Tip.It Times Presents: RuneScape: A game for the young?

[majormason80]

I've been playing Rs on and off for quite a few years now. I started back in Rsc.

 

 

 

I've noticed that Rs seems to be getting easier but I think that's because of the 'make X' and 'make all' functions which reduce clicking, in Rsc I remember that all leveling up seemed to be was a test of patience on how long you could stand getting stuff out of the bank and manually clicking the chicken on the fire and then the next one...

 

 

 

Another thing I've noticed is that the more players Rs has, the more money Jagex has, the more staff they can hire and therefore the more updates the game gets. I for one enjoy getting more updates, more skills, more quests, more items and places.

 

 

 

I must admit though Rs has become more child friendly. I really enjoyed the Underground Pass quest because it was a bit scary with jumping over gaps in paths over a cave floor of zombies or whatever. So it is a shame that there are less of these sort of updates. However, I do feel that some of the quests in Morytania with creatures like the vyrewatch and ghasts.

 

 

 

So while Jagex are making the game more child friendly they still add some harder quests with scarier monsters and also I think that the preteens who aren't too bad are worth all the extra updates we get.

[baron8000]

What an unprecedented load of BS

 

 

 

Some games do quite well, and their game flourishes with action, adventure and a feeling that you really make a difference in the game. These games usually have a grand community of mature players.

 

 

 

Some games have a perfect community? Alas no, I play both WoW and RS and other MMO's NONE of them have a completely mature community - "noobs" exist everywhere if you excuse the term and RS has its fair share of them - like so many threads in the rants forum are told +ignore solves the problem of immaturity straight off - its just two clicks.

 

 

 

Jagex took this turn for the young as they started increasing turning their game into profit

 

 

 

Ok, said this many times now - Jagex = company, companies exist to make profit, the world of business is not full of benevolence and empathy, don't like? Go communist.

 

 

 

RuneScape lacked in blood and gore of any sort, so as to keep the game PG to its newly found young audience.

 

 

 

Did RS ever have blood and gore? :-s I'm not sure if it did but I think its a pretty big step to say it was never put in to keep the game for young ones - remember the age of joining is 13+, many 12+ games in the UK have blood/gore with no problems - maybe the Gowers just don't want it in there?

 

 

 

Stronghold of Security

 

 

 

Was a great update for f2p, they got a whole new dungeon out of it, with 4 new monsters, 3 new items and a 10k prize - so it had an underlying theme of security - its now used by many high level members (especially for slayer - Axe man Jack has even noted its use in his famous guide). Hardly an update for all the kiddies.

 

 

 

The quests of RuneScape are simple to do

 

 

 

quest points please? You ever try MEP2 or MM without a guide? Do the quests how Jagex intended and you will notice a severe rise in difficulty.

 

 

 

The themes of the quests never get too scary, and when they do, they always have a happy ending for the little tykes of RuneScape.

 

 

 

Ok here we go....

 

 

 

[hide]Desert treasure: you end up releasing a power servant to the god of evil from his eternal prison

 

 

 

Hazeel's mark: you resurrect an equally similar demon followed by a cult of black cloaked priests.

 

 

 

Devious minds: you manufacture a weapon for a shadowy stranger which is later used to murder two priests and steal a holy relic

 

 

 

Regicide: you kill a king, only to find out you have been betrayed and have in fact just murdered the good guy[/hide]

 

 

 

These are just the ones of the top of my head (full QP ftw) and I'm sure I could find more given time.

 

 

 

last time I checked, demons didnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t howl

 

 

 

I'm sorry, when did you write the rules of fantasy? I could imagine a demon howling, or at least giving a damn good shout. The graphics are improving, just not to your personal preference - dragons are a great example as another poster said.

 

 

 

In the quest Demon Slayer, youÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢re told to get a powerful sword to ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬Åvanquish the wicked demon!ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

[Ezz]

I can't agree more with this article, except for one thing, the Demons.

