MMO fans who thought they saw the end of The Saga of Ryzomwill be surprised to note that the game is coming back yet again. Find out more about the incredible story behind Saga of Ryzom's return (as well as if you're eligible to play it) after the jump!

 

With new owners and a substantial fanbase, it seems The Saga of Ryzom is still far from dead. Nevrax's MMO will continue under the auspices of German company Gameforge AG, and they recently put up word of the return of subscription fees fees for the game.

Gone, however, are the days when players could pay for a year's worth of gaming in advance. Instead, you can now choose an appropriate gaming subscription for one, three, or six months, depending on your own budget. You'll have to pay for the whole selected period as soon as you choose your rate though. For the rates themselves, the screenshot below lists them all down for you:

The folks at Ryzom do note that if you haven't changes your subscription rate from the previous setups created by Nevrax, your subscription will be automatically renewed unless you change it. In other words, make sure you check their site and update your subscription information accordingly.

The good news is that The Saga of Ryzom will live on. The bad news is that it won't be in the hands of the open source community.

The news posted on the official Ryzom website notes positively that Nevrax's former MMORPG was bought by Gameforfge, and that they are announcing the re-opening of the billing system to let people re-subscribe. It's definitely good news for the RPG and for a good number of its players, but it's also saddening news for another dedicated group of folks who were hoping to make Ryzom completely open-source. 

The Free Ryzom Campaign wasn't able to pull off its last ditch attempt to buy the game, despite increasing support from different communities and a substantial pledge from the Free Software Foundation. They aren't giving up though, and even if they weren't able to get Ryzom, they were still able to pull something amazing off.

As Xavier Antoviaque writes in Ryzom.org's forums,

Even if a conventional company is winning the bid here, the campaign is still a success. It has made a lot of noise on the Net, it has been covered by mainstream media, we have found two FOSS investors, we have got the backing of the FSF, 170K euro of donation pledges have been registered, and – perhaps the most important – we have found we were not alone dreaming having of own our A-Grade MMORPG, our own world.

The Free Ryzom Campaign is setting its sights on continuing, perhaps attempting to grab another MMO to turn into open-source. If they do manage to pull it off, it'll be a great achievement for the open source community. Let's hope they find something new to take on, and wish them well.

If we were to assess Ryzom's current situation, we'd say its future isn't as bad as we thought it would be weeks ago. There have been efforts to save the game through the Free Ryzom Campaign, wherein a community of Ryzom faithfuls hopes to acquire the rights to the game for €100,000. But as it stands, there are quite a number of take over offers for the ill-fated developer Nevrax. The said offers have been officially presented and the court ruled that Nevrax is to continue normal operations until Ryzom gets a new owner.

The names of the prospective buyers are kept in secrecy, but Nevrax hopes to reveal some pertinent information between December 12 and 19. This is the first confirmation that a company (or companies) will be picking the game up.

This time, the waiting is sweet, knowing that Ryzom is here to stay. We're one with the Ryzom community in hoping that the game falls into the hand of a worthy company.

Now this is what you call a fanbase. Despite some sobering news about the impending liquidation of Nevrax, the company that developed The Saga of Ryzom, some of its developers and a good number of folks who've played the game or like the idea of an open-source MMO code have banded together in an attempt to free Ryzom, in one sense of the word.

The Free Ryzom Campaign is an attempt by the community to acquire the rights to the game - the source code, artwork, and game data - to give the community the chance to maintain Ryzom and steer the course the MMO will be taking in the future.

To do that, the campaign asks for volunteers to chip in even a little bit of their cash so that the campaign can propose to the person heading the liquidation process for the sale of the game. At 100,000 euro, the price is steep, but it could be very worthwhile in the long run.

What would this mean, if it succeeds? Besides keeping a pretty good RPG from falling into obscurity, imagine what talented programmers and artists could do with the base source code of an entire MMORPG. The Free Ryzom Campaign's website states:

For this relatively small price, the community would obtain a game, which as of the time of writing this was tied for first place on MMORPG.com, as rated by the players. Developers would be able to build their own worlds and servers, based on the code, artwork and tools used in a #3 rated MMORG (sic) on MMORPG.com.

They're only one quarter of the way to reaching the €100,000 goal they've set for themselves. Hopefully, with some help from a lot of interested parties and members of the open-source community, the Campaign can make a precedent for the creation of an open source MMORPG that everyone can get into, as well as keep a saga alive.

It seems that the French videogame community are going to have tough days ahead of it as the European Union just turned its sights to the booming industry. Currently, they are enjoying certain privileges, like tax breaks and other government incentives. The EU Competition Commission on the other hand, is thinking if they might have broken some rules.

"We must be sure that the measure will promote only genuine cultural projects and that it will not have the effect of an industrial policy instrument in favour of the videogames sector," explained Neelie Kroes, a commissioner of the said government agency. Kroes also mentioned an initial investigation, wherein they stated that the French scheme "may give rise to a potentially broad interpretation and it is not clear that they make it possible to select only videogames with a cultural content."

