Trion Worlds and Syfy Announce Defiance!

I just read something that is one part awesome, one part…confusing. It seems that Trion Worlds (Rift) has teamed up with Syfy to produce a series called Defiance, the first-ever merger of a TV show and a MMO shooter. Wait…what?

Set in the near future, Defiance is about what happens to our planet after the arrival of seven different alien races. Not looking for war, the humans and aliens have to learn to co-exist. Of course, nothing works exactly the way we’d like when dealing with ET’s…ever. Each week, viewers will follow this drama set in the boom-town of Defiance, which sits atop the ruins of St. Louis, MO. The accompanying game will take place in the San Francisco Bay area. Apparently, the story lines from the MMO and the show will connect as they both exist in a single universe. That sounds awesome!

They are taking the Dust/EVE thing to a new level. At the same time, how is this going to work? I mean going from the shot to the game would be easy; just introduce characters/enemies from the show into the game world in time released updates. As for going from the game to the show, I’m not sure how that would work. If there was a story arc that needed to be completed in order to appear in the show, how would you time its release? No telling when the gamers will complete it in game.

Regardless how they decide to do things, Defiance is certainly an interesting project. The series is executive produced by Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives) and Michael Taylor (Battlestar Galactica). The series stars Grant Bowler (Nolan), Julie Benz (Amanda Rosewater), Stephanie Leonidas (Irisa), Tony Curran (Datak Tarr), Jaime Murray (Stahma Tarr), Graham Greene (Rafe McCawley), Mia Kirshner (Kenya) and Fionnula Flanagan (Nicky).

The game and show will debut simultaneously in April 2013. Here’s hoping that it does well!