Ragnarok Online (Korean: 라그나로크 온라인, also known as “The Final Destiny of the Gods”), also known as RO, is a South Korean massively multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG published by GRAVITY Co., Ltd. It is based on the manga Ragnarok, developed by Lee Myung-jin. It was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 31, 2002 in Korea and has since been released in many countries around the world. It runs on an in-house developed engine called AEGIS. The game spawned an anime series, Ragnarok the Animation, and a sequel game, Ragnarok Online II.

Features

Player characters exist in a world with a player environment that changes gradually over time. Player characters interact in a 3D environment but are represented by 2D character sprites in front, back, side and angle views.

The primary server-based game types are player vs. environment, guild vs. guild, and player vs. player. Game servers also support group vs. group, arena combat, player vs. monsters, player vs. all, and a variety of other specific scenarios at specific instance locations in the game world. NPC-hosted challenges and contests are also available, offering prizes, awards, and special halls of fame.

Ragnarok Online’s unique card system allows you to further strengthen your character by equipping weapons and armor with cards that have special value. Nearly every monster in the game has a corresponding card with its own set of effects.

Story

In a time of strife between Gods, Normans and demons…

Marked by cruel wars and spared utter destruction, Gods, Normans and demons managed to reach a truce…

But after a thousand years of fragile and enforced peace, in Rune-Midgarts…

The long peace finally forced the Normans to forget the scars of war and the memories of hardship. As they forgot the mistakes of the past, selfishness, corruption and arrogance slowly spread throughout the land…

Soon the balance of peace was upset and strange things began to happen. Strange howls could be heard from the boundary that separated God, Normans and demons. Peaceful creatures became aggressive and attacked innocent villagers. Violent earthquakes ripped entire continents apart. Massive hailstorms pushed several species to the brink of extinction…

The legend of the Demon’s mystery is rediscovered…

As the fragile peace begins to crumble, tales of a piece of Ymir that protected the peace spread among adventurers. People forgot the true nature of the ancient relic and began to search for its fragments out of selfishness and the hope of wealth that comes with it…

Opening Cinematic

In the early days of Ragnarok Online, an opening video would start when players started the game. It was displayed before the login screen. For some reason, the video was later removed from the game. The reason is unknown, but it could be because players signed up quickly and didn’t want to wait for the opening video. This also means that there is no option to skip the opening video when starting the game.

Official Ragnarok Online Servers

After RO’s rocky beginnings, many private (illegal) servers appeared. These private servers did not support the official servers at all, which resulted in Gravity developers losing money from players who financially supported the private servers instead of the official ones.

Active Official Servers

To support the longevity of RO and its developers, here is the list of official servers that players should play on:

• Official Korea (kRO)
• Official Japan (jRO)
• Official North America (iRO)
• Official Taiwan & Hong Kong (twRO)
• Official Thailand (thRO)
• Official Brazil (bRO)
• Official Indonesia (idRO)
• Official Spain (hispanoRO/ROh)
• Official Philippines (pRO)
• Official Malaysia & Singapore (mRO)
• Official Vietnam (vRO)
• Official China (cRO)
• Official Russia (ruRO)
• Official Europe (euRO)

Inactive Official Servers

Here is a list of official servers that are no longer in operation. Only oRO and pRO player data was merged into the iRO server. Players on other servers had to create new accounts on iRO to continue playing the game.

• Official Oceania (oRO)

These servers were closed in March 2007. They supported both the New Zealand and Australian regions. oRO players are given the opportunity to switch to iRO.

• Official Middle East-North Africa (aeRO/aRO)

Closed around 2008/2009. Re-opened in 2009 but closed permanently in February 2013.

• Official Vietnam (vRO)(old)

These servers were closed in 2007 due to insufficient regulations on RMT (real money trading). Re-opened in 2008 but closed permanently in 2011.

• Official India (inRO)

Closed in August 2008. In response, iRO services were expanded to the Indian region.

• Official Malaysia & Singapore (eRO & mRO)(old)

Originally hosted by Game Flier in 2002, it consisted of two servers, eRO (English) and mRO (Bahasa Melayu, also known as Malay). The contract with Gravity ended as the server was not making enough profit to renew the contract. It closed on October 31, 2013. Player data cannot be transferred to iRO, but iRO will be open to the region.

• Official Philippines (pRO)(old)

Closed on March 31, 2015, due to a lack of measures against bots and unbalanced Kafra shops resulting in players dropping out of the server frequently. Players were given the option to switch to iRO.

• Official Russia (ruRO)(old)

It was closed on November 16, 2015 for unknown reasons.

• Official China (cRO)(old)

cRO originally launched in 2002 and was hosted by Game Flier. [citation needed] It was acquired from Game Flier by Shanda Entertainment in 2005. On November 1, 2011, it was announced that all RO services would be discontinued on December 30, 2011. At the time of closure, cRO was updated to episode 13.3, which included Brasilis and Byalan 6F. Player data should not be retained for future Chinese services or transferred to existing services. On March 30, 2012, GRAVITY signed a contract with Kunlun Games to restart cRO, which began operation on February 28, 2013. After about three years, GRAVITY was unable to renew its contract with Kunlun Games and ended the service on February 19, 2016.

• Official Brazil (bRO)(old)

After Level Up lost the right to host pRO, it eventually lost the right to host bRO as well. Members of the bRO staff, along with their bRO accounts, were transferred to Gravity Interactive as part of the new WarpPortal Brazil network. Brazilian players can only create RO accounts on WarpPortal Brazil, not on WarpPortal.

• Official Europe (euRO)

Closed for unknown reasons. In response, ruRO opened up the Revo Classic server for euRO players. No data was transferred.

• Official Thailand (thRO)(old)

Asiasoft released the original thRO server before being acquired by Electronics Extreme. However, the deal with Electronics Extreme was only temporary, as GRAVITY opened an office in Thailand to control the thRO server.

• Official Taiwan (tRO)(old)

Formerly hosted by Game Flier.

• Official Malaysia & Singapore (mRO)

Server was shut down on November 28, 2021.

Controversy

Towards the end of RO’s original Korean server (kRO) closed beta testing, it was announced that the game would be released as a subscription game, like many other MMORPGs in 2002. Some beta testers were upset and performed numerous hacks on the RO servers. [15] The hacks had a major impact on the game, and Gravity Co. was on the brink of bankruptcy. Samsung Electronics offered to buy the company to save it. Samsung appointed a subsidiary management team to oversee the development of RO to oversee new investments. In the midst of all this, Kim Hak-kyu resigned as CEO of Gravity Co. His team followed suit soon after, sparking countless speculations that Samsung Electronics had exited them for unknown reasons. [16][17] As a result, many of RO’s original concepts were never fully integrated into the game. The game continues to be plagued with issues due to the game’s difficult to deploy.

These issues continue to this day, even after implementing update updates. There are two main reasons for this: After Kim Hak-kyu’s sudden retirement, Ragnarok Online was left in an unfinished and unplayable state. Gravity Co hired inexperienced employees to put the game together in time for the release date. The second factor is that the AEGIS software they currently use is an artificial creation of the original. It is impossible to modify the source code without breaking the emulator, and therefore errors or exploits in the source material cannot be directly corrected. It is also worth noting that the emulator uses a different algorithm that is incompatible with the real AEGIS. The real emulator uses a variation of the LZ compression algorithm.