Flabberwocky

[spoiler=Response to Rsvote]Rsvote, I would like to thank you for reading the article however I disagree with the generalization that you made of it. Most specifically your statement that I somehow articulated that Jagex has invented 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." Nowhere do I say that they have produced some silver bullet to combat the threat of Real World Trading or Bots to be able to say that Free Trade and the Wilderness could return. Based on the context and the reasons Jagex cited to remove the Wilderness and Free Trade however I did conclude the article saying "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." That sentence was not a declaration of confidence but rather something that I believe that Jagex would have, and I said in the final sentence "must have" answered so that they could even offer this Referendum for the players. If I had phrased this as a question at the end perhaps this confusion would have been avoided. I had made it a statement as a stylistic choice because I felt that the piece focused very much so on the history of the game in 2007 and how things moved to the present day situation with the Grand Exchange and "New Wilderness" it would be a reasonable statement to conclude. And finally, I did not choose to ask this question to the players because this is a question that Jagex must have had prepared an adequate answer for. It is their job to supply all parts of this answer they can disclose to us, the players. as well, and tell us how we can help. In regards to your statement that it would have been better for me to simply 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" I have friends that have played for years, many of them do not have the urge to go back through and read all those newsposts, all those dev blogs, to read thousands and thousands of words on the subject. I believe it is the purpose of good journalism to collect that massive mountain of information and provide it in an understandable and readable manner for those who may not seek to pour through all those documents. I know many friends who play RuneScape and have played since 2007 and far, far, earlier even, and when I talked to them about what they remembered, many of them wished to understand the reasoning behind the removal of Free Trade and the Wilderness. I too, did not like the removal of Free Trade and the Wilderness, it devastated the Guild I was in at the time, and many of my best friends and players I trained with and had a great deal of fun with left the game because of it. To reply "Bots" to them certainly would have answered the question. But it would have not given the full context and seriousness of the situation. I wrote the article because I knew that some people would appreciate having someone go through all these documents and from them write one piece that summarized and explained the reason behind it adequately for them. I have friends who started playing after the removal of Free Trade and the Wild in 2008. They do not understand what the time was like before Free Trade and the Wilderness, and many of them wanted to know why, but did not want to go through the mountains of newsposts and dev blogs that I referred them to. This was a piece that I wrote for them that I hoped would shine some light on the history of the game and have them understand in general, what was going on in RuneScape up to that point that made for a change that so many people have been complaining about. Finally, I provided those newsposts and dev blog references at the end because I know many types of people read the Tip.it times, and some of them would certainly enjoy reading through those documents themselves firsthand to draw their own conclusion. [spoiler=Response to Earth Poet]Earth Poet, On the point where you made in regards to not going into more detail on the changes in the past three years ago and adjustments by Jagex and the Games Industry that may have made this Referendum possible I certainly could have gone into more. I did not. For that I apologize. Ultimately I felt that this was a piece about RuneScape, to discuss the subject at length would change the nature of the piece whose purpose is to talk about the history of the time period and specifically JAGEX's reasoning behind the removal of Free Trade and the Wilderness to a broad piece on Real World Trading and Gold Farming in general, something that I do not want to do and that if you are seriously interested in the topic, can find many excellent pieces on said subject. In addition, I wrote this piece for a paper on the RuneScape Official Forums, and on the RSOF we are not allowed to name other MMOs (although that rule has been relaxed since 2009, but they have never truly clarified what is allowed to be discussed and not allowed to be discussed in stone) and at the same time, discussing litigation and other hairy topics may have endangered the Magazine thread on the Official Forums; something I did not want to happen. I know Tip.it's rules are more relaxed on this and I could have expanded the piece from the version I wrote on the Magazine to discuss this, but my purpose on the piece was not to write a piece on the games industry as a whole, but to focus specifically on RuneScape. Regardless, you did say that "this is exactly where I should've went into more detail" so I will try to in as brief a manner as I can in a forum post while not scrimping on the details: To me I have 3 changes (among many) that have occurred since 2007 that are helping make the situation palatable, but not perfect for Jagex to offer the return of Free Trade and the Wilderness again. Maturation and Growth of the Online Games Market over the past Decade (especially since '07) Online Gaming has gone beyond EverQuest and RuneScape, there are more games that require an internet connection than ever, and more MMOs and online worlds than ever. I discussed on Page 1 with Strilmus some of the MMOs that emerged in the past couple of years that have adjusted and evolved to keep up with the times. Zynga's Farmville, Cityville, etc. – the emergence of social networking games, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, AION, Guild Wars, MapleStory, Warhammer 40k, Age of Conan, ad nauseum, - the list of MMOs available in 2000 vs. 2010 is bigger than ever, especially as many of these games some of which I have named have been around just as long or almost as long as RuneScape have come to mature as well. Upcoming games like Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: the Old Republic, Jagex's own Stellar Dawn, etc. will only increase market competition. To bring back a mechanic that many of its player base has been loath to part with that still remain quite vocal about it all these years later may be a good weapon in an arsenal