Tip.It Times: 8 Mar 2009 - The Jagex Tease

[Necromagus]

Time for a new release of the: >>>Tip.It Times!<<<

 

 

 

When replying please make sure to clarify the article you are replying to! Thanks!

 

 

 

Enjoy the articles!

 

-Necromagus

[3hitm4g3u]

Read them all. Good reads.

[Weiyao]

Thought the Jagex tease was a interesting read and I enjoyed the underground pass history.

[Saradomin_Mage]

The Underground Pass article brings me back to the time when I got 50 thieving to use the shortcut in the pass - then conveniently ignoring it and proceed to the most hellish agility obstacles I've ever done :wall: Just the kind of thing I'd have wonderful memories of.

 

On the plus side, free wormholes !

[Mercifull]

Me attempting the underground pass on day 1... ^_^

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahhh memories :D

[Earth_Poet]

The author of The Jagex Tease should do a little more research. The loss of Behind the Scenes has been expected

 

 

 

Jagex wrote in The Future of Runescape on Feb. 9:

 

 

 

We are also planning to change the way we communicate with you. We are going to be bringing back Development Diaries but making them more regular and focused on some of the different projects we're currently working on for you. These will replace Behind the Scenes, which we have found a creative constraint on our developers as the promised content has to come out as communicated in order to avoid disappointment and prevented us from surprising you with better or different content.

 

 

 

as well as fewer quests per month

 

 

 

Jagex wrote in Behind the Scenes October 2008:

 

 

 

So, starting from this month, were changing the way we release content. From now on youll see one massive headline update (such as a Recipe for Disaster or a Castle Wars) every month. On top of that, there will still be a secondary release, much more like the size of update youre used to right now. Were also still committed to making sure that no two weeks pass without something new.

 

 

 

Basically, from now on our releases will be like this:

 

 

 

Four week months will have two updates: one big headline release and a secondary one.

 

Five week months will have three updates: one big headline release and two secondary ones.

 

 

 

It seems a bit redundant to speculate when Jagex already stated their plans and gave their explanations.

 

 

 

In the Behind the Scenes 2009, Jagex stressed making upgrades and improvements to the existing game features. Personally, this is something Ive been waiting for.

 

 

 

But I find it a bit surprising that the author is just now beginning to worry. Weve had one new skill released in the last 28 months. Thats quite a slowdown from averaging 2 new skills a year.

 

 

 

After the RWT updates, it appeared that Jagex was going out of their way to make things right with the PKing community and other players by producing and releasing desired content. As wonderful as that is, it can also be a pipe dream if you ever think you will satisfy the mob.

 

 

 

In summary, I have been a little concerned about the slowdown of new content, but Im so far behind on experiencing all of the existing content in the game. If I ever catch up and beat the game, then I might panic.

 

 

 

(Edit: I'm nitpicking, but I think the semicolon is misused in the following sentence: "While Soul Wars is very popular, it is hardly revolutionary; a team-based safe fighting game with a few distractions."

 

 

 

A colon might work better. OK. Grammar Nazi signing off)

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed "The Horrors..." article. I can see the author's point. I remember the frustration of jumping those pillars. Though (if I'm remembering this correctly) it did make up for it with a cool spider scene. There are a few other skills that got me yelling at the screen as well. Sheep Herder and Kennith's Concern to name a couple. Oh, I forgot to mention how Tai Bwo Wannai Trio was far too long and difficult for the reward value at the end. I would've added One Small Favour, but I guess that was the whole point of that quest. Anyways, enough rambling! Entertaining article.

[Everyonedies]

I know 99 percent of people dont have this issue but i am unable to get to the tip it site from work but im able to get on the forum. Any chance someone could copy the text of the article and add it to the post for the few people who have the same issue as me??

[Racheya]

I know 99 percent of people dont have this issue but i am unable to get to the tip it site from work but im able to get on the forum. Any chance someone could copy the text of the article and add it to the post for the few people who have the same issue as me??

