Ryzom bankrupt II - The sequel... - ryzom.org forum archive

An archived topic, merged from 16 captures made between 31 October 2007 and 21 June 2008. ryzom.org · Forum index · All captures

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< Ryzom.org General - English ~ Ryzom bankrupt II - The sequel...

Jizerah

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:34 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 57

For those of you who do not speak french and haven´t heard the bad news yet:

After only 10 months Gameforge France SARL, former Nevrax, has again filed for bankruptcy
as you can see in this official statement!

As stated in this post the servers are gonna be shut down within 3 weeks should there be
no potential investor/buyer by then.
From now on all existing accounts are free of charge, the level cap on the trial island (Silan)
is removed (again) and free-accounts can´t be upgraded to paid-accounts anymore.

Once again a sad day for our community...

Rgds Jizerah

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:40 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

Yup, we have been following the issue, and are currently talking to the liquidator and our lawyers about the new liquidation. We need to have some things cleared out (lists of the assets being sold, in which conditions, etc.); if everything is in order, we'll probably make a new bid.

There is no rush to rerun the campaign, as the news in the media was what attracted GF the last time, but in any case we certainly won't let Ryzom die that easily. ;p

_________________
Xavier.

Final

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:56 pm

Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 5

Lets see what happens this time around...

Final

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:02 pm

Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 5

I'd suggest getting back on the campaigning and drumming up interest in the lead up to a second chance at a buy out. Theres more donations to be had, and alot of players have been through Ryzom that may not of heard of this project.

Joshua Carr

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:43 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 4

I would suggest that you wait for a very decent foot in the door before drumming up too much support. The last thing we would want is anther GameForge *sigh*

But when that foot is in the door, Virtualcitizenship.org /Ryzom.org will have to seriously fire on all cannons! :)

I'll be watching and hoping for a decent outcome this time.

JC

jonasq

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:47 pm

Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 12 Location: Dresden

Lets see, what will happen ..

Round 2 *ding*

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Caution! Independantly thinking person with own opinions and views.

teylini

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 5:00 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 18 Location: Reno, NV USA

If the amount of money raised by the Free Ryzom movement was enough to buy it out. I was wondering where/how the game would be hosted. Could somebody fill me in?

Thank you

Katriell

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 5:06 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 15 Location: GMT-8

Thank you so much for taking a renewed interest in acquiring Ryzom. :) Good luck!

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 5:27 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

teylini wrote:

If the amount of money raised by the Free Ryzom movement was enough to buy it out. I was wondering where/how the game would be hosted. Could somebody fill me in?

Originally we planned to stick with Jolt until we could move the servers to a better place, but we'd have to move quicker this time. For two reasons: this is directly hosted on GF DE servers now, and this is an immediate liquidation, not a liquidation with continuation like the last time (which means all employees are laid of immediately and there is no legal guarantee that the service will stay alive until a new company buys it.

But, I don't worry about this, Valentin Lacambre has created hosting companies for 15 years now. We'd probably do something with http://www.gitoyen.net/ - but we would have to confirm this.

_________________
Xavier.

Komissar

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:02 am

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 3

Hello everybody.

Thank you very much Xavier for caring and not letting go of our favourite world that is Ryzom.

I have a couple of questions if i may:
1. Did any money rem,ain stacked away from the last "donation drive" and if it did would it be enough for a new compaign, or how much more is needed?
2. This short term that we have - 3 weeks - is it possible to do anything at all to acquire the game or at least try something in this short amount of time?
3. If there are any other bidders when can it be known what bidders are there.
4. If the 3 weeks end, noone "saves" the game will it still be possible to do something afterwards or the game will just go "poof"?

Sorry if these are noobish questions...

Sincerely,

_________________
Komissar
Order of the Nameless
Arispottle

jonasq

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:59 am

Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 12 Location: Dresden

Regarding to your first question:
These have been only donation pledges. No real donations at all.

_________________
Caution! Independantly thinking person with own opinions and views.

sfb

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:29 pm

Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 46 Location: Minnesota, USA

Komissar wrote:

1. Did any money rem,ain stacked away from the last "donation drive" and if it did would it be enough for a new compaign, or how much more is needed?

I think someone already answered this but the short version is no - no actual money was collected during the last campaign. All of the funds "raised" were in the form of pledges.

Komissar wrote:

2. This short term that we have - 3 weeks - is it possible to do anything at all to acquire the game or at least try something in this short amount of time?

I think that there is certainly a chance that something can be done. If I recall the history of the last time this happened there wasn't initially a tremendous amount of interest in Ryzom. The Gameforge showed up and gobbled it up. Gameforge has shown, for a second time, that short of dramatic change, Ryzom is not viable for a large commercial entity. I think that while this makes the future of Ryzom cloudy it also will discourage other commercial entities from thinking that they can succeed where not one, but two companies have failed.

Komissar wrote:

4. If the 3 weeks end, noone "saves" the game will it still be possible to do something afterwards or the game will just go "poof"?

Short answer to this is cloudy as well. If no one "saves" Ryzom then Ryzom is gone. However the NeL/OpenNeL community has been working feverishly to, at the very least, salvage the engine that runs Ryzom. It's not the game, but it's better than nothing.

23857628

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:32 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

I'd like to donate about 100€ to that cause, but I don't really see a donation link yet. If you would fill me in on the procedure I'd be thankful. :)

_________________
Zoine
The Crazy Digger Girl

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:58 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

Jonasq and sfb have already given some answers, so I'll only add my 2 cents.

Komissar wrote:

1. Did any money rem,ain stacked away from the last "donation drive" and if it did would it be enough for a new compaign, or how much more is needed?

As mentioned, we only collected pledges the last time. However, there is a good chance most of the pledges still hold (we'll probably ask for confirmations shortly before submitting our bid), and Valentin & Olivier have confirmed they are still commited to buying the game. The FSF pledge is currently under review, they should tell us whether or not it still holds shortly.

Also, something I already said: currently we aren't resuming the donation campaign. Last time it attracted GF, we want to avoid seeing an investor coming, buying it because it's cheap and do nothing with it afterwards. If we learn there is a serious competitor, we may have to resume the campaign, but in the meantime maintining a low profile is probably the best course of action.

Btw, you can disagree with that - someone on the French boards made the remark that such a campaign was what attracted Valentin, Olivier and the FSF, which is quite true. So if you think you'd rather resume the campaign, you can still direct people to the donation form, which still works.

