me

The purpose of this thread is to present my guess on what the new skill is alongside my perhaps more useful evidence base. If you want the new skill to remain a complete surprise then don't read on. General Premises - Known Facts about the New Skill This section deals with three premises which should be taken into account by everyone who is trying to get an idea of what the new skill is The first premise is that the new skill is for both F2P and P2P (see evidence for second premise). The second premise is that the new skill is based on the key gameplay mechanic of the cancelled micro-transactional MMO ThirdScape, which means that whatever the new skill is it would have to work well as a gameplay dynamic behind an entire MMO. Evidence (RSOF QF 13-14-746-60289341, Mod MMG Q&A, question by The 39th Guy + MechScape Post #30 + statements like this one): The third premise is that it does not have to begin with "B" and is not sailing. Evidence (RSOF QF 13-14-745-60279545, Mod MMG Q&A): The fourth premise is that it is completely different to existing skills, current popular lines of thinking and nobody has done it before. Evidence (RSOF QF 13-14-745-60279545, Mod MMG Q&A): Specific Assumptions - Extrapolating from known information which might not be about the new skill The first assumption is that Jagex's trademarks for Never Ending, Infinite Dungeon and/or Dungeon Master relate to the new skill. Evidence: The first two were trademarked in March 2009 (source) prior to their announcement of ThirdScape's cancellation in May 2009 (source). Mod Korpz was asked if those two were related to FunOrb and said "Not to my knowledge, in truth I don't know why these are trade marked" (FOOF QF 7-8-674-36116). The second assumption is that Jagex's plan from March 2004 for "Randomly generated scenarios, where a new adventure is generated for you and your friends each time you go on it. Form an adventuring party and go on your own personal quest" (source) relates to the new skill. Evidence: None really, but as the game engine is shared between RuneScape and MechScape/Stellar Dawn it is possible that improvements made for one project has allowed for stuff in RuneScape which weren't previously feasible. The Roleplay / Dungeon Master theory - My guess on how it all ties together What could this mean? Well, possibly something to do with questing in instanced worlds which are generated dynamically. It would mean groups of players could go on custom dungeon quests, possibly with the skill being that needed for a game master to be able to control the adventure. As such the skill would be for the "dungeon master" or adventurer/roleplayer to be able to better control the adventure (maybe it'd allow more people in the adventure, higher level enemies, better loot, etc). This would also tie in with MMG's line that "the community would love this" as it is very community-focussed, but he could just have meant that players would like it. ...So, what are your thoughts on the premises, the assumptions and the resulting theory? I've tried to keep them separate so people can discuss the merits of the three separately and come up with their own ideas based on them.

To quote MMG "RuneScape will live forever! ...We will never stop developing and improving RuneScape regardless of the success of our other games... In 5 to 10 years I see RuneScape as the biggest, most epic game in the world!" (source). Andrew Gower also said in July 2008 "We will always focus on improving RuneScape and adding more depth to it" and revealed that "As I have said, RuneScape needs to constantly evolve to stay state of the art, so we are already planning the next graphical improvement of RuneScape " (source). Instead of going to a new RuneScape, they intend to keep improving this one. Hurmyie: Your comments regarding DirectX are misinformed and sirlonewolf is correct. They merely intend to add DirectX rendering as an option to the regular Java game alongside the existing support for OpenGL and Software-based rendering.

It is no secret so it may have just been that the person asked a number of questions and MMG decided to only answer the most interesting ones. While the press release said that Jagex secured an investment from Insight Venture Partners, I'm not sure if they actually invested any money into Jagex as opposed to just giving money to the shareholders to purchase shares. However, as members of the board I expect that they could contribute to Jagex in terms of their expertise and experience. Looking at the Q&A with Gerhard, they have apparently started anoth MMO in addition to Stellar Dawn, which could explain it. Not to mention that when Mechscape was canned it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the people who worked on that left. I know in 2007-08 their staff turnover was 23%, up from 9% the previous year - a lot of that possibly being due to the fact that they take on a lot of people on industrial placements and people who do customer support get better paid jobs elsewhere. The timing isn't right for the transition from MechScape to Stellar Dawn to have any relation to the staff figures, as those numbers won't be out until next year (The decision to restart the project didn't occur until August/September 2009). As far as I'm aware they've tried to retain as much of the MS staff as possible. Your hunch is right as one of the people from Insight is a University of Pennsylvania alumnus.

