firefly
Latest
Infringers of Dune: Dune role-players shut down by Herbert Estate. Spice keeps flowing
Among the various business, educational and social uses to which Second Life is put, Role-Playing gamers have quite a number of thriving communities. If you want to role-play in the world of Joss Whedon's Firefly, or Straczynski's Babylon 5, Lucas' Star Wars universe(s), Tolkien's Middle Earth, John Norman's Gor, Frank Herbert's Dune, Roddenberry's Star Trek, or the settings of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy VII or CCP/White Wolf's World of Darkness, Second Life is home to all of these and more. Well, until this week anyway. According to Wagner James Au, Trident Media Group, a literary agent "designed for the twenty first century",which maintains the Herbert Estate sent cease-and-desist notices via Linden Lab requiring one non-profit role-playing community to remove Dune-related names and objects from the virtual environment within two days.
More IPs than you can shake a lightsaber at: Five sci-fi intellectual properties that just scream "MMOG"
Science fiction isn't exactly new to the MMOG scene. In addition to the obvious - Star Wars Galaxies, EVE Online and the defunct Tabula Rasa - there's Neocron, Anarchy Online, Earth & Beyond and Planetside. But with the exception of SWG and the upcoming Star Trek Online, some of sci-fi's best intellectual properties haven't yet been tapped to invite users into their world. What follows are a few franchises that lend themselves perfectly to what MMOGs are, and what they could be.UplinkRemember, back when you were a little nerd, what you used to think hacking was like? Remember the virtual world you conjured in your head, with stealthy rogues zooming around the internet, stealing millions from banks and pilfering government secrets? Remember the awful movies Hackers and Swordfish? OK, so maybe real hacking doesn't work that way. Maybe real hacking involves an encyclopedic knowledge of Unix, PHP exploits and hanging out in IRC with people who tell you to RTFM if you ask them what time it is. Real hacking may be a lot of things, but "fun to a lot of people" isn't one of them.
Firefly delays Dungeon Hero, says game 'lives on'
Now, there's no easy way to break this to you, so we're just going to come out and say it. Dungeon Hero, one of the last remaining remnants of Gamecock's feathery empire, has been delayed. For how long, we can't say, though Firefly Studios assures us that the tongue-in-cheek dungeon crawler still "lives on." According to the developer, Gamecock's purchase last October "created a number of challenges" for Firefly, forcing the company to put off the game's eventual release. Still, the dev has confidence in the property, writing on its site that in addition to Dungeon Hero, the studio is also working on "a couple of exciting projects built around the Dungeon Hero universe." Firefly also teases that it may be announcing a new Stronghold game in the "very near future." Until then, keep your chin up. It's not all bad.
Voodoo Firefly gaming laptop prototype gets hands-on treatment
While most of the hype surrounding Voodoo right now pertains to the Firebird gaming tower, LAPTOP has discovered yet another undercover rig from the company's arsenal worth swooning over. Before you go getting too excited, we must caution you that the Firefly is merely a prototype at the moment, but we all know concepts are made with the intent to commercialize. With the fine print behind us, it's worth reading up on what this Voodoo DNA'd machine offered up; for starters, you'll notice a 17-inch panel and a hefty 13-pound frame. There's also a multitouch trackpad, keyboard with customizable backlighting, a secondary 4.3-inch 800 x 480 display sitting beneath the main screen, a 2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU, 4GB of RAM, two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs and a 250GB HDD. No benchmarks were allowed, but Far Cry 2 ran "silky smooth" even with details maxed. For the rest of the nitty-gritty, we'll direct you to the read link, and before you get all irate that this isn't available for purchase, just be thankful this post isn't about yet another teaser from Mr. Sood.