Quote:

2. This short term that we have - 3 weeks - is it possible to do anything at all to acquire the game or at least try something in this short amount of time?

Yes; timing isn't really an issue, as most of the procedure is comparable to the last time, and we have the experience of dealing with it. The main issue is to know whether or not some other buyers will present an offer, to make sure that there is no legal issue interfering with the buyout, and ensure things will go smoothly if we happen to buy the game.

The last point could be somewhat problematic, as one of the differences between the liquidation procedure back in November and the one we are facing today is the fact that the court didn't order to maintain the company activity. So basically all the devs are currently being laid of (and since they are burned out, we probably won't be able to hire some of them back afterwards), and that Gameforge DE keeps running the servers for free - they could stop them anytime, if they help the buyer to make a smooth transition, it would be only to be fair with the game and the community.

Quote:

3. If there are any other bidders when can it be known what bidders are there.

Nothing for sure. We have doubts about one in particular - the one which tried to buy Ryzom the last time and went second after Gameforge.

Quote:

4. If the 3 weeks end, noone "saves" the game will it still be possible to do something afterwards or the game will just go "poof"?

The rights would probably be handed over to the main creditor, which in this case should be the French State, as they have to pay for the missing salaries and layoff compensations. Theorically, it would still be possible to buy it back, but it's the worst case scenario, we don't want to have to face it.

_________________
Xavier.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:59 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

23857628 wrote:

I'd like to donate about 100€ to that cause, but I don't really see a donation link yet. If you would fill me in on the procedure I'd be thankful. :)

http://www.ryzom.org/donation/new :)

_________________
Xavier.

Hekla

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:56 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

One question was raised in the ryzom.com forums, pertaining to the risk of seeing several flavors of Ryzom appear, since a full GPL licence might enable anyone to host a Ryzom server and change code. This, as far as I can see, is the main argument that is preventing some players from fully backing you.

In essence, it would be nice to know what clauses in the proposed license will address and prevent this from happening on a large scale and divide the community.

Kishan

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 3:12 pm

Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 28

Hekla wrote:

(sorry for my poor english =))

In my mind, as said Xavier on the french board, this risk seems to be low. Possibly we will see ones little servers but a big server like actuals needs lot of ressources and is expensive. Who will spend its money juste to make its own ?

I find out the old bugdet : http://www.ryzom.org/page/project_budget
There you can see : Serveur (Dell PowerEdge SC1425, Bi-Xeon 3.2 Ghz, 4 Go RAM) qté 12 piece: 2600€ total:31200€

And it is only for one shard as i know. Who will do it ?
Thus, i think the community won't explod :)

_________________
Kishan / Koshin ig

Hekla

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 3:40 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

Obviously there's quite a bit of cost that comes with doing this. But what I meant to say is: if a big player comes in, grabs the code, invests in 10 servers and starts advertising for his new, brand and shiny version of Ryzom, does the current expected license allow that to happen?

(I personally think this won't be an issue, as it will be very hard, not only to invest, but also to put together creative content, compared to the ryzom.org crowd. But it's been raised on the other forums and is making a few players reluctant towards a free Ryzom, so I think it needs to be fully addressed. There is much misconception about Open Source projects...)

Komissar

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:13 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 3

Thank you very much Xavier and Jonasq, sfb for answering my questions.
:roll:

_________________
Komissar
Order of the Nameless
Arispottle

Jizerah

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:55 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 57

Hmm...another question if I may:

When restarting the donation pledges, why didn´t you reset the amount of money raised during the last time?
Do you really expect the former pledgers still to be willing to donate?
It just makes no sense to me...coz in the end we may have raised 250k in pledges, but only 80k in actual donations!!! :roll:

Don´t get me wrong, I´m so willing to donate, but I´d suggest to reset to €0,00 first! ;)

_________________
~ Jizerah of Leanon (SoR//inactive] ~
~ Núrieth of Vanyar (LotRO) ~

KIAaze

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:42 pm

Joined: 04 Dec 2006 Posts: 70

KIAaze reporting in.
Awaiting new pledge launch.
Go ahead command.
Transmit donation coordinates.
Standing by.

_________________
Let's save Seed!!!
Runestone's website (the creators of Seed)

jblanchard

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:55 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

I've been lurking for a while, but I'd like to say... there are certainly people (like me) who support this movement because it does not have the license issues that, for example, Planeshift has. If a more restrictive license were added, it would almost certainly drive some people away. If a restrictive content license were used, you'd basically have another game in the same vein as Planeshift, something that I personally am not really interested in seeing and couldn't support. You may note that Planeshift's code is GPL, but has a restrictive content license - and as someone has pointed out already I believe, Ryzom's engine (NeL) is already GPL.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 6:04 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 391

Hekla wrote:

Yes. If somebody is ready to invest into Ryzom and eventually improve it, why should we oppose it? The only thing which would be sad in such a situation is the fact that they wouldn't have to publish the changes they make to the server code. When AGPLv3 goes out, we could fix this, but in the meantime there isn't much we can do about it.

_________________
Xavier.

graysson

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:19 pm

Joined: 02 Dec 2006 Posts: 1

Hekla wrote:

I don't see much of a problem here. like posted, running a server is pretty expensive. on the other hand - most of the people who change/improve the code make it available. the only thing that would be needed would be a CENTRAL repository so most changes are incorporated. several feature-versions are worse than just different servers.

not to mention, different servers can attract different players. you can have one for the pvp-heavy crowd and so forth. my main concern right now would be to improve the gameplay (which is still flawed imho) and content. having an authoritiy to check the integrity of the lore (hi xavier :D) is a tremendous help.

KIAaze

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:53 pm

Joined: 04 Dec 2006 Posts: 70

Xavier Antoviaque wrote:

There is no rush to rerun the campaign, as the news in the media was what attracted GF the last time

Does that mean we should refrain from spreading the news? ^^

Joshua Carr wrote:

I would suggest that you wait for a very decent foot in the door before drumming up too much support. The last thing we would want is anther GameForge *sigh*

Quick, somebody put a foot in that door!!!

Joshua Carr wrote:

But when that foot is in the door, Virtualcitizenship.org /Ryzom.org will have to seriously fire on all cannons! :)

Ahoy, matey! Canons ready!
In the pipe, five by five. 8)
Ready to roll out!
Call the shot.

