Tip.It Times Presents: The Other Combat Triangle

[psvstef]

i enjoyed reading this one :D ;)

[cat666]

Very good article. Nothing new, but hopefully making the economy far more clear to more people.

 

 

 

I class myself as a skiller. Above all else my goal is to get high stats. However I am happy to slay for my cash so I kinda fall into warrior, although I am not a PK'r.

[cat666]

Haha, I liked the "organized crime" reference. :lol:

 

Honestly, there's a reason why nobody likes merchanters. Screwing up the game's economy and spoiling everyone else's fun just so that *you* can get what you want? It's corrupt, and to quote Lord of War (movie) "Just because it isn't illegal doesn't mean it isn't wrong".

 

 

 

In the old days merchanting wasn't bad, infact many classed it as a skill. I agree with this, the merchanter had to be aware of price changes, and log stuff themselves. They then had to buy vast quantities, and then sell vast quantities at the right time. It was a lot of effort for no XP gain.

 

 

 

Nowadays when all a merchanter has to do is use the GE and the GE database there is no skill at all. Also the ease of use makes it so easy for players to manipulate prices and the other players realize this and hate merchanters as there gains are immoral.

 

 

 

Personally I think Jagex should limit players on how much they can buy. Who in there right minds need 1 million sara brews? A limit of 1000 per day would limit the "crime" part. Alternatively Jagex could limit the sell back, Yeah you brought 30k yews, but you can't sell any yews until a week later. Obviously you could sell back as bows, crossbow stocks etc. Currently merchanters are operating out of the spirit of the game.

[ladycai]

Very nice read. The more I think about it the more I realize I was a merchant, was a meleer, and now a skiller -.-"

[Range_This11]

After a terrible article last week, I very much enjoyed this article. Great writing and an innovative insight on the way the economy works.

[Jimmyw3000]

Very very nice read. I'd have to say that I skill, tran combat and merch though.

[Smackapotato]

I'm a skiller at heart, that's how I got my money to start off. But lately I've been doing some GE investments. It's not so much merchanting as it is playing the curves(Following the up and downs of the GE's flow charts). It's so easy, it would be a shame for me not to do some investing.

[Vincent]

not bad. not bad. your writing is improving. i wanted to dislike it when i saw it was another editorial from the same people but wasnt bad. i think you're going to have to try harder to convince me that "merchants" provide any useful service though! once upon a time they did but that was before the ge. i like how you described things, but you saying anyone depends on merchants for anything? no they dont and that was clear by what you said, they only skim off the top and manipulate prices. i stopped reading about 1/2 way through because i couldnt stomach the "but they still help the whole process" um, no they dont. i think i speak for every 90+ slayer the week the dark bow was released and i will not forget that anytime soon.

 

 

 

i think you touched on 1 category of "skiller" and that is the wasteful skiller. these "skillers" ruin the market for other skillers by buying their xp and selling their goods at the lowest prices. there is another form of skiller that i think you also touched on that is superior to this type of skiller and that is one that makes use of the runes and potions they make! what a concept huh. anyway good job on writing this. i look forward to reading more from the tipit times. =D>

[Troacctid]

Hmm, I think Mark Rosewater said it better. He wasn't talking about the same game, but I think he really got to the crux of the matter. See, it's not about whether you like to skill, pvp, or merch, so much as it's about why you play the game and what gives you the most enjoyment. In this case we have our Timmies, who play for the experience, i.e. the thrill of the pk, the rush of soloing the KQ, the humorous dialogue in quests, or the glowy feeling of a level-up; and our [bleep]es, who play to win, i.e. pushing the hiscores, getting all the top equipment, and enjoying the competition of the game's multiplayer aspect. Not sure if Johnny fits in, since this game honestly doesn't lend itself well to customization.

 

 

 

It's not that one player is exclusively a skiller or a pk'er, it's just that they're doing it for different reasons. Timmy will go monster hunting because of the adrenaline rush and the possibility of big rewards; [bleep]e will go monster hunting just to prove he can do it, or else because it's the most efficient moneymaker for him. Timmy will go PvP because of the visceral thrill of it; [bleep]e will go PvP to show that he's the boss. Timmy will go questing primarily because he likes the storylines and the plots and the cutscenes; [bleep]e will go questing primarily for the rewards. Timmy will train skills because he feels like it; [bleep]e will train skills because he likes having high levels. [bleep]e is more likely to merchant than Timmy, since Timmy generally considers it to be boring, whereas [bleep]e just recognizes it as an efficient means of getting money.

 

 

 

That's what I think this article was getting at, but the writer failed to get past the "Combat vs. Skilling vs. Merching" to reach the basic motivations of the player. After all, there are very few players who will fall exclusively into one of those activities--how many people do you know who spend 100% of their time on Runescape merchanting?

