Makoto_the_Phoenix

Flashmob, eh? Okay then...not sure how I should reply to that video. At least the headgear looks alright, somewhat. Q&A session? I have some memories about how those go. I'm not holding my breath on the whole effigy issue (since that's going to get most of the attention), though.

It seems to me that Jagex has, once again, reacted to a grandfathered problem in a totally backwards manner. Not to mention, the whole way they mentioned this issue gives me the feeling that they're not sure about their approach. I feel like, if Jagex really wanted to fix the problem that effigies allegedly caused, then they should start by reworking the skills, such that training with effigies really is just a side bonus, like it was intended to.

THIS. So much this. I'll type more about the matter when I'm at a real computer.

They've gone after Youtube before, it just didn't pan out in the courts.

Depends on your point of view. If you support piracy then you'll pretty much go along with the article and its point of view because that's what you want to believe. Sometimes you've got to look at things from a different point of view. This article contradicts some of the things said. You know, looking at the Daily Mail main site really calls into question what their intentions are - are they really trying to present an unbiased story, or do they want to make Kim Dotcom look like the worst scum that ever spawned? Admittedly, as you so put it, if you support the international pressure and subsequent raid, then you'll go along with it because that's what you want to believe. You'll just have to forgive me if I want to look around and listen to what everyone's saying about this whole matter before I go with the crowd. I won't say that Kim Dotcom was a saint, nor will I say that Megaupload was only ever used for legitimate purposes. What I will say is this: The measures that they took to get this person locked up way exceeded anything that would be necessary. Not to mention, it totally screws over his entire family and staff over an [alleged] $500 million loss in revenue claimed by the RIAA.

Could easily be out of date by now. Was looking at that number and its facts and you're probably right. I'd doubt that it's advanced beyond 170 million though. Either way, this update is still a good thing; it clears out the old names and gives someone else a chance to make use of them. A few friends want some really nice names, but they haven't been able to get them yet. Hopefully they can now.

140 million names are to be released... Wait a tic, wasn't the total number of accounts around that order? Answer: it's about 156 million total accounts. For those that wanted those awesome names (an old friend of mine had The Epidemic - spoiler alert!), now's your chance. Although, one could finagle the numbers here and determine that about 16 million accounts don't qualify for name deletion (i. e. there are only 16 million total active accounts).

You need to do a members quest to recharge the amulet, the recharging place is in a members area. Would not make sense to not let them make their own amulets, because they can make all the other amulets. The dragonstones are only available of rare monster drops and crystal keys (members), the chest for the dragonstones are in a members area, you would also need to give them the magic spell for enchanting dragon jewellery. So no, this would create to much trouble. I'm not sure about the Amulet of Glory, but I wouldn't mind letting F2P have it. As for the trouble - the only real issues would be the Merlin's Crystal and the Master Thieves' Armband, the latter of which I'm not seeing as a real requirement (nothing to really tie the two quests together on paper), and the former being in an exclusively Members' only area. So maybe it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

RE: So Much for the Easy Part I think that this article does a good job of highlighting many of Jagex's policy problems. To take a few examples - AFK training and advertisement blocking - neither of these can be realistically enforced. It would take a shift of the game engine to disallow AFK training for this rule to be enforceable, and it would take some sort of way to observe which browser/client you were using to block the ads (which is a breach of privacy, and not allowed in their current terms. I would also like to point out that the whole bot-nuke scenario resulted in former macroers being granted amnesty, despite Jagex's hard-line stance against macroers and cheaters. They had all of the information needed to enforce that policy, yet they chose not to. Maybe that's something worth considering... RE: Rebooting RuneScape My God, would this be awesome. It would essentially be a clean slate, totally starting from scratch with the game as a whole. It would be a huge shift, but I worry that it wouldn't be received as well as we'd like it to be. @Cultjunky: You're half right - but the point being made is that, like the RS2 Beta, it wasn't entirely about DIY. At first it was, but once you get enough people to participate in the economy, it ceases to be solely about what you gather for your own leveling.

The community has always extrapolated on everything they say. Remember the "Hold on to your robin hood hats" fiasco? They could always revert to simply surprising players with their updates instead of a BTS - no wait, that didn't go over very well the last time they tried that... Well, if they were absolutely clear on what they were going to do - no, that's had its way of backfiring too... If they were subtle and leaked images instead - no no, that didn't work either. Dang... I dunno. Jagex can't win for losing. Maybe the community shouldn't analyze every little thing about an update until the day it's released? Give 'em a break... Hey genius they WANT discussion about the updates coming. Questioning what they've said isn't hating Jagex. Maybe you shouldn't use internet forums if you don't like hearing people discuss things. I'm a bit disappointed that my tongue-in-cheek comment had slipped past you. I'm well aware that the community debating the updates (what it is, what it'll be like, etc) is a good thing, however it's often taken to the extreme, and neither Jagex nor anyone else can truly stop that. Hence the remarks about the other past attempts in which Jagex tried to curb overhype. Now, let me make it clear in case you didn't quite get me the first time: Discussion - okaySpeculation - greatDebate - sure, why not?Overhype - for the love of God no.

