Death of a Game: Ragnarok Online (& Ragnarok Online 2)

Ragnarok, the Korean manwha that changed the world.
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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
0:00 - Intro
2:25 - Timeline starts
22:00 - RO2
Sources:
store.steampowered.com/app/21...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity...)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnaro...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnaro...)
ragnarok.fandom.com/wiki/Kim_...
www.donga.com/en/article/all/...
www.thestreet.com/technology/...
koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/...
www.reuters.com/article/marke...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnaro...
seekingalpha.com/article/4392...
www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...
ragnarok.fandom.com/wiki/Lee_...
www.gamenguide.com/articles/1...
blackshellmedia.com/2016/11/0....
irowiki.org/wiki/Update_History
www.gravity.co.kr/en/ir/notic...

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks for the support on this and other videos detectives. Oh yeah, and don't think I forgot about Ragnarök Online 2: The Gate of the World either. I just didn't have enough time or the right angle to include it into this story. (RO2 that never was). It will get another video (where we can cover more details around and after 2 as well), I promise :).

[@onizuka]

yeah, RO2 was rough having 2 versions. one discord servers been trying to restore it for a long time.

[@THEDEY2]

OH MY GOD UNREAL TOURNAMENT 99!!!

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

And RO2:LotS had pretty nice artstyle for that time. But gameplay ruined - because it's not a RO anymore, it's became generic WoW clone. If they did it completely different in gameplay wise - it would be different story. But now we have only fail. And example that big company managers exceptionally far from their own customers.

[@lanoche]

Weird that you were mixing the clips of both the original RO2 and Legend of the second though. People that don't know the difference are probably super confused by it lol.

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

@@lanoche Where? I don't see where he is using Ro2:GotW footage. All I saw in video - just RO2:LotS but from different stages of game developement (they alter slightly game tone and interface over time).

[@estekel2]

You have no idea what RO means to the gamers of Brazil. This game was HUGE HUGE HUGE here, even today there are tons of people trying to revive it through many means. The company that managed the game here was pretty terrible but it never stopped us from enjoying the game. It is a mark of nostalgia for anyone who was a teen at the time.

[@mayalabo3906]

same here in Philippines~

[@marin688]

A warpportal ta conseguindo ser pior que a level up mas continuo jogando kkkk

[@estekel2]

@@marin688 eu tenho medo do que é preciso fazer pra ser pior que a level up.

[@khankhomrad8855]

Heck, the official Brazilian server still hosts WoE 3 times a week, each attracting about 150+ players each with about 8 clans partaking in the fight. A farcry from the numbers it got back when the game was truly popular in Brazil, but it is still something. Also crazy to think that Vendetta is still around and kicking with the same leadership as when it was created some 15-16 years ago.

[@duckluiz]

Ragnarok, Grand Chase and Combat Arms where extremely huge here in Brazil... I miss the good ol' days of Level Up Games 😢😢😢

[@Spudawg]

This one is gonna hurt, gentlemen. Let's go, shall we?

[@euphoriantremedy]

I'll be in Prontera if you need me.

[@knx7405]

I'm with you.

[@Donn66]

I just live with the pain.

[@punsmith]

*sniff* I've got my tissues ready :(

[@notani3533]

I only played once, before my sister shoo me away. I always remembers the anime and the artworks.

[@ammygamer]

Brazilian player. I remember roleplaying my character and making everyone laugh. I was a "scholar from another realm", and I was in a quest to "write a book on Midgard's ecosystems so I would be eligible into the prestigious order of Candlekeep". My "main" was a level 20 mage who looked like an npc and paid beginners/newcomers coins and rare items (which I got from using my other overpowered characters) to "escort me" across regions safely so I could do "research". After awhile I had people who recognized me and asked where I was planning to go next/if they could tag along/assist. I successfully travelled all accessible maps thanks to the community, "concluding" my book, then turning my char into a sage. It was an amazing journey.

[@NightmareBlade10]

That's the type of story that I love to hear in regards to MMORPGs. I play a lot of Elder Scrolls Online and it seems that everyone takes the game way too seriously. They're always trying to speedrun dungeons and chase the meta rather than have fun with the game and respect other players.

[@blueberryiswar]

@@NightmareBlade10well the old grinders didn’t really have dungeons. Or quests. Or dailies … some weekly world pvp to conquer castles and world bosses were about it. So people were just hanging out and chatting most of the time.

[@KyouJah42069]

Fam i still see the text box being spammed with BR?!?!?!? in my dreams, so beautiful.

[@clyde-xn5xb]

Where is your book? 😅 please be it in english 😂

[@Mithoskrasnej]

Maybe less daily content is one of the key ingredients that help create a more social Mmorpg

[@warfare3gin]

After 20 years, this MMORPG still remains the best one I have ever played. I have not come across any other game that has matched its level of enjoyment and satisfaction.

[@cssplayer91]

Facts. I was a beta tester for ragnarok online in 2002 and it was my first mmorpg ever. I had previous experience with rpg's like final fantasy on playstation but this was my first online rpg. Throughout the years playing dozens upon dozens of mmorpg's including world of warcraft, flyff, blade & soul and elder scrolls online, ragnarok is still the best imo. So many memories. And it was all thanks to a korean student I knew back in elementary school who got me into ragnarok online back in 2001 👍

[@mauif7639]

damn man Flyff using that hover board was revolutionary .@@cssplayer91

[@LegendaryGoetz]

100%! The detail to player and monster stat balances is absolutely brilliant. The options are endless. I mained a LK for probably 10 years. 2005-2015. I’m 31 now with a family, so investing the time into this game again isnt possible. But man do I ever itch to grind on this game again 😂

[@AisarthDK]

Ragnarok Online was my first contact with online play. When I typed "Hi" in the game and someone actually replied I was completely blown away. This game will always have a special place in my memory.

[@satosoujirou]

me too dude. its so mesmerizing i keep thinking of it for weeks. having friends who doesnt judge your appearance and doing things we love together. mmo has become my life source from that on. and i even planning of creating one. its sad too many greedy developers keep killing the genre with their generic mmo nowadays.

[@Perqqq]

Me and the boys/girls sitting in Prontera near the fountain talking for hours

[@thatrandomshorts]

bro you hit the spot. i remember having my first set of online friends. they were all cousin and they were all so good to me. i was just saddened that i had to leave and change server because my real friends started playing too on a different server. but i'll never forget them. oh how time flies.

[@powerrangerred6600]

Broooo how is our memory exactly the same lmao. I was so fascinated that people would answer with "hi" after I said it. It was soo mind-blowing xD

[@PoulainNord]

Same)))

[@Wings012]

I got married on a private server once. This was before there was any marriage system built into the game, so we just winged it and gathered a massive group all the way up to Glast Heim. There were a few casualties, but we had like 30 dudes dogpile Abyssal Knight and defend the ceremony. Good times.

[@blammer]

Damn that must have been so fun

[@ganguru01]

True happiness

[@rawrwoww]

Dude me too. I can always remember that moment and as a kid/teen that made my whole day. I remember how excited I was for getting married to some random guy/girl in I think the church building in one of the main cities. What I'd give to log back into one of my old characters again..

[@TheNapster153]

This is the kind of slayers nerdSlayer was talking about. You could legit write this into a scene in a book and it wouldn't look out of place. Also, "happy belated marriage".

[@valor2284]

Glast Heim is like the worst place to host a wedding ceremony at lol.

[@blastermaster5039]

This is one of the few games where I saw legitimate engineers and doctors skipped work days just to play the game with friends. A true legit game right here.