 

 

 

I think it's a really well made animation for a demon to die, reminds me of the days that I played Diablo 2 (which basically is a demon slaying game), which is not a kids game. And the demons there die similarly, in different ways depending on what type of course (I especially like the animation of Diablo dying :))

 

 

 

Great article nevertheless :thumbsup:

[The Observer]

Great article. I agree with every point in it. Miniclip really did ruin RuneScape's maturity level. Also, I believe I have seen RuneScape on many other sites aimed at a preteen audience.

[Artemis1330]

double post, my first ever. -.-

[Specterzero1]

Words cannot express how much I agree with your (Author's) general hatred of immaturity, but I have to say, I disagree with a large portion of your article. Someone who has such a pessimistic view clearly looks for the bad things in everything. I don't remember reading one positive thing in that whole article.

 

 

 

While I'm a relatively new player of a year and half's experience, even I know that this game was always a clickfest. There's almost nothing in this game that requires real skill, so I find it strange that you glorify RSC when it's simply more clickhappy than the current version. Things such as cook/smith/make all options don't require any less skill than making each item individually.

 

 

 

Apparently I'm in the minority as one of the supposed few non preteens who found out about this game through Miniclips. The thing is, last time I checked Miniclips's claim to fame was being a site for free games, not necessarily kiddy games, or has the definiton of free changed? Of course the only game I've ever played from that site was this one, so I might not be the authority on that. Surely I know as much about it as someone who quit knows about the current community though.

 

 

 

I also dislike how the title is phrased as a question. Questions have more than one possible answer or they wouldn't be questions, and yet your article suggests that there can be no question about it (immaturity). If you're going to present a one sided argument you shouldn't make your title a question. :shame:

 

 

 

You have just read an opinion by Specterzero1. Feel free to have your own. I'll brutally dissect those to. :twisted: J/K 8-)

[Artemis1330]

The ironic part of this entire thing is, more then half the replies here are "omg I agree!", posted by the players criticized by the article....

 

 

 

However, being an adult player myself (over 30 yro), I agree hole heartedly. Between autoers/gold farmers, constant easy/childish updates, and the overall repetitiveness of the game, I find myself playing less and less.

 

 

 

I remember reading of years past when collecting the materials to train was considered part of the skill. To do this, one needed not only the time and dedication to collect them, then use them, but also needed friends and help from the community. However, most players now just want an easy way to make money, some bot to collect the materials cheap, to then buy the materials and blow it on the skill getting 99 in less then a month. What is the big hurry? Where is the yearn to feel a sense of accomplishment in taking 2-3 months to train the skill, but while doing a large part of it yourself. Recently someone I know reached 99 herblore, it took her 2 years. She doesnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t need a high scores table, a fancy cape, or a forum to show off the achievement to. The feeling of accomplishment in looking at that 99, remembering what it took and how long, are more then enough. That's one way to separate the kids from the adults-who can stick with it for 2 years? Typically only the adults.

 

 

 

That is what made rsc and rs2 (up to 1-2 years ago) so great, the huge feeling of accomplishment when completing a goal. It took time, dedication, guts to go places that had no warning popup, to complete quests with out guides (day long quests that took more then one try and multiple bank stops to finish), and to stick with it, with the help of friends. For the most part, that is now long gone.

[mrmyk]

what i noticed was, you blame miniclip as the sole reason that rs is for little children now when really there is others.

[Gamerr]

RuneScape is packed with kids. I have nothing against kids, but I loved RuneScape because of it's maturity in the early (classic) days. People didn't cry when they died, they worked their way back up. Now, even tip.it is flooded with whiners & crybabies, check out rants boards where kids still make topic about items lost in wilderness.

 

 

 

Also, the fact that there is this "huge" honour & no honour debate means that clans have nothing to do these days, instead of working on becoming stronger they prefer to cry over the fact that people used prayer in a certain zone of the wilderness. Wilderness is there to kill, if you enter it be prepared.

