Sorator

Do I think 07scape will be around for as long as live? Lolno. (Props to Jagex for investing a lot of resources into making something happen for those who have massive nostalgia, and more power to those who are playing it, but I really don't expect many new players to get involved, and I doubt I'll even log on myself.) Do I think it's massively divided the community? Also lolno.

Well, pmods are always players first, mods second, so it's never absolutely necessary, and mods are never required to act. Also, it's entirely our choice what to focus on - bots, RWTing, or whatever - so long as we stay within the bounds Jagex has given us regarding what they do and do not consider to be rulebreaking. (and I think most of us just play the game and deal with what we run across, rather than actively policing anything in lieu of actually playing the game.) For one, as you noted, there's an auto-mute filter in place right now that's causing most of the ruckus, though I'm sure some pmods are also muting for similar phrases that aren't caught by the filter (though that also gets into the issue of "is it disruptive spamming?" in which case the mute is unquestionably valid, since spamming has long been against the rules). For another, since mods are never required to take action, it's almost impossible for the responsibility for punishing a rule break to be put on pmods. And again, I must point out that the "consequences" players are suffering consist of a two-day mute, which is not permanent damage and can indeed function as a warning in and of itself. (Could Jagex be more clear, and should they have been? Definitely. But I think the consequences of how they chose to do it are being overstated just a bit, especially considering the BtS note and past game changes discouraging gambling in all forms.)

I have the proof of people being instantly muted for typing a phrase associated with nothing other than gambling. Seems strong enough to me. *shrug* It wouldn't surprise me if they included as a form of scamming.

No. GP does not have a clear real-world monetary value, because everyone who sells it is committing fraud by selling something that does not belong to them - the game, and all within it, are property of Jagex if you read the terms of service closely enough. (And even if that weren't the case, it'd be tricky to enforce it because it's online, based in the UK, not in the US.) So maybe you should consider the constant mutes a statement that it is against the rules? It seems pretty clear, to me. And again, I don't think you have grounds to be that pissed off about being temp muted, because that's a pretty clear and strong warning to stop what you're doing, after having already gotten the general warnings they've done over time (the change to the toy horse lines, removal/reworking of several past gambling methods, and the announcements on the subject).

Apparently, Jagex disagrees about that being against the rules.

Flooding the chat is considered offensive language, which is technically what hosts do when they do the h/c x2 styled spam. Allegedly though you claim you were banned for saying you were a rank. Maybe you'd want to check and see if you spammed your game's description before or after saying you were a rank before being certain that it was the reason for your mute. It's actually categorized as disruptive behavior, not offensive language, if I'm not mistaken. And we are entitled to our opinion - namely, thinking you're a sillyhead. (We're also entitled to not listen to your opinion, just as you can ignore ours.) Except that Runescape is not the real world. Runescape is a game, made of code, and is much, much, much more controlled than real life. We're not talking about eliminating gambling from the world - just from Runescape. And that's quite different, and much more manageable. I agree that a courtesy warning would've been nice, if they're punishing for gambling/hosting period. If they're just enforcing their existing rules against spam onto a group that has previously gotten away with it, though, there's nothing wrong with that. And if they've taken a new look at the rules and decided that gambling is actually against one of the standing rules, then the same thought applies - though again, a courtesy warning wouldn't be amiss. Regardless, I'm rather excited to see Jagex finally really addressing this matter, and I hope they continue to do so. Oh, and also, I think some of you are looking at this the wrong way: Punishment for the sake of punishment is silly; it's not that you earn or deserve a mute because you've been bad. A mute prevents you from continuing to have a negative impact on the experience of others, and encourages you to change your behavior in the future. I wouldn't even call it a punishment, really. And considering that being muted doesn't have a permanent effect (as opposed to being banned), you really can just consider that to be your warning, can't you? Sure, it's an inconvenience, and I do agree that an announcement wouldn't have been amiss, but it's not like you can't keep playing normally once the mute expires in two days. No real harm done, neh? (I've been playing a fair bit of League of Legends lately, and delving into the reasoning behind their own system of player support, and that's given me a new perspective on player behavior as a whole.)

Also, hey, your account didn't get hacked, as old pseudo-abandoned accounts often do, so that's another plus!