[@One.Zero.One101]

This game was HUGE in the Philippines and the rest of Asia, and way ahead of its time. We were having international competitions even before E-Sports was coined as a phrase, this was before many people had broadband internet. We were having conventions before BlizCon was created. I cannot fully explain how trailblazing this game was.

[@Xeneonic]

Just to correct a fact here... E-Sports was already coined as a phrase before RO was launched.

[@ragingchaosgod]

Still have my poring doll from one of the first RO cons. Ah the memories...

[@eryalmario5299]

It's now getting turned into a nft game 😢

[@miru1436]

I still remember how huge RO here in PH specially when I was like 7yrs old, my sister will let me play at her computer that time as long as I'm going to play her account and I still have the merchant toy as a souvenir way back 2010.

[@JokiSulap]

CS 1.6 already an esport at that time

[@arondyte318]

Never has another MMO in this series solicited such emotional reaction and nostalgia from me than this one. Hearing the first few seconds of the main menu screen music alone made me tear up like a kid again. It truly is a bad day for rain 😭

[@MemoryMori]

And it rains a looooot...

[@daiki7155]

😢true there are no MMO now that i played for more than 2hrs gaming time other than Ragnarok Online. The anime & main theme 😭too much nostalgia

[@One.Zero.One101]

I was so addicted to this game. The reason I quit was realizing how much money I've spent on this game. I kept all my prepaid cards I bought from 7-11. One day I was cleaning my room, I came across all these prepaid cards, I added up the amount and it amounted to thousands and thousands and thousands. It's a disgustingly embarrassing amount of money.

[@montelcarlos143]

​@@One.Zero.One101You are real hardcore player,i stop when its started pay to play...what a memory

[@vashumashu4359]

I dont know how many times ive said the same thing. It doesnt count a video game nostalgia. It's a life experience that shaped my personal environment. Nurture vs nature, i was nurtured by players in ragnarok's nature.

[@Momentanius]

Hurts to read "Death of a Game" in one of my favourite games of all time, but I absolutely understand why. I even did a 4 hour special video on my channel two years ago. Gravity had a goldmine, and they could not find ways to keep Ragnarok big. Shame.

[@anubuskurotsuki]

Fancy to find you here. And thank you so much for that special, it's one of the few videos I always go back to

[@Dracongard]

I mean it’s more like they refused to find new ways. Even with people screaming in their ears that they would throw money at them but just threw it out the window.

[@jeb7556]

I'd love to be able to follow your videos more closely, my portugese is rough as hell but I'm still trying with the smaller ones (I don't want to think about the hell that is patching in subtitles on youtube lol). I miss RO pretty bad, but some of the jank I'm alright with being more or less learned from and rectified. Trying to make Acid Bomb work as alchemist was a hell of a struggle for my high school brain.

[@MrBenzedrineee]

Elden ring review when?

[@agnuswulf]

Master Alucard! I was reading your commentary without looking at your name or pfp. When I saw the "4h special video part" I was like "Hold up... That sounds familiar!" lol

[@PaulStryker]

11:57 I felt the urge to pause the video, stand up, and give a huge ovation to these gentlemen. Gotta say, it's Jan 2024 and I still play the game on a private server.

[@drewholloman]

Can you explain to me how I could play RO still on a private server? I've been dying to play it again for years

[@ayashiikaze6293]

The friend who introduced me to ragnarok online back in 2004 died in 2011, and during those timespan we gathered a lot of friends who also spent crazy amout of time and love to the game. It's 2023 and everything that we shared back the time will always be cherished. I may have stopped playing but i hope RO will still strive to be enjoyed by the new generation.

[@bestbro]

I always go back to the OST for that sweet hit of nostalgia. The tunes are still gold.

[@onizuka]

OST is banger, even today.

[@yongkysiaw6597]

Yeah. Old games ost really have that long lasting charm.

[@TheMixedPlateFrequency]

I feel it still has the best OST, for an Online Game / MMORPG to be honest. I think the onyl game that came closest to Ragnarok Online in OST, is probably Dungeon Fighter Online.

[@danielsalinas3153]

I met my now wife in iRO, we played together for about 2 years, Skype calls became longer and longer and we grew closer until I decided to move overseas to meet her. We have beeb happily married for 5 years now. Kind of sad to see the game that brought us together slowly fading.

[@zen3881]

That's absolutely wild bro. Nice

[@pertoor]

Wow, that's wonderful! The different regions thing killed it for me. I started out fresh on iRO after euRO was overpopulated with Germans and after I build up my character again and was in a group of wonderful people, iRO shut me out because some publisher changed and now had exclusive rights for European IPs. I didn't like the way this publisher hosted the game so I left for good. :(

[@luxbrumalis6879]

Nowadays that's impossible with online games

[@mauroannettawolf3422]

Had goosebumps at the final comments. This game shaped my character as a teenager and I will never forget it. It was all about the journey you yourself decided to take

[@averegeyoutuber9133]

Brazilian here, this game was a huge part of my childhood. It's quite crazy how it shapped me. My father was an alcoholic and this game was how I escaped reality and brought some "beauty" to my childhood.

[@extreme244]

Very emotional video. Ragnarok online pre renewal is still my favourite MMO of all time. The only thing missing in this video is mentioning the social interaction in RO. This game release pre Facebook in a time where MSN and ICQ were the top chat programs and Ragnarok blew them out of the park. The fact that you could walk around with a digital avatar and or sit in beautifull scenerys just to chat and have fun was outstanding. One of the pioneers that used "Emojis" as early as 2003. Back in the early days of RO you would login after school, sit down with your friends in the payon forest and just chat and maybe hit a mob or two if you felt like it. The leveling / grinding process was very optional for most of players. Also in my school a lot of girls played RO so it was the perfect game to make new friends for the shy and introverted. :)

[@marlonmoratalla4757]

in our country here in the philippines ragnarok is a huge hit game way back in 2003, just like what you have mention the social interaction is amazing, you will meet new friends even they are in a far place. The only thing which is different from your story is that here in our country during ragnarok days- only us boys plays the game, if there is a girl playing well that is very rare just like a monster dropping a card lol..

[@Jetwarren123]

@@marlonmoratalla4757 I remember the song "chixilog". it really inspires from ragnarok online where online "ladies" turns out to be dudes. LOL.

[@marlonmoratalla4757]

@@Jetwarren123 yeah bro 😂, and I am one of their victims, damn I gave a lot of zeny to that impostor sh*t 😂.. so in return I became one of them.. 🤣

[@Farticuss]

Still the best MMO I've played that organically encouraged party play. Setting up a plot of land on the ground with dancers/bards laying down a healing/mp field while mages kept channeling spells on the ground and paladins and rogues drew trains of mobs into the AoEs. It was fantastic.

[@johnmyvanmilo9737]

hahaha we go head over heels when we finally see girls playing RO back then. So sad the developers here in PH w/c was Level-up-games got too greedy. Their respective GMs from different regions were the culprit as they were selling boss cards w/out permission from Management. My friend was offered 500k PHP just to get the GTB card. Well, in most servers, when you get Mini-boss cards, you'd be classified as TOP of all players and you'd be treated as celebrity where everybody knows your name. hahaha.

