Tip.It Times Presents: The Ditch of Stupidity

[yamamoto]

The old saying of our parents, teachers, friends, and others told us that: "If we make a mistake, we learn from our mistake". I think the ditch thing looks kind of stupid in a way. I found it entertaining to hope back and forth, it's the old elementary days where my friends and I played leap frog, exceot without a ditch. :-s There are times we cannot make improvements. JaGex did a great one for blocking the passwords, but I do agree like scams of "give me your pass, and I'll hook you up a free membership". #-o that's when I got my second account scammed, now I know why I stopped getting an influence of joining members. JaGex is doing their best. I appreciate the small improvements, but I expected more.

[Drawde_3]

Insightful, and humerous. My kudos to the author.

[Bigbad_Bubba]

lol, i think the ditch is just stupid. IMO, i think that when you get within 5 steps of the wildy or so, it makes you 100% stop what you are doing, even if someone is using the pizza or book glitch to fling you into the wildy, and show a message displaying all the sutff about the wildy, and whatnot, and 2 buttons, 1 saying yes, and 1 syaing no. if you click no, you need to walk back a step, then walk foward and then try again and hit yes. if you ever exit the checkpoint, it makes you say yes again. this way you dont have to go over a ditch, but you are still stopped. (plus you should have to enter your bank pin to enter the wildy the first time per log-in)

 

just my visions. sounds safer to me.. and less noobish...

[silvertkdnic]

lol, even though i tried out the pass, i did my pass with 1 variation at the end in cwars with my pub chat on "i thuoght i had it on friends lol" but luckly, im still fine \ :boohoo:

[Giordano]

Good article. It reminds me of a way my friend learned why to use the seat belt.

 

 

 

"Wear your seat belt."

 

"What for? Nothing's going to happen."

 

*Parent slams on the breaks*

 

*Friend hits the front seat*

 

"OK, OK, I'll wear it.

[scootlaboot]

I liked the article. My number one complaint about the ditch is that it is a ditch. A magic barrier or the fore mentioned mote filled with piranhas would have been better.

 

 

 

This is my favortie quote from the article

 

One of the truisms of programming is that as soon as you make something idiot-proof, the universe builds a better idiot.

[lit0ua]

lol ditch of stupidity

 

really nice article, it tells the true about what runescape has become.... :(

 

make me now when u r goin to jump ditch of stupidity, im goin with u dude!! :thumbsup:

[HellsBells]

Wow, a nice read. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

DITCH THE DITCH!

[jemathonical]

Good read. The Editor sounds like she (yes she :wink: ) really didn't like the new update :)

[Zoidnerd]

I love these reads,well done my dear.

[skreeran1]

Amen! I lost my pass to a phishing site (the link was posted on these forums) and lost 450k. But now I know never to fall for that again, so I'm sorta glad it happened, 'cause if it had happened later rather than sooner, I might have lost far more.

[Soulfire21]

So, by complaining about people giving out their passwords via AOL or chat rooms -- are you suggesting Jagex take measures to close them down?

 

 

 

You're right! Stupidity cannot be prevented, but it can be helped. The Ditch isn't for stupid players -- its for players who accidentally click Lvl 1 wildy and get teleblocked + ice barraged to death.

 

 

 

And, if you're suggesting stupidity cannot be prevented, do you want Jagex to remove all of their protective measures? I mean... what's the point if stupidity isn't prevented? Get rid of Bank PINs, get rid of security questions. Throw the baby out with the bathwater, to be cliche.

 

 

 

Stupidity cannot be prevented... so why waste the time writing about it?

[shurikennin]

Uh, you do know that the main reason the ditch was put in place was because of the people doing the trading, running into wildy trick, and people following others into the wild not knowing; not because people's stupidity or anything of the liking... #-o

 

 

 

You guys should really be sure you know what your talking about when writing articles. :wall:

 

:lol: It also prevents lurers from pulling a jojo or anything like that

 

so don't go around making dumb forums posts before you know what you are talking about :wall:

[LordoftheSquishies]

Thank you soooo much for bashing the ditch. I had read on the official rant in the RS forums that most people on fansites were HAPPY about the ditch. I was too terrified to check these forums... Glad they were wrong. And did you notice how in 3 days it had more posts than a 8 month old sticky? And did you notice how there was a new reply every 7 seconds? And did you notice how they took it down and are now blocking all ranting about the ditch because they can't deal with the fact that they screwed up badly? HI JAGEX! DO YOU KNOW WHERE VARROCK IS???

[judgment_al]

I don't really understand why JaGex insist on shouting all their antiscam, security things from the rooftops. Why not just bring it in on the quiet and let the scammers find out the hard way?

 

 

 

Now all the password scammers know that there's no way of getting someone to say their pass in rs, they can turn their undivided attention to scamming in other ways. It would of been better to let them find out over time and maybe get bored and chop a tree down in frustration. You never know they might of even liked it... :-k

 

 

 

And the ditch, well, enough has been said about that... :roll:

 

 

 

Nice article btw... :D

[hhank_hilll]

Uh, you do know that the main reason the ditch was put in place was because of the people doing the trading, running into wildy trick, and people following others into the wild not knowing; not because people's stupidity or anything of the liking...

