I caught this news yesterday and wanted to get back to it. Relayed from a Hollywood Reporter story, from Yahoo! News comes word of “X Quest”, a pseudo-reality television series created by Spectrum MediaWorks and produced by Imagine Television. The show is set to debut sometime early next year on Fox. From the story (Link):

“X Quest” is based on an “aspirational pyramid” approach that Seropian said starts with two teams of seven contestants that enter the cramped compartments of a space simulator and partake in a monthlong series of missions within the virtual world. Viewers can watch the adventures unfold on Fox.

Gamers will be able to enter the world via Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and interact with reality show contestants, according to Spectrum MediaWorks, and events in the game will have a direct impact on the TV show.
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Seropian said “X Quest” was created from the ground up as a TV show and a game “structurally designed to exist in the same virtual world.”
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“The prime reason why the game industry is outpacing cinema, and will eventually outpace television, is that huge numbers of people have demonstrated a desire to immerse and interact,” Banister said. “‘X Quest’ is the first, but certainly not the last.”

Hey, instead of putting them in a space stimulator, why not put them on a transpacific flight? From my earlier comments (Link):

If flighttime is a problem, let’s assume that the game players (not the game characters) change with each episode (just the way “gold pharmers” hand off game characters in shifts). That could work too and suggests an intriguing option.

I like my idea better. Instead of using a static simulator and having to provide support, I say the airline industries offer reduced-fair rates to passengers who take over virtual characters to continue a storyline. Talk about a wildly exquisite corpse.