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Tip.It Times - 9th January 2011


Racheya

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Time for a new release of the: >>>Tip.It Times!<<<

 

I'd like to remind people of the rules pertaining to Times threads:

 

[hide=Read these rules before posting in this thread]

Rampant flame wars have taken control of virtually every week's times discussion topics. The following guidelines must be followed when posting on this topic. Posts that ignore these guidelines will be removed.

 

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This policy is effective as of now, November 17, 2010. Any posts prior to the creation of this policy may or may not be removed according to the new guidelines.

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When replying please make sure to clarify the article you are replying to! Thanks!

 

We're still looking for Did you Knows, so if you know something interesting or a strange fact about RS that you want to share, then PM it to me.

 

If you spot any typos or mistakes in the article then please PM them to me :)

 

Enjoy the articles!

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I edit for the [Tip.It Times]. I rarely write in [My Blog]. I am an [Ex-Moderator].

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I'm still torn about how I feel about unbalenced trade

 

I do like that the number of botters crashed after the event in december 07.

 

I also feel like the current limits are fine for the most part, I have been frustrated on a few occasions, but big picture, I can live with them.

 

with the wilderness, I am not a big fan of the current drop system, but I did enjoy being able to wander the whole world and kill people. I personally enjoyed the new tactic of running through buildings up and down stairs and stuff.

 

so with the wilderness, I want the old drop system back, but like the article said, that allows cheaters, so I am not sure what I would do. I hope Jagex has an idea.

 

Also, first post \:D/

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War is not about who's right, it's about who's left

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The first article is great, especially the part about clans, I for one have never been too involved in the clan community and am fascinated to hear the level or competition it has escalated to.

 

As for the commentary on giving 2nd and 3rd chances to botters, I bumped multiple threads on the RSOF trying to get J Mod answers about level resetting. What it came down to when I asked if keeping profits by keeping people playing the game motivated it I got an answer similar to, "We are a gaming company, keeping people in the game benefits both them and us and I see no reason why this is bad." Essentially them admitting to it being profits driven.

 

That episode reminded me how the biggest action against botting back in 2007 only came when their bottom line was effected. It wasn't motivated by "the spirit of the game," or by fairness, but by the fact that they would cease to make money otherwise and needed to choose the only path that could save them. I really think everything else was just a facade to save face.

 

And now back to this Referendum. I've looked at the numbers of staff and estimated salaries, members (estimated) and membership revenue, and estimated f2p add revenue and also taken into account millions lost on mechscape. I don't think Jagex is doing well. I don't think they are financially doing well at all. They are simply unable to fund expansion at the rate nessesary to compete in the MMO market. The article is right, the MMO market has come a long way. I think this whole thing is a gimmick, I think we are seeing them sacrifice their "values" for the bottom line again. They just want their paying members back to make more money. The only difference is this time they have player support where as the past few times they haven't.

 

That is what I think, I hate to think it but it's what all the evidence points to.

 

Oh, and I think Jagex will abandon Runescape like they did classic if they ever finish Mechscape. Unless of course they decide it would cut into their profits.

PM me in game anytime

 

It's a lot easier then that for an idiot to sound smart on the internet.

 

That's exactly what you're doing right now... just saying.

 

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This whole "Bring back the Wilderness & Unbalanced trade" thing really worries me.

 

I've been playing for years & was here both for the old wilderness & when the bots ran rampant. I never minded the old wilderness. In fact since I usually didn't go out there to Pk I was usually better armed than the pkers since I wouldn't be getting skulled. I killed hundreds who made the mistake of attacking me as I went about my business out there. No biggie.. I could support that parts return except for the fact that it would allow unbalanced trade which is also on the ballet. Those two things allowed the cheaters & crooks to all but ruin our game. Removing them eliminated 95% of the problem. Those people are still out there, still waiting for the chance to come back. They're just waiting for Jagex to let their guard down. Now it just seems like Jagex is giving up the fight. :unsure:

 

I already spend quite a bit of time each day reporting people & sites for rules violations usually with no response from Jagex. :wall: Are they not even going to try to police anything?

