4Players: How do you plan on watching over player-made content? Is there any sort of quality assurance? If yes, how will it work?
DM: There are several different issues here, so taking them one by one:
Firstly, R² is all about giving power and freedom to the players. This means that there are no quality control barriers to stop players from experimenting, inventing and having fun with the R² tools. There are, of course, limits though; it is forbidden to insult other players, to make racist remarks and so on. For these issues, the Ring will use the game's existing customer support systems.
Secondly, players cannot create their own graphics or sounds, they will have to use the ones provided with Ryzom. This constraint is important as it prevents the world from being de-natured by graphical or audio content that is out of place here.
Lastly, there is a system within the Ring for allowing one to see the scenarios that one can join (we call these 'public scenarios'). There is a quality control filter here. There is an approval process that players have to follow in order to be allowed to run public scenarios. In order to be approved, one has to show that one knows the basics concerning Ryzom, its background, its bestiary, and the workings of the Ring tools. Failure to comply with the storyline and dungeon mastering guidelines for public scenarios will result in loss of 'public' status.
4Players: Is there any chance user-created material will affect the future evolution of Ryzom as planned by Nevrax?
DM: Absolutely! The world of Ryzom will grow with the addition of player-created territories called outlands. These territories are player controlled, can be publicly accessible, and can grow in importance depending on the energy and affection that their owners devote to them...
4Players: Will players be able to add new content, i.e. artwork, equipment or NPCs, to the game world? If so, which tools will they have? What sort of editors do you plan to include in Ryzom Ring?
DM: For the near future the simple answer is no. In order to preserve the Ryzom universe, we will not allow players to create their own art and audio work. There is also the matter of having to check every little piece of player-created art or sound to be sure that it doesn’t violate someone else’s copyright; we need to figure out how to make that work before we can implement player-created art.
There is a system for players to create their own 'components' within R². A 'component' is a script file that sets up a potentially-complex game system ranging anywhere from an individual who tells random jokes to a complete bandit camp or a Kitin incursion. These can be distributed to other players and reused in any number of scenarios.