Dracae

Thought provoking article TS Stormrage! I have moral problems with a casino, but see your point on that and I certainly agree there needs to be away to capitalize bonds, like you propose! Only logical to make it work both ways, instead of only being able to put real money in the game legally. Does anyone else think Jagex will make the next skill slow and ( partly) buyable because they are selling money themselves.. or are they just pandering to the rich among us? Lastly: the shameless plugs: read the second article also.. its not altogether bad.. and when you did that, go back to 2 weeks ago and read the fictional , finish it and possibly win a month of membership. It s a brilliant story already! http://www.tip.it/runescape/times/view/1095-world-of-warlords http://www.tip.it/runescape/times/view/1088-a-hundred-heavy-hearts

1- they can do anything they want, even if it means retconning things a bit. 2- Its a fantasy game,weirder things have happened. 3- Maybe he faked his death.. he was, or in that case is, a god with immense powers. 4- Maybe parts of his powers or his soul now reside in 'the world guardian' and that can be returned. 5- wouldn't be the first time a lorebook turned out to be wrong... see 1. I can probably make up a dozen more, but instead I will admit that statement is a bit out there, it was originally a small part of a bigger contribution to the discussion, which i deleted because it would give away a part of my next article. I do think hes in all likelihood dead, but I also think its a good possibility part of him is part of 'the adventurer' now. An other question I have about Guthix power is : supposedly it should have flown to his killer, Sliske, making that bum a god, but there is an immeasurable amount of guthixian power floating around the planet and Saradomin also took some in Lum. Assuming power does not suddenly appear out of thin air Sliske did not gain that much of it. One last musing: do you think Jagex actually knows the answers to these things, or are we taking all this more serious then they are? Now excuse me wile I sob quietly in the corner since the realization finally hit me : 'he dead' ...... :(

Interesting discussion! I am still not altogether sure Guthix is dead for ever. There are enough little nagging things to allow a lot of freedom for the writers of the lore to resurrect him if they wanted to do so.

And also Guthix , or rather his legacy and ideas profited a lot from his demise... Thanks , I think I get what you mean, I also think you got that part of the thoughts I had behind the article.

Alg: "The game will turn thirteen this January, meaning that it will be old enough to play itself," I like it! So will there be a resolution to the storyline.. you hit the nail on the head with: "the inevitable question of "what next"" I wrote in an earlier article (*): "I predict that no RuneScape god will ever truly win or lose. If Jagex would write quests and lore making one side win big, this would mean all the other sides lose just as big. I can not imagine Jagex wanting to upset so many followers of the losing gods. This truly means the godwars in all their incarnations are truly endless..." Combine that with your: "Eagerly awaiting the end, because it wouldn't be the first time they've surprised us." and Ithink the storyline(s) can only really truly end when the game also ends.. it is however much more likely the game will end some day withouth all the loose threads being tied up.. and without a nice TV-movie type sequel to take care of the cliff hanger. It does seem to me though that Jagex is a lot more aware of the impact of the story-lines in quests then they used to be. The combined some, ended others and made some retroactive changes that makes it all fit together nicer. (*) http://www.tip.it/runescape/times/view/979-gods-and-humans

I am a fan! Arceus : you should write a book. Your story lives, has a great flow and brings images to the minds eye.

Nice, well written articles. I myself have not volunteered to write an article about this, since beyond my higher regard of the average RS player then the numbers by AJgex suggest I should have i don't actually have a fully formed opinion. The Subject is too complicated. Reading the articles did help a bit. Like the first I do not believe at all this will stop goldsellers.. and since I do not believe Jagex is ran by idiots they know that. I also do not believe Jagex numbers, not only the one disproven by the author, but the others. No way does 40+ % of players buy gold. I do not believe Jagex can actually know the true number that exactly either. If they could actually track these things they should have taken the iligal money bought + a fine. That would quickly make goldselling undoable, without bannign the players and losing revenue. An other if.. if I am wrong and over 40% of players did buy gold, then there is something else seriously wrong: that means Jagex can NOT detect jack doo doo.. because that big a part of the RS populous would not take a risk with their account. Maybe I am naive, also because I make my feelings about cheating quite clear.. I might not get told about it much.. Whatever the case.. it is a mess! Almost as big as the mess of words I am making rambling on here.. Where I do not believe the problem addressed by the second article will likely become as urgent as written there, I do totally agree Jagex is borrowing against the future..again.. I must admit, I had not thought of that part yet, but it makes sense. And yes, its is 'again' they already sold a load of long term subscriptions to many of us, including me that were payed in advance. It is logical they need money to operate, but I keep having this nagging thought in the back of my mind that this is more about paying large dividends to investors then about improving and running the game. Not something unprecedented in modern business, is it? Like several of my earlier articles have claimed I believe this game of ours is not altogether healthy, since it is topheavy, lacking a big enough influx of new players. These kinds of developments and drawing a lot of money out of the game will not help!

