May 17 2008
My Love & Hate Relationship with Ragnarok Online
Warning: 
This is a tl;dr post about MMORPGs so feel free to skip if you’re not interested. I was talking to DS last night about RO and he was surprised to hear that I actually have been playing it on and off for the last 5 years. I’m not really much of a gamer and unlike most people I don’t actually get addicted to MMOs to the point where they affect my daily life. However, RO has been that one game that I just can’t eternally give up. I’ve had break periods ranging from 6 months - 1+ years but I still come back every time…
Let me give a little background on this whole phenomena. As a kid I never had a video game system. All my games were on my computer and the only time I got to play Nintento and SNES was when I came over my cousin’s house. Otherwise I was stuck playing games like Sonic 3D Blast and Titus the Fox. In 2002 when I still fansubbing some of my IRC channel friends were playing “RO”. When I first saw screenshots I thought it was the most retarded thing ever and I didn’t bother (because why the hell would anyone in their right mind pay money for a BETA?)
Eventually a bunch of geeks got together and created Aegis - an emulator for RO which allowed people to set up their own private servers. So one of our IRC guys set one up and all 10 of us got on. I was a complete noob at the time but after playing I really enjoyed the game (even if I had no idea what the hell I was doing whacking things with a club while being a priest.) Coincidentally a month later, iRO opened up it’s official open beta. This time most of my fansub group supporters and I all came on and created our infamous “Choco” guild (Based off Choco Fansubs) which had a picture of Hinano (from trouble chocolate since I was fansubbing that at the time) as the logo.
We all played for a month and while it was fun at first…a grim future was to be ahead of us. If you didn’t know, Ragnarok Online is a grinder game. You need to kill stuff to level, get items, (heal zeny itam plz mentality.) So after a while we had some guild tension, certain members got greedy and wanted to level up in places to hard for the others. It caused a lot of negative feelings and lost friendships and eventually the open beta ended. A few of us payed for 1 month of play when the game went P2P but at the end of that month iRO had a huge hack so just to be safe all of us quit and joined a private server
Private servers were pretty rare at the time, but now you can find one easily with the snap of a finger. A few of us from the IRC chan still played but the majority quit. By few of us I mean basically about 4 and +1 who we met on iRO. Anyway this went on for about a year but as the common issue with private servers: they all go corrupt. I didn’t leave without a consolation prize though - I made 2 pretty good friends, one who I finally met at Anime Boston this year. Anyway after that for the next few years my RO playing was on and off.
I’d jump from 1 server to another. Every time I came back there were more servers and more updates. Back in iRO for example we didn’t have half the world maps, headgears, skills, classes and not even WOE. With private servers all that changed, and actually it influenced iRO to get their ass in gear and try to keep up faster with KRO’s updates - so people would have an OFFICIAL AND up to date server to play on without having to play private.
Are private servers legal? Maybe not. If they were that illegal though, I’d imagine iRO could go around suing a million people at this point. There’s so many servers and they’re very easily accessible to the public that I’m starting to think iRO basically prides itself on being “official and legit and not corrupt” which at this point may be true. Last year JP and I hopped servers every other week because of GMs not wanting to fix bugs, pay pal corruption (”donate $5 and we’ll give you headgear that makes you invincible!”) and general server cheaters who ruined it for everyone.
Anyway as May/June hit I pretty much called it quits for RO1 because I managed to get myself on KRO2! It was still in beta but it was so amazing to me. Unfortunately since I don’t have a dedicated video card on my laptop, the game play was (and still us) very choppy. Even though I didn’t understand Korean and the translation patch wasn’t always up to date I loved it none the less. Unfortunately KRO sorta stopped updating itself and so I had to leave it as well. I played on the JRO open beta (as I mentioned before) and I had a blast as I was actually able to communicate with the players and make some friends and party with people other than English speakers.
After JRO2 beta ended, I took my interests elsewhere and began Albatross18 also known as Pangya. I was really excited and really liked the game at first but my interested wained when the idiot admins started up the demon known as Cabal and their updates for A18 got put on the backburner. Also the ridiculous amounts of cheating Brazillian players who talked shit about the American players, were rude, and generally acted like douche bags left a general sour taste in my mouth. I still play once in a while but not as much as I used to. (I can only take so much golf.)
