Defiance content will vanish – Play before it’s removed

Defiance has been out for a week, and as all players know, the big sell on this game is the tie-in with the TV show.

But did you know that after this weekend, before the show premieres on SyFy, missions will be removed from the game so that both the TV show and game will become synchronised in the Defiance lore timeline?

This weekend will be the last chance for players to play the game’s four Episode Missions in which Nolan and Irisa appear before they head off to the show in St Louis. Trion will actually be removing the four missions from the game and they will not be playable after the show airs.

Earlier this week TRION posted:

The current Episode missions in the game will be unavailable to play after the first episode airs. The idea is that the timeline of the show and game are in sync, so once the first episode airs it won’t make sense for Nolan and Irisa to still be in the Bay Area

OK, this all makes sense but it’s a problem for some players. SyFy will not actually air the show in some regions here in Europe at the same time, and in some countries the show will not be aired at all, even though the game is on sale in those countries. So is this a big deal?

Gamers have bought into the idea that this was going to be a ground-breaking cross-media experience, and it’s been sold to gamers as something new and exciting, which in theory it is.

The problem here is with coordination in the scheduling between SyFy and TRION which will be a cause of real frustration for fans of the game and the TV show in regions omitted from the schedule. Players want to buy into the characters/lore and live the experience through the game.

The other problem with the removal of these early missions is that they are actually four of the best missions in the game so far. There has been some criticism that the game is currently a little light on content but it’s about to become even lighter. For now at least.

As the TV show progresses, and only TRION and Syfy know what’s going to happen, there will be new story arcs added to the game to tie-in with the show, but should you not be able to play for a week or so due to other commitments, you could may  out on a whole load of interesting game content unless TRION come up with a nifty way to leave them in as ‘historical missions’.

There is also no guarantee the TV show will even get a second season which could leave the game high and dry. I recently watched the pilot episode and I have to admit I am concerned about the show’s longevity, even at this early stage. You can read my thoughts on the pilot here.

In the US, TV shows have a tendency to go off air for weeks on end, sometimes a show can be on one week, miss a week or more , then return. There are also often mid season breaks which can last months. This begs the question, if there is a break and no show airs, will we see more of Nolan and chums in the game?

It’s still too early to really ascertain how successful the Defiance project will be, but with the removal of these quests so early after the game release (some people are still waiting for their copies to be delivered), players are going to have to keep a keen eye on what is being added or removed from the game based on the TV show plot and scheduling.