Some hope within the Darkness!

[darkcred]

I just wanted to add some of my personal experiences with MMO's and how things may go for the future of Ryzom, and hopefully I can bring some hope to the darkeness we are currently experiencing.

A little background on myself first: I used to work for the company Avaria(www.mmolands.com) before it was handed off to Rapid Reality(www.mmocenter.com) I had worked with Avaria for probably close to 2 years when the "merger" occured. Before that we had been creating a labor of love known as Endless Ages, some of you may have heard of it, some maybe not. Ryzom actually reminds me alot of Endless Ages with it's completely original story line, concept ,and execution. There are however more similarities.

Unfortunately Endless Ages also came to a point in time where it was no longer profitable for the Owner to maintain, so he decided to sell the game in parts, and in doing so, maintained full Intilectual rights, as well as gaining the funding to allow it to be maintained indefinately.

Here is what he did, and this is also possibly what could occur in this situation.

1. He sold non exclusive engine rights to the military (Honestly Cannot disclose more than that)

2. He sold non exclusive rights to an underdog upcomming Asian gaming company. Endless had next to no Asian market, he lost nothing from venture and gained a sizable amount of capital.

3. He sold a slightly different version of his engine to Kaneva (a well known free source mmo engine) once again, non exclusive to any of his current buisness dealings, he still held all intilectual rights and by this time had accumulated a SIZABLE amount of money.

4. He finally decided he wanted to not be the sole decision maker, and quite frankly was tired of all the work, he had plenty of profit, but was still not making anything from upkeeping the Endless Ages servers. All money had been made from the non exclusive transactions he had been able to make. HE was able to actually hire on another person, even though making no profit from Endless Ages supscriptions at this time, he was able to mentor this person and teach him to take over all mundane tasks, as well as more complicated ones.

5. Finally he found Rapid Reality, a new company using a version of the kaneva engine.....HIS engine, who through negotiations, and a bit of investor arm twisting, bought the servers, and physical properties of Endless Ages, while "hiring" the creator and owner of Endless Ages to maintain the engine (his true love) While they maintained the managemant, payment, and servers (his 1 bane, lol)

Here is where I was going with all of this, www.mmolands.com is still up, Endless Ages, a game whose quest creation and world building cost me many years of my life, a game that has the names of my family and children as NPC's, I would have been TRUELY saddened to see it go, but it has not, even though it was far more likely to die than Ryzom is now.....Have hope! If Endless Ages can make it, I guarentee Ryzom will make it further!

[flume641]

I just wanted to add some of my personal experiences with MMO's and how things may go for the future of Ryzom, and hopefully I can bring some hope to the darkeness we are currently experiencing.

A little background on myself first: I used to work for the company Avaria(www.mmolands.com) before it was handed off to Rapid Reality(www.mmocenter.com) I had worked with Avaria for probably close to 2 years when the "merger" occured. Before that we had been creating a labor of love known as Endless Ages, some of you may have heard of it, some maybe not. Ryzom actually reminds me alot of Endless Ages with it's completely original story line, concept ,and execution. There are however more similarities.

Unfortunately Endless Ages also came to a point in time where it was no longer profitable for the Owner to maintain, so he decided to sell the game in parts, and in doing so, maintained full Intilectual rights, as well as gaining the funding to allow it to be maintained indefinately.

Here is what he did, and this is also possibly what could occur in this situation.

1. He sold non exclusive engine rights to the military (Honestly Cannot disclose more than that)

2. He sold non exclusive rights to an underdog upcomming Asian gaming company. Endless had next to no Asian market, he lost nothing from venture and gained a sizable amount of capital.

3. He sold a slightly different version of his engine to Kaneva (a well known free source mmo engine) once again, non exclusive to any of his current buisness dealings, he still held all intilectual rights and by this time had accumulated a SIZABLE amount of money.

4. He finally decided he wanted to not be the sole decision maker, and quite frankly was tired of all the work, he had plenty of profit, but was still not making anything from upkeeping the Endless Ages servers. All money had been made from the non exclusive transactions he had been able to make. HE was able to actually hire on another person, even though making no profit from Endless Ages supscriptions at this time, he was able to mentor this person and teach him to take over all mundane tasks, as well as more complicated ones.

