Ts_Stormrage

I do not think I was arguing the need for friends to succeed in playing RuneScape... You turned a supporting statement into the very thing we are supposedly arguing, but we are not... I am STILL arguing that the lack of proper friends (as stated above) is somethig that has damaged the sense of community severely... I said that "you do not need friends in RS to succeed" as a symptom of the problem, NOT the problem itself... Trust as I described it, I believe, is a prerequisite for a successful friendship... The godsword example was just that, and example, again not the baseline of my argument... A higher frequency in successful trusting friendships is again, in my opinion, a prerequisite for a healthy and happy community... You would argue that the growth in RuneScape players is somehow masking the fact that there are still as many close, tight-knit, brotherly (or sisterly) groups out there as there ever were... I believe that certain updates removed the need for us to seek out these groups or to forge them ourselves, and would have us settle for the next lvl 130 shouting "CS bandos, need people!" at the Grand Exchange...

Kimberly, you clearly do not understand what I meant... That is ok, but do not go off on a rant proving me wrong and instead, do as I do... See if the other person really means what I think he means, and if even that is true, see if he also makes a point... Now, theres a difference between a friend and a friend. There's the one you trust, and couldve lend a godsword to before the trade limit and be sure you got it back whenever you asked for it... And than theres the person you happen to be killing Graardor with cuz he's also in the CC you're in and not noobing about... One is a good friend, the other is a good RS player... The difference between those two, AS I ARGUED HEAVILY, is the player interaction... And the lack thereof is why RS is fragmented... The only bit you're right about is that some of the player interaction is indeed forced... Now how does that glue RS together? Have you been to Daemonheim on w117? How many people ragequit there out of frustration over their teammates? Suddenly the gulf of mexico doesn't seem so big...

I promised myself not to return to this thread, but since something is unclear I will only explain that... Everything else does not require and answer from me for various reasons... I said Before updates such as ClanChat, Grand Exchange, Themed Worlds, Trade Limits and Lending system, each and every one of us was a helluva lot more careful who we'd call friends, and it also took a lot more time and effort to make and keep good friends... Compare it to today where: - you jump on world 6, join a BA team and you're on your way to finish the waves - dont have to really know the person you're lending your whip to, as you know it'll return eventually - dont have to bother messaging everyone on your friendslist as you can use the clanchat system to message a lot of people at once - etc You dont need friends to succeed in this game anymore... Believe it or not, but "player interaction"-wise we long back to those days where a friend was more then someone on your friends list... THAT is what has changed the community from both the outside and the inside...

