In Time of Defiance, players battle for control of thousands of islands spread across the remnants of a distant planet – giving a game area of over 14,062,500 square kilometres. Up to 1,000 players can compete in each game, and there will be many games running concurrently in order to accommodate a huge audience.

Time of Defiance boasts a persistent world for each separate game – a period typically lasting a month. Players build their empire by scouting and colonising uninhabited islands, enlarging their empire from the resources they mine from the islands. The richer an empire, the quicker it can expand – with players deciding how much to channel into defending their islands or attacking others.

The game continues in real-time, so players must both automate their defences and plan their attacks for periods their opponent will, hopefully, be away from a computer – and Time of Defiance’s easy-to-use menus assist in this process. Additionally, players can opt to receive an e-mail or mobile phone text message (the latter launching in August) whenever an attack is underway, enabling them to adjust strategies if the situation demands.

NiCE’s unique virtual world management software technology ensures that bandwidth demands are not restrictive; typically, data transmission is kept below 200 bytes per second – a rate so low, players can even enjoy the game using a laptop and an infra-red-enabled mobile phone. And the average 56k modem will cope more than admirably for home users.