What was your jam: Runescape, Ragnarok Online, Maple Story, (Other)

I played RO (EU) during beta and started playing it during launch year. I sticked with the game for about 5 years. I don´t know how it was on iro but euRO was not f2p and had a normal subscription fee.

I love RO because it is designed in a way, that you shouldn´t be playing alone. Spending time with someone in ro means that you have a true chance of bonding with someone, because it was very commonplace that people would form leveling duos.
I wouldn´t be suprised if the romance factor in RO was much higher than in most other MMORPG´s.

I love the gamedesign of RO. Having the ability to skill a character in any direction is very cool and opens up possibilities of strange and funny builds. I had three high priests just because i wanted a different build for different tasks. Enemies and leveling spots were not tied to your level. You can survive on a map? well than you can level there. It made rising a secondary character much more fun, because it was a whole different experience than crawling your way up the first time around.

The loot system was great for the economy of the game (it was screwed with later updates). Even early low level enemies had rare and valuable drops. Will you go for rare drops and medium exp or high exp and bad drops...you had real agency over your time in the game.

Maple story was my first dip of my toe in the water

Gunbound, then thousands of sad hours of Maplestory after they ran the former into the ground. Though despite the arguably weak gameplay loop, I still feel MS has strong world building, art/audio direction that is still unique and sad to see wasted on a dead F2P game.

MapleStory. Private Servers only though.

Echo said:

MapleStory. Private Servers only though.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I started going to private servers for a bit once I quit vanilla. It wasn't for very long, but what I loved about it was how much easier the system was to hack. I was finally able to see my classes end states and abilities with my own two eyes. (Something I'd never manage normally. Lol)

The ones I frequented dropped like flies though as Nexon shut them down.

Runescape for SURE. I'm actually moderately excited that Runescape Classic is coming out for mobile soon

I actually started playing old school Runescape again, and it's really good. I genuinely believe it's a great game.

Runescape was pure crack for me back when I was a fresh teenager. Game had me hooked for like 5 years! I still love the music from that game, some of the best times of my life when I was still innocent for the most part haha.

2007 was a good year.

Ultimadrago said:

I started going to private servers for a bit once I quit vanilla. It wasn't for very long, but what I loved about it was how much easier the system was to hack. I was finally able to see my classes end states and abilities with my own two eyes. (Something I'd never manage normally. Lol)

The ones I frequented dropped like flies though as Nexon shut them down.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Yeah pretty much lol.

The nice thing though was smaller communities, which sounds paradoxical like "how could that be fun?" But it was more like everyone knew each other and admins would hang out in broad daylight spawning events for whoever was around. Plus it was nice to have near unlimited cash shop customization with no strings attached.

I was a kid then, wasn't makin' bank to satiate my lust for cosmetics haha.

i'm brazilian so unfortunately my (thankfully very short) MMO age was spent mostly on tibia
i think i played lineage II for a while too

RedAhmed said:

None of those. But a friend and I used to play a F2P MMO that was pretty unknown (at least I think it is). This was about 12 years ago, luckily I didn't play for a long while. We played together, because it was fun with the 2 of us. And interacting with others has resulted in hilarious times, which I cherish.
But the game itself is pretty weird.. I liked it, but disliked it at the same time. Can't really explain it without diving into the game again.

Quick Google search and I found some images of the game:

Poltergeists are obviously monsters from the game, there were several classes you could choose from at the beginning, like a taoist, monk and archer. I remember I chose the archer, because that class has the ability to fly. (they have wings! They remind me of Kid Icarus)

This is how a usual starting character looks like.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Damn, someone else who played Conquer Online. I played a ton of it. I remember all the rumours around what Conquer 2.0 was supposed to be but it never materialized while I still played haha.

I was also super into Gunbound and Maple Story. Damn those were the days

Everquest. Wasn't a F2P MMO, but it was still pre WOW.

That game absolutely blew my mind at the time. I couldn't believe how big it was.

Some friends and I were hooked on Gunbound in high school. I had a summer almost dedicated to nothing but skateboarding and playing that damn game. Lovely times.

ragnarok online. played some on a private server called Infinity before it became the official rtagnarok Eu and then went on other private servers. i loved the game but couldn't put up with the grind, so i choosed smaller servers with low-medium rates

Started with Runescape then mainly played MapleStory for a few years after it came out. I permanently dropped it though when my account got hacked and I lost all my good equipment. Runescape I go back to every now and then, usually for like a few month period whenever I'm in the mood.

If this theme doesn't immediately come to your head when you see that RO screenshot in the OP, you haven't played it enough.

