If you are a fan of the Fallout series, chances are you’ve picked up on an MMO in development called Fallen Earth being developed by Icarus Studios. There was an announcement just today that Fallen Earth will be incorporating the Vivox technology suite into it’s game for voice communication. I’m excited to hear that (no pun intended), and it relates to what I said last week about how ubiquitous voice chat is becoming in MMOs. Here we have an upcoming MMO building these features in from the ground up, using cutting edge technology. I think we’re going to see more and more of this happening as time goes on, to the point where someday it will seem odd that voice chat was ever not part of the base set of MMO features.
FRAMINGHAM, MA - September 5, 2006 - Icarus Studios and Vivox, Inc. announced today that Icarus’ highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) Fallen Earth will include on-demand, in-game voice communication as the result of a technology integration agreement between the two companies. Vivox will provide Icarus with game-embedded voice communication services customized for and integrated into Fallen Earth. The MMOG is set in a near future post-apocalyptic world struggling to emerge from the collapse of civilization brought on by viruses and environmental disaster.
Fallen Earth players are able to speak at will with other players in-game, create discreet team audio conference channels and join, leave and rejoin voice channels during game play without impacting game performance. All voice communication is hosted and mixed on Vivox servers in order to ensure no lag in game play and minimal drain on CPU resources. On-screen indicators show players which channels are monitoring audio communications and which player within a channel is speaking. Players will also have moderator privileges to kick, mute, ban and un-ban other players, all synchronized with the team and raid privileges of the in-game group leader.
I think Fallen Earth is on the right track by taking this step and I look forward to seeing this integrated set of voice communcation tools within their game.
Tags: Developer News, Fallen Earth
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September 7th, 2007 at 4:57 am - Edit
Hmm, hey what did you think of the current state of the game at GenCon?
I was not impressed. Not sure where I stand on this one but it is early so I guess we cant judge too much right now. I didnt like the interface and character movement at all.
September 7th, 2007 at 5:55 am - Edit
from what i have seen, which is limited the concept and ideas behind the game look great, and i think if they can get it right (polished) then this will have a loyal sandbox following