Ragnarok Online is a game that literally stole my childhood, as a young teenager on this wild and crazy Internet, I was stuck playing wonderful games known as Neopets and uh, buying beanie babies in real life? I don't specifically remember what I did online before RO. I know I played a little bit of Ultima Online, but at the time I didn't have a video card that could run anything that wasn't circa 1995. Last week we talked a bit about legacy MMORPGs and a commenter said what about RO? To me, it's as classical as EQ, but rarely gets any attention or acknowledgement.

There is two parts to today's Respawn, one is a hey go and install RO and give it a try and then some of my history with RO. To kick this off, here is the original picture of Xerin, circa 2002:

Why You Should Play Ragnarok Online 

Well, first of all it's on Steam and would take like 20 seconds to get going. Second of all, at one point, it was one of the biggest MMOs on the Internet that you never knew about, because it was at the forefront of the western free-to-play craze that at the time was looked down upon by subscription based MMOs like EverQuest and Ultima Online. 

The general idea being at the time that paying monthly for a game was a prestige thing and myself, being a kid with no money, could easily swallow my pride to have fun. However, it always remained sort of in the backspace of the Internet. As technology grew up and isometric top-down gameplay wasn't nearly as exciting compared to the craziness of games like WoW and the modern era Free-to-Play games. 

RO is an isometric top down MMORPG where you play as a variety of classes, often changing (starting the game a class-less Novice, then changing to a first class, then gaining a second class, then restarting into a new second class, at which point you can reach a third class. This is very confusing, but it makes a lot of sense after you understand the 10 billion other cool mechanics going on, from PvP, to guild battles, to rare item farming, to boss hunting, and beyond. 

If you want to play, IMO go with the classic server named after a classic server (Loki) here and avoid the Renewal, which turned me off of the game. You can install RO from Steam, as well.

So even though there was a lot of naysayers for the idea of a "free" game, RO is complex and very in-depth, and charming. If you listen to me and play RO, you'll find a world that you never before had seen, with combat and mechanics and equipment that are very foreign, and who knows you might get lost in the game and lose billions of hours of time like I once did. Speaking of - here is my life story with RO. 

My History with RO 

Some players played Everquest, but for me, I played Ragnarok Online, starting at the alpha and then the beta, and all the way to the official launch when they added a subscription. I was an Acolyte, later a Wizard (known as Majin Poring), and it's probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life being involved in that game - but it made me somewhat of a different gamer and anyone who grew up with RO instead of EQ will have drastically different tastes for games than others. 

For instance, I find FFXIV to be an almost perfect MMO, yet many will argue and disagree with me. I think games like Aion, Tera, Allods, etc. are great, but others will pick them apart and scream that they're garbage in every way. WoW is great - I absolutely love it, but I also find the original Guild Wars to be near perfect while others again will tear it apart. 

I have a drastically different taste for games than those who started with Everquest, much like those who started with WoW. My patience for buggy gameplay, wonky controls, and grinding is much higher than someone who started with WoW, whereas I want to move around and kill things while those who started with EQ want to sit in one spot all day. Now - mind you, I was huge into Dark Age of Camelot too, so I totally get the sitting still and grinding things, but DAoC punished you for that, which was an amazing compliment. DAoC had an anti-camping XP bonus. If you camped at one set of mobs for too long, the bonus XP would deteriorate, incentivising you to move around. 

I think it's interesting that MMO fans who arrive from different genres expect different things. Players who joined the genre through MOBAs are more inclined (in my opinion, this isn't a scientific study folks) to want competitive PvP, those who joined through WoW want the "theme park" experience, those who joined from EQ want a "roleplaying social" experience, and those who wet their teeth (a vampire saying) on RO want... a working grindfest with pretty hats. 

Me though, I want to grind, endlessly fight mobs and play Phantasy Star Online 2 as much as possible when it's translated (ugh Sega come on bring it over here I'll give you all my money). I don't care about questing, it's lame to me (in a figurative sense, I love all MMOs), I just want RO style get on a map and run around killing everything that moves. Which, there is (well, there was Priston Tale), but nothing captures that pure essence of RO anymore since everything needs an angle and super crazy mechanics. 

Anyway, this was sparked by a commenter, if you want me to wax poetically about a game, then let me know in the comments, or bother me @orangekun on the bird.