MapleStory was tons of fun back in the day. Spent hundreds of hours mindlessly grinding and listening to music. Probably the game I spent the most time on in the middle/high school years.

Ragnarok, when I was 14 became totally adicted.


Couldnt Go out on the weekends because it was WOE time.
Would wake up at 4 AM to Chase a MVP that spaw every 8 hours.

Thats why it's hard for me to think games like fortnite are adictive.


At least I learned English thanks to that game.

Tibia and Ragnarok Online

Ragnorok fucking Online
All I remember is the rare orc raids on the town where EVERYONE was, the asia themed area with the sand bag monsters and the fucking Xmas area with the xmas porings.
Good times

"I never liked Maple Story 1" - Parfait says as they play Maple story 2 ovsessively

My first MMO was Asheron's Call, the game that seems to be forgotten. I love that game still and even today I long for a mmo with an enormous, unzoned landscape. Hilariously Black Desert Online is the closest, but Pay to win...

After that it's probably Ragnarok Online. Good lord all the private servers I was probably playing for *years*... then WoW happened.

I also played some korean MMOs as they came out, then got bored of them or moved on. Though one still sticks in my mind, Talesweaver. No one remembers you, Talesweaver, but I do, and I especially loved it's music. Heck to this day I still listen to Ragnarok Online and Talesweaver music.

Ragnarok is my favorite MMO next to City of Heroes. It was real good with communities and seeing the same people just hanging on and doing their thing, it was one of the game you could boot up and just hang and chat in town. Also had one of the best sound tracks. Spent a lot of time in Private servers.

I also played A LOT of Gunbound before it's downfall when it became infested with timed items you could buy and hackers.

I tried Maple Story several times, but I don't think I ever got over level 30. But I have to say, now that I learned that there's a MS2, I'm kinda tempted to try it again. If it only were 2d again...

Tzarscream said:

Habbo Hotel

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Oh, this was the shit when I was a kid. In retrospect it was utter shit, instead of the.

Ragnarok Online was pretty great. I had a bunch of internet friends playing it at the time. I got sick of the grind eventually, and gave it up.

I managed to snag a few figurines from their E3 booth when it was at its height, and gave them to friends.

Played all three but Ragnarok was my jam. Played that for a loooong time on various servers including official. When I was young and it was P2P I just played the free trial over and over.

I was into the indie MMO scene based around Mirage Source and its derivatives. Also various Korean MMOs that didn't achieve the same level of popularity; Trickster, Rose, Dofus, FlyFF, etc. I remember being really hyped for Nostale which had this sort of Ragnarok-in-3D vibe.

That was my sort of 'golden era' for MMOs. Fell off the train because I absolutely hate WoW mechanics and its derivatives. Jumped back on for Tree of Savior (created the OT and many news threads up to release back on GAF) but technical issues kind of killed that for me. Still go back and play Ragnarok every couple of years. Honestly don't think there will be another MMO appeals to me until I make it for myself.

Sp1 said:

Gunbound, then thousands of sad hours of Maplestory after they ran the former into the ground. Though despite the arguably weak gameplay loop, I still feel MS has strong world building, art/audio direction that is still unique and sad to see wasted on a dead F2P game.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Totally, it'd be interesting to see another dev's take on the IP doing a single player RPG or something. Doubt it'd ever actually happen though.

Gunbound and Ragnarok Online were my life back then. Such great times.

Graal and Gunbound. I made a lot of heads and shields for Graal that were fairly popular too and people still use them today surprisingly.

Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds for me. I played in 1999/2000, then found it like three years ago and started playing again, lol. It's REALLY antiquated now and the company that runs it is atrocious (they run Dark Ages too). But I still love it.

Find me as Cuthulu if you wanna hang :)

Runescape defined my elementary and high school days. The GOAT.

Gunbound. I remember installing it on any computer I got my hands on as a kid. Loved the various characters and the costumes/skins you could get.

I think its still up too. Might need to download it!

Didn't play any of them, but my friends were big into RuneScape fifth grade and then MapleStory in middle school (I think a couple of them played GunBound at some point too, I remember thinking it looked cool but I had no idea it was F2P). I played RuneScape for like an hour or so and realized that it was probably pretty grindy + I couldn't get into anything that was on PC back in those days so I didn't play it. MapleStory I never even tried.

Sideswipe said:

This startled me for a minute because that's the same name I used in RO for years and I was also a high wizard, who later switched to a scholar main.