of tools to keep RuneScape fresh in an even more competitive market than ever. Jagex has matured as a games company Ever since Mark Gerhard has become CEO to replace Geoff Iddison who was appointed in late 2007 (the former PayPal CEO brought in to lead Jagex) things have shifted back towards caring more about being a games developer in a pretty vocal way. RuneFest is one of the biggest examples in recent years. Look back on the updates, and if folks have played since 2007, remember what the player attitude was like towards what Jagex was doing in RuneScape during that time period and then look at the shift shift in tone since 2009 and you will see that 2007 all the way up to February of 2009 look like some sort of dark age for the game. Ever since Mark Gerhard has gotten back I believe RuneScape has gotten a second wind, and so has Jagex and the company as a whole. I believe that a CEO has a major impact upon the culture and direction of a company, whether through direct or indirect action. Iddison was an outside brought in to lead Jagex, a businessman through and through, his big prior experience as successful leader in PayPal makes him a businessman I would respect, but ultimately, I believe he was not the right person to lead a games company like Jagex, where their financial success stemmed from their love for games (a passion echoed over and over at Runefest). Under Gerhard's tenure we saw immediate changes, for one he wrote a letter to the players announcing sweeping changes in the approach Jagex would take for its players in RuneScape quite soon after his appointment. He has participated in Q&As. He was at RuneFest with everyone else. He even got interviewed by Excl for RuneScape YouTubers. They've grown in staff, they've grown with the times, and they're more open again than ever. Legal Developments in the past several years, still uncharted territory: Several lawsuits have increased in legal action by Games companies in defending their intellectual property. I must disclose first that I am no legal expert, but even with just general knowledge I can say that one of the most important things that court rulings can set in the United States and abroad is precedent, which means that based on the reason for a specific case being won, can be cited again by other litigants against other offenders. The more victories the games industry racks up, the more legal precedent it may have in pursuing such cases. For example in Blizzard vs. MDY, Blizzard successfully won a lawsuit against the makers and distributors of an illegal botting tool used to circumvent their anti-cheating technology. The court ordered them to stop distribution of the software. The court ruled because the makers had violated the Terms of Service for Blizzard 's World of Warcraft players it is called an "End User License Agreement" which you may be familiar with if you have just skipped and clicked "accept" whenever one of those things pop up when installing a new piece of software or licensed technology. Jagex is also proving to be a fierce fighter in the courts to protect its intellectual property; for example in a suit filed by PalTalk Holdings Inc, which sued many major companies including Blizzard, Microsoft, Sony, and more for violating a patent which it supposedly had on online data sharing between networked computers, where Microsoft infamously settled with the company for an undisclosed sum, Jagex fought to the end. In their press release Mark Gerhard said of the case angrily that it forced the comment to "incur a seven digit expense and waste over a year of management time on a case with absolutely no merit". Will this expensive price tag stop Jagex from fighting lawsuits and continuing to pursue in court cases against its intellectual property? As a business, it will probably have to continue to do so if it becomes enough of a threat. Unfortunately the law is still murky as a tool to prevent people from selling or distributing this illegal software, as there are enormous costs with every lawsuit. Blizzard has noted in its filings (amongst their grievances) that they have spent hundreds of millions supporting their legal team. Results for Jagex in recent litigation to defend their intellectual property have not been too positive. This is an area I would love for someone with legal experience (whether in the US or abroad) who plays to shed some light on it. It is an expensive process, and as long as games companies take hard-line stances on Real World Trading the pile of legal cases is only likely to grow. Earth, I believe I answered your second piece of criticism in my reply to RSvote. In response to your third point of criticism: 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. I acknowledge that statement was a supposition, you are correct by saying it was. By pointing to the thread RWT posed in 2007 I hoped readers would assume with me that in order for them to offer this Referendum again seriously that they would have prepared before they offered this. My purpose in this piece was not to answer those questions you are asking however. I will repeat again my purpose in this article is to to provide the history of the time period and specifically JAGEX's reasoning behind the removal of Free Trade and the Wilderness, which in turn adds another level of depth to this referendum more than the immediate assumption that "Oh my Goodness, Jagex is finally listening to everyone's complaints about the removal of free trade and the wildy." They must have thought very seriously about the RWT question before they presented this referendum to us. If you feel that this was a foolish assumption for me to make, I acknowledge your criticism of me for doing so. I can only hope that as the referendum is leaning towards an overwhelming vote YES for their return that Jagex will hold a Q&A, release more information, explain to us how they are preparing for the return of Free Trade and the Wilderness – especially in regards to combating RWT and Bots. In closing, I would like to say that I come from an old school of thought where I believe a point made, however well articulated the argument may be, deserves a respectful, and if possible, complete answer. I believe that by setting aside the time to read through my article and then to post on the forum, even if not with the most positive of words I respect some of the points you have made. I have tried my best to provide you with an adequate explanation and response to points of criticism you both raised, and acknowledge where I was indeed weaker in my piece. If you have read through my entire response to your criticism, I thank you again deeply for setting aside your time to do so. If you have additional questions, etc. Please do not hesitate to PM me. Thank you if you've taken the time again to read.

