Ryzom vs WoW, there is no "sucks"

[hubba1]

(This is reprinted as a service to those wanting to find out how Ryzom is different. This is a copy of another post buried in a thread. Moderators if you must remove one, please remove the one in the other thread, and keep this copy here instead. My hope is to give interested visitors a sense of what to expect and to realize that MMORPGs can vary. In that regard I'll take the two most capable of them that cover each genre well. Basically WoW as the Quest and Acquisition Style and Ryzom as the Adventurer vs the Dynamic World style. I hope it helps. Maybe down the road I'll produce a more complete guide. You may or may not like Ryzom, you may prefer it or WoW. That's not the point. The point is to give you some sense of how to choose what YOU prefer. I personally intend to play both of them. I have found Ryzom entertaining, involving, capable, stable, and relatively bug free. I've played many MMORPGs. Now the rest of the post ....)

WoW does not and will not suck. Ryzom does not and will not suck. They are truly rather different games in atmosphere, genre, and type of play.

Ryzom is about adventuring against a living DYNAMIC world.

World of Warcraft is a fine STATIC world with tons of quests.

Both have or will have Realm vs Realm PvP to some extent, much like that of Dark Age of Camelot. Ryzom's PvE game , versus the environment of NPC Kitins and primitive tribes is like a strategic match up. That is unlike ANY OTHER MMORPG out there. Horizons planned to do it, they never achieved it AT ALL. Ryzom does achieve it. You take a Kitin civilian camp, the Kitin will come back with Warriors and take it back. The Kitin will rampage as they wish , with or without GM or Dev involvement. They will invade your guild outposts, cut off supply lines, invade villages (but supposedly not major cities so that we have a base to fight from). Meanwhile the animals act naturally. There are roaming predators and prey. I know you won't believe this, but it really looks like Africa out there, in so far as the way the herds travel as they forage, sleep more at night, have the occasional watch dog, and you see Gingos in packs feinting at Yubo herds and taking down one for a meal. There is no comparison to Ryzom in that regard. Not Anarchy Online, not Dark Age of Camelot, not EQ1 or EQ2, and yes not even WoW. Sorry, it's a different league and style of play.

What World of Warcraft has is polish, ease of use, a great quest system, the ability to mail actual items such as loot via the in-game Mail system, well defined classes, and lots of magic loot that you get when you kill things, a good but simpler crafting system, and some of the usual launch problems.

Ryzom is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. But it is even more beautiful in it's movement. It's all about the world and all about you vs the Dynamism in that world. You can be anything you want because you are not stuck to one class. You can learn every fight, magic, harvesting, and crafting skill out there, if you have the time and the patience. The manual even says so on Page 26, it even makes clear there is no level cap. As the manual puts it, you don't get more powerful but you add versatility. This means you don't really need to have more than one character, except to try out all four races. Ryzom is about flexibility. You want a long range spell that can be use both elemental attacks of Acid and Cold, build it with the lego pieces call Stanzas. Want it to cost less mana but take some hit points from you instead, add that stanza instead. Customize your character by your decisions NOT via the class you chose at the start.

Why is Ryzom that way? Again because:

It's YOU versus the DYNAMIC WORLD. Living in it is the adventure. Like the TV show "Lost" versus being stuck in a fantasy picture. Each method has its value.

WoW will probably in the end be the best made Questing MMORPG ever. At its root it's about ACQUISITION, STORY, and HIGH FANTASY.

Ryzom is about FLEXIBILITY and CONSEQUENCES in a living environment. The Environment deserves a capital E because in one sense it is what you struggle against more surely than in any other MMORPG to survive, but also because your chief enemy, both strategically and factually, are a part of the Environment. These are the Kitin.

WoW will allow for PvP, allowing for the Alliance vs Horde.

But in Ryzom, which will also allow for some form of PvP that is similar (at least by major "Patch 2") we are the Alliance and the Kitins' Strategic Campaign AI IS the Horde.

Do you get it now? There is no "sucks". Both are good games and are the best conceived of their genre. Both have excellent graphics engines which are relatively undemanding. Blizzard deliberately went with lighting and detailed environments. Ryzom is all about nature and the movement of the wildlife. On the Mainland even the plants can have a say. Strip mining harvesting will lead to actual attacks by the Kami, or the node blowing up in your face, or it depleting early unable to bring up more nodes in that field for a while. Ryzom is consistent in theme to a tee. That's it's point, that's what makes it unique.

I think I've made my point. Can we now all just get along? I wish you well.