In the massively multiplayer online market, role-playing games are the dominating force. While strategy games of varying types have always been popular among computer gamers, they have often failed when attempts were made to transition them into the massively multiplayer realm. Nicely Crafted Entertainment, a U.K. based developer hopes to turn that over with their release of Time of Defiance, an MMORTS of staggering proportions.

Imagine life living on an island, except this one happens to be floating in the middle of space, and you have the general premise of Time of Defiance. Your home, once part of the planet Nespanona's northern continent, is held in place by a powerful gravity generator. The planet's core imploded, leaving nothing but a vast collection of scattered rocks. As a survivor of this cataclysm, it is your duty to pick yourself up and exploit the opportunity to create your own empire among the expanse.

You start off with a small fleet of ships and limited resources, so exploration is key. Locate nearby islands, then colonize or mine them. There are literally thousands of islands covering a map that measures a whopping 14-million square kilometers of virtual space. Players will have to focus on gathering resources, building up an army, and bolstering defenses because your empire continues to run even when you're not online. Luckily, your ships and buildings have a certain degree of autonomy which, when combined with the incredible size of the map, prevents you from being completely vulnerable when offline. Games can last anywhere from two to three weeks. In short, patience is key.

Though it may take a while, expansion will eventually lead you to make contact with another empire. There are no computer players, so all empires are run by humans. You always have the option to attack, but oftentimes it will be more lucrative to set up trade pacts or mutual defense treaties. This is important because all things happen in real-time, and ships can take up to ten minutes to get from island to island. It can literally take hours to put together a fleet of warships. This game is not designed for casual strategists who only want to spend a few minutes per day building an empire. Since there are actual people running their empires alongside yours, the threat of betrayal is very high, and diplomatic skills will be put to the test.

Time of Defiance has already been made available in Europe, and will be hitting North American store shelves soon. A 10-day trial demo allows players to register and try out the game to see if it suits their gaming palette. The title has a very steep learning curve, which has only been marginally lessened by the pop-up tutorial windows that have been recently implemented. Players with the time, patience, cunning, and diplomatic prowess to tough out this slow paced title may look forward to some very deep political gameplay that far exceeds the traditional "harvest, build, and conquer" attitude that pervades most current RTS games.