Thor ascends to Valhalla – Philippine Ragnarok Online

Indeed! The time has come for Thor to be closed, and re-opened as Valhalla. Thor was launched a year ago, having the anti-bot feature and also having a decent number of players. But, as time went Thor’s population decreased and now all of them are forced to migrate to a new server called Valhalla. Now what is the big reason behind this? Thor reached a point wherein the operating expenses is really high compared to the numbers it brings in. Sir Waukeen also stated that a lot of their managers wanted to shut down Thor and create a new server from scratch. Though the RO Team did their best to convince them to maintain Thor and just reduce operating costs, it just wasn’t feasible. Another reason is that pRO wants to attract more customers, including those who already stopped playing pRO.

After reading some topics regarding the migration of Thor to Valhalla, I have created a list of the PROS and CONS of the said topic.

The PROS:

• Free-to-play.
• More customers because of the F2P.
• A PRO for the Thorians since they already have items and transcendent jobs.
• Population of Thor will increase (The more the merrier).
• A PRO for LU! since their income will definitely increase.
• A chance for the Thorians to help newbies.
• Some items will be bought easily from the item mall.

The CONS:

• Bugs will be exploited since this will be a new server.
• The economy will become imbalanced.
• Some people might not want to play since it will be hard to cope with other high level Thor players.
• If ever the no tele skill, no fly wing, no bwings, and the 5% exp loss due to death, safe upgrade chance will be adapted from Valkyrie, then it will make the game more complicated since almost all of the Thorians are used to playing with the normal server settings.
• More bot infestations
• There will be no compensation for those who spend their money to load up for the game time.
• Some items will be bought easily from the item mall, but it will be unfair for those who get their items through the game itself.
• Most Thorians don’t like the idea.

The judgment, since there are more CONS than the PROS, I believe that Valhalla server will defintely go through several challenges. In my honest opinion, LU! forgot to get the opinions of the people of Thor. Hindi naman siguro sila nagkulang sa customer relations? Although they have a good reason for doing this, the problem of operating expenses of Thor. Pero sana napag-aralan nila maiigi yung cause ng decrease ng population ng Thor, para naman maiwasan na nila ito sa future. Kasi ang server merge is way too different sa server migration which is magiging Free-to-play ang isang dating Commercial server. Having a free-to-play server that has cash based item mall in it is good. But introducing a cash based item mall in a commercial server will make their customer think that they are greedy. Yes we do have Valkyrie now, pero ganito nalang sana ginawa nila sa Thor nung umpisa palang. Pero kudos parin to the RO team for saving the Thor community from being wiped out. I believe that the Thorian community will still be solid, because they once belong to a great community called THOR!

Ok enough of being a critic; let’s just hope that the gates of Valhalla are now ready for the citizens of Thor and to those new players who seek adventures in Rune Midgard.

Trivia! Trivia!

Tivia # 1.

Valhalla is Odin’s hall in Norse mythology, located in Gladsheim and is the home for those slain gloriously in battle (known as Einherjar) that are welcomed by Bragi and escorted to Valhalla by the valkyries.

The main gate of Valhalla is called Valgrind, which is described in Grímnismál as a “sacred gate”, behind which are the “holy doors” and “there are few who can tell the manner by which it is locked”.

The hall itself has 540 doors, so wide that 800 warriors could walk through side-by-side. It is said that there is room enough for all those chosen. Here, every day, the slain warriors who will assist Odin in Ragnarök, the gods’ final conflict with the giants, arm themselves for battle and ride forth by the thousands to engage in combat on the plains of Asgard. Those who die in the fighting will be brought back to life. At night, they return to Valhalla to feast on the boar Sæhrímnir and drink intoxicating drink. Those who do not get to Valhalla go to the home of the dead (Hel), a place beneath the underworld (Niflheim), or one of various other places. Those who are lost at sea, for example, are taken to Ægir’s hall at the bottom of the sea. In addition to the valkyries and the Einherjar, a rooster named Gullinkambi lives there.

Trivia # 2.

Valhalla is a Danish comic book series. Originally commissioned for and published by Interpresse, it has been published by Carlsen Comics since 1987. Wherein the heroes of this comic book are Thor, Odin and Loki.

Level Up’s official announcement for Valhalla Server

“… with that, the thunder god, Thor, laid the powerful Mjollnir to rest and rose back up to Valhalla”Thorians! The god of thunder, Thor, has begun his ascent back to Valhalla… and he has chosen you to join him in this journey to greatness. Leave this world of mortals and embrace a new land of opportunity and power!

We are pleased to inform everyone that we will be launching VALHALLA, the latest transformation of Thor and Ragnarok’s newest FREE-TO-PLAY SERVER, on NOVEMBER 30, 2007! Valhalla will be a server with the same settings as Valkyrie except that the PK feature will no longer be enabled. We will be announcing unique features to Valhalla in the coming days so stay tuned for further announcements about Philippine Ragnarok Online’s latest server.

As stated earlier, there will be a Thor Migration into Valhalla! On November 28, 2007, the Thor Server will be closed. All of your characters will be migrated into the new Valhalla server which will open on November 30, 2007. Characters moved this way will KEEP their current levels and any items their character/s is carrying in their inventory. Please note that characters can only bring items that they are carrying into Valhalla. Any items stored in Kafra Storages and Merchant Carts will NOT be transferred.

Please also note that all accounts that have at least one (1) Level 70 Character in Thor and has logged in at least once in Thor ever since October 28, 2007 will have all their remaining game time converted into Rok Points that they can use to buy items from any server.

We advise all Thorians to start making the necessary preparations for the journey to Valhalla.

On November 30, we enter the Immortal Hall of Warriors!

Rok On!

pRO Team