Ragnarok Online

Well, what much can you say. Ragnarok Online is an awesome game with one problem. People. People have screwed up the game so much that it really isn't that much fun to play unless you can see past all of the player created BS.

Let's start with the player driven economy as this is the MOST annoying part of the game. During the beta phase of Ragnarok Online it was possible to locate almost any item you required at very reasonable prices because prices were so competitive. Now that the game has switched to pay-to-play it's almost thrown everything into anarchy. If you don't have over a hundred thousand zeny, or "z" (the currency), don't even bother looking at a player driven shop that says "Low Prices". For noobs, the slang for new players, it's a very hard struggle to get the items to help in your quests. In fact, at most times I found myself (when under level 10) trying very hard to keep my cash flow above 100z because of all the healing potions required to survive. In fact, to prevent overpricing, the makers of Ragnarok Online implemented a color code system to warn buyers of good and bad prices. For example, a price colored orange is very high while one colored dark blue is fairly good. The only issue is, nowhere have I been able to locate anything that clearly defines what colors mean what. It's more of a trial and error kind of thing that you have to learn for yourself. The player driven economy is so bad that I've seen items that you can sell in game driven shops for no more than ten zeny are being sold by individuals for over ten thousand zeny and that is just a sample of the problems with the markets. Most player driven markets only carry items that high level players can use (and afford) which makes them useless to players during their first month in the game. Those that carry low level items, such as hats which sell for a thousand zeny in any shop, are sold at prices no beginning player can even come close to affording. While playing today, in fact, I was witness to someone selling one of the one thousand zeny hats, which had nothing special about it, for forty thousand zeny. I don’t even consider that a markup. I consider that insane! Now, as if that isn’t bad enough, the individual had their “shop” setup just outside the door of the actual store that sold those hats for the actual retail price.

Along with the market places comes the third issue, clogged and laggy cities. During the beta testing phase any city you entered was asking for a trip to lagville. The streets were chocked with people selling good items at extremely competitive prices. This was a grand time and one I wish would have lasted forever. Now that the game has switched over to pay-to-play it's done a complete and utter flip. Almost every city you enter will be fairly empty with a possible small area designated (by the players) for merchants. The only exception is Prontera, or Pron as the people have come to call it, which is the largest city in the center of the Ragnarok Online world. Even on a pay-to-play basis the city has remained chocked with people selling their wares. However what they sell and for how much is stupid, as mentioned earlier. Those people with the guts, and the abilities, have begun to revolt against the high priced merchants. Every now and then an extremely dangerous creature will appear in the marketplace, teleported there by some unknown player, with it's intent on destroying anything around it. Sometimes this succeeds, the monster killing several merchants and taking their shops out of commission until they return to their PC's, which I will gripe about next.

The third issue I want to speak about is the AFK syndrome that seems to be sweeping about Ragnarok Online. It's not uncommon to see, in fact it's uncommon to not see, someone sitting around with a sign up that says "AFK - Sleeping" or "Gone for Supper". These people are not at their computer and are simply sitting there wasting bandwidth not only on the game but on the internet in general. What kind of a person leaves their computer playing an online game when they aren’t even at the computer for a good 6-8 hours? (referring to those sleeping). I, personally, leave my computer running 24/7 but I never waste resources like this. It's almost unthinkable, and in my opinion quite stupid. Personally, if I was a moderator of any online game and I saw someone sitting with a sign that said "AFK - Sleeping" I would forcefully log them out of the game. After all, they will appear in the same spot after they log back in. This is why I've gotten to calling the merchant class the lazy person's class. Basically a merchant sets up their shop with a few items, that are way over priced, and they walk away from their computer for several hours. They then return later, of course, to find that some idiot with too much zeny has actually bought something because they were too lazy to go look for it themselves.

Another major issue with the game is game etiquette, which is laid out very strongly in the acceptable use policy however not very well enforced. Most people follow the kill stealing rule, which basically says you leave alone the creature someone else is trying to kill unless your invited to help. If you fail to follow this rule, even by accident, you'll find yourself under attack in the chat window with rants like "Go away Noob!" which is very rude in my opinion. Another form of bad mannerisms in the game are people who walk around saying "I'm poor" and "Can you lend me some money" which only proves my point about the sad state of economic affairs. Personally I've had people ask me for anything from 100z (which I'm glad to give because of the bad economy) to one million zeny (which they're crazy to ask anyone for). You can even find people sitting around with their little chat rooms labeled "Need money". Common people, just play the dam game as it was meant to be played. It's not that hard (if you avoid the ripoffs).

Another small factor that I didn't like about the game was the fact that everything is so spread out and uneven. There are designated areas where you can find certain creatures but the areas are setup so that low level characters and high level characters rarely interact except in towns. For high level characters it isn't worth the time to sit in a "newbie" area and help out because nothing there you do will advance your character in any way. For low level characters it's more than hazardous to even attempt to step into an area designated for high levels as your killed almost immediately by some unruly creature bent on destruction. Some players, mainly those you really like to have on your friends list, will actually stick around low level areas and help the new players to level. I do this myself and it really makes me feel good to help someone learn the ropes.

All in all Ragnarok Online is an extremely fun and excellent game with next to no flaws except the people that play it. The game really deserves a 5 star rating, but I can't give it that because of the things I've mentioned here. However, I do highly recommend the game to those people who like roll playing and aren’t easily discouraged by bad players.

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