By Alexander Villafania, loQal.ph
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – RAN Online, one of the earliest online games in the Philippines, is celebrating its fifth year in 2011.
Despite being “old” and already being compared to newer games in the Philippines, RAN Online is considered an icon in the local gaming industry and continues to have a strong following.
It was the game that launched IP E-Games, the software entertainment publisher of the Intellectual Property Ventures Group (IPVG), in 2006.
At that time, only one other online game company was present in the Philippines; Level Up! was already enjoying a lead in the industry with Ragnarok Online, which is the first massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) in the country.
RAN, developed by Korean firm Min Communications, was unique in a sense that it was the first in the country to have full three dimensional animation and camera control, unlike Ragnarok that used sprites or two dimensional, hand drawn images.
During that period, most desktop computers at home and in Internet cafes were able to handle only a few PC 3D games. Despite 3D animation, RAN's system requirements were particularly low, requiring only a PC with 1 gigahertz processor, 256 memory and a 32 megabyte video card (most video games today - including Flash games on Facebook -require two to three times as much power to properly run).
But what made it popular was that it was the first one to offer free-to-play gaming, unlike Ragnarok which can only be played for a number of hours depending on the amount of “prepaid” load that was used by the player.
Instead, players can purchase special in-game items on RAN's item shop by buying game cards that had predetermined amounts. This also forced E-Games' rival game publisher to look into the free-to-play model.
What also made Ragnarok Online popular are the scheduled in-game activities that E-Games conducted, including castle sieges in the afternoons where players can attack castles for extra life and mana, as well as experience points.
In the next four years, following the sudden surge of popularity for online gaming, E-Games added the number of servers from 2 to 6 in an effort to accommodate more players.
E-Games, and even Level Up! were both seeing new competitors in the online gaming scene and new games were being launched left to right. Still, RAN was still at the top of the game and remained toe-to-toe with Ragnarok as new updates were being released.
Five years later, during the fifth Domination game exhibit organized by E-Games, a major update for RAN Online was launched. Adding to the existing five character classes (Swordsman, Brawler, Archer, Shaman, and Extreme) is the Gunner, which ostensibly uses a variety of guns such as snipers and pistols for their attacks.
Heidi Mendita-Garayblas, e-Games vice president for MMORPG Group said RAN Online remains to be E-Games' most renowned product. Despite the departure of many players to other games, she said RAN would survive the times, especially with the addition of the Gunner class.
“This adds to the challenge for old players because there are certain qualities in the Gunner class that may prove to be useful for players or dangerous to enemies,” Garayblas said.
As part of the launch of the Gunner class, Garayblas said they are holding the “RAN D' Reunion,” an event aimed at enticing old fans of the game to play again. She said that during this event, they will be giving out special in-game items.
“With the arrival of a new character class, players can expect more from RAN Online,” she said.
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