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Buffy MMO Announced, Firefly MMO Delayed
Zonk brings word that Multiverse, the developer who in 2006 acquired the rights to make a Firefly-based MMO, has announced that a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer MMO is now under development. An interview with Corey Bridges from Multiverse seems to indicate that the Firefly MMO, though delayed, is not dead. He also provides a few details on what the Buffy game will be like. Quoting:
"What we're doing with the Buffy game then is releasing it in stages. It will first be a flash-based virtual world, with the full Multiverse server behind it. ... So it will start as a 2D flash-based MMO where you can go on missions and interact with other players. This will extend even once we have the 3D client working, where you can both interact with players using the other point of view. We're going to have these shared spaces where 2D and 3D people can interact. All of this will come out in phases, with staged gameplay coming out. We're sort of blazing a path with this concept, and we're really interested in what this might mean for players of the two versions. ... I'd love to get [a public beta] out to players by the end of the year."
Most MMOs focus on two concepts: a unique combat system and different skills to level. A Buffy MMO sounds interesting enough, until you realize that the developers would have to stray too far from the TV series in order to make it a good game.
First, the combat in the Buffyverse has always been minimal. Buffy explains in painful detail to the vampires why they can't win, and she'll kick their heads in if they try anything. Once an episode, one of them tries somethings. Buffy kicks heads in. End of episode, at least as far as fighting goes.
As for skills, well, there's not much of that in the series, either. Buffy has always been killing vampires. It's what she does. Giles is always the librarian who has read every book on the occult, but still never notices anything wrong until someone points it out first. +3 intellect/+1 cluelessness. But I am getting silly here.
The point is, the game will either conform to the Buffyverse, or the game will distort the Buffyverse to make it work. Either way, it cannot end well.