5. Finally he found Rapid Reality, a new company using a version of the kaneva engine.....HIS engine, who through negotiations, and a bit of investor arm twisting, bought the servers, and physical properties of Endless Ages, while "hiring" the creator and owner of Endless Ages to maintain the engine (his true love) While they maintained the managemant, payment, and servers (his 1 bane, lol)

Here is where I was going with all of this, www.mmolands.com is still up, Endless Ages, a game whose quest creation and world building cost me many years of my life, a game that has the names of my family and children as NPC's, I would have been TRUELY saddened to see it go, but it has not, even though it was far more likely to die than Ryzom is now.....Have hope! If Endless Ages can make it, I guarentee Ryzom will make it further!

*gives one BIIIIG hug*

[raynes]

Thanks for the post.

I have to say that no matter what you say though, there are still going to be those that say Ryzom is finished. Sad but true.

[darkcred]

Yes, but the optimism of the community may not be required in this venture :)

[rundll32]

Yes, but the optimism of the community may not be required in this venture :)

Couldn't have said it better. At the end of the day 98% of the people posting have absolutely 0 experience in the field, and basically dont know what theyre talking about.

[kirzen]

Couldn't have said it better. At the end of the day 98% of the people posting have absolutely 0 experience in the field, and basically dont know what theyre talking about.

But, you must admit that that's equally split down the lines of the pessimists and optimists, neither side is fully vested with people who know the real situation, and no one is qualified to really come to conclusions about where the game's headed...

We just have a lot of people with a combination of strong opinions, a love of good, roaring arguements, and a love for the game.

[carpazo]

Moreover, look at Ultima Online that was relased in 1996. It's still going strong. Ryzom will never die :)

[gretchen]

Hey, soulsnatcher has been using terms like positive, and bright future. I think this is as close to a hint as that person can drop.

I'm not going to waste too much time worrying about it because:

1. Worrying causes grey hairs, and

2. There isn't much of anything that the player base can do to affect the business negotiations...I'd be surprised if even SOE was turned away by player dislike, even assuming SOE was one of the suitors and that they would read the boards, or care about what they read.

So, I'm resolved to keep chin up and wait and see. Probably least likely to happen is Ryzom fading to black.

I mean, it shares top rating on popularity on mmorpg.com with titles like EQII. Someone will snap it up.

[acridiel]

And pople what I realy would love to see would be
"Some hope within the Dorkness" of all thats happening in another certain thread. *sigh*

*signing off for today*
Acridiel

[aardnebb]

I have never known a CSR to lie. We have all said again and again we have the best support staff in any MMO. Soulsnatcher says things are looking positive. What more needs to be said?

I'm optimistic :)

[rundll32]

But, you must admit that that's equally split down the lines of the pessimists and optimists, neither side is fully vested with people who know the real situation, and no one is qualified to really come to conclusions about where the game's headed...


True, im just talking about those roaring about hoaxes and scams and touching on criminal law, and guestimating how many millions nevrax is in debt by, and guestimating how much someone would need to buy them out, and la la la. When no one actually knows anything outside of the negotiations.

Were just stressing out souls who wants to tell us but cant. Imo souls is a solitary lottery winner. Since the age of 5 he had been in schooling, preparing for the day that he would have to work to make a living, he sat through school, through college, maybe through university. Then he hit the jackpot and everything he had been preparing himself for, earning a living, was no longer required. Feeling lost and confused he turned to ryzom, working for nevrax, watching over atys as a labour of love, demanding nothing in return. Now we are blessed. Souls fortune, considerably larger than it once was, due to the interest accrued whilst he worried about dappers, shall now save the day. Have a little faith. Anything could happen :D

[fixcrash]

Soulsnatcher says things are looking positive.


but souls is the bringer of evil:P

[darkcred]

Heh, yeah, Souls definately makes things seem bright, unfortunately he may not be privy to certain discussions involved between Nev and interested buying, not even sure if Soul is a paid employee, but regardless, he has been around far longer than I, so If he thinks things are bright, I take his word on it :D

[mithur]

Meybe I'm kind of naive, but I don't think that the situation will be as black as some (much) people are talking.

Ryzon has much more people than other MMORPG in the market; and from far, the most loyal community of users (each one of them paying the feed). That is a valuable assert for any MMORPG company. Maybe the Ryzon development will be slowed? It could be. Maybe a massive marketing campaing could be done, and the community can be flooded by "Killer Kidzs", making a Eternal September (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September)? It could happen, yes.

But I think that Ryzom will no end. For a buying company with means, making a fresh start, it's profitable. And, I think, that's the key. So I think that soul's optimism is logical...