I’m going to try to do a long series of posts as the holidays approach. See if I can get on a roll or something.

“On Licenses that Should be Games” from GameSetWatch in April caught my attention again, with the announcement of a Firefly/Serenity universe game. While this is an exciting announcement about a ‘verse so well-told by Whedon, I still fear.

I fear for the marginalization of a property by a crappy game. Not to say that it would be a crappy game, but history has told that generally, games based on existing properties kind of suck. There are exceptions of course: many of the Star Wars games have been brilliant. Chronicles of Riddick was actually a great game (the modeling of Vin Diesel into the game was uncanny). Some of the LotR games have been pretty good too.
As a fan of a property, you go into other ventures expecting something. I’m not sure what it really is, but its something that is probably intangible enough that it could easily be ruined.

But, we still have to have hope, right? So, some properties I’d love to see turned into games (that haven’t already, or already been an announced):

  • Farscape - Much like Firefly, its got a cult following that could probably push it pretty far along. Its also kind of a crazy universe that could be rife for the picking. Space sim or RPG.
  • Snow Crash - People have started to build out pieces of this into Second Life. This book has some really fun stuff that could be turned into a number of games.
  • Buffy/Angel - Since I mentioned the Firefly game, I might as well add this one too - lots of opportunity for Vampire: The Masquerade like games. Melee/ranged combat, first person or third person, RPG elements.

Bah, I swear I had more somewhere. I might have to update with more later. Add yours in the comments!