I am not sure if I am supposed to be afraid or just thrilled - my instinct right now is to be both. The company Multiverse, which has owned the rights to produce a MMO based on the sci-fi IP Firefly for a long time (which keeps getting delayed), has announced that they are working on a new MMO based on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. According to the press release, the game is played in a "fully immersive 3D environment or as a Flash-based 2D game, where both types of players can interact. The game will be launched within "Multiverse Places," a new social virtual world from Multiverse. Currently under development, "Buffy" will go into "beta" testing later this year.
I am a huge Buffy- and Firefly-fan, and I adore most of the stuff Joss Whedon has ever done. And let's face it, the Buffyverse could be perfect to place a MMO in, in the same style as Funcom's upcoming The Secret World. Loads of lore, and loads of strange creatures, gives the developers a lot of freedom to create an interesting game to play. But then again, Buffy and her friends have been violently abused by the games industry in the past, so what are the chances that this game would be any different in the end?
And what's this Flash-based 2D game all about? And who are you supposed to play? A Chosen? That means that every player character in the game will be female. A Scooby wannabe? Let's face it - the Scoobies would've never been able to survive for long without their resident Slayer around. Watchers? Perhaps their Black Ops-division, but the Watchers' Council was hardly in the best of shape when season 7 ended. Vampires? Come on...
A Firefly MMO would be a better, and probably safer, place to start. But I won't be able to stop dreaming about a really good Buffy Online in a long time. Damn you, Multiverse.
You can read the whole press release here.