The Daily Grind: Do cross-media tie-ins interest you?

Trion Worlds is taking on a big new project with Defiance, linking a television show's ongoing plot developments with an MMO. In many ways, this seems like an ideal mix -- players who care about the ongoing story can enjoy the show, and the rest of the time you can just play the game without being shoehorned into a developer's pre-scripted story. On the other hand, this also means that you know your player character is unlikely to be a major player in the game's storyline. You'll just be some guy (or girl) without any sort of major impact.

City of Heroes tried a similar tack with the comic book that launched with the game, showcasing several player characters in each issue and trying to marry an ongoing story with an MMO structure. Do you like the idea of tying together passive and active entertainment in this way? Are you excited to see how Defiance manages it? Or do you want your MMO's story contained within the MMO itself rather than tied to the needs of a television series?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Reader Comments (26)

They don't really interest me, but only because I've come to expect that they'll suck. How these things usually go is that there's a "primary" product (ie movie) and then companies will release a bunch of mediocre, half-assed stuff alongside it like games and books, which are deliberately rushed to market in order to cash in on hype from the 'real' product. When was the last time you played a move tie-in game that was halfways decent?

Trion's whole TV show and MMO thing worries me because TV shows are so fickle. If it's not doing well they'll drop it without a second thought, and then your game's defining feature is gone.

@jealouspirate I personally liked the Lord of the Rings games a lot, along with the Return of the Sith game for the "3" Star Wars movie.

It's a gimic. A game is all about the game, and it's quality as a game. If the game is good enough, video clips, audio dubbing, it's better then any show.

@(Unverified)

What s/he said, it's just more money mongering. STO tried it to, or did that even get off the ground? If your game is good take solace in that. I mean seriously who has time to watch TV and play an MMO!! =p

I'm interested in good games. Media tie-ins are a nice bonus, but if the game sucks then I'm not interested. So I suppose that in the final analysis it doesn't matter either way. As far as I'm concerned a game rises or falls on the merits of its gameplay, not on whatever IP it happens to be attached to, whether that IP includes a TV series, comic book, or a line of attractive underwear. A quality IP helps, but it won't determine success or failure on its own.

NO, for pure reason its connected to SYFY.

SYFY is on the roll on canceling good scifi shows. First Caprica was gone, now SGU is gone too. Soon that channel will not have any scifi left, only wrestling, ghost hunters and cheap fiction shows like wh13.

I have no doubts this tie-in will be canceled within a season(with cast and crew getting fired through twitter no less) so I see no reason to be interested in anything in it.

@Kitanishi
caprica was terrible and sgu failed because it tried to re-invent stargate but didn't drop the oh nooz we're in trouble run through the gate mold. honestly Syfy is in a rut because you can't pump the nerd well that hard for this long, but the next cult classic god child is soon to be found.

/firesuptheSyfypilotmachine

I'm interested in seeing how Defiance turns out. Im not interested otherwise.

If a Guild Wars 2 novel fell into my hands i'd read it and if its good i'll enjoy it. But i don't really want it. I don't want anything but the core product. I don't care for merchandise, mobile versions of the game, novels and comics and that stuff. Just the original product.

@Dumac

This generally goes for me; I tend to focus more on the core and less on everything else. All those Dark Horse Star Wars comics and whatever-on-the-spot-made-up lore...whatevah!

But if the sequel/side-stuff is good or even "fun", I'll give it my attention. And there are the usual action figures and whatever.

This project is new/different in trying to link up a show to a game, although it sorta has been done in the past, but not to this degree. Of course, I am interested in the outcome and how they do it, but this is mostly a stated marriage from the start and not a, "Oh, this movie/show was really popular! Quick, let's pump out some related stuff!"

Such pre-interconnections with purpose interest me, but most things added on, especially from fans (or half-baked Lucas who doesn't really care), I can forget about. Of course, that does not apply to everything (entering caveat here), like KOTOR, which turned out well....but comics revolving around KOTOR...meh.

no no no

Nope, they don't interest me. I think they'll take focus away from both the game and the TV show and both will end up being bland.

I think its a really interesting project. But it's all useless if its not a well made game/tv show. If it is, I'll be interested.

In this case? Not overly. About the only way I'd care about anything other than the game was if the show was accessible for anyone who played no matter where they were, and did not need to subscribe to cable TV to get it.

I am interested in good games and if the cross media tie allows them the ability to make a good game then its all good. History does tend to point towards such things not being so good but as I try not to pre judge things I will just have to wait and see what happens with this particular one.

I've been a fan of media tie-ins since I was young; even now, many of the books I read are based on other media. Specific to MMOs, I read the WoW novels, and if I had got more into City of Heroes, I'm sure I'd have read those books as well. [I'm not including cases where the MMOs are themselves cross-media tie-ins, for Star Trek, Star Wars, DC, and so on.]

As for Defiance, I suspect I'm not going to be able to play the game, so if I watch the show, that will be the primary medium for me.

It depends on what it is. I read several Warcraft novels when I was playing that game and enjoyed getting some history and back stories about the world and characters. Similarly I have/am enjoying the Guild Wars novels which are bridging the gap between the current and next games.

They work well because they are totally seperate, you can read the novels without playing the game and enjoy them, likewise you can play the games and never look at the novels quite happily. I'm not sure about this game/tv show tie-in. But then I don't watch tv so it won't bother me either way.

Not really. I just want the games I play. Stop spending money trying to make more money with side material.

...or just give up making SWTOR and continue making the awesome trailers as little movies :D I know, off topic, but I've been feeling that way since the last one.

Like others have said, if the game is good, it may be worth it. But in this case, that will also require the TV show to be good. SyFy hasn't exactly had a great record when it comes to its shows.

I'll probably watch the first couple of episodes to get a feel for whether or not the show will be any good. Then, if it looks promising, and if Defiance is F2P, then I'll give the game a shot. But I can not see myself paying money to play Defiance, especially when it will, presumably, be coming out about the same time as SWTOR.

i haven't repelled an alien invasion on earth in a bit, so im down. Hell i might even petition to keep it going when the tie in goes blam-O.

Yes, VERY excited for this. If the show and game are both of decent quality I think it will turn out quite well. Have been waiting for more news on this project for a long time now.

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The Daily Grind: Do cross-media tie-ins interest you?

Reader Comments (26)

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:07AM jealouspirate said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 11:46AM MagnetHead said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:12AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:17AM Pewpdaddy said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:18AM Ghostspeaker said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:23AM Kitanishi said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:28AM ndessell said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:30AM Dumac said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 3:08PM Space Cobra said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:39AM Mikkhail said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:57AM Scarecrowe said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 8:58AM EndDream said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:00AM Greyhame said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:01AM Balraw said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:02AM Shoikler said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:19AM Misterlee said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:22AM Carolina said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:29AM Malagarr said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:32AM ndessell said

Posted: Jun 8th 2011 9:39AM Halldorr said

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