 

Sure :)

 

 

 

[hide=The Jagex Tease]The Jagex Tease

 

Stormveritas

 

 

 

Since the advent of 2009, already earmarked as a year for updates and improvements, Jagex CEO Mod Mark H has led in with an unprecedented degree of communication to the fan base. On the heels of what may be viewed as a largely successful (if short) tenure by Geoffrey Iddison, the new chief clearly wants to make the companys daily planning more transparent to the customer.

 

 

 

Weve also seen a dramatic shift in the preference of improvements over new content addition, although a vast degree of new content has been promised via the cherry-picking of convenient customer driven questions to the CEO. It certainly seems plausible; given a list of 5000 questions, someone had to ask the question Mod Mark H wanted to answer.

 

 

 

With all the buzz surrounding these promises, however, weve seen one small quest in two months. While improvements have been tremendous (the noting of allotment yields being a personal favorite), it seems as though the new company is operating at a much slower rate. While Soul Wars is very popular, it is hardly revolutionary; a team-based safe fighting game with a few distractions. Hardly a new concept, and nowhere near the development content needed for games such as Barbarian Assault, Stealing Creation, or Pest Control, a game with striking similarities.

 

 

 

To further underscore my concern that the Jagex front office is slowing down, March is the first month in recent memory to be ushered in without a Behind the Scenes article. This is indicative of a few possibilities:

 

 

 

* The new CEO wants updates to be more spur-of-the-moment, and more shocking.

 

* The new CEO doesnt want to restrict the rollouts to a month-tight deadline.

 

* Expect March to be slow.

 

 

 

There are many theories that could be supported here. Based on the total number of quests, I personally feel that as we approach 150, Jagex is preparing a large quest, perhaps of the Hard or Master level. Additionally, they could be planning other large rollouts and not spinning out small updates that may not be received with the highest degree of warmth. Following the ageless strategy of blame your predecessor, it is possible that the previous CEO harvested all of the developmental work for rollout in late 2008.

 

 

 

Is this strategy, or simply inefficiency? A company trying to build suspense and excitement for future rollouts, or a company lowering expectations for the speed of all rollouts to come? A CEO with great vision and ideas for terrific improvement, or an all hat, no cattle promise of big things who fails to deliver?

 

 

 

While certainly it is to early to judge definitively, we are certainly at an interesting crossroads in the landscape of Jagex. Last year at this time, the game was at perhaps its most difficult hour. Coming off the attempted eradication of Real World Trading (and with it, the incredibly popular Wilderness and PKing community), as well as staking removal, Jagex was handled with ire and vitriole by a large segment of its users. We have since seen the game introduce various popular new elements, and while some users are still disenchanted and have not come back, the game has seen a noticeable resurgence in overall popularity.

 

 

 

Where are we going now? Will we look back at Iddisons tenure as good old days, or merely a stepping stone on a golden road?

 

 

 

More importantly, how long should we go without a good update before it becomes reasonable to panic?[/hide]

 

 

 

[hide=The Horrors of the Underground Pass]The Horrors of the Underground Pass

 

Necromagus

 

 

 

The Underground Pass quest was introduced in early 2003 as one of the last quests of the RSC era. It is memorable for several reasons. First of all it was another chapter in the Plague City storyline, the first attempt by Jagex at creating a series of quests that progressed the players through an extensive storyline. After freeing Elena from the quarantine on west Ardougne and helping her prove that the plague affecting the city is actually a hoax, the player confronts King Lathas about the quarantine. The player then learns about the presence of the Underground Pass in west Ardougne, and the threat of the deranged Iban, self-proclaimed son of Zamorak, that needs to be confronted.