[@sadbiscuitreviews]

I remember Ragnarok Online, so many memories and friends. Did keep in contact with a few after I quit the game, but eventually life just took us in different directions. This video definitely brought back many memories. Stray, Mashi, Izzy, Sora, Rob, and Aurous; I hope you all are doing well. - KaidenTwilightAngel

[@yaba1]

W

[@UncleRedsnow]

Iconic 00s username right there

[@DiocletianQ3T]

Man, all my characters names were from Suikoden. Me and my friends made the Stars of Destiny guild on iRO, only one player of my friends and myself were super hardcore but it didn’t matter, that was the most fun I had. After RO started to crumble in the west, I moved onto WoW as my only MMO. I still miss the ‘hat based economy’ that was RO

[@iorifori91]

whoa kai, it's been forever

[@sadbiscuitreviews]

@@iorifori91 Didn't think I'd find anyone, lol. Not sure who I found exactly, but it really has been forever. Hope life has been treating you well!

[@betterdays259]

This is the biggest MMORPG in the Philippines back then. All of the computershop/Internet Cafe here have Ragnarok Players. Man! Lots of good memories. Up until now I'm a big fanboy of this game, although the new mobile releases are Pay2Win. I'm still playing it for the Nostalgia, I remembered how I get scammed and learn how to scam people, playing in a net cafe that has a "Keylogger" program that will send your account details to the person who created the keylog on your computer. aaahh good memories.. Your channel is a hidden gem man, good random find.

[@pertoor]

What I loved about Ragnarok Online was the fact that it wasn't just about playing the game. A big chunk of Ragnarok Online was about socializing with others, getting to know people, chatting with them. I remember when I was a teenager in 2003/2004 and I saw the game featured on one of the game magazines at the time that I thought to myself: Awesome!! Now I can chat with people (as I did anyway in some online chats) AND play a game, maybe venture out with others to explore. And it turned out exactly the way I imagined, I had a hell of a time with some wonderful people in this game. It was great that the game was so difficult. It was very easy to die. It was very easy to set the wrong skillpoints and create a build that doesn't work well. So you'd have to start over. But this time - talk to other people first and share your ideas. I think if a successor of RO would have simply kept all mechanics and had a visual overhaul towards something like Tree of Savior, it could have been a great hit.

[@rengoku7136]

"Run better by the players than the developers" dude couldn't have said it better. Earned my sub!

[@underplague6344]

*tf2 theme plays quietly*

[@Verbatimorgish]

Agreed

[@fren111]

Players wanted to play, DEVs wasted people's time for money...the biggest attraction in the pirate servers are the experience and drops multipliers, (10-20x for classic experience, 500-1000x for PvP junkies, and 50-100x to Middle ground). nobody liked the ridiculous predatory grind of the original

[@agunemon]

True there are even private servers running for 15 YEARS! now!

[@Verbatimorgish]

@@agunemon damn! Do you know if any good servers i could access from the USA? In currently on ROM but, and i do enjoy it but the grift is too much sometimes. Toooo much. This shouldn't be a part time job

[@Obligatorial]

So many fond memories of RO- just hanging out in Prontera listening to the musc, idling in Payon, PVP in Alberta, Grinding in Nifilheim, Toy Factory, and the Pyramid. Finding groups to run Bio Labs, Glast Heim or the Abbey. It was so fun playing with friends and meeting new people in a really innocent time of my life.

[@MyVanir]

The days when leveling was the experience the game offered, not the gateway to the real game.

[@biribiribiru3246]

the music, man.. gosh. it really taps onto my nostalgia button.

[@DiocletianQ3T]

Oh man, toy factory. I had a agi/luck build knight and would just endlessly counter attack the boss to death, as your counter rate was attached to your attack speed. This allowed you rapid fire counter and never get hit lol…until they patched all the bosses to make them much harder.

[@nguyenhs9800]

Lee Min Hoo was actually a good manhwa writer too. His "Light outs" was very famous in Vietnam and some Southeast-asian countries. His "Ragnarok" had very cool art style and plot. So sad that due to the game, the comic had never finished.

[@Ellyasveil]

Lee Myung-jin is the writer, lee min hoo is artist dude... xD

[@slugshotgunGR]

Dude, this hit me hard, I played RO from 2003 to 2015 so I kind of grew up with it, but I never really knew the whole reason why it died out. I've had many friends that played it and eventually quit after a year or so, but I kept playing up until the servers were completely shut down in my country. You did gunz, and now RO. Add gunbound, MU, and RF online to the list and that pretty much sums up the big online games in Asia in the 2000s.

[@SteezMctweez]

fuck i miss gunbound SO so much, I remember IJJI games

[@JVirocel]

I'm guessing you're filipino

[@eggt1836]

@@JVirocel or indonesian

[@TheAyanamiRei]

Gravity had some serious issues, like the Card Drops. It certainly had some great stuff and was fun to play, but it could be very anti-consumer. AN then later would PISS off the Fans, when you could just BUY better items on the Shop for $$, which I assume they did to Counter the Money Sellers an such. Like you could get the same rare item that would drop in game....but the Cash Shop would have an Enhanced version. At least in the West. RO2 was dumb, considering how UGLY it looked compared to most games at the time, so it was a disaster from the start.

[@SkyBreeze098]

Ran online followed them too.

[@Jerson_Go]

The only game that I keep coming back when I feel nostalgic.

[@ferro1398]

This game used to dominate our local pc cafes. You'll see people in school uniforms at like mornings until afternoons wasting away their school allowances lol

[@ChaldeaWarmaster]

I know right

[@edwardmanliquez2123]

And take note that was the time when ro was still in paid subscription every dudes be stacking a bunch of prepaid cards just to be able to play😂

[@Halibut86]

Hi, iRO original beta player here. The game was insane at launch, absolutely flooded with players and people to party with. Two large updates massively changed the game; rebirth/transcendence, which was a massive power spike but otherwise retained the original gameplay and the Renewal/3rd job update, which was when most players quit due to how it invalidated all of their old items and builds which took years to get. As stated, Renewal drastically changed even early-game balancing, meaning any established leveling routes were most likely invalidated. 4th jobs are out in Korea, and likely to hit iRO soon. It's another massive shakeup, but as this content is only available to extremely dedicated max-level players, I don't think it can change the current landscape significantly. When RO2 was released, we hated it. It didn't have the same mechanics or charm as RO1, and felt too similar to other KMMOs of the time. What the fanbase wanted, and still wants, was a game like Tree of Savior that was mechanically similar to the original, with a 2.5d aesthetic. ToS failed due to poor server performance (constant lag spikes) and terrible pacing; since progression was tied to a linear questchain instead of RO's sandbox, there was a lot less exploration and experimentation. Most mobs offered little resistance, which was a stark contrast to RO Classic. Gravity's mobile games, while utilizing the Ragnarok IP, have failed to capture what made the original game fun and engaging - Experimenting with builds, a slow power progression with a few notably huge spikes, and simply the game's raw mechanical feel. I'm still hoping for a worthy successor to the RO, but it seems one may never come.

[@arsia.]

I agree, renewal killed the game, basically changing everything that made it unique and ruined the game it was supposed to be for most people.

