Is Ragnarok dead?

XicoR4 · May 02, 2011, 06:58 AM

Quote from: Impulse on Apr 27, 2011, 10:42 PM
Does anyone have any idea how jRO and kRO are doing? I've always wondered what they are like population wise. I know when I played iRO a few years back, kRO was huge.

I know for a fact that jRO is the most populated RO server around, managed to find this rather reliable population chart, but it only goes as far as January of 2010, still you can get the idea: http://forums.irowiki.org/showpost.php?p=657301&postcount=10 (~40k people total average)

As far as kRO goes I only found this old data: http://forums.irowiki.org/showpost.php?p=550417&postcount=244, which is from 2009 if I'm not mistaken. The data should be accurate enough. From personal experience, the test server Sakray has had between 100~300 people every time I've logged on it for the past 2 years. (~6k people total average)

Since renewal hit in full force (past the initial testing stage where everyone wants to try new stuff out, thus getting a small boost) population has declined a bit, but I don't have exact numbers.

Quote from: uncelebrated on May 01, 2011, 01:40 PM
Private servers exist only for their owners to make money. Every p.server starts off friendly and community oriented, but eventually the owner/admin gets greedy and starts caring only about the players who donate real money. That's why servers die.

Most servers nowadays die because they can't even get the initial population needed to maintain a server running (people don't like joining servers with <25 pop, and owners see no point in hosting the server just for that small pop). Unfortunally, the unbalanced donations everybody complains about on RMS is the only thing nowadays that lures that base population (most people want their char to "own" without putting that much effort learning the game/farming gear). That's not the only reason, but I won't go deeper.

Would just like to add that the problem is not just servers either, the mature RO community (ironic choice of words lol) has set expectations nowadays and won't settle for a server that doesn't have "x", since other servers have (or had).

Impulse · May 02, 2011, 02:30 PM

Interesting. I always thought kRO was the most populated server. Seems like it has definitely hit a large population decline.

Chemical Crush · May 02, 2011, 03:32 PM

Quote from: uncelebrated on May 01, 2011, 01:40 PM
Private servers exist only for their owners to make money. Every p.server starts off friendly and community oriented, but eventually the owner/admin gets greedy and starts caring only about the players who donate real money. That's why servers die.

True. But kinda not true. I am sure there is at least ONE server owner who made their server because they love RO and not for the money. AT LEAST ONE. Lol. But you're probably right.

I would love to find a decent Low Rate where things aren't just a clone of iRO. But not like low rates with wings that give +30 stats, I don't get that.

Anyways, RO....isn't DEAD but I agree that there seems to be a lack of interest in pservers, even officials. Probably all migrated to Rift/WoW/LoL?

Judgement · May 02, 2011, 09:25 PM

@Xico

Wait, so that's 40k of real players in 1 server or what? o_o

XicoR4 · May 02, 2011, 10:03 PM

Quote from: Judgement on May 02, 2011, 09:25 PM
@Xico

Wait, so that's 40k of real players in 1 server or what? o_o

Nah, I don't think it'd even be possible to have 40k people on one map server xD (The top official WoW servers have around 30~35k people for comparison purposes)
According to this http://irowiki.org/wiki/Servers jRO has 25 servers, but that is probably outdated too, though I'd still expect around 20 active servers.

Judgement · May 02, 2011, 10:13 PM

Ah, yeah was going crazy. Hmm, the numbers are still high with an average of maybe 2k per server then.

aleksia · May 03, 2011, 02:49 AM

Ragnarok online will never die! im 100 percent sure of that!

Ganondorf · May 07, 2011, 06:18 PM

I found that in the time frame of 2006-2008 were the most busy years for all rates. Mid-late 2009 had a huge burst of veterans who came back solely to see/try out 3rd jobs and renewal. I think that once the hype was over and the vast majority of people realized that Gravity was too lazy to bother finishing/fixing the big mess they made of 3rd jobs, those veterans amongst many others became disappointed with the direction that the game was going in and lost hope. This is what caused the biggest blow to the population in the past year and a half in my opinion. Let's be honest... has Gravity even finished the 3-2 jobs yet? The last time that I looked at the Sorcerer/Shadow Chaser threads there was very little to no progress and the 3-1s that were broken in late 2009 are still just as OP. Or in other cases, still have skills that don't even work.

