Anyone familiar with the MMO scene at the beginning of this 21st century must surely remember names such as EverQuest, Asheron's Call and Dark Age of Camelot. In the rush to capitalize on our newfound ability to play games in real-time with one another, software developers from all around the world created games for a then-niche market that would come to evolve, expand and explode exponentially in the next few years.
In Asia, a small band of companies began making budget titles using conservative graphic builds and simple interfaces to promote popularity through ease-of-play. One of the most popular of those titles at that time was the fledgling Ragnarok Online. Developed by Gravity Corps. as a sort of persistent adaptation of Myung-Jinn Lee's hugely-popular Ragnarok manwha (Korean manga). The engine used super-deformed sprites moving through an invisible, square-based grid system (which is favorable for the ability to easily place two-dimensional objects within the grid using a script editor, such as NPCs, guideposts and other attractions) laid out over a fully three-dimensional gameworld.
Ragnarok has been played internationally since the inception of the International Alpha in the fall of 2001. After this period, large modifications were made that would be precursors to changes made in the "final" build of the software, leading to the release of what was known as "Beta 1". Beta 1 saw the greatest increase in player activity up to that point, as the entire program was free to play, and offered a fair amount of depth in comparison to most budget MMOs, with a flexible engine that prompted players to explore and learn the maxims of this Norse mythology-based world.
After Beta 1 had successfully undergone it's limited testing phase, Gravity began to implement even more features for what would later be known as the ill-fated "Beta 2". Beta 2 would increase the number of classes with the addition of advanced classes for all known classes, with one additional class on the way for those starter classes in the coming months, giving all 5 starter classes at least 2 advanced class options.
Unfortunately, less than two weeks after Beta 2 was officially released, Gravity Corps filed for Chapter 11, and the servers were shut down indefinitely. The CEO of the company had apparently funneled over $6,000,000.00 USD to his private accounts between 2002 and 2004, which not only caused Gravity's projects to all grind to a screeching halt, but raised serious questions as to which new parent company, if any, would opt to both pick them up and allow them to continue work on their current projects.
At some point between early 2003 to late 2004 (which is unfortunately not documented anywhere on the net), Gravity was acquired by a new software group and tossed into a milieu of other developers owned by that group. Since Ragnarok Online had proven to be both popular and lucrative in Asia, it was given new funding and a re-launch of the program in all markets occurred in late 2004.
Still played widely throughout Asia, Ragnarok Online purports to have over 25 million active accounts worldwide (which is highly plausible in consideration of how old the game is and that it is available in over 15 languages), higher than World Of Warcraft's reported 19 million active accounts. The gameworld has continued to expand, and despite the launch of a sequel, Ragnarok Online II, in the winter of 2007, Gravity has big plans in store for the future of the original game.
Look out for my next post, which will begin our four-part-foray into Ragnarok Online private servers!
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