So recently in the past month I discovered a private server for RO2. I was really happy to try it out and get that nostalgic feeling all over again - but alas it was not meant to be. The server turned out to be a test server for the emulator (similar to Aegis) that they are developing for RO2. To make a long story short: BUGS. I mean all games have bugs, but this one has so many bugs it makes it literally unplayable. Lag and missing quests aside, at times you’ll have monsters who aren’t aggro attacking you. During your battles, one of your crucial skills may suddenly stop working leaving you to hope you have back up skills or to basically die. Because armor coupons don’t work you’re stuck using armor 6 levels below you and so leveling up becomes even more difficult. Needless to say after a week JP and I decided to take a long break…at least until I get my new computer because I can’t deal with the video lag anymore.
So in the death of RO2 playing, I got nostalgic (I’ll just blame it on Shin and his icons) for RO1. So I found yet another private server to start my adventures all over again. This time I’m pulling DS in with me and JP. (I tried to get itsubun but she’ll fail school if she plays lol.) Don’t know how long I’ll last at this one but maybe if I don’t play too often it’ll be alright? 
As a final note, the reason I picked RO over say World of Warcraft is I really like cute things. To me both RO1 and RO2 are cute and aesthetically pleasing so I’ve really enjoyed playing them. I can’t recall all the characters I’ve ever made but what comes to my mind is my first thief/assassin from iRO open beta named Hinano. I’ve also remember my first active private server character Kumoko who was a hunter. With JP when we played I was playing Clannad at the time so we named a lot of our characters after Clannad. (For example we had tae kwon do class named Tomoyo & Tomoya.) Recently though with my soul eater kick, our characters in RO2 were Souru and Maaka and now [Soul] and [Maka].
Anyway we’ll see how this goes, I wonder if I’ll ever give up this game. 
Also this is old but I once made a funny flash movie about Ragnarok Online. It’s probably funnier to RO vets who know what it’s like to get noobs begging for heals and money.
Tags: good old days, video clips
32 Responses to “My Love & Hate Relationship with Ragnarok Online”
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Fellow Ragnarok Online fan reporting for duty o/
I spent my entire 2 years in high school playing this, to the extent of occasionally
skipping classes just to head over to the local internet cafe to train my characters; which included a female priestess(damn those sexy legs) and a male assassin(which I made to resemble a girl) 
Fun times indeed, as I learned how easily one could dupe guys into doing your bidding, which was how I amassed my fortune, as I was some guild leader’s wife. 
I could go on and on, but I think I’ll stop for now.
tl;dr
R.O ROCKS!
Too bad the anime sucked balls though.
You must be an insane masochist to play not one, but two Korean MMOs. If you want free, go play something good like a UO. As much as I love cute, the graphics only take you so far, once the tedium and lack of gameplay sets in with RO. There’s much cuter, in terms of shitty Korean MMOs, actually, if you look around. Like Yogurting.
RO private servers are illegal, like all MMO server emulators, but the publishers/developers don’t care enough to prosecute. Any reverse-engineering is illegal, according to the DMCA. Well, in most cases. The bnetd Starcraft/Warcraft case was about the only exception to this.
I was a huge Asheron’s Call player for years, then I moved onto FFXI, then finally WoW. I’ve had an on and off love/hate relationship with WoW since its launch and recently quit it for the last time. I’m waiting for Warhammer now.
Pangya’s pretty cool, but I’ve never done anything that game except buy most of Kooh’s cute costumes and play with friends every once in a while. I have her limited edition Korean New Year’s costume. :3
Oh, I absolutely enjoy playing MMORPGs…
I always try to get a different one to play around this time of the year when I’m usually less busy IRL. Except that most of the times all the grinding alone and the whole “pay real money to get nice looking shit for your character” thing end up ruining the experience for me.
The fun part for me is having a party or a guild and grind together
. The last MMORPG I played was Lunia and I had some fun with it until the guild I joined got all inactive and disbanded. 
I never touch these. These are graphical MUDs. Got addicted for 6 months of MUDs. Very addictive to the point of sneaking off to the computer lab at 1am in the morning to play. Came to senses eventually and stopped.
Never had a console. Like hinano, played consoles at friends. Never saw the justification in getting a machine that only played games. At least a PC you could do work on it; although these days, the core2 is somewhat exclusively for games and the p4 is the work machine. >_>
I don’t see why you wouldn’t own a PS2, at the very least. They’re dirt cheap, and if you have any like of games at all, you’ll find numerous games worth playing.
