A Perfect Example of False Advertising

http://ragnarok.levelupgames.ph/thor/index.html

Now this is a very good example of false advertising.

Last September 21, 2006 Thor opened. The above images was the promise of Level Up! Games to the players. They promised a bot free environment where players can feel the real essence of the game. At first it was a success, thousands of players flocked to the new server, leaving their previous characters in the bot infested servers behind, other oldies who quitted the game came back to try it out. Obviously, lots of profits for Level Up!.

Let me quote this article.

Meanwhile, other plans for Thor are already in the works. Sheila Paul also assures all pRO players that this is only the beginning; “Thor and Ragdefender are just some of the numerous plans that Level Up! has for Ragnarok. This affirms our official statement on ‘responsible gaming’ and we aim to support the playing community by basically heeding their requests. We’ve heard the community’s clamor for a third-party-free game and Thor is the start of better things to come. We’ll be closely monitoring Thor and if all is well, there is a good possibility of configuring the other commercial servers similarly.”

But Level Up! only fooled its players. Within days, there are rumors of bots roaming Thor server. And within weeks, the rumors were proven to be true. The bot developers said that Thor is not actually using Ragdefender, rather, it was using an old program that has already been cracked. The real Ragdefender is still out there. Protecting Japan RO from third party programs. Level Up! tricked its players. After one year, Thor's original population is less than half of what it once was.

And so on December 21st, nPro and RagDefender were implimented in jRo. nProtect was a relatively harmless piece of anti-hacking software, the same as they use on kRo. The real workhouse was RagDefender. RagDefender was a fabulous piece of work. RagDefencer (henceforth RODef) scanned the RO folder for any dll hooks, It seriously encrypted the login process, and monitored ro from memory modifications.

The community made an effort to remove bots from the server, they reported bots, they sacrificed their game time just to maintain game balance. By the way, Thor is a pay to play service.

Game time denominations:

500php for two months
350php for one month
100php for one week
50php for 8 hours
20php for 2 hours
10php for 1 hour

You can just imagine what drove the players of that server to sacrifice their own money, some of which came from their school allowances. They just wanted a bot-free server where there is real community and essence of the game. But Level Up! Games did next to nothing to help them, instead, they milked more money out of the hopeful players by promising again and again that they will find a solution to the problem. None came true.

One promise was the stationing of a GM at Prontera where players can report a bot, so that the GM team can catch it immediately. That GM was Wintertsuki, after a few months, or even just weeks, he was no longer seen where he should be. Bots became rampant at the "bot-free" server.

The second promise was that Level Up! is working with a third party to come up with an anti-bot program.

Valkyrie Bot

While the original anti-bot was successful in eliminating a lot of third party program users, there are still a significant number of violators. We’ve actually already applied the third-party software solution but it also didn’t work. Our supplier for that is already working on a fix while Gravity promised to deliver an in-game anti-bot system sometime early January. As soon as I get details on the new in-game anti-bot system, I’ll let everyone here know. Again, please note that these dates and information are TENTATIVE. I am not the developer so I have no control on what will happen in Korea.

Are you kidding me? the date today is already October 22, 2008. Now where is that anti-bot program you just promised? It has been two years since September 21, 2006, the date you have opened Thor server. One year since you made the quoted statement, and still nothing.

One thing that they always reason out is that they depend on the developer, Gravity Corp. to be able to make changes in-game. They say they need it's approval, they say that they cannot do anything without Gravity's help. Level Up! says that Gravity is very strict when it comes to modifying the game. If that is true, then how was Japan Ragnarok Online which is handled by GungHo able to come up with its own anti-bot program, the Ragdefender? Obviously that is just one of their many lies.

Another promise is about the Midgard Police. When all else failed, they used this to garner support and hope for their sinking game. Basically a Midgard Police is just a player that will hunt down the bots. MPs have limited powers, they have no banning powers. They can only teleport and summon players. For a botter to get banned, the GM will have to review the case, and then if the evidence gathered by the MP is enough to convict the character, that is the only time the character will be banned. But where is the GM?

One member of the MP team quit because his reports are not getting any action from the GMs, and that MP is Lyranix. Other MPs stopped hunting down bots because of the same reason. Also, the MP ranks is not replenished. Another empty promise from Level Up! Games.

And on November 30, 2007, Thor's name was changed to Valhalla. Players can't help but wonder, is it to relieve the evil company of its promise to the people of Thor of a bot free server? With the changing of name of the server, is the responsibility of creating a haven for anti-bot players gone?

As of now, the renamed server of Thor has become a bot heaven. There never really was a Ragdefender to keep the bots out in the first place.