Ryzom: Read the Second Part of David Cohen's editorial note

We've tried to make Ryzom work on more realistic lines, by having changing seasons that have an impact on the resources you can find in each continent and the behavior of the creatures there. Added on to that is the fact that players, by their actions, can change the environment in subtle ways means that there are many different variables for each area.

In the real world there are areas of the world like Canada where if you're hiking around during winter you have the possibility of running into a bear. Now this bear might be very angry during this time because he's not eaten enough food previously and has found himself waking up in the wrong season with an empty belly. The bear might be very aggressive and try and eat you! This is what we've tried to mirror in the game. You `might' run into certain animals in certain seasons on certain continents, but as the animals move around and have their own behavior patterns. They won't just be on the same spot every time. When you run into them sometime they'll be more aggressive depending on season or maybe because of what has been going on in their local environment, such as whether players have been killing off their food supply.

We've created Ryzom so it will be very easy for us to go in and tweak the gameplay and the environments how we want at later stages of the game and I think this is something that is directly opposed to many current MMORPGs. What we don't have however is the massive exposure of a game like EverQuest and it is very difficult for emerging online games to catch up with that. But, on the other hand, it is difficult for the established games to attract new players because they have been going for so many years and have so many expansion packs that they can seem very hard to get into for the newbie player. The big games are very profitable but there is a big entrance barrier associated with them.

MMORPGs are very challenging to create in terms level of design, finance, getting a big team working in the same direction and creating a story that keeps nourishing the game systems. The genre is still very new and we still don't know how long the life cycle of these games are going to be, but they do generate a lot of loyal fans.

The goal for me is to help create alternative realities, as I suggested in my last editorial notes on the `Vision of Ryzom' we might not be able to be immortal but we can be multiple. We are multiple already even though we might not realise it. We have different groups of friend from different things; we have different communities so why not have another one online? It's different in terms of environment but it's just a different circle of friends. To me MMORPGs are a normal extension to already established human social behavior and I think the community aspect of these games will become more and more important in the future and it's something that we've focuses on a lot in The Saga of Ryzom.

I think the current audience for online games has something of the pioneer spirit about them. They are interested in exploring new lands and having new experiences. There is a lot of competition out there of course, but Ryzom has a very different philosophy to many existing games. We want to genuinely surprise the player by proposing something different. I'm sure that ideas like the Modular Action System and the mass combat aspect found in Ryzom will be picked up by other games, but this is good; this is what we need if we are all to move forward and offer players more imaginative and immersive experiences online.