Ryzom Goes Free to Play

[BaDToaD]

Ryzom a rather nice Full 3D MMORPG has gone free to play as of 3rd March

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pL1-79ZJ3G8?feature=oembed

Free to play


What I didn't realise is that Ryzom got a Linux Client a few months ago and there is source code available. I'm no programmer but maybe one of the devs could take a look because this would be a killer app if we could get it running on the Pandora.

 

[mcobit]

Of course this would e a killer app, but it will be a lot of work for someone who knows what hes doing and even then it is not guaranteed, that it will run at a decent speed.

 

[Coldbird]

A lot of work, but the one who does it would be a hero never forgotten.

 

[cosurgi]

A lot of work, but the one who does it would be a hero never forgotten.

or a never forgotten team, and a never forgotten github source repo... (or svn, or bzr, or..)

 

[Coldbird]

From what I read thought its a bit more than just writing a OpenGLES graphic wrapup for this one though...


Audio System seems to be closed source still.. giving me a bit of headache on how we would be ment to do this properly.


The Audio System loose ends would require a bit of fiddling, more than I like honestly... hm..

 

[BaDToaD]

From what I read thought its a bit more than just writing a OpenGLES graphic wrapup for this one though...


Audio System seems to be closed source still.. giving me a bit of headache on how we would be ment to do this properly.


The Audio System loose ends would require a bit of fiddling, more than I like honestly... hm..

Is it worth asking for the audio source? They might find the Pandora interesting. After all they could have the first 3D pocket MMO it would be a hell of marketing tool both for Ryzom and the Pandora.

 

[Coldbird]

That might be true, but if they really were interested in the plattform I'm sure they would be doing it themselves. :mellow:

 

[cosurgi]

An initial port without audio would be good for start.

 

[kloplop321]

An initial port without audio would be good for start.

At least the graphics would be a great demo of the hardware if it is efficient.

 

[Coldbird]

An initial port without audio would be good for start.

At least the graphics would be a great demo of the hardware if it is efficient.

Hell yeah it would. However I lack experience with OpenGL(ES) so I prefer doing my own small experiments with it first before I even consider doing such a OpenGL intensive porting task.

 

[BaDToaD]

Hell yeah it would. However I lack experience with OpenGL(ES) so I prefer doing my own small experiments with it first before I even consider doing such a OpenGL intensive porting task.

I for one, look forward to hearing how you get on.

 

[Cloudef]

Ok, Looked at the sources.. First of all there are lots of files, so it's a huge project.


It also uses assembly on some parts of code, and you need to write your own GLES renderer for this really.


It is possible, but takes time and need to figure out code.

 

[Wootson]

That might be true, but if they really were interested in the plattform I'm sure they would be doing it themselves. :mellow:

Well, it is not that simple.


With only a couple of thousand Pandora's out there it's not very efficient for the Ryzom developers to convert the game to a different platform. In the end they need paying subscribers to the game to keep it up, and those subscribers will only come in very small amounts from a new platform. Let's take the Pandora for example:

• Approximately 8.000 Pandora's out there this year (with a little luck);
  
• Approximately 25% of that would be interested in a MMORPG;
  
• And only a small amount of that will be interested in something like Ryzom;
  
• And an even smaller amount of that will become a paying subscriber.
  

So in the end the Ryzom developers would be porting this game for maybe 50 to 250 (absolute max.) subscribers. This game is just way too big to port in a small amount of time, so it would not be efficient to make it happen. Think thousands of man-hours and not enough money generated from all the hard work.


However, the game is now open source and a group of people behind any platform could form a team and actually make it happen. But you got to know beforehand that all this work does not pay in the end (as in money for your work), as only the official Ryzom team generates the money.So yeah, you are basically doing free slavery work for someone else while they generate all the goodies from it. But hey, at least you get added to the credit section which nobody ever reads!

 

[myownlittlworld]

That might be true, but if they really were interested in the plattform I'm sure they would be doing it themselves. :mellow:

Well, it is not that simple.


[...snip...]


So in the end the Ryzom developers would be porting this game for maybe 50 to 250 (absolute max.) subscribers.


However, the game is now open source and a group of people behind any platform could form a team and actually make it happen. But you got to know beforehand that all this work does not pay in the end (as in money for your work), as only the official Ryzom team generates the money.So yeah, you are basically doing free slavery work for someone else while they generate all the goodies from it. But hey, at least you get added to the credit section which nobody ever reads!

Well, it's not that simple.


Ryzom, in the full Free Software spirit, doesn't lock players into any particular server. Anyone can host a Ryzom server and charge (or not) any amount for subscriptions. So, you're really generating your own goodies, usable by you and your ten-thousand closest friends. Confusing free work with non-constructive work is silly.

 

[Wootson]

http://dev.ryzom.com/wiki/ryzom/DevelopersFAQ

Can I sell projects based on Ryzom or charge for subscriptions?

If you reuse the graphics assets of Ryzom for your own game/project, you can sell it, just follow Creative Commons License Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.


If you reuse the source code of Ryzom for your own game/project, you can sell it but you have to follow the term of the AGPLv3 license. For example, you'll have to release the source code of your project under the same AGPLv3 license (the client and the server).

Besides, I never said anywhere that it would be non-constructive work. And you also gotta know that charging for your own Ryzom server is not very likely to get any subscribers, because the next guy on the Internetz can copy anything and everything you host and set up his or her own services.


If I remember correctly, in the beginning it was not the plan of the Ryzom developers to give the server-side code out of hand in Creative Commons form. First it was just the client, in a limited form.


It would have been nice if the game succeeded on its own though. But unfortunately the MMORPG market is completely saturated (for several years already) and even the best games can't keep their heads up.