Ah, San Diego Comic Con. The place where a nerd can be a nerd, a cosplayer can be a cosplayer, and small fuzzy things from Alpha Centauri can be small fuzzy things from Alpha Centauri. As someone who has never attended SDCC, there are two different things I specifically look out for every year. The first is Mythbuster Adam Savage’s top secret costume. The second is any announcements about TV shows, movies, or video games that might interest me.
While patrolling the internet for news of the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special or the revelation that Star Wars Episode VII won’t actually take place and that the prequel trilogy was a collective hallucination, I came across the following video on YouTube. Go ahead and watch it, I’ll be here when you get back.
Now, we’ve already established my Firefly fan credentials, so I won’t rehash them again. Needless to say, I’m excited and cautiously optimistic.
The first half of the video intrigues me. There’s a quote by Malcolm Reynolds, a snippet of the soundtrack from Serenity, and a glimpse of a Firefly-class ship. The video even has the “there’s no sound in space” bit right.
The second half is where I become a little bit concerned. You see, the second half of the video lists the companies involved in the game.
First up is QMx, also known as Quantum Mechanix Inc. QMx manufactures and sells tie-in merchandise for several F/SF properties. I have a pair of their Battlestar Galactica dogtags, and I like the quality of the actual tags and the giftbox that they came in. From what I’ve seen and heard, QMx’s other products also receive a similar amount of attention to detail. QMx being involved with Firefly Online gets an enthusiastic thumbs up.
Next up is Spark Plug Games. I’ll admit, I know next to nothing about this company. That said, I’ve played and enjoyed Puzzle Quest 2 and Plight of the Zombie looks cute.
Finally, we get to the fly in the ointment, which is Fox Digital Entertainment. Y’know, Fox. The same guys who aired the original show out of order, on different nights, and then cancelled it 10 episodes into the first season. The guys who dinked around with Universal before giving up the movie rights for Serenity. Did an exec at Fox finally wake up and realize that the kids like playing games on them there iPad devices? I realize that Fox probably holds most of the rights to the Firefly franchise, but I think I’d be more comfortable if the game was licensed out directly to QMx and Spark Plug.
Fox, my days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle. If the game turns out to be nothing more than a cow-clicking space western, somebody will end up going to the special hell.
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