Nevrax officially announces The Ryzom Ring, an upcoming expansion for their MMORPG The Saga of Ryzom that was first unveiled via some E3 previews. Here's word:

PARIS, FRANCE – June 6, 2005 – Nevrax, developer of The Saga of Ryzom, the ground breaking massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), announced a new expansion to The Saga of Ryzom entitled The Ryzom Ring, first presented at the recent E3 Expo in Los Angeles, California.

The Ryzom Ring is a set of tools for editing and sharing player-made “maps” that are customizable with terrain, monsters and NPCs all run by individual players. Maps can be integrated directly into The Saga of Ryzom world of Atys, where thousands of other players can experience one person’s handiwork, or kept as a private sanctuary only accessible to a select few. Maps can be made exclusive to player guilds or select friends while running their own invasions or events.

“Our hope for The Ryzom Ring is that it will bring back the power to the players,” said David Cohen Corval, CEO of Nevrax and creator of The Saga of Ryzom. “The Ryzom Ring will empower individuals to create their own adventures and lands and to share them. The only true limitations will be their own imaginations“.

Player maps will be hosted on Nevrax’s servers and developed with tools that have a point-and-click interface. Nevrax plans the first phase of the tools to be easy enough to use that even the most inexperienced MMG player can create content with ease.

“One of our goals is not only to make the players be truly a part of the world of Atys by giving them the tools to create their own areas, but also to make it easy and fun to do so,” continued Cohen Corval. “We believe that the player-empowering nature of The Ryzom Ring is ground-breaking and we hope it will change the way MMGs are played forever.”

The Ryzom Ring is currently scheduled to ship in Winter 2005/2006.