The community has always extrapolated on everything they say. Remember the "Hold on to your robin hood hats" fiasco? They could always revert to simply surprising players with their updates instead of a BTS - no wait, that didn't go over very well the last time they tried that... Well, if they were absolutely clear on what they were going to do - no, that's had its way of backfiring too... If they were subtle and leaked images instead - no no, that didn't work either. Dang... I dunno. Jagex can't win for losing. Maybe the community shouldn't analyze every little thing about an update until the day it's released? Give 'em a break...

I recall a few summers back that they actually did run a promotion like this - the so-called Midsummer Special. I'm not confident that it brought in members at a rate that Jagex approved, or we'd have seen another incarnation of this. To be blunt, a promotion like this would not go over well. Jagex does a pretty good job with forcing Members down your throat at every waking moment you're online promoting membership without having to use another limited trial. I'm actually of the same wavelength as RoswellCrash now; I too feel that Jagex may have missed an opportunity with Burthrope/Taverley to potentially woo new players to their game.

They definitely look better. Although...does this mean that their chat heads will be updated along with this? They seem way more detailed than any other NPC in the game so far... Chathead of dwarfs has been updated for ages, where have you been No, I meant updated to match that look. Then again I haven't seen a dwarven chathead in quite a while... -.-

They definitely look better. Although...does this mean that their chat heads will be updated along with this? They seem way more detailed than any other NPC in the game so far...

Not much of a fan of this either. Even if I could get Members, I wouldn't have access to Overloads, so I would be at a stark disadvantage.

The whole thing about forcing an account to do X for a certain amount of time wouldn't exactly work on throwaway accounts, since they would just ignore it. Tournaments would be pretty entertaining, as would a reception mansion of sorts. Distributing items amongst the community would be problematic (whole sorts of issues as to when the drop parties are, who gets what, etc etc), but still decent. They could even have an NPC with an exclusive POH with stuff that's gained from bots, RWTers, and scammers - and the house gets bigger as they go along.

From a personal experience, if I no longer played RuneScape I wouldn't be interested in the current prices! But that's besides the point. Subscribing to a streaming site doesn't provide the user with the same content that a constantly-evolving MMORPG does. I don't really think Desperate Housewives and a host of other series/movies is comparable to leveling skills and chatting with people all around the world. They have completely different audiences. I myself watch TV online a lot, but I'd pay for both. I won't say "Oh well RuneScape is gone up in price, and the next episode of Hawaii Five-O is available so I'll pay for that instead of getting hundreds of hours in a month of RS!". As we know the audience of RuneScape would be younger than that of Netflix or one of its competitors. I'm still paying the 4.60 rate per month, so this change doesn't affect me. But I'm not at all surprises. Prices for pretty much everything in life have gone up in the last year or two, so it's not a surprise this has too. It's all the same - it's a form of entertainment. I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm a senior in college that has a part-time job, and there are days in which I have to consciously choose between eating for a week and enjoying some form of entertainment (game, movies, etc). You may say differently, but there are going to be some people that seriously look at the price, what they're getting for the price, and, if Jagex is unfortunate, they'll start looking elsewhere at that price. Like I said, I can't speak for you. But there is plenty of entertainment outside of RS at $8/mo. I'm only raising the point that, at this price, there may be more incentive to "shop around" for your MMO fix.

So, RuneScape has officially crossed the price barrier in which the cost of streaming TV subscriptions (Hulu, Netflix, various [legit] Anime sites) would be more appealing to me. Not that I can say I'm surprised or disappointed with this move, it's a pretty decent one. I'm just not sure how well the cost of RuneScape will scale with other entertainment or games that are out there. I mean hey - there are other games and companies cashing in on the low-price model now.

Jagex already said as long as they don't keep botting they'll be fine. One time amnesty It's something like this that both runs counter to Jagex's alleged "hard-line" stance on rulebreaking, and undermines this successful effort. It's fantastic that they won this case (in some respects), but they're letting the rule breakers get away with a very harsh warning. I'm not so sure I agree with that.

Uhm isn't duel arena about how to USE the stats? IE: who can react faster on prayer switches, who can eat at better oppertunities, walk under the person to gain ticks etc. That's the impression I (and many others) have with duel arena, I don't see it as gambling, as you're constantly in control over the outcome. The focus isn't on the gambling of money, but rather on the fighting - and by changing that focus addictions are way less likely. Look I'm not saying jagex should go out of their way to prevent any form of gambling - they're not a company aimed at preventing addictions. However blatantly allow, even suggest, gambling like with those dices (and some people here suggested they should come back) is simply bad. No. Two words: "box staking". With that, you are left with only the stats you and your opponent have. Engine ticks may be an advantage so slight it's almost not noticable, but since you can't directly control that, you're still bound strictly to the PRNG. @Alg: Yes, I'm definitely interested in removing the Duel Arena. I mean hey - if Jagex is going to go on a crusade about how gambling is bad, then wouldn't it be a better idea to rethink and revisit the nature of their largest gambling hub since RS2?

I disagree. A game of skill has different circumstances of victory than a game of chance. With Chess, you have utmost control as to the ultimate outcome; with a PRNG, you flat-out don't. Well put., and I totally agree. Here's where I don't quite jive with your logic. Simply because it's out of sight doesn't mean that there isn't any sort of problem with the Duel Arena/Conquest. Yes, they're isolated, and they're out of the way, and for the vast majority of players, the very existence of it doesn't matter much. But, if dicers moved upstairs/downstairs in a discrete building or pub in RuneScape, you would essentially have a similar scenario - the gambling is isolated. Of course, just playing dice for GP doesn't fit well within the game (which is the stronger of your points), but that implies it's a policy problem, not a content problem. (This means simply making it against the rules would abate/solve much of the problem.) WRONG, someone suspectible to addictions isn't capable of making a good, non-emotional stance against gambling. And even worse: children can't make the decision, their brains hasn't fully matured - and by gambling on young age, you activelly create gambling addictions. Really there's not for nothing a reason why gambling (just like alcoholics) isn't allowed before the age of 18/21. And what's worse: alcohol is a physical addiction, so you're only suspectible to gain addicted when actually drinking alcoholics. Gambling is a psychological addiction, so doing the psychological "gambling" will trigger addictions. I notice you haven't explained/rationalized the Duel Arena yet. Isn't it similar? I mean, you can stake tens or hundreds of millions there, and there have been people that have gained serious gambling problems from it. With dicing, the only thing removed is the slight bias of having an advantage (and if the skills are equivalent, you're right back to a PRNG scenario).

There's a difference (slight, but existent) between complaining for no good reason and nitpicking. As a developer, one would expect that bugs like this don't seep into the game after happening several times before. As a student and future software developer, I take great umbrage when I see bugs like this escape what should be a thorough and integrated test environment. I really don't care about the amulets; I care about how Jagex has tested their code.

I saw some people complaining about their Amulet of Power turning green as well, so might be some issue with general enchanted gold necklaces. I maintain my nitpick; who was messing around with the base object that caused this bug to happen? Shouldn't occur that often anymore. Back in 2005-2006? Fine; they didn't know what they were doing with this new system. Now?? Someone needs to remember that unit and integration tests are a developer's only saving grace.

From the looks of things, you're conflating "legality" with "morality". To some extent, gambling online may be illegal, but the larger problem is one of morality. I'd also like to point out that we've had the issue (or at least the hint of an issue) of gambling addiction and RuneScape for as long as I can remember. This issue had solely to do with the Duel Arena (surprise, surprise). Now, by your own posit, the Duel Arena would have been closed down and totally dismantled due to the very real problems of gambling staking addicts between 2004-2007. Jagex doesn't want to support a system in which RS skills aren't involved with the PRNG, and suggesting that such a system be implemented is only going to make this matter much bigger than it actually is. It's been said before, but it's worth repeating - just make dicing-like activities a bannable offense, and quit this ambiguous "against the spirit of the game" crap. There are enough people left in the community that will challenge this phrase until it is explicitly outlawed, much like luring was.

Orange fonts? I thought the last time they tried this, people complained about how it hurt their eyesight and that it was unappealing. Well, that was some years ago, let's see how well it takes. Equipment interface doesn't win me over in terms of wow factor; it looks a bit unnecessary. Then again, I'm not sure how well it meshes with the rest of the in-game interface yet. As for the miscoloring of the Strength amulet: Just a programmer's nitpick, but how is it freaking possible that this keeps happening? Separate item, separate identification, separate way to deal with the item...