Ryzom-ing from the Ashes. Product: Ryzom Ring During this year's Austin Game conference, I had the opportunity to take a hands-on guided tour through Nevrax's Ryzom Ring. Nevrax's Ryzom launched in 2004 to many middle of the road reviews, but those who liked it... loved it. They are recreating themselves with their new endeavor Ryzom Ring that allows you to create what you play. How appropriate that the slogan reads "Power to the Players." In Ryzom Ring, you create your stories using a very comprehensive, but extremely easy to master, system that has many aspects of an automatic scripting system. As of today, paid subscribers to Ryzom are welcome to enter the beta for Ryzom Ring. You start out by choosing your persona and from there, you decide if you want to build today or if you want to play another player's creation. When you choose to build, you start by picking a terrain type, season and starting point. There is a huge library of assets to place into your world to create deep gaming experiences. I was able to whittle out of my host that there will soon be camera controls for those of you who have an eye for Machinima, but for now, FRAPS has exactly what you need to capture what is happening on screen and turn it into your own Machinima piece. The depth of a story you can create with all of the assets of the entire game at your disposal can be a little intimidating. Not to worry; the easy to use interface and very intuitive commands really do make it easy. As a modder, I have had the opportunity to play many tool sets ranging from the need to know a good scripting language, to drag and drop. They were usually on one end of an ease factor, matched only by their limitations. Ryzom Ring offers a simple tool with very few limitations. It was designed with the common user in mind, not a programmer. Look out for my full preview from the beta of Ryzom Ring later this month. -WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd Related Links: Nevrax Official Site Ryzom Ring Fraps - Game video capture tool