#ragnarokph

Camping at the Orc Village

I’m a bit sad today..

Sad, because the game that introduced me to friends online has also made me realize that not all things stay the same. Ragnarok Online unlike any other online games I’ve played, makes me really happy. Emphasis on the really because it really does. It wasn’t the first online game I’ve played but it was the first game that I truly fell in love with. Cheesy, huh. I’ve been through a lot - winning small events, invested so much time and even money, got hacked, scammed and even got my heart broken. But I was sure that it was because of all these experiences that I felt that my social life was very alive even if I was just in front of the computer. I met friends from this game. The reason why Ragnarok Online is a game that I constantly come back to is because of my friends. I met my friends for almost 8 years in our country’s official server back when we were young and were still in what we call “jeje” stage. I could only provide a short description here, but these friends namely Jen, Lisha, Aica, Kring and Ella (we lost contact a few years ago) were the people I never thought I’d share an 8-year friendship with. What makes it fun is that even when RO’s official server in the PH closed down 3 years ago, we still played the game through different private servers. It’s just sad that most of the private servers we played eventually closed down too.. but that isn’t strong enough to stop playing the game we enjoy.

I’m grateful to the Lord that He has given me friends likes them even if we don’t always communicate (busy lives IRL lol). I’d also like to thank the owners of Facebook and Discord for creating instruments of communication (HAHA). Anyway, the real reason why Ragnarok Online also made me sad is because it is where I saw how my friends transitioned to a “regular gamer in the game” to “busy with real life” kind of person. I might be exaggerating because my friends and I still play the game but I always get the feeling that it wasn’t like before - that we might have reached the point that we’d go into our own separate ways. It isn’t THAT major actually. I think I am just exaggerating (seriously). But seriously speaking, I guess we just can’t control that. I have RO friends who are able to play the game while busy with work/studies. That’s great and all but when I think about the future, I realize that it won’t be the same. My friends and I might meet opportunities in real life with regards to their career paths.. even love. Get what I’m saying? We might have played War of Emperium in different private servers, collected costumes and headgears, helped each other with equipment sets, fangirled when seeing a hottie player (hehe), meeting each other in real life or just simply sat and did little chit-chats in the area we that we became friends -- Payon Forest BUT who knows what the future holds? As we grow older, we realize that Ragnarok Online has always been a part of who we are but we just can’t stay in it forever, can we? That thought scares me.. That we would arrive to the point that we have to bid our goodbyes to each other because we have bigger responsibilities and opportunities but at the same time, thanking them for the great x years of friendship. In simple terms, that we might permanently stop playing the game.

Ragnarok Online wouldn’t be Ragnarok Online if it weren’t for all the experiences and memories made with our friends. We might live a hundred or a thousand miles apart (I’m the farthest tbh. We have friends abroad but in the PH, I’m the farthest from my friends living here in the country), but thanks to internet connection and mobile data, the 8 years of playing felt like my friends were just like real life friends. Throughout the 8 years, I have not only met the 5 friends I mentioned earlier. I call it “group”, this “group” has grew by meeting different people in both official and private servers.

 ~TIMELINE~ OF THE GROUP! 

2010-2011: Firsts

 I was part of this “group” called Tropang Payon Forest (TPF), the first word is in Filipino which means Tropa or Friends in English so it’s like Friends in Payon Forest. I think they already existed even before 2010 (the year I first played Ragnarok Online) and by that time Payon Forest was filled with people but some people stopped playing by 2011. I temporarily stopped playing around January 2011 and played again on October of the same year. When I came back, Payon forest was empty. January was still filled with people summoning monsters from dead branches! Wth. It was then I discovered that some players migrated from Payon Forest to Prontera Field! These two maps share something in common: They are both located south of Payon Town and Prontera respectively. I visited Prontera Field, it became a place where I could spend my time AFK-ing but the people there weren’t the same people in Payon Forest - my friends quit the game. I don’t know why because I kind of “left” my friends back then. I got really sad because my account got hacked and even got my friend’s item stolen. 

2011-2012: Reunion

 By this time, I got in touch with some of my friends (Jen and Lisha). I deleted my RO friends when I quit in 2011 because I did not want to be reminded of the game anymore so I added them again when I played again until news spread and my friends played the game again. It was also this time that I first played a private server with them! I also met additional TPF friends, Erika and Nald.

