Sona

The reason why Jagex hasn't increased membership costs is that they've asked themselves this: Is my game going to pull in that average 13 yr old when for the same cost, they can play something like, I dunno, WoW? Aion? Age of Conan? The answer is no.

@ First Article: Well-written, but quite biased towards our favorite Java-based browser game. If you think killing Nex is complicated, I suggest going into any established MMORPG and try some of their end-game content. Huge difference between Runescape and virtually every other game: Runescape is stigmatized due to the fact that RS is fundamentally a game aimed toward a younger audience, and thus, the gameplay itself is more simplistic. People still see it as a kiddie game. Plus, that whole passive gameplay thing isn't really helping its case. College gamers are rarely interested in achievements in a virtual game because there are more fun things out there. The competitive gamers who care about achievement won't give a damn about a java-based browser game when say, for example, they can compete for that 5 million prize pool League of Legends have. Or the 2.5 mil pool for DoTA2 when it comes out. Or go into a Korean pro circuit for Starcraft. Basically, take League of Legends, TF2, anything that's multiplayer: you can have fun, here, and now. Oftentimes with a group of buddies. People want to be doing something - and the pacing of Runescape rarely matches that of what you'd see elsewhere. Runescape: you can have fun - but only after you've fished X, Y, Z, all of which take hundreds and hundreds of hours. And let's be honest. If you have to grind away the hours away by doing something ELSE that is fun... The game isn't really fun in the first place, is it? I mean, I myself will log on and plant a crop or something and then log off. If I have a solid block of time, I'd be doing stuff in meatspace or - you guessed it - playing League of Legends. I'm sure it's fun for those of who have 99s in everything, but this game is quite fun at the earliest stages, interesting towards the middle-end game where you're just hitting your last requirements for quests, and then drops off steeply until you can put in the hours for end-game content. Let's not even talk about the community. Please. The 1500 worlds are no better when your average player's vocabulary consists of "pwn", "noob," and "pk."* Most of the players here make WoW's community look like an erudite, sensitive group of manly men and womenly women. I'm around top 1-2% in League of Legends. People tryhard and rage a lot there. I can assure you that I'd much, much rather play with the elitists there than our home-grown elitists here. Which games are more popular? That's really a no brainer here. And unfortunately, this game won't change. The community won't change. You have gems here and there, but in the end, those who are seriously into the game will most likely quit in disillusion, leaving only the noobs like us hanging around. It is a shame, too, because this game is arguably the most sandbox-like out there in MMO history. Incidentally, second article's proposition is rather unrealistic. Bots will always have appeal because it allows the botter to get stuff without putting in the work. That's always going to be appealing. You don't see bots in the games I've listed above for a couple of reasons. It's either not possible (in TF2 you can always idle and hope for hats), or pointless (why would you bot a League of Legends game? Or StarCraft 2?) The only way those botting companies will run out of customers would be if Runescape had some internal method that would allow a player to obtain high-end items at a relatively quick pace. This implies either messing up the game completely, or adding in micro-transaction based items to allow an "unfair boost". Personally, I have nothing against microtransactions. The economic model works well for many, many games. However, given Jagex's historical stance on "equality for all," I think it'll probably cause far more rage than necessary. So bots are here to stay. *I like to hang around Edgeville. Observation may be biased.

Have to say, I don't care much for the emotes. The costumes do look sort of pretty when skilling though.

Better than farmville.

You have to bear in mind that in theory, the slowness behind moneymaking is meant to be enjoyable. It's so that Jagex can extend the lifespan of its subscription member and hence, make more money off you in the long run. :) So until you've sank 49238423432 hours into the game and have established roots, the only thing you could hope for is to get lucky with drops. This game is insular in nature, after all.

I think the theory behind it was supposed to be you-grind-hard you make money. It's like every other MMO out there. :P The basic problem is that you need a fairly high tier in any skill to actually make money. Short of gambling your soul away at those scamming places or getting a lucky drop where... Runecrafting can still bring in 300k-500k an hour, which is chump change in comparison to what you make at those bosses, but it's slow and steady and consistent. Mining Runite Ore can still be surprisingly profitable. About 400k-500k if you've done enough quests/have D. Pickaxe, but can go higher depending on competition. If you have 91 Hunter you can try hunting implings. Sometimes a jar from the Kingly ones give you an uncut Onyx which is what, ~7mil? I also tend to run all the randoms. Y'know, buying chocolate bars and feathers and vials and etc. Pick up sands and free stuff. That sort of thing. That can bring in about a 1mil for 45 minutes of work.