Arr, me need to play some non-free non-MMO Starcraft again...

_________________
Let's save Seed!!!
Runestone's website (the creators of Seed)

Rockas

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:00 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

at first ,sry for my english....but now one question:
do u know about a possibly reduce of function of the servers by command from the trustee.Are the servers slow for that reason?
If u didnt know...is that possible?If `yes` is that maybe 3 week along so?They say some like that in the german offi.
thx
and
greatings
Rockas

Last edited by Rockas on Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:02 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hekla

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:00 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

Xavier Antoviaque wrote:

If somebody is ready to invest into Ryzom and eventually improve it, why should we oppose it? The only thing which would be sad in such a situation is the fact that they wouldn't have to publish the changes they make to the server code. When AGPLv3 goes out, we could fix this, but in the meantime there isn't much we can do about it.

That's the spirit!

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:18 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 391

KIAaze wrote:

Does that mean we should refrain from spreading the news? ^^

Atm, yup, I think it is the best option; however, you do as you think it's the best :)

_________________
Xavier.

sdahan

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:13 pm

Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 68 Location: Tsukuba, Japon

Hekla wrote:

Free software is about copyleft, not copyright. It is little difficult to grab the concept but, in few words we do not try to become rich. The only thing that we want is to make a good game and see people playing on it. Now if, Microsoft choose to run a copy of the game and to invest on it. Then, it will be a positive thing for the game, even if lot of us hate microsoft. This is why the licence allows it. However, the licence also force them to give to us a copy of the new, brand and shiny version of Ryzom.

Now, I am not worried at all about the possibility of having lot of servers for two reasons. Firstly, what you are talking about is called forking in our language. We know by 30 years of experience that forking is very rare.

The second reason, is that we play to be with the community. Do you want to play on a server where the community does not reside ? I say no, and it is the same for the others. In other word, the things that make you worried about it is also the thing that will keep us together.

Hekla

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:28 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 24

sdahan wrote:

Hekla wrote:

Agreed on all counts.

As far as staying as quiet as possible, well...

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 6:15 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

Aelia wrote:

Xavier, if you need help with some translations or so...poke me :)

In regards to German translations, what is most needed is a summary in German of the things we discussed on the English board; a lot of German people speak English (I was pretty impressed by that when I visited Germany), but still some players don't, it would be great if they could have something to read about the current state of the Ryzom.org project.

Also, if you see some questions on the German boards which aren't answered yet on the English boards, let me know. I'll try to monitor the German boards using Google, but it won't be easy for me to understand or communicate there.

Thanks ;p

_________________
Xavier.

Bluefve

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 8:22 pm

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 6

Kishan wrote:

I find out the old bugdet : http://www.ryzom.org/page/project_budget
There you can see : Serveur (Dell PowerEdge SC1425, Bi-Xeon 3.2 Ghz, 4 Go RAM) qté 12 piece: 2600€ total:31200€

And it is only for one shard as i know. ...

As Kishan said, this is the old budget from the previous attempts of the Free Ryzom project http://www.ryzom.org/page/project_budget . Do these expenses still hold true this time around? Is it for 1 shard? And is the IP of Ryzom 100000 euro once again? It seems much was not updated for this run to save Ryzom, and I'm curious as to where and what our pledges will go towards exactly, since I'm almost sure prices have changed over the year. Thanks for your time in answering, Xavier. Cheers!

Jizerah

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:09 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 57

Xavier Antoviaque wrote:

Aelia wrote:

Xavier, if you need help with some translations or so...poke me :)

Done. ;) (It´s a summary of all the questions raised here including answers)

_________________
~ Jizerah of Leanon (SoR//inactive] ~
~ Núrieth of Vanyar (LotRO) ~

paperBag

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:50 pm

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 6

I've been perusing the virtualcitizenship.org forums for a while now, and have been with Ryzom since before the first.... debacle. I just wanted to let you all know I think what you're doing is incredible, and I am here to help in any way I can. If for nothing else then the poor Yubos...

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:50 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

Bluefve wrote:

As Kishan said, this is the old budget from the previous attempts of the Free Ryzom project http://www.ryzom.org/page/project_budget

Oh, that's the veeery old version - the first draft of the proposal, which was heavily reworked afterwards. One of the latest versions of the proposal in last December is:

http://www.ryzom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=111

Quote:

Do these expenses still hold true this time around? Is it for 1 shard? And is the IP of Ryzom 100000 euro once again?

1) Mainly, yes, since the plan we proposed back then still apears like the best option. We may have some changes to make, for example server costs may have been reduced a bit, and there are some cosmetic changes to make, but otherwise it should be something similar. We planned for the worst, and even if we don't have all the elements yet, we have seen no reason to change our point of view.

2) Like the last time, we don't know, it depends on who is bidding in front of us. It may be more, it may be less.

Quote:

It seems much was not updated for this run to save Ryzom, and I'm curious as to where and what our pledges will go towards exactly, since I'm almost sure prices have changed over the year. Thanks for your time in answering, Xavier. Cheers!

If you find anything worth modification or discussion, go ahead, it will certainly help editing the document for the upcoming bid.

_________________
Xavier.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:54 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

Jizerah wrote:

Done. ;) (It´s a summary of all the questions raised here including answers)

Thanks a lot for this :)

_________________
Xavier.

soloreaper

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:55 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 7

Nice to see you keeping us as informed as possible Xavier, if you need any help with putting together plans to move forward then dont hesitate to contact me on the boards.

I wonder if the forums/website are being given in the price for the game, as thats a massive part of the community.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:02 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

soloreaper wrote:

I wonder if the forums/website are being given in the price for the game, as thats a massive part of the community.

We don't know yet for sure, but it should be the case yes.

_________________
Xavier.

Bluefve

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:47 am

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 6

Thanks for the answers, Xavier. One more if I may? This is for anyone who knows. How many (max) online users can Ryzom sustain at any given moment for one shard? Ive seen some people debate on these forums that one shard should be efficient, but how there would be a community clash. This question also dates back for me to the hight of Ryzom. People say that normally, zones seemed empty, even tho there were not actually empty. It would be nice to see city streets buzzing with people, but I am unsure if the server architecture could ever theoretically sustain that many people at once if Ryzom ever got enough players.

zorglor

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:32 am

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 21

I'll let Xavier answer on the technical side (though, as far as I know, each shard is scalable by adding servers), but the fact is that if you want many more players on one shard and have many people in the cities, you'll also probably need to add some more high level hunting zones, because these are already often crowded.