[@SteelsCrow]

Your note about mobs offering resistance is huge. I just recently started playing the game again (private server of course) and still love that most maps are freely accessible from level 1, but everything will kill you. The only thing stopping me from accessing these places is the power of my character, so as I play my character and accumulate experience rewards, they open up to me at exactly my pace. I can keep it easy and safe for slow grind, or press my limits against hard challenges to accelerate growth. I've learned a lot about game theory in the years since I first played this game in 2006. Games grip us at a fundamental level when they exactly match our abilities and expertise, and the original Ragnarok Online still does this so well. It even manages to fluidly reward party play by making it the most effective way to play at all levels. In a way, dealing with party members is its own endless challenge, because they may lack understanding and make mistakes, but they can also do really brilliant things and flex their skill in the eyes of many other people. Succeeding like this is an intrinsic reward, and these rewards feel way more compelling than extrinsic rewards like EXP and completing quests. It doesn't need raids or quests that require others to join you, forming and managing parties is just what veteran players do because they know how effective it can be. And you can still always tough it out solo. I was really excited about Tree of Savior when it was announced and as it developed. I played its beta, and was dazzled by its appearance and sound. But the questing got dull quickly. I had to do all these things, trite and meaningless for myself personally, to get into the real action. I kept with the game until launch hoping it would be even better than Ragnarok, but I ultimately stopped playing soon after as it became clear how much drivel I would have to endure to do something fun. Certainly Ragnarok is not without flaws, but at least when it comes to classic RO nearly all of those are on the level of details rather than fundamentals. The server I've joined is attempting to sort out those details, which I'm pretty excited about and there for.

[@robbytherob]

A classic release without the renewal system would be great

[@LandreuLazer]

I miss delving into iRO beta madness with Poing, farming dopple for his Zwihander and dying to the Baphomet many, many times. That and gotta collect ALL the head accessories! I've maintained purple hair on ALL my fantasy characters just because my first online character was a swordsman/knight with that color from all the way back then! ;D Much nostalgia-aaa~

[@senismarsenis9678]

😭 RIP good game :>

[@andresonzzini7149]

Few games have the artistic ingenuity RO had, even today. Such a wonderfully designed experience

[@stalkholm5227]

Ragnarok Online had one thing going for it that no other game has come close to reproducing: Its art style. God I miss sprites...

[@ddrnold]

Nah the one thing RO had was the community. It was just generic anime art

[@stalkholm5227]

@@ddrnold "It was just generic anime art" Yeah, that's what I said, I loved its art style.

[@MsMin-gv9hm]

@@ddrnold that Generic Anime style Age well still looks good to this day.. See those 3D MMO back in the day it look so bad now.....

[@bezoro2008]

In Brazil Ragnarok Online was our World of Warcraft. I miss those times.

[@TVans-vs3gn]

Played both for quite some time. I love Ragnarok a bit more.

[@wavervelvet616]

Estou jogando WoW classic agora, também joguei muito RO na época, WoW sempre será um jogo melhor mecânimente falando, mas em termos de MMORPG, não tem nenhum que bate Ragnarok Online, as classes são extremamente únicas e com personalidade, a ambientação e a temática também é perfeita. O que eu sinto falta nos RPGs hoje em dia é que todas as classes tem que obrigatoriamente ser capazes de fazer tudo, o que faz com que elas fiquem parecidas e sem personalidade. Eu gostava muito mais do "desbalanceamento" das classes no RO, pois isso era o que dava charme e personalidade ao jogo.

[@capala1234]

I remember watching my brother and cousins play Ragnarok Online in internet cafes in my small town in the Philippines. I didn't understand what was going on but I was just mesmerized with the graphics

[@vwts]

Stuff I'll never forget about my RO times: 1) when the first level 100 player in my country's official server swore in forums that he'd delete his character if a certain guild (which accepted any weakling but was really large) took his castle in one of the first WoEs, with the castle being immediately taken but him refusing to honor the bet; 2) when a mysterious sex change glitch happened in the Ultima RO private server and was never fully reversed (my character stayed female forever lol); 3) grinding endlessly on Alarms at the Clock Tower (I think?) for my MVP Wizard build; and 4) playing the most fun PVP build I ever had in a game, which was a bow Rogue with stealth and full divest skills (you go invisible, sneak up on someone, immediately remove all their equipment, and start shooting).

[@LorienzoDeGarcia]

Gosh, there is no music as extensive and as *unique* as RO's. I was legit shocked at how unique they were. They are just SO melodically PLEASING. Seven Days Seven Nights is one of my favourites.

[@heretic3334]

Wanna Be Free! 😁

[@zouwu4487]

I played my first year with the music of in my settings and didn't even know it had music(first MMO) and when I turned it in the first time in Payon...🤯 Banger after banger

[@pentagon1802]

My favourite is Kingdom Memories. Such magnificent piece of artwork

[@skycrest1020]

Malangdo Theme 😂😂

[@fredy.rodriguez]

The pressure~~ Forgot the maps name but I remember zombie miners.

[@thfsilvab]

Gosh, this one was hard to watch, but I could never agree more. I proudly played RO for more than 8 years and today I still have that deep feeling of something missing in other games that I had in Ragnarok, when you mentioned the "group focused gameplay", as a mainly support player, it was HUGE to me seeing parties actively looking for support players because it was a NEED. I miss the golden ages of Ragnarok, it's a memory I'll definitely carry for my entire life, and I hope I find at least one other game that gives me that good feeling that Ragnarok used to give.

[@guilhermenovo8967]

That made me remember +99 Reinforced Wooden Stick. One of the villains is an old dude that's been going through lots and lots of games searching for that feeling he had from his first game but he just just doesn't feel it due to how easy every game becomes easy with monetization and stuff like that. The manhwa is quite fun.

[@nalliug23]

It was a social media before the social media

[@ohaihma2014]

I love this comment because i clearly remember seeing people sit around, have their chat rooms open to the public looking for party members over a certain level! How i miss those days. I made many friends back then through parties.

[@secretduckie-mo7kw]

It's hard to quantify how much this game meant to me, how impactful it was to me, my relationships (even how important it was in my relationship with my now husband), and my life. Choices I have made, experiences that changed the path of my life permanently. I played on iRO for a long time, various private servers later, even was a GM and artist for a relatively popular private server later (that the admin decided to run off with the money one day and not tell any of his GM's, shutting it down with no word... Good ol private servers...) Just hearing the music makes me simultaneously want to cry and also to want to play, but the problem is that for many of us, especially with a game like this that's SO community driven, just jumping back in to play won't scratch the itch because what we really want is to dive back into the moments we had. It's not simply the nostalgia for the game itself, it's being young and growing up, it's making that first friend from another country and trying to figure out your schedules so you can play together. It's the raw feeling as we all discovered what it means to have an online life (how much do you share about yourself? How much is true? Do you make yourself cooler than you really are?) and the responsibility that comes with it. Extra shout-out to my friends who were also posting on Gaia at the same time. Ohh man, that's a blast from the past.

[@jorgefreitas5983]

I started playing this game in the darkest times of my life, and just hearing its soundtrack brought me such happy memories from then. I made so many friend, both online and in real life. I spent countless hours grinding with my friends, finding new ways to improve our farming and planning on getting a castle. Thanks for reminding me that there is happinnes even in the worse moments.

[@elle3508]

I meet my husband trough this game, At the time there was only 2 servers and they were both international. (Lucky, otherwise we would have never meet.) I was 14 and he was 16, and that was almost 19 years ago! Wow, time sure flies... So, this game will always have a special spot in my heart

[@user-kl5nw9lg6v]

Sweet

[@misusatriyo]

I swear in Indonesia back in the day, this was the first video game that has actual advertisements on TV and billboards and whatnot. It also spawned thousands of internet cafes all over the country-as we moved past LAN connection. Apart from PlayStation, video game was not as big of a cultural impact back then as it is today. Ragnarok Online was arguably the first one to start it all-at least in Indonesia (i can't speak for other countries).

[@itsmearda986]

zaman SMA gw main... smpai skrg kadang masih search musik ya payon dan prontera.. lgsg berkaca-kaca mata gw.. :(

[@bangbulu1003]

Kartu vouchernya jgn lupa bro, keren2 kartunya.