This is going to make more than a few of you who are nostalgia'ing feel bad, but has it occurred to you that 99% of the players will probably just log-in-log-out-buy-cape? If it entertains the newer players, why does it matter that it annoys a small minority? Your money's as good as theirs. It doesn't really feel like they're doing it to "reexperience" classic. You don't see Sony opening up EQ1 when there's EQ2, do you? To me, it feels more like a good PR move - and one that will get them attention. BlahblahOHLOOKWEGOBACKTOGOODOLDDAYSOFGAMING. And people'll buy into it. Is it sad? Yes. But recall once again the fact that Jagex is a company. They'll only keep you entertained and happy so you keep on shelling out 8$ a month or whatever the equivalent it is in your local currency.

Hold S when RS is loading.

The fact that they dropped the three random guys fighting trolls in Falador seem to suggest that people are still coming here. I am not sure what Jagex advertises with, since I have adblock on, but I assume with the prevalence of facebook and other social networking sites it isn't difficult to get your average 13 yr old to try out something new.

The question you should ask yourself is: Can I recoup my costs (20+ minutes for 70k-90k EXP worth of materials) if I didn't play Stealing Creation?

The seed itself is about 220k-300k. You will only make a profit if your yield is >8, since they only go for like, 30-40k max. How lucky are you feeling these days?

Though if OP has the money to Chinchompa cannoning is probably more efficient. Chinning is apparently insane EXP at that monkey island zombie place though - friend got 99 overnight in something like three trips.

Slayer might be the best option, looking at your stat distribution. Getting a Chaotic will help with slayer, though, so it's your choice.

The irony is that the number of subscribers actually went up even after all the updates - from most trends websites, RS's population has consistently hung around ~1 mil subscribers. Currently, it is hovering around 1.3 mil subscribers and the number has increased rather than decreased over the last few months. This is going to sound harsh, but were I Jagex, I'd take 300k bots (if they're all bots, which I doubt is the case - look at how hyped people were about citadels, for instance) and its profits over the vocal minority any day. The truth is, they're making money. Until something happens that'll make them lose money, nothing's going to change.

Real women Abyss RC on High Risk Wilderness Worlds.

First off, is it ironic that I can't tell bots apart from legitimate players who are grinding at a spot? Over the last three days I think the only thing I've gotten at any skilling spot was "[bleep] off noob", "bot??" and "sux". People leave. Then they come back. Or they're forgotten. Such is the transient nature of the online world. This game is probably one of the best examples of Skinnerian psychology coupled with some very insidious marketing techniques targeting a couple of very specific audiences. The instance people see through it, they become disillusioned and quit, or they become a casual player like myself. The SERIOUS BUSINESS!! nature of Runescape (e.g. the game design and the fundamental nature of grinding) clashes very well against its casual nature, which is what attracts a lot of non-gamers/casual gamers in the first place. If you think about it. Runescape has the potential to be very fun to a casual player base, but Jagex could never cater to the casual players because all the people who repetitively buried 7000000000 bones or what have you are going to rage. People have different goals. For many, it's to be the very best. For me, I'm just trying to figure out how many people are willing to thank you once you've given them free stuff. ;)

Has it occurred to anyone that bots and gold-selling websites are rampant may be due to the game itself? Runescape encourages, for the lack of a better term, its players to work like little maniac-depressive dwarven miners towards the next "achievement" or the next "cape." With very few exceptions (some of the quests, for instance), all we do is repetitively grind on one thing again and again, waiting to hit the next stage for... Most of us don't even know what. At least other MMOs give you some flashy effects and make the thing pretty while you're going about doing it. This, coupled with the steep "learning curve" (c'mon. You can harken back to your days where hill giants were a challenge) and the general behavior of the community (mostly school-aged kids, so what do you expect?) makes RS one of the best breeding grounds for RWT. Because there is virtually no other aspect to the game except for achievements, and because the social element is barely/nonexistent (look at the thousands of threads whining about clans on the official forums, for example), RS has the greatest appeal to one kind of player: the type whose vocabulary rarely extends beyond "noob", "pwned", and "omg". Other games have microtransctions that allows these type of achievement-oriented players a leg-up. Jagex had good intentions. They wanted everyone to stand on equal footing, and they don't want people to simply buy their way to level 2938428324. However, what we see is the opposite. People buy gold because they can't be bothered/do not wish to invest in the time/wants a leg up against the other "noob" in [whatever the highest gear is today.] So they buy gold. As simple as that. At this point, though, bots and RWT are entrenched well enough to make switching models of any kind unfeasible, so there isn't much they could do short of reinventing the wheel altogether.

I am well aware of the reasoning presented here. However, a part of being fair is considering all aspects of the situation. No matter how guilty he may have been, or may still be (that we aren't aware of), it is only fair that we consider things from his perspective as well. Yes, I'll be frank. I wouldn't be comfortable knowing a registered sex offender was running a website for children. Some may have cited the counterstrike fiasco there in which an individual was blatantly trying to recruit younger children into a clan for ... I don't know what reason. The situation, while not exactly the same, can strike dangerously close to the aforementioned case. I want to reiterate that again, I see where the moms and the whistle-blowers may be coming from. However, I wouldn't go out of my way to point fingers. Though he's in a pretty poor spot at the moment - it takes only one person to destroy a reputation, after all.

