Defiance: Rockne O'Bannon TV series/video game crossover

[Temis the Vorta]

Defiance debuts at E3 next week. I've seen attempts at integrating interactive and non-interactive entertainment forms before, but I've never seen a success (other than American Idol, I guess that counts in a sense). Sooner or later someone is bound to figure it out, and maybe this will be it? I'm mainly interested in this because O'Bannon is involved.

Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and Syfy viewers to a world ravaged by decades of conflict, where humans and aliens live together in a world the likes of which no one has seen. The game combines the frenetic action of a top-tier console shooter with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart exudes the scope, story, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. The game's story will take place in the San Francisco bay area, while the TV series will be set just outside of St. Louis, MO. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence and evolve each other over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story of Defiance.

...

Syfy writer Rockne O'Bannon (Farscape, The Triangle) has worked with both game developer Trion and the creative team behind the new television series. Howe said Defiance has been designed and built from the ground up with a joined-at-the-hip team that's been meeting every week for the last two or three years to co-conceive, co-create, and co-develop a bunch of characters and a storyline and mythology that will work across both the TV series and MMO game.

Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion Worlds, said this project breaks the traditional mold of a game being licensed by Hollywood creators or a Hollywood-based property being turned into a game.

"This is essentially the convergence of the television and gaming industry into one fully-developed cohesive property," said Buttler. "Syfy is creating a television show that takes place in the fictional universe that the game is set in. The game and the show will constantly influence each other from the moment that they simultaneously launch."

While traditional television series have offered casual online game experiences, comic books, novels and other ways for fans to interact with characters; Defiance changes the game. Buttler said fans can create their own characters and then take part in the persistent online game experience that includes interacting with virtual versions of characters from the show. In addition, some in-game actions by the players will end up influencing the actions in the scripted TV series.

I'd be happy if O'Bannon would just do a TV series alone like that. I can't envision how the MMO will feed into the TV series, or why it should. Isn't it hard enough to write a good ongoing sci fi story without worrying what the game players are getting up to? I certainly wouldn't want the MMO to be a drag on the TV story.

However, I could envision a way the MMO could be a help. It's possible that some characters created by players for the game could become popular and useful for the TV series - maybe this is a form of "crowd-sourcing" a story and getting better character types than a group of professional writers could come up with? I think using the MMO to create characters rather than generate plot is the way to go. My bet is that people are just better at thinking up characters than they are at thinking up plotlines that we haven't all seen before, make coherent sense, and go someplace worthwhile.

Given the poor track record of efforts like this, I'm staying skeptical, but it will be an interesting experiment. I doubt I'd have time to participate in the MMO unless there was some very non-time-intensive way to do that. (American Idol works because the interactive element - voting - demands very little of the participant's time and effort.) I also hope Ben Browder is in the TV series. If I do participate in MMO, my character will be a Ben Browder look-alike, although I'm not sure the paces I put him through will be something that could air on basic cable.

 

[RoJoHen]

I feel like the show will end up influencing the game much more than the game will influence the show. The game world will change and be affected by the story on TV. I feel like it would be way too difficult to have anything in the game change what happens to the scripts, though, unless it's something that happens in between seasons.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Here's how the interaction could work (depending on how the game is structured):

The MMO fanboys (and they will be largely a male population) will start generating fantasy kick-ass female characters. This will give rise to competitiveness about which guy's character is the hottest/most kick-ass. Much squabbling will revolve around the characters' costumes and bra size.

A few of the characters will naturally rise to the top in terms of popularity, and coalitions will form backing one or the other. Ideally you could have thousands or tens of thousands of backers pushing to have a certain character join the show. At the end of a campaign period, everyone in the MMO will get to vote.

The squabbling surrounding the casting of the character for the TV series will make the squabbling over the costume look like nothing in comparison. In many cases, the characters will be deliberately designed with a certain actress in mind.

Imagine the Jewel Stait character duking it out with the Summer Glau character to get a role on the show. And then, when the victor joins the show, everyone who voted for or against her will have an emotional investment in how well or badly she does. The squabbling will be through the roof at that point and God help us all if she gets a costume change.

Of course, by squabbling what I mean is more attention and participation, which is all to the good for both video game and TV series. They could be onto a gold mine here.

And I'm not even talking about the possibility that the series or MMO could dip its pinky oh so delicately into porny scenarios. They'll probably avoid that even though on basic cable, I don't think there's any rule that says they need to except that they don't want to exclude the underage audience or risk the ire of parents or the dreaded PTC.

There will also be male characters who undergo the same process, but the fan intensity won't be at the same level (unless and until the MMO starts to attract more of a female audience). What I've described is essentially American Idol, but for guys drooling over cartoon-character female warriors instead of teenage girls drooling over their favorite dreamy boy singer, and using an MMO as the organizing principle instead of cell phones.

