Tip.It Times Presents: Guest Article and Letters #18

[Headnazgul]

This week, Ratchet573 has provided us with a guest article and we also have Letters to the Editor #18. We hope you enjoy it!

 

 

 

>>> Guest Article and Letters #18 <<<

 

 

 

~Headnazgul, filling in for Rcty ;)

[The_Gabe]

Oo nice.

[Harakiri]

Cool...my article was put on Letters to the Editor...

[Winner5555]

I know when you are in a hurry to get somewhere and some noob comes up to you and says "Can you show me the way to varrock?", Most people keep on walking and don't even bother to answer. If you did not see the message fine but if you have seen at the very least you could say is no. Don't ignore the person just because you think he/she is underage, It could be your 40 year old next-door neighbor asking you for some help

 

 

 

I agree with pretty much everything except this. When this happens to me, if I don't respond, they just stop following me, but if I even let out something like "no sorry, i'm busy" they'll start begging me and saying how it'll only take 5 minutes and such

[Gravy]

Wow. :|

 

 

 

I did not know that about the boots.

 

 

 

This was a wierd Times, didn't really accept the style and put negative view on my read. New players do get it easier, though, the veterans could say that about the original Tut. Island.

[deathdude777]

We also have the Stronghold of Security, Town Criers, The Wilderness Ditch, and all those Stronghold of Security booklets. Now look, I understand Jagex want to keep players secure, but this just moves beyond that. Any player who is over the age of general maturity (11<) should know this. It annoys me that Jagex accommodates for the people who really shouldn't be playing. It almost feels like they are attempting to pull in a younger and younger crowd! If some one happens to give away their password to a friend or send in their password to a "become a mod" email scam, then its their doing and its part of life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I highly disagree with this statement. True, mistakes and injuries that result from those mistakes are inevitible in life. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to lower the chance of mistakes and not try to minimize the injuries sustained from the mistakes.

 

 

 

Over my whole runescape career, I have probably lost 2m+(more like 2.5, or 3m, but I am sure it was at least 2m). I read the manual(the knowledge base didn't exist), the anti scam guides on fansites and was extremly cautious when trading or risking wealth in any way(paranoid is really the word for it) and yet I still got suprised sometimes. When new scams came out I had never heard of, or when a lot of pressure was put into a trade, or when they "missclicked" at the second trade window and rushed through the second trade(so that you don't check the second window). Thats just the tip of the iceberg-how many people fell victim to willow-magic trade swaps? What about the "have some poisonous karambwan" scam or "trade me your candle for a sec" scams?

 

 

 

 

 

True, jagex may be encouraging younger players to play the game who don't need to be playing(thats an entirely different argument), but thats a horrible excuse to try to prevent inocent people from suffering. Knowledge should be free, it shouldn't cost me 2,000,000 gold pieces just to avoid getting scammed, with a new tax coming out all the time from someone with nothing else to do but think of a new ways to hurt people.

 

 

 

Also, It seems everyone thinks that its just the young kids that get hacked I want to prove you wrong.

 

 

 

Watch your local news for a week-you will almost always see a scam warning, whether it be a scam e-mail asking you for your pin number to ensure you are the owner of your bank account, a letter asking you to pay a tax or have your house re-possesed or an illigitimate buissness trying to take your hard earned dollars.

 

 

 

For those of you who have seen the life lock commercials on tv, heres the quote from it"every thirty seconds an idenity is stolen"-lifelock television commercial. Thats much more to lose than a runescape account, so surely those people arn't being reckless.

 

 

 

See? your never too old(actually, elderly players like grandparents who play with their grandchilren would be more prone to scams, because they tend to trust people more often) to be scammed.

 

 

 

Its true, there are some people who are gullible and naive, who trust everyone or who arn't used to mmos and figure it has cheat-codes just like any other game.-does that mean they deserve to be scammed? I am pretty large in real life(don't let the picture below fool you) and I am physically capable of taking money from people who maybe arn't so strong or don't know how to properly defend themselves. Does that mean that they should give me what I want because they are lesser human beings than I am? Thats the principle that started both world wars, the requonsista(sp?) and many of the medieval and roman period wars. Is it really a good principle to go by?

