OFFICIAL NEWS

Where are you keeping that history? In your appartment? In your armor? In your mektoub? The history of a MMO is inside the people's minds imho.

If you keep it just in your mind, in private, it doesn't matter to the world, just to you. But the histories on three servers differ. Who won the temple wars? Is Dexton alive or not? Was there a war between Matis and Fyros? Who saw Muang, and where? What has Salazar done, if he did anything at all, as a Filiria? Who the hell is Salazar, by the way? We wrote the history of three worlds to have it thrown away, for it does not fit in one.

The RP history in a persistant world is kept in the course of events and developments. These developments were always allowed to differ slightly among the shards. On Leanon, the conflicts between Fyros and Matis were reconciled short before a war, on Ari and Ani, war broke out with victory/defeat for different sides as I recall. On Ari, Imperator Dexton died, on Leanon, I still hold an axe handed to me by Dexton for contributing to save his life, on Aniro, I don't know. My apartment holds a memorial plate granted by the Imperial Family and Senate for my actions in this case.

All that will be gone and wiped out, surviving only in a couple of screenshots. Damn sad, but I don't see a way to preserve it. When RPing with former Aniro and Ari players, I shall have to learn their views, histories, styles of RP. This will be a challenge, but I am willing to take it. But it would be foolish to deny what we have lost.

Additionally: While frantically digging in order to save Dexton's life, I learnt better ways of harvesting and completed my lvl 200 in desert and 190 in prime roots. Sure I shall never forget that.

Agree, I stand corrected. But ever since Still Wyller died and the voting was bent to "developing needs" this part died pretty much for me.

By the way... at what point in histroy is the new server starting?

I, like many who have posted, felt angry and betrayed by this decision. I will probably give the wiped server a chance. But, getting my wife to come back with me may be impossible.

But, I do feel like despite being called a mature community we are being treated like children who should be seen (most especially through our money) and not heard. I think this diverse community could have and would have helped financially or as free labor to save the massive amount of work put into our character's progression.

If the decision was to help new players by leveling the playing field, I think you are trading a small benefit for a major loss. At least on the server I played on, new players that showed they were more than immature little brats were helped and mentored by the veteren community a tremendous amount.

I am unsure if enough of the mature parts of the community that supported and helped this game survive as long as it has will return to help it restart. If not enough veterens do stick through this, this action will just delay the death of Ryzom, not prevent it.

It would be nice for a developer response to many of the questions/clarifications mentioned in this thread.

I may not have a lot of years invested in Ryzom, but I have 11 years invested in another game, and I can understand the frustration of existing players, who are losing so much of their time and work. I also understand the excitement of a few, for being able to start over and relive "the old days", with all players on semi-equal footing. I don't know how much equal footing comes into play in Ryzom - where I'm from, there is a HUGE class discrepancy between newer and older players. That game is over 15 years old, but I expect this is true of any long-standing game.

When I first heard about the merge, I was a bit upset. Afterall, we hadn't had much time to grow, but we did have our little accomplishments, and these might as well not exist. For a while, I didn't see any point in playing other than to hang out and chat. Then I remembered something. There is... no difference, in the long term, whether I advance my character or not, REGARDLESS of whether the servers merge tomorrow. This is because it's not real life. Nothing I do here will carry forward into my real future. It's a pastime. It's fun. So... if I can enjoy it once, why not enjoy it twice? In the end, it's all illusion anyway. Unreal accomplishments in an unreal universe, providing a real sense of accomplishment - which I could've gotten from real life deeds. I'm choosing to pass (waste?) my time in a virtual world. I mean, really - once you accept that truth, how much does the rest really matter? Accept it and move on. Or don't.

I searched for this game for 10 years. That's how long ago I first started searching for a replacement game. Over the years, I searched several times, browsing, researching, sampling other games - and I never even found the name Ryzom until a few weeks ago. There's really nothing else like this game. There are a few other games that have unique "claims to fame", but Ryzom, like them, is special in the MMORPG universe. And it just so happens that what makes Ryzom special, is one of the dealbreakers in my ongoing search for a new home.

So I'll still be here after the merge, and hopefully for a long time to come. I'm also trying to bring friends in, to enjoy what really is a special place.

Lei

I think the biggest issue people face is not so much the fact of starting over from scratch, but the fact that if things are so dire as to need such a desperate action then the future looks very bleak and it would seem a waste of time starting over if it's unlikely to have much of a future

That and the fact that many long term players simply don't have the time they used to have years ago so have no hope of regaining what they lost anyway

I see the point that the community is what makes the game special and some of that community may remain for whatever time Ryzom has left, but that doesn't provide any incentive to invest any serious grinding time into a game who's days seem to be numbered, and it's not much of a game if you're just bumbling around aimlessly with no real commitment.

In fact I think the community aspect will be damaged somewhat by the merger - playing on a server with people you have no way of communticating with produces its own set of issues which I'm only too familiar with having played a primarily Korean MMO in the past

It's a sad state of affairs, but I believe Ryzom's glory days are long gone if this is the only way forward

Hello from Aniro !

Be sure that we also are very concerned about this very very very bad news. Upset, sad, mad, we all feel the same.

We hope we shall find a solution even though it seams to be a sweet dream :(

The only positive thing is that we will have the great pleasure to meet you all guys ! It will probably be a super mess and I hope we will have a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure it won't last a lot (*), so be ready to enjoy !!!!

See you soon !

(*) I won't pay for that of course, I'm not that dumb ^^

I think if you are gonna do this, the least you can do is make all currently unsubbed accounts active until the wipe, At least then we can go and take screen shots and things of our characters and say good bye to our friends before they are erased forever. In other words if you are going to skrew us at least give us something in return.

Just sayin'.

Hehe Lili is asking for a reach around :)

Iwi

You know it! :p

sir cotare did tell me the ryzom armory will stay frozen after the wipe so could add api data there as a memory, a big graveyard for all died homins

-- Midnight in what timezone, anyway?

UTC probably.

As for the announcement. Reading through it it seems like it's a suicidal decision for Ryzom. I already see long time subscribers leaving, everyone that remains is in poor spirits... If the community leaves then Ryzom will die. The community is the best part of ryzom. Without the community there will be no more Ryzom.

EDIT:
Stuff like wiping characterss is acceptable only on some F2P private servers, that is including the fact that most of them have rates of x10 up to x 300 or more enabling players to recover their end game character in an instant. IMHO something like this seems unaceptable on a P2P MMO since some all time players invested a ton of money in this game and the team in charge shouldnt simply take it away from them. It's simply morally wrong.

PS: The 2x exp rate for Surscribers is some kind of bad joke...

Ive sent my message. 2 accounts unsubbed. if they change their minds about the total wipe I'll reconsider.