[Deep]

The second group is composed of the Skillers. Those mining Gold Ore, cutting Yew Logs, crafting Nature Runes, farming Herbs or otherwise gathering raw materials have gathering GP as a main goal, and we call those the DIY Skillers. They take the GP over XP approach to things.

 

 

 

That's not true. Crafting nature runes is close to the fastest r/c xp in the game AND you make money. When i was getting 99 r/c i put Exp before GP and still managed to get high exp rates and a high income.

[Sir_Squab]

Seeing as virtually ALL my money comes from daily b staffs from Zaff and my kingdom I don't fit into a category...Good article, although one has to wonder how much price manipulation is people and how much is people's reaction.

 

 

 

My skilling...I'll spend millions on certain skills, like farming, to level it up, other skills, like smithing, I'll make cannonballs to level it...(This was me beating varrock diaries)

 

 

 

And I don't bother with merchanting, because I'd rather have say my guthans in my bank ready to use then try to merchant it and not have a set of guthans to use when I slay.

 

 

 

Good article though =P

[la la la]

Yep, I'm a skiller with a minor in merchanting.

[cuba_caramel]

I can't really say i only belong to one of the groups...

 

I do merchant quite alot but i don't use time on it so i also skill a lot...

 

and then again the only reason i merchant is so i can get money for my skilling so all in all i believe the groups tend to cross over...

[Phox1515]

I'm a quest'er (i have the quest cape and do my best to keep it wearable same day new quests come out... i avoid guides if i can)

 

 

 

as far as the 3 talked about though imk neither i do the mix of monster hunts, skilling, and merchanting... not so much merchanting... so i guess im a quntler (qu for quester, nt for monster hunter, and ler for skiller... quntler pronouced qwu-nt-ler) hehe

[SirTommy2005]

I'm about 70% warrior and 25% mercher, and 5% skiller, super nice.

[lord_troyus]

Pfft. You still got this guy writing articles?

 

Cmon tipit we need some real talent.... :wall:

 

 

 

OT: I suppose Pker/skiller. Pk for fun, skill for cash/levels.

[Melos]

Interesting read.

[DreamReaper]

More hate on the merchants. :roll:

 

 

 

An interesting read nonetheless.

[Skull]

Way to advertise Mssw4 ;)

[Maximusa]

Very much better written.

 

 

 

Well iv always been the skiller; the top dog of all the groups. ;) I have also done all the quests but since I been playing so long I dont consider it much of a accomplishment. I also invest a little but I dislike merchanters. They dont bother me too much (Besides lifting prices then dropping them hard) and I do it a bit myself anyway. Nowadays I dont mind the casual GE merchenter compared to the old style merchenting.

 

 

 

Before the GE was when I considered merchenters a pain in the [wagon]. Couldnt buy or sell anything without some wannabe kid merchenter. (Not to mention lurers but im not sure who I considered worse..U know what I mean? The dumbest?) So im glad that is all behind us. I hated spending ages on skills to sell something at a reasonably decent price to have some child cut price in half or something. I have to admit I miss the days when I used to waste their time though.. Making them run around for me then ignoring them. (For the insult they made. For spamming up my limited private messaging space)

 

 

 

I also believe there a class you would consider the minigamers? I dont do minigames myself. People who do castlewars and stuff. I dont consider it the same as the pkers.

 

 

 

Pkers.. Pkers well.. Pkers lol.. Pkers used to be a joke to me as I rarely went into wild anyway. What I remember about pkers.. *Thinks back* The only time I dealt with pkers was when runecrafting and clue scrolls. Now clue scrolls I went naked so that hardly bothered me. ..Runecrafting they pretty much 99.9999% splashed on me. They had terrible tactics.. Running straight at them confused them. I never got pked not that it wasnt hard to just stand there for like a minute teasing them before continuing my runecrafting. I kinda miss that.. Pkers used to fill that exciting void.. that joke.. I miss that joke.. ..Obviously pkers are a different breed of the game style I play. They play for completely different reasons. I personally play a shootemup if I want to pk.. I wouldnt bother with runescape.

 

 

 

Stakers.. I miss stakers as I used to skill for them. I never staked but I know they a special breed of their own. The rich boys. Once staking left the rares broke. The GE simply hammered the last nail in. That part of the game will never come back.. Even if pking does.. Staking will never. I miss stakers as I used to make [cabbage] for them which helped my skilling. That was the BEST days of my gameplay as I used to enjoy smithing alot. Its not as bad for me then if I was a staker though.. and it wasnt as bad as the effect it had on the rest of the game besides and including skilling.

