This is the ultimate nostalgia post for me as I tell my journey in the world of MMORPG. I have started playing Guild Wars 2 again but that is not the game I am about to go all feels for.

It started earlier with one that has certainly aged and younger generations would laugh at what I used to play. It had none of the awesome spell effects or character animations that makes you look like a bad-ass. It didn't have epic bosses that completely filled your screen and gave epilepsy-inducing flashes and sound

It wasn't even in 3D! and it has a pastel looking color palette and a cutesy feel to monsters.

From Unsplash - Mark Cruz

I am talking about Ragnarok Online! This was my first foray into the world of MMORPG. (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)

Created by Gravity, a South Korea gaming company based from a manhwa (Korean version of a Japanese manga) of Lee Myung-jin called Ragnarok

The online game heavily uses the theme, locations and story of the characters and they appear in several instances as NPCs (Non-Player Characters).

Source

I remember waiting in line to get that CD installer and buy some game cards. Getting home I installed it and began my quest in the land of Midgard. You all started as novices but eventually had your 1st job compromised by several different classes. Using a fantasy setting you could choose to be a swordsman, thief, acolyte, mage, archer and a merchant.

I started out as a male swordsman intent on becoming a tank and protecting people!

Friendship and love

I am not one hundred sure how it happened but eventually, I changed my main character into an archer class. I do remember there was a girl involved in that decision. She used a hunter character which was the 2nd job after being an archer. She used the name Sushi as her identifier because she was half Japanese and all her characters had the same pink hair.

I remember making a new character and patterned it after her and we would be going through boss hunts twinning!

Full disclosure I have never once told people that I am a girl when playing. I was always been upfront saying that I am a guy that likes to use female characters. This was because it spawned this tradition of being catfished or pretending to be a girl to get boosts and items for free.

Yet my friends get a kick out of pimping me out and the more I protest, the more people believe I am female.

It even inspired this song by a famous local band telling of an adventure of a young man who played Ragnarok and grew in love with a girl he met online. It tells how he would even give up his life online to make sure she doesn't get killed Then one day they decide to meet up and he was all dressed up and even wore perfurme. To his horror it turned out to be a guy hence the title of the song "Chicksilog" which roughly means a woman with balls (I don't think it was literal but more figuratively that it was a guy pretending to be a girl)

The song is sung in our local language but is still fun to watch for the context.

It was over a decade ago when this happened but I remember it like it was yesterday! I remember the feeling of getting home from school and booting my computer and playing till past midnight just grinding and item hunting with my friends and guildmates.

Boss Hunts

I remember the feeling of getting a Boss MVP card and shouting for joy as getting that kind of card was less than 1%

The video is not mine but see how some of the boss hunts were. At first it usually involved 2-6 people depending on your equipment but as you grow stronger you usually would just have a priest buddy so that the rewards are split 50-50. Rangers were very good since they had bows that could use elemental arrows and racial cards that boosted its damage potential. It had an Area of Effect attack to clear out the MVP mobs and then it had a single attack skill Double Strafe that was just insane in dishing out damage per second.

Guilds

The friendships that I got eventually turned to guilds where we were united to trying to make a name for ourselves.

You know as kids you wanted to be strong and be idolized by other players and so having a guild helped in getting people in boss hunts and taking castles. Castles just like in real life meant treasures and every week there would be sieges where the intention of each guild is to reign supreme and hold the castle for another week. This was called the War of the Emperium (WOE)

I was part of the Onslaught guild in the old Loki server in Philippines Ragnarok and we had so much fun playing and trash talking.

This is how I learned the art of trash talking to get under the skin of your opponents. A well-placed insult can be effective in riling up an enemy and make them make mistakes in judgement. We had so many good trash talkers and a lot of mommas unwittingly made use as part of taunts.

None was sacred as everything from physical appearances to bad breath were used to get someone angry. There have been several instances of things getting physical in the real world because you know boys will be boys.

See below a typical siege done. You can skip to the 1 minute 25 seconds for the actual video.

There is something about the bonds you create with your brothers in arms. It can be likened to the bond you make when you play sports with a team.

The memories of your exploits and and the stories told over cold beer when you get together still makes you laugh.

You all fondly remember an EB (Eye Ball - which is meeting in person your online friends) of Onslaught where you finally saw the Sushi and confirmed she was indeed female. You remember the stories made that night of who got drunk and who kissed who.

Some of those ended up together and got married. Some where hook up stories that you blackmail some of your friends till now. Yet all of you smile when you remember it.

Most of the people that I played with back then are still my friends and I still play with them in the games that followed. You played World of Warcraft with them, Everquest, Starcraft, Overwatch, PUBG and all sorts of online games with them.

You all still have old Ragnarok Online characters in a private server that you play with each other when you don't feel like playing Guild Wars 2.

I still sport the same pink haired female avatar and being cute while kicking ass in the field.

To them you would always be that pink haired hunter that they got to know more than a decade ago and I am fine with that memory.

This post is an entry to The gaming community Archdruidgaming contest of a nostalgia post. Archdruid Gaming: Gaming Nostalgia Contest