Earth_Poet

For Slayer, choose the highest slayermaster you can, and if you have money to spend, get a cannon and cannonball the multicombat area tasks. Complete the Smoking Kills quest to gain points you can spend later on, just be sure not to skip any tasks. Mining, powermining Granite is a cheap and easy way. Do the Dealing with Scarabas quest to get the enchanted water tiara, and this help you eliminate the need for waterskins. Or if you do 26/76king and get mining brawlers, you can mine in the wildy for extra xp. Actually, I'm not sure if that is as safe anymore since they changed the rules on it. You might risk losing them now. Check into it though. You can also join certain clanchats and hunt for falling stars to help you. Farming and Herblore go hand-in-hand as I'm sure you already know. You can also consider doing the Kingdom Management quests, and invest heavily in maple logs. You get a healthy supply of nests containing tree seeds that you can either use to plant, or sell for a good profit. Hunter, you can hunt red chins for a good profit if you can find a spot. If you get frustrated, you can always try to switch to grays as they can sell decently as well, or move to salamanders. RCing - I recommend ZMI alter for decent experience, and you will usually break even or so through it. For profit, natcrafting with Grahhks probably would be the best way to go, or you can craft double Cosmics for lower xp value through the Abyss. I just noticed they are priced for 170 each on the GE. Not sure how quickly they will sell though. One more level will get you to Death runes, which is a decent profit/xp through the Abyss. You'll have to find the right balance to make you happy though. Construction - gotta spend money. sorry. Also, don't forget about all the little ways to add extra xp. Tears of Guthix will reward your lowest skill. It's worth the five minutes for free xp. Penguins points can be spent on extra xp by hunting for them every Wednesday, and there are clan chats to help you find them. You can buy extra battelstaves for 7k ea in Varrock, up to 64 a day depending on how far along you are in the Varrock Diary. Other than that, just stick with a skill until you reach your goal, and move on to the next. Good luck!

I've been smoking for about 15 years now, and I can definitely feel the toll it's taking on my health. It's a nasty habit that leaves me with bad breath. My clothes stink. I have to sometimes leave my group of friends to go smoke. It's gotten way too expensive, as a pack of cigarettes have essentially quadrupled in cost since I started, but if I'm down to deciding to buy groceries or cigarettes, I'm always choosing cigarettes. So why don't I just quit? Easier said than done. I've tried quitting three different times; once I even quit for nearly a year. It's really hard to explain to someone who doesn't have first-hand experience of addiction why it's so hard to quit. Some people do have the willpower to do it, and I applaud them for it. I see people fresh out of open heart surgery lighting up, so it's a tough habit to quit. At the same time, it's a little annoying at the demonizing of cigarette smoking in the United States. Statistics have often been cherry-picked to provide the results they want, or phrased in a manner to portray a dire circumstance. The huge tax increases on cigarettes are often coupled with politicians boasting that the tax hike will increase revenue to spend on healthcare costs (By the way, how much have these taxes helped lower your costs?), and encourage smokers to quit. That's an oxymoron. If people quit smoking, then that would mean less tax revenue on cigarettes. But if revenue increases, then that means people aren't quitting. You can't have both. It's about money and politics. If cigarettes were really as dangerous as they have been made out to be, then why aren't they illegal? Because if they were, you'd see the biggest underground crime organization since Prohibition. Those in power aren't interested in seeing me quit smoking. They haven't provided any program to help people quit. Instead, they've created laws to ostracize smokers from any public place. California is teetering on entrapment. They are legal to purchase, but you can't smoke them anywhere? It sounds like a clever way to appease the groups who oppose smoking, while raising money through fines and taxes. I would like to quit smoking for good, but I don't appreciate being shamed and harassed into doing it.

