How Ryzom Affected You....

[d29565]

The thread is pretty much what the title says. How has Ryzom affected you, your life, etc. I'll give you my own example. (This may also be useful to new players).

I was just talking to Lathaniel and he mentioned how I always had to dealt with the Ryzom politics a lot when I was playing, and it clicked in my mind just how Ryzom had affected me.

I'm currently at a university studying for my Bachelors in International Studies. My concentration in that major is World Politics.

A quick explanation of how this is related to Ryzom maybe useful. First off, I started Ryzom youngish. (Heck, most of you "older" folks watched me grow up, maybe with out realizing it). So, from a young age I was exposed to many people from many different cultures, and this was pushed even further when I discovered the forums. That has made me lack "prejudice" towards other cultures, and has, in fact, made me want to go into a career that allows me to work internationally.

When the direction of Ryzom was turned to put more emphasis on the factions, I soon learned about politics. And oh my gods, i love politics. I hate it, and love it at the same time. The politics between the kami and the karavan remind me so much of the democrats and republicans in the USA. Neither side is right or wrong (most of the time), but each side is almost always fighting each other. Every once in a while it is useful to come together on some things. And there are those who cross over the line between the two whenever it is necessary. I can only imagine how much fun it will be for me to do that kind of stuff on an international level.

There is also the little known fact that playing in Ryzom has made me a good person. I want to help people. I'm in a non profit organization at my university now. And I think that if I work for the right people then there are a lot of people I can help out. Even though politics has a lot of squabbling involved, there are also many ways to help people within it.

So yeah. Ryzom affected me by allowing me to socialize internationally, by throwing me into Kami/Karavan Politics, and by showing me that kindness isn't a horrible thing.

How about you?

[odofitzg]

Hmmm -- Interesting that you focus on the Dems vs. the Reps. I saw the Kami/Kara much more as Christian(A) vs. Christian(B). Still, there is tremendous Real World(tm) relevance.

More to the point of your query, Ryzom (and the Living World, Atys) gave me my second community where commonality of spirit over-rode doctrine, and where the world was real, and just as dangerous as the "real" world is. f we are to spend some of our time here in cyberspace, it should be in the company of real people (define "real", define "people (homin)") in a world that is as "real" (define "real") as possible.

I want to see the sun flare again over the lake at Dyron, over the lakes around Fairhave, over Virginia Falls. I want to come again into the Prime Roots and I want to look up at the birds flying almost as high as the Canopy.

I have not yet explored enough. I want to see Atys more, just as I want to see Terra more. I must hurry - in both worlds.

[dakhound]

I suppose the only real thing I've gained from ryzom is some damn good friends. There are many bad RL points that have sprung up from playing online games though such as my fitness level has dropped to zero and various other stuff lke that.

still, there is a chance I might get a life one day again. As far as I am concerned though I'm quite willing to sacrifice another few years for the good of atys

[d29565]

I suppose the only real thing I've gained from ryzom is some damn good friends. There are many bad RL points that have sprung up from playing online games though such as my fitness level has dropped to zero and various other stuff lke that.

I definitely feel you in the fitness level. I'm not super fit now, but i'm more fit now than I was in high school (when I played Ryzom nonstop and had no social life). Needless to say, I try to take the stairs instead of the elevator now and it helps to walk around a lot on my campus.

Love ryzom, hate gaining weight.

[acridiel]

Love ryzom, hate gaining weight.

*LOL* So true and same here XD

Since finding Ryzom I´ve spent significantly less time working out since before. *sigh* But I´m riding my bike to work now, 20 min. to and 20 min back, dunno how many kilometers that are. It helps a bit

But, through Ryzom I discovered my love for collecting stuff and helping people get to it. (i.e. my website) And I learned how to built a website in the first place.
I got to know amazing new friends RL and "virtual", I took up the pen to draw again, I took to writing short stories again and well, I guess I learned to control my temper a bit better. *coughs*
Oh, and I had cause to practice my English!!

CU
Acridiel

[dangaree]

Interesting thread! When I think about it, I guess Ryzom has affected me in ways.
I started playing when I was about 12 or 13, and at that time I played nonstop. I felt misplaced in RL, (luckily) not bullied or anything, but as I lived in a small hillbilly (ish) society, I didn't spend a lot of time outside of the house. I always had Ryzom to fall back on when I felt I needed a different and more mature community. The last two years I've only played Ryzom on and off, because in this period my RL evolved to something much better. I guess I learned alot of mature social behaviour in Ryzom, because I was much more prepared when I moved in an appartment with my brother in a bigger city at the age of 16. Here I have everything I need, and I think I have to thank Ryzom for some of these things.
Oh and yes, I also got to practise my english

[iphdrunk]

Bleh Come on? where is the interesting stuff ? Spill the beans! some "tasty" examples:

Baba O'Tryksi dropped from college / university / lost his day job, and/or started calling in sick, getting late and trying to find lame excuses to justify the performance loss, which was apparent since he installed Ryzom in a Lab PC, lying to IT department about the traffic and the unauthorized installation of applications.

