What can the euRO players expect from the 4th birthday of euRO? How has euRO developed in the past and what's going to happen in the future - René and Simone answer all the questions from the Ragnarok no Seishi team for you.

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Hello Simone, hello René. Thank you for taking the time for this interview. Before heading to the questions, could you please say something about yourselves and your work at burda:ic.

René: Hello, I started working for Burda:ic early this year and I resume the tasks from Andreas "Nathan" Blobelt who unfortunately left the company. As Project Coordinator, I am attending to our MMORPGs Ragnarok Online and Florensia.

Simone: At Burda:ic, I am responsible for marketing for MMOGs, that's for Ragnarok Online and Florensia. Part of my tasks are things like working on the website and establishing contacts in the whole world of MMO gaming.

Onwards to the first question: In April, it's already the 4th birthday of euRO. This is a good moment to review the previous development. What has been established in the past and what do you see in the future?

Simone: All in all, we managed to form a vivid and especially an enthusiastically playing community out of 800.000 registered users. The game has greatly expanded in the course of the years since the beginnings with the Comodo update and the possibilities for users are nowerdays really multifaceted in comparison to that time.

With the intermixture of ingame events by Gravity, community events by our GMs or the event team and the community events all around the game (e. g. events for the guilds) we offered the players many possibilities in the past to show what they were capable of - and we really were positively surprised by the results.

Regarding the future of the community, we still see the importance and relevance of guilds as fundamental component of gaming and with these events all around RO, we furthermore want to offer the chance to achieve something together.

As we work close to the community and are thus able to estimate the tendencies of tempers, we hope that all upcoming updates and events we planned for the players will further on contribute to our RO players' dedication, ambition and creativity.

We are highly greatly looking forward to meeting the players at our booth at this year's Games Convention and to talk about their personal ideas for RO with them. The exchange of ideas with the community is still a very important criterion for us. Moreover, we naturally want to offer new contents to the players.

In the past, players could always expect special events for this special occasion. What can we expect from you this year?

René: This year, the birthday will be a very extraordinary experience. First of all, we have the wonderful headgear called Tiraya Bonnet which has been created by lexy at the headgear contest. Furthermore, there will as well be a 1.5x EXP event in a certain space of time. But that's not everything yet: recently, four new hairstyles have been implemented on kRO. We tried our best to get them and we did it. We are looking forward to offering them at our 4th birthday. They won't be cash items like on kRO, though.

Simone: Besides, the Tiraya Bonnet offers additional 1.5x EXP, so it's the perfect occasion to increase the leveling speed.

Quite some time has passed already since the last interview and the tension has rarely been higher than right now. After all, with the Second Edition of the War of Emperium and the PvP League which we at Ragnarok no Seishi are developing a web system for, two interesting features have arrived. Could you tell us more about them?

René: Yes, quite some time has passed. WoE:SE and the PvP League are two features we are especially proud of. First of all, we could offer WoE:SE quite early to the players and the reactions are thoroughly positive.

There is the need for improvements, but we already initiated a discussion about that in the guild leaders' forum which will be extended including the whole community in the future.

Regarding the PvP League, we are especially glad about the co-operation with Ragnarok no Seishi. You really helped us with the development and what I've seen from the web interface until now was really promising.

The players will surely have a lot of fun with the league mode and carry out many exciting fights. Maybe the winners will even be allowed to compete against our allstars Game Masters team. ;)

Many players are especially looking forward to the league system, since for the first time it will be possible to hold organized fights, supported by a rating system on a specially designed platform. Currently, the system is in the so-called training mode. What's next?

René: Afterwards, the actual League System will follow which will be the preliminary qualification mode for our Ragnarok Championship Tournament this year. The League itself will steadily be extended. Thus, many different modes are thinkable. But first of all, we want to see how the community reacts. We are really happy to have RnS as a partner that has accompanied Ragnarok from the beginning on.

Besides the translation system, the PvP League is already the second huge innovation that has been created on euRO. Can we hope for more exclusive contents in the future other RO versions don't offer?

René: We are always trying to do different things. Things close to the community. I don't think this will be the last innovation. Tthe future will show what's coming next.

