Author: Zen, PANew
Recently, the development team of (Ragnarok: Monster World) (ROMW) 0x& first launched the 'multi-chain architecture' server on CROSS Protocol, announcing that the game's progress and token system will be completely independent of Ronin, causing an immediate uproar in the community, criticizing it as a 'soft rug' move and worrying about player rights and ecological prospects.
Just two days after this announcement, Aleksander Larsen, co-founder and COO of Sky Mavis, publicly accused ROMW on X on April 26 of 'ignoring suggestions, secretly signing contracts with another chain, and severely violating the cooperation agreement,' announcing the termination of the professional partnership with 0x&. This series of events pushed the original deep cooperation into a trust crisis, while the Ronin ecosystem was slightly damaged, ROMW's future also became more concerning.
Rashomon: Ronin and ROMW each hold their ground.
'The game team ignored our suggestions and has thus lost the community's support. Worse, they secretly signed agreements with another blockchain, violating our agreement. Considering our long-term support for them, this is naturally surprising. Trust has broken down to such an extent that we decided to terminate our professional partnership with the development team of (Ragnarok: Monster World) 0x&.'
Recently, Aleksander Larsen, co-founder and COO of Ronin's parent company Sky Mavis, publicly condemned the ROMW development team for 'betraying' Ronin and announced the split. The honeymoon period of just one year has come to an end.
(Ragnarok Online) (Chinese translation: Xianjing Chuanshuo) is an MMORPG launched by South Korean developer Gravity in 2002. This classic online game attracted over 100 million players worldwide and generated over $2 billion in revenue. Using the classic IP of Xianjing Chuanshuo, 0x& launched the tower defense game (Ragnarok: Monster World) after obtaining Gravity's authorization and announced its debut on the Ronin blockchain in April 2024. According to the official press release at the time, 0x& not only established a partnership with Ronin but also received investment from Sky Mavis.
In response to accusations against Ronin's co-founder, ROMW denied having made any secret agreements, stating that it has fulfilled all contractual obligations and had transparent communications with Sky Mavis as early as February 2024, including a direct meeting with Aleksander Larsen. ROMW also stated that regardless of future challenges, it will continue to operate games on Ronin, further stating: 'We believe that decisions made without regard for the community's interests will ultimately harm Ronin's uniqueness.'
Both parties are sticking to their claims, and the community cannot discern who is telling the truth. However, in this 'Rashomon' incident, both Ronin and ROMW's actions and attitudes have left players and the community somewhat disappointed.
From love to hate: Sweetheart turns into a cow wife.
In fact, the day before Aleksander Larsen officially announced the split with ROMW, some community players had already noticed a clear rift between the two. In a post about the recently heavily promoted fishing game (Fishing Frenzy) within the Ronin ecosystem, Ronin co-founder Jihoz openly criticized ROMW, stating that the game is merely a 'clumsy knockoff of (Clash Royale).' Jihoz claimed that ROMW is going to make money on other platforms and directly criticized them, stating they are now focusing solely on (Ragnarok Landverse: Genesis).
(Ragnarok Landverse: Genesis) is also based on the Xianjing Chuanshuo IP, and the game design is closer to the classic original, essentially making it a Web3 version of (Ragnarok Online). Genesis is developed by meta-game ecosystem developer Zentry (formerly GuildFi) and went live on Ronin at the end of March this year. Prior to this, Maxion, the flagship game studio controlled by Zentry, conducted a soft launch of (Ragnarok Landverse) on the BNB Chain in September 2023 after obtaining IP authorization for cooperation, and the Genesis series released on Ronin can also be seen as the latest adaptation and continuation of this version.
Jihoz's harsh criticism has led some community users to feel that his wording is somewhat too sharp, making it difficult for many players to understand this inconsistency. After all, it was they who praised ROMW early on, and now they are the ones criticizing it. Additionally, Larsen, in his statement declaring the split, mentioned that due to ROMW's violation of trust regulations, they would take 'punitive' actions—removing the game and its assets from Sky Mavis's products, including deleting ROMW's related NFTs from the Ronin marketplace.
This decision has also led to community skepticism, with some users claiming it is overly centralized, a 'typical manifestation of authoritarianism,' and that an open blockchain should not reach this extent. Non-ROMW players who support Ronin also advised: 'You shouldn't delist their NFTs from your marketplace. This is not the end user's fault; it mainly harms Ronin users' trading ability,' hoping not to continue damaging the credibility of the Ronin ecosystem.
Subsequently, Larsen released a statement indicating that they have listened to community feedback and will not completely remove Ragmon's assets from the Ronin market but will uncheck the box, indicating that the official does not recognize or support this game. However, searching for ROMW-related NFT collections on the Ronin market has become much more difficult now. After ROMW announced 'seeking a new home' and following a standoff between the two parties, the prices of relevant NFTs have dropped significantly. In this contradiction, the only ones truly harmed are the game players who once believed in the endorsement of Ronin's official and the quality of ROMW.
Can ROMW and its new partner CROSS have a future?
ROMW's 'new partner' CROSS Protocol is a dedicated sidechain based on Ethereum, supporting on-chain gaming and NFT ownership verification. It is developed by multi-platform game provider NEXUS, with governance entrusted to the Switzerland-registered non-profit organization Opengame Foundation. In March this year, CROSS Protocol announced the completion of a $10 million private token sale.
On April 23, the ROMW development team 0x& published a series of posts discussing the fourth season, updates, and other content, one of which titled 'ROMW on CROSS Beginner's Guide' left players astonished. According to the introduction, the 'multi-chain architecture' adopted by ROMW means that the game running on CROSS is completely independent from the existing Ronin server, including having independent game progress, token economics, and leaderboards.
This means that the developer is releasing the same game on other networks, with almost no economic relationship between the two. For example, the xZeny token is the in-game token in CROSS, which players need to purchase a battle pass to obtain, while the eZeny token in Ronin also required the purchase of a pass and cannot be exchanged. If players wish to use a single game account and wallet to play on both servers, they need to use a network filter in their inventory to manage the assets they own on each network.
ROMW's actions have caused great outrage in the community, with players strongly criticizing it as a soft rug pull, after harvesting the Ronin community players' assets, seeking another path to continue defrauding players' assets.
It is reported that in the previous season, players received seasonal ranking rewards in the form of eZeny tokens and could exchange them for temporary utility $RUPI, which can be traded on decentralized exchanges on the Ronin network. Due to recent events, the price of $RUPI has plummeted, and NFT prices have also dropped to their lowest points. Consequently, those players who invested time and money in the original game will essentially see their efforts go to waste.
Players generally express anger and confusion regarding ROMW's switch to CROSS, mocking that CROSS is merely a fake ecosystem full of robots. Some developers also state that ROMW's actions are solely due to the need for ongoing resources and funding support for game development, which Ronin, having multiple top Web3 games and being open and permissionless, clearly cannot provide to ROMW.
However, for ROMW, which has overdrawn its credibility and harmed player interests, the hope of rebuilding an active player community seems bleak.