Most of this was actually part of an article I was writing for the Tip.it Times... Parts of it may be featured there still in the future if I and the Tip.it staff see fit... This thread shows exactly what the problem is with "the community" as it got noticed by the original poster as well as others around these boards... Obtaurian's comment of "lol 70 range" is a perfect symptom... First, I can personally testify that stonewall doesn't know what he is talking about "staff/staff-friend interaction"-wise as I have been reprimanded on several occasions by the staff (asuming you call times people staff and/or friend of the staff, neither of which are neccisarily true)... Stonewall hit 2 out of 4 on his first post in this thread. Yes those achievements were bigger then, and we do tend to remember only the good stuff, and surpress the bad... But how many people these days get a 99 in a tough skill and are called no-lifers? The bar for something to be an actual achievement is set ever higher, and when someone finally makes the jump they get ridiculed for it as if they had only wasted their efforts... You cant win... On top of that, I think we've hit something of a critical mass... Stonewall was also right that usually friends are the only ones doing the congrats... Runescape has been around for quite a while now, and the playerbase only gets bigger (not counting bots).... While there are still groups of friends, a lot of those have devolved into today's teams... This is because not everyone can keep an interest in the game as long as everyone else... On top of that, communication has become too easy... For those that do not use mIRC, the Clanchat system allows us to message everyone at once in game, where in older times you had to gather everyone on one world at the same place AND get them to shut up, or type the same message dozens of times... In short, being friends with mutliple people took a very real effort, with very real rewards as a result as you'd be a lot more selective on who you'd befriend... Trade limits and lend system also gave us a safetynet that, if we went without, we'd filter good friends from not-so-good friends... In contrast with today, you'd be hard pressed to find a group that is as close and as friendly, dare I say brotherly, with one another... What happens then is that everyone stops using one of the M's in MMORPG, and it really becomes a Massive SINGLE-player Online Role Playing Game... Less people to talk to = less talk... Which has as a result that the trolls(*) now seem much much more prominent... Kimberly, the difference between today's community and that of two years ago is only that people are getting fed up with the situation as it is... The real time difference between the community now, and the community we all hearken back to, is the one before the Grand Exchange to some extent, but mainly before ClanChat and themed worlds for example... As I said, people dont HAVE to put in the effort, they just go to the place and world and join in... (*)Now, as I said about trolls... An online philosopher (I'm a fan) made this video that explains it better then I ever could... It's long, but worth every second... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzuXLwQXmRg Skip the first 30 seconds, it's irrelevant... Now, a number of people on this forum fall into this category, and some are definitly worse then others... Tip.it's definition of trolls obviously is not the same here, but the goal of those people is the same; get a reaction out of you whatever the cost... So I also agree with Stormveritas here... The cause might be a different one, but the result is the same... 'Not likeable' is not what Stormveritas meant... Its the continues spreading of a negative vibe that ultimately poisons everyone's fun in staying here... The problem Stormveritas tried to express is that this spreading of the negative vibe can be done well within the rules of Tip.it, and I am afraid he is right, and I do agree with him there too... These people cannot be reported (well they can but nothing happens), and if left unchecked we'd see the good people leave sooner then the bad ones get forced out or re-educated... In real life, youtube has taken the place of the old pillory, but we do not have such a place on Tif, as we cannot name individuals in a bad light... All we can do is report them, and watch em slip through the cracks of the rulebook... Killerred is right though that it is not just Tip.it's community, but pretty much everywhere for the same reasons I stated earlier... Odd enough, this is the very place where Clans, by becoming the beacon of sanity and reason, could make their comeback... Now, a few of you will probably feel that I am calling you a troll, but if you do, you probably are not one as the troll does not know when it trolls (see first page for a few prime examples)... Feel free to discuss my points made here, but I do not intent on visiting this thread again as I can already see where it is heading... Peace...

Question: How heavily does this new minigame weigh on my bankspace?

If it was, why was this posted on general DISCUSSION? No discussion value about giving us that information, really, and as i said, fightcaves aren't affected by updates anymore, so only dungeoneering really suffers, but not alot(you don't actually lose anything). Cuz most people read general discussion... Repeating previously debunked arguments is not going to make them stick; you are not the pope :)

"This thread" was created here so people would know it was safe to start a fightcave or a large dunjun etc... But since there is noone expecting an update today still... LOCK PLZ

So can I, but apparently a heads up that people are safe to do their firecaves and what not today is interpreted as being impatient by xpx ;)

Click the image to see the post in the RSoF topic... Move along, nothing else to see...

The 2nd article isnt mine :) Thats Deathmaths, a clanmate... The fictional is from my hands though :)

@Sire Mark 2: I think thats what he meant... But do not worry, the next chapters will make up plenty of that... I'm pleased to see the feedback getting more positive as the story progresses... If the trend continues, then by the time it is completed should people not only be able to judge the story as a whole (this is obviously a very typical case of not being able to judge a book by its cover), but :ohnoes: :pray: i hope that people will like it even better than the individual chapters... Oh yeah; also expect more artwork included :) There should've been one in the prologue, but a scanner died... When it's up and included in that article, I'll have Racheya notify everyone in her original post :)

@Jonananananananas (rly?): I know what you mean. The chapter as I first wrote it did have that. But it seemed to go on forever with that added, without much happening storywise. I might have been able to add in even more events and such, but then it would become truly huge... Instead I chose to trim the "useless" part of the story a bit... But rest asured, the next episodes will make up at least some of that :)

OMG he waited!!! /sarcasm Get over yourself, nubs... In case you don't know, but waiting for your particular skill to be the last to reach 200m XP is SOMETHING THE PEOPLE FROM THE OTHER SKILLS COULD ALSO HAVE DONE!!!