With Episode 11.3 "Nameless Island", a hopefully exciting update offering content besides the PvP area will arrive in the near future. What can we expect from this update?

Simone: Well, as the name says, this update will be kind of mysterious. There will be a new town and a dungeon named Cursed Abbey with loads of new monsters awaiting the players. Furthermore, there is an enemy that resembles our King Tristram III in a frightening way... The MVP Beelzebub should be quite a challenge either with his 6,666,666 HP.

René: We will as well implement a few new weapons and armor. Furthermore, the greatly expected Mercenary system will be available ingame.

Simone: Some monsters' drops will as well be changed. And the Cards update will be continued, but there won't be as many cards added to the game as with Episode 11.2.



René: Episode 11.3 is expected to be launched in May. Furthermore, this update heralds the end of Episode 11. Then, the most eagerly anticipated Episode 12 with Satan Morroc will follow. In addition to that, some more surprises are planned to be launched in the year 2008.

Meanwhile, the addition of Headgear Bundles via cash shop has been decided. Will those items only be available as bundles or will there be the possibility to purchase single items? Not every player wants to have every headgear and occupy valuable Kafra storage space with them.

Simone: The items will only be available in bundles containing 3 headgears each. After the purchase, they directly reach the player's mailbox via ingame mail, whereas each headgear is delivered in a separate mail. That's why the player can even keep them in there, since the mails won't be deleted at all. Moreover, the headgears can't be traded, except via the Kafra storage - just like the euRO Silver Tiara.

It has been announced ages ago already, but nothing has happened yet: the update of the official website. Is there any hope left in this endless story?

Simone: We are indeed working on the website. It will take a little longer, but a new forum and a new design for the website are currently in progress. We will purge the page contentwise and naturally update it as well, so that our visitors can find informative content there. Just a little more patience is required.

What else is left to be said?

René: Well, many players have asked for Value Added Services for quite some time now, just like they are offered on other servers. We started working on the realization of some of them as well now and we hope that we're able to offer them in 2008.

Many players think we have already given up on RO. But we can insure them that's not the case. Ragnarok Online has been our first game and we all really love it, that's why we still spend a lot of time and energy for it.

Burda:ic has expanded its portfolio within the last months. The most interesting project surely is Florensia which has already experienced one closed beta phase. What can we expect from this MMOG?

Simone: With Florensia, we set ourselves the target to make a high quality MMOG available for free for players from all over the world outside Asia. We would like to expand our spectrum of products and provide the possibility for the players to bring Florensia forward together with us. With the experiences we collected in four years Ragnarok Online, we furthermore would like to offer players an environment where they can have fun within the community and play together.

As the graphics in Florensia really are very detailed, sophisticated and diversified and as the game offers new possibilities such as fighting at the open sea, we think the game has new challenges in store for both RO players and other MMO gamers.

It is a very good complement to Ragnarok Online and shows the players some new aspects of MMO gaming. In the near future, there will be a huge update on the Japanese servers with further playable job classes. For us, it is a lot of fun to test all these new things together with the players and to see which effect they have on the game and the players.

René: For us as company, Florensia is a very important step since we are leaving the European-only market with it and switch to operating almost world-wide. For us - and surely as well for the players - this is a very exciting process.

Florensia can be played for free without any monthly fees that are normal at other MMOGs. Instead, there is a cash shop where players can purchase several contents. What can you tell us about that?

René: The cash shop will offer a huge variety of items that ease the life ingame but don't offer a decisive advantage. There will be no item for 100 € that diminishes the leveling. We are really trying to design a fair environment and here we can profit from our experiences with alaplaya.

It is already possible to join a guild. Is a guild vs guild system planned in the future?

René: Yes, this possibility will be offered. Furthermore, a siege warfare mode is planned.

Which classes are you going to play privately?

René: I'm not sure yet. I grew a certain passion for Explorer and Saint. Thus, I think in the end I will play one of these two classes.

Simone: Humm, I'm waiting for the Pirate... I'm sure you know why. ;)

Oh yeah... ;)

Simone: Until then, I'll be playing a Mercenary.

We wish you all the best for the CB and we hope no huge problems will occur and that all players will be able to enter the world of Florensia soon.

Thank you very much for the interview.