Keep Flyin': Firefly MMO

[Solar]

Browncoats rejoice! Joss Whedon's space Western Firefly may never return to television, but the 'verse goes on. And soon, you'll be able to have a ship and crew of your own, when Firefly Online launches for the PC and Mac. We've got an exclusive first look at the ships, the guns, the characters and more.In case you missed the game's launch video at SDCC, you can view that here. Firefly Online is the creation of Quantum Mechanix, whoseFirefly merchandise and other goodies we've featured many times before, along with Spark Plug Games.
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Firefly Online's "Free Flight Engine" will give you a reactive 3D user interface, that includes whizzy "in-universe guides" around planets that the player can interact with, according to Gore. "If you could imagine the map of the verse (complete with the nebula gases), in 3D, with all the planet renders that you can zoom in, zoom out and fly through. It looks utterly amazing"
Here's a snapshot of the game's "Free Flight Engine" in action, as it's currently being developed:

Joss Whedon is aware of the development of Firefly Online, but he's been "a bit busy with a little thing called The Avengers," says Gore, and thus hasn't been personally involved. "I think that's part of why it was important to the studio that the developer be someone with a proven track record making successful products for Firefly. No one wants to disappoint Joss."

According to the game's FAQ, Firefly Online is a "multi-user strategic roleplaying game" set in the Firefly universe. You become a ship captain and hire a crew and seek out adventures.
Gore tells io9 there will be a central story to the game, along with "many branching stories and standalone adventures players can enjoy. And we plan to have regular DLC updates to add more as time goes on."

In addition to going on side-jobs in the midst of Firefly Online's overarching story, players can also create "jobs" (or quests) for each other, says QMX's Gore:

For us, the most exciting thing is player-created "jobs" (the Firefly Online name for quests). There will be a job-creation system where players will be able to craft adventures for other players to partake in. We're looking forward to seeing what people do with that system.
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And there will be *a lot* to do beyond quests. You can focus on pimping your ride, getting a new ride, hiring a crew, keeping them happy, trading, crafting, collecting swag, or just flying around the multitude of terraformed worlds of the Verse in the freeform flight simulator.

More beautiful art and visuals in the source. Some more key points to save space:

• There will be Reavers
• You will initially only play as a Browncoat, this is apparently subject to change
• Aside from guns, you can settle issues with a conversation mechanism
• To be released summer 2014

Aside as a fan:

YEEEEEEHAAAWWWWWWW YOU CANT TAKE THE SKY FROM MEEEEEEE