A story about server development and entertainment

[Styx]

RO does exist now for a long time and at the time it appeared, a lot of players were already 40-50 years old, maybe even older. When Pservers came up some offered many attractive features not seen anywhere else. I did play over 200 different servers for sure and yes being an successful adult, eventually money involved didn’t bother me much. Though it always was about having fun primary, I would play above average in general though I never won anything serious also. This story is about a rare server I did play on once. On this server it was possible to challenge the owner to play a game of chess for something special to achieve. Obvious he, or she, was a good chess player because almost no one dared to challenge him, or her. Then I am a pretty lousy chess player on a direct board game. However, I was also a very experienced correspondence player at the same time. Around 1988 I reached even a third place in the Dutch Correspondence Championship. It is not that remarkable because the really strong players would avoid this tournament. Nevertheless this all means that if any chess player, even IM or GM would have a bad position on the board with me, you could be in big trouble.
Now I took the challenge and things were not going all too well for me, obvious he, or she, was the stronger board player but then he, or she,  made somewhere a wrong decision and I never let him, or her, go after that. Even Murphy law came in sight, make one mistake and the other one comes shortly after. For sure he, or she, was a better player on the board then I ever was or could be but in this game he, or she, was lost. Now for entertainment purpose, what was absolutely important for me, this person was not using a computer against me to beat me. No, the moves were original and very human, he, or she, did want to beat me without that. Great spirit! After all, it’s just a game and we only can admire each other for what we did each move and frankly he, or she, deserved to win it. After the loss, no complain, much sports, I got my reward. It was a one of a kind experience for me, I knew instead it was impossible to repeat it ever again. It was very rare and I was there and shared that moment with this server owner, one of the best RO moments I ever did have.

[distilled1]

Hey Styx,
Cool story involving a very unique server experience.
It leaves me wondering what you won though. Did you win a MVP card, a god item, or something else RO-related?
Also how did the two of you conduct this chess game? Was that server modified to include interactive chess matches in game, or was it done outside of RO?

There ought to be more MMORPGs where skill-based competitions or tournaments are held in game, allowing anyone in game to spectate and cheer on their peers, where the winner is declared throughout the server and is then rewarded an appropriate in-game prize.

I know War of Emperium was always a thing, but I never cared to participate in that. I would have liked to be able to spectate and cheer my favorite guild or team though.
Was there ever a one-on-one PvP tournament in RO where each player has to go up against one other person, and the winner moves up a rank? Might take too long in a MMORPG, but one-on-one is so much more interesting for me to watch rather than group competitions.

[yC]

I can't believe I read that wall of text, I mean ... it would be much appreciated if you could give some blank lines to help the other eyes that are going to read it.

Given you said "a lot of players were already 40-50 years old", this story should be pretty recent? But I'd say 30~40 is more in range to my knowledge as of this year~

[OldPoring]

I decided to write an answer when I saw this

RO does exist now for a long time and at the time it appeared, a lot of players were already 40-50 years old, maybe even older.

Hmm, there may have been some 40+ year-old players in 2004 (and now in 2022 they are 60+ years old), but still there was an absolute minority of such.
I joined RO from the very beginning in 2004-2005 and I was about 25 years old then. It was interesting to me because I was playing offline PC games at the time and it coincided with the launch of broadband Internet in my country. It was an experience unlike anything else.
But still, most of the players in 2004 were schoolchildren 9-16 years old.
Accordingly, now the main audience of nostalgic RO players is ~30-35 years old.
I wonder what percentage of today's schoolchildren are on servers RO? I think it tends to zero.
So, we can roughly guess when the FINAL death of RO will take place. Obviously, another maximum of 10-15 years and the end.

[yC]

So, we can roughly guess when the FINAL death of RO will take place. Obviously, another maximum of 10-15 years and the end.

Who know, maybe another wave of nostalgic will be when these people get into their retirement age and decided they finally have time to play game all day everyday again.  So that would be 25~30 years from now.

[Styx]

Well, I can't remember what prize I did get exactly but it was original RO related. It wasn't anything gamebreaking as an MVP card . The chess game was inside RO, you could enter it the same way as with many side-games.
It didn't happen recently, around 8-10 years have passed by now I guess. It impressed me right away and later I realized that it was very rare indeed so I decided to write it down and maybe some other player would remember it, though it was a small server.

Regarding age, in 2002 I was 45 years old already. I wasn't the only one though, there were several other players around my age and even older. A minor group though, I guess most of them returned back to enjoy games again after they managed their real life matters stable and could afford more time on it.
It's not that strange, though I believe those players are in general able to keep better connection with younger generations as with their own generation.
On my last birthday party all present were much younger of age then I am but I feel better in their presence and no, I never had any relation with one them more as just being friends.
You will learn yourself, you like to play games now? You will still wil like them when you get older, why not? Your grandchildren will like it.