RagnaTalk: Emperiums are meant to be broken.. (but not this one.)

Nothing special, just emp breaks. It’s been my Job since letting go of my vit knight from 3 years back..

The Assassin class is what made me love RO. but no, a Swordsman was my very first avatar way back july of 2002, yes, the beta days. When the population of the lone server chaos then was at the average around 500.. and during weekends it goes up to 1,000 and it was already laggy when the server population hits that number, and being in beta stage, it was played for free!

As any "less" curious gamer (was just referred to me by a friend), I didn’t bother with the proper stat build, (that’s how it goes with Diablo II) until I realized it is a difficult game, in terms of earning zennies, getting equips, those aspects that come easy with Diablo II (D2 was my benchmark for a quality multiplayer RPG then). I stopped playing, as my swordie was being mauled by Vadons and Marinas…

Then I saw the Digital Tour (studio 23) episode featuring Ragnarok Online, I saw one avatar, upon a flash of a certain japanese character, wham! 8 consective hits killed the Munak! I was mesmerized, I only thought there bashes and magnum breaks in the game.. That was the first time I saw an Assassin class, and it’s bread and butter move, Sonic Blow. I found new inspiration to play RO anew, so I played once more.

My build was no better, it was still disastrous, but having my first Assassin, as well as my first second jobber, I was officially a ragna-holic. After school ( I was a college freshman then), I go to the nearest Netopia branch near my home (that’d be Netopia in front of JRU) and play for 3-4 hours before going home. Sicorro was legendary on that point, we was hailed like a God by the shop regulars. I never saw his avatar with my own eyes, because I never stepped on the PVP rooms yet then.. But that aura he had more than convinced me that the Assassin’s path is what I’ll be taking.

But then, an unfortunate event occurred. My account got banned. hacker? no, but was conspired by one. A friend (HS classmate) of mine hoarded the account of another batchamate of ours during Highschool, claiming he thinks, the guy was inactive anyway. My part was being the transfer medium for the items, he logs in to the account, deals the items to me, he logs back to his own avatar and collects the items, of course I didn’t go unrewarded, roughly 20% of what he got.

Then the next day, I got an email from LU, yeah, I my account was banned indefinitely. It was pretty frustrating of course, I already have a "home" guild (Divine Providence II). Then, it was made available without notice, I think around 6 months after.. But I was already at Fenrir server then, with a better Assassin, but my spirit wasn’t there. I eventually quit, was busy with school stuff, got tired of levelling and didn’t have much reason anymore for playing.

Then, a classmate of mine (in college) invited me to start anew on Loki server. I was persuaded for two factors. They support my finances and levelling in-game, and we were gonna be part of an active and WOE-competitive guild, which was the Final Alliance guild. and heck, the Guild Master was even my classmate, and so they told me I should make a Vit-Knight.. aww.. I really wanted to be an Assassin, as I always did, but then the extension which we formed are mostly "Kalabaws".. to act as battering rams and tanks to break through defenses.

My move to Loki, was also an introduction to botting.. as everyone seemed to bot, I was left behind in terms of levelling and in-game wealth. And so, my avatar became part of their botting army, and so were the other suceeding characters I made, which then I’ve automated by myself, I made an Assassin again, and this time it’s for good, as those who made me move to Loki eventually quit. They claim there’s just more to life than RO.. I get that part, as I’ve experienced that myself, having "quit" on a number occassions. But I think what they didn’t realize is, botting stealthily stripped them the desire to keep playing, or at least diverted their purpose, and motivation for being part of Rune-Midgard.

I loved RO for its RPG elements. I loved the Assassin job class, the crits, the SBs and EDPs.. I embraced the mystique, the aura of the job lass. being community-oriented and people-driven only comes next. but as I’ve hung around to see my in-game friends and guildmates come and go, and my gaming time cut down considerably because I’m working now, I realized I’m no different, I’ve also ran my course on botting, I no longer see the need, or rather the urge to continue creating new avatars, new accounts.. But I still play, for the dead branches, new items,  and occassional sieges with the remnants of the guild I really can call my home (RAGE).. and that’s about it. But I’m not quitting anytime soon, I will have to see pRO through, and heck, I still have to become a Guillotine ‘Sin!(if it ever comes out).

That has been the gist, at least of my RO life so far.. I didn’t put emperium on the title with just the purpose of a catchy title.. proof + my modified ( and blood-pumping) theme of siege agits:

Pompeii (E.S. Posthumus)