Ryzom truly is a gem. If the devs just managed to pull a few loose strings together, and if there were just a few more people playing it, I'd happily join them.
I loved how the world looks and the wildlife. Still remember how spooky I thought it was when small animals watched you getting closer. I didnt trust any animal back then untill I learned which were the dangerous ones and which were social.
And that you could hurt from harvesting lol. I also did like the crafting in this game.
But Im not really interested anymore in a MMO with forced grouping. This is the main reason why I wont be playing Ryzom anymore.
Inktomi is correct while i find a certain excitement in going places to hunt where no one is, Vanguard, its hard to create a virtual world with no one to populate it.
good points about Ryzom not mentioned:
1. that 125 skill cap in the trial is *huge*, in Ryzom you can level *every* skill there is if you like. and while you're at it mix and match along the way.
2. they have a 'dungeon creator' with which you can create your own adventures, tie them to an npc and then you and your friends can hop into the instance you've created. drops are based on the loot tables for the rest of the world.
3. they opensourced the engine and a large packet of resources to use in game building. who else does that?!
i did enjoy this game while i played it and like someone posted above would love to see its 'spiritual successor'. maybe one or more of you dev types could make that with the opensource engine and client
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play." Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
I've played Ryzom. Once at launch for a few months, and again when it returned after it was purchased by the current owners. For its time it wasn't bad, but I really didn't care for the combat system, and the forced grouping. As for the graphics, they are sufficient for the time, but nothing like some of the more modern games. It has a small hard core following of dedicated players, which seem to be enough to keep it in operation. I wish them all the best.
ha Ryzom! I remember joining the beta, and my pc was so outdated back then that I had terribad graphics, combined with lot's of beta-errors. Not really the experience I was looking for. But I was intrigued about how I could craft guns. Never tried it again though, I just kept remembering the clumsy handeling and the graphic troubles that actually were not the game's mistake.
To many re-reviews really... But hopefully future developers will look for inspiration in the games that appear to have failed as well, cause not all was bad.
Currently playing: Skyrim, SWTOR Looking forward to: Guildwars 2 ! modestly excited for: The Secret World Have played intensely: Rift, Eve, AoC, WoW, Conquer 2.0, Astonia 3 Have played less intensely: just about everything else
It should be said that Ryzom was created to demo the AI engine so that other studios could license and utilize it (much like the Unreal games). However, it fell on deaf ears as I don't think they amointed to any actual serious purchases.
As a sandboxer at heart, Ryzom was surpringsly open and customizable when I tried it out.
What struck me as a killer for Ryzom was the lack of people. Its a shame too cause in my opinion, even after all these years Ryzom has better gameplay mechanics than most mmo's out there even to today. Unfortunately my experiences felt like I was playing in a ghost town. For me personally, community is what makes MMO's stand out apart from any other type of pc game genre, and without feeling like you are part of a living, vibrant, active world... ...well... its just not immersive. It came off as flat and lifeless - as the cliche goes, a single player MMO.
RyZom is definitely worth a second look and for the guys and gals that want to get their hands into a commercial engine, the source code is available on this site here. Build your own world if you want to (Not for the faint hearted by the way. Very complex engine to compile as I have first hand experience with it.).
For those that like some sandbox this game does deliver it.
The Ryzom Ring allows players to create their own scenarios and publish them online into the game. They can play as the Game Master, watching and evern interacting with players playing their scenario. Some of the most fun I've ever had in any game was doing this!
I trialed it; environment was wonderful, graphics acceptable, can't stand the grind, too complex a game for me. But having to observe a pack of animals moving around in a forest to learn their behavior in order to know the best time to attack one of them and not draw the attention of the others was one of the most inteligent things I've had to do in a MMO in years!
