Around three or four years ago, I wrote an article for my old workplace about a group of people who wanted to purchase the rights and code for The Saga of Ryzom in order to turn it into open source software. Now, I’m happy to say that my article from way back comes full circle, and the organization, now known as the Virtual Citizenship Association, will be happy to know that Ryzom is now officially open source (Official Press Release Here).

Personally, I had a tough time playing Ryzom when it was free, but I’ve always been rooting for it as an underdog and, because of that story I wrote so many years ago, placed a lot of hope in Ryzom’s future.

Let’s look at this from a purely positive standpoint, as I really don’t feel like dampening this news with doomsaying.

According to the press release, the people who currently develop and publish Ryzom (there’s a long history of transitions, so I don’t know who really owned Ryzom to begin with), Winch Gate, will be releasing all of Ryzom’s artistic assets, as well as two million lines of source code. I don’t know about you, but having an actual game with which to learn how to make games sounds like a boon to programmers everywhere. Everyone who wants to use Ryzom to make free games can essentially build up from the experience of the Ryzom devs, and add their knowledge to the pool as well for others to hone and share their skills as well.

For me, that sounds like good news all around. All we need are inquisitive minds who want to work with the tools that’s now been offered to them, and that’s where everyone else comes in. Spread the word, folks, and let everyone know the good news: there’s an super-MMO waiting to be chiseled out of the internet, and it’s waiting for a talented set of folk to sculpt a masterpiece.

Thanks to Petter of Don’t Fear the Mutant for posting the news on Twitter.