Welcome to Rune-Midgard

Before July 2003, MMO (Massively-Multiplayer Online) games were virtually unheard of here in the Philippines. But then Ragnarok Online came along. I first heard of this game during the first week of college when people were introducing themselves. I was liek "wow, an online rpg with a local server??"

But I immediately shrugged the idea of playing it as I know that our pc at home was so crappy back then that it would not be able to process even a game with this level of graphics. I think our RAM was 128 mb and our video card was a lowly 64 mb XD

Nevertheless, the game freak in me wanted to dive into the world of Midgard. I remember getting the installation cd from a magazine store. I made an account and installed it,  selected the only available server, which was called Chaos, named after the main protagonist of the manwah "Ragnarok Online: Into The Abyss" which the game was based on. But alas after the character creation screen I was stuck. So the next choice was to try playing it in internet cafes.

Back then there were few internet cafes as they were mostly only for surfing and LAN games. But I managed to find one that has Ragnarok Online installed. Even if the rate was expenive, I had to try. I wanted to see what all the fuss that I keep on hearing in school is all about.

I don't remember how that novice character looked like more so what his name was, but I remember the excitement as I moved around that small island where all novices start off. Moments later I found myself inside a building with several other characters moving around and talking to the different npcs, sometimes seeing angels appear above their head, a sign that they received experience points from talking to the npcs and leveled up.

So I did what the others were doing and found myself reading the tutorials thoroughly XD. After the tutorials I entered a field where there were these round jelly-like monsters, the infamous poring XD. I equipped the items given to me and clicked it. At first I was like "Battles in MMOs are kinda meh." But I quickly got used to it and found myself clicking and clicking, gaining EXP as I go.

Who wouldn't love the cute Poring? XD

After I gained enough levels to move on I had to talk to different npcs that gave information about the job classes available, the swordsman, acolyte, thief, magician, archer and merchant. I didn't know what to choose so I talked to the npc that evaluates what I would be best suited for based on the answers I gave to its questions.

I was surprised when it said that I best become an acolyte, a job class that specializes on healing and strengthening other characters, nothing like me in real life LOL. But meh, so be it. After reading the final lines of the npc I was sent from the training grounds into the town where I would take the job change quest.

Welcome to Rune-Midgard indeed!