It's funny that this article came out now. My husband and I just renewed our Ryzom accounts 4 days ago!. Always loved the game. It's unlike anything else I've played. I joined Ryzom in November 2004. After many games from WoW to Rift, I'm back. As a matter of fact it's running in the background atm. Just had to check out what was being said
the problem with ryzom is that with low population the game sucks , but with if u can play with ppl the game is very enjoyable , however in this days of solo / solo / solo more ...ppl dont like "group content" until endgame.....
i miss the days of grinding lvls with groups , roaming dungeons (ala eq) or pulling to a spot (ala FFXI)
Skuall, we had more then enough show up for an OP (out post) battle the other night. I was a blast even when Bones, from the other team, walks up and say Hi! because you find yourself listening to tghe coma music.:D
Im gonna hop back in this game again at some point; once I have my own place again after a not so great 7 months of unemployment. I'll enjoy it while it lasts for I can never tell how long that will be with this game. If a decent amount of new people dedicated themselves we would be having a lot of fun just like the launch and first 6 months or so was. I'll have fun either way though. I too judge most mmos by the pure amount of fun I had in this game with other people as well as with myself. Will never forget this memorable game.
What killed it for me back in the beta were the bloody invisible walls blocking you from dropping down even the smallest of ledges, the perma grind of everything and the slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow harvesting/crafting. Some of this points might have been adressed by now, tho.
Khm ... i can like many things in any given games, but what for sure hate is lfg-ing for hours to kill few rat critters. That is not what I consider being fun. And it looks op was fascinated by this. So ... big NO NO for this game. Not even wanting to try.
I first tried Ryzom back during its beta.. I still remember loving the atmosphere of the game, seeing how the weather changes were reflected in-game, how passive animals would come up to you and curiously check you out. The yubos standing up on their hind legs and "pawing" at you.... I also remember wondering about the facility of having the multiple interfaces you could switch between (like multiple desktops in Linux).
The crafting system is awesome. The Stanza system is brilliant, and even harvesting is an interesting task in that game.
I still have the original instruction manual and install CDs :-p.
I played into retail, but quit a little while later, after Nevrax released what I called an "are they out of their minds?!" patch. Speaking of which, who else was here for one of the game's first patches, where it seemed that Nevrax had lost their minds? Yubos were practically invincible - as newbie mobs no less! Forget trying to kill the Ragus and Gingos outside the Matis city... That, along with other really poor changes had a significant number of players leaving the game in disgust.
Nevrax eventually balanced things out more.. but I really still wonder to this day what the heck they were thinking with that patch lol.
Anyway... I've come back a number of times to check it out, and always have a lot of fun for the first couple weeks. Then it sinks in that, aside from hunting creatures, harvesting or crafting - especially at lower levels when you really can't get involved in things like Outpost Battles - there really isnt' all that much to do in the game.
Now, I know I'm probably about to get pounced on by some people who are going to say "Sandbox!! SANDBOX!!!!"
Yes, I know... It's a sandbox MMO... you make your own entertainment. I understand and appreciate that. The thing is, Ryzom never seemed to have enough "tools" in their sandbox, at least for me. Although, in my experiene, it clearly wasn't only the case for me considering how I saw people doing exactly the same small handful of activities they were doing when I'd left.
For example, after I'd left, I'd come back to check it out again once a year or so (except the period it was offline, of course), only to find that the height of "adventure" for many players was still trekking from Tryker-land to Matis-land to Fyros-land, picking up the teleports along the way, just as it was the last time I'd played a year or so before.
I'd ask people "What else have people been doing in this game as far as activities in the past year or so? Has anything new been added?" And the answer always seemed to pretty much boil down to "not much more than what we were doing about a year ago".
Now for those people, that was plenty. They were satisfied, though I believe it probably helped that many of them were role-players, which really does sorta give things a different 'feel' and helps prevent monotony. I could never get into roleplaying in that game for some reason, so maybe that's why.
For as much about Ryzom as I *love*... there's just something about it that's lacking. I don't know what it is.. but I just find myself losing interest in logging in after 2-3 weeks, once the novelty of its systems becomes commonplace and I find myself wanting for something more to bite into...
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
What puzzles me is, people say well it is to empty, not enough players. Umm if you don't play then how is it going to have more players. It never makes sense. You have to stay and bring friends with you to make player base bigger. maybe I am wrong but you have to stay.
"The only game that I've found that was better was a game called Final Fantasy XIV."
