So who has looked at the upcoming release of Defiance - the tv series and the game? On one hand you will have a character driven TV series and on the otherhand a third person shooter (amongst other things) MMO. Will both formats be successful or will it be a case of too much grand concept and not enough meat on the bone for one or both of the delivery systems? Your thoughts?

Having never heard of this before, I have to ask, how exactly are the series tied in with the mmo besides the backstory and setting?

I'm not much interested in modern day scifi series, as recent ones have really disappointed me with being very soap-opera like, focusing on teenage angst, and personal drama, as opposed to... scifi stuff.

As for the game - assuming one isn't really drawn into the tv series story/plot, it looks like a somewhat generic third person shooter that just makes me go "eeeh". What I mean is, I don't know how much it will break out of the mold of third person shooters, and more importantly the mold of mmos, with a static almost never changing world that has some level cap which inevitably leads to just a loot grind.

Perhaps they're relying a lot on this tv series/mmo tie in to draw people as something new and exciting. I don't know how well that will work, I guess some people might be interested in that sort of thing, but I personally don't think the avid tv show watchers and mmo players overlap that much. At least, I am and will judge the game on its own merit, and for now it doesn't strike me as anything special.

I think I heard some events that happen in the game are supposed to be reflected in the TV show (or at least mentioned).

Looks interesting to me. I'll probably watch the show at least if not try the game out. From what the site says it looks like events in the show will effect the game and vic-versa. I'm curious to see if they can pull that off without ruining one or the other.

The TV show looks hilariously cheesy.

Looks interesting to me. I'll probably watch the show at least if not try the game out. From what the site says it looks like events in the show will effect the game and vic-versa. I'm curious to see if they can pull that off without ruining one or the other.

As I understand it - events from game to tv series and back are pre-scripted for the first season, with the viewpoint that events would be more dynamically linked from season 2 onwards.

Looks interesting to me. I'll probably watch the show at least if not try the game out. From what the site says it looks like events in the show will effect the game and vic-versa. I'm curious to see if they can pull that off without ruining one or the other.

I'm doubtful you'd ever see the tv show pull anything from the game, it's most likely going to be a one-way street in that regard.

I'm doubtful you'd ever see the tv show pull anything from the game, it's most likely going to be a one-way street in that regard.

From IGN's Defiance Page

The visionary open-world shooter MMOG Defiance serves as a companion to the tandem television show on Syfy. In an entertainment first, the game and show will influence and depend on each other, and even feature some players' characters on the TV shows as extras.

Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet transformed by decades of conflict. The game combines the intense action of a 'AAA' console shooter, with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart weaves the rich tapestry of the world into a series with the scope, characters, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence each other and evolve together over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story of Defiance.

Now will that truly happen, we'll see, but it at least appears to be their intent.

I'm doubtful you'd ever see the tv show pull anything from the game, it's most likely going to be a one-way street in that regard.

From IGN's Defiance Page

The visionary open-world shooter MMOG Defiance serves as a companion to the tandem television show on Syfy. In an entertainment first, the game and show will influence and depend on each other, and even feature some players' characters on the TV shows as extras.

Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet transformed by decades of conflict. The game combines the intense action of a 'AAA' console shooter, with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart weaves the rich tapestry of the world into a series with the scope, characters, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence each other and evolve together over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story of Defiance.

Now will that truly happen, we'll see, but it at least appears to be their intent.

The problem is how?, last i checked their's a reason that tv shows take months between seasons. Anything that would unexpectedly happen in the game isn't going to be seen for months in the show. I find it hard to believe that they'd be able to pull all the cgi/script/acting every week. Also, we are talking about an MMO, what exactly in the game can be done that isn't pre-scripted to happen in the show?

I'll hold my reservations for when/if we start seeing a two-way street between the game/show, but for now I think it's just a marketing gimmick, and nothing of substance is going to ever come from the game.

For instance, we have a plague episode. We introduce that in the show and then a timed mission goes live after the show airs -- basically the town sends an emergency distress and needs a cure for the plague. So the player’s mission, which will last until the next air date, has them going to find all of the components, invading the abandoned thing and starting up the ICBM, because the only way to get it to Defiance in time is to fire a rocket. Space travel rarely ever works in this world, there’s too much debris and crap in the atmosphere, but the player is forced into this.

So the next week on the show the package is coming in from San Francisco, and we don’t deal with that part of the story. The TV audience doesn’t need to know how that came about because the obstacles in the show are getting to the rocket where it’s landed. If I’m a television viewer, I don’t feel that I’ve missed anything, but as a game viewer I have a much more intimate relationship with that rocket because I worked really hard to make all that happen and complete the mission. That’s the way we are trying to make it work.

Excerpted from defiance website - very much a pre-scripted thing. As Slicer4ever observed - the time taken to create a season of TV as well the length of time to make DLC's probably means that virtually everything will be pre-scripted in one form or another.