Understood... And yeah, Lore did point me on my tenses... I sincerely hope that the story (when its finished, we've only seen the first chapter really) will not be too damaged by it, and that the overall epic will be recieved as well as I had intended it... But... Most people are right when they say soemthing along the lines of "I like where it is going, but can't comment on it too much until i've read the finished story"... Soemthing that I fully understand... All I can do is churn out the best version of the story I had in mind, and when finally all eight parts are published; I will definitly recomend (and even nudge Rach to say so on the main pages) to read all parts back to back :) This is my first ever proper attempt at a fictional, but if my previous articles have been something of an indication; I doubt that even you will be dissapointed after a 20-hour work day :) Finally; expect someone contacting you soon in PM about what being an editor means... Trust me that it is no more difficult than what you expect of it :) Some of our editors also write; and more editors would give them room to write more/better :)

Even though theres an introductory thread out there (and therefor this thread may soon be locked)... Welcome to RuneScape, Tip.it and its forums :) Some of the people here are awesome :D

Well, you're probably right about us (the panel) needing more proofreaders/editors (hell, even writers)... And also about at least me not being a native english speaker (dutchy here, so there's really no excuse as 90% of us speak english)... Mind you that two of the articles are from the runners-up of the contest recently held (they did not win for obvious reasons)... It did not see a whole lot of submissions, and I do believe that these articles did not get the editors attention as much as the articles did from the panel's writers, but yeah... no excuse really... I can only comment on your comment on my own article (the 4th), and I did indeed not spot the mistake of the word literally... Understand that I type in frenzies when I get the inspiration to, and stuff like this slips through... As for the mincing mistake, I honestly thought it meant the exact opposite of what I just found in the dictionary... As for the goat reference; Go visit the mountain camp in-game, you then might make more sense of the supposed confusion of the narrator :) Finally; I'm just trying to tell the story, so please comment on that... I you still want, feel free to peel minuscule or otherwise insignificant things apart if you like, but it does not make you a person I'd gladly take criticism from... Do not judge the Times as a whole; we are a panel of collegues, not a team... Judge the individual writer and/or editor on his individual articles, stories and/or editing skills... Painting us all with the same brush by calling the Times an elephants graveyard only works if you think ALL articles/writers/editors are crap...

You just answered your own "question" :)

Already working on the 3rd issue (chapter 2) :)

When they raised the maximum level of Dungeoneering, I did not speak up or leave the game, because I will probably never get a level higher then 99... And when they raised the maximum level of Constitution, I did not speak up or leave the game, because I will probably never get a level higher then 99... And when they finally raise the bar for the skill that I like, there will be noone left to speak up for me... Ok, I raped a masterful quote there, but, you get the idea...

[hide] Ok, we get it, there are about 5 of you regulars who don't "waste their time" reading our fictional pieces. There is no need to remind us about it every week we post one. :wall: I'm pretty sure there's a lot more than 5 people who skip the fictionals. Don't kid yourselves now ;) ... So I took some license on the number :roll: My point is, every time someone writes a fictional piece; there is a small minority who decides to tell them their efforts aren't even worth the time of day. If you don't read our fictionals, imagine how us fictional writers feel about reading your opinions. [/hide] TBH, I don't care if they just cold refuse to read my fictional right now. But I would care if, by the end of the 8-part story and the reviews are all positive, they'd still go "nah"...

Lets first bring this one to a proper end... And by then I'll probably want to write editorials instead of fictionals, cuz thats what I normally do (this is the first proper fictional i've ever written)... But I promise you that if I get a good idea; I'll write it down :D

I wont :D Some artwork was meant to accompany every issue, but that didnt turn out right for this one... (a scanner broke etc)... I will see if it can be added once I have it in hands :)

For those that have embarked on the adventure that is reading the 1st part of the eight-parter: the real story is yet to begin :) So I understand it if you cannot comment on it ;) I would like to ask you to (and I will ask this for the next 6 weeks too) to rethink and repeat your thoughts on it by the time it is finished (somewhere close to new years)

But your sig will without a doubt draw some people there :)

Hmm, some interesting points of views here today... I am now not so sure if having new people on those forums would neccisarily be a bad thing (TIF has no level requirement!)... If the mods there can keep it in check, and yes they need a new toolbox for that, it might enchance the game as a whole, cuz face it; we learn things about the game on these forums that we would otherwise not have learned about... How else would you find out about unexplained phenomenon that you dont see in the Knowledge base... But millions of potential forum users is scary... Structure is needed, especially to prevent the good ideas from being drowned out in all the noise... Solve this and you're good to go open the gates...