Developer trade group Association des Producteurs d'Oeuvres Multimedia together with the French government set up the scheme back in 2003. Accordingly, the objectives of the act are to promote culture, maintain and develop the videogame industry in France as well as for educational and training initiatives.

On a related matter, French company Nevrax and developer of MMO game Ryzom, has been on the gaming news these past few days. Accordingly, the company is soon to cease operations because of major financial woes.

While Ryzom faithfuls have been assured that the game will "continue to run and be supported" by its creators, yesterday was indeed a bad day for the two-year old MMO. Its French developer Nevrax, as you might be aware by now, will soon enter into receivership. That's actually a nice way of putting it but in plain and painful words, that only means the company will soon cease to exist.

The game's official forum site is currently wrecked with emotions, running from shock, sadness and the more laudable hope and resolve. It is in this light that heads of Ryzom's community just stepped up and released a statement for all its followers. "Ryzom will continue to run and evolve," reads one of the posts. Accordingly, several companies and individuals are actively engaged in negotiations to take over the game.

Community leaders furthermore warns people about rumors surrounding Nevrax. As it is, the company's fate is no longer in its hands so it is inappropriate to listen to such. "You may see 'news' stories appearing here and there about Nevrax going under, but you will still hear all the facts here first," states one of the leaders.

There has been a bit of confusion about the transition that Ryzom has been undergoing for the past weeks. Players are wondering what this transition is all about. Apparently, French developer Nevrax will enter into receivership next month. This means that the company is placed in the hands of court-appointed receiver who might start liquidating the company's assets to pay back loans. It's one of the first steps in throwing in the MMO towel.

While this is a sad news for Ryzom faithfuls, Nevrax assured players that the game "will continue to run and be supported". So, there's really nothing to be alarmed about. In fact, there's a lot going on behind the scenes, but the developers can't say much about it. In the meantime, it's business as usual.

But while Nevrax is going through the receivership process, players are advised to take note of the following changes in the billing system:

• All existing subscribed accounts created before 3 p.m. GMT will be turned into free account with 1 month of free access.
• It will not be possible to pay to subscribe to a full Ryzom account anymore.
• You will still be able to create a Free Trial account, but at the moment there will be no possibility to upgrade your account and go to mainland. As a result we've removed the level cap for the Free Trial to give players in the Ruins of Silan much more to achieve in the meantime.

Alright, a lot of you Ryzom Ring users have apparently been hounding the net and the Saga of Ryzom forums for more info on the RRP (Ring Reward Points) system and how it works.

So, Daniel Miller, the producer of Nevrax's Ryzom Ring, decided to clear up the issue once and for all by answering ALL the questions you guys posted on their boards (well, not ALL, but rather all RRP-related ones).

First off, Miller says that the system is time-based, so even if you hack and slash like there's no tomorrow, that won't earn you more points than, say, a leisurely scripted adventure.

Miller goes on to discuss the system's concept of "activity" - which basically means that "as long as you're doing something that requires you to be behind your keyboard and interacting with the game we can consider that you're active, and as long as you're active you'll gain reward points at regular intervals." Let's see, what else did he discuss? Ah!

Levels of Reward Points:  There are six different classes of reward points. And they've been following the feedback they've been getting from BOTH the testing team and from you guys so, reward points are now based on the kind of actions you've been performing recently and then doles out an equivalent level of points for the level of actions. Also, the level of the scenario is no longer important.

Non-combat actions and cheating: Before, only combat actions are taken into account when determining a player's activity, but now, they've included non-combat actions as well. Makes sense - just 'cuz you're not in combat doesn't mean you're not behind your computer and aren't active in the game, right? But again, the type of non-combat action you do will affect the level and quantity of Reward Points you'll gain.

As for cheaters, Miller warns that they are aware that some Ryzom Ring users have been cheating using external macro PC software. So if, at any time, you're caught cheating, you will be banned from the game. And this applies not only in Ring, but for the rest of Ryzom as well.

Miller answers TONS more questions that you guys might also be wondering about so if you wanna know more, just click on the read link below and you're all set.

Nevrax has just announced that the new additional server (dubbed as "Cho") for both Ryzom and Ryzom Ring is now open, much to the joy of the game's followers.

“Cho” will offer all Ryzom players a new virgin territory to conquer and control. The server is international with an English-speaking customer support. To be one of Cho’s pioneers and try out Ryzom Ring and Ryzom for free with unlimited playing time, simply visit the Ryzom site and follow the free trial link there.

For those not in the know, The Saga of Ryzom follows the adventures of Atys citizens as they try and reclaim their heritage from the hordes of Kitins who wrought war and genocide to them during the Great Swarming. As part of Atys, you'll get to master the arts of sorcery, war, tradecraft, etc. Ryzom Ring on the other hand, is the innovative extension of Ryzom, which allows users to access Ryzom's creatures, buildings, maps and missions to create their own events and adventures, allowing them to shape the game themselves.