Mark Gerhard discussed this thread (well the version over at MechScape world) during the RuneScape Q&A (QF 13-14-745-60279545 page 2). (Feel free to merge this with the post above)

My understanding is that Mod MMG doesn't get too involved in day-to-day activities and a lot of what Andrew does is technical development and co-ordination. I'm guessing this means a lot of the calls are made by people such as the Head of RuneScape, the Lead Designer and the Lead Content Developer. RuneScape's general direction is probably a combination of Jagex's shareholders (the Gowers, co-founder Tedder and the Insight Venture Partnership guys), MMG and the Head of RuneScape, etc - with Andrew's view having a lot of weight if he gives it.

I think Jagex definitely do the right thing in contacting the police - it is up to the police to decide if something is worth investigating. It was only a week or so ago that someone posted on Facebook that they were going to commit suicide then actually did it. Of course there was also the incident in December 2008 where a guy who threatened to shoot up a local school had his room searched due to a Jagex tip-off and was subsequently charged with "making terroristic threats, possession of a handgun, possession of a sawed-off shotgun, possession of a switchblade, manufacturing a home-made black-powder rifle and possession of fireworks" (source).

I think if Iddison cared about RuneScape he would not have said of Jagex's success "It’s not the game, the game is going to come and go" (source), nor that RuneScape "will receive at least another five years of support" (source). In contrast, what did MMG say? "RuneScape will live forever! ...We will never stop developing and improving RuneScape regardless of the success of our other games... In 5 to 10 years I see RuneScape as the biggest, most epic game in the world! RuneScape was our first born and we will always love it" (source) - and of course MMG actually plays the game in his spare time. Iddison spoke to the media, but he never spoke to the community and he was also a barrier between Jagex and fan sites. To quote Mod Mark H "As for Fansites... It's true that in the past we treated these sites like a potential danger. As times change, so have we and thanks to Mark Gerhard's approach and enthusiasm we've come to realise that just because we had done something one way in the past didn't make it the *right* way. " (source). Actions, of course, speak louder than words, and under MMG they've loosened the chat filter, reversed some of the kiddification of the game (which is where Iddison seemed to be taking it), got rid of the video ads and so on. Jagex have also been more open by doing Q&As, interviews, social networking and video diaries. My understanding is that it seemed like he cared more about release cycles than what was actually being released. Not sure where this is coming from. Whenever I've spoken to Gerhard I've personally always found him to be pretty approachable. Yes it was (and before that eBay), and now he's a non-executive director of MasterCard.

Revenue from advertising is £2.1m for 2008-09 which is down from £2.2m for 2007-08. While this is a fall, it's still much higher than 2003-04 when it was only £171,027 from ad revenue (although of course associated costs would've been lower back then). The best quote I can think of on this matter is from Andrew Gower in 2007: "With the free version, we basically break even, but of course this version is very important to us as it brings in new players and introduces more people to the game" (source).

It's money Jagex has donated, not money donated to Jagex. "As part of its ongoing commitment to good corporate citizenship, Jagex supports a range of local, national and international charities. ...The charities have included: * Save the Children * CAFOD * Hamlin Churchill Childbirth Injuries Fund * Cancer Research * Cystic Fibrosis Trust * The University of Pennsylvania * Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign * Bury Bombers Wheelchair Basketball * SOS Children's Villages * East Anglian Children's Hospice (EACH) Jagex has also run charity auctions for signed merchandise, and, in 2008, donated artwork and prizes to the MMOCalendar, which raises funds for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, U.S.A." Source: http://jagex.com/corporate/Giving_Back/charities.ws

Well they say they experienced a peak in subscriptions during 2008-09. I take that to mean that at one point during that year they had a record number of subscribers, so they can't be doing too bad in terms of subscriber levels. Last time public statement on the exact amount that I can rememebr is "one million fifty thousand subscribers" from September 2008 (source) Comment in terms of how well Jagex is doing... 1. According to a statement from June 2009 RuneScape had ">175m registered users; 4-5m active players on a two weekly basis; 1m paying customers " (source). 2. According to Guinness Book of World Records it was the most popular free MMORPG for the second year in a row (source). 3. As of July 2009 Runescape had a reported 10m players per month (source). 4. Similar claims are carried by United Games who say that "RuneScape, the game, has over 5.4 million active players. These players have logged-in in the last 2 weeks. RuneScape.com has over 10 million unique users a month, according to Media Metrix" (source). 5. As of June 2009 FunOrb had a reported "36 games, 1.3m registered users (non RuneScape). 50k paying subscribers; $3 a month, users stay for 6 months" (see this thread). 6. I'm not sure if they differentiate between accounts and users in the various figures (if they did it would have to be a guesstimate). I agree. They make enough from dividends to have no compelling reason to give up control of a company which they founded and still work at.