 

 

 

Overall your right we need eachover. Your so correct that thats why this game has gone down hill. Since it was necessary to cripple pking and completely remove staking the game has been crippled. It was a perfect harmony that got its knee caps shot off. I totally agree with what your saying. Unfortunately the current state of the game continues to struggle on and just about keeps itself afloat. Using its arms to hold itself up - Blood gushing out of its knee joints/whatever - Hooked up to a continue supply of blood donaters. (Us) To keep it alive. With the update to pking that will patch up one leg but without staking there will be a continued fatal wound imo. I think (Not that I care as I dont pk) that pking should improve the game dramatically when that part of the 'triangle' (Odd shape triangle) returns. Then the game can stand on its one leg and hop around.

 

 

 

edit: Oops I forgot to mention the combat chumps. I dont like combat although I have very slowly trained it over the years. I consider combat chumps to be mainly the rude adolescent [bleep]weeds that need to get laid. Besides that they dont bother me as I rarely train combat. They always buy [cabbage] so I am glad they exist.

 

 

 

Oddly enough.. Once 'I' got high combat I found that high combat nerds didnt seem to bother me as much? They stopped stealing my spots? I rarely had anyone lower than me bother me especially.. The higher combat I got the more this group expanded. Training combat recently I had no mentionable hassle. I dont do godwards though and I hear that is pretty rough going.. Thats why I am the skiller. Its mostly much more peaceful. That and the fact I could play shootemup/fighting game if I wanted to train combat.

 

 

 

I dont class myself as a combat person but I am 100% that if my combat was level 80 or so and I would encounter alot ALOT of hassle. Thats why I have low respect for combat chumps. They are required of course! Very important.. but I have little respect for em. Especially since they all seem to be about 15 years old or so. (Not that its the age itself thats the problem its just their maturity.) Of course I know many many polite players! Just the majority aint. I wouldnt label combat people as all being rude but its a good 'guess' is all I am saying.

[Megamickel]

I really disagree with this article, or at least the viewpoint.

 

It puts merchants in a really bad light, when in actuality without the merchants gold wouldn't flow through the economy NEARLY as fast. They're like people in the real world who simply use the stock market to make money. Of course, I used to respect them a lot more when they had to work a lot harder, but now it requires a different kind of skill (no more buying item X and reselling for 100k more within a couple seconds).

 

 

 

Price manipulation isn't wrong, either. It's simply good business.

[Master_Smither]

I am infact all 3. I'm an avid Bandos GWDer I skill ALOT to make most of my money and I've merchanted well over 50M since the GE came out. Very good read.

[jettrider]

It puts merchants in a really bad light, when in actuality without the merchants gold wouldn't flow through the economy NEARLY as fast. They're like people in the real world who simply use the stock market to make money.

 

 

 

I agree...solo merchants cannot change the price direction of an item, and especially not "force the item to go up;" they can only slightly slow down the change in the price. In other words, they stabilize the market from constant crashes and [bleep]es. Team merchanting does have the power to affect prices in the short term, but they also have no effect on the long-term price. Also, group price manipulation is against rule 2, but there is no distinct place to draw a line as to how to distinguish price manipulation from normal buying and selling. I'm tired of seeing claims of "merchants drive price of every up" and "merchants lowered the price of this item so much" as these are biased, non-backed claims.

 

 

 

I think the distinction between the groups has muddled. Few people who actively play RuneScape do nothing but merchant. I'd now define large team Bandos as skilling, because it requires absolutely no concentration, high stats, or intelligence. Bosses are easy, and the loot they drop is low in price according to that. Meanwhile, since the removal of bots, the price of raw materials has stayed the same, meaning the value of gold is NOT rising: all drops are simply falling. You'll also find that few skills are really profitable. Hunter and runecraft are still the best, though crowded hunting grounds and high essence prices hurt these skills. Certain farming strategies are profitable but annoying; fishing and mining are very small money earners.

 

 

 

I don't think you can really draw a triangle here - a melting pot may be more appropriate.

[Peronix]

80% Skilling, 20% Combat... 0% merchanting. :-# I don't make very wise decisions when it comes to money :lol: I did make like 5 mil on dragon bones a little while ago, but there are many, many more times where I've kicked myself for buying something only to see it drop a day later (Like when I bought an SGS and it dropped by 2.7m the next day :wall:).

 

 

 

Of course most of that instability is caused by manipulators... which is why I generally loathe them. I don't mind investors who ride market fluctuations, because people do that in real life, but what some of these "merchants" are doing would be ILLEGAL in real life.

[Ts_Stormrage]

I did not mean to demonize merchanters as a whole... In all honesty, just the group that manipulates the prices by choice...