I'd say that's only a piece of the puzzle. Why did thousands of players click away to 99 before skillcapes, or complete all the quests? Why do people camp out looking for challenge scrolls? Yes, some people like to show off their achievements, but for me it's more of if it's there in the game, then I want to do it. I might just be different though. I spend most of my time wandering around in a spottier cape and boots of lightness as my skilling outfit. I've always been in favor of function over fashion. I know there are others who spend time coordinating their outfits around their skillcape.

I don't think Jagex has missed this point. Otherwise, we wouldn't have even had skillcapes. I wonder which came first though: the chicken or the egg. Before skillcapes, many skills had no incentive to train all the way to 99, because many of them stopped unlocking rewards at around 85-90. Some people stopped training, but a lot of people didn't bother because they didn't see a point in spending money and time on a skill that got them nothing more. After skillcapes were released, it gave players something to shoot for. If I had a choice, however, between an outfit to show off and new abilities at higher levels, I'd rather have new abilities. Yes, it's nice to show off your stats every now and then, but I think that goes hand-in-hand with obtaining a tangible reward at the end. Maybe Tip.It should make this their next poll question. I'd be interested in the results.

I enjoyed reading the first article. I was unaware of all of these bugs except for the bandages in Duel Arena glitch. I think a famous highroller staker got banned for doing this if I remember correctly. Another thing I enjoyed about the article was that it didn't pit an argument to blame/defend Jagex on the issue of bugs, which is what happens most of the time when bugs are mentioned. It simply presented it as interesting history of Runescape. Yes, please write more about this subject. I'm thinking you might've been referring to the second article, but if you indeed are referring to the first could you PM me about the mistakes? If you are referring to the second article, then I agree. There was an edited copy ready, but I think it accidentally got overlooked. I didn't like the second article as much. As stated earlier, the Runescape economy works differently than real life economies. The value of most products is represented in their xp value, and this is why raw materials are higher than finished products. Yes, early on when few people have mastered the levels to make certain items, there is some profit to be found in making the items because there is greater demand for the finished product then there is people who can supply them. Look how Bluerose dominated early on with 99 Smithing. I made all profit on my way to 99 Fletching. Today, we have plenty of skillers willing to make these finished goods at discount prices. Additionally, many of these products are less in demand (such as rune weapons and armor) then they were earlier on. This leads to cheaper finished products. The raw materials can still retain their value, as the true value is in the xp, but the finished goods are a byproduct. Therefore, you can't really complain that you can't make money through skills, simply by buying the raw materials and making finished goods. Everybody experiences this same scenario. Even your friend who learned a "painful reality" was contributing to the same problem by putting a glut of cooked sharks on the market through powertraining! You can profit from your skills if you decide to gather your own resources, but most of us want to reach our goals before the end of time. There's a cost vs time equation most skillers must factor in. The more money you are willing to spend, then the less time it will take to level up. How much will it cost me? How long will it take? How much can I unload my finished goods for? The game changes constantly. You have to learn to keep up somehow, or learn how to supplement your income through other means.

So the Cambridge volunteers might have been brought in to test Mechscape. No update this week. They're in the "polishing" stages. Could it possibly, just maybe, be coming out soon? :pray:

My opinion is include the TET events on the main account instead of creating a separate account. Oh, and it's Aquanite, not Aquantine. :)

Do you mean an Item store, where you buy items for Real life money, if so, i think it's against Jagex's policies to do that, at least it has been in Runescape. I certainly hope Mechscape isn't like that, since they were willing to risk Runescape sinking in the ocean to protect this philosophy.

I'm not. Looks like half the votes fell between 60-80 slayer. 78 falls right in this range as high level as far as players are concerned.

You're right, it was on the list of big promises with RS2: Ancient Magicks, Summoning, player-owned houses... I remember some old school players telling me it was brought up practically from the beginning, like they were going to auction off houses to players, until the game exploded in population and that was no longer feasible. However, the issue was brought up again with the release of Farming. It was originally supposed to be under Carpentry.

