Lets start off with something about me, to show you where I am coming from. I am old school, so old school in fact I used to text mudd. For those who have no clue think of runescape with no mouse, no pictures, only text descriptions of what is happening. I, and group of insane friends would play pk mudds only. We would go to dominate them, and become feared. Watching people log off when one of us would sign in, was our way of knowing that we did it. My son wanted to play this online game and pay for it. I had sworn never to pay for a mudd (now they are mmorgs). My friends were playing WoW, and I was playing online poker instead. I decided to check it out for molesters and the like before I bought him an account. I was very pleased to find how safe RS was. What a fun game. It had Quests which I loved doing on the old mudds. This wildy thing, wow real PK. You lose items if you die, not like all these other MMORGs; where you pay a small amount of money to fix your equipment. In the old mudds you lost your gear and a level when you died. I used to dread my treks to world 2 to sell all the gear I got from killing players, and from clue scrolls. I was of mixed emotions of the wildy. I liked the pk, but I hated getting jumped while trying to clue hunt deep. At first those Revs were scarier then Pkers ever were. Then levels passed, and only in a multiway area with 4 or more knights attacking me did I feel fear. Having 99 att def str con does wonders for your confidence. I was so happy to see our exchange. No longer did I have to go to a certain world, look for people to buy my gear, and have to be doubly cautious about them making a last second switch. I could put my items up, and they would sell. I must have sold 15M in gear, and clue rewards in the first days. The limit came, and I was annoyed. No longer could I loan my son gear, or give him gold. On the other hand he was slowly losing his ban points score, from some of his shady play. I wouldn't get I can't play with you, because I got into trouble again. Well everything came back. I went pking, and found out a few things. I need to get those mage, and prayer levels. On the other hand one iteming with my Dclaws is fun. I made a paltry 400K pking, and looting this weekend. The skills are coming back, and my specialty of looking like a stupid harmless looter, and then killing people who thought to jump me; is all the fun that it was in the past. Being level 123+6, makes me no longer fear getting jumped while clue hunting. All in all hooray for the chaos of the wildy. I do miss the revs, they were my favorite monster to kill. Putting them in pvp dungeon does smack of overkill to me. Free trade. Sure sounds good again. I do remember all the problems with it. Honestly I voted no, and I was able to get through the system and vote no each time without voting yes. I'll give my kids new char 10 Million gold to start him out. No I am not rich; no party hat, no Elysian shield. I just have some gear and gold from playing over years, and more importantly not spending it. It explains why my prayer is 77, mage is 84, and construction is 70. No 99s in skills at all. Well then I all of sudden remembered why free trade will suck. Scammers, and beggars of all sorts. I don't have to deal with scammers, the GE has made buying, and selling safe for all. The botters will return, which will drop the prices again. I kill for money, so no big deal. Training those skills I need for the next quest will be cheaper. No one has ever given me an answer of why prices of everything rose in July of '09 anyways. I have all of sudden been slapped in face of the old days. All the level 100 beggars. I forgot about having general chat off, and a large ignore list. Already I have had multiple people try to scam my Santa hat, and my hard won 3rd age armour. Clues are so cool. Being old; all that happened was that they ran away from a sudden dclaw out of nowhere. I think I could really do without the begging. All the attempted scams I could have ignored, but it was fun seeing what these people were trying to do. In the end the losers will be these kids attempting scams as they get banned, and the victims thinking they were getting something for nothing from strangers. At least when I am doing a gwd run, I won't lose my gear to strangers thanks to gravestones. Did I see more people playing this weekend? Nope numbers were in the 150K range. Does Jagex care about the players, well yes and no. Yes in that they do want us to have the most fun while playing, and more importantly no if they do not make money while doing so. I wonder how much it will cost them in new personnel for all the reports of scams, account ripoffs, and the like. It might just be we see a couple weeks of intense banning, and then a drop off as they get dealt with. If the new, and returning accounts don't make enough money to support the cost we will see it changed once again. In the end, I will play the same way, with the occasional foray for some PKing when I am feeling feisty. I will have to be patient waiting for the prices to settle after a week or 3 of insanity. I might have to turn general chat off, or play on quieter worlds. Meanwhile I will wait and see.