2013: Private Servers again

We played a private server but I had to temporarily stop playing because I was busy with school. In a certain server (Fatal RO), Lisha and Kring who stayed active made friends there. These friends, we still communicate with them from time to time even played with them around 2016-2017. Hello to the friends I made here even if I was inactive. Hi Ronnie! There were some others but I actually never got to become official friends with them, it happened in 2016 though.

2014: Official Server

Ever since school became busier, I only played during summer vacation, semestral and Christmas breaks but if my memory serves me right, we played in the Official server during this time.

2015: Busy, Official server closed down

We got really busy and inactive but I wasn’t that sad because we still communicated with each other through social media.

Late 2015: New Private Server

A friend of ours made a private server so we decided to play RO again. Negative RO was the name. I stopped playing because of school around January 2016.

2016: FO

Not finger offensive but friendship over. A LOT happened during this year. I still play during vacation, when I came back March 2016, my friends had really strong equipment now. Their guild was really strong and I was kinda left out (HAHA). Good thing my friends were there to help me so I was able to join a few wars. The best WoEs happened when I wasn’t around (daaamn it), so when I came back there were a few people because apparently, my friends’ guild always had the advantage of beating them. I think the server only had two guilds left playing and this was where friendships started to fall. I hope nobody from TPF/Fox reads this because I’m going to narrate bits of a conflict  that appeared out of nowhere.

NOTE: My narration will only be one of the things that have caused problems between the persons involved. I don’t have the best memory out there and I will narrate only what I remember correctly!

My friend, L was the guild leader of Fox (our guild) and there was a time that she could not play in a certain WoE night. She passed the guild leader position to S, a good player in my opinion but S had a poor connection so he wasn’t able to play properly. J, got disappointed and thought that the guild leader position should have been passed to someone else (I think L liked S and also thought that S had the potential to lead the guild) but J was still upset. Bla bla bla I was busy with school and then a notification from Messenger showed up. A new group was made without L. This was another guild but had the Fox members in it except for L. I felt bad for L so I stayed with her for a while, we were both in a guild led by her friend. I was still busy because of school that time so I still wasn’t that active, I even hoped that J and L would fix the problem. It didn’t happen. Things even got worse (won’t narrate them because I might write wrong information because my memory isn’t that good especially when it comes to things like these lol + read NOTE above). When school ended, I played again. I decided to play with the new guild so L also became an enemy in WoE. I think I was neutral at that time(?). I wanted them to be friends again. 

The private server also closed down without them being friends again. L still plays with us when she isn’t busy until now.

Problems aside, I also made friends with people I should have met if it weren’t for me being inactive for sooo long. Will greet them through the letters of their first names. Haha. I’m too shy to actually greet them loool. Basta yon. If ever one of you reads this (super duper low probability of ever happening), I included short descriptions of how we met OR a random description about you! Hi to my good friend Z which I talked more in iRO, Japan friend G, Digital artist D, cousin of a classmate of mine J, became friends because I adopted him c, cousin of the person before this N, ROPH friend M, event gm I, love of the life of a friend of mine E, and another gm R. 

Late 2017: New Server again

I was in 12th grade, graduating actually. I became really busy by this time! My friends played another server. They were all there but I wasn’t because I was super busy with school as usual. I became friends with R also a Negative RO player and RoS master A. I was too late for all the action. When I played, there were two guilds left playing! Whew.

2018: The present

Who would’ve have thought that we’d come this far? It has been 8 years since I played Ragnarok Online, met different people and had my own share of good and bad memories. As I type this super long composition, I only hope that our future may be good for each of us. Ragnarok Online isn’t the only game that we are playing now, there are many to mention! Just kidding. I’m sad that we might not play Ragnarok Online in the future anymore but I’m happy to have come across people who turned into friends that I can keep in my lifetime. Very cheesy. Masyadong OA, I tell myself. But friends or companions are one of the main factors to be able to keep playing a game. Playing becomes really boring when your friends don’t play with you anymore and I’m really happy and thankful that my friends have stayed the same fun people I met when I first talked to them. Lord, I cannot thank You enough! You have given me the opportunity to meet all the other people I’ve met in Ragnarok Online. I hope we cross each other in private servers again because I miss playing with everyone. I know we just recently played a private server but I have to focus on my responsibilities too. 

All the love,