_________________
Clément - Zorglor sur Aniro

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:35 am

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

Bluefve wrote:

How many (max) online users can Ryzom sustain at any given moment for one shard?

Theoretically, the shards were supposed to be able to handle 3000 simultaneous users, but the maximum ever achieved was about 1000.

_________________
Xavier.

soloreaper

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:14 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 7

And apparently there is around 4500 users now playing across the 3 shards, which does include inactive accounts, alt accounts and obviously normal users.

If the architecture of the server could handle it then i think having the 3 communities together may well make the game intresting :)

Thaxlssillyia

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 4:00 pm

Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 7

Ryzom is much about politics and RP. And there are very few players on Leanon who speak english well enough to do RP or, even harder, politics in that language.

If you consider the englisch speaking community is much larger than ours, its easy to imagine how many of former Leanon players would be happy with that. I expect ~50% drop od former Leanon players if communities are merged. That wouldn't be efficient i guess.

Many of those who speak english very well have already moved to arispotle. There is no point in destroying the german speaking community. I don't know much about the french community, but i guess they would not be happy to be forced into english too :)

Jizerah

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 4:50 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 57

Here´s a question from the German Community:

Any plans on char wipes or rollbacks so far?

And yet another one:

Are there any plans on putting the lore under any GPL?
The main concerns of some german players are that
every player would be able to have a look into the lore/
story whatsoever...so any comments on that?

_________________
~ Jizerah of Leanon (SoR//inactive] ~
~ Núrieth of Vanyar (LotRO) ~

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 5:12 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 390

Jizerah wrote:

Any plans on char wipes or rollbacks so far?

We are waiting for the answer of the liquidator to be able to answer that question; but if what we were told is true, we should be able to keep the characters and accounts as they exist today.

Quote:

Are there any plans on putting the lore under any GPL?
The main concerns of some german players are that
every player would be able to have a look into the lore/
story whatsoever...so any comments on that?

Yes, it's part of the plan to put the whole lore under the FDL. The reasoning being that it would become to basis on which we would make the lore evolve. Having a solid background as a basis is pretty much a prerequisite, first to avoid stalling the saga, and second to be able to build upon it. It doesn't mean that upcoming events would have to be entirely public for example, there is room to maintain unanswered questions.

Also, having the whole lore available doesn't mean you have to read it all. When you play pen and paper RPG, you can buy the GM handbook if you want or read websites about the hidden story, nobody will prevent you from doing that. However, if you care about keeping the surprise, you won't do it and tell people who know the story to shut up.

_________________
Xavier.

Katriell

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:08 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 17 Location: GMT-8

Quote:

However, if you care about keeping the surprise, you won't do it and tell people who know the story to shut up.

That seems to beg a "no lore spoilers in public chat or face temporary ban" rule. :)

Kalindra

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:05 am

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 47

Or mute. :P

How is the communication with the liquidator going ?

_________________
Kalindra
Sherkalyn on Arispotle
Language Student

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:46 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 396

Kalindra wrote:

How is the communication with the liquidator going ?

It's not moving forward very quickly, but we were expecting this - they usually have a lot on their plate and we're just another potential bidder for them. But we'll get the answers.

_________________
Xavier.

Androbia

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:41 am

Joined: 09 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

Greetings,
I would like to take this oppertunity to wish everyone involved in this venture the very best of luck and also to thank those involved for their continued interest in saving this unique and very special game.

Ryzom is a very special place for me and by reading your individual posts i can see that i'm not alone, I see alot of names here i recognise and know in my heart that something that is driven with as much passion as this cannot possibly be left to just wither and die.

If there is anyway i can be of assistance to you please do not hesitate to ask and i will do my very best within the terms of my NDA.

seawe

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:51 am

Joined: 04 Dec 2006 Posts: 3

Quote:

Quote:
Are there any plans on putting the lore under any GPL?
The main concerns of some german players are that
every player would be able to have a look into the lore/
story whatsoever...so any comments on that?

aye this kinda would bother me too, but i suppose 1. there would be no reason for ryzom to stick with old lore that never got into game, so it might not matter; 2. any new lore that was planned wouldn't have to be neccessarily easy to find ;), remaining buried for all except those actually working on making it; and 3. the uncertainty principle that says future story plans aren't neccessarily going to manifest as they were originally thought of.

so there would be ways to minimize spoilers even in an open project.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens..

teylini

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 2:55 am

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 19 Location: Reno, NV USA

Androbia wrote:

Are you a dev, or from Nevrax, or something?

Kalindra

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:22 am

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 47

Androbia is one of our beloved volunteer CSRs, Senior Game Master, am I right ?

_________________
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Sherkalyn on Arispotle
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Androbia

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:22 am

Joined: 09 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

Kalindra wrote:

Androbia is one of our beloved volunteer CSRs, Senior Game Master, am I right ?

Yes sherkalyn is correct, My current role In Ryzom is on the csr team, Although i do also have a player account that although she hasn't seen daylight this last couple of weeks i'm hoping will be able to run through the streets of Yrk selling her crafted baubles to the merchants or run barefoot through the long grass of void as she hunts the tastiest of Kincher meat with her team.
It would be a crying shame if she were never to see day again and hence why i offer my support.

PS. lol just as an after thought thank you for the "beloved" bit :D

teylini

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:35 am

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 19 Location: Reno, NV USA

Androbia wrote:

Kalindra wrote:

Androbia is one of our beloved volunteer CSRs, Senior Game Master, am I right ?

Thank you for the information. I hope that with your help we are able to keep Ryzom alive.

Linkys

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:36 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 5

Heya
Any news? :roll:

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:59 am

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 396

Linkys wrote:

Heya
Any news? :roll:

Nope, or I'd have given it. Apparently this is currently still in the hands of the "commissaire aux comptes", the guy who makes a list of all the available assets to sell.

This kind of procedure takes time, welcome to France ;p

_________________
Xavier.

Jizerah

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:23 am

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 57

And yet another bunch of questions from the overanxious german community (ryzom.com/forum):

1. Why not decide on the legal form of the business before looking for a business name?

2.a) Who would be in charge of the budget in case we´re successful?

2.b) Would the balances be disclosed in that case? What about the accountability to the donors?

3.a) Isn´t there apparently a clash of interests with Xaviers work as CEO of flouzo.net and this project?

