Gardens of Kyresoo FAQ - Practical matters Do I have to pay to play? Gardens of Kyresoo is a free to play game. It uses a “distributed world” model in which each player hosts their own garden on a website. This reduces central server costs considerably. We do need to eat though, and will provide a way you can send money. For a small subscription fee (probably US$5 per month), you can become a Patron of the Gardening in Arts in Kyresoo. This is mostly a prestige position, but does come with a few perks. What is a “distributed world”? Most Massively Multi-player games use a central server to host the world. Partly because most multi-player games are combat intensive. Which means the server must know exactly what everyone is up to at any moment, and ensure no-one is cheating. The relaxed pace, cooperative nature and abstract objective of the Gardens of Kyresoo put much less stress on the central server. Most of the data that describes the world is distributed across many websites, under the control of the individual players. The “world” of Kyresoo is the great Academy Tree, where each Steward tends a garden within the hollow crystalline leaves of the tree. Each “leaf” is technically just a website viewed through a specialized web browser. Popular areas in the world can simply sprout more leaves to accommodate new players. This avoids the “first mover” problem of the flat earth model, where the early players grab all the best spots in the world. What kind of computer do I need to play Gardens of Kyresoo? Gardens of Kyresoo is designed to be played on a low powered computers. In fact, the flower growing part could in theory be played on the next generation of cell phones. My thinking is the game could well be attractive to people who don’t play graphical computer games at the moment, and haven’t got the latest and greatest in graphics hardware. The current flower growing portion runs well on a six year old Pentium III was a TNT2 card. The complete game may need more, but should still run well with even the cheapest of modern graphics cards. The situation with laptop computers is murkier, that is one of the things the Early Beta will explore. See the Tech Support section in the Gardens of Kyresoo forums for more in this. What if I don’t have a website? Probably more people have access to a website than realize it. I believe most Internet Service Providers include some sort of Website package in your monthly fee. But if it is like mine (Rogers.ca), they don’t make it terribly obvious. In my case, the website hosting is handled by Yahoo Geocities, and while not a huge amount is plenty for Kyresoo. There are also free website hosting services. See the Tech Support section in the Gardens of Kyresoo forums for more in this. Can my children play? Gardens of Kyresoo is intended to be a family friendly game. While some of the tools are complex, the basic function of picking pretty flowers for further mutation or cross breeding is something even a small child could do. Generally, each garden tool is implemented as a separate Windows application, so young children can learn the simplest tools while adults can handle the more complex ones. Multiple people can have their own copy of the game on one computer, and a single website can support an unlimited number of players. Gardens of Kyresoo is neither resource nor time intensive, and for children with a scientific bent, can be quite educational.