 

 

 

Furthermore, the quest introduced Klank's Gauntlets. These gauntlets, which were only the fifth piece of hand equipment to be introduced since the start of the game, immediately gained immense popularity amongst pure players, as they boosted both weapon aim and weapon power (attack bonus and strength bonus in RS2). To understand the importance of Klank's Gauntlets to these players, you have to know several things about the way combat levels, equipment and the Dragon Slayer quest worked in Runescape Classic. First of all, the RSC combat system took all combat related stats into account when calculating the combat level. This meant that to complete the Dragon Slayer quest, which at the time didn't have the option to simply buy the map piece from the jailed goblin, pure players would have to raise their combat level unnecessarily, as the increased defense from rune plate mail compared to rune chain mail and leather gloves wasn't considered high enough to be worth the extra combat levels. With the introduction of Klank's Gauntlets and the weapon power boost they offered pure players could now actually hit for more damage than non-pure players, as RSC didn't allow players to equip gloves and plate mail at the same time.

 

 

 

It was also the first quest to extensively use the relatively new agility skill. The Underground Pass is filled with all sorts of obstacles and traps that depend on the player's agility skill to be successfully navigated. These obstacles didn't have a minimum Agility requirement like most agility obstacles, but in stead had a random chance of succeeding that improved only marginally as your agility level got higher. Furthermore, failure often resulted in massive amounts of damage. In fact the whole underground pass was a multi-level hell of endless trial and error with only sporadic moments where the player got to kill something or solve a puzzle.

 

 

 

The fun starts as soon as the player enters the Underground Pass. The player is offered three separate paths, two of which have minor obstacles that hit for three or four damage and a third that led straight into a swamp that sent you tumbling down a painful slope. After this you'll have to solve the first puzzle of the quest to cross a bridge, followed by more agility challenges. The entire quest progressed much in the same fashion, a minor puzzle followed by some sort of agility obstacle that requires luck rather than skill to solve.

 

 

 

One such puzzle, that illustrates everything that is wrong with the Underground Pass quest, is the five by five grid that the player has to pass. The problem here is that the safe path across it is determined entirely by random chance, with no way of knowing which of the dozens of possible paths will lead you to safety. Endless trial and error, with massive damage to punish failure, is the only way to find your way across. The problem with this is that, unlike a hard boss fight or complicated puzzle, obstacles like this don't create a challenge, only frustration. Unfortunately the grid 'puzzle' is only the beginning. The entire second half of the quest, where the player tries to gain access to Iban's sanctuary, takes place in a massive maze of broken walkways. These walkways have to be jumped, and like pretty much every puzzle before it you'll take massive damage if you fail. By this time finishing the quest is simply a matter of perseverance, as you now have access to an infinite supply of food. If you run out of food before that however, you'll have no choice but to teleport out of the dungeon, restock your supplies and try again, repeating a lot of those same frustrating obstacles you already clawed your way past the first time around.

 

 

 

The Runescape Knowledge Base lists the Underground Pass quest as 'long'. However, this classification is highly deceptive as the majority of the quest will be spent navigating obstacles that require nothing more than dumb luck to overcome them. Of course, this is incredibly poor game design. By designing quests like this the player gets needlessly frustrated, as you are forced to spend time endlessly repeating actions without any influence on whether or not you'll actually succeed. The only thing that's challenged here is your patience.

 

 

 

Compared to the previous quests in the series, Plague City and Biohazard, Underground Pass is far longer and far more difficult. However, if you took away the agility portions of the quest, you would be left with something that would take far less time to complete, but wouldn't actually be easier than what we have now. After all, you'd still be required to complete he various puzzles hidden in the dungeon, and the paladins and demons you encounter along the way would still need to be beaten.

 

 

 

This is clear proof that the agility sections of the Underground Pass are flawed. All they add to the quest is frustration, and the quest would not get easier in any significant way if you removed the agility obstacles. Sure, you might have more food for the fight sequences, but by the time you reach he most difficult battles of the quest you already have access to infinite food from the dwarves that live at the bottom of the pit. There are many quests that have this particular flaw in their design, but this flaw is absolutely rampant in the Underground Pass quest, a quest that is, in my opinion, a strong contender for the title of worst quest in the game, even after six years.

