Firefly MMO

[UnSub]

I just thought he was an asthmatic or something.

Yeah, him and Vader. You go up against the Jedi, they give you asthma.

Bastards.

[Morat20]

Isn't EVE supposed to be kind of that Elite MMOG though? Though I guess it's more of a spaceships game and not a "flying around in my spaceship with my buddies" game..

Eve mimics the space trading element of Elite better than it does anything else. Otherwise, it's a point 'n' click rpg in space. Don't expect traditional space combat.

[edit]

Frankly, I'm afraid to say anything bad about Eve. I don't have time for the flaming that would follow. 

Well, I admit -- seeing a Rifter and a Dom cybering in a remote corner of Jita is something you can never, ever, EVER forget.

[Merusk]

Greivous is walking into his ship. Mace shows up late. Greivous turns around, Mace crushes his armor around his "lungs", I guess. Greivous falls back into the ship and the ship takes off. Queue the Greivous-introduction sequence in Ep 3.

Ah right.  I don't own them and only saw the last one once, so I'd forgotten.

I wondered why he kept coughing. That bothered me and my girlfriend, why put something in a movie and never explain it?

Exactly why I hated that they did it.  It really sucked unless you followed the whole pre-marketing scheme.  Hell they could have even explained it in the title scroll and people would't have just thought "WTF is the badguy sick?"

Maybe it'll be explained in the 2023 release of the special version of the holodisc director's cut.

But then you wouldn't need to buy the Cartoon Network series.

[geldonyetich]

The Cartoon Network series comes bundled.  It only triples the price.

[Morat20]

The Cartoon Network series comes bundled.  It only triples the price.

The two seasons of the cartoon were a hell of a lot better than the movies.

[Venkman]

Yes.

[Ironwood]

He's probably my favorite SW character, besides either Rendar.

Get The Fuck Out Of Here.

[Venkman]

Err, good one.

If you're bitching about Rendar, I liked him because he was pre-domesticated Han Solo.

[geldonyetich]

I liked the Cartoon Network Star Wars stuff too.  Sure, a four-armed cyborg might clash with your childhood memories of episode 4-6, but I've got admit it's pretty cool.

[WindupAtheist]

Just to Star Warsify the thread further...  Apparently there's some blah looking PSP/DS game coming out where you run around trying to steal the Death Star plans Leia was on the run with at the beginning of the original movie.  They have a weird little number-crunching "game" up to promote it, where you have to design your own Death Star to certain specifications while keeping within a budget.

http://www.deathstardesigner.com/

Here's the Purple Pimp Star, complete with rad spoiler:

http://www.deathstardesigner.com/station/20556

[schild]

Doh, I forgot to post about the Death Star Designer.

[Sky]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DeOM9L-yoZE

[WindupAtheist]

My designs keep going over buget and getting the "rebels may destroy it during construction" warning as their only real weakness.  God damned Emperor can try guarding this one, and not deliberately leaving it unguarded to draw an attack.  :-D

http://www.deathstardesigner.com/station/22519

[Shapechanger]

What the MMO is about really means next to nothing about the finished product.  It's who is making it and who is funding it.

[Venkman]

It does mean a lot if it's built off of an IP. Generic MMOs don't really need to worry too much about core fans because they get to invent lore all themselves. But building from an IP means appealing to someone who likes that IP. It also means you used that IP as a way to justify making the game in the first place, which means you convinced someone it could carry a certain financial equity.

As a result, what the game is about is important, because the IP you are building against is the reason you're building at all.

[Shapechanger]

I agree with that, more or less.  DDO and LotRO are good examples of that.  They draw in fans who would otherwise likely not participate.  Still though, if the funding company rushes it, or the developing company hamfists it - it has far more impact than the IP does, in my opinion.

[Venkman]

I completely agree. To me, an IP can attract a player, but it's the game play that keeps them.

That's ultimately what WoW got right and SWG got wrong.

[Shapechanger]

I agree.

My wife is an MMO hater because the MMO takes my attention from her.  She has tried a few MMOs usually to level 11 or 12, once to 19: DAoC (level 11), SWG(1 month dancing), EQ2(level 3), Warcraft (level 19), and Guildwars (level 14 and still playing once a month).

She tried DAoC because I was immersed in it, but the gameplay was very grindy and as she would put it "is there anything else to do but to kill things? I dont like killing things?", to which I could only say... "um... but killing is fun! Think of it as defeating". Which of course went nowhere.  She also never was able to grasp the UI and movement, and she was always a complete liability everywhere she went.  She blames this on my being a user of Dvorak keyboards, but in my opinion, a button is a button.