Thanks for the compliment, lets hope they indeed pay a little attention to the Times...

I agree with your overall conclusion, that the automated system is too unreliable to be used. However, I disagree on the offensive language side of it. Unless you're deliberately being abusive to another player to the point where they are uncomfortable and report you, I don't think that offensive language should be muteable. I've never understood why they give the option to remove the filter and then still mute people for offensive language. If its that offensive then just turn the filter back on and add the person to your ignore list. Only in the absolute most egregious instances should they actually mute anyone over it. If you're talking to a friend and they don't actually care, then why does it matter? Offensive language should never be an automatic automated mute. Regardless of merit the system seems flawed, since it has the inherent potential of catching a rather large amount of innocent people AND in all instances I know of it does not even allow for an appeal. This means they willingly let good players get caught between the wheels. As far as offensive language is concerned I can see your point, but like Kaida said: the filter does not catch a lot of things. To some people, and many friends of mine that doesn't matter, they believe in unrestricted freedom of speech and point out having to think about what you say is not fun and it is a game. Legitimate, but I personally want kids to be able to play this game without parents frowning on what they see and forbidding Runescape. This comes back to the argument of my last article before this: we need new players all the time, they are the lifeblood of this game. In my clan I do not allow swearing and cursing, or any other 'bad' language. I simply want people to behave themselves and be nice. Wile that is restrictive for the reason that I want no one to feel uncomfortable in a truly global community with so many ages , cultures and personalities there are 2 differences with this automated system. 1- it is human being checking it and we do not ban on sight, we look at the CONTEXT and talk to them. If someone shouts something bad after dieing and losing their stuf the correct reaction is not: 'Language', it is: 'sorry to hear you died". 2- People are free to choose weather to subject themselves to this rule or not, it is a democracy where people can vote with their feet. I must admit.. we ultimately can do the same with this game also though. Darn I am rambling allot.. I am stopping now and I hope many readers will react and discuss the articles!

I have already gotten a few comments on this article , from some clan mates ( I shamelessly plug the times in there). On of them was about the way I talk to people in the CC who say bad stuf. Since chatwatch ( the name of the software) nowadays also automutes for seriously offensive language.. I seem to be at risk. This because at times I repeat the bad words said to make sure they know what I do not want to hear. Specially when someone claims to not remember what they said.. To me this only emphasizes the flaws with an automated system that can not distinguished between innocent , or even constructive talk using the same words and real bad things all the time. I actually do agree goldselling, gambling and offensive language have no place in our game.. and at times I have been very happy to use chatwatch as an extra warning to some ppl who have a hard tome using clean language, but all in all.. unless Jagex reviews them all and gives all of the accused a real opportunity to appeal.. which they DO NOT and compensation for players mistakenly banned or muted I say: stop automated injustice.. Jagex seems to b.t.w., looking at some screenshots of J-mods convo floating on the web be under the false impression we can all appeal at all times.. since they point to that as the correct thing to do when having problems with a mute or ban.

Sadly my hellhound ate it... It got soaked when I summoned a Geysertitan.. The wise old man stole it.. A teleporting accident landed it on an alternate plane.. Sorry couldn't resist.. In reality i don't really know..

I don't see how this is a problem. Runescape's popularity and liveliness and server populations have always been measured by this standard, why change it now? It's true that, technically the people online at 12:00 are not necessarily the same as those online at 12:01, but since we have always used this standard, there is a level of uniformity and consistency. When the numbers were much higher, you could have said the same thing "sure, there are 100K players online right now, but those online at 2:00 are not the same as those online on 2:01", but the point is that in absolute terms it's been a decline, and that's important.The statistic is useful, and it's consistent. What I tried to put across is: A. this graph is rather young, so its limited in how far back it goes. and B. If people play less time per day the numbers in this graph will go down, but the total number of players will not. Because MORPG's are slowing dying off and everyone's playing first person shooters? :unsure: First of: excellent sigpic, beyond that.. who knows.. in my experience shooters have always been popular, I myself have played them for like 20 years.. starting with the original Wolfenstein. It seems competition is rising massively in all genres of gaming that are popular enough to make money on. There are many, many more shooters, like there are many more MMORPG's I tend to think there is room for both and much more and its more a matter of getting a large enough slice of this pie.

