Tuesday Ranting Sessions

I got bored today, so I decided to make a column for Tuesdays, entitled "Tuesday Ranting Sessions". It's a weekly column wherein I rant about Ragnarok Online, and the current system it has. I'll try to add some pics along with the posts as well.

Since this is my first post regarding this topic, I'd like to discuss some issues with the players of pRO today. How do they behave nowadays? As I do recall, you can seldom see legitimate players now. What I mean about legitimate, are players who don't use bots, doesn't cheat to become stronger, and are fair by all means. Think about it, why are there hack cases nowadays? Why are they so rampant? Even scam issues are everywhere.

If one would like to gain profit fairly, he/she would hunt for items, sell them for cash, repeat the process and stop when he/she is satisfied. That's the way it should be. It's the factor that decides the economy of one server. Bots are the ones to destroy this balance. A player would just leave his/her account on the AI's care, and when he/she opens it again, poof! Instant zeny, items and experience, and he/she didn't have to break a sweat.

That's what I hate about most people in pRO. They say "bots are already legal because Level Up! doesn't give a damn about them". Some of them say that they always want their characters to be at top efficiency when they go online, because they had other things in life besides RO to worry about. I want to prove them wrong in this case.

1. You chose to play the game. You must spend your energies on it if you want your characters at maximum efficiency. It's your consequence for doing so.

2. I don't think Level Up! doesn't give a damn about bots. It's just hard to stop those ignorant fools. Think about it, everytime Gravity releases a fix, the players persistently find a way to counter it. I remember one post at ragnaboards before. He said that "Gravity engineers fixes the game, but only on their work hours. On the other hand, players can work 24/7 just to crack the fix."

3. Before, when there is still the pay-2-play system (well, with the exception of New Chaos today), one would bot with some accounts, because you have to pay for the game time. I said to myself that that thing is still tolerable, since the population is still controlled, and less lag occured.

Now, when the free-2-play system was introduced, a player with a stable internet connection at home would just have to create a bunch of accounts (usually 10 or more), and bot non-stop to "harvest" loots. Since it's free, those accounts' job is to give the player zeny every week. This particular situation doesn't only destroy the server's economy, since the zeny is abundant, but also generates enough lag to make someone with a slow connection disconnect from the game.

There are still people out there who fights fairly, and fights against these botters. However, only the admin (Level Up!) can help us with this. And if they can't help us, it only means they are on the side of the bots. Please prove me wrong with this case.

Next, the scammers and hackers.

Some of the botters are still tolerable. But for those who can't bot (or is just plain too greedy), one would resort to "steal" from other players. There are at least a thousand tricks to scam a player in-game, whether to impersonate someone (posers), use false advertisements (in vending and pub chats), or scam a player out of services provided by the scammer (blind/boost/leeching service). Even resorting to use "scam websites" is another issue here.

Why are they so persistent? If they want equipment and zeny so bad, they have to earn it fairly! Why some of the players are just too plain greedy? I hate it when someone gets scammed and hacked, because I know the one who got scammed worked hard for his/her gear and zeny. And with a blink of an eye, the scammer gets away unscathed.

I'm on two sides here. First, with the victims. I feel sorry for them because they worked hard for their items, spent big on them, and spent countless hours just to get them. Although I can't give any alms for them (because that's just plain wrong), my advice to them is take extra good care of their accounts. Never trust anyone unless you know them personally in real life. If you would trust someone, however, assess the person first. We don't know who is "the wolf in sheep's clothing" among the flock, so be really extra careful. Oh, and asking question doesn't hurt either. Just don't be misled by other people, however.

Second, with the admin (Level Up!). Before, they can give you compensation if you got hacked or scammed provided that you give proof to your claim. Now, they won't entertain hack/scam cases anymore, simply because players failed to follow their guidelines. In my opinion, I don't even care about their policy, but I do care about one of their reasons about it. One can simply role-play a scam/hack event, report it with forged evidence, and Level Up! will play as the suckers to those players. I can't blame them, it's to prevent cheating, I guess.

They're trying to teach us to report these things to the proper authorities. Since real money is already involved in pRO, LU said that we should report these cases to CIDG. I don't know if they're reliable or not, though. Some players are just too ignorant, blaming LU for everything. It's just hard to please someone, and if you try to give your best, they aren't satisfied at all. They only care about the balance, and yet, some players aren't satisfied and want more.

Now, the "pleasing" issue.

LU releases new items almost every week, and puts their items on sale, also every week. Some players are not just content about it, but also rants that those items are expensive, or rather, having wrong descriptions. Well, if you really want it, spend big on it. If I were to be asked, in iRO, these items are much more expensive, since you're paying in US Dollars. Be thankful that these items are much cheaper in pRO. You'll just have to suffer the consequences for playing in a F2P server.

Another of this issue is that whenever the community managers (GMs) gives an event, players are never satisfied. They always want something in return, items for instance. Summoning events are nothing to them, and are just a waste of time (although some players still acknowledge this fact). Why just can't the players get satisfied? The GMs are just trying their best to provide us with the best experience anyway...

Well, I'm not saying that all players are like this. But judging from the ones I see in RO everyday, most of the players are. They are not the ones who are in control of the game. They are only there to experience it.

My final words regarding these cases: play fairly, be content, and be happy what you have. Greediness has a price.