Blu-ray releases on November 11th 2008
Just when we thought there wasn't another comic book movie this holiday season until The Dark Knight, along comes Hellboy, which we somehow forgot about. It's available both in regular and extra geeky, the latter will set you back another $20, but while both include a digital copy, only the Collector's Edition includes a scary looking figurine and we're not sure what else. Also this week, Weinstein has the made for TV movie about the NASCAR legend, Dale Earnhardt, which is sure to be a popular stocking stuffer for Blu-ray NASCAR fans -- not sure how many of those there are. Star Wars fans can look forward to the animated feature Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while WW2 junkies can can relive Band of Brothers for the first time on Blu-ray. That isn't the only TV show series this week though, as Warner has both the first season of Chuck and the third season of Supernatural. And finally, Fox offers up the first, and regrettably, the only season of Firefly. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Universal) Hellboy II: The Golden Army Collector's Edition (Universal) 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story (Weinstein) Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Warner) Band of Brothers (HBO) Chuck: The Complete First Season (Warner) Supernatural: The Complete Third Season (Warner) JFK (Warner) Firefly: The complete series (Fox) Harry Potter Years 1-5 Giftset (Warner) This Christmas (Sony)
Universal bringing Serenity to Blu-ray with upgrades and extras
Well over two years ago, Universal hit a home run with its decision to release Serenity on HD DVD. Now, the studio is finally giving Blu-ray aficionados the privilege of buying the film, and it's even tossing in a few nice upgrades to boot. Given that this title would likely sell on Blu even without any extras, we appreciate the touchups. Those who take the plunge will be treated to a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, a 2.35:1 1080p video transfer, BD-Live support and a whole slew of bonus features that can't all be listed in this space. Make sure you don't spend all of that holiday cash before December 25th, as you'll need $29.98 (MSRP) in order to snatch this one up on December 30th.
Firefly's Badger leads The Conduit voice cast
The Conduit may still lack a publisher, but what it does have is a sad little king of a sad little hill. High Voltage announced that it has cast Firefly's Badger, Mark A. Sheppard, as the voice of Mr. Ford, the lead role in the upcoming Wii-exclusive shooter. The Conduit is the latest line item on the British actor's resume, following work in Battlestar Galactica and In the Name of the Father, though to us he'll always be a petty thief with delusions of standing. The game's credits will include another Sheppard as well. William Morgan Sheppard, whose voice can be heard in such games as Metal Gear Solid 2 and Escape from Monkey Island, will voice John Adams, while Olympian man-cake, Kevin Sorbo, will take on the role of the title's bad guy, Prometheus. There continues to be no word on what company will bring The Conduit to store shelves in early 2009, though with High Voltage forking over enough cash to secure Hercules, we have to believe an announcement isn't far off.[Image credit: RavenU]
Multiverse exec reveals Buffy MMO details, discusses fate of Firefly
Okay, we reacted with violent disbelief to the recent news that Multiverse, the company behind the heard-but-not-seen MMO based on Firefly, would produce a second MMO using yet another of Joss Whedon's IPs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, our home row homies at Massively are proving that cooler heads do sometimes prevail, as they recently gleaned a plethora of information about Multiverse's newest project (and their seemingly Ill-fated space cowboy sim) in an interview with the company's co-founder, Corey Bridges.First and foremost, Bridges promised that some headway had been made on the Firefly title, and regretted putting it on the backburner to focus on their recently acquired vamp-slaying IP -- though he's anxious to resume work on it "as soon as possible." He then goes on to explain one of the more confusing elements of the online Buffy game -- apparently, the title's 2D rendition will launch first, giving players a chance to dip their toes in the waters of the Hellmouth before the more complex 3D version launches. He also hopes to have a public beta for the title into our hands "by the end of the year."For further details on both titles, check out the entire interview on Massively. We just hope you haven't already burned your brown duster and wooden stake collection in protest.
Buffy/Firefly interview pt. 2
Are avatars that you create for the 2D experience be able to step into the 3D version of the game?CB: That's exactly what we're planning for. We're showing it a little bit at this show, we'll be able to show you some of it in Austin at AGDC. We really want to make sure to show this game to people. One thing that I worry about is backlash from Firefly. We announced that so long ago, and people are going "crap, guys, where is it?" It was really important to us that we not announce Buffy before we were already working on it. Once bitten, twice shy. Believe me, nobody could beat us up that we beat ourselves up about this. We're not at fault, but there are a lot of dashed hopes here. I wanted us to be in a public beta of Firefly here by now!
