More discussion happening in various parts of the ‘verse:

There’s a discussion on the Multiverse boards about where in the timeline the game should happen. The consensus there seems to be post-Miranda, but I’ve seen strong arguments put forward elsewhere for setting the game before or during the war.

The Wizard of Duke Street sets forth some Hopes & Fears concerning the game.

Raph Koster’s post concerning the game garnered some interesting responses, including one from Corey Bridges:

To respond generally to one common concern: we’ll have something that consumers can play in 2008. It’ll be at least a beta. And yep–we want to have an experienced team make this.

Penny Arcade has a strip about the Firefly MMO today.

(Thanks to Prakash for the tip!)

Gossi on fireflyfans.net is going to be interviewing “the people who have the rights to the Firefly MMORPG (Multiverse)” soon, and is looking for questions people want answered. Get over there and post what you want to know.

Also, Multiverse have now provided a Firefly MMO Forum.

From a post there by a Multiverse rep (Random):

We are very excited by the prospect of bringing Firefly to life as part of the Multiverse Network, and want to welcome the Firefly community to our forum as the start of a long and positive relationship. We are still in the process of evaluating possible developers, and will keep you informed as we know more. We do want to do our best to do justice to the ‘verse, and will be looking to your input to as to what you want to see in a Firefly MMOG, or other suggestions you might have. We can’t guarantee we’ll be able to act on all of your input, of course. But hearing what matters to you will help us (and the eventual design team) come up with what we hope will be the best possible continuation of the Firefly experience.

and another, which shows they’re paying attention:

Just a notion here … what DID SWG do wrong? And what should be done differently in a Firefly MMOG?

We’re starting to see some more thoughtful writing about the Firefly MMO now, as people consider what could happen. Of course, it’s all speculation for now, but here’s the day’s set of news sites and blogs:

playfuls.com
Teev Blogger
One Stack Mind
Zen of Design

Hopefully, this site will cover all your news needs. For discussion, might I recommend the excellent firefly-mmo.com forums?

Lots more coverage today, although there’s no further news, in:

Pro-G
Warcry Network’s Razorwire
1up.com (good article - if you’re only going to read one, make it this one)
Play.tm
Doombot compares Firefly MMO and SWG
Wonderland

… and a strip on Real Life Comics

Multiverse have put out the press release.

There’s little in it that Wired didn’t cover earlier, but Bill Turpin, the CEO of Multiverse, had this to say:

“In addition to our world-class technology, developers choose Multiverse for our network, which lets them launch their games into a built-in market of consumers who are just one click away from any game on that network,” Turpin said. “Firefly will bring in even more consumers, making the network that much more attractive to developers of other worlds.”

.. which is an interesting way to approach it.

News of the Firefly MMORPG is rippling across the internet. Some folk have high hopes, others are cynical. There are even a few naysayers out there who are heretical enough not to like Firefly at all, and some engaging in the lesser heresy of thinking it’ll make a bad MMO.

There’s discussion on mmorpg.com about the potential of the game.

More coverage and discussion on destructoid.com.

Raph Koster denied involvement last month, before it was even announced.

Fireflyfans.net is currently out for the count, but there was definitely a good bit of discussion happening there earlier, and I’m sure there will be again.

And finally, here’s one man’s plan for Serenity Online. Not the real thing, mind, just what someone would like to see.

Wired were the first to report on the Firefly MMORPG. To summarise, Multiverse have struck a deal with Fox for the rights. They’re not going to make the game directly, though:

Instead of making the game itself, the company will hire a development team that will craft the virtual galaxy using Multiverse tools.

“We want to find someone who wants to do something unique and fun and interesting, not just a re-skin of World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies,” [Corey] Bridges says.

Corey Bridges is the executive producer, and one of the founders of Multiverse.

This site will be tracking news and events surrounding the upcoming Firefly MMORPG. Post any news you have in the comments below, or email me at gothwalk@gmail.com, and I’ll add it to the site as soon as I can.