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

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.

I'm really satisfied at the system requirements, they seem to easily fit those of relatively new computer systems. Although I have heard of some trickery in running the future Fullscreen mode on Linux. Seeing that I use Windows at the moment though, I won't be complaining about that. My main concern however remains still with the applicable monitor resolutions, seeing as I probably am running at the upper echelons on the resolution scale with a monitor at 1920 x 1200 resolution, so I hope they support it :ohnoes: .

The quest was quite easy, was scared the requirements foreshadowed a very tough quest but it turned out to be your average trekking quest. It opens up a whole new bag of marbles for the future of the Pirate Quest series though, sounds like after the cutscene in the end we might see some uhm, island-hopping in our future.The parrot, although it is an Ex-Ex-Parrot (I thought it was a play on the Mont Python Dead Parrot Sketch) looks a bit shabby to me, but ah well, it is undead, so I suppose it should look a little worse for wear. Other than that, I'm quite pleased with it. The experience rewards were quite hefty.

I have heard much talk amongst my friends about the bad of the "miniclip Generation" of Runescape players member and nonmember alike. While, it is inarguable that Miniclip has brought in many new players via advertising, I do not think that it brought in entirely only players who lacked maturity, but did bring in a huge influx of players. Of this composition of players, it is probable legitimate to conclude that at least some of them would use shorthand far more often than others, using the more IM-Textmessage language shorthand than full words, along with accusations of beggary, and just being plain old annoying. Fundamentally, it all brews down to age. While age is not *necessarily* a factor in determining maturity, I will not hesitate to point out that Miniclip is also the site that advertises games such as Club Penguin, which I hear is blatantly popular, yet not targetted at teenagers. The advertising of other games on Miniclip do not contain the amount of sheer freedom of contact on Runescape, whether in conversation, or in limitations in the virtual world. By advertising on Miniclip, they likely drew in an age-group that has been raised with technology constantly at their side, and the "You must be 13 years old to comply with international law" requirement to join Runescape is likely brushed aside with lies. In a society where most of my friends textmessage and IM on quite the daily basis, the format of Runescape's chatbox is very much like an AIM message box, and communication with players by the younger age group is likely carried out in the method that they have grown up with, shorthand, which many people find annoying, along with things like repeatedly saying, "Newb, Noob, Lol, Rofl, Lmao, etc.", these sayings probably do not have as much of a maturity complex influence on a younger age group than an older, or mature age group that can comprehend the meaning of said words. But, in the wide "net" that is Miniclip, mature players can also be picked up as well, but players that are considered young on Runescape, essentially the minimum age of 13, are often less blessed with the scope, patience, and capacity for "maturity" than others, and those that are luckily the more intelligent for their age will probably agree that they do not consider their "Mental Age" to be thirteen at all. It is merely the fact that Miniclip was never really designed to be for age groups 13+, and that the influence of Miniclip probably brought in alot of people who don't understand the core concepts of MMORPGs. Stressing Friendship, communication, teamwork, patience, strategizing, and at times fast thinking. Runescape can be out of the scope of some youngsters, however it is quite easily within the grasp of the more mature of their age. JaGex's Runescape on the ESRB ratings system would most definitely fit under "Teen", and the concepts I stressed in the sentence earlier are Learned concepts, one that the age group with which Miniclip has been geared towards is currently DEVELOPING. It is not necessarily the fault of the people who see the advertising on Miniclip and decide to play, but rather the mere fact that the age group with which the site is geared is simply not exposed to the cooperation and maturity usually developed with age to blend into the community (of Runescape) without accusations of being "Newbs, or annoying, or beggars, etc."

