Defiance: MMO/TV concept to fuse worlds, industries
The game Defiance came out on April 2nd. This is noteworthy for a few reasons, despite the lack of reviews. Firstly, it’s a rare massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMO) that one can play not only on a computer, but on standard gaming consoles (except the Wii, of course).
Defiance is a third person shooter, which gives the player more visibility of his or her surroundings but is arguably less immersive than first-person shooters like the recent release BioShock: Infinite. It’s also connected intricately to a new TV show of the same name, premiering on Syfy next week.
The game and the show have been tied together all through production, and presumably the overarching plot of the game will follow the show. This has never been done before. Sure, the idea to immerse a player in a world he or she already loves has been explored. My roommate has been subjected to my rambling for a solid ten minutes about exactly how they depicted a certain region of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings Online, or how ridiculously frustrating one of the main characters is in a partner for a quest (Legolas. Seriously.).
Irritation aside, imagine involving yourself in the world of your favourite series, exploring the sets that you don’t get to see on TV, fighting alongside the main characters in the show. It’s wicked, right? One of the things that makes Defiance so intriguing is that the world in which the player enters yet lacks an ending. It’s true that the player’s gameplay experience will not change the course of the show. But one could imagine that was the case, yes? This game is promised to develop along with the show, to an unknown ending: the mystery itself is enticing.
The business model is also extremely clever, and I would hazard that it was a calculated move to release the game two weeks before the show. If they are successful, their successes should feed off of each other. If someone plays the game in these two weeks and likes it, or at least its storyline, they will probably tune in to the show. This would boost ratings and get it more coverage, and if the show was good, more people would start watching it. Those who watched it and enjoyed it may want to experience it in the fullest way possible, in which case they would look into playing the game that is accessible in Windows, the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3.
However, this hopefully mutually beneficial relationship could turn out to be mutually destructive. If the game isn’t so great, people may not be interested in the show; if the show isn’t great, it certainly wouldn’t inspire them to play the game. The MMO came out too recently for there to be a lot of reviews; that being said, its score on Metacritic is only a 68 at this point. It could swing in any direction with more gameplay, but it’s not off to the best start.
Regardless of the success of this experiment, though, the logic behind it is sound. Games have been coming out with movies for years, and even TV shows. This, though, is a full realization of that concept. And, because this set was designed with each other in mind, one can hopefully expect an immersive overall experience. Even if Defiance is unsuccessful, someone else will try this method again. If they are successful, however, how will it impact the relationship between the gaming, film, and television industries? It could fade into oblivion, but it’s unlikely; perhaps it will encourage more discussions between industries, which will hopefully lead to a better overall experience for us, the consumers.
Dear Disgruntled Reader,
If you want ‘real’ gaming news, go off to IGN or Kotaku. If video games get covered here at all, be thankful someone had enough interest to talk about them seriously and managed to be factually accurate. Gamestop can’t even manage that at times.
How about reading the article before you decide to trash it? This article was clearly more about the ‘new’ interaction of a television show intertwining with the game, not a review of the mmo or show specifically. Also note: she called it an MMO third person shooter, not an MMORPG, not once. I would hazard a guess the tag calling it an MMORPG as well as a review were included by a possibly technology illiterate editor who didn’t bother to read the article either.
Well it’s important to remember that this is an MMO, a genre of game that is basically accepted as buggy and incomplete at release–the hope is always that the game will be added onto, fixed, and generally be made great over the course of months or years. And although I haven’t played it yet myself, from what I’ve read and seen so far, I think Defiance has the potential to be great. I might’ve bought it already but my bank account is looking pretty desolate at the moment, but that’s okay because I have Blockbuster @Home from DISH. Working at DISH I try to test out all the different services we come out with, and I love this one. Before I got it, my gaming habit got ridiculously expensive. But since Blockbuster @Home is a flat pay-by-the-month service, my bill is always the same, no matter how many games I go through in a month–it’s saved me a lot of money!
Dear Daily Trojan –
Hate to be an angry nerd by calling out fellow writers, but I’ve noticed: you guys should really get a dedicated games writer on staff who knows how to write about video games. I sigh everytime I read the DT talk about video games and it’s heaping praise on a game that doesn’t really deserve it (e.g. praising GoW: Judgment just because it’s a Gears game) or it just doesn’t sound like the writer knows how to comfortably talk about video games, as is the case here and in some other articles.
Instead of referring just to the Metacritic score, the writer should’ve played the game herself. MMORPG and third-person shooter are technically separate categories – you would never call SWTOR a third person shooter either. Part of the problem is probably trying to toe the line to appease readers who don’t understand games along with those who do. Appeasing the latter (and not having to explain MMO and FPS and TPS) is probably a better bet.
The DT needs writers who know how to provide good critical feedback on video games based on their own gameplay experience and ideally even foster relationships with publishers.