 

If they're not going to try to do anything to ensure people follow the rules than like the first article has made clear, the crooks will take over & our community will decline even further.

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Having played since 2004 I've got to say that there has been a general decline in the player base.

Having never really had anything to do with clans I can't speak for that side, but the general helpfulness of players has really taken a downturn, I mean half the talk you see is what i'd expect to hear on my Xbox headset.

 

Personally I can't wait to see a player named ' XxXSNIPER360XxX '

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Both articles were great reads. And pretty long, which I like.

For me, in any given week, the best two articles. Super guys, grats!

 

And I agree with nifflin, runescape is going to be a thing of the past, real soon.

What a shame :(

Andre the Giant (Gentle Giant)

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I'm still here, still giving help & advise. Nowadays it's hard to find someone who'll actually listen though. My friends list still stays overloaded anyways.

 

Unfortunately my ignore list is similarly full thanks to all the spambots. :cry:

 

Having played since 2004 I've got to say that there has been a general decline in the player base.

Having never really had anything to do with clans I can't speak for that side, but the general helpfulness of players has really taken a downturn, I mean half the talk you see is what i'd expect to hear on my Xbox headset.

 

Personally I can't wait to see a player named ' XxXSNIPER360XxX '

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If Jagex can't even handle the spambots who'd be advertising for the Real World Traders & price manipulation clans how can we expect them to handle the wave of bots that will return with this update?

 

They're not going to. <_<

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Absolutely fantastic first article, one of the best articles in a while which really got me thinking, about both my interactions with other players and the state of the game.

 

You summed it up perfectly: Jagex have become more and more 'laid-back' over the years and particularly since MMG came to power, much more business-orientated.

 

I'm a firm believer that Runescape only survives because it has that firm community of loyal members who don't just play it because they enjoy it, they play it because it means something special to them (why else would people put themselves through the agony of getting a level 99?) And the more and more Jagex become the classic money-hungry company and shy away from their traditional values, the more the game will turn into an average MMO and it'll have lost that special meaning which keeps many players playing.

 

I'm an optimist: I think this game still has great potential and life in it yet. But fast forward 5 years, what will Runescape have become? To say it's going downhill isn't exactly true, but if Jagex carry on with the attitude they've had lately they'll struggle to keep it going. And if Runescape falls, so will Stellar Dawn, War of Legends and whatever other games they're planning.

 

But yeah, awesome article :)

 

--------------------------

And the second article was great too! My attitude towards bots has often been 'there's no point reporting them, they'll just carry on...' But maybe reporting them is worthwhile... Jagex are going to face massive challenges over the next few months anyhow.

 

Both excellent articles anyway :P

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Kudos to two of the meatiest articles I have seen in a while. It's a shame they cant be summed up in a snappy, one-line slogan for chanting in-game.

 

=====

 

As an aside, since becoming a holidays only player, Ive already received two unsolicited purchase offers for my account. It is amazing the lengths people will go to in order to beat the system.

PvP is not for me

In the 3rd Year of the Boycott
Real-world money saved since FT/W: Hundreds of Dollars
Real-world time saved since FT/W: Thousands of Hours

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Kudos to two of the meatiest articles I have seen in a while. It's a shame they cant be summed up in a snappy, one-line slogan for chanting in-game.

 

There will be; watch this space!

Former Leader of The Tal Shiar Alliance - An Original Tip.it Clan
Member of the Wilderness Guardians and Founder of the Silent Guardians
Founder of The Conclave - A Tip.it Clan institution
Tip.it Times author (click for all my articles) - When I use the wrong reasons to make the right statement, argue the reason, not the statement.
MSSW4 General - Did we kick your ass too?