[Tim_Tam_Tan_Tien]

I know when you are in a hurry to get somewhere and some noob comes up to you and says "Can you show me the way to varrock?", Most people keep on walking and don't even bother to answer. If you did not see the message fine but if you have seen at the very least you could say is no. Don't ignore the person just because you think he/she is underage, It could be your 40 year old next-door neighbor asking you for some help

 

 

 

I agree with pretty much everything except this. When this happens to me, if I don't respond, they just stop following me, but if I even let out something like "no sorry, i'm busy" they'll start begging me and saying how it'll only take 5 minutes and such

 

this happens all too often to me, i remember when i was a newbie i carried around a newcomers map wherever i went, now i give them out to free for people who ask for directions to the major cities :thumbsup:

 

It seems that the majority of the players that are young become a pain without realising it, did you ever think that when you were a newbie that you were truly annoying someone? No, you just thought that you needed help, so you should ask someone more experienced than yourself.

 

 

 

Ps. Nice article =D>

[Viv]

lots of things to read this sunday :thumbsup:

 

 

 

and yah usually we ignore the people that just ask for help and yes i agree that someone shouldnt be playing if they dont know general internet security but the poster above me has a good point that adults get scammed as well. ive lost about 1m+ from scams especcially with the old trade limit

[Toad]

was harder before tutorial island i assure you, but i can say this one thing.. its not meant to be hard for new player if you set the learning curve high it's not fun.. they want players to get into it and be like YES i can wield steel armour, what the cabbage is that.

 

 

 

i spent a week or two killing goblins, 60-70gp per hour, looking back now sinking my teeth into alot more than that but your forgetting, back in the day.. there werent as many skills or quests, so it was actually probably easier for us now theres X players training at this and that spot it never really happened.. it may seem easy for us to say hey they got it easy, but end of the day, its not its still hard to get into the game, to them they have no knowledge of the game, which i kind of miss, theres so much of it to cover.. i remember getting lost and being like where am i and looking for 30 mins on world map in rimmington mines..

[zach312]

I'd have to say that Tutorial Island was a load of cabbage from the get-go. All it did was teach new Miniclip players that the game will give them free handouts of everything they need - hence the huge [bleep]e in beggars and general laziness/idiocy among the community. At least with the new tutorial they learn that you actually need to do some things on your own instead of asking everyone for phree st00f.

[Grasle]

Some points I agreed with, some I didn't.

 

 

 

And yes, I believe newbies have it easier. So what? That's not a bad thing. It's good, in fact.

[Earth_Poet]

But hey, Jagex doesn't have to incorporate it. They don't need to do anything they don't want. But they still do sometimes, just to appease us. So, what I'm saying is, Jagex isn't perfect. It has good times and bad times. But all the way through, we need to treat it well. Remember, if there were no Jagex, Runescape wouldn't exist. Treat them as you would want to be treated.

 

 

 

I know there can be excessive Jagex bashing. It is true that some players live on being unhappy and look for any possible way to pick apart anything new, but there are times I think it serves a point.

 

 

 

It may seem like a thankless job over at Jagex Towers, but it's not. The players in general do appreciate the game. If they have any doubt all they have to do is check their bank accounts. We help keep them full.

 

 

 

There are some reasons behind the bashing though. First of all, Jagex has become this big, faceless entity behind the game. There is very rarely any personal interaction between the common player and the developer. A lack of any kind of relationship makes it psychologically easier to negatively attack. In other words, it's easier to beat up on someone that you don't know, especially if you think they are vulnerable. It doesn't make it right, and it's not completely their fault, but that's just how people are. Government never gets it right, Authors never get it right, movie directors never get it right, and Jagex never gets it right (even if they do!)

 

 

 

At the same time, criticism serves a purpose. You can't expect us to all bow down at the developer's feet and thank them for the privilege of playing their game. The player is a customer that enters into an agreement with the developer. It's not a "mother hen" type of relationship. It's a business (although I do applaud Jagex at times for taking moral attitude to try and help protect its player). As a member, I pay a fee in exchange for a service of entertainment. If I am not happy I stop paying. It is their game, but there is a reason they constantly remind us on the main page that they listen to our suggestions. We have some affect on the outcome of the game.

 

 

 

I know when you are in a hurry to get somewhere and some noob comes up to you and says "Can you show me the way to varrock?", Most people keep on walking and don't even bother to answer. If you did not see the message fine but if you have seen at the very least you could say is no. Don't ignore the person just because you think he/she is underage,

 

 

 

 

 

I think most of us have gone through that period of willing to help. I do ignore now if I am busy, and I know this sounds a bit rude, but I've learned that I don't HAVE to stop for anybody in this game. I don't think "Ugh! An underage person! Get away from me!" I think about the experiences I've had trying to help people.

 

 

 

It starts with a simple question like that, or "can you help me with quest?" Usually what it ends up meaning is "can you hold my hand and walk me through step by step on what I need to do, giving me whatever items I need to accomplish my tasks? then add me so you can help me with all my other future needs?"

