For the last 20 years, one game has dominated the MMORPG market like no other: World of Warcraft. But for MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus, an even older MMORPG was groundbreaking: Ragnarok Online. To this day, he raves about it and is particularly in love with the class system, which is unparalleled.
I have tried a lot of things. Wildstar will forever be a lost love, The Secret World gave me the best quest experiences, as long as it actually worked, and I have been continuously loyal to World of Warcraft since just before The Burning Crusade.
Even before I started with WoW back then, I was already a subscriber to Ragnarok Online. The isometric MMORPG visually resembles the certainly much better-known Tibia or even RuneScape.
In this week, you can expect exciting articles every day on the subject of MMORPGs. Included: a journey through the history of online role-playing games, as well as nostalgic retrospectives, streaming evenings, interviews, columns, and analyses.
Here is the program for the big MMORPG theme week 2025 by MeinMMO
Back then, I had to beg my parents to buy me another 3 months of playtime, and that was probably one of the reasons why I received little to no pocket money otherwise. But even in hindsight as an adult, it was worth it.
The Korean MMORPG is set in a world inspired by Norse mythology, which fascinates me to this day. However, what captivated me from the very first moment was the class system.
“Jobs” instead of classes with a real sense of progression
Unlike most MMORPGs, in Ragnarok Online you do not choose a class during character creation. Instead, you have points to invest in different attributes like intelligence, dexterity, and strength – just like in Dungeons & Dragons.
Everyone starts as a “Novice” and must first beat up (more or less) defenseless enemies to level up. There is a distinction between character level and job level: one increases your attributes, the other your skills.
From job level 10 as a novice, you can choose your first profession, and just that is already an adventure. Every profession is taught in a different city known for that profession. To this day, I can still recall every city by heart:
- Swordsmen are trained in Izlude
- Archers in Payon
- Merchants are trained in Alberta
- Thieves have their headquarters in Morocc
- the magical city of Geffen houses the Academy for Mages
- and those who want to join the church become Acolytes in Prontera.
The jobs are not only relevant for pure combat gameplay, as is often the case in MMORPGs. They are real “professions.” For instance, only Merchants can truly open shops to sell items to other players. Their advanced professions create potions or forge items.
Every job change is associated with a quest that is more or less easy to master. These entrance exams serve as a narrative to draw you into the world. Since Ragnarok Online has little storytelling through quests otherwise, each of these job quests was always a highlight for me.
Ragnarok Online has continuously improved the class system over the years
However, this is not the end. From a job level of at least 40, you can choose a “second job.” Each class has two paths from then on that it can pursue to specialize and fulfill certain classic MMORPG roles:
- Swordsmen become Knights or Crusaders.
- Archers become Hunters, males can also become Bards and females can become Dancers.
- Mages can ascend to Wizard or Sage.
- Merchants become Blacksmiths or Alchemists.
- As Thieves, you can become Assassin or Rogue.
- Acolytes either become Priests or combat Monks.
In later updates, the class system was further expanded. With the “Renewal” update, there was the option to play “reborn” characters: upon reaching the maximum level, you can reset to level 1, become a “Super Novice,” and embark on transcended job paths.
Furthermore, a third and even fourth tier of jobs were introduced, which ultimately represent the pinnacle of the class. However, these never made it to Europe.
Over the years, many more jobs were added, including so-called “Extended Classes” like Taekwon Boy/Girl, Ninja, or Gunslinger, each with its own career paths.
The constant grind fits with leveling
If you think that this all sounds like a lot of work… yes, it is. Immensely so. However, Ragnarok Online, typical for Korean MMOs, is heavily geared towards grind. There are hardly any quests and those that exist rarely grant significant rewards – at least used to. Mostly, they are access quests for dungeons and such.
Leveling occurs purely through grinding, meaning: you beat up enemies, and a lot of them, and constantly. What usually annoys me in games works for me in Ragnarok Online because each class has a different leveling area.
Depending on the pros and cons of the class, certain maps are better or worse suited for leveling. And leveling up occurs quite frequently in the first 30-40 hours, creating a sense that you are actually making progress.
Only towards the end does the grind stretch out, and that is when I often stopped and preferred to try something new. But that was always the fun of it for me: the path of a new job and experimenting with new builds.
Ragnarok has eventually sunk and never had a worthy successor
Unfortunately, Ragnarok Online has not held up in Europe at least. The EU servers were shut down in 2018, and the international servers do not function here due to a geo-block.
The game generally runs mostly on private servers, and the largest populations can be found in Brazil, Korea, and Taiwan. In Europe, it is difficult to reliably find a place to play. On Steam, the European version is blocked in Germany.
Ragnarok Online has had several successors, including Ragnarok 2, Ragnarok 3 and a few mobile spin-offs. None of these were really well received or could showcase the strengths of Ragnarok Online.
Other MMORPGs with a similar system have never existed, and if they did, they were either cheap copies, with cash grab mechanics, or with other problems. The combination of Norse fantasy world, progression, and unique class system has been lost with Ragnarok Online. But well, if the publisher doesn’t want me in Ragnarok, I will soon dive into the new Warhammer MMO: A new MMO set in Warhammer sounds almost too good to be true – This is what we know
