Runescape being of use in real life.

[Scuppers1]

Runescape really helped me in a few ways. First, it improved my typing speed by probably 100% (Unfortunantly, my spelling remains about the same) And it taught me everything I know about economics. I played runescape for three years, then last year took Economics and AP Economics, and I found I already knew everything they were teaching. They just had fancy names and graphs to describe actions that I already understood after being part of the player market. Although the GE kinda destroyed that part of the game...

[sycosis5]

I learned Willow trees are found near water.

[doomy]

Honestly, typing and patience.

 

Really nothing else, its just a game after all, what do you expect?

 

 

 

Oh I also learnt some names of trees!

[splynta112]

Seriously though it taught me back when I was in school about smelting tin and copper to make bronze, about various armor types and the advantages of them. (I actually got a trivia question right at a state tournament because of RS. The question was what metallic armor rangers frequently wore in times of war to cover their torso.)

 

 

 

 

 

Was the answer Black Dragonhide body? :lol:

 

 

 

I doubt there is dragons in real life :S.

 

 

 

Splinta__112

[ganky]

Loooads of things, it's been great and probably changed my life forever, or I like to think :P. My typing, loads of words from around runescape, though I remember once in primary school my teacher was asking what type of helmets we knew, and I said a med helm. LOL. No one understood apart from a friend :wall: . But most importantly the art of making money. Reading the economy, persuading people to buy your stuff, knowing the best places to buy and sell and everything around that : O. It's grown my passion for bartering, and also I'm making 4.5m an hour now hehe, but don't play much anymore.

 

 

 

TY RS!

[Robert_de_Sable]

First post in a while, eh?

 

But....

 

RuneScape taught me some very basic things about economy, I suppose. That's the only thing that would really stand out to me, though.

[Dereksmith3]

a few times runescape has, probably been useful in real life:

 

- one of my best friends in rs lives in malaysia, half the world away from me, and thanks to him, i easily passed a school assignment about malaysia

 

- runescape has also reminded me not to be too serious. I remember 1 day my friend told me that construction was the worst skill in runescape because it doesnt make any money, I reminded him that house parties are fun, runescape IS a game after all. #-o

[Createure]

This thread doesn't make alot of sense to me to be honest.

 

 

 

Lots of people saying things like: Runescape helped me with the names of some things like trees and fish and ways of smelting and what bow strings are made of etc. But you people think you couldn't have known stuff like that by looking on wikipedia for 10 minutes? Or doing any other activity? One thing I've never calculated in relation to RS, is the amount of time I've spent playing on it. A rough guess would be at least 100 days solid in total. I'm sure I could have spent my time doing more educational or improving things, I don't play the game to learn anything, and I don't use the things I have learnt to justify my playing, I play the game because it's fun, that is all.

 

 

 

...although RS has improved my typing enormously. :roll:

[Hello1212]

Yeah, I used to suck at typing! Now I type uber fast! I learned stuff with mining about ores and stuff, I also know how to manage my anger, keep cash, and plan my time!

[highlanders]

You do realize Runescape does NOT improve your typing? When you learn typing without any technique, you will end up being a lot slower than someone who would have typed about the same time as you, but used the correct technique. Kinda like playing piano, but not using the correct fingers, you waste a lot of time. Take a typing class... A couple hours would make you better than years of typing with bad technique.

[brunokiller]

Learnt me to stay calm and realise that person is just another idiot when someone's insulting me.

[DeltaFire]

RuneScape did something for me which surprised the heck out of me.

 

 

 

It's because of RuneScape that I won the District Tournament for Quiz Bowl. We were down by 2 and the final question for 3 points was: What is a liquid compound that was used at one time in archeology. It stumped both teams, and time was about to expire, so I randomly guessed Nitroglycerin, which turned out to be the answer and we won Districts. If I hadn't done the Digsite Quest the day before, I wouldn't have known about Nitroglycerin.

[Unknownc]

yeah definitely, runescape has quite literally changed my life. I'm SOOOOO good with money now thanks to runescape. I'm able to hold on to my money and only spend it when i have to, i save as much money as i can, just like in runescape.

 

 

 

In runescape i would see an item and then decide if it's worth buying based on how badly i want it and how much money i have.

 

 

 

Then there are the things other people have said like some Vocab. OH AND HOW CAN I FORGET THE BIGGEST THING. I'm in college for game design and programming, so runescape has 100% inspired me to make games and has shown me what makes a good game. Like the customer service and the continuous updates or new versions. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

EDIT: Yeah i've been playing runescape since the beginning when there was only like 3 worlds and like 500 people. So it truly has inspired me from the start.