[@tidak_berguna]

Tazos collection from snack, Ragnarok guide book, billboards, tv ads. Dude, RO in indonesia is phenomenal.

[@DrHydroxide]

I remember running to the nearest internet cafe from the junior high school after class just to play this game with my friends. Even though I was the noobest one, it was good times :')

[@misusatriyo]

@@DrHydroxide good times indeed.

[@purrfekt]

Nothing captures the feeling of chilling out outside the Pyramid in Morocc with your group pals while regenning in Alpha iRO. Oh, and Baphomet was actually scary before they shrunk him.

[@lakersforever9572]

RO's BGM is the best! prontera theme, geffen theme, streamside theme, lutie theme, and many more are so pleasing to my ears.

[@mrxcs]

You have no idea how huge this was in Brazil, the first full translated MMO and first MMO for millions of us, they distributed a CD and a map in schools, it was really cool.

[@gdurand]

I still have the old guidebook that came with the CD. Good old times

[@pachi1014]

Same in the philippines!! They distributed cds in kid's magazines as well. I remember having a stack of their cds way back in our cd/tape drawer, and stacks of used prepaid cards as well :,)

[@guilhermebasso9219]

I think he has. Half the images are from Brazil's server, that is still alive.

[@rezopolis]

@@gdurand Eu ainda tenho o CD também kkkk mas que guidebook é esse? Venderia?

[@felipecabral7366]

Bons tempos, sempre me dá uma onda de nostalgia qdo vejo algo relacionado a RO

[@zfresh8407]

i was an outcast in my early years of middle school and high school, this game helped me coped and build who i am now. i loved this game so much

[@geovannewashingtonashwood]

I'm from Brazil, and even my best friends (a 15 years friendship) I just have because of Ragnarok. We used to play this game and that's why we became friends.

[@ryuavincaux]

this game is the main reason why i chose programming as my career. i was so influenced and inspired by how people playing together, teaming up, socializing, how characters level up by acquiring exp from fighting mobs, job classes, and all other mechanics of this game. also very fascinated by the arts, i even did draw characters like those in ragnarok online, wrote a story about them and make a manga. i must say that ragnarok helped me find my passion, what i really want to do in life.

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

20:37 Japanese branch of RO to that date became completely independent and had own development team. They had completely different terms with Gravity, unlike every other servers over world.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Didn't know they had their own development team, but considering they adapted patches I believe you.

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Japanese branch managed also to redo all new 3rd job sprites to more fancy ones. That later adopted by Korean part and later shipped as update to other servers over world.

[@rica2k5]

W for Japan

[@neonhub7276]

Because Japan has a shares with gravity based from rumors circling around when i played this game

[@leorickaldana366]

​@@neonhub7276GungHo Entertainment actually owns Gravity now. That's why they're mostly up to date on the Japanese server and why they're focusing on only releasing mobile games on other regions.

[@Metacious]

And it's here, time to cry of nostalgia. We used to have Aldebaran's castle during our guild's life. We used to hang out there, do Valkyries and Lab together. The server used Alberta as the marketplace (also known as Lagberta). Prontera was always the epicenter for Guild Wars, where everyone gloated or cried about the week's results. Good times. I also had a combo Champion, completely useless, I redid him 9 times trying to make it work for PVP, but I never regretted taking that road. I wanted something original and challenging. Then for my guild I raised a Creator, a Professor and a Clown, so yeah, it was all about the journey... Thanks for this one

[@protocolsavage8506]

My brother introduced me to this game when i was barely old enough to understand what skill trees were, this was one of the only games ive ever just been walking around in and seen 6 people just sitting in a circle chatting, and let me come up to them and join in on their fun. Was a super awesome community

[@ForgottenNavigator]

My first date with the love of my life was on a private RO server. I'll always remember it fondly.

[@Tizen]

Great video! I was a developer for a private RO server in the early 2000s. We started out as fans of the original Korean closed-beta server, and when we realized how different the North American release was, we decided to try our hand at our own version. Our server had custom events, quest lines, and npcs that didn't exist anywhere else (even automated player marriages!) It was a lot of fun coordinating remotely with different volunteer developers back then; mostly via IRC.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Very cool!

[@CrazyMautty]

RO private servers in early-mid 2000s were a wild time. Huge communities, custom assets, scripting, even entirely new maps, monsters, events, etc. I had created a Super Novice that became KoS in the server PVP arenas because I built it purely to troll with a max atkspd with guaranteed freeze on every melee hit with autocasting that permafroze anyone I hit and chipped away at them with a machine gun of 1 dmg, it took FOREVER to kill someone but if they were alone there was no escape lol. I was part of one for quite a while until it died and then tried being part of one that ultimately didn't get off the ground but we had fun messing with it and playing custom stuff we did together.

[@TheBraveBlaze]

Yep, the eAthena days. We were living on the EDGE.

[@hydrokat143]

Tell me how old you are without telling me how old you are: "IRC"

[@Huzzairy]

Learn to be gm at offline Sakray client

[@fawli86]

Oh you don't know how this game impacted my entire life as a gamer. This game brought me and my college friends together and that was 20 years ago. Up to this very day, we are still very much close friends with my Ragna buddies. This game solidified my friendship with them. We would go on parties at lower GH in the wee hours of the night and this game still had thousands of players playing. Some of our friends would just go there to flirt with other players while some of us were busy healing other party members and taking the game seriously. The amount of memories this game has given me is just priceless. I will forever cherish this game for bringing me and my friends together. We would race the streets around our small city after class in college just to get to our favorite internet cafe to play this game. Imagine college students still acting like kids because we all loved this game. Maaannn, just the beginning notes of the Prontera theme brings tears to my eyes.

[@raulchavez6419]

RO was my first MMO, to this day, hearing the soundtrack from prontera fields, triggers my breain in to remembering the scent of the cyber cafe i used to play it when i was 12 years old... Even hearing the tracks on this video brings a tear to my eye.

[@navinavi1062]

It's funny cuz I am an artist and although I started drawing Pokemon, I could say Ragnarok is one of the things that really got me into drawing and I never really played the game. When I was a kid my older cousin played it and he had many Ragnarok posters and I was absolutely amazed by the armors and costumes and that's how I got into drawing human characters. I wasn't allowed to use the computer yet when the game was still a thing xD

[@JulyYunico]

Don't be sad just because it's gone. Be happy because it happened and exist and you enjoy the time you play

[@chloekaftan]

its not gone gone, there are thousands of private servers with players even to this day, and they also did a reboot on mobile with ragnarok M eternal love and ragnarok origin, the franchise isn't fully dead but it was definitely set back by decades thanks to the gross incompetence of the team leading the development of ragnarok 2.

[@poppers7317]

@@chloekaftan but who cares for the mobile games? The only game in the franchise that's worth anything is the original RO.

[@chloekaftan]

@@poppers7317 true, but with the original RO being completely dead as far as official development is concerned its future now sits squarely in the hands of private servers, all of whom dont exactly use shared assets for their own updates, one server will have a very different system or progression or classes from another server. mobile RO games on the other hand still have solid potential since they actually have people developing them.. at the very least stalker anomaly avoided this problem by creating a unified super mod of the previous 3 official stalker games into a single standalone game universally supported by modders.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

@@chloekaftan Completely dead? We just got Episode 19 and the entire Isgard region a couple of months ago. RO is still being updated, and even if updates were to stop one day I'm more than sure the community would keep on creating content like they've done since 2004. I've seen some incredible content come and go, replacing even the most essential of systems and building an entire server around it, it's great! RO just never dies, even when Gravity tries their damn best to kill it

[@margaesperanza]

Lee Myung-jin never really got to finish his Ragnarok Manhwa which is the most painful part. It was suppose to be just a hiatus so he could work on the game.

