OK, I’ll admit it. I wasn’t at ALL keen on Defiance from the moment I heard about it. Sure, Trion Worlds is known for some solid MMO experiences, but the fact that the game would be based on a show from the network that brings us crappy camp like Sharktopus and Jersey Shore Shark Attack! didn’t exactly make me comfortably assured about reliable quality control in regards to the upcoming TV series.  Sure, the Battlestar Galactica reboot was groundbreaking and great from the start , but as the song goes, “What Have You Done For Me Lately?”

Then I saw some gameplay and well, I had to eat my hat…

That said, as fun as the game looks, I still won’t be breaking My current anti-MMO stance  at all.  I simply don’t have the time nor the connection speed to play these types of games, but I certainly won’t tell YOU not to.  However,  I’m a great deal more concerned about how well the show will do once the novelty wears off.  Does the show have what it takes to be a long-running series that gamers will find compelling enough to watch when and if they’re NOT playing the game? That’s the more important question to think about, as you can have a few million people playing Defiance for the action who may lose interest in the show if it fails to keep their short attention spans activated.  Also, how will the show do among those NON-gamers who are sci-fi fans tuning in just for the story?  Will they feel left out (and eventually tune out) because every episode devolves into a firefight or defaults to “Now go play the game!” at each commercial break?

Hey, I’m old enough to remember Winky Dink and its much more false “interactivity” with viewers (hey, it was cool and exciting when I was a kid!), and I recall a few other attempts to merge multimedia that failed after promising starts. I like to imagine that after all this time, I know my gimmick TV quite well enough to not trust anything that’s getting this much hype, as it eventually turns out to be disappointing on too many levels. Still, Defiance IS quite promising because so far, everyone involved is committed to the project and is saying all the right things that make it look as if it will not only succeed, but surprise those critics who are a lot more skeptical than I am. For some out thee, it won;t take much for that network to jump the Shark(topus), so those folks will be a harder sell as soon as they get the slightest whiff of badness coming from a promo or clip they don’t like.

That said, there’s also the curse of modern (as in this century) big-budget sci-fi shows not running more than two to three seasons or so (if that) before the ideas peter out or viewership declines, forcing a cancellation despite some getting attached to the series. Frankly speaking, I can’t see Defiance as a show going more than three seasons if they don’t capture more than a gamer base.  How long can you do a series where it’s all war all the time without a letup for plot advancement outside the “get them online before/during/after the show” stuff that will indeed work, but not do much for the narrative if that’s all there is.  Sure, the game’s appeal among adrenaline junkies is obvious and yes, Trion is smart as hell to make this cross-platform (and smarter enough to know cross-platform play would be a nightmare). However, I’d like to think that an offline game targeted to people who might want a deeper story (and perhaps not have to deal with online jerks and jerkiness should there be server issues) would also be part of the plan. Hell, I’d BUY and play a Defiance RPG if it had a beginning, middle and some sort of endgame that wrapped up the arc and presented players with one of a few endings based on their choices during the game as well as what happens in the show. Then again, that’s something to consider once the show is off the ground and successful, not while it hasn’t even aired.

I have my fingers crossed that it’s as good as Battlestar Galactica, but has the longevity of an Alfred Hitchcock Presents or even better, a Gunsmoke or The Simpsons (although all those shows had their lousy episodes and in the case of Gunsmoke and AHP, ran out of steam a few seasons before they were canceled). As always, we shall see…