Really sorry... but once u typed that your entire review just lost ALL weight.
Ryzom is definatly a good game to get into, and has done much that was 'out of the box' but at the same time, they did the same thing wow did... took the 'good' out of previous games and implmented it into thier own. Wow went with the easymode 'quests' (Where one can just easily snag quests and get ou tthere and into the dirty right away) While ryzom did the crafting thing best.
I wold suggest to everyone to give it a go, it is worth it.
It 'almost' gave me back what asheron's call gave me back in the day, that 'feeling' that your in the right place... but the lack of the ability to jump kinda wrecked the feeling for me in Ryzom
What puzzles me is, people say well it is to empty, not enough players. Umm if you don't play then how is it going to have more players. It never makes sense. You have to stay and bring friends with you to make player base bigger. maybe I am wrong but you have to stay.
I see your point, and its valid, but there just aren't enough players who want what Ryzom has to offer these days. I suspect that at best, its a niche of a niche, and if it has enough players to sustain it, thats going to have to be good enough. The graphics are now quite outdated, the game play is focused on a demographic thats growing smaller all of the time. Too many bad decisions on the part of the Dev's (mostly past), but these things add up. Bottom line, they missed their window, years past, and its current state is the result. But I do wish them and those who still enjoy the game all the best.
What puzzles me is, people say well it is to empty, not enough players. Umm if you don't play then how is it going to have more players. It never makes sense. You have to stay and bring friends with you to make player base bigger. maybe I am wrong but you have to stay.
I see your point, and its valid, but there just aren't enough players who want what Ryzom has to offer these days. I suspect that at best, its a niche of a niche, and if it has enough players to sustain it, thats going to have to be good enough. The graphics are now quite outdated, the game play is focused on a demographic thats growing smaller all of the time. Too many bad decisions on the part of the Dev's (mostly past), but these things add up. Bottom line, they missed their window, years past, and its current state is the result. But I do wish them and those who still enjoy the game all the best.
I know Ryzom had a rough history. Heck, when I discovered it, it was down because one of those bad descisions in the past.
But I started to play again last weekend, and found that the server is quite active. I'm not sure if it's because of this article (some said they were in Ryzom because of it, while others found it elsewhre - Mac-stor & linux download), or this activity is normal.
Anyhow, I'm having a good time there so far, but I haven't really seen/done a lot yet
Comments
I have to agree here! Now the big issue with the game is the player base is spread pretty thin because it is small but very helpfull and friendly!
Ryzom truly is a gem. If the devs just managed to pull a few loose strings together, and if there were just a few more people playing it, I'd happily join them.
I loved how the world looks and the wildlife. Still remember how spooky I thought it was when small animals watched you getting closer. I didnt trust any animal back then untill I learned which were the dangerous ones and which were social.
And that you could hurt from harvesting lol. I also did like the crafting in this game.
But Im not really interested anymore in a MMO with forced grouping. This is the main reason why I wont be playing Ryzom anymore.
Inktomi is correct while i find a certain excitement in going places to hunt where no one is, Vanguard, its hard to create a virtual world with no one to populate it.
good points about Ryzom not mentioned:
1. that 125 skill cap in the trial is *huge*, in Ryzom you can level *every* skill there is if you like. and while you're at it mix and match along the way.
2. they have a 'dungeon creator' with which you can create your own adventures, tie them to an npc and then you and your friends can hop into the instance you've created. drops are based on the loot tables for the rest of the world.
3. they opensourced the engine and a large packet of resources to use in game building. who else does that?!
i did enjoy this game while i played it and like someone posted above would love to see its 'spiritual successor'. maybe one or more of you dev types could make that with the opensource engine and client
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
I've played Ryzom. Once at launch for a few months, and again when it returned after it was purchased by the current owners. For its time it wasn't bad, but I really didn't care for the combat system, and the forced grouping. As for the graphics, they are sufficient for the time, but nothing like some of the more modern games. It has a small hard core following of dedicated players, which seem to be enough to keep it in operation. I wish them all the best.
ha Ryzom! I remember joining the beta, and my pc was so outdated back then that I had terribad graphics, combined with lot's of beta-errors. Not really the experience I was looking for. But I was intrigued about how I could craft guns. Never tried it again though, I just kept remembering the clumsy handeling and the graphic troubles that actually were not the game's mistake.
