Sci Fi Channel is game to join the virtual world

Can two alien cultures coexist in one writers room? Sci Fi is entering a brave new world by teaming television writers with video-game designers to create a franchise that is both a television series and a massive multiplayer game on the Internet -- more than that, the fans who play the game will actually help shape the show's story arc with their virtual exploits.

"This is the Holy Grail for us, without a doubt," said Dave Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel, which has teamed with Trion World Network, an on-the-rise gaming company based in Redwood City, Calif. "This is groundbreaking, and I don't say that lightly."

Sci Fi Channel executives are mum about the title of the show and game and their premise, but they do hint that it will be set 80 to 100 years in the future on an Earth that looks very different from today. The team has summer 2010 as the targeted launch; more details are expected to be announced in July at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (a mouthful term shortened to the only slightly better MMORPG) have become a sensation, especially World of Warcraft, which has 10 million subscribers who pay about $15 a month to explore, battle and interact with one another and magical beasties in a land called Azeroth. The game pulled in $1 billion last year, and Legendary Pictures has plans to make a $100-million tie-in film that will hit theaters next year.

Howe said bundling a World of Warcraft player community with a series and an on-line social community is something the Sci Fi Channel has tried to puzzle out for several years.

"A television show that is on once a week isn't enough. The fans today want the experience to go beyond that," Howe said. "For example, we can tell them that there will be an alien invasion at a certain place in the game, at a certain time, and to be there with all their friends and be ready. The outcome depends on them. And then that battle will be part of the universe in the show."

It sounds intriguing, but there are significant challenges. The MMORPG field is already crowded, but no competitor has been able to come anywhere close to Warcraft, which has about 60% of the marketplace audience. Also, the new venture might remind fans of the Matrix Online, an MMORPG based in the universe made famous by the Wachowski siblings' films. After much buildup, the game fizzled in the eyes of many fans and highlighted the aesthetic chasm between screenplay entertainment and gaming worlds.