Heart of a Lion

If the Squeal of Fortune is here to stay, at least keep all items cosmetic and or lucky status. Quintupling the amount of gold for one weekend isn't so bad, but making 200 million gold permanently winnable will be terrible for the economy.

This post puts things into perspective quite nicely. Since I don't have a 99 yet, my rant was just an observation from the outside that made little sense up until now. I imagine that once I get my first 99, I too will also want to celebrate by being charitable since I'll have some money to throw around. :) @Blaze: You misunderstand. I don't have a problem with people hosting drop parties. My question was why is it that players who grind to 99 are also responsible for dropping gifts. If it's their celebration, shouldn't they be on the receiving end? Mage cleared things up for me though.

Today I bought my best friend a purse she had been hinting at for her birthday, ate at Schlotzsky's, and saw Prometheus. I didn't enjoy the movie as much as I thought I would. :(

When I was younger, I had a lot of friends that played. But seeing as how we were also kids without money for P2P (we even used computers at our local library), the situation I'm under attack for never came about. The example I gave was just one instance of my good will to another player considering that I just started playing again. The players I had on my Friend's List are now inactive or have forgotten about me. I don't blame them, because I don't remember them either. It's a sad day on Tip.it that you're either a sap for being charitable or a phony. When you've played as long as I have, gold is as easy to part with as it is to earn.

Two seconds, putting on my Ice Gloves to respond to this flame bait. I'm going to hazard a guess and assume that you didn't read the entire first page. If you did, you would have picked up on how lighthearted I am by nature and about this topic. (But probably not because, you know, cynicism and laziness) About three or four days ago I had a player tell me in clan chat about how she had just lost her entire bank playing hot cold. She had 1.2 million and gambled it all away. Knowing how discouraging a low stack can be for lower leveled players, I offered a 100k donation if she was willing to meet me in World 46 Varrock west bank as I was smithing steel plates at the time. She came, I told her not to gamble anymore, I was thanked, and she left. Haven't seen her in clan chat in a while come to think of it. But I'm just an elaborate story teller, don't mind me.

@Sy_Accursed: I can see where my post "pangs of greed". But you're assuming too much. When I say gift, that doesn't necessarily imply expense. For example, at a 99 fishing party, an appropriate gift would be materials for Trawler Fishing or bait for Rocktail fishing. Purchasing the skill cape was just the first thing that came to mind. @Mylez: I wish more players were like that. :) @ghjkl: Friends should be more important than experience. Who cares how high your stats are if you have no one to play or talk with?

I would read this. I liked your article this week as well. It would be interesting to see skills utilized in PvM combat.

Who doesn't like a party? :shades: But in all seriousness, getting a 99 is an accomplishment and should be treated as such with gifts and recognition. Giving free stuff out after such a long grind just seems completely backwards to me. @Skill: Celebration is in order, but the new 99 should be on the receiving end, not the giving.

I'm a froob (frugal noob) because instead of buying skills like Crafting or Herblore, I'll go out and collect the materials myself if I can.

13,034,431. This is the amount of experience required to achieve 99 in any skill. Accumulating that much experience can take a considerable amount of time even if one "buys" their skill cape. To celebrate such an accomplishment, drop parties are usually held by players that just broke beyond the 13 million experience point mark. Why? It doesn't make much sense that the player who invested plenty of time and gold should also be expected to drop items for the people in attendance. After grinding my ass off, I want someone to buy the cape for me, not be bombarded by colorful text.

So you're basically saying that it is a fact that my opinion doesn't matter. What? Progression is arbitrary. That's just your personal progress versus someone else which doesn't matter because we all may have started playing at different times. The mere fact of that possibility makes high scores tables meaningless when trying to define competitiveness. I'll concede that there are certain competitive aspects to Runescape, but because the game as a whole caters to a casual audience, mini games alone don't make Runescape competitive. How can you say Runescape is competitive when PvM and PvE are just as much apart of the experience as much as PvP is? Other truly competitive games focus solely on PvP (LoL, SC2, SF IV, etc) and keep randoms (like lamps that GIVE experience or quests that award experience) to a minimum because the best determinant of competition is skill. Why would a good definition of competitiveness include randomness and not place as much of an emphasis on skill? Since you've resorted to Ad Hominem arguments, I'm going to discontinue posting in this thread. The fact that you have more experience than me is as irrelevant as the amount of time I've played. Do you know what the latest quest was back then? Horror from the Deep.

I don't know what you're talking about, so I'll just respond to the other part of your post. I provided you with MY definition of what constitutes competitiveness for online games, and you refuted my argument with the fact that Runescape has a high scores table. I responded to that by saying that high scores tables are a bad measurement of competitiveness because experience earned doesn't translate into skill. Mini games with ratings, like Fist of Guthix, fit under my definition because rating is similar to the elo rating system used in Chess and League of Legends. But mini games alone are not enough to make a game truly competitive. All you've said is that I'm wrong because what I've said is baseless despite the fact I've given you example after example. Your progression argument goes back to the point I've been trying to make about time spent playing not translating into skill. If comparing time played is your definition of competitiveness, then all I have to say to that is, "I disagree wholeheartedly."

The card game is competitive, but WiFi battles are casual for the most part. Most players aren't even aware of the meta. (Importance of physical and special walls, held items and move list synergy, IV breeding, etc). My definition INCLUDED sponsorships and tournaments, not specifically just recognition by MLG.

