MMORPG company suddenly sues private servers after years – some close directly as a precaution

Ragnarok Online is an MMORPG that appeared in the West in 2002. However, the official servers closed with us a few years ago. Since then, many players have resorted to private servers. But this is exactly what the developer Gravity is now taking action against.

What is Gravity doing right now? The Korean company announced almost two weeks ago that it would take action against private Ragnarok servers. In a statement it says:

In cooperation with official and private bodies, we investigate private servers and take action in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. An illegal private game server is defined as a game server that uses copyrighted works and intellectual property without a license or proper agreement with the legally recognized owner. This harms the future development of the official game as private servers deprive rights holders of revenue.

According to Gravity, seven lawsuits are currently pending in North America alone and several more around the world.

What are the implications? The first private servers for Ragnarok Online have already closed. Some others are still ongoing, although some are already in litigation.

The developer of Ragnarok Online is also said to be taking action against Twitch streamers who show Ragnarok’s private servers. Some streamers are complaining about copyright strikes, which are said to have led to deletions of recordings and even temporary bans (via reddit). There is talk of 48-hour bans in several comments.

There are currently many indications that fans of the brand will only be able to play on official servers in the future – which many do not like.

Private servers rely on nostalgia and a different monetization

Which servers are currently under threat? Of the Website MassivelyOP there is a letter in which Gravity is suing the server NovaRO. This is based in California. Despite the lawsuit, there are currently (as of May 6 at 4:30 p.m.) over 2,600 players online at the same time (via NovaRO).

Another server, TalonRO, has already closed completely as a precaution (via reddit).

Other operators are said to have started to become less conspicuous by hiding their online presence or changing their names.

Why are there private servers for Ragnarok at all? There are several reasons for this:

• In May 2018, the official servers for Ragnarok Online in the west were closed. Data protection is said to have been a problem at the time. Many players then migrated to a private server.
• There have been official servers via 4Game since 2021, which offer a modern version of the game with Ragnarok Online Prime. But many players do not want to play the current version, but the old one they loved when they were young. However, these Classic servers are not offered by Gravity at all.
• Some players also avoid the official servers because they are said to be infested with hackers and bots. It should be much more pleasant on many private servers.

Why exactly Gravity is now taking action against private servers is not entirely clear. After all, some of these servers have been around for years. However, Gravity is currently releasing many new Ragnarok games that could be threatened by the private servers.

However, many of the new games are just not convincing:

New Ragnarok MMORPG launches on Steam, gets torn apart – what happened to the game of my youth?

How do you see the situation around the private servers? Do you currently play one yourself or have you left the MMORPG behind?