John K. Kami stopped paying the rent, quit his girlfriend and missed a few deadlines for administrative stuff and job interviews so he could play non-stop, specially during special events, gathering tokens to get the extra "kitin smasher" title.

Paul B. Gingo lost contact with reality, buying on the idea of being a Matis prince, started crafting armors and digging in his garden. He developed paranoia, stating that he could not remove his PvP tag.

Mary J. Girgios started lieing to friends/relatives/boyfriend, inventing stories about pending work, unavoidable tasks or evilish bosses in order to stay at home during saturday night so she could get a couple more levels, rather than accepting their kind offer to go to dinner/lunch/pub. She started inventing imaginary meetings with colleagues, marketing people or people at the headquarters in order to go home and start playing at 4PM, in time for the Aen armor hunt.

Bob J. Kincher started buying pizza or junk food too often. That affected not only his health but his wealth too. He neglected cleaning up the house so he could play for a bit more. He would stay up all night, going on boss hunts or treks, and finally trying to get some sleep at 6:15 AM, sleeping through his saturday morning waiting for aussies to log in so he could resume hunting. Bob increased the consumation of alcohol/cigarretes/coke due to messed up sleep habits.


....

Fortunately most, if not all, Ryzom players seem to manage and be in control of their addiction

Yours!

[sidusar]

Interesting question indeed! I'm sure Ryzom and even-more-so the Ryzom community have affected me in many ways I don't even realise. It's been my main virtual world for the past 3 years. I'm a lot happier now then when I started playing, and Ryzom surely helped with that, but how much or how little is hard to tell.

I think mostly Ryzom restored my faith that there are people out there on the internets who aren't out to judge you and bring you down at every step to patch up their own egos. And not just a few, but many. It showed me there can be enjoyable PvP without the hatred back and forth, and that there can be enjoyable roleplaying without the elitist attitudes, thus luring me back into both activities after I'd given up on them.

Ryzom was always small, different, and in danger of going under. That made it feel partly as if we were an organisation as much as a gaming community. It made me feel like I had a duty to do whatever I could to help make the game enjoyable for everyone, and like my actions could actually help make a difference. An attitude that I hope carried over into the real world a litte.

It's not all been good ofcourse, like many others I have wasted waaay too many hours on Ryzom over the years that would've been much better spent elsewhere. And yeah, college is progressing slower than it was before I started playing, though that's mainly for different reasons. No, really!

And the game itself totally hooked me on it's rather unique combination of fantasy and science fiction. Now I can't enjoy either fantasy or science fiction as much anymore because they both seem too limited.

But, I'm actually exercising more and have lost weight since I started playing Ryzom. That's probably just a coincidence though...

EDIT:
Ah, yes Ani, I admit I'm leaving out the "tasty" stuff. I'm not seeing you share yours either. Unless this is the clasic "it's for my friend" scenario.

[katriell]

He developed paranoia, stating that he could not remove his PvP tag.

xD Nice one.

Through Ryzom I've gained some very good friends, including one who by example taught me the meaning of competence in roleplay and gameplay.

When I played on Leanon I became interested in learning the German language.

Because of Ryturn, I finally started reading and digesting a book about C++.

Over the course of time since I started playing Ryzom, my roleplaying skills (and by extension my writing and social skills) have greatly improved. It's been a valuable and enjoyable creative outlet.

[arfindel]

mm let's see...
Made me write about 24 articles on life on the web coming back mainly to East European freshly free individuals integrating in the western society.

Made me deeper aware one can strive to do the good all the time, not only in bad movies and books for simple minds, and mostly even when it seems ridiculous to do it.

Taught me a huge lot about leading a guild and forcing it to survive (or even revive) and how leading is simultaneously an effort to make everyone lead it.

Taught me that photography can be done indoors as well as outdoors.

Learned also a sum of strategies to cope with losing friends.

Politics was a nice touch, I more generally assimilated it with the forever dichotomy between theories promoting more control versus those more leaned towards freedom (and that didn't overlap only with kami/kara but more with guilds life taken individually).

Made me regret once more that in my time in Romania I had too bad a file to be able to be admitted in law, let alone political sciences.

All in all while some exercise is surely needed I feel enriched by the life in Ryzom and the pasion I lived it with.