A high scores table isn't a good measure of competitiveness because it doesn't measure skill as much as it does time invested. Just because you have millions of experience doesn't necessarily mean you're "good". @Den: I defined competitiveness as recognition by a professional gaming circuit with cash prizes, sponsorships, and tournaments. We're talking specifically about the qualities that make a video game competitive, not the definition of competition. You might want to give this a read. @Alg: Yes. Yes it is.

Random events take from one to two minutes maximum to complete. I played when random events were more punishing and hated browsing about the internet in another tab only to find my fishing rod gone because of a whirlpool or my pick damaged because of a smoking rock. I for one am glad that new players don't have to deal with those problems.

Major League Gaming doesn't recognize Runescape as competitive. That's a pretty good standard to hold any game that claims to be competitive to. The other games I used in my example have both received attention from the aforementioned organization as well as outside sponsorships. When you compare this to Runescape's advertisements for Squeal of Fortune spins, the distinction is clear. This MMO is artificially competitive at best because of pretentious PKers and try hard casuals who think an experience race matters to the outside world. I mean, people watch LoL and SC2 at bars. My argument is hardly just an opinion.

Runescape is hardly "competitive", at least by my definition. Competition, in my opinion, is besting other players in a tournament setting for prizes (usually cash). When I played Super Smash Bros. Brawl competitively, I traveled to various cities and states to play for money. When I played League of Legends competitively, I fought match after match every Sunday with my team in hopes of winning Riot Points or Alienware gear. I can see how some people might consider PKing and staking competitive, but all the prizes are virtual. I can't see people grinding solely because they want to show others how much experience they have by comparison. @99134: Agreed.

I've never tried the Veteran boat, but some higher leveled players will often opt for the Novice boat for fast and easy wins. It's only 2 points for a win, but losing is pretty rare.

Fishing requires you to pay very little attention. Try Monkfish at the Piscatoris Fishing Colony (requires completion of Swan Song).

Does the female model showing more skin than the male model bother you? If this weren't the case, how would we be able to differentiate sex? Also, how logical is it that Bandos, a very large goblin God, drops armor that fits perfectly on humans? You're not fighting Bandos in the God Wars Dungeon, you're fighting General Graador. And you could differentiate between sexes quite fine considering that their body shapes are completely different. You don't need extra skin shown achieve the same effect when the previous methods have worked well for over 5 years. My mistake. But as for your other point, I still see nothing wrong with female player models showing more skin than their male counterparts. It isn't sexist or even a chauvinistic portrayal since there are plenty of "strong" female representations already. (Warrior Women and Kuradal come to mind). I for one welcome more revealing (if you can even call seeing one's belly button revealing) a welcome change of pace.

Came back to Runescape after a few years of inactivity and noticed this myself. :(

Should it come down to this, though? I respect Jagex enough to say that this scenario would most likely not happen, but looking at what they've started doing with the SoF, they aren't that far away from reaching this point. Selling power or charging for new content on top of a monthly membership fee is a sure fire way to get large amounts of players to rage cancel their subscriptions and or riot. SoF has only received vocal opposition by primarily older players on various forums and small scale protests. Some players cancelled their subscription, but plenty of others are still spinning (including myself). Oh, and Mod Rathe and friends at Jagex are against selling power, so I don't see this being a problem any time soon.

Majority? More like a very vocal minority. From what I've seen, most of the players complaining about the Squeal of Fortune are disgruntled "veterans" living in the past. I commend Runescape for avoiding the micro transactions game model for as long as they did, but honestly, it is not a bad thing. Plenty of successful companies like Valve and Riot make players' gaming experience "easier" for those willing to pay. There's nothing wrong with that. The fact that people are upset at others for not grinding experience exactly as they did is an elitist perspective. This is comparable to players with 99 Runecrafting who camped Entrana or ran Natures bashing those who utilized Runespan. At the end of the day, people who buy spins are helping keep Jagex afloat. You know, the makers of the game you obviously enjoy playing enough to complain about on a fan site. And until Jagex starts selling power or charging for new content on top of a monthly membership fee, those against micro transactions have no legitimate gripe.

Training profitable skills is like paying dues. Once you've put in time, you can have as much fun as you want.

If almost everyone uses it, how can you say they actually don't approve of it? SoF does not have to be spun in order to actually play Runescape, so if players are still spinning the wheel, they choose to do so voluntarily. Jagex only gives players the option to spin. You speak as if they're forcing it upon players. Your experience lamp example is also a gross over-exaggeration. The only players that would complain about a free 10,000 exp lamp are those who bought and or trained for their levels. The chance of receiving an experience lamp, which is not always a potential prize, helps players out once a day just like random events do. The only exception is that they give more experience, but not by much. The large and huge lamps are rare and super rare for a reason. On to your purchasing gold and experience point. You claim that the SoF allows players to inject their accounts with large amounts of experience and gold. This isn't the case. 1,000 - 5,000 are common prizes, but amounts higher than that are uncommon to super rare. Most players have to purchase 75 spins in order to see a super rare, but even then, uncommon to super rare prizes are constantly changing. The chance of potentially receiving gold or experience is just as likely as receiving a lucky item or cosmetic SoF exclusive. Another reoccurring argument I see a lot is the "veteran" complaint. Who cares if gaining experience is much easier nowadays than in the past? Do you think new players want to grind like we did back in the day? Runecrafting was incredibly tedious before summoning and Runespan, but I am by no means angry at Jagex for making it marginally easier for new players to level up their skills.