Opinion pieces from HUB writers.
Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"
Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.
A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.
Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.
Read more after the leap.
Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.
The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.
Read more after the leap.
Jim Moreno looks at the biggest question for the modern MMO roleplayer: how do you keep in character in an instance? They're here to stay, so it's time to learn how to deal with them.
Hear me now and believe me later, there is no reason why roleplayers cannot and should not engage in the same high quality RP within an instance as without. Personally, I'm not at all knowledgeable as to where the notion started from, but I absolutely aim to crush it here and henceforth. More than that, I want to share with fellow roleplayers why I think instances are the best places for RP, and provide some tips on how to take on these adventures with RP in mind. I hope they help!
Read more after the leap.
In a new editorial, columnist Jonathan Steinhauer embarks into "The Dangerous Wilderness". He looks at the concept of pf the wild and how it's presented in MMOs.
As I've wandered through the wilds of various games, I've been stunned by the panoramic vistas that have opened out before me. Trees sway in the light breeze, their leaves rustling softly through my speakers. A stream trickles by, the sunlight gleaming of the whorls and eddies of the current while in the distance, purple mountains capped with white glaciers scrape the billowing clouds. The imagery is so detailed, I could almost believe it is real.
Read more after the leap.
So what happened to the Ryzom liquidation debacle lately? It's been almost a month since the last Ryzom server was officially brought down, and the liquidators were on a holiday break until recently.
Today, Ryzom fans' own revival effort, the Virtual Citizenship Association (VCA), offered an update on the situation, with Admin ''Xavier Antoviaque'' post revealing that a previously unknown entity, "SpiderWeb International", is poised to take on the Ryzom IP and assets for almost $324,000. So what's the catch? VCA group was not informed of the bidding process, and if VCA is able to come up with a higher bid, they have the right to restart the biding process and pitch in next to Spiderweb.
Here's Xavier's post:
The bad news: yesterday, the Paris commerce tribunal ruled that Ryzom should go to Spiderweb, for 213.000€ ($324.000) without giving us a chance to bid.
The good news: the liquidator has confirmed there has been a mistake during the procedure, he should have informed us. We can thus attack the decision, the liquidator is proposing to restart the procedure from scratch if we offer more.
The issue is that, right now, we don't have enough to make such an offer.
Details:
At the end of last month, we received a mail from the second liquidator, telling us to reach the first liquidator; it meant the fight between the two liquidators was over or soon over. We thus sent an email and a mail to the liquidator, to warn him we would want to make an offer.
The procedure is then to wait to be contacted by the liquidator, who tells everyone when the offer should be sent. Aside from waiting, Géraud (the lawyer who follows the case for us) was contacting the liquidator directly, who was on holidays until yesterday. Thanks to Sashimi, we learned that the court audience just happened, and we had to make a deal with the liquidator to avoid being discarded.
The issue now: the offer we have to outbid is very high: we would have to offer at least 230-250K€, and Spiderweb (SpiderWeb International Limited, W1W 6NS Londres, 5th Floor 26-28 Hallam Street, not the American gaming studio) would have the opportunity to increase its bid, which is already too high given the current circumstances. There are no more employees, no servers, a large portion of the player base has already moved on to other games, and we don't know if we would be able to get the server data including the characters).
VCA group members are currently evaluating their options and the steps to take, either way this story is far from over, and we'll keep you updated on the latest.
Thanks Moonlightmist!
Saga of Ryzom has been through three rough years, through ups and downs, and thousands of true loyal fans, who suffered a slow and agonizing shutdown in the last month, one server at a time. Amongst the feelings of sorrow, anger and denial, the big question remains: what's next for Ryzom fans?
The only definite fact, right now, is that the original operators, GameForge France, are getting liquidated and dissected by the French government; this effectively means that existing account databases will not be revived under any other entity.
So how can a Ryzom branded MMO be brought back? That will require: negotiating the liquidators, paying off the debts, salvaging any remaining assets, and pump even more cash into a brand new setup. A fresh MMO setup will cost a rather hefty bill to cover game servers, support team, developers, billing and customer service. Although these prospects look grim, there is still hope in keeping the Ryzom legacy alive!
