The Defiance Thread - News about the Show and Game

[Christopher]

^Which reassures me about the show, but gives me a more jaundiced view of the game, because it means the much-hyped interactivity is just a snow job.

Oh, well. It's not like I had any interest in the game in the first place. The more I can just ignore the game while watching the show, the better.

[EmoBorg]

The Votans are like the Xindi or the Covenant of the Halo games. They are a multi species ailen group that wants earth but unlike the Xindi or the Covenant they want to live on it instead of destroying it.

The back story says that they have terraforming technology. If that is the case, why didn't they head to a Goldilocks planet that has no sentient life and take over it. Humans have nukes and certainly will not take kindly to aliens arriving with planet terraforming technology.

[Christopher]

EmoBorg wrote:

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The back story says that they have terraforming technology. If that is the case, why didn't they head to a Goldilocks planet that has no sentient life and take over it. Humans have nukes and certainly will not take kindly to aliens arriving with planet terraforming technology.

They're refugees from a destroyed star system. It stands to reason that they didn't have the luxury to find an ideal world, but had to settle for what they could reach.

[JD]

Christopher wrote:

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^Which reassures me about the show, but gives me a more jaundiced view of the game, because it means the much-hyped interactivity is just a snow job.

Based on my playtime with DCUniverse Online, that is how most MMORPGs work. It's not really a big player choice type of game, it pretty much one where you have a bad guy to find or an item to find, and you just fight your way to them.

[Kegg]

JD - It varies. Playesr are usually able to make quite a number of choices, but in terms of game choices they don't affect the world, just the player (a player can choose which of two NPC factions to support, but that choice does not mean either 'wins').

Christopher wrote:

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The idea of players' choices actually setting events on the show into motion disturbs me.

Christopher wrote:

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^Which reassures me about the show, but gives me a more jaundiced view of the game, because it means the much-hyped interactivity is just a snow job.

Basically regardless of how they implemented game actions having an effect on the TV series story it wouldn't please you.

[Christopher]

^No, if the gameplay has no real impact on the show, then I'm fine with that; it means the show's storyline will be shaped by its writing staff rather than random game players, as it should be. But though I'm glad for the purposes of the show that all the alleged interactivity of the game is just empty hype, I don't respect that it's empty hype, because it's basically lying to the game players, promising them a level of control they won't actually have. Just because I don't share those players' tastes or interests, that doesn't mean I approve of deceiving them. I'm not a simple-minded person. I can hold more than one thought in my head at once.

[JD]

The impression I got is that it will be more like when we see crossovers between TV shows. There will be instances where events and missions in the game will be set ups for future episodes and events in the show.
One other example they've already used is that when you start the game you work with Grant Bowler and Stephanie Leonidas's characters and then after a mission or two the take off, and then we pick back up with them on the road heading to Defiance in the pilot. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot of that kind of stuff, not situations where player choices actually change the show.

[EmoBorg]

i wonder if Mike Dopud will be in it. He has been in every sci fi tv show that i have seen in the last few years.

[Christopher]

EmoBorg wrote:

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i wonder if Mike Dopud will be in it. He has been in every sci fi tv show that i have seen in the last few years.

Well, Dopud is a Vancouver-based actor, and most of the shows he appears in are shot there (or in nearby Portland, Oregon in the case of Grimm). Defiance is being shot in Toronto, on the opposite side of Canada. However, Dopud has appeared in at least a couple of Toronto-made shows, including Flashpoint and the CW's Beauty and the Beast. So it's not out of the question, but not as likely as it'd be if the show were Vancouver-made.

[Servo]

Just saw the trailer, and it looks pretty good. Will definitely be checking it out.

[JD]

There is a new trailer airing during Syfy's Powerful Monday (not sure which show). I found it online, but I'm going to wait to see it on TV first.

[DigificWriter]

Sorry for bumping the thread, but I just found out about this show - and the game that goes with it - and have to say that it looks and sounds freaking brilliant. I've been looking for a Sci-Fi show to fall in love with since the end of BSG and the premature end of Caprica, and this thing sounds like it's going to have everything that I liked about those two shows and then some, and the prospect of interactivity between the show and the game has me giddy even though I don't normally play MMOs.

Based on the four Making Of videos that you can find on the official Defiance website, it sounds as if the interactivity between the show and the game is going to manifest itself in the form of the writers taking a look at what's happening in the game world and then tying major in-game events and whatnot into what's going on in the series and vice versa. This isn't likely to happen in real-time, but it does sound as if the PTB behind the show and the game fully intends to make things as interconnected as they can given that they really can't mimic the real-time story nature of the game.

[The Wormhole]

DigificWriter wrote:

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Based on the four Making Of videos that you can find on the official Defiance website, it sounds as if the interactivity between the show and the game is going to manifest itself in the form of the writers taking a look at what's happening in the game world and then tying major in-game events and whatnot into what's going on in the series and vice versa. This isn't likely to happen in real-time, but it does sound as if the PTB behind the show and the game fully intends to make things as interconnected as they can given that they really can't mimic the real-time story nature of the game.

Not really, the game has a set way of how it has to turn out, and is designed to have significant developments sync up with the show. That's all.

[Christopher]

Yeah, apparently it isn't one of those things like EVE Online (which I only know about because I read an item about it a couple of days ago) where it's just an open world and the players themselves shape events. It's more a kind of game like Star Trek Online or the defunct City of Heroes where you just play through a set of prescripted scenarios in order to reach a predetermined goal. They wouldn't be reckless enough to have the show's events depend on something as random and unpredictable as the interactions and choices of thousands of players -- including trolls, hackers, or whatever you call people who play MMOs with the deliberate intent to sabotage others.

[jefferiestubes8]

The elevator pitch: It’s a post-apocalyptic space Western, set 40 years in the future, that pushes all the geek buttons. The show creator is Rockne S. O’Bannon, whose credits include a cult Syfy show from the late 1990s called Farscape.

$105 million is a lot of money. That's about what Comcast and NBCUniversal have shelled out on the new Syfy series and video game Defiance

$105 million is the rough budget for the project, which includes a staggering $40 million for the TV series alone (for perspective, HBO, the gold standard for expensive TV, shelled out $60 million on Game of Thrones' first season). The balance pays for the $50 million it cost to make the video game, developed with software company Trion Worlds, which shares the financial burden (NBCU owns half of the game with Trion), and the show's huge marketing budget—upwards of $15 million.

the show, which debuts April 15 at 9 p.m., is being given as high a level of internal promotional attention as Universal Studios’ feature films. "[It’s] top-priority across Comcast for March and April, up there with Fast & Furious 6," says one insider.

about advertising:
they will redefine what a show sponsorship is.
3 major advertisers: Dodge, Verizon and Axe. about Dodge:

the brand will be integrated deep into both the show and the game, with an emphasis on the redesigned Dart on air and on digital. "We've got two Charger police cars that integrate into the programming," he says. "They’ve been retrofitted to look like…I call ’em Mad Max-type vehicles. There’s an old Dodge dealership that will be one of the settings—there may be an old Dodge billboard that’s crumbling on the side of the road." The game will have a drivable Dodge Challenger “with pipes and big tires and machine guns” on it. Meanwhile, Dodge is taking the cars themselves around to auto shows and Dodge events to show off their homemade star.

source
Hello NY Auto show (March 29-April 7)!

I'll check the TV show out next month. I'm guessing I'll be seeing the media blitz pretty soon. Hopefully better than Revolution (similar apocalyptic feel).