[superstyle4]

I am only 14 years old so I really don't know wether or not he's including me as one of the immature people who play. But I think he makes some very good points, I have only been playing the game since 2005 so the game is fairly the same as since when I've joined but even I a rather new player have noticed some extreme changes in Jagex policy.

[Made0f12une]

What happened to scary images like this one?

 

 

 

[adriaantje]

The ironic part of this entire thing is, more then half the replies here are "omg I agree!", posted by the players criticized by the article....

 

 

 

However, being an adult player myself (over 30 yro), I agree hole heartedly. Between autoers/gold farmers, constant easy/childish updates, and the overall repetitiveness of the game, I find myself playing less and less.

 

 

 

I remember reading of years past when collecting the materials to train was considered part of the skill. To do this, one needed not only the time and dedication to collect them, then use them, but also needed friends and help from the community. However, most players now just want an easy way to make money, some bot to collect the materials cheap, to then buy the materials and blow it on the skill getting 99 in less then a month. What is the big hurry? Where is the yearn to feel a sense of accomplishment in taking 2-3 months to train the skill, but while doing a large part of it yourself. Recently someone I know reached 99 herblore, it took her 2 years. She doesnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t need a high scores table, a fancy cape, or a forum to show off the achievement to. The feeling of accomplishment in looking at that 99, remembering what it took and how long, are more then enough. That's one way to separate the kids from the adults-who can stick with it for 2 years? Typically only the adults.

 

 

 

That is what made rsc and rs2 (up to 1-2 years ago) so great, the huge feeling of accomplishment when completing a goal. It took time, dedication, guts to go places that had no warning popup, to complete quests with out guides (day long quests that took more then one try and multiple bank stops to finish), and to stick with it, with the help of friends. For the most part, that is now long gone.

 

 

 

couldn't have said it better! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

 

 

I play rs for 3 years now, i was 13 when i started and i was quite noobie and acted like it, but it helped me to learn for example how to not get scammed.

 

yes, i fell for the standard give me your armor and i'll trim it scam.

 

after some doubt i gave him my armor, being full bronze at that time, there was no second trade screen then, and as soon as he got my armor, he ran away.

 

i chased him, asked my armor back, insulted him, begged for my armor, but it didnt help.

 

then i started doing other skills, and i never fell for a scam anymore.

 

 

 

now, with the second trade screen, players think they cant get scammed, so they dont even look at the second trade screen and just press accept, so they made it even easier to get scammed!!

 

 

 

also, when i started, the updates were worth reading, even when they were p2p updates (im f2p), but now, most of the updates simply stinks!

 

 

 

conclusion: I totally agree with the article! :thumbsup: away with the underaged!! :twisted:

[Kingtygy]

I know! With everyone running around saying: " give me your stuff or ill report you" It gets really frustrating..... I could go on forever. A good exaple: at your F2P bankspace rally, there were a bunch of people following saying more spongebob, and save the hippos. That almost completely ruined it for me. :wall:

 

 

 

Anyways, congratulations on being so right all the time Prankster King, except for the demon part. If i was a demon and i just got vanquished, i'd except myself to atleast say oh crap.

[Mr_Haru]

Well don't I feel like a guilty little piece of work. Yes, I'm a stampedeing cow hyped on red bull. And all I have to say is:

 

 

 

Sorry. I was introduced to the game by someone who WAS of the normal player age. And we were friends. So naturally, I'm going to play it.

 

 

 

I wouldn't mind the risk! I want a quest with a horrible ending! I was in shock when I found out that the end of the Romeo and Juliet quest didn't end in both their deaths! I would've loved that! I want harder puzzle, more adult themed things. I want a freaking challenge!