Though, despite the fact that I’ve owned various consoles over the years and own a PS2/Wii currently, I’m a PC gamer at heart. It’s what I grew up with and the platform I’ll stick with until the end of time.
Link> Because I like to play with friends online, not just sit there playing games. It’s more of an “interactive chat” thing for me rather than the game play itself - which is probably why I’ve been able to play multiple games without getting “tired”. AS I mentioned I don’t play THAT often enough to get bored and when I get bored I take a 1 year break lol. Also my TV is 13 inch tube tv from like 1997. Maybe one day I’ll get a Wii but gaming isn’t my priority which is why I haven’t justified spending money on it.
Digi> I agree with you on the “sole gaming” machine thing
Taiyaki> Yea haha well for me not begin in school anymore, I’m equally busy all times of year so I just have to balance it
Shin> Hehe I played a lot of RO through college when my room mate was busy making out with her fat ugly boyfriend so I needed something to occupy myself with and zone them out
Oh, of course the main reason why I play a MMO, besides entertainment, is because it’s social. Asheron’s Call was a purely social PvP game. I was the leader of a huge monarchy (guild) for the longest time on Darktide, the PvP server.
Otherwise I would just go replay Arcanum, Baldur’s Gate 2, or another CRPG repeatedly. Maybe it’s more that I’ve had only ever one or two friends that I have been into RO and other Korean crap before. They’re far too grindy and boring to pursue them myself.
Again, PS2 is the solution. You can get a used PS2 for $50 or less on ebay and games are dirt cheap. You’re missing out on years of classic RPGs, so even if action games and other genres aren’t your thing… Maybe it’s more that I have the time for gaming after work every day, shuffled in with everything else I do.
Wow. I haven’t touched RO since… the Juno update, probably. Do they have 3rd jobs on that private server yet? What’s the most recent update there? I used to play on mRO/iRO for a short while. Used to kick ass with my Wizard back then.
Also, Link seems to have missed out on the part where you said that “gaming isn’t my priority which is why I haven’t justified spending money on it”, but he seems unable to accept the fact that people don’t see reasons to get a PS2, so I doubt anything else you say after this will be read. lol fanboys.
Owen> I’m pretty sure most private servers are up to the 3rd job already as I played the 3rd job on priv servers like 2 years ago. I’m not sure how updated the one I joined is as all I did last night was make a character and then go to bed. XD I might be on later tonight with JP and DS to actually play further. I’m noticing little changes here & there but if you haven’t played since Juno you’re definitely in for a huge update.
Oh, what I meant by 3rd jobs were the hinted-at-in-recent-updates 150 level 100 job classes, actually. I used to call what you call 3rd jobs trans classes, hence the confusion. But yeah, if that’s the case then I wouldn’t mind playing it some time. Hopefully lag won’t be an issue, since I used to lag to hell and back while playing on iRO servers. It’ll be nice to play again without having to bother with all that grinding, if just to see what’s changed.
I never really got into RO. I also find that I’m terrible at sticking to MMO’s. orz
Games of any kind can be addictive. I can’t make it through work without Solitaire. And I’ve been playing Dead or Alive so long if it ever ends I will probably cry. Even downloaded the HORRIBLE live action movie.
I’m sure as long as you can find joy in the game, you’ll stick with it. If not, I’ve heard that there are other things one can do with their spare time.
Buy and Xbox 360.
Oh yes, I now remember the quote.
RO is like crack.
Grade AAA to be exact. Causes people to stop working on their subs and play it instead. The most annoying distraction.
I played iRO open beta but eventually the endless grind made me wear out and I never passed level 25. I played Diablo2 because my roommate practically forced me to play with him and even though I was a top10 ranked player on the stress test, I never even got past lvl 50 on the release version. I couldn’t even get past level 20 on Dark Age of Camelot or Final Fantasy XI. For me, the endless grinding of the same things will suck me in for a bit then after a month or two I get bored. Yet somehow I played WoW and got several maxed characters… I have no idea how that happened.
Right now I’m poor and playing a MUD to get my social gaming fix, lol.