Played that game for so long and nothing in video games since has matched the drama and excitement of War of Emperium. WAVE vs. whatever the other alliance was called were legendary fights.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

RO Forever, wasted nearly 8 years of my life into that game.

The WoE's was true hate againts guild alliance. WAVE vs Geffen Alliance. Each team holded a huge eco castle for year + and had the complet economy of the server. Ghost ring cards, Golden thief bug card, god items. Shit was insane.

The only guild name is remember from WAVE is Wild Blade

The other team was the Geffen Alliance:

Deuno Convena, Deity and 2 other guild


I remember because I was the main Minstrel of Deity, guild leader was Vince Jadefrost. Who recently IRL, legally changed his name to that. lol

Gaia Online (looool) met so many people through their MMO zOMG and from mini games. I also met my wife on there. Stopped logging on years ago, but that was my jam.

Ragnarok Online was the only MMO I've ever played. I was still in school when a couple of classmates introduced me to the game. It didn't last long but it was fun! The game was pretty addictive, I spent many nights and even some mornings before school on RO. My character was a mage and I abused the wall of fire so much lol. And I remember that sense of adventure when you went to a area for the first time or tried to tackle that big enemy together with your party.
Nowadays I wouldn't touch games like that with a 10 foot pole as they are huge time wasters that require a lot of dedication (and are probably infested with MTX) but looking back, I don't regret it. In fact, it reminds me of good friends, personal memories and a very untroubled part of my life.

Ragnarok Online on a 10x server. Can't believe how much time i burned there but the War for the emperiums were incredible.

I played RO for over a decade until they implemented region blocking against european users on iRO. By now the game is pretty much dead and maintained like utter shit. A shame.

Thankfully FFXIV was there for me.

I wonder if anyone here ever played Argentum Online



IIRC it was basically argentinian Tibia. Maybe with a little UO mixed in?

RYL was my main f2p jam. I played every Korean MMO I could, I do miss those days.

Dragon Nest was the last KMMO I really got into... then the sequel was a mobile game.

Runescape for me, but I was too cheap to pay for it and the fun wore off as a result.

I used to try and scam people in Maplestory by promising "Duplication Tricks". I only did it twice.

Dabbled with RO for a bit, but that was it. I only ever really got into subscription MMOs.

Gonna give MapleStory 2 a shot, though.

Before WoW? Ultimate Online, Everquest, Asheron's Call. I was never too enamored of Everquest but enjoyed UO and AC quite a bit.

Before that Meridian 59 and Dark Sun Online, both more out of curiosity vs any sort of time commitment.

Yushi said:

RO Forever, wasted nearly 8 years of my life into that game.

The WoE's was true hate againts guild alliance. WAVE vs Geffen Alliance. Each team holded a huge eco castle for year + and had the complet economy of the server. Ghost ring cards, Golden thief bug card, god items. Shit was insane.

The only guild name is remember from WAVE is Wild Blade

The other team was the Geffen Alliance:

Deuno Convena, Deity and 2 other guild


I remember because I was the main Minstrel of Deity, guild leader was Vince Jadefrost. Who recently IRL, legally changed his name to that. lol

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Oh right, it was called Geffen. I was in Wild-Blades myself from 2003 until all the shit went down with a member being found out to be a GM happened. WAVE was Wild-Blades, Apotheosis/Aoi no Kaze/Aureus, Valour and something else, eventually it just didn't line up any more but still went by WAVE anyways. The drama from that game never seemed to get out to the public because the game was so small, but I feel like only EVE has it beat with all the stories I heard over the years.

The two alliances hated each other so much, with almost daily hunting parties in the open-PVP leveling zones to people spamming thousands of items that spawn monsters in "safe areas" so people would die and lose exp. If you were in one of the major alliances, you had to have your neck on a swivel in that game at all times.

That's hilarious about Vince though. I spoke with a lot of guild leaders over the years but only once with him, seemed odd but alright from what I remember.

Ragnarok Online.

I even downloaded the game 3 days ago and play on a private, pre-trans classes server. Immediatly got 3 Discord friend invitations and 2 communities and I am hooked. You dont simply stop playing RO.

It is incredible how many good (and bad) design decisions RO had, and how no modern studio was able to capture or recreate the feeling.

Ultima Online!

I played a lot of Gunbound. All my friends were into it too. I didn't mess around much with proper MMOs, but I did play Silkroad Online for a little while. The queues were always really bad on my server though, and I didn't want to start over elsewhere so I quit.

Name quote.

Sword of the New World (also known as Granado Espada). I loved how you had to control three characters at once.

And DotA 1 mostly.