 

 

 

Yeah, we're screwing things up. Sorry. :(

[Jopie211]

I disagree with a lot of things. I liked the howling demons! The Stronghold of Security gave F2p it's best training spots. RuneScape takes SOME skill in SOME things ( Kq, fight cave and pits, Dks, Barrows.), the zombies look scarier now by hanging on a thread of spinal cord, it is Jagex's sense of humor with the guy tiptoeing away. I didn't like this article at all.

 

 

 

Totally agreed.

 

 

 

Sure, RS has an immaturity problem, but I certainly don't agree with the point that playing the game doesn't take any skill.

 

 

 

I didn't like this article either. :thumbdown:

[qeltar]

The world of successful companies is divided into two categories. The first consists of firms who do something well and when they become successful, continue to do what they are doing to cater to their loyal customers, even if it means sacrificing maximum potential growth. The second is comprised of corporations that, upon achieving success and fortune, realize that they can make even more money by watering down their formula to appeal to a larger audience.

 

 

 

We all know which path Jagex has taken: the money. They are deliberately targeting children with this game, any website disclaimers or protests to the contrary.

 

 

 

That said, I agree with those who said this article is way too pessimistic. There is still a LOT of fun stuff to do in the game, plenty of challenges, and a large number of good people -- if you seek them out.

 

 

 

Sort of like everything in the real world -- gems among rubble. Start digging.

 

 

 

Whining doesn't accomplish anything.

 

 

 

~q

[starev91]

I don't agree that playing it requires no skill (although I don't anymore, that might've changed while I was gone), simply because if you can find an innovative way to train a skill, you'll beat the grinder to the mark.

 

 

 

Of course, then someone tells what you were doing, and everyone else does it.

 

 

 

What Jagex could do to fix this is make more high level weapons sets. And make them even harder to get, and nontradable. Also, they should make it require a decent sized group of players to pull off, so that it would require teamwork to do on the scale of 20-25 players. And dangerous. Did I mention dangerous? :P Dangerous on the level of no teleporting, and if a few people lose, everybody loses.

 

 

 

Now do that many times over for differing levels of armor, high to low, all hard for that level group.

 

 

 

Restrict by level and number group so that the entire group has to be within a certain set of levels.

 

 

 

This would show exactly who can work with a group--and in a game where all but one or two things can be done solo, that's important to add. Runescape as a game sets the players against one another in almost all cases--gathering resources, fighting monsters, etc. because of a limited number of possible resources on the server at any given time (only so many spawns, only so many rocks to mine, etc.).

 

 

 

Best way to make clans more of a thing that's necessary, not optional, and make a sense of community come back would be to require groups of players to do things--that way, people would learn to respect each other's wishes and the like.

 

 

 

Oh, and the 12 year olds who don't like it when it doesn't go their way? They aren't team players, so either they'll learn to respect others or they'll not be able to get the items.

 

 

 

(To compensate for the fact that the monsters are very, very, very hard and a profit isn't made because the items can't be sold, the items should be nearly constant drops for each party member, so that they can get what they want each time without bickering amongst one another--in this manner, the group would probably solidify if they did a few runs to get multiple sets of armor, and as it grew people would get replaced and whatnot, but it would go on as a group to do more. At least in theory.)

[lewagold2]

I completely and entirely agree with this, it is too true. They should do nothing to make this anything less than a Teen rating, simply because it is meant for those 13+. I wasn't 13 when I started, I was actually 7 or 8, but I have never begged or randomly insulted people like many of the *miniclip* players do. I started before the 13+ requirement, and was only officialy allowed to play 2 months ago. They shouldn't dumb the game down for little kids who are afraid to spend some time trying to do something, just because they pay they make it interesting for their tiny attention spans. Yeah...

[fakeitormakeit]

O and btw I posted before but I have something to add to it. I don't think that all preteens are immature, there are a few exceptions but thats about it. And a good eample of underage players ruining the game for others is my friend's brotehr saw him playing runescape and so he told his friends and like that whole 4th grade class plays and they go around spoiling the game being immature and what not.