Check us out!
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==> No seriously, if you like FREE GP, XP and Dung tokens, as well as Community, Opportunity and above all FUN... <==
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Kudos to two of the meatiest articles I have seen in a while. It's a shame they can't be summed up in a snappy, one-line slogan for chanting in-game.

 

There will be; watch this space!

 

Whilst I disagree on the chanting part, certainly it is possible. As an author and on a piece that is historical it would probably be blasphemous for me to sum it all up in one line as it belittles all the detail and research that went into it. But it is certainly a right for the reader to sum it if they so wished, after all, a work is the audience's once it has been released - with the author occasionally tiptoeing in for some extended commentary or whatnot.

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Uhm, rach... tis the 9th today, not 7th...

Former Leader of The Tal Shiar Alliance - An Original Tip.it Clan
Member of the Wilderness Guardians and Founder of the Silent Guardians
Founder of The Conclave - A Tip.it Clan institution
Tip.it Times author (click for all my articles) - When I use the wrong reasons to make the right statement, argue the reason, not the statement.
MSSW4 General - Did we kick your ass too?




Check us out!
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clanmotif.png
==> No seriously, if you like FREE GP, XP and Dung tokens, as well as Community, Opportunity and above all FUN... <==
CLICK IT!

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I really enjoyed both of the articles. I didn't ask people things when i first started though. I was a bit put off when i asked someone a smithing level and was met with a nice "stfu". I really hope Jagex can handle the bots, or else it will be a sad day for Runescape.

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When you mentioned a high profile MMO being reforged, were you referring to Maplestory? :lol:

 

If Jagex had been planning ahead to make the botting pointless in the first place, this would have never been an issue, but since nobody really wants to change, they'll just be the prey of automation like everything else from the 90's. This is pretty much their last chance to prove that they've been actually holding some good cards in their hand all along, instead of bluffing with duds.

 

Otherwise I'll just treat this like any other game though: play it until it becomes pointless and not fun anymore.

 

Because that's all the treatment it ever gets anyway.

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When you mentioned a high profile MMO being reforged, were you referring to Maplestory? :lol:

 

If Jagex had been planning ahead to make the botting pointless in the first place, this would have never been an issue, but since nobody really wants to change, they'll just be the prey of automation like everything else from the 90's. This is pretty much their last chance to prove that they've been actually holding some good cards in their hand all along, instead of bluffing with duds.

 

Otherwise I'll just treat this like any other game though: play it until it becomes pointless and not fun anymore.

 

Because that's all the treatment it ever gets anyway.

 

I was referring to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm release actually by Blizzard. The fact that Maple Story chose to reweave and "reforge" their game on such a scale I believe to say was a conveniently timed coincidence would be both false and true. It is possible the developers behind it meant to have significantly altered gameplay for a while, but it is without a doubt that the Cataclysm expansion really shook up the way (at the very least based on the Reviews of the expansion on respected gaming websites and networks) the long term growth and sustainability of an MMO is looked at.

 

When I meant Social Networking I was referring to the Developer Zynga, whose Farmville and Cityville, and whatever numerous other Facebook based games has devoured the lives of many people who've never even played a video game before.

When I talked about MMOs radically changing their subscription models the MMO I had in mind primarily was Lord of the Rings Online, which made a dramatic change to a Free-To-Play subscription similar to the one RuneScape had since RuneScape 2, once again, testament to the soundness of some of the strategies that the MMO has pioneered long before anyone else has even thought about it, possibly even before the term was coined probably - as RuneScape didn't really start referring to itself as the world's most popular Free-To-Play MMORPG really since the past two years.

 

I did not put in these specific names because this article was originally drafted, written, for and received numerous helpful peer editing by the RSOF based paper I founded called "BusinessPulse" which provides news and information for the Businesses and Services community which resides in the section of the same name on the Official Forums. I have an excellent team there and this is actually Part 1 of a 2 part series written for the community along with a massive Double Issue the BusinessPulse plans on releasing midnight tonight. We have to adhere strictly to RSOF rules so I did not even want to run the risk of mentioning competing MMOs, even if was in an analytical and comparative sense, which I have seen folks like Mod Mark H say is technically allowed but I chose to err on the side of caution as I come from the old days when the RSOF rules were some of the strictest in the land.

