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The Saga of Ryzom: Dev Journal by Jessica Mulligan
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Jessica Mulligan, the Executive Producer at Nevrax, has penned for us an English-language exclusive developer journal on player-controlled content in the upcoming Ryzom Ring expansion pack.
;) For years, players of massively-multiplayer online games (MMOs) have been asking nay, begging for the ability to actually affect the story and landscape of an MMO world. They want to make a difference by building and running quests, populating new maps with buildings and NPCs and missions, build out Guild spaces with more than just a pre-fab house, have a chance at having their stories integrated into the worlds overall story arc. In short, players want to have some control of how the world is shaped, grows and changes.
Damn near every online game already has these tools in some form; they just restrict them to the developers by making sure that only developers can use them. Sure, some tools require more knowledge to use than the average gamer possesses, such as using a scripting language, but many tools can be easily handed off to players with some simple modifications. Now, that list might look like a lot, but is that really so much to ask for, when most of the tools are already built? |
You can read her article here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
This sounds interesting. Of course, Bioware was first to do this in their RPG called Neverwinter Nights, which was not a mmorpg, but still it is the same idea, and with the tools they gave to players, there have been some persistant worlds created for NWN that could be considered a mmorpg.
Now, let's see if Nevrax can release their expansion without the long list of bugs and incomplete features, like they did with the original game.
I wouldn't be so harsh if it wasn't for the blatant arrogance of that letter.
This is the first thing to come from Nevrax that actually sounds hopeful. I really like how she made the point that they would probably be ignored by the major industry players, but that didn't matter.
It's got my attention!
I can't wait for Ryzom Ring, it does truely sound revolutionary. Three Months does sound realistic too, after all it has been in player alpha testing for 1-2 months already :P
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Kibs
Avatar by Ema
Playing: The Saga of Ryzom since march 2004
This really sounds great. I do not have any experience with the Saga of Ryzom (do they offer a free trial?) but i know a lot people who would love to do that (whereas I would be more the type to enjoy the content.
On the other hand i wonder how they prevent people from making their own loot farm (so to say)?
I do not think, as the writer states, that the others will ignore this. They will probably now be rushing to their local store and buy a copy of it to see how it is ;-)
Man, I wish it was here already... sounds sooo cool
The concept is a good one. But.. the concept of the original Ryzom game was also very interesting and revolutionary. The ability for players to have an impact on the Story was already included in the game as it was released (and sold to customers) in september 2004.
So what's new with Ryzom Ring ? Is there any chance we get to create our own guild buildings when this possibility was already a feature in the original game, and was never released by "lack of resources". Nevrax recently fired many developers and artists, they can tell us they want to give "power to the players", but do THEY have the power themselves to build something really innovative in their game ?
From what I heard from alpha testers, the answer is clearly no : and to my knowledge no one has tested any of theses "revolutionary features" Mrs Mulligan speaks about... That's for "soon", "later", but atm the Ryzom Ring is only a very poor map editor, with basic contents still missing, such as copy-pasting functions for NPC creation (create your 20 "guards" one by one...), or interactivity in NPC dialogs.
Well, "you are there.. what would you do with a blank map", that's really the question.... What if the map is really blank ? Doing an editor is not an easy thing, it can't be left to improvization or haste.
Wait & See... but there are lots of players - and lots of role-players - still waiting for this original universe to come to life, and who don't need any "tool" to play with it. Only background information, an exciting story, and in-game long-awaited features (guild halls, guild missions, encyclopedia, a fully functional craft system, aso). These players are waiting, but... away from Ryzom, and maybe even away from the Ring, if this has to be considered by Nevrax as the only real development for this game for the months to come.
Silvius/Thanys
Roleplayer, Aniro - EncyclopAtys
Players are called that for a reason. We play. We don't develop. We leave that to professionals. Don't be falsely accusing gamers of "begging" for the ability to make their own content. Very few people have ever asked for this. It is best to let the professionals run the games. After all, players are the ones who foot the bill.
"From what I heard from alpha testers, the answer is clearly no : and to my knowledge no one has tested any of theses "revolutionary features" Mrs Mulligan speaks about... That's for "soon", "later", but atm the Ryzom Ring is only a very poor map editor, with basic contents still missing, such as copy-pasting functions for NPC creation (create your 20 "guards" one by one...), or interactivity in NPC dialogs."
This is why there is an NDA on the alpha test...whoever said that is likely breaking theirs.
It is in alpha testing, which means it is not yet complete in any way. Part of the reason NDAs exist on such tests is so people don't go and tell others who aren't in the test, "it's no good, all the features they talked about aren't in it, it's this and this and that and it's never going to improve," etc.