 

 

 

I have fallen into these long adventures with some players. I actually helped walk a player all the way through hero's quest. At the end, he said "Cool." and logged off. Not even a thank you! I've had one stranger come up to me and ask "If I give you my password can you do Monkey Madness for me?" #-o

 

 

 

If it's something specific I can help with I don't mind saying something like "try ranging them." If it sounds like a vague question that looks like its going to veer me off track then I ignore it, whether you are an underage kid or my 40 year old neighbor. There are way too many maps, in game signs, and guides up now. I learned to keep walking. I know better now.

 

 

 

I only think that Jagex © should do more to regulate the problem stated above. Instead of following the trends of the prices, they should make, for example, buying a mithril bar, smithing it into bolts, and feathering them, profitable.

 

 

 

That would kind of defeat the whole purpose of having player to player trade at all. We could just use the general stores then.

 

 

 

The reason why is because of simple economics. There is a greater demand for raw materials for the experience points. Same reason you want them. The more desire for them then the more expensive they will be. If they implemented your system then you wouldn't be able to sell your finished products at all to any players. Everybody would be training the skills for raw materials so at the very least they could use for themselves.

 

 

 

The Grand Exchange has its flaws, but this isn't one of them. It isn't the reason why raw materials go up and finished products go down. It's the players own doing, and how they choose to play the game.

[Troacctid]

I didn't know this time. In fact, I went and double-checked the stats of dragon boots and bandos boots and did a little :o . I still can't think of a situation where I'd want +2 range defence enough to justify losing that strength/prayer/ranged attack/magic bonus. But, :

[Earth_Poet]

I didn't know this time. In fact, I went and double-checked the stats of dragon boots and bandos boots and did a little :o . I still can't think of a situation where I'd want +2 range defence enough to justify losing that strength/prayer/ranged attack/magic bonus. But, :

 

 

 

Maybe for pures who want to train at dagannoths? I'm reaching a little bit. I don't know :lol:

[davidium]

There are quite a few grammatical errors in the letters such as "your" replacing "you'll" (in SystemsLock (Bleh30 RuneScape Name)'s letter) which is a very common confusion among people with weaker vocabulary...also a typo error in the same letter where "on" is spelled as "one"...but then again are these letters ever vetted?

 

 

 

Regarding the last letter concerning the GE, i feel that the real problem is that jagex is not regulating the prices regularly and clear evidence of this can be seen from the need to junk trade. I understand the need to prevent RWT from occurring and thus the implementation of the trade limit but in order for this to be a success jagex must not leave the regulation of prices up to the GE mechanism alone because for goods which are severely under/over-valued (such as partyhats, 3rd age, animal masks etc) very few people, if any at all, are going to even trade these items on the GE in the first place...junk trading becomes a hassle and inconvenience due to the need to collect junk...jagex should make it more efficient by either:

 

 

 

1) increasing the price range where a trade can occur or

 

2) updating their prices with player input as well...

[Ts_Stormrage]

Good guest article, letters and Did You Know :)

 

 

 

4/5 from me this week :D

[Sir_Redhead]

I do beleive players have it far to easy now. I meen, I was off tuturial island 5 mins and I died, I then learned from that. Sure it was harder for me, but it crafted me into a more independant player.I learned to make my own money, what to avoid, and what to kill. 95% of what I know now, I learned on my own. Now, newer players seem to have everything handed out to them on a silver platter. While we the veterans had to work to find out that information.

[Toly369]

Yeah, they are making it easier for people who are new. Why? They want to draw new players in and make as smooth of a transition into a new game for them as possible. Is that necessarily good? Well, no, not really since it draws in a crowd of people who expect an easy button for everything and when they don't get it, or something doesn't go their way, they complain to jagex about it.

 

 

 

I'm about as veteran as it gets nowadays. I started playing before tutorial island was implemented, back in the day where on f2p you couldn't even see each other's combat levels and when you started out you got to choose whether you wanted to be a warrier, mage, ranger, miner, etc and your choice determined the gear you started out with. I'm not trying to say this was better, it was probably worse, in fact, since it gave you the impression of having a class whilst none existed, but there was no tutorial whatsoever. The result? A lot of potential players were lost because they couldn't figure anything out. But, the players who stayed and DID figure things out were much less nooby than today's "noobs."

