Graal

Graal[1] is the game with which we are all, for some reason or another, still involved. It started its existence as a relatively simple Java game - known then as 'Zelda Online' - on the website of French company Cyberjoueurs[2]. Pressure from Nintendo forced its creators to branch away from the Zelda theme and become an original(ish) game. The name was changed to Graal (nobody seems to be able to agree on the origins of the name, or how it is properly pronounced) and the majority of sprites were replaced. Some time later, the game was converted to a standalone Delphi program, and Graal began its evolution into a professional, Pay to Play MMORPG.

Perhaps Graal's greatest strength is its customisability. An intuitive editor allows even the most technically-inept players to build levels of their own, complete with custom graphics and interactive NPCs. The latter are developed using a simple - yet surprisingly powerful - language named Gscript. Recently, a new language has come into play, dubbed Gscript2.

The creative power afforded by these features means that groups of players can combine their skills to produce entire worlds for other Graalians to explore. Indeed, GraalOnline offers hosting options that allow such groups to develop their Playerworlds online, making them (if they so wish) accessible to regular Graalians.

In addition to these player-operated servers, GraalOnline also runs three official worlds: Graal Kingdoms, Graal2001 and Graal: The Adventure. Though they are usually considered conceptually distinct from Playerworlds, they are still largely developed and maintained by volunteer players.

The Graal client was recently converted to Torque C++, granting superior speed and cross-platform compatibility. Builds of the new version - dubbed Graal 3.0 - are now available for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. In addition, a whole new version is in development that promises to offer fully 3D graphics[3] along with a rehauled scripting engine. (A test of the new game, dubbed - conveniently - Graal3D was released to some criticism around Christmas 2004.)