3.b) And is it just a coincidence that a co-founder of FSF France has a seat in this profit-oriented company´s board?

Feel free to comment on these issues... ;)

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jblanchard

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 5:39 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

These are very good questions that should probably be answered soon.

In particular, is VCA already registered as some kind of organization? Registering as a NPO or its equivalent in France might be a good idea. It will probably cost money, but I'm sure many people wouldn't mind making good on their pledges right now.

Which begs the question, at what point would we be able to make good on our donations? (Forgive me for my ignorance - I showed up after the first attempt to get Ryzom failed.) Any proposal VCA makes based only on pledges is less likely to be taken seriously I think. I would gladly part with my donation at any time. Google Checkout at this time lets NPOs process donations / payments for free until 2009 right now. Worst case, VCA will need to refund those donations, and transactions for the donations could be reversed. The sad part is some people make pledges that they won't make good on. (For the largest donors, I believe pledges will suffice, as we can be reasonably certain their pledges will hold because we know them / they are other NPOs.)

recentcoin

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 6:01 pm

Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 55

I couldn't agree with you more and I've been whinging about this for a year now. The bankruptcy court will likely laugh at pledges and be willing to accept a "cash in hand" offer for less than the pledges. The court has one job to do - get as much of the money back as they can for the investors. I'll state this again...

PLEDGES != CASH

With less than 3 weeks to raise the cash, I'm not holding my breath for this to happen. If the purchase of Ryzom were serious, the donation drive should already have been underway so that Xavier could go in on a level footing with the commercial interests that want Ryzom - with cash in hand. Instead, he's going in already hamstrung. We have a saying here in Texas - "Money talks and bull shit walks". Pledges are nice and all, but until you prove that you can collect on them to raise enough money to actually pay the creditors, pledges are just...bull - no real substance to them.

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Edward

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:03 pm

Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 31

Jizerah wrote:

And yet another bunch of questions from the overanxious german community (ryzom.com/forum):
3.a) Isn´t there apparently a clash of interests with Xaviers work as CEO of flouzo.net and this project?

3.b) And is it just a coincidence that a co-founder of FSF France has a seat in this profit-oriented company´s board?

I don't see either of these causing a conflict of interest. What would be the conflict?

jblanchard wrote:

Which begs the question, at what point would we be able to make good on our donations? (Forgive me for my ignorance - I showed up after the first attempt to get Ryzom failed.) Any proposal VCA makes based only on pledges is less likely to be taken seriously I think. I would gladly part with my donation at any time.

This is an excellent point. I think we should begin raising actual cash right away.

Quote:

Worst case, VCA will need to refund those donations, and transactions for the donations could be reversed.

Why refund them? I wouldn't want my donation refunded. If the bid fails, the funds could be used to build or buy an open-source game platform. This might involve improving an existing open-source engine, or buying a proprietary one, or using an existing open-source engine as-is and creating or acquiring world-building tools to make it easy for the community to build their own worlds, or some other solution (which can be decided later).

As long as this is disclosed up front, there should be no problem with keeping the funds if the bid fails. Those who don't want a refund can donate now, and thereby strengthen VCA's bidding position. Those who don't want their funds to be used for anything except the acquisition of Ryzom can pledge instead.

jblanchard

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:47 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

In principle, I agree with you about the refunds. But if some people didn't want their funds used for another purpose, I could respect that, and I was mostly pointing out that in the worst case (ie if donations needed to be refunded) they could.

My suggestions are:

1) File official paperwork to to register VCA as an NPO if not already. Many of us are willing to put our money where our mouths are to make this happen. Since we don't know if the Ryzom purchase will succeed, I think it would be best to just make VCA official and spin off Ryzom at a later date if necessary. VCA would need governing documentation but already has a social contract that could at least work as the mission statement. If there's a strong desire to create a Ryzom entity right now, that's okay too, but it seems like a possible waste of time.

2) As soon as the paperwork is filed (and as long as everything is in line with the law), open an account to begin taking real donations from those who have pledged small cash amounts. (My suggestion is Google Checkout, but any service other than Paypal [some NP causes have had issues with them] would probably be okay.) If necessary, have two accounts - one to take donations for "Ryzom or any VCA related cause" and another for "Ryzom only". (I say this only because it is clear that some people would pledge money to save Ryzom but are not interested in other causes.)

3) Find out if the bigger pledges (i.e. from FSF) are still valid. (I think these pledges are strong enough and there might be some conditions on these donations.)

4) Prepare an offer based only on cash in hand and big pledges from reliable entities.

I don't live in Europe but would be happy to assist with anything I can. Let me know!

Edward

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 11:14 pm

Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 31

jblanchard wrote:

If there's a strong desire to create a Ryzom entity right now, that's okay too, but it seems like a possible waste of time.

A separate Ryzom entity is needed because there are other organizations involved.

teylini

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 4:48 am

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 19 Location: Reno, NV USA

Xavier Antoviaque wrote:

23857628 wrote:

I'd like to donate about 100€ to that cause, but I don't really see a donation link yet. If you would fill me in on the procedure I'd be thankful. :)

http://www.ryzom.org/donation/new :)

I have made my pledge and it is as good as cash. I am standing ready to donate when called upon.

Cayle

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:45 am

Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 79 Location: Germany

Jizerah wrote:

And yet another bunch of questions from the overanxious german community (ryzom.com/forum):
3.a) Isn´t there apparently a clash of interests with Xaviers work as CEO of flouzo.net and this project?

I don't see a conflict of interest. I can't speak for Xavier, but it looks like he discovered last time around that he had a talent for running fundraising drives and decided to set up a consultancy for it.

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recentcoin

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 4:05 pm

Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 55

Well then. If he's doing it for hire, he shouldn't have a problem setting up a real charity and doing it for Ryzom for free.

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jblanchard

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 10:16 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

Edward wrote:

jblanchard wrote:

If there's a strong desire to create a Ryzom entity right now, that's okay too, but it seems like a possible waste of time.

A separate Ryzom entity is needed because there are other organizations involved.

Good point. Looks like work is already underway on that front, too.

nils

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 3:52 pm

Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 34 Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Guys, what exactly is being on sale? Did GF decide that Ryzom is a bad business afterall, and it's the entire package? If this was said somewhere, I missed it.

