Just when it appeared that MMO's had reached it saturation point.

Enter  Shadow of Legend a MMOG which hopes to spread its influence into the realm of Wireless Cell Phones and PDA's everywhere.

While the press release was sitting in my inbox for over 2 months I though I would still publish it to show you that MMOG's will be reaching us everywhere.

 I personally can't wait to see how many additional car accidents will attributed to drivers trying to finish up that "one last pull".

If you have any thoughts then please add them to the comments section.

In July I posted a blog entry on "The Top 10 Biggest MMORPG Busts". For the most part people either agreed with the list or tried (vainly) to disagree.  For the most part the rebuttals were either asinine or juvenile; however, a FEW posters gave articulate reasons for why their game did not deserve to be on the list.

While I wasn't moved by their arguments I let the comments stand, as a testament for their opinions.

The Top 10 Bust list had long died out and the post was mostly forgotten. Fast Forward to August 26th, when I returned home to see my comment list bombarded by angry (and apparently organized, gotta love 'dedicated' players) WW2OL players.

The majority of the posters were not persuasive in their entreaties to change my mind, the bulk of "veteran" players resorting to the standard name calling, and internet e-peen insults that brought back the warm and fuzzy feelings of my UO PK days.

I have always stated that the Sci-Fi/Cyber Punk MMOG genre has been sorely neglected. Enter Fallen Earth LLC and its pet project Fallen Earth.

Fallen Earth plans to place the PC in a plague infested, nuclear wasteland that will combine elements of Mad Max: The Road Warrior  with such movies as Cyborg (yes I know it was a horrible movie).  Fallen Earth will include a five faction system that combines all the stereotypical post apocalytic roles.

 While humanity fights to survive and rebuild on the ashes of the old world, new factions struggle for dominance: the stern Enforcers, the spiritual Lightbearers, the nature-loving Vistas, the gadget-happy Techs, the merchant-minded Travelers, and the savage Children of the Apocalypse. The conflicts and alliances between these factions create a dangerous ebb and flow that could make even bleaker the future of the Grand Canyon Province ... and of humanity as a whole.

I recently got a chance to chat with Lee Hammock, Lead Game Designer, for Fallen Earth.

Let's read what he had to say:

Do you hear what I hear?

MMOG's have jumped on the Voice over IP bandwagon. 

World of Warcraft is leading the charge and a multitude of MMOG's in development also seem to be incorporating this feature into their releases.

It would appear the whole purpose, of this add-on, is to bring added value and "voluntarily" complete your immersion into their virtual world.

The amount of auditory features future MMOG's could offer are limitless.  MOBS may be alerted due to the PC's voices or ambient wildlife noises (e.g. birds) may silence themselves when in the presence of a hostile PC gank squad. Such feedback would allow astute PC's to pay more attention to their surroundings and use these auditory clues to their advantage. The online gameplay experience could also be enhanced by giving hohum ambushes and monotonous MOB pulls a new element of danger.  Imagine having your loud mouthed adolescent guild member blow your group cover, suddenly your organized dungeon pull turns into a mass MOB nightmare. 

The technology, as I described, may not be applied in that fashion. However, I would like to think that future generation MMOG's continue the development of interactive audio and voice chat systems to enhance the MMOG experience.