[@Genojo]

Thats what hurts me the most, the manhwa was so good, damn it... :c

[@jigglypuxx2985]

Ah the nostalgia.... I remember playing this in early 2000s in the philippines. As an elementary schooler getting the source and starting my own private server started my interest in programming which later on became my career as a developer.

[@herdi1510]

Thank you Ragnarok online developer, I learned a lot about setting up a private server and programing a bot to leveling up automatically.

[@guzfaure]

Ragnarok Online is still going strong in Brazil. It's impressive to see that even after all these years, the official servers here in Brazil are still crowded and bustling with activity. It's a true testament to the game's lasting appeal and the loyalty of its fans.

[@rafaelhenrique4139]

Calma aí, isso é sério? Faz tempo que estou com vontade de matar a nostalgia, e você tá me dizendo o Ragnarok BR ainda está vivo???

[@joaomaccari6076]

@@rafaelhenrique4139 Da uma olhadinha lá no Thor pra vc ver a quantidade de player...

[@IchiHishi]

Partiu voltar a jogar. Mesmo com os bots do bRO.

[@IchiHishi]

@@einhasad7 Bom saber, porque posso chamar uma galerinha pra voltar. Pelo menos umas 8 pessoas. :D

[@RafitoOoO]

@@rafaelhenrique4139 Sim, mas não é mais a LUG que tem os direitos no BR, é uma nova empresa. o bRO não vale a pena, mas tem vários privates que são bons. RagnaTales, History Reborn, etc.

[@lampdevil]

Ohhhh, this one hits me right in the heart. Ragnarok Online took over my life for several years, and means a lot to me. I was one of the first few people to log in to the iRO beta! I was never super good at the game, but I made so many friends and had so much fun working towards my goal of becoming a Blacksmith. Shoutout to the Prontera Parish, if any of you are out there, you guys were the BEST.

[@jmard3101]

RO is so strong in the philippines that our celebrities here cosplayed and made a MV for RO at one point. It was also the first time that I learned the concept of "Cosplaying". PS. one of the celebrity here that cosplayed RO is your very own DARA from 2NE1.

[@krabn]

In SEA, Thai, Indo, PH, etc, Ragnarok is still massive, main and private servers. It's rare to see a game that has been around since early 2000s still played by people. It's also funny to see that this game topic got lots of views. Not so many, but higher than I expected.

[@Bellicose]

"still massive" is an overstatement considering their fellow competitors from the same generation like Maple Story and WoW are still generating the main company billions per year and consistently growing. Nexon net revenue income reported for Q1 2023 was $744.6 million USD, while Gravity's net revenue income for Q1 2023 was $38.53m million USD. The original RO is on the level of Dragon Nest PC with a 5 digit player base total, most of its revenue and player base is coming from RO Mobile now for the gaming sector. While they are still making money, they are a joke compared to the MMOs that are still standing. RO PC total revenue was a little less than $7 million USD based on Gravity's Q1 financial report, their quarterly earning is like a few hours worth of earning for most actual massive MMO like BDO.

[@ayuselasih6019]

@@Bellicose lol compare the player not their revenue, most SEA play RO rather than WoW because subscription for WoW is too expensive for SEA country

[@Cartagra]

One thing about the private server is how incredibly customizable and easy to set up they are. We had sites ranking RO private servers, and you could choose whatever one suited your tastes, going from either Pre or Post Renewal to having custom skills and gear and mobs and events. I remember one really good server me and my friends found that a dad setup so he could play along his kid during vacation, and we all know the server would close by the end of it. These days every now and then a friend takes one or two hours to set a private server for us to play for a week then we are done. My point is that it's incredibly easy set your Ragnarok Online server.

[@deecee7073]

tbh private servers is the only way to play this game, I remember wasting my school money to play almost 6 hours a day to get 1% experience gain lol

[@lcmabalay4646]

I remember walking into prontera and my FPS just dropping to 5fps, just because of the sheer number of players on screen, my rinky dinky PC struggled but I enjoyed staying up till 6am, because I knew no one would be dumb enough to call the house in the unholy hours of the morning

[@paulkennethpalana2871]

was curious when i saw the title. so im listening to this video while working then suddenly. i felt like crying lol. just hearing the login bgm brings chills to me

[@4ReeZy]

Saw this video about a week ago; just deciding to leave a comment today. Man Ragnarok Online will forever, & I literally mean forever have a place in my heart. I've spent so many hours, months; perhaps even years+ of my life coming back to this game. All I can really say is, it was an Era. Those who know, know. Before the heavy use of third-party chats and all this information just given to us. Before a lot of things on the internet today to be honest. Socializing was amazing. The world and it's lore. Absolutely charming. The strive to just become a better adventurer. The astonishing 2D sprites with 3D environments, crazy. I can go on a tangent & rant forever, but only those who was there would understand. Official or Private, it doesn't matter. Ragnarok Online, an era.

[@jeremyn4397]

This is the first time I ever felt like crying watching one of your videos. This game was my life back then. Fondest memories of being a low level acolyte in glastheim; sitting on the cross, getting buffed by our guardian priests. Aspiring to one day become a priest as well and take my turn as the advant guard, caring for the sprouting acolytes that would come after me. I played on iRO religously, Loki server, Sakura server, then the best experience ever on its fresh start Iris. The game was the best MMO experience I ever had until they allowed server transfers from the legacy servers to the freshstart server for cash. Completely ruined the economy and community there. We only had a few rebirth players at the time so, having a flood of maxed out rebirth guild come in was, well.... not healthy.

[@Aiveq]

i loved slow grind it had, playing as swordsman for weeks, exploring the world. once we aggroed to much with pals and it just kept accumulating and passing knight BB'ed shit away. wow... i gonna be like that one day, helping newbs in a pickle. also getting lost with pals and mapping forest labyrinth while picking up our jaws once we found 3rd floor was one of my most memorable experiences. now its all marked on a map by default

[@xavierchenliang5811]

I remember this. And people would try to trap Dark Lord in the middle try to kill him. But those Hunter flies and mimics were annoying. And I used to use my priest for teleporting services to earn a bit of money. Either for 500 or 1000 zennies per teleport. /heh

[@risel56]