Darn it the click-able link numbers failed, pity, was a good a idea by Racheya.

Wait, what? I don't remember saying this. Where did I say this? I think he means me.. lol.. but I also did not say this. It says : " but like Dungeoneering this does not have the 'feel' of an old-fashioned skill" Rather obviously Divination is not like Dungeon in almost anyway, exept that it is not a traditional skill in my opinion, it, like Jagex themselves already said, is more like runespan... I also mentioned we have not scratched the surface of the skill yet, and I believe Alg said something similar. I did not name the next skill, since there seems to be disagreement and contradicting information on how much the 2 skills will interact. Jagex will have to pull something amazing from their hat to make the other skill work as a companion, since in divination itself we already construct things from our gathered supplies. It seems to me Alg's prediction that they will ad a lot more to Divination makes more sense. Alg: I wlll say it here also: I love your format, it reads very well..and it makes total sense. To not sound like a total you-know-what-kisser I will ad : it is a little short.. sadly this lands me in Captain Obvious territory...

Bingo, Kudos well deserved. I found the comparison made in that article so to the point that it stuck in my mind. Darthddict: We are clearly never going to agree, but one point I dont dispute is that a Tcomp cape should take a long time to get. Most peopel that I know who have it or are close have played many 100s of days during 5 to 7 years of Runescape. However, you can also overdo it.. and in the case of Castlewars Jagex clearly has, especially since many other minigames and such are not treated equally. Instead of 'fixing' castlewars they could have spread it out over more different and, to me, equaly important parts of this game. As far as paying for a kill at Vorago: ofcourse you don't HAVE to do that, but it is telling that these ammounts got asked and paid! Since I do not have screenshots of this, you will have to believe me on my blue eyes.. lol.. Same goes for paying for ranks in clanchats who dominate a certain part of RS, not all do it, but it happens and is not even the worst.. a wile ago I came across a pk-ing clan who demanded the members gave there passwords and pincodes to the warleaders. This clan then had members with better personal skills use strong accounts of members who were not online. I am sure this is an exception, but a telling one on how far some are willing to go. I will trow in an other controversial statement: groups made for a specific goal, like doing Dungonerering, or Warbands, or Vorago should not use clanchats, they should use friendschats. Not only do the FC's have more functionality , like lootshare, but moreover id being in multiple FC's allowed and using multiple cc's impossible.

Interesting and a little creappy, I was looking at this exact site and among others at this trope for one of my next articles... Lets hope I can keep it somewhat original..

Its nice to see a positive article and to quite an extend I agree. When criticizing Runescape and Jagex we need to not romanticize the past and forget where it all begone. My feeling is that Jagex is out of the dumps it saw itself in only a year ago and on the way up. They had to scramble and make some painful changes.. some of which I still loath, but having survived that they seem to be truly building again.

Alg makes good pints! There is one thing particularly worrying me about the live game: Drygore weapons. I don't doubt there will be mage and range equivalents, thats not the problem. The problem is they just fixed the triangle and then broke it again, with Drygore weapons you just about melee everything effectively, regardless of weakness and strength .

