DarthFreeman

I don't know how cool it is, but I always put on my black priest robes and an eye patch. It all looks great with my Francisican hair cut.

I wonder if the huge fall-of in the price of the Dragon plate has more to do with the changes in the game's economy. With the death of real world training, isn't there a lot less money floating around in Runescape these days? The article touches on the issue of trading from one equipment from characters owned by the same player--this is true with having that bot miner/tree chopper that many had back in the day. Since a lot of players cannot cheat the system these days, they are not willing to put in the time to raise huge sums of money to buy the latest goods. This isn't to say that part of the price decline isn't also what was outlined--the Runescape powers that be waited too long to release Dragon plate. Had all that illegal, ill-gained money still been floating around in the Runescape economy, as it was only a year ago, the price might not have dropped.

Before anyone is too offended--the above post was meant tongue-in-cheek.

Okay, okay-obviously someone needs to provide the REAL answer. Here it is: Any combat skill over 90 is high. Any non-combat skill over 80 is high. Anyone who doesn't agree is a noob! Wasn't that simple? What more is there to say? :)

Runescape certainly impacted my relationship with seveal of my students, in real life. I teach high school. One day, just prior to my daily U.S. History lecture, I shared some "vacation" photos I took over Spring Break. They were really screenshots of my RS character in various locations, doing various tasks. I meant it as a welcome back to school gag. To my surprise, nearly a third of my students were RS players. My reputation, among those students, hit an all-time high. By lunch time, that same day, nearly all of the remaining student in my school that played, came to my class to see my "vacation" photos. The only downside to all of this, I often have to go "private" when playing RS so that I can actually get something done! :)

I'm not so sure things are too far out of whack. Gauging from the responses, I'm guessing that there are actually two issues being discussed, unbalanced melee on PvP worlds and melee hitting a wall everywhere else. From the two videos I watched, I would certainly agree that a couple of items seem to dominate on PvP. I think that domination, however, is short lived since those items breakdown (do they not?). I've only goofed around on PvP worlds a couple of times, only being brave enough to wear F2P gear. Restricting all PvP worlds to F2P limitations could take care of all sorts of unbalanced melee. However, I pretty sure that those that log onto PvP worlds are not really all that interested in "fair" or "balanced" play--they just want to win and take loot. That's why I've seen several packs of players on PvP worlds--they don't want a fair fight. In terms of melee hitting a wall, in general, well, maybe, but not in such a way that I'm too terribly affected. It seems that the trade off for the "big" weapons and the new "big" boss monsters is the need for cooperation. Even if a person is loaded to the hilt with the newer big weapons, those people still need their buddies to go after the big boss monsters. I'm wondering if the real question isn't how to keep a certain group of RS players interested and happy in RS. I'm guessing that the answer to some portion of that certain group, from the game producers, is to keep "amping" up the power/fireworks of melee. Deathmath might have hit upon something that might only be important to a few of us. For some of us, it isn't just about slugging it out with some other person or some monster. We can stay entertained with the game longer than the "sluggers." But that extra time of staying entertained isn't infinite. I found this comment to be the hear of the issue: "Jagex recently released their new update schedule which seems to build up instead of out. With more minigames and updates to pre-existing skills Jagex seems to be deepening the game rather than expanding it. With these new updates it seems they consider the game almost finished in areas and content. They are simply trying to improve its gameplay and let it coast into a state with only new quests minigames and interface improvements. This seems like they're ignoring the fact that they are in a corner with combat." If Jagex is indeed only concerned with "sluggers" and those people are starting to get bored, then Jagex has indeed hit a wall, or are "in a corner with combat." If "sluggers" make up the majority of RS players, Jagex is in trouble. If those that play RS are more like me, we can find ways to stay occupied, then Jagex is still in trouble, since our needs are not being met with the decision not to expand the game. What would be really interesting to know is what the average length of RS play is before someone decides they no longer want to play. If RS is a fast food type of game for most people, then what Jagex might be banking on is how to increased the length of the play, even if only for a couple of months. Have I meandered enough? Have I taken something simple and really mudded up the waters? :)