I've been anticipating this game on the series for a while now. As one of the many, many people who first experienced Ragnarok Online via private servers (OG RebirthRO represent!), the game solidified my lifetime love of the MMO genre and holds a special place in my heart for one of my favorite cooperative gaming memories. My brother and I built two identical monks around Asura Strike, a ridiculously hard-hitting move whose massive drawbacks could be negated with the right setup. Enemy HP in Ragnarok Online doesn't reset when you disengage, so we would just travel around Rune-Midgard, systematically tracking down VIP monsters and hitting them as hard as inhumanly possible before either they went down or we did. In the latter case, we'd just respawn and run back, rinse and repeat. Then we'd jot down what time they died and what time they might respawn, effectively putting every boss on a well-oiled dissasembly line. Finally, we'd leave our computers on overnight to sell all the loot we got on our Merchants. Our "partners in crime" approach to RO was effectively our nine-to-five growing up, and it really helped solidify our brotherly bond. I even picked up a copy of Ragnarok DS when it came out, though it just wasn't the same when I was the only one playing. However, time can be a cruel, cutthroat mistress, and is a commodity that most adults can scarcely afford these days. While my brother's taste in games has diverted away from MMOs for one reason or another, vastly limiting the time we spend online together, I finally checked out the official RO servers for the first time last year. Post-Renewal is certainly a different experience, but I'll just say that retail Ragnarok is _not_ a game that respects your time. I don't typically play on private servers or emulators anymore just out of personal ethic, but the drop rates make me _wish_ I could go back to private servers with multipliers. The grind-focused nature of the game, especially with the addition of Eden Group, the main questing "hub," made it feel like I was only ever working toward that next grind tier. And the patchwork English translation of the game dialogue was incredibly frustrating at times - heck, some of it was still in Korean for no discernible reason. The addition of cash shop statted cosmetics was what really broke me, though. Paying real money and sacrificing the way you want your character to look just to achieve the best possible numbers feels really scummy IMO. That, paired with the horrendously inflated, bot-infested player economy makes it tough for new or returning players like myself to stick around. On the plus side, some of the "new" Renewal jobs were pretty fun, despite my mixed opinions on them. I'm a sucker for hi-tech in high fantasy, so the ability to pilot a giant robot as a Mechanic was a no-brainer, though it was pretty expensive to maintain - avoid it if you're a new player or don't know how to make zeny. Summoner was an interesting take on a more freeform class, and the damage output felt broken at lower levels, though I wasn't a fan of being race-locked into a cat. Ultimately, the game just didn't have the same level of fun and intrigue for me the second time around, and I stopped playing after a few months and too many hours lost to the grind. I also tried out the sequel for a bit, and yeah, doesn't even hold a candle to the first one. Stopped playing as soon as I reached Prontera. But my lifetime experience with the series as a whole was fun while it lasted, and I wouldn't change it for the world. TL;DR - Cherish the memories you make with those around you, and play a version of Ragnarok Online that respects both your time and your wallet.

[@vikrantjoshiD-Toxmusic]

The stories of growing up playing RO in India are far too many to mention, irrespective of the neglect this game was a stepping stone for many of us into the realm of MMORPGs . I can't even beging to tell you the various servers we tried to grasp twoards when the official onces shut down. Dark RO , Infitity RO and a lot of others. RO was my childhood, it was what i spent my alloance on at cyber cafes and met my first online friends in.. it meant more to a lot of us than gravity could ever imagine. Reading some of the comments it becomes evident that this game had a global outreach and is something that i don't know will ever be to be duplicated given that today kids grow up playing a lot more advanced and detached games with nothing that can duplicate the essence of escape that RO did for my generation. Thanks for this video.

[@navatheramenguy3127]

Kinda sad that you didn't mention Payon on the prominent towns, i feel like it's the second most popular town and the town where most players spend their early game I remember the first thing everyone told me when i started was "go to payon and kill some skeletons" Also the music there is stuck in my heart

[@yewyyew4473]

Remember the first payon city, killing willows at payon forest in the midnight listening to the good music.. best feeling

[@sithar]

I can't help but remember all those friends I made in this game, the fun we had together. I wonder where they are now, and if I could reach out to them somehow and relive those simple but precious moments? It fills me with so much melancholy.

[@sefatsilverlake3816]

I wonder the same sometimes, Mashumero I hope you got away of that toxic family, XxsTormy my man I wonder how are you now? I hope you ended your career... you are probably 30 now...

[@trythis2006]

that would be great seeing all my MSN/IRC/ICQ friends but sadly turned most of them away withmy toxicity as a teen, hope they are all having a great time

[@Marcos750418]

Ragnarok soundtrack is still my favorite in any video game, maybe because it was my first ever online game.

[@ragingchaosgod]

RO was HUGE in the Philippines too. It was my first mmo and me and my friends were totally into it back in highschool. It was really super grindy before the age of mmos with plots and questlines to follow. ngl, I did solo quite a bit during early RO if only because I was only usually online alongside just one of my friends. I still have crazy stories about Glast Heim and dead branch incidents. Also ngl, battle priest is still my favorite kind of class alongside critsassin.

[@rielalphonsenarrajos6020]

I played this game for a 2 decades. Even today, in the Philippines, a ton of people still play the game. One of the biggest private servers is actually hosted here.

[@lextor4712]

What's the name of the private server?

[@xeienar]

OMG! Finally a video of Ragnarok Online. RO is truly a special game to me. The spanish community (across Europe and whole Latin America) was sooo huge that even the anime was dubbed. Nobody played on official servers, and by the time there was actually an official spanish server, it closed in barely 3 months. Also, speaking of spinoffs, I've played the shit out of the DS version (Sierra

[@ryoumisakiGP]

I remember back around 2008, I was 9 years old, and every Sunday my brother would take me to a local arcade where there were several computers and you paid by the hour to play. We would stay from 6pm to around 9 or 10pm playing Ragnarok Online. Those are some of my fondest memories

[@lifegrain6092]

those are called internet cafe/cybercafe, just fyi i used to be able to play in an internet cafe for free, about 9 years old just happen to have an uncle that owned and ran an internet cafe, so i was just given an admin account to log into the computer (i did forget to logout every now and then, but my uncle just logged the account out from his computer)

[@hammerfight5396]

US player here. IRO chaos originally. Love love love RO!!! It holds a special place in my heart. When everyone was playing WoW.. I was playing RO!!

[@dex_kun_fails]

Man this one hit me hard in the nostalgia. I was super active on one of the official NA server (IRO Loki) from 2003 until around 2014 when I really started working full time and got my own house, even paid for 2 accounts the whole time it was a subscription based game. I pretty much grew up in Rune Midgard, especially Payon and Geffen, ended up in one of the biggest WoE alliances in the server, and met a bunch of amazing people. I personally prefer the pre-renewal mechanics myself, but I came back for a bit a few years back when the Doram update dropped and actually really enjoyed WoE 2.0 on my perma-99 Hwiz and building an absolutely shenanigans auto-spell shadow chaser. The game is always gonna be a huge part of my teenage years and probably always gonna be my second favorite game of all time after Smash Melee, thanks for the amazing and melancholy trip into the past

[@Avvy89]

The first MMO for a lot of people here in the Philippines. It was such an integral part of a generation that a hit song made by a popular band had it as part of the topic.

[@Avvy89]

@@antoniojosetorrente559 they did? Damn... First time I heard about that.

[@Avvy89]

@@antoniojosetorrente559 Ah. I haven't been paying close attention to them for a while now. I didn't hear that they broke up.

[@NogitsuneRinn]

This one's a hard one for me. I loved RO, to the point I'm actually playing Ragnarok Origins right now. I've always loved sitting in towns and various areas of the map just listening to the bgm. It was also a mmo where I remember grinding for literally a month nonstop for a phen card. Ahh good times. Hearing the theme of Payon always brings tears to my eyes.

[@duongquan4986]

ah yes uninterupt casting, essential for every spell caster in the game.

[@SeiaiAnkoku]

As a fellow fan of the Payon theme music, the vocal version never fails to make me cry a little. Stellar OST!

[@CyAA-ri2us]

@@Skadi.- there's hundreds of us who literally play ROX, ROO, and Prerenewal at the same time, all free-2-play. legit better than most mmos out there.

[@Marcinex]

Phen, Pest, a Zerome in your other Glove, an Apple of Archer on your head, a Rod with 4 drops in it, a Morpheus Gown on your shoulders, and Shoes with some variation of cards to make your virtual life a bit simpler....good times!

[@felrece]

Did you get the Phen card?

