Orson Scott Card Joins Firefall

[Andy Chalk]

Orson Scott Card Joins Firefall

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Indie studio Red 5 has brought in sci-fi heavyweight Orson Scott Card to help craft the story for its upcoming shooter Firefall [http://www.firefallthegame.com/].

At first glance, Firefall looks like just another generic, free-to-play online shooter in which you jump in, shoot a few guys, blow up some stuff and then quit when the microwave goes "bing." But Red 5 is going for something deeper than just anonymous online mayhem; as CEO Mark Kern explained in the latest Firefall dev diary, the story is a very important part of the overall experience. Important enough that the studio has brought in none other than Orson Scott Card, the man behind the Ender's Game [http://www.amazon.com/Ender-Quartet-Box-Set-Xenocide/dp/0765362430/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1309546204&sr=8-2] books, and his daughter Emily to help bring it together.

Firefall is set on the Earth of the future, which is being slowly consumed by a destructive energy storm called "the melding." Things go from bad to worse when a mysterious alien race launches an attack against the struggling human survivors. Yet despite that epic scope the story will focus largely on individual characters like Typhon and Morningstar, the two survivors of the cinematic Firefall trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhiJtotZNWk] than premiered last year, and that's where Card comes in.

"Orson is a character-driven story guy," Kern said. "His stories are about sci-fi, but they're more than that. They're about the humanity behind it, they're about people's problems and how they're resolved. We feel that that really draws you along his stories in the same way that we want you drawn along the Firefall stories."

In order to "prep the audience," Red 5 is putting together a free online manga in conjunction with Card, his daughter Emily and Udon, a well-known publisher of comics, graphic novels and English translations of Japanese manga. "Together, we develop exactly how things are going to flow and then she writes the dialog and scenes, and of course I vet it and make suggestions," Card explained. "But I don't have to make many suggestions. She's really good."

The free-to-play Firefall is currently in development for the PC and is targeted for launch near the end of 2011.


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[Hungry Donner]

Between this and Kingdoms of Amalur it looks like the video games industry is embracing authors I can't stand. :/

I did enjoy Ender's Game, and the second wasn't bad, but after that the series took a nose dive. I haven't tried any of his newer books, but considering some of his off-site comments and opinions I'm no longer interested in his fictional work.

 

[Brainst0rm]

Why do video game companies keep bringing in authors halfway through development to help the story of their game?

If you're so dedicated to your narrative that you don't realize it sucks till you're in the middle of the project, then it's going to suck no matter what.

Plus, novelists write NOVELS, and are not much good at anything else. Telling stories in video games is something else entirely.

 

[megs1120]

Great, add this to the list of games I'll never play.

Drop dead, Orson Scott Card.

 

[Neuromaster]

Love Ender's game, hate Card's homophobic bigotry. Ambivalent about Firefall. Meh.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Yea, gonna go with the general consensus and say I enjoy the Ender's game books quite a bit, but the guy himself seems like a bit of a douche. That, and the game just doesn't look good. Plenty of other, probably better FPS out there, and with TF2 now being free, why the hell would you play any other F2P FPS?

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

I wasn't interested in this game to begin with, but now I'm downright avoiding it at all costs. Dude's a hack.

 

[DaxStrife]

Didn't Orson Scott Card also write some stuff for "Secret of Monkey Island," specifically the Insult Sword-Fighting bits?
And isn't this game a shooter?
...Oh my god. Insult Gunfighting! It must happen! :-D

 

[gregitaly]

Drop dead, Orson Scott Card.

Why? What did he do to you that deserves death?

Love Ender's game, hate Card's homophobic bigotry. Ambivalent about Firefall. Meh.

What exactly is "homophobic" about him And how does that make him a bigot?

 

[Cpu46]

why the hell would you play any other F2P FPS?

Because they are all free?


OT: Never read Enders Game but I am looking forwards to this Firefall.

 

[4173]

Drop dead, Orson Scott Card.

Why? What did he do to you that deserves death?

Love Ender's game, hate Card's homophobic bigotry. Ambivalent about Firefall. Meh.

What exactly is "homophobic" about him And how does that make him a bigot?

In another article written for the Mormon Times, he voiced strong condemnation of any government that recognized gay marriage stating, "Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down..."[20] In 2009, Card became a member of the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that seeks to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage.[21] Card has called for laws against homosexual behaviour to "remain on the books",[22] and a return to the "strong society" of pre-1960s America.[23]

From wikipedia

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_scott_card#Politics[/link]

 

[Deathninja19]

Drop dead, Orson Scott Card.

