The Philippines has enjoyed years of successful online gaming. Although the online industry is relatively young in the country as cheap internet access in the Philippines has not been widely popularized until the 2000s, hundreds of onlines games have already come and go, and there are some who stood firm all these years.
Perhaps the most successful massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) in the Philippines is Ragnarok Online. Shortened as pRO, Ragnarok started around 2002-2003, when I was still an elementary student. According to my uncle who've been greatly addicted to the game, they were the first players to test it when it was still in beta, and free.
Now LevelUpGames, the company who franchised and localized the sensational game to the Philippines, requires gaming cards before you can play it. They have free servers though, but it's not as good as those already established servers. Up to this date pRo is still running.
I once played it, but what really hooked me up is another levelupgames game, Flyff. The game is another franchise from the original game in another country, but the game took the heart of Filipino gamers on its very first day.
It started a few years after Ragnarok did in the country. Back then only few people play the game since it is in full 3D and most computer shops at the time have underqualified settings. Now, almost all shops have it. Flyff is also considered the moneymaker for LevelUp since the game requires a lot of premium items to be played properly, including scrolls for safe upgrading and fashion items.
Although the game has changed in almost every way from its first inception, I doubt that I'll leave the game, unless the franchise contract ends. That would be a disaster! God knows how much I spent for this game!
