Can an MMO/TV hybrid succeed?

This past weekend Massively's big-sister site Joystiq took an editorial look at the SCI FI channel MMO/TV hybrid recently announced by Trion. Here at the site we discussed the initial announcement, and even did an interview with Trion's Jon Van Caneghem all about the ambitious project. Though they've now announced the game will be an alternate reality science fiction setting, a number of questions remain. Joystiq's Counting Rupees column isn't so much interested in what the game/show might be as it is the very question: can such a thing work?

Columnists Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks take a look at the history of game/television crossovers, going all the way back to the days of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Captain N. They posit what the nitty-gritty of this venture might entail, and eventually come the conclusion many gamers likely have: this is probably not going to work. Says Engel, "More likely, the in-game situations will only alter slight things within the TV universe, but this would probably drastically undercut a major reason why people would want to play and watch the show in the first place ... the remaining attraction of the game and show would be to simply see if you can get your avatar on to TV, and it's questionable whether that could actually sustain interest."