Last things first : I do appreciate the efforts made by the editors! Practicing won't make my articles perfect, though, English will never be totally automatic for me, but on the other hand I am not dissatisfied with it, or I would not send these articles in. .. besides, what is perfection.. maybe a good subject for an other article, or a hook to go to the feature.. I do not think our current game is perfect, but it is a hell of a lot better then 07. Jagex HAS made a lot of progress and grown, changed with the times. Grinding the way we had to in the old days can not be expected anymore from players, wile a game and its skills should also not be too easy. I disagree with Hamtaro here, and think Jagex got it reasonably balanced. Not for all skills, but in general. If you compare RS to the big competitor it still takes a lot longer to 'max', where 'lot 'is an understatement. JAgex has said the amount of time it takes to do everything on RS remains about the same, with individual things getting easier but also new things and skills being added. I think they are overstating that a little, since RS is probably getting a bit easier to max, but not by so much that stats and achievements loose value. That is just the skills, combat is a whole different puppy, it got more involving, in some ways harder and in others easier, but not necessarily worst. I do miss some old features, like protection prayers, and some of the simplicity, but the new found respect for the triangle makes up for this. Specially with regards to pk-ing I think the problem with EOC is not really with the system, but with a part of the pk-ers and their attitudes. A part of the pk-er community wants things easy, wants fast rewards and thrills. Change is not easy and the new system certainly takes time to learn and master, so they choose to hate it instead of owning it. With 07 they now have the chance to do so and still play. I have said this before: the best pk-ers I know are still just that: the best, because what makes them the best is their ability to do a lot of things at once , and fast. It is the onedimensional pkers ( click and eat ) in my clan who have a harder time. All that being said, I am less opposed to 07 then I was at first, for a very selfish reason: almost all my friends and clanmates are still around in the real game and some that left long ago even came back for a bit to play 07... although most are gone again already. Wile I do not agree with Hamtaro on his conclusions, the article should provide a lot of discussion... even if I really should stop discussing 07 vs 13... The title is also rather brilliant , took me 2 or..3 times reading it to get it, but then it made me snicker.

In regards to ranking. I agree with the conclusion that there is no perfect system., that being said, I don't think the way described under the very bad word 'favoritism' is necessarily the worst way, I also do not think 'favoritism' covers it totally. I am sure you are right a lot of times, I wont dispute that, but it also depends on the leader(s) and the type of clan. Having been in and lead quite a lot of clans and friends-chats, I concluded a variation on this method was the only workable one for me and my clan. It has thrived using this method for 6+ years now. Voting ( a method you missed ) leads to jostling for position = drama. Equality, which I tried, since people are of equal value in the end, has the problems described by Stop, in that it has no hierarchy to help shape and protect your clan(mates).. as soon as you ad one, by adding admins and such you are back to the same problem: how do you decide on them? Duration, xp gain and points amount to the same thing: it ads an objective factor, where points is the most comprehensive system. This can work for some types of clans, but for clans, like mine, that value attitude, being nice and such over all other factors it does not. Someone who gained 100 million xp fast, by dungeoneering all the time might be totally wrong for a high rank that requires having to deal with people and problems. So.. I made a hybrid system. We do have a spreadsheet, with information on seniority, xp, who brought who and other notes and use this to give people their first ranks, up to bronze star. Basically attendance and not standing out negatively does it. BUT for ranks above this, captain and general people need to stand out in a good way, present a standout example for others. this usually takes time and most will never get beyond lieutenant or captain. TO make admins and up we need more, we need to really start to know the person, feel they set a great example, are on a lot and at the right times when we need the help etc.. All this talk about having the right attitude, setting the right example is very subjective and you can not put it in to an objective points system. Since I believe democracy makes for drama and has destroyed to many clans I know of, I decide myself in the end and members van vote with their feet. I admit , even though I constantly ask for advice from all members it still is not totaly fair, the ones who play mostly during times I am never on.. are less likely to get noticed, on the other hand those are the times I go out of my way for to get good leaders to represent me.. which compensates a little. I am sure I make mistakes, but.. without wanting to get a big head.. and without wanting to jinx it.. together with all the others who help me I have got a clan here with over 300 people, that is almost 7 years old and has remarkably little drama. ( also has a little to do with not recruiting 'of the street' and talking at length to all potential new members. ) Now.. this method has a lot in common with you 'favoritism' and in a way thats what it is: I rank the people up that I favor, because they show great attitude, maturity, dependability and such. On the other hand.. I am not actually promoting my friends.. there are quite a lot in the clan whom I consider friends , but who do not fit the admin mold and there are some admins that I wouldn't want to have to talk to all the time.. but that who do a great job for the clan. Wile re-reading this, before posting I noticed I missed something: it is certainly not all ME, a good clanleader, even a 'dictator' needs some others who are honest and opinionated , to act as a conscience, a sounding board etc. I am lucky to have quite a lot of these..

