So Battlestar Galatica is coming to the MMO genre. I’m not surprised by that. The remake has been very popular and profitable for the SF network (that’s as close as I can bring myself to use their new name), so it makes sense that they’ll look for more ways to capitalize. I wasn’t a big fan of the show, so I’m not excited about the announcement. Besides that, though I wonder how successful they’ll be able make a game that appeals to fans of the show.
For people who loved the show, this is a pretty iconic image.
The characters, the relationships, and the drama were what made the show popular. These are not the kinds of things that MMOs have done well so far.
This is an image from the console game that was released a little while back.
I’m not referencing the game specifically, just pointing out that combat is primarily what MMOs focus on, and that is not what most fans of the show will be interested in.
Hopefully, I’m being overly critical and it’ll turn out well for the developer. Ironically, if it turns out to be a semi-realistic physics based space combat simulator, I’ll be more interested than if it is closer to what made BSG popular.
I’m going to be the overly critical one here. I found out about this upcoming game when massively (http://www.massively.com/2010/03/09/gdc10-battlestar-galactica-mmo-coming) reported about it yesterday, and two things made me wary — 1) browser based and 2) plans on releasing the game later this year.
I hadn’t realized it was coming out in September and tied to the season two of the Caprica series (which I haven’t seen beyond commercials). That’s definitely another concern. That moves the game into the movie tie-in category for me, and those are rarely done well.
I don’t get what you’re so apprehensive about. Yes, it’s a character-driven, sci-fi epic about people facing huge moral dilemmas and finding creative ways off overcoming their challenges, but that doesn’t mean they have to fall back on combat as the main mode of play. STO faced the same problems and came out great!
🙂
Heh, yeah that sums up my concerns nicely. That was the funny thing for me about STO, but I got exactly what I wanted in that game which wasn’t exactly what most other Trek fans were looking for. Seems like BSG is going to be the same thing all over again.
By the way, Massively has a new article up today http://www.massively.com/2010/03/10/gdc10-an-in-depth-look-at-battlestar-galactica-online. Here’s the highlights: tactical shooter, questing rewards, story, third-person shooting, twitch space combat, deeply immersive. That all sounds like something I’d enjoy but not a BSG or Caprica fan.
I saw that too, and was a bit confused when they said “season two of the BSG reboot”, until I realized Caprica was what they must have meant.
I’m not a big BSG fan myself, I watched a couple seasons of the new show and didn’t like the preachy tone of it…but you know me, I don’t have to be a fan of the IP to enjoy a game. I’d give this game a shot if it’s good, but so far nothing I’ve read has really piqued my interest. Time will tell.
That is quite the picture, makes me want to play the MMO!!!!