I am asking because it's a quite common practice to take the valuable assets from a company, and then have that company go intro bankruptcy, taking all the debts with it. So in the end what could be for sale, here, in theory, may simply be office furniture and bad bank accounts.

*Edit* That said, if you need help, let me know. I am a systems engineer by day, so I could potentially be able to assist on the technical side. Also, I'll donate money too if the entire package is to be bought and "freed up".

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Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:07 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 396

nils wrote:

Guys, what exactly is being on sale? Did GF decide that Ryzom is a bad business afterall, and it's the entire package? If this was said somewhere, I missed it.

As mentioned earlier, this is still something we are waiting to be confirmed by the liquidator. From what we know, it's the whole package, but until we get an official list written on paper from the liquidator, we can't say for sure.

_________________
Xavier.

soloreaper

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:19 am

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 7

no news is usually good news, in this case im not sure.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:33 am

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 396

soloreaper wrote:

no news is usually good news, in this case im not sure.

From what we know, the lists of assets is still being made by the "commissaire aux comptes" for the l iquidator. This is taking a lot of time, and we have not a lot of information from the l iquidator. As previously said, this is usual in such cases, as we are only one potential "client" for the liquidator, they don't spend a lot of time keeping potential buyers updated. According to Géraud Bommenel, the main lawyer on the case, this is not unusual for such cases to take up to three months... :/

However, we have heard of a potential reason for the delay here. It's only a rumor, so I was reluctant to spread it, but since it takes time it's probably a good thing to let you know. Gameforge *could* have not fully paid the first liquidator, back in December. So there may be some debate over who actually owns the current assets of the game - it could well be that the first liquidator still has its word to say on the current process. It this is true, it would explain why we haven't got a lot of news on the process lately; if the current liquidator doesn't know if he can sell the assets, he has every reason to delay the process to sort things out before talking to potential buyers.

_________________
Xavier.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:56 am

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 396

Jizerah wrote:

1. Why not decide on the legal form of the business before looking for a business name?

Because it was already decided back in December; there was a vote on the plan proposal.

Quote:

2.a) Who would be in charge of the budget in case we´re successful?

As explained in the thread I've linked, you'll see that the company would get the assets from the liquidator. It would be in charge of resuming the service (shards, etc.) and hiring the developers. The code and assets would be handed over to the FSF, to make sure what happened with Nevrax and NeL doesn't happen with this project.

Quote:

2.b) Would the balances be disclosed in that case? What about the accountability to the donors?

Yes, donators and members of the VCA would get the budget and have their say in the decisions of the company, as our non-profit organization would be a shareholder of the company.

Quote:

3.a) Isn´t there apparently a clash of interests with Xaviers work as CEO of flouzo.net and this project?

I'm not sure why there would be, as Flouzo isn't part of the Ryzom.org. The only thing I can see here is the fact that we kept developing the software used to run the Ryzom.org campaign and gave it a name. So when we make an update of the campaign website, it will use this more advanced version of the software, and a "Powered by Flouzo" link would then appear. But this is the same thing we do in Free Software for every third-party project we use, and since Flouzo is 100% free software, I can't see any issue - just have a look at the Flouzo website, you'll see that it's more an idealistic project meant to encourage campaigns like Ryzom than an evil project to take over the world and make $$$. If you think this is a problem though, let me know.

Quote:

3.b) And is it just a coincidence that a co-founder of FSF France has a seat in this profit-oriented company´s board?

Not really, Loic hasn't got that far by just sitting in a corner doing nothing. ;p He is involved in lots of Free Software projects, and I think we are lucky he is around. Have a look at his resume if you have a doubt.

Btw, I understand the need to ask for such questions, it's always better to discuss the things which may look unclear or which could create doubts. But just try to remember that the people involved in this do not do this to make money and buy a nice villa with a swimming pool - Ryzom is not WoW and we know it. People who do this are doing it because they love Ryzom, and because they would like to see a FLOSS MMORPG around.

_________________
Xavier.

uggly

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:02 pm

Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

Hi Xavier,

I highly appreciate your answers on these questions, even more as I´ve been the one who asked them at the official german community forum.

As I´ve tried to explain there before: my intention wasn´t at all to spread rumours or doubts about motives or a hidden masterplan behind the campaign. I was just wondering that some, mhh, let´s say corporate essentials are not visible at least at first sight here.

Now, with your answers, especially about the legal issues concerning the company and the needs of transparancy of the budget, I have no more reason not to join the campaign.

So here is my first suggestion:
Why not sum up all the hard facts and updated information in a kind of a presentation of the campaign and put it in a closed and sticky thread on top of the forums? It would be so much easier to get a useful picture of the ryzom project and the people behind the core team.

thx, uggly

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:54 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 396

uggly wrote:

Why not sum up all the hard facts and updated information in a kind of a presentation of the campaign and put it in a closed and sticky thread on top of the forums? It would be so much easier to get a useful picture of the ryzom project and the people behind the core team.

I agree, this is something which is missing; on the French and German boards, there is a FAQ thread which answers the need you describe. Having it on the English boards too would be great, especially if some people make sure FAQ answered in other languages are translated between the different communities.

Any volunteers? ;p

_________________
Xavier.

recentcoin

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:04 pm

Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 55

So, let me get this straight....

1) Company goes into bankruptcy
2) Gameforge "buys" Ryzom
3) Gameforge doesn't pay for Ryzom
4) Gameforge files for bankruptcy
5) We don't know who to try to buy Ryzom from

Isn't that a fine kettle of fish.....

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PegasusJF

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:08 am

Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 1

Hello, first post here, I just saw this after hearing the news about Ryzom at MMORPG.com

I did post a pledge, I never played this game, but being a player of EVE Online, I can definitely appreciate it. IMHO, both games are cut from the same cloth.

I kind of started with what I will ask, but upon gathering that what I was donating didn't seem to be recent. I deleted it some of the requests regarding my questions below.

I understand that pledges have restarted, but I have some ideas to spread the word, considering other info in this thread. I believe it needs to be asked.

1. May I bring this to the attention of the EVE Online community or even CCP?

Like I said, EVE Online and Ryzom I believe are cut from the same cloth (meaning, both are niche sandbox games), and I believe the EVE players and even CCP might have a vested interest in this project and keeping the game alive.

I apologize, but when I first saw this I pursued this course of action, and filed a petition to CCP asking permission to post a link and explanation of the situation and entreated CCP to donate itself. (The petition was deleted about 15 minutes after when I took some time to figure out that it might not have been recent)

I understand from reading this thread that this organization wants to keep a low profile. So again I apologize for my rash action. But I still think that community might be of assistance.

