By Alexander Villafania
MANILA CITY, METRO MANILA—Almost nine years since it first broke into the Philippine online gaming scene, Ragnarok Online is getting a new patch called Port Malaya, which will be based on Philippine folklore.
The Korean massively online role-playing game is published in the Philippines by Level Up! Online, which is licensed by Playweb Games, Inc. It is the oldest online game in existence in the Philippines.
The new patch will be the 25th such update since Ragnarok Online was introduced globally in 2002 by Korean developer Gravity.
It will feature maps of digitized versions of historical places in the Philippines such as a bombed out building from Corregidor, the Old Manila seaport, and Luneta, which will have an in-game version of the jeepney.
There will also be enemies from Philippine mythology, like the imp-like Tiyanak, a monstrous Buwaya (crocodile), an anthropomorphic Tikbalang, the dragon-like Bakonawa, bat-likeWak-Wak, among others. The developers have also followed the “jejemon” craze by converting some of the enemies called Poring into Jejelings.
New items will also be released as either in-game dropped item or purchasable in Ragnarok’s item mall. The game itself just finished beta test in the Philippines and will be launched on May 9.
The idea to build a patch based on the Philippines was due to the strong following of the game in the Philippines, said Ragnarok Online Brand Manager Roy Inciong.
He said the Philippines remains to be a very important market for Ragnarok Online.
Inciong added that the patch would also be made available to global players in their respective countries, with necessary localization to follow. Among the first recipients of the new patch would be Brazil where Level Up! is also present.
For its part, Level Up! are targeting old players of Ragnarok Online, many of whom have either moved on to play more serious online games or have stopped playing games altogether, said marketing director Ramon Macutay.
“The Philippine patch should convince them to come back,” Macutay said.
Ragnarok Online’s registered users in the Philippines is about 10 million with around 300,000 monthly active unique players. “It goes to show that Ragnarok Online will still have a good following of players in the Philippines,” Macutay added.
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