Found direct Firefly reference

[nannerpuss]

One of the randomly generated system names is Persephone. We all know this is basically Firefly: The Game, but that's the first direct reference I've seen.

[nannerpuss]

And just because I know not everyone is a Firefly fanboy like me, Persephone was a border planet in Firefly lore. It's shown a few times, but in episode two they travel there to deal with Badger, trying to hock stolen Alliance goods.

[Little Wasp]

The devs have said themselves that Firefly was not at all an influence, and that any connections were just a 'happy coinicidence'. And in any case, there are other names from Greek mythology used in system names for this game.

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by Loopy:

The devs have said themselves that Firefly was not at all an influence, and that any connections were just a 'happy coinicidence'. And in any case, there are other names from Greek mythology used in system names for this game.

I wonder if that's their way of avoiding royalties or if they just happened to make a game that half the player base thinks is influenced by Firefly. Some mighty huge coincidences.

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

Originally posted by nannerpuss:

they just happened to make a game that half the player base thinks is influenced by Firefly.

This, pretty much. I think a lot of the reason it gets compared is the music. That was a spur of the moment decision by Travis. He heard some Black Keys while playing and thought it was better than the stuff he'd been using. That and he has a friend who is a fantastic guitarist. The friend wasn't playing country style stuff at first. It just gradually ended up there.

That added a lot to the feel and I think the style of music and outer space location are really the only things it has in common with the show. Well maybe the junkiness.

[Jammy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgqTsy2ulv8

also there was a persophone in Matrix:reloaded (monica belluci)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Persephone-Descending-Dan-Gray/dp/0595129803 a sci-fi book pre-dating firefly... so Dan Gray should get royalties from Firefly?

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by Zidders Roofurry -{EAC}-:

Originally posted by nannerpuss:

they just happened to make a game that half the player base thinks is influenced by Firefly.

This, pretty much. I think a lot of the reason it gets compared is the music. That was a spur of the moment decision by Travis. He heard some Black Keys while playing and thought it was better than the stuff he'd been using. That and he has a friend who is a fantastic guitarist. The friend wasn't playing country style stuff at first. It just gradually ended up there.

That added a lot to the feel and I think the style of music and outer space location are really the only things it has in common with the show. Well maybe the junkiness.

And the Korian ships that look remarkably similar to Reaver vessels. The Barracuda is even colored the same.

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by Jammy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgqTsy2ulv8

also there was a persophone in Matrix:reloaded (monica belluci)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Persephone-Descending-Dan-Gray/dp/0595129803 a sci-fi book pre-dating firefly... so Dan Gray should get royalties from Firefly?

What I meant was, they are certainly making money off people who believe this game was inspired by the Firefly/Serenity universe. Apparently it wasn't, but perception can easily become reality when you are dealing with intellectual properties. Granted, a lot of things can be coincidental in a genre where much of the content is similar in nature, but I would be absolutely shocked if these developers never watched Firefly and/or the Serenity movie. How much of it subconsciously makes its way into the design process? Who knows.

But I guess I kind of see your point, if you had one. Thing is, intellectual property isn't a black and white issue. There is no copyright on "sci-fi spaceship adventures", but when the tone of content can by mistaken as being related to copyrighted content, things become more rigid. The first major instance that comes to mind is the WWF's lawsuit against WCW Nitro for copyright infringement of intellectual property (IP). In 1996 or so, a major star from WWF went onto WCW television and used two words "Hey Yo" and had a toothpick in his mouth, and that was grounds enough for WWF to take WCW to court and sue. A toothpick and two words. Those two words and the toothpick were considered IP. I can provide the references for that, but I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge. There are thousands of other examples, but I bring that one up because the WWF actually won the suit or at least stopped their competition from ever coming close to IP infringement ever again. The point is, that's how blurry and thin the lines are when it comes to intellectual property.

[V1cious Penguin]

You want to cal it Firefly? Fine, do so. But considering that your first line was
"One of the randomly generated system names is Persephone"
I think we can asume that randon is random. In my game, one of the systems has the same name as my surname. can I claim for that?

[Paradyme]

Originally posted by V1cious Penguin:

You want to cal it Firefly? Fine, do so. But considering that your first line was
"One of the randomly generated system names is Persephone"
I think we can asume that randon is random. In my game, one of the systems has the same name as my surname. can I claim for that?