 

 

 

When the quest came out back then, it was considered one of the, if not the hardest quest in the game. However, hard is often confused with frustrating. The Underground Pass is a clear example of that. It is comparable to a platform game where you have to navigate a long pit by using randomly placed invisible platforms. If you try long enough you'll eventually make it across, but if you do you still haven't really proven anything other than that you're patient. Other than that, there is very little skill involved beyond pushing the buttons. Underground Pass is a lot like that, and this makes it a quest of true horror, but not the fun kind.[/hide]

 

 

 

[hide=A Dying Flame]A Dying Flame

 

N0M_AN0R

 

 

 

Craymers heart nearly stopped as a shadow, dark even in the perennial twilight of Meiyerditch, passed overhead. He pressed himself against the wall and counted to ten, straining his eyes and ears for any sign of the Vyrewatch. When he was sureor at least a little bit confidentthat there was no one in the alley but him, he pressed on.

 

 

 

He was nearing the edge of the sprawling slum, after having painstakingly made his way through the labyrinth of ramshackle houses that was all the poor Sanguinesti knew. He stopped before rounding yet another corner and felt for the lump in his pocket. As he had so many times before, Craymer felt at once relieved and alarmed that his package was still there. So much rested on it, being caught did not bear thinking of. But he hadnt been caught yet. Drawing in his breath, he peered around his penultimate corner.

 

 

 

The land opened up from here on out, with only a few more buildings between him and the sea. Craymer could not quite make out the water, but what he could see of the horizon between the buildings was perfectly flat. He quickly checked the house he was leaning against. It was the right one. He edged around the corner and to the seaward side. With another nervous glance about and a fluttering heart, he slipped along the short length of wall and inside the unlatched door.

 

 

 

It was even darker inside than out; Craymer was momentarily blinded. His eyes roamed about unseeingly, and his already overtaxed heart jumped yet again when the disembodied voice of Old Man Ral said, Right on time.

 

 

 

Craymer felt a hand grab him roughly and turn him. He found himself staring at a vague human shape, its most distinctive aspect being the dully shimmering length of white beard. Old Man Ral could be vague and intractable sometimes, but tonight he was in his true element. Craymer felt vastly reassured. Ive planned for a few minutes window, the Myreque agent said. Calm yourself, man, or the Vyrewatch need not bother with catching you.

 

 

 

While Old Man Ral moved to the door and peered out, Craymer focused on controlling his breathing. He fingered the object in his pocket again, and for the first time reached in his other pocket. The object in there was rough, about six inches long and narrowed to a point. Touching it had a similar effect to the package he carried, though the sense of terror it conjured was significantly stronger. Please, let me not have to use it.

 

 

 

Alright, come on over here now. Craymer moved to stand next to the old man at the door. Were watching for a signal from that house. He pointed. Craymer focused on the window of what he recognized as the shack where trader Sven conducted his questionable business. When the signal comes, youre to runrun, you hear me?straight from this door to the coast. Once youre there, stay low and hustle to the eastern wall. The boat we found is hidden there, the place marked with a sickle symbol. You know the one. Take the boat and get out. You know how important this is.

 

 

 

Craymer knew. It was important enough for him to swallow his fear of the vampyres and of the unknown lands outside of Meiyerditch and risk his life to escape to the latter. He reached for his package again, but there was a sudden and brief flare of light from the window and Old Man Ral was hissing in his ear: Go, go!

 

 

 

Craymer went. He put his head down and pumped his legs, barreling between the last pair of buildings and into the wide open space between them and the shore. So focused was he on reaching the sea as fast as he could, he almost ran straight into it. Belatedly he stopped his mad forward dash, splashing in the shallows. Not stopping to see if the sound had alerted anyone or anything, he turned and shuffled eastward. His new focus was the looming wall of stone that had imprisoned the Sanguinesti for a thousand years.

