Disney Epic Mickey: Interview with Warren Spector

The level of sophistication, creativity and innovation that is being demonstrated with this game prior to its release is really phenomenal. I really hope Disney puts out a "Making of..." book for this title. If there were ever a more compelling reason to get a Wii, I don't know it.

Here's an interview with renowned game designer, Warren Spector who led the Disney Epic Mickey panel at New York Comic Con this past weekend:

Wii Games - E3 2011 - Disney Epic Mickey

Enter The Buffyverse

This gets me more than a little excited.

Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising and Multiverse Announce 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Virtual World

CENTURY CITY, Calif., Sept 03, 2008

Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising and The Multiverse Network, Inc., a leading provider of virtual world development technology for Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), educational and social worlds, and business collaboration environments, today announced the development of an original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" MMOG. The virtual world will be based on the mythology and iconography made popular by the Emmy Award-winning series. The announcement was made by Academy Award winning producer and member of the Multiverse Advisory Board, Jon Landau, during his keynote speech today at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo.

The ground-breaking MMOG will offer a new experience for gamers, allowing them to play it either as 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.

Landau, a Multiverse Advisory Board member, who is in production on Avatar -- the widely anticipated Fox film from fellow Multiverse Advisor James Cameron -- commented, "Multiverse has the vision and expertise to create the type of rich environment needed for the best possible game based on the 'Buffy' series. The resources are in place to develop a great MMOG."

Created by sci-fi and comic book legend, Joss Whedon-Blogger's Note: Genius yes, but can Whedon really be called a "legend" just yet?-"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" racked up critical and popular acclaim during its seven seasons on television. The series also inspired a line of top-selling comic books and successful merchandising lines with an avid fan base at retail. Fox Licensing & Merchandising (Fox L&M) continues to develop the brand for a number of targeted programs that reach its core market.

"Every once in a while a show comes along that lives long after its run on television, and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' is that kind of show," commented Elie Dekel, Executive Vice President Licensing and Merchandising for Fox L&M. "We think that creating this virtual 'Buffy' world is the perfect extension of the brand and will attract both fans of the show and newcomers interested in a great experience online."

"As a brilliant storyteller and world-maker, Joss Whedon crafts stories that expand perfectly into the new medium of virtual worlds," said Corey Bridges, co-founder and Executive Producer, Multiverse. "Not to give away too much, but when the 'Buffy' team finished the television series, they created the perfect launching point for an MMOG where everyone will feel like they're an important character in the ongoing story."

Well, if I can't have a Buffy Tarot Card Set, I suppose this is one of the next best things that could happen.

If I ever start playing this, I think such an action would immediately preclude me from making fun of people who play World of Warcraft. *Shakes fist.* They finally got to me.

You know The Trio would be all over this.

"Gone" 6.11

This comment on Whedonesque nearly made me laugh out loud:

"There should be a level where Dawn suddenly joins your party, but you realize she's always been in your party."

Oh Dawnie, "the hardest thing in this world is to live in it," isn't that right?

Visions of Warcraft

I used to play the first Warcraft game back in 1997. Back then, the world of Warcraft was fairly, based on the same platform as many other popular games in the mid to late 90s such as Command & Conquer. The player built forts and bases, spawned soldiers, waged mini-battles from an all-seeing perspective. World of Warcraft completely changed that basic gaming structure to something far more dynamic.

Engineers at Blizzard really did create a world and though I have not played the "new" incarnation of Warcraft, being the geek that I am, I would say I am fairly well entrenched in the kind of social circles where players of the game are common. I even had the game installed on my computer for a good period of time when my roommate and our mutual friend would have WOWnights that involved them playing in my roommate's room and mine respectively, yelling across the apartment as they sought after powerful artifacts, completed missions and walked around the digital world created for them in the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

Naturally, there has been talk of making a cinematic adaptation of the game for some time. In 2006 Legendary Pictures-Batman Begins, 300 and Superman Returns-announced that they would bring World of Warcraft to the screen in 2009. With 2009 just around the corner, it doesn't look like that will happen at this point. the A trailer for the newest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, however, does give us a taste for what a live action World of Warcraft movie would be like.



If an eventual WOW movie does look like this, I will definitely be there. What I love about this kind of storytelling is that it is rooted in pure fantasy. Even the environments are lavish, outlandish. Colors are richer, magic is a given. Other fantasy films have come close but are still for the most part, highly mainstream features and rarely have as bold of styling I think true fantasy media necessitates.

In other online-role-playing-game news, I just discovered the web series, The Guild, which explores the clash of the online and real life with always comedic results. The series is penned by Felicia Day, newly in the spotlight after her role as Penny in Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. In fact, some of the humor in The Guild is reminiscent of that on Dr. Horrible. Felicia Day also runs a blog on her own site.

I give you the first episode of The Guild:



I watched all ten episodes of the first season of The Guild-which is available on DVD-with a friend of mine who is going to start to play World of Warcraft. I suppose that in making him watch the show I was poking a little fun at him for playing but I feel that I can do so only because I have plenty of geeky obsessions of my own (see: model lightsaber above my television).

He's going to be a Paladin.

A Gnome Paladin.

Keep an eye out.