Apparently not - I was recommended by a friend to simply log out at the boss chamber and finish at the start of BEXP.

Eight years ago, every one of my friends who weren't playing Neopets was playing this. A month ago, saw a friend playing this at the engineering lab and went "wait, is that Runescape?!" Friend goes "yup, better than farmville." ... It was then, a few months ago, I bought my first membership to the most stigmatized game amongst even "gamers." You may call me Sona. I am a graduating senior at some generic well-known small-university-that-is-too-cold-for-its-own-good. To give you an idea of how old I am: I have a rubber chicken in my account that was left untouched for years. I am a scientist in training, a lover of all legends and myths, and I occasionally dabble in League of Legends with my friends during spare-time. Those who know me understand that I have curious hobbies ranging from cosplaying to skydiving to amateur bartending. I hang around W42 primarily for its (somewhat) mature atmosphere in comparison to the rest of the nine realms, but please do not be alarmed if I don't respond to you immediately. I often keep public chat off to filter out the boorish ones and mean no offense whatsoever. ... Unless I'm on a slayer task. Then I scurry off to the 1500+ worlds and get laughed at for being low-leveled. But hey, at least the swarm hasn't gotten its claws around there yet. ;) See ya around.

EDIT: As sonic would have said: I'm too slow. :x The fact is, certain psychologists would also argue that there is a definition of normalcy - defined entirely by social norms of a society one lives in. This is by no means the only correct definition, but it is one in which many societies - including America - adhere to. It is neither fallacy nor creation as it remains a cornerstone of modern civilization. Secondly, to suggest that things are uncontrollable by nature (at least, that is the gist of what I'm getting from your post, Lensare, so I apologize if I've misread your intent) is grossly cutting off half of modern psychology. There is a difference between genetics and what psychologists would define as "instinct", which is an example that you cited earlier with the mother-defending-her-daughter's-honor. You seem to suggest that she had no control over her actions at the time, and I disagree. So long as a counterexample could be presented - for instance, the woman calling the police to arrest the rapist of her daughter (a realistic possibility), then her action is her choice, and she would have to put into a court of law to face the consequences of her actions. This train of thought, in fact, is what makes rape an issue, as many men erroneously believe that there is a point of no return where they must continue with their action regardless of the consequences. Playing upon audience sympathy is a persuasive argument on the internet, but it seldom upholds itself in a court of law. Justice implies a degree of fairness, and as most of you know, two wrongs don't make a right. I wouldn't judge the individual in question. I understand Jagex's perspective. It is better that they took action rather than an irate parent, who has the possibility to do a lot more damage to both the man and Runescape as a whole. I don't sympathize with him either. He made his choices. He's responsible for them. Those who know him will stand by him. Those who wish to condemn him are free to do so as well.

It would be interesting for someone to track player numbers and see if this decrease in price is caused by oversupply or simply a decrease in demand. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in general, player numbers have remained at around the 200k mark, right?

You got pretty lucky. Those scrolls aren't affected by RoW, and I've heard nightmare tales of up to 10k-20k kills before getting one.

tl;dr: They need numbers. Current advertisements not cutting it. The end. I assume those of us here are reasonably mature and are capable of hearing things we don't like to hear. You've been warned. Consider it from Jagex's perspective. Most MMOs tend to target either teenagers or college-aged students first, as they often have disposable income. I am aware that the statement is generalizing, but it serves as the basis for this argument. Jagex is a company. Their goal is to make money. Don't give me the puppy-eyes and the 'oh they care about playerz!!1!". They care because they can get money from you by keeping you happy and playing. That being said. Runescape have, and always will have, the stigma of being a "kiddie game." It possess no capability to attract significant numbers of the older crowd when there are much better alternatives such as League of Legends or even Farmville. With the rise of apps and iPhone games, Runescape must also compete against those, and in its current incarnation, word of mouth advertisements alone will not cut it. This, I think, is the heart of the refer-a-friend program. They need numbers to stay competitive, and when you have no alternatives, refer-a-friend'll have to do. People aren't going to refer friends if they don't get something from it. Very rarely will you have folks managing fansites or things like that who are genuinely doing it out of their own free will. You certainly cannot - unfortunate as it is - depend on these guys to bring you a significant improvement in form of numbers. I'll point out something that no one'll like to hear. If Jagex went transcriptional instead of subscription, they would make a lot more money, and inadvertently solve any financial issues they may have. But I think the elitists in the community (i.e. those who aren't bots) will probably rage RS back to its classic days were that to occur.