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
What is "content" in a MMORPG ? And what is "adding more content" when only 20 or 30% of the original concept's "content" is already in game ? Being able to set up a "defend the village attacked by monsters" scenario in X different maps, is it "more content" or only another way to say "we ain't able to do it anymore, do it yourselves" ?
Players have been begging for more content in MMORPGs, that's right, and fore more ways to have an impact on the Story. But that's a 'natural' thing when we speak about RPGs. That's not what guided publishers into this evolution. There have been some debates about this, in the past years.
I will only quote one of these professionals speaking about this evolution : Mrs Mulligan herself, who said in june 2002 :
Source : Biting the Hand, 25 june 2002.
The Ryzom Ring is thus just a way to lower development costs for a company already about to collapse from tremendous debts. And it is'nt even sure Nevrax's still able to do this editor correctly, for actual and future players satisfaction.
"Once a persistent world is launched, the players take ownership and will play it in ways the designers never dreamed they would."... Well, Mrs Mulligan, you mentioned Ultima Online in your post, where you can "only" place a house somewhere and be lucky enough to have vendors in it to sell your character's items... The fact is this "minimum" is not possible in The Saga of Ryzom, where you can't invite anyone in your flat, nor have any "guild NPC", which however was in the game's original concept (and game manual...).
In short, give us the tools to play our characters in a RPG world, not in instancied zones where the lack of content will not anymore be the developer's fault, but the player's. For lower costs, but lower players' satisfaction too, I guess.
I think its just great that we can make our own 'content'. That gives us (even) more to do in the game. And while we are all having fun with our own content, the devs can focus on other more important things... (outposts, fixing range, other things that were intended...).
(now that sounds pretty logic 
)
Maybe its just wishfull thinking, but I think RR will be great! With the community that Ryzom has, the player made missions will mostly be awesome I think! And I really dont see a problem in having fun in playermade missions or devs made missions... as long I can have fun, I'm happy
I completely disagree. Look at Neverwinter Nights, people love that and the ability to create your own content is central to that game. I can also tell you that while playing Earth and Beyond one of the things people were begging for was exploration content where the players found and settled new star systems.
Not all players are there to do generic boring quests. It's simply what is available now.
Ryzom Ring does sound like an idea with potential.
To me though even if Ryzom Ring brings all sorts of ingenious player made maps and missions there is still one thing lacking. If you beat or lose every single player or dev created mission in the game the story doesn't change. The kitin are still there trying to kill all the homins.
What attracted me to Ryzom was in concept a very simple game. One with two sides at war (kitin vs. homin) where one will eventually win. Forever changing the one shared world. Unfortunatly the war is only text on a web page that no player can do anything to affect and adding instances created by players will not change that.
I wish she'd take her own advice
Same goes for an old PvP article of hers.
People did take Ryzom in a different direction and have largely been browbeaten back into 'conforming'. Though hopefully R2 will give an outlet for those frustrations.
I might be bitching, but I still think the game is the best option currently out there.
Postmortem Studios
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It is truly a great and wonderful concept... along with all the others Ryzom sold us on at release and failed to deliver.
I expect Nevrax to give up on it soon and go back to trying to force people to enjoy getting ganked without a chance at defense and continue to ban any critics they might have from their own forums.
So let's get this straight...
They want me to pay a monthly fee, so I can do their job for them, and deal with questionable quality from other amateurs? Please.
As several people have stated, BioWare has already done the player-contributed-content model with Neverwinter Nights. The biggest difference? You're not paying them for the privelege of continuing to support the game. Add to this the fact that their system is solid (and the NWN2 system will be even moreso) as opposed to buggy and flawed, and I can't see any reason that someone would actually pay for Ryzom.
Unless they're planning to pay the players as if they were devs, of course. But somehow I don't think that fits in too well with their business plan. I'll just stick with NWN.
I still hold true to the fact that Ryzom is a powerfully wonderful game with so much potential it hurts to think about it and Ryzom Ring is a spectacular idea and SoR's amazing community is certainly well deserving of these tools.
That being said, in my oppinion using Ryzom Ring as the first expansion for a game with the resounding issues that SoR has just seems a little distastefull to me. Put in a huge content expansion, work in some new features, clean up the fairly useless OP's, getting more people playing, get people together, those are the things Ryzom needs. As best I can tell, this is just going to be used a select few who comfortable with such tools and it's going to cause an even bigger gap between players.
Just my oppinion though, hopefully I'm and this does really well for Nevrax.
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This sounds like good stuff. I think I will be piloting this for our gaming clan. Everyone is playing dark and light right now in beta, but this sounds like it's even cooler.
Some questions:
How will you guys get around "crowding". IE what happens when the maps fill up. Will we be able to tack on more land or sea at the edge of the map?
Will all these areas be available for other players to come in and "raid"?
Can you designate your area as a PvP area?
Bear in mind, I know nothing about this game.
-Viza