[malo2]

I stopped after the first paragraph, the guy sounded too much like a parrot to me.

[Cabbage_Boii]

AMEN, tbh i think miniclip rly brought in ALOT of the unmature little twirps the community rly sucks now but miniclip cant rly take all the blame, just most. i knew about this game when i was 7 i played yeh i got hacked and cryed also i didnt know how the heck to play i went in the wild and lost prayer robes and nearly broke the keyboard!

 

 

 

So i quit started back playing when i was 12 and i could handle it still underage yes but i knew the game and i got pretty good. then my little brother came home from school and said Eli look at the game i found!! - goes to miniclip - shows me rs i was like yeah i already play so that right there my little brother [garden tool] is 9 yrs old has acess to rs then he tells all his other 9 yr old friends and there we have another 30 stupid little kids that play.

 

 

 

Heck you gotta remember that the preteens are ruining the game but alo the game is ruining them if they play at 9 yrs old and notice that they like the game and its fun theyre playing time will increse so by the time theyre 16 they will play rs for like 8 hrs a day! and then they will start ditching friends and family for a game they wont see the light of day, that right there is ruining there life.

 

 

 

So whats the sollution? i think they should make runescape harder to access/play we need sumthing cause the community of noobs is causing alot of good rs'ers quit because of the noob community.

[the1stfool]

I agree with almost everything Prankster_King says. Miniclip did bring in alot of noobish preteens, but I also found out about the game from my best friend who found it on Miniclip. :P When I started playing Runescape I wasn't a preteen, I was 13 at the time. :|

[berbatovsky]

Everyone whos quit the game agrees the community stinks and the game is unchallenging, everyone who plays the game likes it .........why exactly are the opinions of people who don't play valid? Some of them played the game for 5+ years and sucked ALL the fun out of it they could, in the end they decide they wasted their time and that the game was NEVER fun so they mock the game to validate this feeling. These people are as imature as the people they CLAIM make the game unfun.

 

 

 

 

 

If people can rile you easily don't play an MMORPG, sure we all get annoyed once in a while, but if your first thought when playing the game is 'i hope no noobs say something stupid' then don't play, you'll save yourself hastle and us from hearing about your complaints.

 

 

 

Edit: i found the game on miniclip.

 

 

 

Edit2: I LOVE the way people keep using the word unmature, its not a word, the word you are all looking for is immature. Well at least vocabulary has nothing to do with maturity.

[PastyGangsta]

Miniclip didn't just ruin rs, it brought mature players in as well, but alot more unmature too

 

 

 

i agree with that. my friends learned about rs thru miniclip, and thru them i joined rs. i was never the immature noob/preteen. then again, there are always exceptions

 

 

 

Congrats, you're part of the 0.0023% exception.

 

 

 

80% of Statistics are made up on the spot. :wink:

 

 

 

I was never as immature as some of the people we get from Miniclip. Although I knew about RS way before I even heard about MiniClip. MiniClip wasn't the only thing that ruined the game, but it sure was a big piece of its downfall.

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

It honestly took me 3 hours to comphrehend where the author was coming from, and normally with articles I can get the point in less than five minutes. There's a number of things here that I disagree adamantly with you on, and I think I'll reference them by point instead of multiquoting.

 

 

 

In the first paragraph, you go ahead and talk about the halcyon days of RuneScape. I don't know how you believe that there were nothing but teenagers and adults in the game; in truth I started playing when I was probably 14. My friends, who got me started into the game, were 14 and 11 at the time, if my memory serves correctly. Let me tell you that all of my youthful friends, who started playing around this time, were probably more mature than the community ever could have been.