[havesome22]

it made me a better artist =D> =D>

[3hitm4g3u]

You do realize Runescape does NOT improve your typing? When you learn typing without any technique, you will end up being a lot slower than someone who would have typed about the same time as you, but used the correct technique. Kinda like playing piano, but not using the correct fingers, you waste a lot of time. Take a typing class... A couple hours would make you better than years of typing with bad technique.

 

 

 

Before I started playing runescape I would have to individually seek out each letter.

 

 

 

Now I can type extremely fast with one or both hands with ease and I have never taken a lesson.

 

 

 

You be the judge.

[X Battousai]

I know there have been a few times that RS knowledge has helped me out IRL, but I can't remember any of them... :roll:

 

 

 

However, one incredibly useful real life thing that RS has taught me is how to type! When I started playing RS I was a very slow typer, and I now can type faster than most people I know IRL! :

 

 

 

Yeah I know it taught me some stuff too that I can't remember #-o

 

 

 

It's also a much better teacher than Type to Learn :lol: ( -.- )

 

 

 

yes... I HATE TYPE TO LEARN!!!!! I had to use the third one... and omfg it was slow and horrible and plain stupid. Least I learned how to forge the dates lol stupid teacher never saw it coming :twisted:.

 

 

 

OT: yeah, tons of stuff, types of trees, and their value (cept magics of course lol), how to effectively set fires (not good in real life I guess lol), how to fish for lobsters, trout/salmon. and more things. Typing also being one of them I guess.

[davidium]

oh where to start...6 years ago when i first started playing rs it taught me how bronze is made and there was a science question that came out about bronze and i managed to answer correctly that it was an alloy of copper and tin...it also etched into my memory that steel is made from iron and steel although i real life we use much more iron and much less steel :P

 

 

 

more and more frequently runescape has helped developed my intellectual capabilities and analytical skills...i started merching recently after the grand exchange came out and doing this successfully really requires a bit of thinking contrary to popular belief...it is not all about buying low and selling high. you have to take into account the impact and effect of future updates on the rs economy and how prices of items will be affected...i recently made around 5-6m from the introduction of PvP although i admit that was rather a bit of a no-brainer but still you need to know when is the right time to sell all the food at max price just before everyone starts offloading their stuff sending food prices crashing...

 

 

 

also not just runescape but forums related to runescape such as tip it, runescapecommunity as well as my clan's forum (skillnchill) have helped developed the intellectual side of me. in the forums i love to debate a lot on issues such as whether prayer should be used in battles, opinions on no-lifing, pixel hugging and so on and so forth. over time i can really see my language and argumentative skills sharpen significantly which has helped my general paper subject quite a bit and will definitely be of use in future cause analytical thinking will no doubt be of great importance in just about any career...

 

 

 

also, many people have asked what's so fun about gaming and to this question i answer that runescape has helped me to achieve the 4th level of Maslow's hierarchy of need: self-esteem. wealth and power (in terms of skills) are pretty well respected in runescape and even though it may be just a game it can allow one to feel euphoria and self-satisfaction and have people looking up to you especially if you treat even low levels nicely (which i do) of course playing this game has also helped me to de-stress and relax after studying continuously

 

 

 

so yea this game has certainly been of some use =)

[davidium]

You do realize Runescape does NOT improve your typing? When you learn typing without any technique, you will end up being a lot slower than someone who would have typed about the same time as you, but used the correct technique. Kinda like playing piano, but not using the correct fingers, you waste a lot of time. Take a typing class... A couple hours would make you better than years of typing with bad technique.

 

 

 

but runescape ensures that we type frequently and thus do not neglect that skill...certainly i could take a typing class but if i didn't play runescape i would not type much on the computer anyway and half of everything i learnt would probably be forgotten in time to come...it is just like playing piano...if i were to take up piano lessons my skills would definitely improve much faster but once those lessons stop and i have no reason to play the piano anymore those skills would slowly but surely fade away...

 

 

 

as they say, practise makes perfect and runescape is what we practise our typing skills on.