 

[Kegg]

]I'd be happy if O'Bannon would just do a TV series alone like that. I can't envision how the MMO will feed into the TV series, or why it should.

It does feel a bit like a gimmick. I think the cleverest revelation that press release gives is that the TV series and the MMO are set in two different locations, which suggests they can basically tell their own stories mostly independent of each other with little bleed through. I would assume the only connection between the game and TV series storyline would be the overarcing events - if the aliens lose a major battle in San Francisco that may be mentioned in St. Louis and vice versa.

I remember once reading a new Sci-Fi exec promising us the next Star Trek or Farscape. Given Rockne O'Bannon's involvement with this program I'm just going to go ahead and assume it's it.

As gimmicks go, there's a reasonable overlap between sci-fi fans and gaming fans, so it's got definite marketability.

If I do participate in MMO, my character will be a Ben Browder look-alike

Well, they did say there's aliens, right?

I wonder how close to Rygel I can get...

In all seriousness I was pretty underwhelmed by Rift, an MMO title by the same company that's producing this. Granted I tend to be underwhelmed by almost all MMOs like the obedient little pawn of Blizzard I profess to be, so take that for what it's worth.

Edit:

The MMO fanboys (and they will be largely a male population) will start generating fantasy kick-ass female characters. This will give rise to competitiveness about which guy's character is the hottest/most kick-ass. Much squabbling will revolve around the characters' costumes and bra size.

Speaking as a MMO player, while you're quite right about the general skewing of the population (and the popularity of scantily clad female characters among male gamers), I think you're underestimating the popularity of male avatars among male gamers, which are also pretty considerable.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't really know how MMOs work.

 

[Kegg]

Basically they work by taking your free time and marginally extant social existence, eating it up, spitting it out, and turning you into a worker drone who exists for a soulless grind involving the gradual acquisiton of progressively more shiny items with which your killing capacity is increased.

Good times.

 

[RoJoHen]

Sounds dreadful.

 

[Witterquick]

Basically they work by taking your free time and marginally extant social existence, eating it up, spitting it out, and turning you into a worker drone who exists for a soulless grind involving the gradual acquisiton of progressively more shiny items with which your killing capacity is increased.

Good times.

Very evil.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese already have something similar. Maybe one of those dating games next. Then the girls could join in the fun with their slash characters.

Not a big fan of gaming though (tried the Dexter game once! ) and even had to look up MMOs on wiki. Sounds interesting. Sort of like Caprica.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

There's a Dexter game?

Silly me, of course there is.

 

[Witterquick]

Yup, it was on iphone and only recently released on PC. You find clues, solve puzzles and stalk your victims. It just bored me like most computer games do. I would try MMOs, but I have a feeling they're a huge time investment.

 

[darthraidr]

it's a neat idea, but extremely risky.

MMOs are tough to pull off if you follow the typical MMO format
Sci-fi MMOs are also tough to pull off (not many big successes out there)
Shooter MMOs have an even worse track record

that's not to say it couldnt be done, but they have a lot of obstacles in front of them without even touching the TV/SyFy aspect of it.

i imagine the TV show will dictate the majority of the plot of the game. that things that happen in game (things players do on their own) will have little to no impact on the show. certainly player characters will in no way pop up in the show. (the legal issues could be a nightmare, does the player get royalties when their character is used? and what happens if the player starts changing up their playstyle (or a race/faction type change?))

if done right, the MMO will be able to offer fans of the show a chance to further explore the world of the show. similar to how you can read books about any tv show or movie, but far more interactive.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

(the legal issues could be a nightmare, does the player get royalties when their character is used?

Couldn't they handle that with a check-off box of legalese when the player signs up? I give up all rights blah blah blah, that sort of thing.

and what happens if the player starts changing up their playstyle (or a race/faction type change?))

That won't matter if the character has become popular on the TV show - at that point, the character is Jewel Stait, not the proto-Jewel Stait from the MMO, or however she evolves.

 

[Caliburn24]

Star Wars already has an MMO and another one on the way. Star Trek has an MMO. Stargate had an MMO that died in development. I suppose it was just a matter of time before another TV show got an MMO.

But as a player of several of the biggest MMOs, I can tell you right now(despite the OP's article claiming otherwise) that no actions in the game will have any meaningful impact on the TV show. It is logistically and financially unfeasible.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The difference here is that the game and show are being created in tandem, with the idea of linking them.

I suspect the game-show tie-in will be more hooplah than reality. The "logistics" problem sinks this idea every time it's been tried.