She tried SWG because she wanted to play in Star Wars.  She liked the dancing, but said there was no way she was going to pay $15 a month for it.  She wanted her money back for the box.  Good example of IP pulling in, and game experience walking away.

She tried EQ2 because she liked my gnome in beta (Im a genuine frothing gnome hater).  She hated the game in a big way.  Played a few hours and never talked about it again.

She tried Warcraft because I was playing it, and said it was much easier.  She liked the movement and UI and felt she could play it without hating the experience.  So she played a few different characters, I think 3 or 4 total each to around level 12 and one to 19 - but got bored in the end I think.  Probably the best example of not playing for IP but remaining for game experience.

And guildwars she plays now and then, just because it is something we can do together.  It is a good experience as the zones do not repop, so you can get up and make dinner or whatever and not die.


Now she talks about trying MEO, which is interesting.  It will be like SWG where it is the IP that pulls her in to buy a ticket.  Yet it is going to be the gameplay that determines whether or not she stays.  It's good odds she won't, but if the game is friendly enough to a newcomer with a huge learning curve, that plays slowly and cautiously - and takes a lot of breaks... it'll be a big sell.


So she is really a good example of what you are talking about, I think.  Gets pulled in by IP, but remains or not on gameplay.


I suppose it is because I am a veteran MMO player that I now choose where to divest my time based upon company history.

[Venkman]

I choose based on whether I'm having fun and the rewards are attainable on my own schedule. It's one reason I talk up WoW BGs. I've already made my first real mainhand upgrade. I did it faster than I would have in six MC sessions, and without the need to sit at my computer for any more than 20-60 minute sessions, going AFK when I need to and focusing on battles that resolve fairly quickly (WSG and AB, though I much prefer AV when I know I have the time for it).

Back in the day I could put in 5-6 hour sessions and more on weekends. But life changes for everyone and we bend as a result.

She'll probably like LoTRO if she liked WoW to stick around for it for a bit.

[UnSub]

Yes, I'm reposting Massively.com links on very old, very forgotten things.

Multiverse is officially dead as a company, meaning that the Buffy Online and Firefly Online titles it was working on are gone too.

No surprises, really, and I'm sure that someone will be along shortly to dig the IP out of the trash for at least one of these games and give it another shot.

[Ghambit]

James Cameron's Multiverse died because they wouldnt share their "screen2game" technology.  As simple as that really.  Most of the folk I saw in their forums typically posted "uhhh, so when do we get the sdk for this?"  And got no reply.  So if they'd have opened up the tech. and slightly monetized their engine it would've been worth it... even with HeroEngine now free. 

Just imagine being able to rip 3d art assets from your favorite films/shows with minimal work.  Granted, the engine itself wasnt that great.

[UnSub]

Necroing stuff for the sake of it:

Official Firefly Online title under development... for mobile devices. Due out 2014.

The fan-developed Firefly Universe Online project - the one that had the "blessing" of Fox - has apparently stopped development at some point before this announcement, like the majority of fan-based projects do.

As you were.

[Sky]

Any information at all about this?

[HaemishM]

Project Web site

Updated as of May 22, 2014. So still going on apparently.

[Sky]

I guess that's technically a correct answer, Captain Obvious  

There's almost no info on their site and it's due out this summer. This close to release and we're still getting concept art releases? So many red flags on this project.

[Setanta]

My response to all this as someone who loved Firefly/Serenity is that yes, apparently Fox can take the sky from me 

[naum]

New update today:

[Hoax]

That does not look cool. Concept art basically always looks cool even for bad games.

[Ginaz]

That does not look cool. Concept art basically always looks cool even for bad games.

Is it because they included a dumpy looking chick with the hot ones?

[Venkman]

jeezus people. At least ponzi's other story is funded. This one is more vapor than the thread about it.

[Sky]

wat

[taolurker]

New Trailer "If I were a captain" With special surprise.

Also, announcement at SDCC is that all the former cast of the show will be doing voice over work..

[Threash]

Did i see turn based combat?

[HaemishM]

It sure looked like it. Also looked really rough and choppy.

[Maven]

Let's see what happens in Beta. For now, throwing Fillion in there for the Fan Squee was a good marketing move. It got a small smile out of me.