[etpelletier]

money. Runescape helped me with money. what to buy, not to buy, how to invest and not to use all your cash at once :P

[sumiremomo2]

I had a really horrible sense of direction before playing RS. Seriously, I always thought that North was whatever way I was pointing at the time. I got lost so many times driving it's not even funny! It wasn't until I had to follow directions in RS that I realized that I wasn't always going North. I'd say it took me a little over 6 months until I finally got the hang of finding out what direction I was pointing. Now I rarely ever get lost in rl. Very sad lol. :lol:

[Hevendor_Guy]

Got extra credit on a history test for knowing what two metals made bronze :D

[timmyx50]

runescape taught me a little about stocks (Ge) and alot about english.

 

 

 

i suppose i did learn about bow making, ores, trees, and even fish. (never herd of a monkfish before runescape :) )

[Solidus_77]

I was able to completely understand Adam Smith's Invisible hands, thus sparking my interest in economics all thanks to runescape.

 

Understanding how to undertake an incredibly repeditive task by breaking it up in parts lead not only to my mastery of construction and runecrafting but also quite a few tasks in real life by creating a schedule and structuring my life (leading me to accomplishing much more). Unfortunately none of that seems to work well in college because there's, like, a million things to do.... each day.

 

There might be a few others, but those two have had a notable impact on my life.

[Fileaxx]

The most important thing i've learned from playing an mmorpg, specially runescape, is to invest in skills. This will be the most important thing you will learn in life!

 

 

 

For some skills, you have to put alot of money into, like cooking or crafting .. Other skills require alot of time, like Fishing and Mining .. ofcourse, you don't like spending money on school in real life, but you will get fund for this investment.

 

 

 

Like when you put hours and hours of work in getting Fishing 76, but afterworths, you can fish sharks which makes you more skilled as a player.

 

 

 

Think about the normal things in life, like writing. If you write breautifully, you can have an advantage to others who can't. Or if you put alot of time looking unique and great, IT WILL REPAY YOU SOMEDAY

 

 

 

Think about it ..

[waheera1]

I had a really horrible sense of direction before playing RS. Seriously, I always thought that North was whatever way I was pointing at the time. I got lost so many times driving it's not even funny! It wasn't until I had to follow directions in RS that I realized that I wasn't always going North. I'd say it took me a little over 6 months until I finally got the hang of finding out what direction I was pointing. Now I rarely ever get lost in rl. Very sad lol. :lol:

 

 

 

Don't mean to be too harsh here, but what on earth were you doing on the roads with navigational skills like that?!

 

 

 

And for the record, RS is pretty rubbish at teaching real life skills. Making friends etc is easier anyway because you never have people forming pre-conceptions about you as a person through looks, social standing, race etc etc. Typing is something that you could learn quite efficiently from numerous other sources and if, as I've read in some posts here, you wouldn't type much if not for RS, where's the use of being able to type fast?! The science of much of Runescape is essentially flawed even if it is loosely based on real life science, and thus the comments from people saying they won quiz tournaments with their knowledge of making steel etc are pretty amusing, largely since steel is not in fact made from coal and iron, as has been covered elsewhere by others in more detail. I don't doubt they may have done it, but shame on the quiz writers for that!

 

 

 

Can I also comment on the bizarre notion that RS teaches an understanding of the economy. ANYBODY can work out the extremely basic concepts of supply and demand. It is only a tiny part of the economy and the only part that applies to Runscape. Understanding that limited supply increases demand and therefore enables prices to be boosted, is an incredibly obvious fact and obviously vice versa huge supply saturates the demand and prices fall. Arguing that this helps to understand the real life economy is a very low-level analysis that does not take into account any of the complex systems that dictate the real life economy. For example, it doesn't even deal with inflation - you can always buy a tinderbox for 1gp from a general store and that will never change, or at least it hasn't in the 5 years I've played, whereas in real life the equivalent essential item would invariably have changed in value over the years of inflation and currency exchange. And no, the drop or increase in price of rares etc is not inflation, the gp is always a constant value and is not based on a "gold standard" or any equivalent, it is simply reverting to the supply and demand concept. Also, try explaining the credit crunch through runescape's economic structure! :-P And as with almost every other supposed use of RS knowledge, ALL of it can be learnt in its entirely correct forms elsewhere, you just have to want to find out rather than accidentally stumbling across it whilst spending the time on playing a game instead!

 

 

 

Just accept runescape is a game and play it for the enjoyment of it. If you don't enjoy skilling or combat etc then don't do it, and don't try to justify playing with a list of supposed uses. Just enjoy it and accept that you need a break sometimes and that RS is mostly a fun place to take that break! :-)