For those (like me) with dreams of hanging out with the crew of the Firefly, your chance may be coming. Fans of the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi TV series Firefly have been petitioning and lobbying the folks at Fox for the show to return, to no avail. But they will be somewhat relieved to know that, according to Mark Wallace at Wired news, a massively multi-player online game (MMOG) based on the Firefly universe is in the works. The bad news is that the release date for the game is 2008:
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. … "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."
The challenge of re-visioning the Firefly ‘verse in a multi-player virtual environment is IMO enormous. Much of the appeal of the show was based on the witty and warm interactions among the crew members, rather than epic space battles or CGI effects. The overall look of the show will be hard to replicate: a crazy mish-mash of high and low tech, Eastern and Western influences, shiny and gritty.
Then again, there already IS a multi-player online game where people pretend to be living in the Firefly universe, in the town of Washtown in Second Life. (Teleport SLURL.) Maybe the developers should talk to Washtown residents about their own experiences role-playing the series.
Pictured is the virtual Firefly ‘burg of Washtown. Also reported in 3PointD and Clickable Culture.