End of an Era, by [GM]Wolf.

Well it’s official the game I was a Games Master of one years tenure is now closing. oRO or Oceanic Ragnarok Online was opened back in September of 2004 and it was at the time a game I very much enjoyed. I put a fair amount of effort into becoming invaluable to the Games Masters who already worked for the company, yes I was sucking up but it was a dream job for me. After a friend of mine got a job as a GM he also helped me get a job there. We were the only server with two female GM’s and while still in beta the players absolutely adored us.

Things began to change once it went pay to play. Stopping bots was no longer a huge focus as we had lost about half our playerbase with the change from free to play beta to pay to play service. Then 6 of the 11 GM’s were no longer part of the team. Egg left for health reasons, Mimi let go for abuse of powers, Bee for lacking knowledge of the game (Bee was my favourite GM and the one I communicated with most frequently before I was made GM myself). Aki, Kyo and Horizon were let go at the same time as Bee and Mimi because they couldn’t afford to keep paying so many GM’s. Moving Tempest from the website team they made him Head GM and Glorious, Shugo and I (Wolf) worked under him. Jin had been moved to marketing and although Tempest was Head GM most things still went through Jin.

Then the problems started, some of my closests friends on the server with the help of some of the former GM’s started a slander campaign against Shugo and I. It was the worst two months of my life and left me being very disillusioned working for OGN. While still enjoying helping players for the most part there was also the constant queries about my personal life and would I confirm this rumour or that. To the players we were like gods, I don’t say this lightly as that was how I felt about the GM’s before I joined their ranks. It became a tiresome burden at times and only those whom I still considered friend on the server gave me any sort of solace while at work.

Struggling to pay bills with my pay and what little my ex brought in, life became tough. From time to time pay wouldn’t be processed on time, from the time the 5 were let go we knew the server would die, it was just a matter of when and how. October 2005 being a GM for just under a year I was given two weeks notice, made redundant along with Glorious because they could no longer afford to pay our wages. I’d like to think I gave a rousing good blow out event, giving a close friend of mine the opportunity to choose the monsters for the summons within certain limits. He only made one mistake with the list and I’m pretty sure I picked up the resulting items from the monsters before they were released into the population. Massacre in Prontera City continued for about 2-3 hours before I farewelled my last day as a GM.

I didn’t interact with the community much after this, only randomly checking up on things and usually at the behest of a player who had made my trusted list. It was one of those players who today informed me that the server had it’s closure announced. To me it is the end of an era a chapter in my life which I both loved and loathed. I learnt so much from it and that I would not change the world for.

To all the good times, may they remain forever in our memories. To all the bad times, may they pass with no more bitterness.
Farewell oRO.