One of Ryzom's spawns is the OpenNeL, a next-generation MMO platform, which is available under GNU General Public License, allowing anyone from the community to develop their own games using the same tools Ryzom was built upon. OpenNeL community is going strong, after moving their servers off GameForge's servers, and continues to grow and update its engine and tools. This platform can be a starting point for a Ryzom inspired MMO, and will require a committed and dedicated team of fans to jump start.
The second, albeit more secretive, hope for Ryzom's revival is the Virtual Citizenship Association, formerly known as the Save Ryzom Campaign. VCA tried to buyout Ryzom in its bankruptcy dilemma a year ago, but conceded due to GameForge's intervention. This time around, the prospects of another entity taking over Ryzom IP are dim, and VCA admins are keeping it quite and on the low, hoping for a clean sweep at the IP with the fans' pledged donations.
Although it's not completely certain what VCA's plan will be, or if they will be able to salvage Ryzom as a whole, they do champion the idea of releasing the entire game code as open source. For now, VCA's forums are buzzing with disgruntled players asking for updates on the situation, especially with the last servers going down.
Wherever Ryzom ends up, we hope that all the effort, work and creativity that went into this memorable project doesn't fade away.
Ryzom on!
Saga of Ryzom has been through three rough years, through ups and downs, and thousands of true loyal fans, who suffered a slow and agonizing shutdown in the last month, one server at a time. Amongst the feelings of sorrow, anger and denial, the big question remains: what's next for Ryzom fans?
The only definite fact, right now, is that the original operators, GameForge France, are getting liquidated and dissected by the French government; this effectively means that existing account databases will not be revived under any other entity.
So how can a Ryzom branded MMO be brought back? That will require: negotiating the liquidators, paying off the debts, salvaging any remaining assets, and pump even more cash into a brand new setup. A fresh MMO setup will cost a rather hefty bill to cover game servers, support team, developers, billing and customer service. Although these prospects look grim, there is still hope in keeping the Ryzom legacy alive!
One of Ryzom's spawns is the OpenNeL, a next-generation MMO platform, which is available under GNU General Public License, allowing anyone from the community to develop their own games using the same tools Ryzom was built upon. OpenNeL community is going strong, after moving their servers off GameForge's servers, and continues to grow and update its engine and tools. This platform can be a starting point for a Ryzom inspired MMO, and will require a committed and dedicated team of fans to jump start.
The second, albeit more secretive, hope for Ryzom's revival is the Virtual Citizenship Association, formerly known as the Save Ryzom Campaign. VCA tried to buyout Ryzom in its bankruptcy dilemma a year ago, but conceded due to GameForge's intervention. This time around, the prospects of another entity taking over Ryzom IP are dim, and VCA admins are keeping it quite and on the low, hoping for a clean sweep at the IP with the fans' pledged donations.
Although it's not completely certain what VCA's plan will be, or if they will be able to salvage Ryzom as a whole, they do champion the idea of releasing the entire game code as open source. For now, VCA's forums are buzzing with disgruntled players asking for updates on the situation, especially with the last servers going down.
Wherever Ryzom ends up, we hope that all the effort, work and creativity that went into this memorable project doesn't fade away.
Ryzom on!
Following last week's Leanon (German) server shutdown, Ryzom's last server, Aniro (French), was shut down today with no further official details for the title's future. CM Boroshi posted the following:
Turns out that we got a little bit longer than we expected out of Aniro, but sadly I'm sure you've all heard by now that Aniro has finally gone down as well. I'm even more sorry to say that we have no fresh information
We will of course be waiting for any new information, and as soon as we get any we'll pass it on to you all via these forums if they're still up, and yubovision as well.
Read More for the rest!
Following last week's Leanon (German) server shutdown, Ryzom's last server, Aniro (French), was shut down today with no further official details for the title's future. CM Boroshi posted the following:
Turns out that we got a little bit longer than we expected out of Aniro, but sadly I'm sure you've all heard by now that Aniro has finally gone down as well. I'm even more sorry to say that we have no fresh information
We will of course be waiting for any new information, and as soon as we get any we'll pass it on to you all via these forums if they're still up, and yubovision as well.
Read More for the rest!
