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.
Shiny, indeed. I’m hoping that Multiverse’s deal with Fox will mean a faster development cycle for their engine.
Having read a few comments here and there after the announcement, it seems fans of the show/movie are falling into two groups:
1. Wow, I can’t believe it! Great news! I can’t wait to play it! I hope it’s a fun game.
2. Ugh. They probably won’t have fans of the show create it. It will be a disaster. The Firefly universe is unfit for MMOs because I say so. My ideas are better than what this team will scrap together. Of all things Fox could do to appease us, they decide to license a game.
Obviously the sci-fi crowd is a fickle group. The game hasn’t even been started yet so hold on to your butts. …and the argument about the ‘verse being unfit for MMOs (which I found on quite a few forums and blogs) is kind of retarded. I shouldn’t even have to explain that.
Check out Phil Hartman in the ICE HOCKEY commercial about 40 seconds into the video. This is probably one of the best video game ads ever made. This ad was made back in the day when you could read notes from the developers in the game manuals. Now if you want to hear from the developers you have to get the special, limited collector’s editions or spend a couple hundred Xbox marketplace points to download a video.
Speakers: Jason Scott, Rory Starks, Kristofer Kurtis, Michelle Buddie, Kurt Kneller, and Pablo Poffald (IU Telecom)
Title: The conceptualization and creation of ASYM
Time and Place: 3:30-4:45 pm, Friday, November 3, in RTV 226
The speakers will talk about the conceptualization and creation of their game ASYM (www.asymgame.com), which has been in development almost 2 years.
Asym is a full-conversion modification for Unreal Tournament 2004 that blends aspects of MMO (massively multiplayer online game) into a FPS (first-person shooter). Players have the choice to play as one of three species in objective-based, team-oriented scenarios with support for 32 simultaneous players. As a player gains experience they gain levels which allows them to add attributes, weapon sets, and skills to their personal arsenal. With varying levels of characters working together, each mission will be a unique experience requiring unique strategy to succeed.
Just in time for Rails Day 2007, the official results for Rails Day 2006 have been posted. I can’t think of much to say. I’m ecstatic. It’s been so long since the contest I don’t even remember what it was we submitted… something about gardens.
If you’d like to see some screenshots from our entry, check out this blog post. We’re about 3/4s of the way down. The green one.
Just got back from my first day at GenCon. Long day. As I’m writing this entry, the pool on the second floor of the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis is coming through the ceiling of the first floor — no joke. More on that later.
I started out the day by trying to find stuff to do until the vendor hall opened. I ended up watching some anime in one of the rooms that may or may not be covered in pool water at this very moment. This anime watching session lasted for about five minutes because I quickly grew bored of watching quick clips of anime played over the best pop songs of 1998. “AMVs” as they are called, are supposedly some sort of indie art form. They remind me of mash-up songs a bit, and I imagine that people who have actually seen the cartoons from which they originate would enjoy them more.
There was a room where they were showing fan films across the hall. I saw two quick movies there: Teenage Bikini Vampire (more innocent than it sounds) and Attack of the DMs (probably not the correct title). The former was a cute little story about a young vampire who longs for surf and sun but her family wishes that she would just be a vampire. The latter is sort of an inside joke about “True Dungeon” (read: LARPing in a haunted house) GMs who are played by various Star Wars characters… except for Punisher… and Samuel L. Jackson. Though he might’ve been dressed like Mace Windu, I think Mace a few more lines than “AW HELL NAW!” in the movies. Really clever mix of stop motion and graphic effects on that fan film.
Next stop was the vendor hall. I played this game from Fantasy Flight called “Drakon” that was really cool. They just released a new version of the game and it was too fun to pass up. I was a bit disappointed by the computer game companies’ showings this year. Blizzard had a dozen or so lonely computers set up with Burning Crusade running — which was cool — but they were sort of thrown out there on the floor. It was if they were saying, “here’s your goddamn Warcraft fix, play it and shut the hell up.”
I’m going to see Brian Auger tonight at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis. It should be a cool show. If you go to Brian Auger’s site, listen to some of the music in the flash player on the right side of the page. Tracks 2, 3, and 7 are pretty good.
