Blackout RO - it still exists

[Yuzo]

I believe I once reviewed this server, although, I bet there was nothing good to say, as there was a large bias due to having hatred towards the server. Here, I will give it another shot, hopefully this time being able to be partial.

First of all - yes! This server does still exist.

[My experience with this server]
Blackout RO has been running since 2006. I've had a few stints at this server. First, a small stint in 2007. Then, a longer one from the end of 2008 to 2012. Then another last year (2014). Recently logged in to see what was happening, and thought I'd give it a wee write up.

[Small history of the server]
The server flourished from 2006-2009, constantly peaking at 2000+ players during woe (at least 1000 I'd estimate were actual players). The community and general feel of the server was great.
Guilds left, as they do, and it experienced a lull in 2009. From here on out, the owner, and pretty much only Admin become a ghost. His appearances from then to now would be in the single figures.
Mid-2010 saw a resurgence, which lasted until 2012-2013. The competitiveness of WoE made the server extremely fun, while also bringing the toxicity which WoE does with it.


And now, to the review.
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[How is the server faring?]

Population: Like all servers, it has seen a dramatic decrease in popularity. During none-woe times, the players count (@who4) is only at 50-60. WoE sees this raise to about 100-200, I believe, depending on the day.

Community: Non existent. The evolution of the community has gone from intimate, to wide and friendly, to toxic, to slow, to finally - dead. The server consists of many vendors (80% of the pop.), afkers (another 10%), pvpers (5-10%) and bots (probably less than 1%). The forum gets the occasional post, but is more-or-less also dead.

Staff: Its a shame the numbers have declined so far, because, as far as I can see, the staff have never been more open-minded and prepared to try things. Decisions of staff members of this server had been questionable in the past. Not now.

Gameplay: The server is still, mechanically, fun to play. With the numbers, though, perhaps not.
Pvp is not great. The players you will find usually just sit there and socialise, as everyone knows everyone (no point having enemies). Also, they will probably just kick your donkey if you duel them.
WoE is fair just below moderately. It can be alright, but it all depends who shows up. These days it is usually a 15-20-man affair. Three guilds if you're lucky.

Economy: Is it there? Woe supplies are still in demand. Donation items don't seem to be in the hot demand as they were. This is probably because the people playing have everything they need, with not too much new traffic.

Cheating: Thought I'd add this one in. The benefits of cheating aren't too high on this server, but in my stint last year, it really put me off. This is how everyone goes about woe now - nodelay on a potion pitcher - meaning you can heal like no tomorrow.


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[The Verdict]

Without referring to any numbers previously in the review, I will give this server a 6/10. There is still a lot of quality about the server, it just loses points in the fact there is nothing to do. If you like a server with a WoE not one-dimensional, its a good place to start. If you want a server with lots of people, a great atmosphere, perhaps not your cup of tea.

Playable, can be fun, but unlikely to have you committing.

[Where to from here for Blackout?]

Who knows. One day we may see a boost in RO. A lot of old games see nostalgia-ridden people wanting to play them. You never really know with this server, though. There are so many old players that it is technically possible for a comeback. The only thing stopping them is its just the same old thing. It becomes repetitive and stale.

The other complication is that of the server owner. His whereabouts are not exactly well-documented, and if the server is not faring financially, without warning, we could see the server disappear.

There is not much else the server can do. The only way forward is to keep chugging along, and hope one day, things start to happen.

I really enjoyed this server back in the day, and I hope you may too, some time in the future.

Spoiler

Ignoring the ugly customisations, this is what the server once looked like, just before woe. Was one of the most fun things to be involved in. I'd say there were at least 6 guilds of 50+, many 30-40 guilds and a ton of 20 guilds. This screenshot was taken after the server's peak.

Spoiler

[close]

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[Yuzo]

just wanted to bump so people can read it, as it got bumped down almost immediately

[Yuzuki]

 

I used to main WoE in this server during the prime times. Sad to see that it's turned out this way because I really liked it. The customs were my favourite~

Hope it gets better!

[lowratetester]

I also use to play here between 07-09 07-08 were the best years then everyone started getting everything and items that were hard to get like clip[2] and other items that were (gm) items back then became pretty easily obtainable the economy started to go down hill it was easy to get anything u wanted the admin went from being on ventrillo every day to maybe once every few months gms became dodgy and corrupt and didn't care about the players events became a chore for the gms and to the point where they were very uncommon all this seemed to happen when they had there wipe and downtime it was never the same after that they implemented more restrictions for players made some cards and items completely useless then they put in 3rd jobs then I left

[Yuzo]

I never experienced the corrupt gms, but I did see a few stupid ones, like Anxiety who would throw out bans left, right and center. The server was wiped mid-2008 due to a bug which allowed players to duplicate items.


I remember the two slotted accessories were next to impossible to obtain and only a few people in the server had them. You had to collect 40/50 event only tokens. At the time the tokens cost 5b. The problem was these events were sporadic, maybe once a month if you were lucky. Usually just poring events with tons of porings summoned on one map with the tokens dropped around. Now imagine the lols as the server freezes for a few minutes.


Lots of people banned incl. leaders of big guilds. With a bit of foresight of what would happen to the server, situations could have been handled better.
Also a lot of people not banned who had strong evidence toward them. Perhaps a buddy in a good place.

[Yuzuki]

Ouch, reading all that was kinda painful lol coz I left while times were still good...

[jaxstones]

I played back in 2006 during it's early months until the first wipe.. Then the second wipe. Then I was all like "f*** it then" and up and left only making random appearances from time to time. Logged on just a couple hours ago and was saddened with what I saw. It was barely alive- more like in a coma. All the usual hangouts were empty nothing was going on at all. It sucks but all good things have to end some time.

[Shiodox]

This server used to have the most intense PvP / WoE. Battlegrounds eventually became a thing also. I heard blackout is planning to re-inflate their server. Although none of the downloads work on the site. and it has some very basic things that are not fixed, so the re-inflation may be a rumor.

[Yuzo]

I actually started playing this server again about a month after I posted this review. Early in May, they changed the host of the server, improving ping for Asian players, their primary player-base. The server has no developers and the owner continues to ignore the staff team crying out for help. The control panel is broken and download links don't work (you have to go to the forum and dig up mirror links).


The staff team is one of the pluses here at the moment too bad none of them have dev experience.


If they can fix these problems (which are quite big issues) I would highly recommend this server. for now I'd probably sit on it.

[semangka]

Finally there is a review for bRO  btw, i still play this server since 2008 up until now..

The servers is migrate to asian, at Japan (Tokyo). No more lags for asian player. They change the host because the main player here are asian. but, because of that, some fuction of control panel,download client link, and irc still not fix, they said, they still migrate some stuff to the new one.

The average population here non-woe around 50-60 depends on time, and when woe/battleground time around 100-130 player on.

Some old player and old guilds are back to bRO again, maybe because the server migrate to asian. when woe time, there are about 4-5 big guild with intense gvg out there, and because the monthly event (GOTM), the woe so much fun now. and the battleground (FLAVIUS) active too.

I just hope, this server get many player again.

[SharpLeaf]

blackoutRO is so good because its still online yeah!  i remember playing it when I was a kid