Al these people claiming RS is dieing and such, because the numbers are lower then they used to be do not realize the changes outside RS. RS was a trend setter, with very little competition, nowadays there is soo much choice. I think part of the community is very unwelcoming to new players also, wanting to feel superior. Every time Jagex makes an update aimed at the lower level players the high lev3el ones feel slighted.. B S .. A healthy game needs noobs, it need a pyramid of players. I realize this was less the case whit al the bots around who partly filled the roll of noobs, and maybe these bots will return, but I still prefer to have a healthy game with an influx of new players. Jagex is working on this, as shown by them sponsoring a big article on some gamer site.

I frankly can't make heads nor tails from the effect EOC had on PK-ing. - Many self styled pkers I know tell me Pk-ing is ruined. - The best pk-ers before EOC are still the best after, at least in my clan. - One plays 07 because 'pk-ing is not a challenge anymore '. - Other claims it is all about the gear now and was not before. Something I myself have notice is that I used to be able to 'tank and run' doing whatever I wanted to do in wildy that did not involve pk-ing, but I can not do so anymore. You get stunned really fast and the damage done on me (per minute) seems a lot higher then it used to be. I used to be 138 and also notice sooo many more people are now able to hit me , now I and everyone else is 200. There seem to be a few abilities that you need to spam again and again, followed by a big one to kill someone PvP, at least when I started doing that I started winning instead of being destroyed. Then about bots: As an owner of a bigger clan, who also for some reason still has friends outside it I have had my private chat open for years now and for most of this time I got spammed with offers to sell me gold, several times per hour. It took a wile for me to notice, because I mental y ignored them, but they are gone. Reduced to ZERO, at least for me. I don't want to jinx it, but goldfarmers really seem to remain gone . This subject in a way annoys me, since I can not figure out why and no one seems to have good theories, beyond 07. Theories about the customer base of goldsellers being largely in 07. To me this is not logical, no way did 100% of gold buyers move to 07, so why don't these fine businessmen sell their gold on both server types? O and , I know i repeat myself: but it was not Jagex botnuke that killed of the bots, they largely WERE GONE 5 days before that happened. It is possible that Jagex has made it a lot harder to use bots on EOC, lets hope this is the case. I know of a few players who used to use 'clients' created to bot, to have 2 accounts on the same world from one computer ( without using bot scripts ) and this 'client' seems to be broken lately. ( No it is not me.. I barely have the concentration to do one account.. )

Not even just because of nostalgia either; some people prefer the game's unique style from back then as well. And that's not even getting into the gameplay and community... Which is a funny thing about gaming, especially with multiplayer games, 'objectively better' doesn't necessarily result in a better game experience :razz: Not only in gaming, a VW Polo is objectively a better car then the rather old Fiat Punto, but I still think that same Punto is more fun. ( just an example, no need to start car discussions) Or how about the cookie made with margarine instead of butter.. objectively worst, but preferred by many. I tried 07 and found the graphics even worst then I expected them to be... but then I do not have other reasons to want to like the old , since the new suits me fine. Most my friends who do play 07 do so because they either want to start over or because they feel left behind by all the fast passed changes The Floating Pen referred to.

I notice myself getting fed up with the 07 - live game discussion. 'Divided we lawl' does show a little light, since it is right in saying most of the people on 07 are not once who actually played the live game before. It is nice to see old faces again.. and nice that most of the people I 'hang' with are still in 13. It seems the article had several themes, one being 07 vs 13, the other clans. How ever weird it may seem, my clan has actually profited from the decline of others, it is full and has acquired a few new people who came from other clans that did suffer. This does not mean the clanworld is not in trouble, I run a 'nothing mandatory social 'type clan filled with very individualistic p;layers, It seems clans that rely on events , pvp and such are hit. An other point: "If you noticed something of a drop in bots and gamblers in EoCScape, however, this is not due to the opening of the 07 servers." I do not agree, or at least this does not jive with what i have been seeing. About a week BEFORE the last botnuke and even longer before the take down of gambling I saw many bots disappear. I do not say this is because of 07, but the timing does suggest it. I can also kinda prove the point, since I made a thread on the bots beiong gone , on the rs-forums almost a week before the botnuke. I like to kill wilderness green dragon bots and those were TOTALY gone , I checked other locations and several others did also and mature grotworms, summer garden, ess-miners etc. all were more or less gone , like I said almost a week before the nuke! Either Jagex did a secret 'nuke' right when 07 came out or there is an other reason going on here. An other thing is that the bots are not back in normal numbers yet, and normally they would have been after a nuke.. The problem is that I don't understand this enough to make a firm statement , but it has me curious.