Source: http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2010/01/jagex...-playing-games/ (19 January 2010). I've just got hold of Jagex's latest financial information from Companies House for the financial year ending 31 March 2009. I've added it to my datasets for previous years to make updated graphs and comparisons, etc. If you want to see more details about the reports of previous years then check out last year's thread. Figures have not been adjusted for inflation. Profit margin (operating profit as % of turnover): 36.93% (2003-04); 51.94% (2004-05); 60.95% (2005-06); 53.45% (2006-07); 44.89% (2007-08); 46.77% (2008-09). Donations made by Jagex as % of turnover: 0% (2003-04); 0.5272% (2004-05); 0.6316% (2005-06); 0.3665% (2006-07); 0.4521% (2007-08); 0.4989% (2008-09). Advertising revenue as % of turnover: 9.40% (2003-04); 8.63% (2004-05); 6.54% (2005-06); 6.92% (2006-07); 6.84% (2007-08); 5.60% (2008-09). Quotes from Directors' report and financial statements: Old charts which haven't been updated (they are correct, except Gerhard has replaced Iddison as director):

Go Jagex! CasualGaming reveals that: While Spong is wondering which law it is they will try and charge him with (although seem to have confused a general statement about sometimes doing bad stuff on the Internet is how illegal with an insight into the specific arrest). I think it may have been released under the heading "JAGEX AID UK POLICE TO DEMONSTRATE ZERO TOLERANCE STANCE ON CYBER CRIME" with the sub-heading "Account phisher arrested by UK police's e-Crime Unit following tip-off from Jagex." They've also taken action against those running private servers in the past, but that was probably mostly done by out-of-house lawyers.

They registered it for classes 09 16 25 28 41 which is the same as for RuneScape, FunOrb, Jagex, Stellar Dawn, Arcanists, Steel Sentinels, Armies of Gielinor, Kickabout League, Bachelor Fridge, etc. The only trademark I can think of which doesn't follow that pattern is their recent one for " HACK IDOL" which is just Class 41 ("Organising and arranging of competitions for developers of computer games programs..."). Note: This is a trademark (protecting an identity/brand). It is neither a patent (protecting a process or composition of matter) nor a copyright (protecting creative works / content). However, all three are forms of intellectual property.

Actually, Jagex have registered domains for most of their FunOrb games. Most just re-direct to the FunOrb site but then they are working on sites like http://www.arcanists.com/ that operate as mini-sites for specific games (as mentioned by Mod Sallyd on FO QFC 7-8-620-31338).

From http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ Mark text: RUNEWIZARDS Status:New applicationClasses:09, 16, 25, 28, 41 Filing date:18 November 2009 List of goods or services Class 09:Downloadable telephone ring tones; downloadable screen-savers; downloadable wallpapers; computer game programs; video game programs; interactive entertainment software Class 16:Books; player's guides; instructional and teaching materials (except apparatus); printed publications; printed matter; leaflets; brochures; posters Class 25:Articles of clothing; T-shirts; hats; caps Class 28:Toys, games and playthings; board games; playing cards Class 41:Entertainment services; electronic games services; Internet games; provision of games by means of local computer networks, global computer networks, the Internet, cable or wire communications services, wireless telecommunications services and broadband telecommunications services-- --- Domain name: runewizards.com Registered: 2009-11-13 --- ...Think it might be there attempt at bringing RS to another platform? Another FunOrb game?

The mouses are signed, and I looked at a few and they seem to be signed in different places.

Okay, all 6 parts are uploaded now (see first post). If anyone has better quality vids then please upload. Also if anyone has any energy to post any interesting highlights of what Fetzki says then that'd be good too. Sorry I didn't really look behind me. You probably heard me rambling about RuneScape, Mario, Luigi and Sonic tho.

Yeah, it was pretty cool. As far as I know this is the first time that Jagex have done such an event which wasn't part of something you had to pay for (e.g. a business conference). Part 2 is now up.

It was advertised that today "Jagex will be making a rare public appearance to give a privileged, unique insight into both the Jagex history and culture - and the development of one of the most successful MMO's of all time". Well, that's happened now and I went and caught it on video and I'm uploading them now. It was a fun day and gave people the opportunity to hear from Jagex and to meet some of the players. - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6

I'm also thinking a tutorial update (e.g. "help start things on a better foot"). They recently did some focus tests at the Jagex offices for it I believe.

for three hours? Well, after the tutorial they'd need to observe you in the game itself to see if it prepared you sufficiently for it, plus they'd want you to give feedback.

They said it's probably going to be a bit higher, but in return we'll have a better looking game.

I'll still be me.

I don't judge a game just on its graphics, but if I'm going to be spending a lot of time on a game I do prefer it to look good.