 

Businesses & Services is part of a larger community that was coined as "Creative Gameplay" or "Emergent Gameplay" back in 2009. I think whilst we do have the same challenges as many other communities out there, we do have some interesting and intelligent people on the entire RSOF in my opinion. People here run Corporations, and the most well-run ones are managed with the same skill and care as solid clans (although we are much fewer in number). There are interesting things such as Restaurants & Hotels for the roleplaying RuneScapers out there. We have "Radio" stations which have recently seen a drought in listeners so thread quality and participation has dropped, but they've recently made a comeback with several new stations started up again (they are text-based Radio shows held in CCs ingame). One of the most popular Item lending services "Inventus Item Lending Inc" has its home there - where one can borrow anything from a partyhat to basic armour for free. Whilst not everything is fantastic in quality, it is a unique and at the very least, interesting community to watch.

 

If anyone is interested in seeing the Magazine my team and myself help run (we publish on a monthly basis and our Double Issue will be out Midnight tonight) it is called "BusinessPulse | Magazine" (although we do change the title with the month of each issue).

QFC: 201-202-395-60964992

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Oh, right, Cataclysm.

 

What you're describing is the overall trend which has been coming for a while....since a lot of foreign MMOs have been pouring into the international market for years, it was inevitable that some of them would have reached professional quality and take market share away from the "big players". Others saw that the subscription model would lose to the "free" model because the subscription model required a player's commitment up front when they weren't guaranteed any measure of quality or enjoyment, and that they would be unable to return or resell the item in the case of disappointment (which is funny because you wouldn't be able to return an opened game anyway). Meanwhile, the free game lures prospective clients in and can clamp down hard on somebody's wallet if they've gone far enough. World of Warcraft will probably be able to stick to their guns because they're on top (although polishing the guns doesn't hurt), but others will have to adapt.

 

But I digress.

 

Overall this isn't really a massive change, at least, not on the scale of other games. In fact, it's probably the opposite of change. We're taking one big step backwards. Jagex doesn't offer much more than their small promise that things will be different, and is probably not going to hold themselves to it for longer than a month if it doesn't work out. The fact is that they're trying to make things the same anyway, so while their goals might not be mutually exclusive, it's going to take quite an effort to wrench them towards one direction. But considering that many claim that their best experiences were found when the game had less features in it, it's probably the best move for them.

 

Ultimately, the cradle will make the most fitting and convenient grave.

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I voted "no" because I had no idea how will they combat RWT. I probably would vote yes if they explained about it. Like tracking IP address, only allow 1 create account per month, block proxy, block china, etc...

 

This article is good read.

Hacked 10 years old account, permamently quit if Jagex doesn't return items.

 

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The first article was very interesting and also worrying ..

Some parts I almost hear myself on the forums.. lately in my lil clan we have had to deal with cheating members, botters and accountsharers... used to not be an issue at all.

Now with wildy returning? some old friends also did, but.. I have the same fears about JAgex ability to deal with the inevitable bad consequences .

 

Besides this, the bit about clans demanding passwords and using ip-atacks is new.. but not surprising, since I also have seen the community change.

 

This reminds me of a theme in a Jack Vance fantasy story, one that has figured in some movies also: the attitudes, goals and intentions of the Leader of the Universe shapes the 'feel' of the whole universe.

Come to think of this, Jagex themselves used this theme in the Apmeken quest..

I have been seeing a changing attitude in the players as well as in Jagex(mods) be it on forums, or how they run the game...

 

On a side note, are you saying you can not report a botter if that botter has not talked to you or traded you?

I thought that restriction was only about offensive names?