I'm excited, largely about solo DG xp. Not because I find it difficult to find teams or whatnot, but because Runescape has always been my place to go solo. My stats are dependent on nothing and no one other than myself, and if I want to turn chat off and interact with nobody, I can do that. Generally I spend my time in a wonderful friends & clan chat, but I don't have to. If I want a high-teamwork gaming experience, I go play LoL. But for me, Runescape has never been the place for that. I have no problem with others getting better xp rates than I do if they choose to do it in a group, for all the reasons that have been mentioned - I think it's a cool opportunity, even if I don't use it myself. I just want to be able to play Runescape solo, like I have from the beginning, and still be able to get half-decent XP rates. *shrug*

Eh, I'm not terribly upset over their change (and what I dislike is really just that they went back on their word in two different ways), but I would rather have the charm drops doubled than the experience doubled for summoning. I think it makes more sense for the skill, for the exact same reasons that Jagex gave for not giving it the 2x bonus on their previous BXPWs.

"about silly things like pixels" THIS type of argument really irritates me. You do know we spend HOURS upon HOURS on "silly pixels". We 'enjoy' it and you can't judge on what we consider fun or not. Time IS money. What don't people get about that. Instead of playing runescape, if you get a part time job then your EARNING MONEY. And YOU already chose to spend your time on pixels, not on jobs. And then YOU chose to give those pixels to someone else, hoping they would do what you wanted with them, but with zero guarantees. And when they come back with a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why they won't be accomplishing that goal you donated towards, YOU chose to get upset, and to complain about it here, and to get upset at us as well when we pointed out that maybe you didn't think things through when you donated all that cash (if you did; if you didn't then why are we even talking about it?). I've put several years into my Runescape account, and I value it a fair deal. It is more than just pixels, yes. But I don't just give away my precious pixels to anyone who asks - and if I do, I don't complain about it afterward. Edit: Likewise, I value my art. I don't just give it away to random people either. And if I do, so long as they don't shred it in front of me and treat it with some degree of respect, I don't complain about whether they hang it on their fridge or give it to their kindergartener. SUOMI made progress. He also provided perfectly valid reasons (in my eyes, at least) as to why he won't be finishing. I don't see that anyone has cause to be upset about him wasting their cash.

I wouldn't put it higher than 40% & 60%, and if you really believe your numbers, I don't understand why you play this game at all. Sure it is. Everyone who gets to play that new quest with the 80 agility requirement had to train their agility to 80. What's not fair is for someone to skip the work that everyone else put in because they feel entitled to do so. You get mad at people who randomly cut in line in front of you, right? Not a perfect analogy, since someone else doing a quest doesn't necessarily delay you from doing the same quest, but it's similar. Yes. You're playing Runescape, instead of WoW. It's a different game, it works differently, and there's nothing wrong with that. If you want to play something more like WoW, try playing more WoW. (And the same applies to anyone coming in from another game and justifying their botting on Runescape by saying that other games aren't as much work.) But those options are pretty much equally available to everyone (without getting into issues of how much income you have to spend on Runescape). Bots aren't, not really. I can't say I have any experience with it myself, but I'm guessing that the bots which actually work are probably run by a small group (in comparison to all Runescape players), and you have to be "in" in order to make use of them. Also, because they aren't being run by companies, with all the safety networks companies provide, you really don't know if you're getting what you pay bot-makers for, or if you're potentially getting malware or the like, and you have little to no avenue of recourse if it steals your account and/or breaks your computer (as opposed to a legit company, where you could contact customer support and/or file lawsuits). And that point is when I will flip a table in anger, if they start directly selling items that provide significant in-game benefits. We haven't gotten there yet, and I still hope that we won't ever. Again, I'm still hoping we won't get there. You also can't make money as a production-style skiller, because the bots are undercutting you all over the place. Or, more likely, more bots will come in and fill the extra space, just as they have done already. And if you start making botting permissible, you'll have a ton of massively high level accounts that have no actual investment in the game itself, and a massive turnover rate of new players when they see that no one actually plays the game until they've botted their way to all 99s, and everyone who actually does that then quits because there's nothing fun to do anymore. A major draw of Runescape, and other games like it, is that you get to make slow progress towards some massive goals - this is rather enjoyable, even if you don't always reach them. If you can just shell out $20 for a program to do it all for you, that kind of ruins the point, don't you think? That is why I actively dislike bots.