To many re-reviews really... But hopefully future developers will look for inspiration in the games that appear to have failed as well, cause not all was bad.
Currently playing: Skyrim, SWTOR
Looking forward to: Guildwars 2 ! modestly excited for: The Secret World
Have played intensely: Rift, Eve, AoC, WoW, Conquer 2.0, Astonia 3
Have played less intensely: just about everything else
As a sandboxer at heart, Ryzom was surpringsly open and customizable when I tried it out.
What struck me as a killer for Ryzom was the lack of people. Its a shame too cause in my opinion, even after all these years Ryzom has better gameplay mechanics than most mmo's out there even to today. Unfortunately my experiences felt like I was playing in a ghost town. For me personally, community is what makes MMO's stand out apart from any other type of pc game genre, and without feeling like you are part of a living, vibrant, active world... ...well... its just not immersive. It came off as flat and lifeless - as the cliche goes, a single player MMO.
I'm not creative enough to have a signature
[Mod Edit]
I'll give the free trial a go because of this article
RyZom is definitely worth a second look and for the guys and gals that want to get their hands into a commercial engine, the source code is available on this site here. Build your own world if you want to (Not for the faint hearted by the way. Very complex engine to compile as I have first hand experience with it.).
For those that like some sandbox this game does deliver it.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
The Ryzom Ring allows players to create their own scenarios and publish them online into the game. They can play as the Game Master, watching and evern interacting with players playing their scenario. Some of the most fun I've ever had in any game was doing this!
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
I trialed it; environment was wonderful, graphics acceptable, can't stand the grind, too complex a game for me. But having to observe a pack of animals moving around in a forest to learn their behavior in order to know the best time to attack one of them and not draw the attention of the others was one of the most inteligent things I've had to do in a MMO in years!
This was a well written piece, took me back to my Eq days. Seems that no game can ever compare to the one that took your MMO innocence.
It's funny that this article came out now. My husband and I just renewed our Ryzom accounts 4 days ago!. Always loved the game. It's unlike anything else I've played. I joined Ryzom in November 2004. After many games from WoW to Rift, I'm back. As a matter of fact it's running in the background atm. Just had to check out what was being said
Come join the fun.
aka Mishy of Pyr
the problem with ryzom is that with low population the game sucks , but with if u can play with ppl the game is very enjoyable , however in this days of solo / solo / solo more ...ppl dont like "group content" until endgame.....
i miss the days of grinding lvls with groups
, roaming dungeons (ala eq) or pulling to a spot (ala FFXI)
Skuall, we had more then enough show up for an OP (out post) battle the other night. I was a blast even when Bones, from the other team, walks up and say Hi! because you find yourself listening to tghe coma music.:D
Mishy
Im gonna hop back in this game again at some point; once I have my own place again after a not so great 7 months of unemployment. I'll enjoy it while it lasts for I can never tell how long that will be with this game. If a decent amount of new people dedicated themselves we would be having a lot of fun just like the launch and first 6 months or so was. I'll have fun either way though. I too judge most mmos by the pure amount of fun I had in this game with other people as well as with myself. Will never forget this memorable game.
Ryzom... STILL trash after all these years.
Surprised that this horrible game has survived this long.
Ryzom... Not worth a second look or even a first look!
>:(
What killed it for me back in the beta were the bloody invisible walls blocking you from dropping down even the smallest of ledges, the perma grind of everything and the slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow harvesting/crafting. Some of this points might have been adressed by now, tho.
Khm ... i can like many things in any given games, but what for sure hate is lfg-ing for hours to kill few rat critters. That is not what I consider being fun. And it looks op was fascinated by this. So ... big NO NO for this game. Not even wanting to try.
I first tried Ryzom back during its beta.. I still remember loving the atmosphere of the game, seeing how the weather changes were reflected in-game, how passive animals would come up to you and curiously check you out. The yubos standing up on their hind legs and "pawing" at you.... I also remember wondering about the facility of having the multiple interfaces you could switch between (like multiple desktops in Linux).