Today Brings the First official day that I start going for the Saradomin Sword. Although I am starting off with Absolutely 0gp. Need to smith some Iron Bars into knives and sell them in order to get some Pure Essence. All in all, nothing too difficult. But my time on Runescape is rather short on weekdays. Wish me luck. :pray:

NOTE: THIS IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION! Table of Contents: I.Introduction 0-Daily Happenings 1-Major Goals 2-Other Goals 3-Interesting Happenings Hello Folks, I'm Flabberwocky! ^_^ First, a bit about me, I started Playing Runescape Several Years back, missed the Yo-Yo Christmas event by a matter of weeks (Darn!), but still, I got hooked on this quirky and amusing MMORPG. After all these years I've grown to love it, and my stats have improved quite alot as I played. From Elverag to Legends, to Recipe for Disaster. Lately though, I have been getting rather bored. The Skiller Clan I was in is now rathe rdisfunctional, and my stats are too low to get into any of the Skilling Clans I admire. So I decided, to just settle down, and finally I realized, why not start a nice little blog on Tip.it? So here I am, and I hope you appreciate my efforts even a fraction as much as I do. That's Me!: [hide][/hide] My Stats: Last Updated:September 17th, 2007 [hide][/hide] Well Folks, That pretty much ends up the Introduction to my Blog, I know it's a bit messy but bear with me since I just started. :oops: Feel free to HYT! me if you ever see me around! Also Feel free to drop by my Clanchat if you want, I can always give out some advice I suppose. ^_^ Section 0 Daily Happenings -September 17, 2007 Started The Blog! Let the Ruckus Begin! -September 18, 2007 Finishing Smithing Iron Bars, buying a decent batch of Pure essence, the Journey to the Saradomin Sword, Begins! Section 1. Major Goals Current Major Goal: Get a Saradomin Sword! Progress:0% Other Major Goals: 91 Runecrafting (See Section After Current Major Goal) 1900 Total (See Section After Current Major Goal) Full Third Age Melee (See Section After Current Major Goal) Current Major Goal [hide]Achieving the Saradomin Sword Alright, Let's get to the nitty gritty, why do I WANT The Saradomin Sword? Well it's a fairly short story. On the Day the God Wars Dungeon Came out, I still had my Purple Party hat back then (Before I upgraded to a Yellow), and I decided, why not go to World 2 and buy the pieces of a Godsword? So a few hours later I had a Bandos Godsword, a huge crowd, killed a couple guards with it, and sold it. Anyways, after testing out the Godsword, it was cool and all, but lacked the kind of effeciency I needed. Of course, then I saw someone with a Saradomin Sword Today, and I was impressed. Speed plus looks! All at a decent cost of 30M! To me that's fairly worth it. After all, I have a party hat now and why bother investing in anything else since Rares usually go up every summer anyway. Some Info that Made the Godsword Appealing to me: -Whip Speed, now that was a key factor. -Looks, it does look quite impressive ingame, which is probably one of the most important factors to me next to the Speed and Power of it. -Stats. + 0 + 82 + 60 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 82 + 2 We Basically have a Two Hander that hits at whip speed, and has whip stats, and can train strength at a decent speed. A must have in my opinion! (At least for me) How I plan to get it: Runecrafting, That's what! I currently Have 87 Runecrafting, fairly decent if you ask me, and also just about a million light years away from 91 Runecrafting. Getting the Saradomin Sword will be quite entertaining, and also help further my goal of 91 Runecrafting, by about approximately 140k Essence--> Which would be crafted into 140k Natures. :ohnoes: Date Goal Was Started: September 17th, 2007 Date Goal Finished: Not YET! Amount of Natures Needed To Craft:14O,OOO Natures Current Amount of Natures Crafted:O Why 14O,OOO Nature Runes you Ask? I will be Selling the Nature Runes at 300gp Each 40k of the Natures Will go Towards Buying the 100k Essence (Careful observers will have calculated 40k is more than enough to get 100k Essence, but one must never be too careful and I am starting out with Zero Essence, so I need that extra 10k/40k to get the starting fuel for my goal!) The Rest of the 100k Natures Will go towards the 30M for the Saradomin Godsword, of course if it falls in value, I'll buy it at the Current Street Price.[/hide] 91 Runecrafting Goal [hide]Subsequently, my other major Goal is 91 Runecrafting. Because many of my Major, and even my Minor Goals necessitate the levelling of the Runecrafting skill, as I Runecraft to make most of my GP, plus I like Runecrafting. I will be updating the Runecrafting section of my goal as well. So count it almost as a "Bonus" part of my Current Major Goal of Going for a Godsword Amount of Natures Needed To Craft for 91 Runecrafting (From Starting Day):211,700 Amount of Natures Crafted So Far:0/211,700 Current Runecrafting Level:87 Amount of Natures Needed for A Runecrafting Level:43,138 Note:This Goal Bar Below MAY be out of Date experience wise, and may even show the wrong level if I just leveled within a day or two. (Updates kind of Slow) For the most Recent Updates on my Runecrafting Level, I'll probably post screenies of it below. [/hide] Third Age Melee Goal [Currently Not In Progress] Section 2 Other Goals [hide]Currently None At the Moment, Will Add more Soon![/hide] Section 3 Interesting Happenings [hide]Mostly Will Post Pictures of Miscellanious Levels, Interesting Clue Rewards, Drops, Various things I achieve during my various Goal Quests.[/hide]