It's his life, and his choice, and while everyone has the right to free speech, everyone also has the right to look at someone else and call them an idiot for the way they choose to use it. Also, you don't have any such right for your free speech to be heard (or read). I'm rather surprised that people are seriously complaining about their donations going to waste. You made that donation hoping, even expecting, him to get 5b, but you knew (or at least should have known) that for whatever reasons, he might not get there. So if you're really getting that upset over it, expect nothing more than for folks like me to laugh at you for being upset about silly things. (Also on the note of RS gp having RL cash value - you do remember that selling gold is illegal, right? It's worth something to you, yes, but probably not in terms of cash, more in terms of the time it took to get it.)

Definitely. Hope to still see you around now and then, sir.

Of course, but until that time that they do move on to bigger and better things they don't have a major impact on my gameplay. At that time I will want them out not only for being detrimental to the game as a whole but because they directly harm me. However, we're not there yet. And even though it's inevitable that they will at least attempt to get there, you're okay with waiting for the problem to surface before wanting to do something about it, instead of pre-emptively solving it? Interesting.

Yep, they do that a lot...

You cannot prove something to be true; you can only prove something to be false. Thus the (US) court systems have the "prove beyond a reasonable doubt" bit for criminal cases (and "prove more likely than not" for civil).

I still don't see how it's that different from herb, or fm, or crafting, or any buyable skill. For all those skills, you can buy the stuff and save a ton of time by just doing the xp-bearing activities during BXPW. The only difference with summoning is that you can't buy the charms; you have to gather them manually. I don't really understand why that means it must be treated completely differently. (DIY accounts treat every "buyable" that way, gathering all the resources themselves. Should they then be limited to less bonus xp on all their skills? I understand that's a player choice, rather than the game creators' choice, but still.)

I dislike that they actively said not to prep for another, then changed their mind. Would've been fine if they said they were reconsidering the whole idea and then had another bxpw anyway, but actively saying not to prep for it bothers me. Yes, they're trying to prevent people from hoarding materials to resell at ridonkulous prices, which is nice - this is why I'm fine with them announcing it merely a week beforehand (I like that, actually) - but don't get into making white lies to accomplish your goals. It's just not a good place to be, either as a person or as a company.

This, but I hate the former a great deal as well.

Considering that the Terms of Use had players state that they were 13 or older (at least, till the invention of quickchat worlds), there's probably not anyone willing to state they were <13 when they maxed.

Saves an equal amount of time regardless of xp/hour. Although you do lose a bit since you'll have to travel around some. It'll probably be beneficial if fpf tickets don't work. To add to this, bonus xp saves an equal amount of time whether you spend your bonus hours getting 1-90 and then doing 90+ off bonus xp or if you get 1-90 beforehand then spend an equal amount of time during bonus xp getting 90+. Since it's actually a bonus for a period of time, rather than a specific amount of xp, it's actually rather different. At level 90, say, you have access to the best courses and can get a great deal of xp per hour - at level 1, you can get far, far less xp per hour because you can only use the starting course. While they both get doubled, the end result is still higher for 90+ than for 1-90.

Are you able to trade/sell these? If so, a 600k gp award is not bad for an uncommon slot. If not, it's still interesting compromise between skill amulets and instant xp. I don't think the crates themselves are tradable, but the materials you get from them probably are. I was seriously debating between taking the crate and taking the 40k gold substitute, since I had no idea what would be inside... glad I took the crate! (121 blue drag leather and some thread for me.)

Some of their recent re-works have been amazing. Granted they should be as polished on day of launch, but I really enjoyed the update temple trekking. Yeah, I really like the update to Al-Kharid, as well. Looking forward to them working on the rest of the desert. I do think many of their reworks wind up looking just a bit too... busy. Too much stuff going on to easily take everything in. But that's so far in the other direction, for Runescape, that it's okay, heh.

Just because we can think of reasons it's a good idea, doesn't mean it should be done. I can think of reasons that pouring syrup over my head is a good idea (tasty! other people can lick me without being awkward!), but that doesn't mean I should do it. There are downsides to every potential change, and in this case those downsides massively outweigh the benefits. Also, you seem to be under the impression that maxing is bad... or at least, that we should have as few maxed players as possible. I can't say that I agree with that idea. For a lot of players, our end goal is to max, or get quest cape, or comp cape, or the like. Making any of those goals so far out of reach that less than 100 people of the thousands of players of this game could re-max is not a goal we should be aiming for.

Might be difficult to manage that, if the player in question isn't clearly doing a particular method based on their xp gain (if they're gaining att/range/slay xp, clearly they're slaying with a cannon + melee wep, likely rapier) and isn't making videos on the subject.