2. If not, what are good ways of spreading the word? I suppose, I could ask a smaller EVE community, my alliance to consider this.

Anyway, I hope what you plan, succeeds.

Thanks for listening.

God Bless

PegasusJF

Linkys

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 3:00 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 11

Hi again... 2 months just passed now :o
Still no news?

take care all

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:26 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 442

No, the process seems really slowed down by the issue with the first liquidation payment I mentioned before. Add the natural slowness of the French legal system, and this could still take some time before we get any action.

_________________
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Cayle

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:39 pm

Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 82 Location: Germany

So gameforge/Ryzom is still in play? I thought it had appeared to be a dead issue after the three weeks ran out and their lights were still on.

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Kalindra

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:16 pm

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 66

There are still people playing. Some that were stuck on Silan even bought retail boxes on Ebay and used the retail code to join us on the Mainland. :P

Ryzom, dead ? very unlikely ! :P

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Cayle

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:56 pm

Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 82 Location: Germany

I said dead issue, meaning that trying to buy Ryzom and open source it - meaning the VCA.

You seem very sure that Ryzom is not dead. Who owns it now? What is their business plan? 4500 subscribers @ $15 a month only translates to about €50k per month; before taxes. Gameforge France could not stay in business at that level of income. Why is that? That level of income transaltes to a fat internet connection and a couple of FT employees at most. If there is not a new owner yet, could the plug suddenly be pulled? I remember some issues with ownership.

This should be all the more reason to work hard on the community/OSS tender.

One of the VCA types once told me in private that "most of the free Ryzom people here are just gamers and don't give a damn who owns Ryzom as long as they get their fix". Sadly, I think he was right. Xavier is slowly turning the gears to try an make Ryzom community owned and operated, but he can't do it without support. The rest abandoned the VCA as soon as the realized the shutdown was not imminent as planned.

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Kalindra

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:46 pm

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 66

The fact is, that the judiciary process being stuck, even if the community WANTED to do something, it simply CAN'T. All we can do is sit and wait... and play.

We could be there and discuss all day long about what we're gonna do with Ryzom IP when we have it. But as long as we don't own it, we can't do much to make it become anything else than words on a forum page. Who is the owner of Ryzom ? Even the liquidators don't seem to know anymore. As long as this issue isn't fixed, all the discussions here will remain purely hypothetical hot air.

How can a product be bought if there isn't an owner to buy it from ? Ryzom is still online and playable, therefore it is alive. How ? No idea. But what I know is : we better enjoy it while we still can. And the fact that there are still people willing to play it is a good sign no matter what you say.

There is no use in buying a game and making it Open Source if no one wants to play it, right ?

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Sherkalyn on Arispotle
Language Student

Belenn

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:57 pm

Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 25

Cayle, while you're probably right about the majority of players, the problem is not so much support from the community, but legal issues delaying any decision about and/or potential transfer of ownership, to whomever.
I'd be surprised if more than a few of the "community" would become active in an open Ryzom project, as long as the game continues to run somewhere. But a few can make all the difference, I mean Nevrax wasn't exactly a megacorporation either ;)
But even that may (and probably will) change in the long run, in the sense that more players may become interested in contributing to the project, be it documentation, lore, artwork, "customer" services, or whatever, when the legal situation is clear. Still it is necessary to keep the interest, and even expand it, without repeating the maneouvers that brought us to the point we're at now, again.

EDIT: Kalindra beat me to it ;)

Katriell

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:53 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 26 Location: GMT-8

Cayle wrote:

The rest abandoned the VCA as soon as the realized the shutdown was not imminent as planned.

Define abandonment?

There's not much to do or talk about here because, as has been said, the judiciary process appears to be stalled and any planning, organisation, or development among the community would be depending purely on hypothetical future circumstances, thus pointless.

There are probably plenty of people who have not abandoned the project at all, who check this forum hoping for news and finding none feel they have nothing to contribute yet.

;) We can't even squawk at the internet's general populace about the situation, because we've been told to keep it quiet in hope of not attracting another company like Gameforge.

Eris

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:58 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 3

Katriell wrote:

There are probably plenty of people who have not abandoned the project at all, who check this forum hoping for news and finding none feel they have nothing to contribute yet.

I think that sums it up nicely. I visit every day..several times a day...waiting, hoping. When the time comes, I'll be happy to do anything I can to help. :)

mwdowns

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:01 am

Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Posts: 2

Eris wrote:

Katriell wrote:

There are probably plenty of people who have not abandoned the project at all, who check this forum hoping for news and finding none feel they have nothing to contribute yet.

I think that sums it up nicely. I visit every day..several times a day...waiting, hoping. When the time comes, I'll be happy to do anything I can to help. :)

Thirded.

Linkys

Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:06 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 11

Checking all days, and i hope, i can see some good news :)
BTW Merry Christmas all :P

Aprak

Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:49 am

Joined: 02 Dec 2006 Posts: 61 Location: Malmoe, Sweden

Sorry I'm late. I just heard the news.

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chadsta

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:38 am

Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Posts: 3

i still keep one maybe 2 eyes out for the news... i wil admit i have been slack with visiting the forums of late... but as soon as something happens i'll support it.

and yes i log into ryzom to see who is around...

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Linkys

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:45 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 11

Pls dont forget us :) any news?
hugs to all

Katriell

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:35 am

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 26 Location: GMT-8

Linkys wrote:

Pls dont forget us :) any news?
hugs to all

http://www.virtualcitizenship.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=544
Not much.

Corizo

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:07 pm

Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 9

But damn, it's really taking a lot of time. We dont have infinite time, players will run away one after another...

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Kalindra

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:07 am

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 66

That's strange... On Arispotle, we see more and more coming back and new players trying to join. Of course, if we kept moping about the current situation, I doubt it would be the same. ;) Ok, Arispotle looks like Carebear land with people throwing hugs at each other on Uni... but it still inspires more people to stay than singing the doom song all day long.

http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Too-Much-Ryzom-1-74613889

See what I mean ? ;)

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Sherkalyn on Arispotle
Language Student

Thomas

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:58 am

Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 2

I apologise for any unnecessary hugging I have commited... not :lol:

Komissar

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:27 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

as an owner of 2 medical degrees I officially prescribe a full course of hugging therapy for Arispottle given the current diagnosis :)

Go ahead and hug guys it's ok now :P

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Kalindra

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:38 am

Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 66

I still prefer the hugs to doom and gloom ;)

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Kalindra
Sherkalyn on Arispotle
Language Student

Jizerah

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:18 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 79

Lol, I was just about to translate the original german message,
but Boroshi (or his translator) seems to be faster:

"Dear players,

I'm very sorry to inform you that GameForge Germany has today told us that there is the possibility that the Ryzom servers will be shut down this week. Currently I'm being told that Arispotle will not be restarted in the near future.