I think the best way for them to go is to think more broadly about the problem and realize that reality TV is the only example of successfully adding an interactive element to a TV show.

They should understand why something like American Idol works - the show creates an emotionally compelling motive for the interactivity; the interactivity is simple, non-time-consuming and offers quick feedback that something happened as a result - and use that as a basis for their own game.

There can be a larger, complicated MMO game "behind" the scenes but they need to start small and simple with the interactivity and build out from there. For starters, people need to be able to participate in the interactivity without jumping through a lot of hoops signing up for an MMO. It's gotta be a go-to-url/push-the-button kind of thing or you lose 99% of the potential participants right there. Ideally, you should be able to push the button via your phone.

 

[darthraidr]

(the legal issues could be a nightmare, does the player get royalties when their character is used?

Couldn't they handle that with a check-off box of legalese when the player signs up? I give up all rights blah blah blah, that sort of thing.

and what happens if the player starts changing up their playstyle (or a race/faction type change?))

That won't matter if the character has become popular on the TV show - at that point, the character is Jewel Stait, not the proto-Jewel Stait from the MMO, or however she evolves.

they could try the check box thing... if push came to shove, i am not sure how well that would hold up in court (assuming some player created some amazing, character that the story had to use) look at nick locarno and tom paris (assuming the report that it couldnt be locarno because of writer royalties).

as for just evolving the character as the writers see fit, that is fine, and probably all the more reason they wouldnt take a player character for anything.

...

as for the american idol thing, that isnt what they want to create. there are certainly ways to get what characters do in an MMO across in a tv show. i imagine a scenario where a planet is under attack, the cities "TV Hub," "Middleground" and "MMOville junior town" are the hardest hit. Players have the opportunity (over a few weeks) to fend off the attack and save "MMOville junior town" by assisting "Captain Namedrop." come season 2 "TV Hero" can mention the brave efforts of "Captain Namedrop" and the results of the city attack.

granted, that assumes one server... though you could easily just have players interact with "TV Heroes" (but that isnt nearly as interesting as the above proposal).

there are lots of things to do like that. not terribly hard to come up with, on the game end. it's the execution that will be the sticking point.

 

[JD]

Farscape is one of my favorite shows so I will be checking the show out due Rockne S. O'Bannon's involvement. I doubt I'll do the MMO though, I've never done MMOs before and if I did one anytime soon it would probably be Star Wars: The Old Republic, WoW, Star Trek: Online or DC Universe: Online.
As for how the game will be involved, I'm thinking the scenario Darthraidr suggested above will be the most likely.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

As for how the game will be involved, I'm thinking the scenario Darthraidr suggested above will be the most likely.

If that's true, then this show/game crossover isn't anything different than what already exists: games based on shows (or vice versa). Supposedly they're doing something different here, but I'm not exactly sure what. Maybe it's all just BS.

 

[darthraidr]

the main difference with this show/game is that they are both occupying the same universe at the same time. games based on movies/shows exist in a specific time. you also know that nothing you do in game will have any impact on the movie/show. this proposed show/game is certainly a different approach.

(how they convey that player actions in game actually changed the show is one major hurdle they will have to overcome.)

 

[JD]

^I'm thinking that any game events that will impact the show will only be done between the seasons. It's really the only way they'd have enough time to tie it in without it feeling rushed and sloppy.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

^I'm thinking that any game events that will impact the show will only be done between the seasons. It's really the only way they'd have enough time to tie it in without it feeling rushed and sloppy.

If the game events change the direction of the show's plotline, then that's more than enough to be "different" than what's been done before. But rather than have the changes happen off-screen (which would be kinda lame and very confusing for the majority of viewers, who won't be playing the MMO), the change should a major twist in the season premiere (I agree, they need the hiatus to implement the change) that influences where the show goes.

Then the problem becomes, is that change the best thing for the show, or could the writers have come up with something better on their own? I wouldn't be surprised if they fudge things, coming up with their own ideas of how the plot should go, and then fishing around in the game to find something that matches up with their preconceived notions. If the game allows enough freedom of action, all sorts of potential plotlines could be generated, so nobody could say they're "cheating."

But if they really want to take advantage of the show/game connection, they'd be better off focusing on characters created in the game than plotlines created in the game. People relate to characters, not plotlines, and they'll get more PR boost from characters.

Whether they go for characters or plotlines, it would be better if it weren't just arbitrary, but rather awarded on some sort of merit that the game players can recognize and agree with. Ideally, there should be some kind of voting process or other means of letting the best ideas percolate to the top. Something like "everyone create a character, and the first one to achieve goal X gets rewarded by joining the show" would work. But that requires that the writers be willing to let go of creative control enough that, whatever that character turns out to be, they're going to be okay with it.