at a lost for werds…

Ragnarok Online has changed my gaming life… I used to play PS and PC games… Getting bored with one game then trying out another. I remember getting hooked with RPGs courtesy of FF7 and Diablo 1 and 2… (actually I played RPGs using SEGA before but didn’t know that they were called that hehehe…). Then I became addicted to network games like Red Alert (DOS launched pa non!), Starcraft, Mech Warriors, Half Life, Quake, Counter-Strike. Until Level-Up introduced us to a life of MMORPG (such a mouthful isn’t it?). I encountered this game through a forum named Buyncell (now known as BNC) where a co-forumer was handling marketing of the game and was giving out free CDs for the BETA launch. Since I was late in getting the buzz, I had to get mine thru Netopia and was told I need to play an hour first of the game to get me a CD Installer! :) So played I did and created my very first character… kulugo.
On the very 2nd day pRO was launched for Open Beta, I remember roaming the Novice Castle being guided by GM Sprites on where to go and what to do. Admittedly, I wasn’t that impressed with the game since the sprites were tooooo cute. But after installing the CD at home and influencing my RL friends on trying it as well… there was no turning back! I chose the path of the thief since that’s what I normally would choose even during D&D sessions in grade school. The outfit of the Assassin also helped me convince myself that I chose the correct job since they look WAAAAY COOOL!!! :D Leveling my dual dagger sin manually was very rewarding seeing the damage output of my triple slashes. I dared going through Clock Tower and GH Prisons solo wielding daggers with improper cards (I remember it was double holy! and one elemental main gauche! hehe). Thru my journeys I met some of the most prestigious and infamous characters in RO like Waukeen and Legokidd (who I both met in Morroc while still a thief!) I even taught my girlfriend how to play and she was really good at it using her Priest char Sophiea.
My main reason in creating a Dual Dagger was I didn’t have enough zeny to buy me Katars so I made do with the daggers I had used levelling my Thief. After getting lucky leveling in the underwater caves of Byalan, I was able to afford to buy me decent sets of daggers starting with elemental daggers to race and size carded Gladius. PvP was purely hilarious back then since my only way to kill was using Envenom repeatedly until the other char dies and I was able to kill a few times using this ’strategy’ since pure vit, pure agi builds were not that common nor were mocking garments or cranial shields.
When WoE was introduced and builds were refined, I began to feel useless since I can’t kill AND I get killed easily… I sieged first with Blood Trident which became Alliance and whenever I sieged, I admired the guilds that really worked as a team and were moving seamlessly obliterating whatever impediment blocking their path. One such guild was Shadow Circle which I vowed to be a part of. I knew that they only accept applicants who were above 80+ and should be properly equipped. So I did my best to level and saved up for siege equipments like an Unfrozen Armor. Then while slaughtering seals in the beaches of Comodo I came upon another assassin who also used daggers and incidentally was from SC. I approached him and PMd him asking how to be a member of his guild (while slashing seals trying to impress him with my damage). He told me to head over to Geffen PvP Inn and they will interview me if I was worthy… and I guess I was! Here I met the coolest guildmates and in-game buddies like Salleh, Matatakutin, Jie, The Brothers D69 and Dante, Paris, all My QINmates, Zervantes, Novena… and the list goes on (Strikess and Bafumeat, marts, Jonts…). In SC I found my role where we were made to chase after those who make it past the pre casts and to try and hold the brute knights trying to break our emperium. We were called the QINranhas! No longer did I see myself an irrelevant weakling assassin but became a part of a team that would rule Geffenia. Now I unsheathe my knives under the command of the master, Legokidd, whose guild became my new family together with my former comrades in SC.
All this are memories of the 4 years… again… FOUR YEARS of playing Ragnarok Online. I didn’t think I would still be playing especially after getting hacked out of my account (changed password, changed e-mail, even my Friendster was hacked….). Many MMORPGs were released and I tried most of them only finding myself playing pRO again and again and again.
pRO2 is now just around the corner… Will it be a new chapter in my online life or would I end it here with pRO?