Massively interview: Multiverse explains the Buffy MMO, Firefly's delay
Yesterday we brought you word that the folks at Multiverse (the developers of the MMO middleware) are in development on an MMO based on Buffy the Vampire slayer. At the same time, news came out the Firefly MMO will now be delayed considerably while they focus their efforts that other IP from writing dynamo Joss Whedon. Yesterday evening we had the chance to speak with Mr. Corey Bridges, Co-founder, Executive Producer and Marketing Director for the company. Mr. Bridges took some time out of his busy schedule at the Virtual Worlds Expo to explain a bit more about the Buffy/Firefly MMO hoopla. Most interesting, it sounds as though (despite the lack of any announcements about it) there has actually been some forward movement on the Firefly MMO! Mr. Bridges could say almost nothing about it because of contractual obligations with Fox (the owners of the Firefly IP), but what he could say left us with the tantalizing impression we may actually see that Firefly game someday. Read on for all of that discussion, plus tidbits on why they're working on a Buffy title, a bit on what the game will be like, and the interactions between the 2D and 3D game spaces.
Firefly 3-disc Blu-ray set coming November 11
That sound you just heard was millions of Browncoats exhaling, because the Firefly Blu-ray boxed set hinted at back in April is finally nearing release. All those still reading and not already frantically preordering the $89.98 MSRP set or repaying their oxygen debt have quite a bit to look forward to. Due November 11, Fox is bringing Joss Whedon's series home complete with new-for-Blu-ray commentary and cast reunion featurette to go with the 1080p video (in correct 1.78 aspect ratio) and DTS-HD MA soundtrack. So now that it has a date, what do we do? Probably not talk quite so much.
15 Minutes of Fame: A man and his (80+) pets
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.A couple of months ago, WoW Insider reported on the immortalization of WarcraftPets.com founder/owner Breanni with an NPC in Wrath of the Lich King. In the expansion, Breanni of US Scarlet Crusade-A appears as a NPC selling pet supplies in Dalaran. Curious about the growing public enthusiasm ("Obsession"? We think Breanni might agree ...) with non-combat pets, we contacted Breanni for more perspectives into the vanity pet craze -- as well as what it's like to run into yourself in the game as an NPC. 15 Minutes of Fame: Vanity pets – who knew? How many vanity pets are out there now, and how can players get them?Breanni: Vanity pets (also known as companions, small pets, non-combat pets and mini-pets) are those adorable little critters that follow your character around the game world, catching the eye and imagination of others. Currently, there are 98 vanity pets, and new ones are added to the game nearly every major content patch. However, not all of these pets are available in the United States - a few are region-specific.There are six ways to obtain vanity pets. Vendors, drops and quests offer players some of the most familiar pets. Additionally, there are a handful of pets crafted by engineers. Some of the rarest pets are obtained through real-world promotions, such as loot cards from the WoW trading card game and trade show giveaways. Finally, a new source has emerged for collecting certain pets: they can be earned through various feats, such as battleground victories or collecting a certain number of pets with a single character.
Wising up to the Firefly MMO's unique challenges
It's been about a year and a half since Wired reported that the Firefly license would be MMO-ized by Multiverse. Since then, there's been a vacuum of news -- nada. The game is looking vaporware-esque at this point, but MMORPG nevertheless ran a feature article speculating as to what sorts of challenges the developers of the Firefly MMO will face.The author goes through all sorts of possible approaches, from a Star Wars Galaxies-inspired ground game to an EVE Online-inspired space game -- even a mostly-social, barely-RPG, casual-type experience. We suspect the last of those is the most likely, if the game gets made at all. As the article notes, the project is not likely to have much funding, and while the audience is passionate, it's also small. That was FOX's problem, too. As we know, the challenges don't end there.One concern MMORPG didn't bring up at all; Firefly was a character-driven series. Its setting was kind of interesting, but the characters were what made it all worthwhile. If Mal, Jayne, Inara, and Kaylee aren't a part of it, will anyone want to tune in? Turning this franchise into a successful MMO seems almost impossible. Regardless, Captain Mal Reynolds said "we have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty." If the folks at Multiverse pull off a Firefly MMO, that quote could be their mantra.
Firefly Blu-ray box set on the way
From our friends at TV Squad comes word that a Firefly Blu-ray boxed set is in the works. The unfortunately short-lived series by Joss Whedon featured Jewel Staite as Kaylee, who recently let slip she was working on a special commentary track for the release. TVShowsonDVD confirmed with Fox a Blu-ray set is forthcoming (after the movie Serenity saw release on HD DVD from Universal), although it's apparently very early in development so we wouldn't start holding our breath just yet.[Via TV Squad]
Firefly being prepared for Blu-ray
We don't make a habit of posting about individual films or TV shows coming to Blu-ray. That's not the purpose of this site. Sometimes, however, something will come along that will get us totally excited and we simply have to share the news with you guys. Today that something is Firefly -- the excellent space western by Joss Whedon that was sadly canceled long before its time -- and the fact that it is being prepared for a Blu-ray box set. Seeing the Firefly universe in HD is obviously going to be a treat. We'd love to see Serenity (the feature length "sequel" movie) to be released on Blu-ray, we didn't really expect Firefly to get similar treatment. There's no telling when the series will be released as currently it's still in the planning stages, but it's nice to know it is coming, wouldn't you say?