 

 

 

You guys should really be sure you know what your talking about when writing articles.

 

 

 

uuuuuhhhhh dud tip.it is way more informed than u'll ever be...

 

 

 

Nope, don't agree on some key points I'm afraid.

 

 

 

First of all the comparison between the real life stove and the game is flawed (and copied from another thread if I'm brutally honest). Real life cannot ever be entirely controlled whereas Jagex can do anything in their game they have in this case not told the players not to touch the stove, but removed the stove (and therefore potential touching) entirely.

 

 

 

Also (and this is a reply from previously noted thread that I take no credit for) any parent leaving their child around a hot stove has seriously questionable parenting skills.

 

 

 

The wildy needed a clearly defined boundary - the pop up message occurred only once per log in and the in game signposts were incredibly poorly placed - many were in fact inside the wild, or many squares out. The "click to cross" has also killed the trade-drag lure as previously stated.

 

 

 

Finally, to all the people shouting "OMG jagex keeps updating for the stupids" - do you really have so little respect for your fellow humans? Perhaps the anonymity of the internet is the reason for this - people are able to forget morals they would hold in real life - do you disagree with real life modifications to laws that are often to protect the weak, the uneducated or the downright stupid?

 

 

 

P.S. does the editor realise his/her hypocrisy condemning this "ditch of stupidity" when they themselves went against what jagex specifically said and tested out the new password blocker?

 

 

 

Man I get moody after work

 

 

 

 

 

...dictionary please?!?!

 

 

 

personally i dont think its that big a deal so jagex wants to make poor nubs that can easily be manipulated feel a lil better...eh...lotta fuss over somthin that aint so big...i do wanna see some1 try and lure now though... :mrgreen:

[st_shir]

What never ceases to amaze me is the overall hypocracy and self-righteousness of people.

 

 

 

The ditch is definately not a ditch of stupidity. If you are drag-traded into wildy then it's boohoo the wildy should be marked more clearly. If you are a newbie just starting to play and dragged into wildy then it's boohoo I didn't know (yes, complete first-timers don't even know what wilderness is, they don't explain that in tutorial island and well, lets face it, people don't read through the whole knowledge database before playing a game they know very little about).

 

 

 

About luring - it is absolutely never the victims fault. Yes, he/she might have made a stupid error of judgement but that does not make it his/her fault. The ditch decreases that danger significantly. If they do still risk it, they are absolutely 100% aware that they are in the wildy.

 

 

 

About newbies - is it their fault they are new and don't even know about the wild? For crying out loud, when I started, I was afraid of goblins in Lumby because I thought they might attack me. Call that stupid, but it's really a lack of knowledge and experience on the game.

 

 

 

About runecrafting - I'm rcing as we speak. Well, if the ditch slows you down so badly, you need to get your eyes checked. Or hand. It doesn't even take a second after the first run.

 

 

 

By this point I'm amazed I still have breath to waste on saying the ditch is the best update of the year. It should have been there from day one.

 

 

 

This is the first time when I think the Editor has really flunked.

 

 

 

Someone said a very nice thing about the ditch - if it requires me to take an extra click to stop luring, I will make that click. Sadly don't remember who it was, but I join him in that.

 

 

 

I may be too judgemental at this point, but lately I have grown more and more disappointed in the overall intelligence of people. Sad.

[Theboy1001]

Good article. Not sure if I like the dirch or not... Its good becaue it will stop lurers but its a bit ugly and can get annoting...

[hull11820]

there could be a spechial way for rcers like where the "buldozer" hasnt dig then tho it still asks do you wish to cross to wilderness.... then extra clicking is avoided.... think i had it once i got NEARLY killed by rc killer and i had 11 hp left.... poison hit 6 had 5 hp left think what it woud hav done when the ditch was there that day? i woud of died prolly :wall:

 

 

 

EDIT:also id like to add that im from estonia :lol: and my word of choise might be little confusing but i got my point right

[britrockdude]

Very well said.

 

 

 

I especially agree with the toddler/puppy comparison. If you do it, you'll remember next time, and not do it again.

[Robert_Rdam]

Great article, I really like the bob the builder line. :D :thumbsup:

[britrockdude]

Oh, and to further comment on mine, I still do think the ditch was a good idea, the password thing is probably good too, but still....

 

 

 

It's the fact that Jagex is continuing to pander to the younger.

 

 

 

Watch out Jagex, WoW is growing on me, I might have a different game to go to if things continue this way....

[Jtross2003]

Within one - that's spelled O - N - E - day of playing RS, I observed/learned 2 very basic things on the F2P server I started on...

 

 

 

1 Don't give your password out to anyone but the login screen. It is very obvious that unfortunately there are dishonest people playing here too. (GASP REEEEAAAALLLYY!!!!!) Yeah really - life's like that - there are dishonest people in the world in case your mommy forgot to tell you. Glad I could set the record straight there pal.