 

 

 

In the second paragraph, it is true that a game changes as it expands over time, and that a company must adapt to that change. I'd like to know, however, which way would have been best in your opinion, for RuneScape to change. What it did over time was replace the 2D sprites and 3D NPOs to a full 3D game, increase the room that members had, and give them a multitude of updates to play with, while at the same time giving freeplay a cookie out of the entire jar once or twice. Before, in RSC, I didn't have members simply because it didn't appeal to pay $5 for a 2D game with 3D NPOs, even though the community was fantastic. Now that I am a member, post RS2, I still don't think that RuneScape's updates or gameplay took a turn for the youth. Besides this, no one said that the largest slice of the community was children. I'd like to see you, the article writer, provide proof that children are the absolute majority. And no, Miniclip isn't enough proof.

 

 

 

In your third paragraph, this is where it all comes undone. How do you correlate "free" to "for kids"? How do you blame Miniclip for the number of preteens in the game? Isn't RuneScape.com just as easy to visit as Miniclip.com? This paragraph is nothing but pure prejudice against a younger audience. I don't believe it's very fair to tell *all* of the players from Miniclip that they are immature and should go home, nor do I feel that it's right to say that they "flocked into its website like a stampede of deranged cattle thatÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s been hyped up with Red Bull in their water troughs".

 

 

 

For the fourth paragraph, I'll work my way up to the top with this one. Updates like the Wilderness Ditch, Town Crier, and Stronghold of Security didn't exist 3 years ago. If you wanted to learn about the gameplay, about the rules, and about the nature of the game itself, you had one of two choices: flip through a needlessly long website or trial and error. If those methods weren't enough, you had to go to a fansite to find out, and not all fansites are legit, fair, or helpful. The player-moderator debacle was an interesting one; at first I disagreed with the methods, but looking back at it, I can see that they were put in there to help sustain the community. Whether or not they're doing that job, that's in the air. On your note of the lack of blood and gore, why the hell does a game need to have blood in it at all? If you really get a kick out of that kind of stuff, then maybe your leaving the RuneScape community was for the up and up.

 

 

 

In the fifth paragraph you go on a tangent about how simple the quests are to do. Have you ever tried to do Mournings' End II without a quest guide (or while writing a guide)? Have you tried Monkey Madness without a guide? Did you easily overcome Desert Treasure without anyone's help? Was it really easy to get past Legends for you? If you think that none of those quests require skill, you're dead wrong. Mournings' End II, which is a good example, requires a lot of puzzle-solving skill and patience. It honestly took me 17 inconsecutive hours to complete the quest from start to finish, and another 2 hours to compile the information I had into a guide. Besides this, what's wrong with a happy ending? Although DT didn't have one, Slug Menace didn't have one, and a few more didn't have a "happy ending". You also go on to insult the characters and how "goofy" they look, even when they die. Pardon me, but apparently you really haven't touched RSC if you think that those are goofy. Jagex is also working to improve how everything in the game looks, and they are doing a damn fine job by me. As far as the quest puns go, what's wrong with that? They're not so corny once you get a chuckle or two out of them, and that's all they really want. Sheesh man, get a sense of humor.

 

 

 

In your sixth paragraph, you don't really provide any proof that RuneScape is being ruined with constant warning messages. The Wilderness ALWAYS had a warning message attached to it. Are you telling me that the Wilderness was made less scary with that message? Along with this, a recent update was released so that if you did something six times or more, you could toggle it off to never be warned by it again.

 

 

 

In conclusion, I'm kind of glad you left the game - the community couldn't benefit really from a player that takes such a pessimistic view of the game. I'll admit that the community has changed, but so have I and all of my friends that still play. We view this game at a different age than we would when we were younger; we see things a lot differently than a child could. So, I don't think that the community is all that bad as far as your article goes. You also place the blame on the wrong person; Jagex can't do anything on how someone acts. It's up to each and every one of us to change the community for the better (or the worse), and players that constantly bash the game without providing any reason or rhyme behind it don't come off (to me) as trying to change the community for the better.

 

 

 

It was an article that I feel should have never seen the light of day. If you're going to write something like that, try again with proof this time?