Making game licenses from popular TV shows or movies has always been a dubious process. Ever since the caveman days, when one industrious caveman decided he could double the profit of twigs made by a cave drawing by also making collectible sabre-tooth feces action-figures of the characters in the cave drawing, has been received by his critical peers as "Og sell out. Undermine artistic integrity of cave drawing with cheap merchandise. Would not seen dead with cave drawing lunchbox, ugh ugh."
However, licensing has come a long way since the early days when a rushed product would sacrifice competency to sell a game of a franchise at the peak of its popularity. Video gaming's increased validity as a media form has allowed for more in-depth and focused efforts being endorsed by those in the industries of movies and TV (who increasingly are fans of gaming in general), and now any given franchise can be fully realised as a video game without having to go to "Generic Platformers R Us" to phone in the gameplay.
Which brings me to Stargate SG-1. Stargate is one of those sci-fi shows that's "just there", taking over from a tradition set-up by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5. It doesn't have the sheer inspired bizarreness of some sci-fi shows, but this helps it become more accessible to a general audience of both sci-fi fans and people who saw enough explosions and scantily-clad off-world women in the show's commercial to warrant giving it a look. However, while many people who watch the show may do so for simple entertainment, the loyal fanbase of geeky types are into the more nerdy characteristics of the show: namely the development of various storylines between the characters, the different races (Jaffa's struggle against oppression and slavery, the Tokra and their dwindling population, whatever those groovy little Asgard are up to), the fight against whatever System Lord is kicking ass that cycle and so on. They also dig the exploration element (or at least I do, and I very much include myself among these guys).
Therefore, when the Stargate game was released (the one based on the show, not the couple of games released after the movie: an excellent example if any of the "Generic Platformers R Us" analogy above), I found it pandered more to the former group of people who watched the show: the ones doing so to be entertained with explosions and hot alien chicks. This is, of course, fine and all, but as a nerdy fan I wanted more.
So here is my idea for this game: Start with a classic X-Com set-up, this series of games being very similar to the plot of the show i.e. funding a secret government project to fight an alien menace, using a base of operations to launch teams to procure alien technology to defend our planet with while fighting off any threats that show up. Add a greater sense of controlling how the base and your personnel expands and grows, giving off-world team characters their own RPG stats (I'm thinking something like Call of Cthulhu's character design, where focus is on building skills and applying them to situations, rather than arbitrary numbered stats for health and such) and then expand it to the scale of something like Oblivion - there is a whole galaxy of Stargates out there after all - and you'll have something that will properly recreate the true appeal of the show: exploration and plot development.
So, how would this game be played? Well, you'd work in cycles (probably 1 week or 1 month, though it could also be a "real-time" system that can be artificially sped up like X-Com) and you'd be given several gate addresses for that cycle that the computer has figured out the coordinates for. Out of, say, 10 addresses generated that cycle you can visit 5 of them, and later on in the game expand that number to 6 of them and so on as you gain the resources to expand your operation. Your MALP (the little exploring robot vehicle thing) readout of the planet will tell you what kind of mission to expect, ranging from simple diplomatic/research missions to life-threatening melees with Jaffa or whatnot in order to procure their weaponry or some valuable Naqadah - the show's ultra-powerful McGuffin-esque element. You'd also come across completely inhospitable lava/ice/blown-up worlds which may end up with you losing your MALP unit, so some discretion is advised (though it would be cool to see what happened to it). There would also be some references to the show, meaning the more obsessive of fans will be able to recognise one Stargate's address as being the black hole world and wisely avoid it (or save the game before trying it). Most of these planets will be purposefully created for story-based missions (such as fulfilling important events in the show's timeline, like meeting the Asgard), though a fair number can be generated randomly using the kind of "common encounters" the characters of the show are implied to frequently deal with between episodes.
The trouble with licenses is that the chances of working on one specifically is exceedingly rare, as you'd have to be employed by the company willing to buy from or make an agreement with those who hold that license. Therefore, it's unlikely I'd ever get to work on turning any of my favorite shows into games, and I'll end up watching helplessly as generic "okayish" titles are made of them instead. Sometimes they do things right (I don't think the Futurama platformer game could have been any better than it was), but sometimes the missed opportunity is just heartbreaking.
Man, I sound like a dweeb. It's a good thing most of you stopped reading hours ago.