The crafting system is awesome. The Stanza system is brilliant, and even harvesting is an interesting task in that game.
I still have the original instruction manual and install CDs :-p.
I played into retail, but quit a little while later, after Nevrax released what I called an "are they out of their minds?!" patch. Speaking of which, who else was here for one of the game's first patches, where it seemed that Nevrax had lost their minds? Yubos were practically invincible - as newbie mobs no less! Forget trying to kill the Ragus and Gingos outside the Matis city... That, along with other really poor changes had a significant number of players leaving the game in disgust.
Nevrax eventually balanced things out more.. but I really still wonder to this day what the heck they were thinking with that patch lol.
Anyway... I've come back a number of times to check it out, and always have a lot of fun for the first couple weeks. Then it sinks in that, aside from hunting creatures, harvesting or crafting - especially at lower levels when you really can't get involved in things like Outpost Battles - there really isnt' all that much to do in the game.
Now, I know I'm probably about to get pounced on by some people who are going to say "Sandbox!! SANDBOX!!!!"
Yes, I know... It's a sandbox MMO... you make your own entertainment. I understand and appreciate that. The thing is, Ryzom never seemed to have enough "tools" in their sandbox, at least for me. Although, in my experiene, it clearly wasn't only the case for me considering how I saw people doing exactly the same small handful of activities they were doing when I'd left.
For example, after I'd left, I'd come back to check it out again once a year or so (except the period it was offline, of course), only to find that the height of "adventure" for many players was still trekking from Tryker-land to Matis-land to Fyros-land, picking up the teleports along the way, just as it was the last time I'd played a year or so before.
I'd ask people "What else have people been doing in this game as far as activities in the past year or so? Has anything new been added?" And the answer always seemed to pretty much boil down to "not much more than what we were doing about a year ago".
Now for those people, that was plenty. They were satisfied, though I believe it probably helped that many of them were role-players, which really does sorta give things a different 'feel' and helps prevent monotony. I could never get into roleplaying in that game for some reason, so maybe that's why.
For as much about Ryzom as I *love*... there's just something about it that's lacking. I don't know what it is.. but I just find myself losing interest in logging in after 2-3 weeks, once the novelty of its systems becomes commonplace and I find myself wanting for something more to bite into...
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
What puzzles me is, people say well it is to empty, not enough players. Umm if you don't play then how is it going to have more players. It never makes sense. You have to stay and bring friends with you to make player base bigger. maybe I am wrong but you have to stay.
"The only game that I've found that was better was a game called Final Fantasy XIV."
Really sorry... but once u typed that your entire review just lost ALL weight.
Ryzom is definatly a good game to get into, and has done much that was 'out of the box' but at the same time, they did the same thing wow did... took the 'good' out of previous games and implmented it into thier own. Wow went with the easymode 'quests' (Where one can just easily snag quests and get ou tthere and into the dirty right away) While ryzom did the crafting thing best.
I wold suggest to everyone to give it a go, it is worth it.
It 'almost' gave me back what asheron's call gave me back in the day, that 'feeling' that your in the right place... but the lack of the ability to jump kinda wrecked the feeling for me in Ryzom
I see your point, and its valid, but there just aren't enough players who want what Ryzom has to offer these days. I suspect that at best, its a niche of a niche, and if it has enough players to sustain it, thats going to have to be good enough. The graphics are now quite outdated, the game play is focused on a demographic thats growing smaller all of the time. Too many bad decisions on the part of the Dev's (mostly past), but these things add up. Bottom line, they missed their window, years past, and its current state is the result. But I do wish them and those who still enjoy the game all the best.
I know Ryzom had a rough history. Heck, when I discovered it, it was down because one of those bad descisions in the past.
But I started to play again last weekend, and found that the server is quite active. I'm not sure if it's because of this article (some said they were in Ryzom because of it, while others found it elsewhre - Mac-stor & linux download), or this activity is normal.
Anyhow, I'm having a good time there so far, but I haven't really seen/done a lot yet