 

 

 

2 DO NOT go North unless you are comfortable with losing your stuff, cause you wont know until the last second of the fight which way it's REALLY going to go. And either way it goes, not as many people like to hear about it as you think, so quit bragging or whining, (depending upon whether you ended up back in Varrot or Lumbridge).

 

 

 

Personally - I hate the ditch. If you lack the intelligence to be that far north and not think you could be in the PK area, or have intentionally gone there to demonstrate your "superiority" but dont have the skills to win, you deserve to get whacked and loose everything. The ditch - to me - is a reminder of how many unintelligent people there really are a\out there - it's depressing, I play games cause I want to be excited, not depressed.

 

 

 

I'm not a PK'r - I've had maybe 5 fights with other players in 4 years of off and on playing RS. But I've been north of Edgevile knowing full well that I could get my tail handed to me, and I probably did 3 or 4 out of the 5. Did I whine.

 

 

 

**** no.

 

 

 

Do I feel heartfelt pains when some poor "youngster" is in Lumbridge crying "I need free stuff - my acct got hacked... I died in the wild cause I didn't know... MY password is Purplenurple - Hey How come it didn't turn to *'s ?"

 

 

 

**** **** no.

 

 

 

I hate whiners who have been scammed and cry to everyone around them twice as much as I hate the ditch. "I hate stupid people - they should all have to wear a sign."

 

 

 

And of course I hate the scammers twice as much as the whiners...

 

 

 

It truly is unbelievable and sad to me, that there are so many (your favorite non youngster friendly term here)'s out there attempting to scam folks trying to have fun and learn a pretty nifty little game. I've played the high quality games - EQ I & II SWG WOW COH COV - you name it - I really like MMORPG's. This game, as "simple" as it is that alot of gamers argue is "laughable," is probably in my top 3 favorites of all the game i have played since Pong. (Yeah I'm old...)

 

 

 

Even more unbelievable to me is that -- In this age of internet gaming and electronic purchasing and related techno babble, -- Despite the amount of press coverage and warnings given to the public from as early as grade 2 (my niece has pamphlets) regarding personally identifiable info security steps, the number of fools who STILL fall for scams (and unfortunately they will continue to fall for scams too - here's your sign.)

 

 

 

Oh yeah - and you bot using (your favorite non youngster friendly term here)'s --- Ask me if I like you guys...

 

Survey says... double **** **** no.

 

I'll be starting or finding a thread on you bastiches later.. too.

 

 

 

ALRIGHT!!! sorry that was so long winded, but I'm tired.... work in 6 hours and it's 3 in the morning and... maybe just one more coal run before bed. Night all.

[Lythiaren]

[snip]

 

 

 

...dictionary please?!?!

 

 

 

personally i dont think its that big a deal so jagex wants to make poor nubs that can easily be manipulated feel a lil better...eh...lotta fuss over somthin that aint so big...i do wanna see some1 try and lure now though... :mrgreen:

 

Hello, Kettle? This is Pot. You're black!

 

-------------

 

 

 

Back on topic:

 

 

 

I have to say I agree and disagree with this article. No, we're never going to be rid of stupidity; padding everything pointy really won't get us very far. As Einstein once said (okay, so I don't remember the exact quote, I paraphrase), "Two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity. I'm not too sure about the former." While I do agree that often the weak and the stupid do need to be protected, there have been times when I wish we'd just take all the warning labels off everything so the gene pool gets a bit of self-cleaning... Darwin Awards, anyone? Just remember, we can always learn from the mistakes of the stupid.

 

 

 

However, right before the ditch was put in, weren't people on this very site calling for a mechanism that would stop (or greatly hinder) the wilderness luring scam, as well as a definitive border for the wild? While yes, I also think the ditch is hideous (someone get a hose and call Ali M for imports, let's fill 'er up with swamp water and crocodiles!), we now have exactly what we wanted: a way to stop luring, and a definitive border to the wild, all rolled into a horribly ugly package! After all, we never said it had to be pretty. It's there now; Jagex can always edit the thing for aesthetics later.

 

 

 

On the password blocker: I agree that it was a bad move to announce that update. Now the scammers know, so they'll move on to other ways to scam people, or they'll move onto IRC chats to get the passwords they want. There's no way Jagex can stop that kind of thing, because IRC channels do not belong to them, nor do IM programs or e-mail servers, and they certainly can't prevent someone from giving away their password through word of mouth. They're not allowed to meddle with that because it's beyond their control, so we have to deal with it. Or would you like other companies trying to interfere with how Jagex runs their game?

 

 

 

The password blocker is, however, a very good update. And about time! I'm tired of seeing people trying to leech other people's passwords. While it won't stop every scam ever, it's certainly a good stepping stone to making at least a small dent in completed scams.

[Dazzuh]

A moat would make much more sense yeah, i mean the ditch as it is now is small enough to walk over. :anxious:

 

 

 

Good read.