Wow haha on IRO i actually got to level 64 before I quit lol
I like private servers the rates are always higher and faster leveling
“Also the ridiculous amounts of cheating Brazillian players who talked shit about the American players, were rude, and generally acted like douche bags left a general sour taste in my mouth.”
I’m sure many of us have experienced this at least once or twice
“Brazilian” and “American” are pretty much interchangeable in the above sentence. I blame parenting and social values, lol.
Wow. I was just thinking about going back to playing RO. I’m not a great player at all, I only played for about a month, but it was nice hanging out with people there. (And one of my friends was really experienced, and thus could really help me out XD)
I’ve heard of RO, and was slightly interested, but I never really got into playing it. I started with MapleStory, which I quickly learned was full of 14-year-old brats who ask you for gold, and if you don’t give it to them they defame you. Or they say “CC PLX”. =____=;;; Then I migrarted over to GuildWars for a bit, but it’s kinda weird playing with my DAD and all, so I don’t play it much now. Tried FlyFF for a bit, didn’t really stick with it. Currently I’m playing Mabinogi. While the newbie town is full of people and spam bots, most of the time I’m not in the newbie town. I’ve made a nice amount of friends though Mabinogi, so I’ll prolly be on and off with this one for a while.
I just hope Nexon fixes these damned G2 Bugs left in the system. =___= The seriously shouldn’t have started Generation 2 on Mabinogi yet, it’s CLEARLY not bug-proofed yet.
Yea games with bugs are really not fun :S
Also UGH Maple Story, when you say 14 year olds you obviously mean 10 year old shotas cause I totally saw them playing it at a local public library before
Btw, from your personalities I’m guessing that you’re probably going to play a Lord Knight/Stalker, jp a High Priest, and DS a Minstrel? It would be funny if my guess was correct, lol.
XD Actually ironically enough in RO priest was always my favorite job haha…but recently I’ve taken a liking to the Hunter class. JP I think is gonna be an assassin and we’re prolly gonna have DS be a gunslinger named “Death the Kid” lol (We’re keeping a soul eater theme going on here haha)
It does sound quite interesting but after getting a bit too immersed in runescape once I am very cautious around MMOs. It does sound interesting and I’ve never heard of people creating servers for MMOs before.
I quite like the poll this week because the responses seem to sound best in a pertinent voice…
I’ve lost friends to MMORPGs for weeks, literally. They get in their rooms, emerge to eat and shower, take a test or something, and then hide. I’d like to play one, perhaps RO (Warcraft is too crazy) but I know I get easily addicted and don’t want to end up in my room.
ahhi miss my days of playing ro NOW TO PWNT RO2!!! OHH I MEANT LINEAGE ][ lol
UO player then long-time ffxi player till I went back to school (boo for hinting at my age >.>)
fun times, but the grind in any MMO gets old after a while. I did have my share of iRO and private servers as well.. your pictures of RO2 look pretty nice though ^^
Oh yeah:
“I need zeny please gimme zeny please”
“I want that item gimme that item please”
“Ohhhh I wanna Ifrit gimme a Ifrit please”
“Ohhh god items gimme god items please”
Just in case ppl forgot how the n00b begging routine is XD
BTW you people should try Lineage ][ its has better graphics than RO2 and generally better Hinano please give it a look X3
XD i got pretty much the same experience with u.. i never really get in touch with games prior to moved in here (australia).. mom wouldn’t let me play game and always prevent my dad to get me one..
unknown to her i download gba emulator and play pokemon like crazy..
yeah.. so i tried playing several online game since i got here..
(all private server since i was a poor overseas student lol).. i prefer cute game and my bf likes the cool ones :/.. so we ended up playing lineage and occasionally flyff..
wanna try ro2 tho.. looks awesomely cute :D.. and please bring mabinogi to australia T_T.. i might just cheat it with proxy if i must
I have the exact same sentiment! I’ve been playing it on and off for 5+ years now, and i still love it! (Although it does get boring after a while.)
I have now played RO and realize I have much to learn… ^^;
I’ve played on the same private server for the past 3-4 years .. and I still go on for woe every week .. RO is just fun!
that flash movie was funny
I saw the video a while back and it was hilarious XD
Yeah, even after going through so many other MMOs, I still think that RO is the best among them. Made some really close friends from the game and it’s one game I wouldn’t mind playing over and over again as long as I have my buddies with me.