[@andoyman]

thank you for this. (also thanks to the algo for recommending this vid!) i'm from ph and this game was a huge part of my teenage days. i miss playing this game. the music is so nostalgic. it's like long lost friend you suddenly remember. i spent a lot of time and money grinding my mage to wizard in a computer shop.

[@cssplayer91]

I was a beta tester for ro back in 2002 (a korean school friend got me joining) and I still play international ragnarok online today. Best mmorpg ever!

[@daviddoodles8736]

This game really had charming enemies

[@fabio1079]

This episode of Death of a Game really brought tears to my eyes, felt like watching my childhood die XD. Here in Brazil RO was a huge hit and I have many good memories of this game, as many others i stopped after the renew update, from time to time i try playing on a private old times server but it's never the same thing as it was back then.

[@katrinhafthordattir7497]

It's truly a shame LevelUp Games butchered RO, just like every franchise they get their grubby paws on. I never played RO, but I was involved with Combat Arms for a long time. CA itself would make an interesting episode of Death of a Game. But yeah, I remember how huge a deal RO was. Simpler times back then 😅

[@xedrikvanguard5236]

Man i literally BAWLED in the end hearing that iconic and nostalgic Ragnarok log-in bgm this hurts so much the game died but never in my heart this game is a big part of my teenage life up until my 20s met some of the best people here and becomes my friends online and in real life. So many memories to look back to whenever i hear this bgm. This game is like a part of our culture in the Philippines so if you ask most of the people specially men in their 30s whats their first and ultimate online game that they played i guarantee you that their answer will be Ragnarok Online.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

Chilean RO player here, most of the info here is spot on. Gravity is pretty much behind 99% of the issues present with the game, and the fact that it's still played and popular in some places really speaks to its quality. At this point I feel like I have some sort of spiritual connection (call it a Soul Link) with this game, and even in 2023 it's still a game I'd recommend to others. Just don't join official servers. It was a painful ride, and even nowadays I still play RO, jumping from private server to private server, making friends, not seeing them in a couple of years and then just finding them again. On top of Gravity just making everything worse with Renewal (at least microtransaction wise), they were adamant on chasing down popular private servers that weren't making them money, while hurting more their already terrible reputation. Even if the only way you can enjoy RO is on smaller servers it's still a trip worth experiencing. Go listen to some of the OST and if it captures you just go and give it a try. It's such an important piece of why Ragnarok is so special to me and thousands of other people. I've been through many MMORPGs but nothing ever captured the same feelings as sitting in the cold and deadly floating rocks of Niflheim with its lovely piano, or partying up and going for an expedition to Juperos with that amazing track and unique visuals. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I've been playing RO since I was 5 years old and I don't think I'll ever stop even if Gravity comes to my home and steals my liver. Take care everyone.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

Reading these comments is so heartwarming, love to see that no matter where you're from, or how different your experience in official or private servers was, or even if you played just a couple of years, everyone remembers RO as a beloved game across the globe.

[@shikamaruw]

I will always have this game in a place in my heart. The thing of not having quest based history, been throwed in a big beautiful world free to go wherever you go, grow howhever u want, meet friends to explore. It was just the best feelings I had in a mmorpg.

[@xiakouxu]

This was a long time coming. Great watch. I don't think any other game captures my imagination and define my preteen/teen years than RO did - and I think you captured those points. One thing that RO really did for me, was having long lasting friendships. I still keep in touch with folks that are as old as the game is and nothing comes close to how important that is to me through RO. I think another thing that some may agree with; but when you get to play on private servers you also make friends from around the world, not just NA -- and I think that also really made it a unique experience for a majority of us. Heck, even just having the ability to play a game with someone in a somewhat persistent world from the other side of the globe is a shocking experience for a teenager in the 2000s. It's a shame that the identity of the game ends with it being fractured even more than it was back then, but I will still treat it as an iconic video game in my life.

[@bard1847]

The social aspect of private servers was one of the best things about RO. The servers I mainly played were MysticRO, WaffleRO, and BoundlessRO, and some of these communities I remember almost felt like family.

[@jimmygoodson]

This is a great video. I wanted to mention I played Tree of Savior around the time it was released and loved it. There was a cash shop at the time but it didn't feel overly monetized and there were so many classes to explore, it kept me entertained for hundreds of hours. Eventually I stopped playing and I believe some time after the monetization got worse and the game started going downhill. Now it is a shell of its former self but I still have love for it. I wish it could be revamped and released with minimal monetization. I'd also play on a private server if one ever popped up. The classes in TOS were great and the progression felt worthwhile. TOS has a good amount of complexity with so many choices the player can make, branching outward to different classes. It's a shame so many games end up getting ruined by monetization. Last time I checked, TOS throws exp and equipment at you. The entire experience has changed and become less impactful. I remember when I first started playing, nobody really knew how the game worked and players would talk to each other about their classes and what they found. It was an interesting experience. I met a player on there while I was leveling that ended up being really cool. We were figuring the game out together and helping each other out, it was fun. RIP Tree of Savior

[@maxspecs]

Ragnarok Online was our Roblox or Minecraft back in the 90’s…our friend group of kids and pre-teens would hop from private server to private server, making our own stories among the hub cities and dungeons, all while learning the quickest path to level 99 using each server’s unique QoL features.

[@pig.sensei]

I was wondering when you were going to cover Ragnarok. This one is the only MMO that I've truly dedicated myself in and loved with all my heart. It broke my heart when I witnessed it dying

[@kazen16]

I was introduced to mmo by this game… its perfect storm in the philippines… everyone is addicted to it. The era of net cafes and prepaid cards subs are so huge. They first showed this game at a toy convention, they have booth there but it got me interested because they have these huge anime cutouts around the booth and banners, they are giving away flyers and info about the game, i was huge in diablo 2 and was like wow an arpg but has online sign me up!

[@The_Nametag]

When you're competing against private servers, it should tell you two things. 1) Your game IS popular, and people WANT to play it, but 2) YOUR version is pissing people off. But, with the company being publicly traded, they were NEVER going to be in a position to make their servers something people would want to play on. It was doomed to be a vehicle for trying to steal people's money.

[@luxarnt]

RO2 was like SAO back then in its early days. The only difference is that, in SAO, once you login, you cannot logout. In RO2, once you logout, you cannot login.

[@Plax123]

I am still playing this game on private servers over 18 years after I first started. The emotions I feel when I hear RO bgm are very powerful. It is truly one of the most underrated MMOs out there

[@AbzuLifeweaver]

This was my childhood and teen years. As someone from the U.S this was my first time getting to know and befriending people from Southeast Asia on private servers. I learned tagalog and bahasa words lol.

[@omeg4bics]

This really hurt, after so many years spent on RO and seeing what it could have been and what it is, its nothing short of a miracle that official servers still exist. Still, would have loved for it to have bloomed more in Portugal, growing up with this game was really an experience, thanks for this video!

[@RinsArt96]

I heard 2 seconds of the menu music at the beginning of the video and the nostalgia hit me like a train. RO will always have a special place in my heart ❤

[@PatThePatPat]

I teared up as soon as I saw this title. I loved this game to bits as a kid. It was such a fantastic journey for me and such a core memory for my childhood.

[@SixDeadMice]

I like how the production quality is going up every video lately. Been watching since the swtor video came out and your the only streamer I've ever given money to in my life back when I used twitch.

[@notvin]

That game was basically my chilhood. What made it so special for me, at least the earlier stage of the game, was the lack of quests and hand holding, you have to interact with the community to understand what's going on. Great video! You should do Mabinogi next..