They Say There's A Hellmouth In Cleveland

 

It looks like everyone's favorite slayer is getting her own MMO game.  Newsarama has announced that 20th Century Fox and The Multiverse Network are teaming up to create a Massively Multiplayer Online game set in the Buffy universe where players will be able to create their own characters and stake vamps and kill demons to their heart's content.

 

The game will be unique to the growing glut of MMOs in having two modes- a 2D flash, web-based version, and a fully 3D world with a dedicated client. The game will be hosted inside Multiverse’s “Multiverse Places,” which sounds a bit like PlayStation Home, hosting a virtual world with access to multiple games.

 

While little was said about the gameplay or story, the Executive Producer of Multiverse, Corey Bridges, mentioned “when the Buffy team finished the television series, they created the perfect launching point for an MMOG where everyone will feel like they’re an important character in the ongoing story.” This seems to imply that there may be some overlap in story between the upcoming game and the current Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 comic book series, featuring hundreds of activated Slayers acting as a paramilitary unit.

 

I guess this makes sense, storyline wise.  The Buffy show did end with every potential slayer in the world having her power's activated.  So there's an obvious plotline for just about everyone to have a superpowered character.  And Giles did say in the final episode that there's a Hellmouth in Cleveland, so the closing of the one in Sunnydale doesn't mean that demon's don't have other ways to enter the world.  Plus there's always available job postings at the Angel Detective Agency in LA, although the mortality rate of the staff there is a little high.

 

While news of this game does make me happy, I must admit to being slightly worried at the "2 game modes" concept.  A 3D game and a 2D flash game?  What?  How the hell is that going to work?  Also, this new Buffy game does come at a price.

 

The game’s push into development includes a beta later this year and unfortunate news for fans of another Joss Whedon property. Fox is delaying further development and release of the announced-in-2006 MMO, Firefly. Originally set to be released in 2008, the game has yet to have any major presence; no screenshots, trailers, or betas have hit the scene, and now it seems none will until the Buffy game is completed.

 

Honestly, I didn't even know until reading this that there were even plans to make a Firefly MMO.  But now that I know that there was, finding out it's been delayed indefinitely makes me very sad.  I mean, I love Buffy and all and I'm sure I'll be happy to kill demonic baddies when I get the chance, but personally I'd much rather wander around the 'verse in a beaten up old spaceship while cattle rustling and outrunning Reavers and Alliance patrol ships.  But that's just me.