 

 

 

Before his thoughts had time to catch up, Craymer reached the wall. It extended out into the water, its condition worsening the further it stretched until the final stones were a tumbled heap. That seemed the most likely place for the boat to be hidden, so Craymer struck out for it, wading until the water reached his chest and then swimming with an awkward stroke.

 

 

 

Soon enough he found the sickle symbol lacquered onto a piece of driftwood. He shifted the wood aside and found smooth planks underneath. Jubilantly he climbed into the tiny rowboat, where he promptly collapsed, breathing heavily. After his breath came easily and his heart beat normally, Craymer fumbled for the oars and pushed off the assorted stone and driftwood into the open ocean.

 

 

 

At last he allowed himself to relax. He was away. For the first time, he stared out at the vast body of water before him. It extended seemingly infinitely, glittering dully in the pale light that seemed to come from everywhere at once. And now he was on it, gliding away from the life of hell that had been his since the day he was born.

 

 

 

A sudden weight descended violently on his back, accompanied by a horrendous shriek. Craymer screamed in response and fell to the floor of the boat, where he attempted to twist out from under his attacker. When he attempted to look up, he found his vision blocked by a massive pair of ribbed wings, their red hue diaphanous. In his blind panic, Craymer managed to keep a grip on one rational thought. He felt claws digging at his flesh and could already feel the impending teeth, but reached into his pocket and drew out the rough wooden object. The claws tightened, rending huge gashes in his arms and sides, and sudden pain blossomed in his shoulder. With a surge of strength, he let out a wordless grunt and thrust the wooden stake upward.

 

 

 

The monster above him screamed, and Craymer was violently thrown back against the keel of the boat. His head connected with wood and he saw no more.[/hide]

[Sy_Accursed]

On the Jagex Tease i think its a bit overly harsh and sceptical of Mod MMG.

 

 

 

I mean from previous DD etc we all are well aware that any single update takes months or years to be realised as game content.

 

 

 

Which therefore in my eyes makes it quite clear that it won't be until early - midsummer that "small" content additions solely from Mod MMG's leadership arrive and probably pushing on towards christmas before any big content updates are totally from his drive.

 

 

 

At the moment the updates filtering through are undoubtedly still very much projects that Geoff had the control over and as such don't offer a great reflection on MMG's intents. I'd estimate pretty much every update we've had since MMG came into place was long into QA and bugfixing before MMG stepped into place.

 

 

 

It'd be a nice article if written neutrally and a few months in the future. But as it is to me it's very pessimistic, harsh and doesn't really achieve anything as it itself states it is too early to judge.

 

 

 

The underground pas article I just dislike, it is clearly from a writer who has a bias towards quest elements that defy direct logic or reason and actually require an element of luck. As arguable all standard puzzles can be beaten by logic and reason while all combat segments leave little to luck as any guide will forewarn you of what styles to be prepared for and any quester worth their salt knows how to set themselves up to deal with any possible combat scenario or how to stay in battle just long enough to know what to bring when they come back. I think the element of luck required brings a nice twist to those elements of the quest and though they are poorly realised compared to more modern examples they cannot be condemned simply for being old. I mean the grid puzzle that supposedly is some hellish nightmare is actually shockingly easy given that only 1 of the 6 squares from the front side will be safe and from there the only way you can go is forwards. Which eliminates 2 rows quickly and then once you're on row two you can only ever go forwards or side to side meaning each step only has 2 or 3 possible options. So unless you have poor short term memory you can get across in about 10 attempts max. While the oh so evil maze in the centre doesn't deal half as much damage as implied and the jumps are rarely failed if you have a decent agility level. In fact at lvl 50 something agility I only fell from the maze twice in the entire quest.

[haggisoflife]

We are going to be bringing back Development Diaries but making them more regular and focused on some of the different projects we're currently working on for you. These will replace Behind the Scenes

 

 

 

Mystery solved

 

Also it was Mod MMG who's the CEO. I think Mod Mark H is on the forums.

