If you’re not familiar with Defiance, it’s an interesting concept. The fine folks over at Syfy and Trion Worlds collaborated to create a new television show that also ties into a persistent world 3rd person shooter where what happens on the show impacts the gameplay experience. So if you’re wearing a red shirt in the show, you may want to watch out.
How does this play out? Only the developers (and show writers) really know for sure as it’s something that has never been done before. But as a fan of television, science fiction and video games, I am interested to see how this experiment pays off for both Hollywood and the gaming industry – and as a local, how can you not love post-apocalyptic San Francisco as a backdrop?
I can only imagine what the creative process behind this project must have been like. The synergy required from both teams had to be exciting but also stressful. This is the rabbit hole I end up going down when thinking about the type of content shared between these partners and the amount of data accrued during the development of both aspects of this project. This is an amazing feat to try and pull off and many eyes (alien and otherwise) will be watching to see where this goes.
Syfy is no stranger to original programming including Alpha’s and the incredible Battlestar Galactica remake. Yet none of these were on the scale that Defiance is nor were tied to gaming as part of a transmedia project.
So is Defiance changing the landscape for television and gaming? A bit too early to tell, but we can all find out together since the show premieres tonight on the Syfy channel (check your local listings for showtimes) and the game is available now for Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and PC.
“Watch the Show, Play the Game, Change the World.”
After watching the Defiance last night I’m pretty eager to play the game. Too bad my checking account is looking pretty barren at the moment, so I won’t be buying Defiance, but that’s okay because I have Blockbuster @Home from DISH. Working at DISH I try to test out all the different services we come out with, and I love this one. Before I got it, my gaming habit got ridiculously expensive. But since Blockbuster @Home is a flat pay-by-the-month service, my bill is always the same, no matter how many games I go through in a month–it’s saved me a lot of money(that I have, of course spent elsewhere LOL)!