not you.
I wonder how they will integrate the creeps in suits with the "Hands of blue".... Admins?... npc's?.... I'd imagine may be too powerful for a regular character.
Ah yep. It must be Unification Day.
(speaker raises a glass...)
All them Browncoats with their TAILS shivering between their legs.
(customers stand up...)
They deserve what they got, on them far flung outer planets.
(fists start flying...)
I've put together a site to track news on this at fireflymmo.com.
PvP is not absolutely compulsory in Eve, travelling in systems with higher security makes PvP almost totally absent. In these systems you can trade, mine and run missions largely without harrassment, if you so choose. I was spending a fair bit of time in LowSec and losing a lot of ships to PvP.I decided to keep out of Low Security for a while and have been quite happily playing the missions with a buddy and no problems. Ill go back to lowsec when I can afford to lose a ship or two becuase with greater risk comes greater reward but that will be my choice,the game does not force you there.
"Friends dont let Friends mine Veldspar"
. . . mods who of course ARE wise . . .
The who are what?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran