Yoko Kurama

The Hydrixian should just be level 80 hybrid armour, now that Void is sort of bad, and the fact that this new armour seems to take a decent amount of effort, rather than a cosmetic override.

Last I heard, the Reaper title is indeed a Comp requirement.

See, this is why even though it is called 'trimmed completionist' cape, it can't literally be taken to understand that you must actually do absolutely everything. This is a good balance with this proposal: you have to do some of the update to keep your trim, but the rest of the update is left to stand on its own merit. And there's some useful stuff there, so quite a few people will do that, and the overrides are a prestige item which some people will definitely try for.

Got middle piece today, I guess I am locked into this thing now.

Does Jagex realize that there are single individuals with 19B+ worth in wealth (often shards)? If they are serious, target those individuals specifically (through tax, or outright confiscation), or if they think that's wrong to target wealthy players, then just give up on their neurotic obsession with inflation and move on. Targeting people in general, say people with 500M banks and taking 10Mish from a bunch of them does nothing to stop inflation. Get real and serious or just give up. wtf did I just read If they do that, please let me introduce 20 of my alts so you [wagon] don't steal my money I am not actually suggesting that they confiscate money (I am just saying that's the only the way to take large sums of money out of the game, but since it's an absurd way to do it, they should just abandon their inflation witch-hunt). Yes. Though a lot of people are experiencing that problem.

Just finished kill #5 for the day, it's good to know they're acknowledging that the instance cost + supplies was prohibitively expensive.

Agreed, alching is the main problem, and would be a much better solution than their current strategies. But some of the economy is built on alching. There are drops like, say, Onyx bolts, which are in and out of themselves quite useless but have a decent market price because there is a floor tied to their alching price. Same applies to rune items.

where has Jagex kept saying this? Asking because I have never read anything along these lines from Jagex. They have said it in the past (though I don't have a specific quote at the moment). Incidentally in economics, that is the standard and main argument for why inflation is supposedly bad. Inflation is when there is too much money in the economy, and it pushes the prices of everything up. The standard argument then goes on to prescribe countering inflation (by taking money out of the economy) because rising prices are generally bad for poor/average people. In the real world, the only way money enters into the economy is when government prints it, so it's quite easy to control the supply of money, and most money in the real world simply changes hand (new money is not created). In Runescape though, money pops into existence out of thin air, so the supply is very hard to control. The only way is basically to have harsh restrictions, but since no one wants that (myself included), what I have been suggesting is that Jagex should just let people keep their money (rich and poor) instead of artificial or unreasonable inflation-countering methods (degrading costs, IMO, are fine, whereas 200K per attempt is less so - if you were able to get the full use of the instance, that would have been fine).

Still hate Chris L though. |^_^|

Does Jagex realize that there are single individuals with 19B+ worth in wealth (often shards)? If they are serious, target those individuals specifically (through tax, or outright confiscation), or if they think that's wrong to target wealthy players, then just give up on their neurotic obsession with inflation and move on. Targeting people in general, say people with 500M banks and taking 10Mish from a bunch of them does nothing to stop inflation. Get real and serious or just give up. You really like complaining about people who are rich. I'm still attempting killing it with chaotics crossbows because I can't afford ascensions and I am hopping to free worlds because I certainly cannot afford instances. It sounds like you have an irrational hatred of rich people, based on all your recent posts. If you are trying to speak for poor people, me included, please stop. This message also goes to everyone complaining. On topic, excellent update. I always wanted runescape to come out with something that takes true skill to kill. I'll be able to do it eventually, I've gotten close. It's just my prayer timing. I have no intention for speaking for poor people (and I am not poor myself, though I am not in the ultra-rich category), and I have all T90 gear as well as enough money to buy instances. What I am saying is, Jagex should simply leave people with their money, and stop worrying about inflation. Don't target poor people, and don't target rich people. The 200K per attempt is a silly mechanic and misguided attempt. They keep saying there's too much money in the economy and that this affects poor people by increasing costs (this is Jagex's argument for inflation-control) - what I am saying, it's not a problem, just let it be. I am not suggesting that Jagex should take money from wealthy players, what I am saying is if they truly believe the game has too much money and that it needs to be deleted, then obviously if they really want to get it out of the game, then should delete it where it exists in the most quantities. Otherwise, just forget about inflation (which is what I am suggesting).

Does Jagex realize that there are single individuals with 19B+ worth in wealth (often shards)? If they are serious, target those individuals specifically (through tax, or outright confiscation), or if they think that's wrong to target wealthy players, then just give up on their neurotic obsession with inflation and move on. Targeting people in general, say people with 500M banks and taking 10Mish from a bunch of them does nothing to stop inflation. Get real and serious or just give up.

Well the Well of Goodwill did crash partyhats pretty hard for a little bit :P... Hardly a counter-inflationary move. The argument for countering inflation from economists (and even Jagex uses this argument) is that it raises cost for everyone, especially normal people. Party Hats are hardly of concern to average players.

Money sinks don't work and never will. Why doesn't Jagex understand that? Just give up.

Believe it or not, sometimes spending several hours at an update is enough to render an accurate judgment of it. Also, there was already a high cost for that knowledge: supplies of various kinds (potions, food, armour costs, portents, etc.), time, effort, aguish -there was absolutely no need to slap on a 200K tag on it. The learning curve was difficult enough.

This boss is a ridiculously annoying and difficult moneysink. I knew Chris L wouldn't be able to control himself. "Hey, guys, wanna pay 200K every 10 minutes so you can die because this thing has 20 annoying mechanics? Sounds fun doesn't it?" Yeah... [bleep] Chris L. I wouldn't mind the difficulty if they didn't add in the idiotic money sink, the stupid grave spiders, and the random spawn at start. I don't mind spending a decent bit of time to master this, but am I suppose to pay millions because I am, say, a slower learner than other people? This boss was obviously designed to cater to a very very very few people (way fewer than the usual elite standard of Rago/Rots), while trolling the rest of us.

I don't understand what this obsession with spin-buyers, particularly with those on the first page is about. Are we all really supposed to feel sorry that one wealthy player with way too much time on their hands (Fors) beat a bunch of other wealthy people with way too much time on their hands in the great race to 200M by buying spins? Am I really supposed to lose sleep over that? I have little in common with these players, nor can I fully understand or empathize with them, and thus I really couldn't care any less what they do. It's fun to speculate a bit and discuss it, but aside from that it doesn't affect me in the least. I have way too many other things to be doing than worrying about that. Jagex decided they were going to allow this, the damage is done, and they won't be reversing this (nor could they, the only way the competition will ever be legitimate to a lot of people is if Jagex rolls back people who 'cheated' by buying spins, and that isn't going to happen, ever). That's that, time to move on. It's pointless fixating over the habits of particular spin buyers when it is Jagex who has changed the game and the system.

I only skimmed the newsposts, so forgive me if this is a redundant question, but was Twitch integration released? What's happening with that?

That's sort of like saying you think everyone in the classroom is old enough to make their own decision as to whether to do their homework and assignments or not. It ignores the social aspect of group situations. In theory, we can do whatever we like, but in general, people tend to respond to incentives. This will serve as a constant reminder to everyone that unless you're getting 200Ms then you're not completing the game or accomplishing great things. It's basically skillcapes all over again. They have shifted the end-game for people. It'd be one thing if 200Ms were a widespread phenomenon, but they aren't. Most players are not going for 200Ms and may never get even one. It's odd to set the standard of a few extreme players as the standard of all. There was a reason it said 99 before on adventure logs, because that was the end-game, and it was Jagex recognizing that.

I will simply have to disagree with all of that. That's not how social norms, social behavior, and people work in a group. There's a fair bit of subtle things that are passed around implicitly. Are people going to be definitively pushed by this to get 200ms? No, but it's another soft-incentive, another soft-nudge in that direction, just as 200M broadcasts and 120 capes were. Also how can you possibly dispute that Jagex directly influences the end-game? Why do people go for Comp? Or do requirements for anything? It's not because we have personally decided that Livid Farm and the rest of it are fun or interesting or worthwhile to do. It's because we are playing a game and we have been told that this is the end-game which good players should aim for. Just like when you play say Pokemon, you go through all the Gyms, because you know that's what the developers want you to do. Or just as when you go to school and do a particular assignment. Yes, there is player demand for 200Ms but it is very small and restricted to a minority - it is not something that everyone or most people are going for. So to put this up as an implicit standard for everyone is quite strange and not just Jagex 'listening to player demand'. It's a very clear signal from Jagex that ultimately 99s are not good enough, but one should instead aim for 200Ms over the long run. It is going to be the new standard that players slowly start using. I can imagine people saying "I am 50% on the A-Log bar, what about you?"

Except it often does do that. It is a corporation with a management after all, and I am quite certain there are people within the company who tell the developers what are the actual goals of a particular update and what is expected of them. In the past, even in some BTS videos, developers have stated there are brainstorm periods/documents which discuss in general what are the goals of a particular update and the expectations. I don't think it's too far fetched to suggest that when Jagex decided to push for an adventure log rework, Mod Mark or perhaps someone else wrote a document stating there's 4-5 things they'd like to rework with adventure logs (more tabs, skilling section, 200Ms). I can't imagine that something this major was done whimsically by some lower-level developer. It's not a minor detail at all. I can imagine Mod Mark or someone else in a team meeting suggesting something along the times of "with so many people getting 200Ms, I think the game/community is ready for something like this". Individual developers don't get to make these sorts of decisions. Also, this seems like something that is in line with Jagex's overall policy (200M broadcasts/120 Capes - those are not things some individual developer decided to push - those are things that seemed to have been debated and agreed upon cohesively).

people have been getting 200ms for a decade. Jagex finally recognizes this in the form of a global message bearing the persons rsn and a progress bar on adventures log. No need to jump to such far fetched conclusions such as your own. There is nothing far-reaching about that quote. This is indeed Jagex implicitly encouraging people to get 200Ms in a way they hadn't done before. That a few people have always been going for 200Ms doesn't change the fact that most did not until very recently, and that Jagex is indeed affecting the metagame in a particular way by this subtle incentive.

But the point is happiness is subjective and your perceived concept of a perfectly happy lifestyle is just as wrong as the ones you are judging. People are unique and we all enjoy different balances of different things. Some people are asexual/aromantic for no reason other than they don't feel those emotions. Some people absolutely don't go out and party because they don't enjoy it. There is nothing wrong with these people, they are simply being themselves. Pretty sure his message is saying that most people most of the time would regret devoting 20-30k hours to runescape and that for any typical person to go after such a goal they would likely regret the years they put into it. Sure you can balance life with runescape but you really can't and be a top player. I have a problem with that "regret" thing people talk about so often and "unfinished business". Let's be honest about your time. Whatever you have done on the past is a proccess that ended. There's nothing to "finish" and nothing to "regret" because you will NOT be able to change it. If you wanna regret anything, choose regret spending your time on present feeling bad about something that you can't change. When my grandfather was dying from cancer he told me "If I regret anything that I have done, it is looking at my past while my future just pass by without me noticing it". And you can really change your future. Well, every time you do something, you are sacrificing another, whether you're aware of it or not. So, you're 24/7 sacrificing something that you could do instead. If choose to go through that, I would like you to save time and immediatly lock yourself into a mental hospital because that's what will happen to you if you bother with that too much. :D This is one of the reasons why you should focous on doing what makes you happy. Suomi, Drumgun, Forsberg, et al sacrificed their lives to gain xp so I'm not sure where these top 200m all contenders with balanced lives you speak of are. Last time I checked, it takes at least 20,000 hours to get 200M all without spins (over 30k for Suomi IIRC). Care to explain how one can remain a top contender for that achievement while playing in moderation? Be specific with your hours logged. If your point was that anyone can get 99 all skills in moderation these days, then yes I would probably agree with you, especially if they were buying spins. But 200m all skills? No way, Jose. How can you be this stupid? Do you have anything aside from meaningless ad hominems? Your assertion is completely delusional - the math and empirical evidence is completely against you. It is not possible to get the sort of experience gains that top players do within the timespan that they do by just playing in moderation. It is simply not possible no matter how much you want to believe otherwise. That's not an insult or indictment of top players, it's just a fact. Yes, to get top rank you'd have to sacrifice some aspects of your life, but I'm arguing against something you implied, that gaining exp requires it. You can play like 12 hours a day and don't have to sacrifice anything, so 200m all doesn't require sacrificing anything major, besides, in a year from now it will be 5k hours so it won't matter. I didn't say gaining experience requires it. I said gaining experience at the rate that top players do it and within the timespan they gain it in does. There's a different between those two statements and it's not subtle. Also, 12 hours is not 'moderate' gameplay even by generous definitions. That's more time than a full-time job, and half your day. It's completely astounding that you think people who sit at a computer (aside from say the well documented medical issues, such as say back problems, eye-sight, etc.) aren't sacrificing anything. They are sacrificing their health and a myriad of other things. You can argue that's their choice and that they have the right to do this, but it's completely unscientific, and not to mention pretty much contradicted by health sciences (physical and psychological), to claim that they aren't sacrificing anything. Again, it's not an insult, it's an observation. They have obviously chosen to do certain things, but it's obvious that they had to give up other things to do so. Even half that time, say 6 hours a day daily on a game is barely moderate. By historical standards or even contemporary standards (depending on what place you look at it), spending 12+ hours on a purely non-productive, purely leisurely, and mostly non-educational activity is not moderate. Ofc it's not scientific and not according to "health sciencies" and I'm glad I don't agree with those. Once I had an interesting client that proves that "health sciences" are crap. He told me that his routine before dating was work hard on his goals during the day and relax in his home for the rest of the day and he was a really happy guy. Then he started dating and was still happy and kept spending the rest of the day with in his home but with his girlfriend. So, they broke up and he felt terrible and decided to go to a psychologist (health science professional, right?). So, the psychologist made him feel better about the broke up proccess and then the psychologist insisted that the guy had to change his routines. The guy asked "why? I am happy!" and she said "well, you need to be social and communicate with lots of people otherwise you can't be healthy!!!". So the poor guy changed his routines and indeed started to have more and more friends but he was also about to suicide. So, he came to me and asked for my help. I told him "go back to your routine." He looked at me thinking that I was even more crazy than him but still decided to go back to his routine - what really made him happy. And he's now as happy as he was before dating and all the mess. See, Psychologists work are based on statistics. My question is "What do you do when someone doesn't work like most people?". Not even a single psychiatrist or psychologist gave me a answer to that one. No. It's a scientific fact that sitting on a computer for 12+ hours can lead you to have all sorts of health-related problems. Secondly, perhaps you don't take psychology seriously, but I do. That's not to say there isn't fluffy stuff in there (Freud anyone?), but there's also loads of useful stuff supported by evidence about things such as normal and healthy behaviours, what constitutes a well-adjusted individual, happiness and well-being. It's not merely mumbo-jumbo. Aside from that, your anecdote is just that, an anecdote. The whole of psychology is not made irrelevant because of one case (which seems to be the implication in your anecdote). There are always extreme cases or unique cases or outliers. That some people can lead healthy lives despite playing 12+ hours does not make the generalization that it is not healthy/moderate/appropriate for most normal people untrue.

Suomi, Drumgun, Forsberg, et al sacrificed their lives to gain xp so I'm not sure where these top 200m all contenders with balanced lives you speak of are. Last time I checked, it takes at least 20,000 hours to get 200M all without spins (over 30k for Suomi IIRC). Care to explain how one can remain a top contender for that achievement while playing in moderation? Be specific with your hours logged. If your point was that anyone can get 99 all skills in moderation these days, then yes I would probably agree with you, especially if they were buying spins. But 200m all skills? No way, Jose. How can you be this stupid? Do you have anything aside from meaningless ad hominems? Your assertion is completely delusional - the math and empirical evidence is completely against you. It is not possible to get the sort of experience gains that top players do within the timespan that they do by just playing in moderation. It is simply not possible no matter how much you want to believe otherwise. That's not an insult or indictment of top players, it's just a fact. Yes, to get top rank you'd have to sacrifice some aspects of your life, but I'm arguing against something you implied, that gaining exp requires it. You can play like 12 hours a day and don't have to sacrifice anything, so 200m all doesn't require sacrificing anything major, besides, in a year from now it will be 5k hours so it won't matter. I didn't say gaining experience requires it. I said gaining experience at the rate that top players do it and within the timespan they gain it in does. There's a different between those two statements and it's not subtle. Also, 12 hours is not 'moderate' gameplay even by generous definitions. That's more time than a full-time job, and half your day. It's completely astounding that you think people who sit at a computer (aside from say the well documented medical issues, such as say back problems, eye-sight, etc.) aren't sacrificing anything. They are sacrificing their health and a myriad of other things. You can argue that's their choice and that they have the right to do this, but it's completely unscientific, and not to mention pretty much contradicted by health sciences (physical and psychological), to claim that they aren't sacrificing anything. Again, it's not an insult, it's an observation. They have obviously chosen to do certain things, but it's obvious that they had to give up other things to do so. Even half that time, say 6 hours a day daily on a game is barely moderate. By historical standards or even contemporary standards (depending on what place you look at it), spending 12+ hours on a purely non-productive, purely leisurely, and mostly non-educational activity is not moderate.

Suomi, Drumgun, Forsberg, et al sacrificed their lives to gain xp so I'm not sure where these top 200m all contenders with balanced lives you speak of are. Last time I checked, it takes at least 20,000 hours to get 200M all without spins (over 30k for Suomi IIRC). Care to explain how one can remain a top contender for that achievement while playing in moderation? Be specific with your hours logged. If your point was that anyone can get 99 all skills in moderation these days, then yes I would probably agree with you, especially if they were buying spins. But 200m all skills? No way, Jose. How can you be this stupid? Do you have anything aside from meaningless ad hominems? Your assertion is completely delusional - the math and empirical evidence is completely against you. It is not possible to get the sort of experience gains that top players do within the timespan that they do by just playing in moderation. It is simply not possible no matter how much you want to believe otherwise. That's not an insult or indictment of top players, it's just a fact.

Well what other possible reason could rank chasing have other than respect from other players? It's not like there's something intrinsically valuable about the number 200M. People do it because they recognize that within the realm of Runescape it has social prestige and value. So, yes, I do think a lot of players are playing for prestige, fame, validation and what not - though I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Nor am I bothered by spin buying enough to shame particular individuals who do it. We are social creatures at the end of the day. Getting 200Ms was not a 'thing' in the game until certain famous people started doing it and the metagame shifted. People did not randomly just wake up one day and decide "I am going to get a 200M, just for me". And I quite agree. If you're serious about competing and getting 200Ms, you'd better be prepared to do everything in your power to get it (within the bounds of the rules). You'd be a fool not use resources if you have them that could make it easier. I don't mind Forsberg at all. He had a lot of money and resources, and he used them to ensure he had to put in less effort, have a better time, get things done faster. Not bothered by that at all. And how many players actually go for 200M all because they enjoy it all? Perhaps they enjoy certain skills, but all of it? No way. They do it for the end goal - which is competition, prestige, recognition and so forth. Most skills require a fair bit of grinding, and are by and large not fun, and getting 200M in them requires intense discipline and subjecting yourself to boredom and grinding. People do it for the social reasons, not because they derive 'fun' by chopping Crystal trees for hundreds and thousands of hours. It's idealistic and ahistorical to suggest that people got 200Ms just for fun. Perhaps some do (because of their particular idiosyncrasies as individuals) but most do it for social reasons.