Claim or not, that's pretty fantastic.

I think that system will have to become your new home.

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by V1cious Penguin:

You want to cal it Firefly? Fine, do so. But considering that your first line was
"One of the randomly generated system names is Persephone"
I think we can asume that randon is random. In my game, one of the systems has the same name as my surname. can I claim for that?

With how lawyered up corporations are, especially Hollywood studios like the ones Joss Whedon works for, I think it would have been safer to avoid any possible references to Firefly. I don't know if you live in the US, but copyright lawsuits are a dime a dozen here, as are frivilous lawsuits of every conceivable origin. Especially when you are dealing with entertainment properties. Even if you ignore the Korian designs, Reaver coloring and the name, the music alone could literally have been taken directly from the series soundtrack. You'd think that one or the other could be coincidence, so why not just be safe and completely avoid designs and names if you want to use the music? Like it or not, Firefly happened before and was, to my knowledge, the only "western-themed piracy sci-fi" property to become hugely successful. I really doubt anyone at Warner Bros. or whatever is concerned at all, but imagine if this game were a AAA title and sold 20 million copies. You'd be naive to think that copyright lawyers from Hollywood wouldn't at least look at the game and make a judgement call. We're talking about millions of dollars here. Obviously this game is tiny by comparison, but that's beside the point.

I don't know if you've read the reviews, but more than half of them mention Firefly. Did the developers accidentally make a game that has a huge sci-fi nerd following, which also happens to be the same target audience of the show? I doubt there was intent there, but I think it's worthy of discussion. That's all.

I did a quick Google search of 'copyright infringement' and as an example, I found this:

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/16/01/06/1757233/cbs-others-sued-for-copyright-infringement-over-soft-kitty-in-big-bang-theory

Those are song lyrics being whispered to a sleeping child, with no musical score or anything behind them, but the heirs to the copyright felt it infringed on a poem their mother wrote decades ago. And the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up part is they have a good case. That's the state of entertainment properties in our sue-happy world. Clearly you don't see or think there is any similarity to the Firefly IP, but lots of other people do, and like I said - perception is reality in Hollywood lawyer circle jerks.

[nannerpuss]

Also, check out the Polaris ship side by side with Reaver capital ships. If the fins on it were red, you could interchange the two out and no one would notice. Just saying. One or two coincidences, sure, but if you start looking at everything, it's hard to imagine these developers had never seen or heard of Firefly.

[fat_stack_o_pancakes]

I have only been playing them game for a couple of hours but here is my .02. The music really lends to the Firefly feel, but there are differences, I am not a huge fan boy but I don't recall any other species in the Firefly universe besides human, I have not heard one person speaking Chinese.

I think Firefly may be an influence, but there are others. Ever time I tractor cargo, I want to start calling myself Jafs (IW2). The use of ships labeled as bombers/torpedoes reminds me of Freespace. The combat feels very Freelancer. I think overall this game takes a lot of the best of games and shows I love and rolled them all together in a way that works.

[nannerpuss]

Originally posted by fat_stack_o_pancakes:

I have only been playing them game for a couple of hours but here is my .02. The music really lends to the Firefly feel, but there are differences, I am not a huge fan boy but I don't recall any other species in the Firefly universe besides human, I have not heard one person speaking Chinese.

I think Firefly may be an influence, but there are others. Ever time I tractor cargo, I want to start calling myself Jafs (IW2). The use of ships labeled as bombers/torpedoes reminds me of Freespace. The combat feels very Freelancer. I think overall this game takes a lot of the best of games and shows I love and rolled them all together in a way that works.

I can agree with that. I was surprised to hear the developers say Firefly wasn't even an influence and any similarity is coincidental. There are lots of coincidences, I guess.

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

The reason it feels like Firefly is because Firefly was Joss Whedon's love letter to the same kinds of shows and movies that inspired Travis & Erich to create their love letter to the sci-fi genre. It uses some of the same tropes and has a similar vibe but no die-hard Firefly fan would ever say this rips it off. The similarities are shallow enough that they might as well be coincidental. This game has more in common with Torchlight and dungeon crawlers than it does Firefly or Freelancer.