=D> There was an interesting article discussing this. It said in 2002, the United States was spending $5,267 per capita on healthcare out of 30 countries surveyed. The second highest spending country was Switzerland who spent $3,446, 34% less than the U.S.. The median among the 30 countries was $2193 spent, 58% less than what we spend. The article also answered the argument that nations with government run healthcare are able to keep their costs so low because of long waiting lists. It said, "The procedures with waiting lists in these other countries, however, represent only 3 percent of spending and therefore cannot explain much of the cost differential." The article also addressed the argument that higher malpractice suits are the culprit to blame, saying "The researchers compared the number of malpractice claims and awards in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom and found that while U.S. citizens sue more often, the actual settlements from all four countries were comparable." http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/2005/anderson_healthspending.html And don't think we're getting better quality care either. In 2006, the U.N. ranked us 38th in the world in life expectancy, and 33rd in lowest infant mortality rate. This is well below France, Canada, and the U.K..

Now I'm not as excited about MS as I originally was. I'm more worried if I will even like it now. How "casual" of a game are we talking about here? Not having xp sounds good if it takes away the grinding, but the big secret is how do you progress your character. If it's more playing and less grinding, then I'm all for it. If it's invest/research and wait, I might not be interested. I tense up at the mention of different races. One of the best aspects of Runescape is the ability to dabble in everything. If different races means limitations on what each race can wear, do, travel to, etc., then I might have to skip this game. God, I hate all the speculation. They talk about not playing into the whole corporate market model, but holding interviews and saying it's nearly finished, it's great, and we're not telling you anything about it isn't the best method of promoting yourself. If I never played Runescape and happened upon this interview, it wouldn't interest me in the slightest bit to check it out. Ok, you're helping to build a buzz within your own community, but nobody knows what the hell we are buzzing about. Nobody knows anything worth any value about this game. At least let the public in on what we're supposed to be getting into. Is there really nothing to preview other than a random song and a few pieces of concept art? Jagex had a great game in Runescape, and I hope they use their genius talents to make Mechscape good, but they really fail at promoting their products.

Easier? Really?: I agree with the article's sentiments. To quote Novalyfe in an interview in 2006: The game isn't static. It's been constantly evolving, and that plays a huge role in keeping a loyal fanbase interested. However, there are some valid points in reference to combat. With the strength of weapons today, and only needing a level 75 to wield, are we hitting the ceiling with 99 hp? We could expand the variety of weapons outward even further, but how far can we keep going up? Another point that can be made, and this sort of ties into the next article is this: Did we really need a whole year off to upgrade the game? The fun, new content has slowed down dramatically this year, which is what has kept my interest over the years. Forgotten Updates: To answer the final question posed in this article, it all really depends. Vinesweeper and Sorceress's Garden, for example, are updates that I'm sure many have forgotten, but I certainly would classify them as "better" than others, because few people play them. I would say a greater factor on the strength of an update is how well it improves the game for players. Many of the updates we've seen I wouldn't classify as front page material. They are more of patchwork updates. Looking over the last two months of front page updates, I see a lot about either new ways to buy membership, or more PVP tweaks. So, just because an update is forgotten over time doesn't make it good, and just because it's remembered doesn't make it bad. I probably feel like many fans do; it's great they are making some needed changes to the game, but now I can't wait for this year to be over with so we can hopefully get back to making some new content. If things work out right, you may see an article discussing some of these points later this month, but it might not be as much as you are hoping. If you think previous years have been perfect, then I would disagree. For example, I remember Construction being promised before the end of 2005. Instead, it was delayed roughly five months into 2006, full of bugs, and hit its climax with the Falador Massacre.

I tend to keep mine set to friends out of habit from the old days, but lately I've been leaving it on more often.

