Now that Ragnarok Server Merge is finally done, there were many comments, feedback (and of course, criticism, whining and flaming) both on the boards and in Waukeen’s blog.

Much of it had do to with the actual mechanics and technicalities of the merge. The “name change” aspect has to be the most controversial since there were many same names both for individuals and guilds. Much of all the male whining has to do somewhat with who was the “original” owner of the name.

Methinks that the pRO team, together with the help of our Korean Gravity support staff, did a fine job of announcing the mechanics and entertaining community inquiries on it. But this post is not about the technical nuances of the merge but rather, an insight/look into the deeper factors for the future of Ragnarok.

First on the list has to be politics. Throughout the process of the merge, large and powerful guilds have joined forces with their server counterparts. I have heard of alliances in Chaos and Loki, for instance, and in other servers as well. Much of the meetings and dialogues has something to do with RPC 2007, of course… and I am happy that the top guilds, their leadership and individual players are already planning for it. The Agit scoring phase will officially start on Thursday, May 24; I am told. This should be an exciting thing to watch. Already, the numbers for Ragnarok are increasing. This is partly due to the merge and also to RPC 2007 – the country’s biggest and baddest MMORPG tournament still. Although the pRO team are now running the details for RPC, yours truly is still tournament director for the entire LIVE 2007 series of tournaments. Wish me the best of luck in managing it.

Yep, you can call RPC a war. In a war, politics is key to either losing or winning. Good alliances (and deals) have to be forged. And I really think that the merge has “upped the ante” in a sense and has put another huge “metagame” into the table.

The second reason is to bring back the fun. Right after the merge, the streets of Prontera were full again and I saw some people with chat windows saying “Looking for Loki GF, I’m from Chaos” or recruiting their server-mates into their own guilds. When was Prontera this busy (and fun)?

These are just some of the many facets of the merge. I will be monitoring the alliances and the “wars” soon enough and hopefully update this story with more insights.

What about you? What are your thoughts about the merge? Am curious to know

Thanks!