Breakfast Topic: Fun surprises
As many of you are, I've been doing my duty to my server and pocketbook by completing the Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests every day. I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed that the reward for many of the quests is [Shattered Sun Supplies]. Before opening it, I was excited. I expected some nifty food and potions, maybe gems or herbs, and greens. I like to be surprised by some things, so I hadn't looked up the current loot list. Needless to say, after a few days, and a bag full of useless 68 greens with + resistances on them, I became discouraged. Then I opened my first one of the day, and voila! A [Badge of Justice]! Because I rarely have much time to spend in-game these days, I hadn't collected any of these yet (sad I know). The experience actually reminded me of the two times that [Wall of the Dead] dropped for me, and the time that [Kang the Decapitator] fell into my hands, and the roll came out in my favor. The two rarest pets I've ever farmed and received, the [Captured Firefly] and the [Tiny Crimson Whelpling], also definitely gave me a natural high.What warm and fuzzy memories do you have of surprising drops and good fortune? Patch 2.4 sounds great, but what's in it for you? Find out on our Sunwell Isle page where we list the impact on classes, professions, PvP, Raiders and many other playstyles and interests including walkthroughs on the new Sunwell Daily Quests. Looking for more great info? Check out the WoW Insider Directory for the best of our guides and analysis.
Dungeon Hero reemerges with dev diary
After apparently (and appropriately) going under ground after its announcement last June, it looks like Dungeon Hero is finally ready to come back on the scene. The game has come to light once again thanks to a new developer diary on GameTrailers. While the video doesn't contain much in the way of new gameplay footage, we do get to hear at least a little bit about the game's "gritty" combat and its "living, breathing" dungeon. The game is set to be displayed at GameCock's EIEIO in Austin, Texas next week, so we should be hearing more about the title very soon.%Gallery-3811%
Today's most Microsoft Surface-y video: Firefly demo
It's been a while since we first speculated on the gaming potential of Microsoft's Surface multi-touch tabletop computer -- long enough, in fact, that that potential has now become somewhat more actual. Sarcastic Gamer has the video of a Carbonated Games demo for Firefly, a simple game that, appropriately enough, involves gathering fireflies into jars (sorry Whedon fans, no Reavers here).The multi-touch abilities of the Surface are put to good use in the video -- even with three hands and up to 15 fingers pushing the little flies around, the Surface doesn't seem to miss a beat. Our favorite part, though, has to be the ability to squash opposing players bugs with your actual fingers. Try doing that with one of today's consoles. We dare ya.Continue reading to see why the future of gaming is as bright as a squished firefly's bottom.
Microsoft Firefly: Hungry Hungry Hippos for Surface
Oh boy, if ever there was a worthy use case for a giant $10k multi-touch table, it's a serene port of Hungry Hungry Hippos called Firefly, which Microsoft developed as a proof of concept for Surface. Just gather them into your jar. Go on, gather 'em up, those 100,000 fireflies aren't going to gather themselves. Video after the break.
Grimwell gives one reason fantasy pwns sci-fi, we go "Huh?"
Watch your head, you don't want it hit by return fire in the ever-present MMO blogosphere discussion of fantasy vs sci-fi. The most recent discussion started up with Massively's own Michael Zenke and his "Five Reasons Sci-Fi Pwns Fantasy" which prompted the return fire in question from Grimwell. Both of the posts are certainly worth reading, especially if you have any kind of lingering interest in the subject matter. As far as we can see, there's truth to be had on both sides of the fence. However, we do have one point of contention to make with Grimwelll's argument. He states that the reason fantasy "pwns" sci-fi is that it's accessible, which is a constant argument on the matter. While we think he may have a point in that less people are inherently familiar with sci-fi, we very much disagree with his assessment that you need to be a math nerd to enjoy good sci-fi -- his example in this case being Star Trek and its now-infamous technobabble.