It'd be a pair of shiny dragon legs from Steel Dragons. Was just trying them out too. Killed < 30 and BAM Dragon legs. Course that was Years Ago, back when D Legs were worth much more, so I was a really happy camper :P

Pardon the pun, but ever since I've started playing people have been pawing the forums for more pets. I guess after thousands of locked threads on the Official Suggestions Forum, we finally have some serious evidence. So, most likely in a few hours the Future Updates forum will be chock full of speculation. Personally, I think that this is similar to what we saw with the Varrock Museum spoiler on the Knowledge Base, and the Runescape Homepage Banner Advert showing you how to type it in the KB is almost like the Godwars Dungeon Advertisements. So, methinks, either it'll be released as possibly one of the Rewards for the Varrock Achievement Diaries. But personally, I think just *seeing* this animated picture is enough for me for a couple months. Better to know it *might* be there than speculate to death on the forums :P

Hohum, when I finished Horror from the Deep I was only level 70 something. Was on my questing rampage to get the almighty Legends Cape. Good times. Being a goody-goody, I chose Saradomin as my first book. Then Zamorak because back then I thought Guthix was lame. Now, with all these quests talking about the importance of Guthix. And since I do have a quest cape and now we find out there's a whole Pantheon of other gods we don't know about, I think Guthix owns, and Zamorak was a poor choice :P. But I'm lvl 111 now, and I still have only my Saradomin and Zamorak Prayer books. :? Ah well, one day I will get the Guthix Prayer book and bring Balance to my collection. \

Well I'm Flabberwocky, a fair Runescapian Veteran, been thinking about joining Tip.it for a while so I guess now is better than later. I look foward to having some fun, reading interesting guides, and generally enjoying the Forum here. Maybe I'll make my own Blog or something. It's going to be fun here I think on the Tip.It Forums.