Leaving a Legacy: Philippine Ragnarok Online as Told by the Level Up! Team

Last February, the Philippine gaming community was rocked with the sudden news of a pillar of video game culture in the country shutting down its operations. In a surprise announcement, Level Up! Games said that its most iconic game franchise in the Philippines, Ragnarok Online, was closing shop after 12 years of service in Philippine soil.

Ragnarok Online is considered by many as the proto-eSports title in the country. Launched in 2002 by Korean developer Gravity, Co. Ltd., RO found its way into the Philippines through local distributor partner Level Up, Inc.

Since its introduction by way of mall and school tours, bulky CD inserts in popular magazines and internet cafe tie-ups, RO has left an indelible mark in Philippine gamer culture. The game’s comic book-inspired and cutesy visuals mixed with Norse mythology elements quickly took root with a generation of gamers — spawning friendships, relationships, competitions, careers, controversies and a hit pop-rock single from rocker group Kamikazee.

Kamikazee’s iconic song “Chiksilog” for Philippine Ragnarok Online (c) Tower of Doom Youtube Channel

As we bid farewell to an old friend, we remember some of the best and worst things RO has given us. Welcome to RO Month.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to interview some of the people behind the iconic video game. With Level Up’s sudden statement sounding final and abrupt, I asked the company’s team of community managers, game masters and top brass to look back on the legacy of RO.

In 12 years of operation, Ragnarok Online has managed to attract some 10 million active subscribers and more than double that in player characters and avatars, Gary Escobar, Product Director for Level Up, said.

“At the height of its popularity, Ragnarok had over 57,000 concurrent users,” Escobar said. “Chaos, being the first server, was the most populated followed by Loki. The third was a toss up between Iris and Fenrir.”

“Urdr, being a PK (Player kill PVP) server, was the least populated,” he added.

While gamers can enjoy the social and teamwork aspects of Ragnarok, with groups of friends and allies traversing the game’s rich world and varied challenges, RO became known as one of the first few video games where players could earn more than the time and money they put into the game.

RO’s main competitive format, The War of the Emperium, pits 50-player strong groups called “guilds” into a server-wide, time-bound and all-out war with the objective of securing guild castles called “Agits”. These Agits serve as a symbol of prestige for the conquering guilds. Winning guilds gain control over the Agit and its resources as well as the added benefit of having their groups’ banners plastered all over the main cities throughout Ragnarok’s world.

Players began to make their names known in their respective servers, as powerful guilds became infamous in securing Agits for weeks and months at a time. Soon, Level Up held LAN events that would invite these top guilds from across different servers to test their mettle in a simulated War of the Emperium in the halls of Megamall and other popular shopping malls across the Philippines.

“We held many live guild war events throughout RO’s operation, with the largest prize pot ever given at around P1 million,” Escobar shared. “During the first Level Up Live event (held in 2006), the cash prize for first place was P175,000.”

“All in all, total prizes given out for RO-related events number in the millions,” he added. Aside from local events, Level Up also facilitated the country’s participation in guild war events abroad, with the top Filipino teams competing against Ragnarok guilds from all over the world in Korea.

But to the men and women who brought the fun and wonder of the world of Midgard to so many, Ragnarok Online was more than just a game or the grandfather of professional competitive gaming.

Ben Colayco, Level Up!’s founder and game boss, has always considered RO as more than just a video game. As the person responsible for bringing RO to the Philippines, Colayco’s best memory has always been the pride of being a part of a special and transformative experience.

“My best memory of working on RO was the feeling that we weren’t ‘working’ at all because we all believed we were part of something very special, not just for ourselves but for the Filipino community,” Colayco said. “I am thankful and proud of the Level Up! team for sharing this amazing experience with Filipino gamers for the last decade.”

Ragnarok Philippine Championship 2013 (c) Level Up Games

In the Level Up! team, game masters (GMs) are the most visible to the playing public. In the early days of RO, GMs would appear randomly to interact and hold spontaneous mini games for modest prizes.

More than acting as moderators and administrative guards, a GM’s number one role is to commune with the Ragnarok community.

For Ching Merano-Santos — or as she is more popularly known in Midgard, GM Phage — socializing with the different men and women who play RO on a daily basis was a matter of fun.

“Honestly, I have too many memories to mention. Every day of my working life was amazing! I loved doing events for pRO; I also loved socializing with the community who felt the same level of love I had towards the game,” Merano-Santos said. She worked with the Level Up! team from 2003 to 2006, handling not only the different servers in the Philippines but also RO Vietnam as well.

“But I guess my most memorable experience was listening to Kamikazee’s demo of Chiksilog for the first time. My heart was jumping with joy while listening to how perfect they captured my concept. That’s when I truly felt that I (and every action I made) was a part of something phenomenal.”

For Mon Macutay however, the RO experience has greatly shaped not only his social life, but his professional career as well. Macutay’s in-game persona was that of GM Tristan, one of the game’s most recognized GMs. Macutay served as GM and Marketing Director for Level Up! for almost 10 years.

“My first job was actually to manage the entire Community GM team and I chose “Tristan III”, the King in the game, as my avatar,” Macutay recalled. “Managing the community was fun. We got to do events and contests for the players. We didn’t have a manual or any written document on how things were done during that time and we did a lot of trial-and-error, eventually becoming into processes that are in place in Level Up to this day.”

“I owe Ragnarok a lot!,” Macutay continued. “I got to travel to many places, meet new friends, got to be a GM to a million players and make people find fun and fulfillment in a game that pioneered the online gaming industry in our country. It was more than a game, it was a way of life.”

“Ragnarok greatly influenced my life. My career, first and foremost, and all the blessings I received I got from the game and Level Up. I am also grateful for the many relationships I was blessed with over the years because of Ragnarok — I met a lot of friends and professional relationships over the years. They have given me a lot of insight both as a professional and as a person.”

“So even if pRO closes, its legacy and memories will live on in me — and in the millions of Filipino lives it touched, forever,” he added.

Although RO will end its long and storied run in the country, there is hope for players to continue their journey. As part of their announcement, Level Up will be facilitating the migration of player accounts from RO Philippines to the International Ragnarok Online servers.

Still, its closure as a Philippine server marks the end of an era; Ragnarok Online’s legacy is one of awakening. The games, the competitions, the communities and the controversies that the game has brought belie a shift in the mindset of gamers in the country.

Ultimately, Ragnarok’s legacy for the Philippines is that it opened the eyes of Filipino gamers to opportunities beyond just playing for fun. With guild events running in-game twice a week, internet cafe tournaments and mall tours, RO indeed opened the doors to the possibility of the professional eSports gamer.

But more importantly, Ragnarok showed a generation of players that games can be more than fun. They can be a way of life, a source of fulfillment and personal growth, and a professional endeavor. RoK on!

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