It's probably a bad idea to interject in the middle of a feminist argument, but I'm a sucker for punishment. The subject matter is so strong that the technique is somewhat a secondary priority to discuss. The plight of women in the world is well known. In 2002 in the United States, women outnumbered men 144 million to 138 million, making up 51% of the population, yet women are still commonly referred to as a minority group. Only in the last thirty years have women actively pursued careers in the workforce. Prior to that, nurses, teachers, and secretaries were pretty much the only options. While Hillary Clinton was running for president, she mentioned her dreams of being an astronaut as a child, only to be told she couldn't be one. Even today, we still mention the metaphorical "glass ceiling" when referring to women in the workforce. Your subject is far more specific, yet we see the same old prejudices apparent. In the gaming world, females find themselves even more of a minority than ever before. You have a right to be offended when you hear, "No girls allowed." What if they said, "No black people allowed," or, "No Jews allowed." It is offensive to women. I wasn't sure about the use of the word hypocrite, however, so I checked out the link to the story that inspired you to right your piece. In the original story, it seems much of the intent is directed particularly at Captain Holly Short. Hypocrites are those who condemn others for the very same actions they engage in themselves. For example, it would be hypocritical of me to bash people who spend excessive amounts of time on the internet, because I fall in the same category. Your story deals more with prejudices, sexism to be more specific. Your antagonists assume you must be weaker because you are female. For me, this fails to fall under my definition of hypocrisy. We also need to take into context the population that play Runescape. We're looking at a dominate section of male teenagers. Some may be preadolescent, and haven't quite reached a maturity with women. They are still stuck in the "Girls! Yuck!" stage. Then you have a large group that are interested in women, but have little experience in conversing with them. These incidents you see a flirtfest begin. Though the maturity level of the community may be a factor in this scenario, you still have an interesting topic. I just think you are going about it the wrong way. I agree with archimage on this point. You have found a rich topic to write about in what female gamers deal with. It's good news that you found inspiration through another author. Now I'd recommend revising this piece and utilizing more of your own personal inspiration. In other words, work to make it more your own now, and less somebody else's. The tone is too aggressive, and that could either make your audience uncomfortable, or dismiss it as frivolous. It sounds like, "How dare you exclude me! I'm probably better than all of you!" And that will fail to garner any sympathy from your readers outside those directly experiencing the same hardship. Scale down the aggression, but still play up your strengths. Frame it in a sense to illustrate the oppressive behaviors you must combat, but don't let the dialect sink down to the level of your adversaries. Rise above it instead. This strophe, while boasts of your qualities, serves to further divide yourself. It appears more as a circular struggle for respect. They won't give you any respect, so you won't show them any respect, and then they won't give you any respect, etc.. The goal would be to show your attributes while keeping the dignity of the message intact. Off the top of my head, we could do something like this: Not great, but hopefully that can illustrate my point. As far as technique is concerned, play with some imagery. Use the senses, experiment with some metaphors. I want the reader to walk away experiencing what you have experienced. Don't let this be a therapeutic one-shot to blow off some anger. You have a really good topic here. I implore you to revisit it.

Well, I believe since the last dwarf quest was released, we've had the entire goblin quest series from start to finish. How many years has it been? I'll take a "nearly finished" for now. Of course, that could mean days, weeks, sometime this year, some next year. Let's hope sooner than later.

:D

The expansion packs aren't their own games outright. They're basically upgrades to the same game. As far as I know, Blizzard has three online games: WoW, Starcraft, and Diablo. Also, I don't understand why nobody is allowed to make any comparisons between Jagex and Blizzard. They both make extremely popular MMOs. What should we be comparing it to? What would be fair in your opinion? The Blizzard comparison is to use something everybody is familiar with. Yes, Blizzard may bring in more money, but they also have a larger base of customers. Also, I'd be surprised not to see a good deal of that extra money being spent on advertising. I'm not sure I understand slamming the author and pointing out how we are all just a bunch of complainers, when you concluded in your response that you are no better than the rest of us. I don't understand why it is valid to complain about small graphical changes like the hp bar, but not about selling extra bank space for security when that contradicts what the company itself, not us, set as their ethical standards.