 

 

 

I get what the article was trying to say but to me it seemed a little bit alarmist (and badly researched in places). "how long should we go without a good update before it becomes reasonable to panic?" Well, personally I don't plan on entering panic over a game not having a "good update" for around about the rest of my life. Getting bored with it I can see happening but panicing? With the amount of quests / achievements / capes / other things in the game that I haven't even begun to start on?

 

 

 

If they can't keep up what they have promised then I'll start getting concerned, till then I'm going to read what they say and try to keep things in proportion.

[Melos]

Looking forward to reading them when I have more time :.

[Everyonedies]

^^ thank you for posting them for me so i could read them. Nice read. I think to give my thoughts on the first article Jagex Tease i would start by saying that has a player who has played since February 2001 up until recently it seemed very week a new quest came out and i quickly fell behind on quests. At one point i didnt even bother with quests at all as it was hard just to keep up with all the new things pouring into the game. I love this game but with all the time it takes to get your skills up if you only have a few hours a week to play you have to choose what to spend your time on. But now with the slow down of new things and quests its given me chance to play mini games i hav'nt had a chance to play and get some long over do quests done. Im not sure if the fine folks over at Jagex took a look at an average players playing time and used that to figure out how much time people are able to play and then use that to gauge how often the game needs to be updated. Im looking forward to less quests and less updates and more fixing of minor things that will make the game run better.

[brunokiller]

I notice Necromagus has never done Ratcatchers.

 

 

 

 

 

It is much much more frustrating #-o

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and I did underground pass with 26 agility \

[Danqazmlp]

I agree with paw's comments, both the First and second articles were a fiar bit too biased for me, i really liked the way the underground pass quest worked, i'd love more of them, and as stated above, alot of the first article was just a lack of research.

[Enipeus]

Another satisfying reading of the Tip.It Times. Keep it up :thumbsup:

[Kilo]

I found the underground pass article interesting, reminsciening about spending an entire sunday in my basement 2 years ago doing that stupid quest. -.-

[Kidd_Varrow]

Personally, I'm happy that there aren't as many new quests/content for now. Because of that, I managed to complete my goal of getting the quest cape without as much hassle as I expected. With as little time as I have to play now, I might not be able to keep up with the new releases if they kept releasing new things all the time. Most days I just do a farm run and then log off, if I even log on at all.

 

 

 

By the way, the link from the article page to this forum topic doesn't work for me. It just takes me to the top of the article page. Is anyone else having this problem?

[Dexek]

I disliked the article "The Jagex Tease". I felt that there was far too much whining from this individual and it was as though he/she didn't appreciate what does get done or realize what setbacks could occur. They are working on what is supposedly an entirely new mini-game concept for them, and the 150th quest. Surely it would be alright to allow them to put some time into perfecting these things before the waterworks begin.

 

 

 

I did like the other two articles. They were very entertaining and I hope to see more like them. :thumbsup:

[Troacctid]

I've criticized past articles for not taking a stand on an issue...this week I have to criticize the historical article for taking too strong a stand on an issue.

 

 

 

Okay, that's actually not what I really mean. I actually really like that the essay has a clear argument...after all it's an editorial. (So I disagree with Paw_Claw's analysis of the article.)

 

 

 

My main complaint with this article is that it suffered from trying to stay grounded in describing the history of the Underground Pass as it was advocating a change in quest design. The historical aspect suffered somewhat because of the persuasive aspect, while the persuasive impact suffered from the exclusion of other potential quests that could be cited as further examples of why the luck aspect is undesirable. (Olaf's Quest would be a great one to bring up--it was so bad that Jagex had to apologize for it and make the bridge easier to pass because it was so frustrating.)

 

 

 

What I would have recommended for the article would be to sprinkle it with other examples of problem quests, and perhaps examples of good quest design for contrast as well. In this the article would have expanded more into the history of frustrating quests in general, rather than the Underground Pass specifically. If you preferred to stay on theme, then I would have focused on how Underground Pass has impacted modern quest design or something rather than advocating a change. That would also be a good viable route to take.