Of course, there are other issues that are warding RO players away from the game as well, such as influence from other newer games that have made headlines in recent years, and most servers barely lasting a few months past their launch. After this process happens so many times, people get sick and tired after a while. They will eventually search elsewhere to satisfy their entertainment.

CrimsonRed · May 07, 2011, 10:12 PM

not dead, dying.

uncelebrated · May 08, 2011, 09:59 PM

Quote from: Chemical Crush on May 02, 2011, 03:32 PM
Quote from: uncelebrated on May 01, 2011, 01:40 PM
Private servers exist only for their owners to make money. Every p.server starts off friendly and community oriented, but eventually the owner/admin gets greedy and starts caring only about the players who donate real money. That's why servers die.

True. But kinda not true. I am sure there is at least ONE server owner who made their server because they love RO and not for the money. AT LEAST ONE. Lol. But you're probably right.

I would love to find a decent Low Rate where things aren't just a clone of iRO. But not like low rates with wings that give +30 stats, I don't get that.

Anyways, RO....isn't DEAD but I agree that there seems to be a lack of interest in pservers, even officials. Probably all migrated to Rift/WoW/LoL?

I'd like to think so too, but I've yet to find an owner like that. LoL seems to be where a large part of the RO population has gone.

mahawirasd · May 08, 2011, 11:15 PM

@uncelebrated:
a little 5/5/3 server where i play is definitely owned by an RO-loving person who is not in it for the money

;
played there for about 3 years now and i haven't donated a cent, yet i still think i did pretty good for myself...

plus the donations aren't hax or anything, just random chance boxes and the likes, nothing you can't get in abundance in game anyway...

-w-

Nyub · May 08, 2011, 11:30 PM

RO itself is obviously alive; it's just not as popular due to uprising new MMOs. As long as players are playing their own respective ROs. There's a huge ton of other MMORPGs and even your PS3s or XBox even PC got MMOs now. RO's business is RO's business and other games is their own problem. Stop whining, the world changes and games progress both in good and bad ways. Like a Michael Bay film.

uncelebrated · May 08, 2011, 11:46 PM

Quote from: mahawirasd on May 08, 2011, 11:15 PM
@uncelebrated:
a little 5/5/3 server where i play is definitely owned by an RO-loving person who is not in it for the money ;
played there for about 3 years now and i haven't donated a cent, yet i still think i did pretty good for myself...

plus the donations aren't hax or anything, just random chance boxes and the likes, nothing you can't get in abundance in game anyway...

-w-

What server is this?

Nish · May 09, 2011, 08:50 AM

I don't think it's dead but the private server scene has died off over the last 2 years.

I remember I could find a decent server to play on before no worries but now it just seems the quality is lacking out there.

As others have said it will never die and it's still a classic game but I don't think renewal has helped it much at all. Too many servers are trying
to upgrade to renewel and honestly it just makes the server messy.

RO was good when it was fault proof we all knew what we were doing with our builds etc but learning the game all over again is just a pain for some
especially me being lazy lol.

I haven't touched RO in over a year now but I do miss it but I doubt there is a server out there for me anymore i've played so many servers and know
what I wan't and I haven't seen a server come close to what I wan't now.. I know i'm just picky.

Oh and there are a heap of new games out there

Myteriouss · May 09, 2011, 11:54 PM

Quote from: Gene on Apr 27, 2011, 01:59 AM
I started thinking that RO is dead after renewal and 3rds. My friends also told me to wait for mRO v2 to go back up or they won't play. Now I feel stupid refreshing the random server page looking for no renewal no thirds servers.

What mRO? There's Moonlight and then there's Moon. Sadly enough, there has to be two of us =/

As for what yC said, it is up to yourself to decide whether or not RO has died or, it is alive.