Rise: The Vieneo Province (abbreviated to Rise) is an Internet-based virtual world that has been in development since January, 2003 and was offered commercially beginning in April, 2006. Through a downloadable client program, users interact with each other through motional vehicles and avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse.
While Rise is sometimes referred to as a game, in general it does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of a typical game. Players, often called "citizens", can visit this virtual world almost as if it were a real place. They explore, meet other citizens, socialize, participate in individual and alliance activities, and buy and produce goods (virtual property) and services from one another. As they spend more time in the world, they learn new skills and mature socially, learning the culture and manners of a virtual environment.
The game contains player-driven economics, a dynamic weather system, and a detailed terrain engine. Vieneo, the fictitious moon the game is based on, has all the typical attributes of a planet or moon and was made using StarGen.
The aerodynamic and astrodynamic physics are of the highest fidelity and therefore closely mimic reality. One of the goals of many players is to fly up into orbit and look down at the large gaming arena.
Source: Wikipedia, "Rise: The Vieneo Province", available under the CC-BY-SA License.