 

 

As far as article 2:

 

The author sums it up quite nicely, exept.. there is nothing there to tell us why and how Jagex can now deal with the same problems (that ended up taking W/Ft from us).

 

I know theres new laws in China and Jagex talkes about new ways of combating the cheaters..

 

But.. what stops the sweatshops moving to lets say Vietnam.. how will Jagex win in legal battles against rwt-sites when the music industry can not against file sharing ones.. and as far as the new ways.. why not let that first prove itself, let it stand against botmakers trying to break it.. before taking down the walls..

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Experiment yourself...

 

Have someone make an account that they'll never use again, and have it stand on a world near you... You can even attempt to trade with it before you try and report it...

 

This is apparently a safety feature so you do not report the wrong person by mis-spelling its name...

Former Leader of The Tal Shiar Alliance - An Original Tip.it Clan
Member of the Wilderness Guardians and Founder of the Silent Guardians
Founder of The Conclave - A Tip.it Clan institution
Tip.it Times author (click for all my articles) - When I use the wrong reasons to make the right statement, argue the reason, not the statement.
MSSW4 General - Did we kick your ass too?




Check us out!
wildsig3.gif
clanmotif.png
==> No seriously, if you like FREE GP, XP and Dung tokens, as well as Community, Opportunity and above all FUN... <==
CLICK IT!

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"RuneScape and Legacy: Understanding the Context Behind the Referendum"

 

On the whole it's a poor article filled to the brim with exhausted points and little (if any? I'm giving the benfit of the doubt with "little") actual evaluation/explanation of the context (it basically almost entirely rests on previous statements by Jagex without looking beyond the peripheral value of these statements).

 

This article can be summarised like this: "Jagex thought autoing would kill the game, they said lots of stuff about this and made extreme changes to get rid of it, now they are going back on their previous changes (which they have devoted a lot of time into making better) due to some super special awesome technology they've obtained which many people are happy about, but I worry this could distract from other super cool things. Oh yeah, lots of things I'm going to ambigiously refer to have happened in 3 years, by the way." What would be more valuable than this would be for the article to say: "Go read all of the previous Jagex announcements relating to this topic and then go gossip with a random RS player for 20 minutes" as they'd get more information on this topic than by reading this shoddy article.

 

P.S. I also largely agree with the poster below, especially in that this has failed to achieve it's supposed purpose.

 

I voted "no" because I had no idea how will they combat RWT. I probably would vote yes if they explained about it. Like tracking IP address, only allow 1 create account per month, block proxy, block china, etc...

 

This article is good read.

 

I hope that's a joke. I really do.

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Blogs on the free trade/wilderness referendum: http://rsvote.wordpress.com

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I will not go into additional detail on that count, but the past three years of progress and adjustment by Jagex and the games industry against real world trading must have made this referendum possible.

 

Actually, this is exactly where you should've went into more detail. You could've answered a lot more questions if your essay had been based solely on this topic. Most of the other information in your article is fairly well-known and has been exhaustively discussed.

 

By understanding the history and context of the removal of free trade and the wilderness in the first place, we can see that the referendum represents a company confident enough to face the menace of RWT and bots and fight it successfully - a question that Jagex must have answered.

 

When did they discover this mysterious new power? Yesterday? Last week? The history lesson was nice, but it didn't answer the BIG question.

 

Certainly Jagex has moved to develop adequate mechanisms to be prepared for the potential scenario of a second surge of botting and RWT.

 

How are you so certain? Behind the references, your article is still based on supposition. You failed to adequately support such a crucial statement. Most players already understand the significance of the referendum, and if they didn't live through it, then they heard the historical accounts ad nauseam. What everybody wants to know is what has changed since '07. How will things be different? If sending in those abuse reports in '07 did little to stem the tide of bots, why would it change anything now? In fact, the sister article this week even states that it would be impossible to report bots since they revamped the report system. So much for doing our part.

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