Ryzom

Dear All,

Could anyone speaking both German & English please translate all 3 pages of this Interview; or send me the link to an already translated site?

http://mmog.gdynamite.de/specials_846.html



Many thanks

Thank you

Much better then Babelfish


cheers

Welcome

For twenty months, Ryzom developer Nevrax has been in liquidation. A short while before it ended, most of the developers and all rights on the game have been taken over by the Gameforge AG. We interviewed Klaas Kersting, head of Gameforge AG and Carsten van Husen, managing director of Gameforge 4D GmbH (which takes care of MMORPGs).

Please introduce yourself to our readers!

Klaas: Hello! My name is Klaas Kersting I'm the executive director of Gameforge AG, which I already founded during my course of studies.
Carsten: My name is Carsten van Husen and I'm the managing director of Gameforge 4D GmbH. Before my time at Gameforge I have been responsible for the europe-wide gamebranch of the ISP Tiscali - one of which has been the publishing of the MMO BiosFear.

Gameforge has been known as the developer of browsergames previously. Not much has been known about MMORPGs. Can a browsergame company be succesful in managing MMORPGs?

Carsten: A few days ago we succesfully launched "Metin 2" on the german market, and the title is a real success. At high times thousands of players are online simultanously. I'd say that's the proof.
Klaas: In the end, there are many things in common, between browsergames and clientbased MMOGs. The mechanics, that decide over success or failure are in most cases identical. Our huge userbase and our know-how is the ideal prerequisit. Exactly these thoughts have induced us to join the market of "clientbased MMOGs" with Gameforge 4D.

Are you satisfied with the feedback for Metin 2 and Herrcot?

Carsten: Mainly it's inovative action component and the nice community features have made Metin 2 as succesful. Herrcot is already much anticipated - each day we get loads of mails asking about it's status. We are very satisfied with the feedback. We're amazed even, 'cause these games have been almost unknown before in europe!

Metin 2, Herrcot and Carsten's old "baby" BiosFear are all korean products. Isn't Ryzom a completely different project? In what way does it differ from other games? What are the most important features of Ryzom for you?

Carsten: Ryzom is definitively a completely different product. The world just isn't the typical fantasy-medieval-world but rather the devs have created an inovative world with a completely own 'soul'. There are no elves, orcs and dwarfs and no typical character classes. This is exactly what makes the game unique and the project exciting. Furthermore, the game has many nice elements: the evolutionary userdriven gameplay, the stylish graphics or the open skillsystem are only a few things, which make Ryzom a really amazing game.

The developer of Ryzom, Nevrax, has never been profitable. It is said, that the project has already eaten millions. Can the competitors of Gameforge now rub their hands and hope, that Ryzom will also drive Gameforge into bankruptcy?

Klaas (laughs): Nevrax never made profit, that's right. There are countless hurdles you could stumple upon in the publishing of a title, more than ever, if an investor, that doesn't understand the market gives alot of pressure. We are in the happy position, that we've already done most mistakes - and we hopefully learned from them. With the marketing amongst our 4.5 million active players and the infrastructure in technics and billing, we already build up for our browsergames, we bring exactly that, which Nevrax never had and give the team the opportunity to do what they do best: Develop good games. The competitors, that already rub their hands now, don't understand what currently happens and which chances arrise for us.

What are your plans gameplay and content-wise for the future of Ryzom? And what will become of Ryzom Ring, the community project?

Carsten: It's too early to say anything in particular. We first need some time to scope the situation and develop the new strategy with the team.

Please state your visions for how Ryzom will look in two years...

Klaas: Already now Ryzom is a constant among the MMOGs of the 3rd generation. Ryzom will grow heavily and will gain the position on the market it deserves.

Gameforge has been known as the developer and publisher of browsergames, and Gameforge 4D has been a relatively small daughter which licensed asian games for publishing. Now you're growing a whole lot and become a developer. Some would say, that you don't have any clue when it comes to the development of complex 3D games... How will you handle this challenge?

Klaas: We never developed a complex 3D game thats perfectly right. And if I would be searching a developer for a MMOG, I wouldn't choose us, even though we already developed big projects and are not totally clueless. But the "Saga of Ryzom"-team has shown to be able to do exactly that: develop a beautiful and unique game which runs and works. This is were we fit together nicely and can help each other: We are good at running, publishing and marketing of browser- and client-based games and the Ryzom-team in developing. Together we'll move worlds.

Many thanks for the interview.


PS: I've taken the freedom to reform sentences to fit the english language, but rest assured no content has been removed.

I hoped this was a recent article... but its from december last year