Why? What did he do to you that deserves death?

Love Ender's game, hate Card's homophobic bigotry. Ambivalent about Firefall. Meh.

What exactly is "homophobic" about him And how does that make him a bigot?

http://www.afterelton.com/people/2008/7/orsonscottcard

http://atheism.about.com/b/2004/01/03/orson-scott-card-criminalize-homosexual-behavior.htm

Sad but true, he's a Mormon homophobe wackjob who called for a revolution over gay marriage and one of the reasons why he'll never get my money (the other reason is that I don't like his writting).

 

[gregitaly]

Drop dead, Orson Scott Card.

Why? What did he do to you that deserves death?

Love Ender's game, hate Card's homophobic bigotry. Ambivalent about Firefall. Meh.

What exactly is "homophobic" about him And how does that make him a bigot?

The dude is a Mormon. That alone is reason enough for most people to condemn him to death. As a Mormon, he's automatically homophobic. That's reason number two.

Obviously, he can go fuck himself with his retarded political and social views, but he's still one damn fine storyteller regardless.

Why should we kill someone based off their religious or political views?

 

[sunburst]

Why should we kill someone based off their religious or political views?

Seriously dude? Someone levels a general insult toward a man who's actions they disapprove of and you immediately go for the murder card? Telling someone to drop dead is not the same as saying, "I will kill you." It's a statement that the world would be better off without them.

On Topic: I refuse to give Orson Scott Card any money seeing as he has vowed to destroy any government that legalizes same-sex marriage. So I guess I'll be missing out on Firefall. Surprisingly, I am not particularly bothered by this development.

 

[Taldeer]

I honestly liked the whole Ender saga, given I read it... what... 10 years ago. Had no idea about his political views.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

He hasn't written anything good for a long time. Ender's game was good but the followups were junk. Ender's Shadow was good but the followups to that were crap.

The "Earth" books were crappy and long. Enchantment was meh, Saints was bloody good though. Empire might as well have been called "Orson Scott Card Doesn't Like Liberals and Also Discovers Google Maps".

If you want to read a true craftsman check out Stephen R Donaldson. The first book should be "Reave The Just" http://www.amazon.com/Reave-Other-Tales-Stephen-Donaldson/dp/0553580140/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309556906&sr=8-1

If that grabs you both his hard sci fi Gap Cycle and epic fantasy Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are excellent and will spoil you for all other fiction.

 

[gregitaly]

Why should we kill someone based off their religious or political views?

Seriously dude? Someone levels a general insult toward a man who's actions they disapprove of and you immediately go for the murder card? Telling someone to drop dead is not the same as saying, "I will kill you." It's a statement that the world would be better off without them.

On Topic: I refuse to give Orson Scott Card any money seeing as he has vowed to destroy any government that legalizes same-sex marriage. So I guess I'll be missing out on Firefall. Surprisingly, I am not particularly bothered by this development.

You're right, I did put words into his mouth, and I apologize. But how is wishing death on someone else because they have a different opinion than you better than you personally wishing to murder them? Or "Condemn him to death" because he's Mormon?

 

[SouthpawFencer]

The fact that they brought him in after development began isn't a good sign. No matter how good of a writer he is (I've read three books from the Ender series, and only liked Ender's Game), this means that he's coming in with at least one hand tied behind his back.

Extra Credits warned about this in their first Escapist Episode [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/1887-Video-Games-Bad-Writing]. (Speaking of those guys... Good luck with the surgery, Allison!)

If Red Five wanted to bring a professional writer aboard, they should have had him on the payroll from the beginning and had him collaborating with the design team to create the world from the ground up.

 

[LordVyreth]

Even ignoring the ethical problems of working with a bigot on your game, I just have the question the sheer logic of doing this. If you're an indie team, hiring someone like Card will cost you a bit, and for what? What video game, at least recently, were helped by Card's stories? Did anyone play Shadow Complex for the plot? Does anyone even remember Advent Rising? So you spent vastly more money than you needed to for a guy far past his prime and meanwhile the very people who would love to support an indie game just boycotted it. Brilliant planning, really.

 

[Shotphoenix]

Even ignoring the ethical problems of working with a bigot on your game, I just have the question the sheer logic of doing this. If you're an indie team, hiring someone like Card will cost you a bit, and for what?

They aren't an indie company. They're actually a pretty well financed company that merely doesn't have any games released. Firefall is supposedly going to be a AAA game.