It seems like more and more MMO teams are growing to see the viability in establishing some sort of free-to-play community within their games, and Ryzom is just the next one to see the light! In their latest patch, version 1.11.0, the team at Ryzom has announced a new free trial system, where players can play a brand new account in Ryzom without any time or place limits! The restrictions that the Ryzom team has chosen to place on their endless free trial members is more of the storage and level variety, as free trial players cannot own any mektoub packers, use the inventory of their apartments, nor can they take any items from guild storage. As well, all free trial players will be capped to a maximum level of 125 in all different skills.

So what do you all think of this? Is an endless free trial system at least better to a short free trial system? What about in comparison to the 'freemium' model being used by Turbine? Either way, progress is on the march, and free is the name of the game!

Patch 1.6.0 is now live in Ryzom, and it gives the team the ability to create Web applications that can be used both in-game and out of the game. For example, you can now read and write mail whether you're logged in to the sci-fi/fantasy MMO or not. The team plans to add new Web applications in the future and is inviting players with PHP knowledge to volunteer as a developer.

Other changes that have been implemented with the patch include a redesigned user interface and 56 new tattoos. More information on the patch can be found after the jump.

The folks now responsible for Ryzom , the MMO that the community just won't let die, has posted some info on what their new goals are!

As many of you have asked in the Forums to know what our plans are concerning the future of our MMORPG Ryzom, we wanted to let you know that they are mainly :

1. To get profitable and raise enough money to allow us to finance all our development dreams.
2. To get all our new Developer Teams up to date with the Ryzom Code - which I can assure you is no little task as the code of Ryzom includes millions of lines.
3. Meanwhile, with the help of our new CTO Vianney Lecroart, we are preparing a yearly dev plan of tasks, milestones, and goals that we would like to achieve, prioritize and define; in short, all the things that will make our game even better like completing bug fixes, implementing new missions, creating new content and new game features that we think you will love and deserve to have.

Every day we are thinking about where we want to go and what we want to achieve for you. But we don't want to make the mistake of planning bad decisions because we hadn't prepared enough or we rushed into these decisions too quickly; we want to prepare ourselves as best as possible before giving you any straight answers. Don't forget that an MMORPG is an extremely complex living thing, especially Ryzom.

It's possible that Saga of Ryzom can be raised from the dead!  Ryzom.com's opening screen has been updated to reflect "Ryzom will be back soon!" in three languages!!!

We're anxiously awaiting word on what will be happening to this fantastic game!

Just in case you've been following the current status of Saga of Ryzom, here's an update!

The dispute between the two liquidators appears to have been resolved, and, following a mistake, the sell apparently took place without VCA being informed.

Ryzom was sold to Spiderweb for 213 K€, but the liquidator appears to agree to start the sell over if Ryzom.org can offer more. No more information at the moment.

The current thread of info is becoming quite long and convoluted, but it's still good info!

Saga of Ryzom has shut down its French server, only days after the loss of their German server.
This sounds the final death knell for the homes of thousands of players over the last three years.  The site admin for Ryzom.org had this to say about the sudden, if not unexpected loss of Aniro.

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.

It remains to be seen if this hurdle is one the community can overcome, but I wish them all the best in the attempt!

Saga of Ryzom lost their German server, Leanon, yesterday, no surprise to anyone following the sad spiral of this game.

Only the French server, Aniro, remains at this time.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for this fine community!