We seem to have had a few updates this year where some bugs got though, so I can agree with you on the QA process. But I also understand the process can be a bit of hit and miss at times as it's impossible to catch all the bugs prior to release. However, if something is "done" and completed, then there is no need to give hints or teasers, mention it in the BTS. You just release it. That might be what you are implying here. While I can agree the excessive delays on certain content can be frustrating, I'm not sure I can agree with going the other extreme. While the BTS tended to paint Jagex in a corner in terms of deadlines, it was also one of their best marketing strategies. When they hint at future updates, it creates a buzz in the community. Players speculate, discuss, debate, etc. what the updates will be about. Sometimes expectations get too big and can be a letdown, but it keeps the word-of-mouth- train rolling, and keeps players interested. Every company leaks to the public. Movie previews are released months before the movie actually comes out, musicians hint at when they are in the studio recording a new album, video games release previews and teasers months, or even years, before the game is actually released. They have conventions dedicated just for this. I wouldn't mind them bringing back the BTS now, but maybe just not make it monthly. Also, I would like to see them pick up the "State of Play" concept they briefly did awhile back. It would let us know where exactly in the pipeline the content was.

Or half pissed? :D

I like the idea. It pushes away the perception of pmods as a sort of "hall monitor" and has the potential of recruiting, grooming, and encouraging genuine leadership in the community. It's a very positive move.

My theory is this: Some will leave Runescape to play Mechscape exclusively. Some will try Mechscape, not like it, and return to Runescape exclusively. Some will straddle both games. It's also hopeful that Mechscape will draw new players because, as you put it, they are aimed at two different groups. It's almost impossible to tell what the exact numbers will be until we see what Mechscape is all about. If the game were a complete failure, then it would be a serious black eye for Jagex, but if the game were a mega success, then it could potentially dwarf Runescape. It'll most likely fall somewhere in between these two extremes though. The article was intended to address some of the concerns already out there with Mechscape, not create more concern. No, I don't think Runescape will be shutting down any time soon, because it's already proven to generate millions of dollars. But yes, we are paying for this new game's development, at least indirectly.

I really like the couplet scheme in the first stanza here. This carries a lot of weight, and could even stand alone. Good job. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but the last two lines seem to counter one another. The third line in this stanza appears as a statement, but the last line is clearly inquisitive. The punctuation might need changing to a question mark. As for the third line, is it supposed to be For am I science?, or is this line intended to be a statement, followed up with the last line second guessing this? Also, "importance" isn't a bad word to use here, but is there a more romantic, emotional word that could be found? This is purely personal opinion, but I'm not a big fan of using "shall" in a poem. For me, it comes off a bit like fluff in modern poetry. Again, that's personal opinion as it's not incorrect to use. I do like the imagery returned from the first stanza in the third line here. Nice touch. The second line ends on a weak word, and it sticks out with the line being considerably shortest in this stanza. Find a stronger word than "and" to deliver more impact to the reader. I don't think untresspassed is a word, and even so it makes the last line a little clunky. Consider a new adjective here. All in all I really liked the sentiments of the poem. Great job, and keep writing. :thumbsup:

The GE should've meant empowerment, but when they placed the caps in there it became oppressive. I'll agree that it helped move "junk" that was hard to sell though. In some ways, it does emulate a real-life stock market....from the 19th century. But because the GE prices are imposed over ALL forms of trade, it makes it easier to manipulate prices, because there's no competition. Jagex doesn't seem to understand that this system does not encourage diversifying. It's safer if you have enough money to pump up the price of one item to obnoxious levels, because there's nobody that could stop you. Also, the price caps ironically serve as a safety net, so you know prices could only bottom out to a certain point on any given day until the next GE update. *** I'm a bit disappointed on Jagex's approach, but if that's the way they feel, then it looks like I finally got my answer. As long as it's not costing them money in credit card fraud then it doesn't concern them. GF merchants. I guess I'll go change my status to retired.

A post was already made about this interview on Friday in the Mechscape forum. http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?f=284&t=802828