This doesn't signal the end of Ryzom however; the liquidation procedure is still ongoing and there is still time for us to get new owners, so don't lose hope.

I'm getting this news second-hand from the Leanon CSRs at the moment (I'll be getting more details soon) so I'm afraid I might not be able to answer all the questions I'm sure you have, but I'll keep you updated when we know more.

If/when the forums go down, don't forget that we have the forums at http://arispotle.yubovision.fr/ - once again I'll post any and all updates there as well."

Any further info so far Xavier?

Thaxlssillyia

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:35 pm

Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 18

I guess there are some news in the french section. I need to guess, because it is too much common language for the google translation to make some sense. And I dont know any french myself :(.

Is anybody around who can make a summary? I am referring to posts starting on Jan 25 in thread http://www.virtualcitizenship.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=250&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=300.

Thanks very much!

Jizerah

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 7:18 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 79

Well, I actually don´t speak french, however there seems to be no news,
rather the usual moaning and grieving of a dying Ryzom...
...but then again, I don´t speak french! ;)

Let´s just wait and see...the way I see it, if there´s no news from either GF
or Xavier, it can´t be trusted anyway!

RGDS Jiz

Linkys

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:42 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 11

:arrow: is anybody out there :?:

Lemra

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:18 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 17

yes :D

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Lemra Ma Xue (Aniro)

Katriell

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:37 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 26 Location: GMT-8

Indeed.

And there goes Aniro.

Moonlightmist

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:22 pm

Joined: 15 Oct 2007 Posts: 6

Klients is still up as well as Ryzom.com

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Moonlightmist
High Officer of the Knights Leviers

Joshua Carr

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:18 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 5

Lot of people about, just no news so no talking.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:49 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 442

I've no confirmation on that subject. As soon as the rumor came up, I tried to drop an email to Klaas Kersting (GF's CEO), to see if we could work something out. No answer so far.

From what we have heard from both liquidators (the one from December 2006 and the second one), we have confirmation there is a dispute ("demande de revendication du fonds de commerce") over who currently owns the company's assets.

How much time it will take can change a lot from a case to another. There is first a non-judiciary demand to the liquidator, then when it is refused (which is the case here), a procedure with the "juge-commissaire" (3-6 months minimum), then a possible appeal to the court where the decision can be reversed (1 year minimum).

So it's quite hard to predict when this will be over and when the liquidation will be resumed.

NB: Many thanks to Me Géraud Bommenel for the help provided on this case. If you need a French corporate lawyer, he could be your guy ;p

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Xavier.

rosarot

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:56 am

Joined: 13 Feb 2008 Posts: 1

Simply "dropping" an email may not be enough to get his attention. I tried that myself an never got an answer of anyone at GF.

Xavier Antoviaque

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:22 pm

Joined: 15 Nov 2006 Posts: 442

rosarot wrote:

Simply "dropping" an email may not be enough to get his attention. I tried that myself an never got an answer of anyone at GF.

There was a time when he answered my calls, and where we could discuss things like this. Now whether it is emails, phone or whatever, they are simply ignored.

However, you can try to get his attention, it could be worth it: GF's phone number is on this page. Ask him to call me back, he has my number. The secretary and Klaas both speak English.

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Xavier.

Linkys

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:06 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 11

Xavier Antoviaque wrote:

From what we have heard from both liquidators (the one from December 2006 and the second one), we have confirmation there is a dispute ("demande de revendication du fonds de commerce") over who currently owns the company's assets.

How much time it will take can change a lot from a case to another. There is first a non-judiciary demand to the liquidator, then when it is refused (which is the case here), a procedure with the "juge-commissaire" (3-6 months minimum), then a possible appeal to the court where the decision can be reversed (1 year minimum).

So it's quite hard to predict when this will be over and when the liquidation will be resumed.

Then we need to wait for more 3 months to 1 year? :shock:

3 more months or more, and Ryzom will not have a chance if server are down, players will forget it with time, we can love it, but it will happend, and the comunity will move (already moving :()
This is what i think... but i can be wrong...

btw can i use this in my signature? XD
http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Truer-words-were-never-spoken-77147005

Jizerah

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:52 pm

Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 79

Quote:

In fact the longer this whole procedure takes the more unlikely someone is
gonna buy Ryzom...at least if I were a publisher I woulnd´t want to purchase
a game 4-5 years old w/o any players left, unless I won the lottery and wouldn´t know where to spend my money! ;)

Quote:

btw can i use this in my signature? XD
http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Truer-words-were-never-spoken-77147005

Well, there are certainly better and even more so less dramatic ways to show your
frustration...i´d refrain from it if I were you! ;)

Linkys

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:45 pm

Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 11

btw why the logon server is still working? if they closed the shards...

Belenn

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:08 am

Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 25

Linkys wrote:

btw why the logon server is still working? if they closed the shards...

The way I understand it, nobody "closed" anything, there's just nobody there anymore to restart the servers when they crash; and as the login servers are obviously independent from the game servers, they continue to run as long as they themselves don't crash, too...

vernes

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:35 pm

Joined: 13 Dec 2006 Posts: 15

Belenn wrote:

Linkys wrote:

btw why the logon server is still working? if they closed the shards...

I must be a huge geek, because that sounded kinda sad really.

Empty building, everything stripped. And in a thermal isolated room a server in a row of already dead servers slows down, stutters a bit and finally shuts down, dimming all the blinking lights... and then the absence of sounds becomes very clear...
Fade out, view of empty office corridors, fade out, view of empty/stripped cubicals, fade out, view of empty parking lot with 'for sale' sigh stuck to the inside of an office window, fade out, end movie.

Kaetemi

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 4:20 pm

Joined: 24 Nov 2006 Posts: 61 Location: Lembeek, Belgium

aww tell me when your movie comes out ^^

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