 

 

 

Now, I've noticed that myself as well as all of the other "veterans" deal with everything jagex dishes out, because we know that's just the way it is and there's no need to change it (in most cases). I honestly do feel that jagex has "noobed the game up," since every single skill and everything in general is much easier than it was to do in oldschool rs. As a result, with their newly noobed up system, jagex has drawn in a new crowd of players who can not "deal with it." Mountains of never-ending complaints from these new players would flood jagex mods, which gave jagex an unrepresentative image of the game. I mean, let's face it. Veteran players do not go complaining to jagex when something doesn't go their way. Who really knows anything about game dynamics? Veteran players or the new players? Can you see the problem that arises when veteran players are able to deal with it and keep silent, whilst new players who know absolutely nothing about which they constantly complain, go blab to jagex? Jagex has grown so tired of these complaints that they actually caved in to the "new players." The result? Well, I think anyone can answer that question for me. Just look around. The wild is gone. The duel arena is gone. After I got hacked once for over 120m+, I borrowed around 11m from friends so I could get back on my feet. The result? I paid everyone back within a week, but more importantly I was back to where I wanted to be in terms of supplies and gear. With today's conditions this would be impossible for me to do. I appreciate all of the new things jagex has added to the game. But what I don't appreciate is that jagex got so tired of the neverending complaints that they caved in, gave some of the "new players" what they wanted, and then created such a system revolved around their precious knowledge base, that it's literally impossible to directly contact any jagex staff now. Just some of my thoughts in rant form. I applaud you if you've read everything up until this point. And who knows, maybe someone might even agree with some of the things I've said.

[Troacctid]

Now, I've noticed that myself as well as all of the other "veterans" deal with everything jagex dishes out, because we know that's just the way it is and there's no need to change it (in most cases). I honestly do feel that jagex has "noobed the game up," since every single skill and everything in general is much easier than it was to do in oldschool rs. As a result, with their newly noobed up system, jagex has drawn in a new crowd of players who can not "deal with it." Mountains of never-ending complaints from these new players would flood jagex mods, which gave jagex an unrepresentative image of the game. I mean, let's face it. Veteran players do not go complaining to jagex when something doesn't go their way. Who really knows anything about game dynamics? Veteran players or the new players? Can you see the problem that arises when veteran players are able to deal with it and keep silent, whilst new players who know absolutely nothing about which they constantly complain, go blab to jagex? Jagex has grown so tired of these complaints that they actually caved in to the "new players." The result? Well, I think anyone can answer that question for me. Just look around. The wild is gone. The duel arena is gone.

 

You say that, but I died and lost my bronze axe the first day I played. I didn't know where to get another, so I turned off the game and left. I didn't come back until a long time after that. Now an even longer time later, here I am, a positive addition to the Runescape and Tip.It communities. (Or so I like to think. ;) )

 

 

 

Making sure that new players know the rules and controls isn't babying them. It stops them from bugging older players asking "Plz how do i get a new axe". And more importantly, it stops them from quitting in frustration when they don't understand how to play.

 

 

 

And the Dec. 10th and related updates weren't based on player feedback. They were based on the reasons laid out in the Runescape vs. Real-World Trading development diary. As for n00bs ranting about lame stuff, well, it's not as if veteran players never weigh in. Believe it or not, the RSOF actually contains a few well-thought-out rants, and some intelligent feedback to updates. Truly n00by complaints are usually called out as such. But when a lot of people complain, it doesn't mean they're wimps. It means they don't like a part of the game. And generally when Jagex notices the zeitgeist of the players leaning that way, they try to do something about it. (Although they sure do take their sweet time. :evil: ) Examples of this include buffing Summoning, making Olaf's Quest less frustrating, and their current plans for new PVP stuff and changing random events.

 

 

 

But what I don't appreciate is that jagex got so tired of the neverending complaints that they caved in, gave some of the "new players" what they wanted, and then created such a system revolved around their precious knowledge base, that it's literally impossible to directly contact any jagex staff now. Just some of my thoughts in rant form. I applaud you if you've read everything up until this point. And who knows, maybe someone might even agree with some of the things I've said.

 

I don't agree with a lot of what you've said, but I definitely cannot deny that Jagex's customer service is...well, isn't. There is none. It's deplorable. I blame the n00bs who were spamming them to reverse their anti-RWT updates. If I had to name the one thing where Jagex just phails miserably, it's customer service. I really hope they reinstate it.

[amitoz]

Wow. :|

 

 

 

I did not know that about the boots.

 

 

 

This was a wierd Times, didn't really accept the style and put negative view on my read. New players do get it easier, though, the veterans could say that about the original Tut. Island.

 

 

 

 

 

All the pures are like.. 'lyke pmg plz i hat da jages i no lyyke da 30 def xp ad da 4 pray xpp!111111!!!shiftalt11!!1111'

 

 

 

Teaches a good amount though, I've even learned quite a bit from it (like range style speeds).