 

 

 

(Good quest design makes me think of Fremennik Isles in particular, which was to me an essentially flawless quest. All the required items could be found in the area...instead of "Go halfway across the continent and get some rope, planks, nails, bow, arrow, tinderbox, hammer, chisel, food, blah blah whatever it is you need for that Underground Pass quest, and don't forget any of it or you'll need to teleport away, go back and get what you forgot, and walk all the way back." It was "Pick up some nails at the general store and carve some planks out of the arctic pines native to our great island of Neitiznot, and maybe wave hello to the neigbors on the way." Nothing was frustrating or luck-based, and the fights at the end were challenging, exciting, and felt like a triumph to complete. The dialogue was entertaining, and the rewards were great too. So yeah, that would have been a good contrast to Underground Pass.)

[Dax]

Good read, although I don't like the Fictional articles, the others were a good read. Keep em coming. :thumbsup:

[CampbellMC]

Today Mod MMG was in his clan chat and talking about the time in which future updates will be coming out. I was in there for a while and here are some of the highlights he said about updates coming out soon.

 

 

 

• [*:6zhfd9t2]Bounty Hunter - They are still working on this currently, but they are making a lot of progress on it. They aren't just "fixing" the RWT aspects of it, but changing much of the minigame to make it resemble the old wilderness more.
   
   
   
  [*:6zhfd9t2]The 150th Quest - They ran into a few problems while making this quest, so it is delayed atm, they know that everyone is expecting a big quest here so they are trying to perfect this quest to meet peoples expectations. They have several other quests complete already and ready for release, but they are smaller, and they really want to make people happy with #150. Mod MMG really does not want to release a smaller quest for the 150th that will not be appreciated.
   
   
   
  [*:6zhfd9t2]Blackmarks - Jagex has made a lot of progress on a new system where blackmarks will automatically degrade over time. Old punishments such as Legacy punishments will be removed, and depending on the severity of the offence they will degrade faster or slower. Also they will ease up on the amount of blackmarks you recieve and the punishments associated with it.
   
   
   
  [*:6zhfd9t2]Junk Trading - Mod MMG has stated that he does not mind if people use junk trading, as it takes time and effort to make the junk. The most interesting thing is that he stated that they are working on a quest that will drain junk out of the game, and money will be put back into the economy. Since he said that the quest will be released in the future, I do not think this will be #150 or #151 since he did not say it will be the next one, and he already stated that #151 is already complete.

[Earth_Poet]

[*]The 150th Quest - They ran into a few problems while making this quest, so it is delayed atm, they know that everyone is expecting a big quest here so they are trying to perfect this quest to meet peoples expectations. They have several other quests complete already and ready for release, but they are smaller, and they really want to make people happy with #150. Mod MMG really does not want to release a smaller quest for the 150th that will not be appreciated.

 

 

 

I would prefer them to treat every new content in this fashion.

[Opieous]

Underground pass was a pain in the rear... I hope they don't come up with something similar.

 

 

 

Regarding the frequency of updates... even if they bring one out every 45 days, i'm happy but it should be quality stuff.

[strilmus]

Reading that one about the Underground Pass, I feel that I got relatively lucky with that whole quest now that I think back on doing it. I didn't fail as nearly as many times as I was expecting to.

 

 

 

(As for Ratcatchers, I consider it to be way more based on your skill with running like crazy rather than luck. Also, it's made tons easier if you use HD widescreen.)

 

 

 

Considering the anticipation of what this year brings, I think it's just best to hold onto our pantlegs and not freak out until the bad stuff happens.

 

 

 

I look forward to being able to convert my previously "useless" items (read: thousands of fletching products) into money without the need of them being worth over the cost of a nature rune.

[CloudSeller]

I usually either enjoy the Times, or at worst think *meh*

 

 

 

This one - Jagex Tease - infuriated me. Why allow an author who has not even made the effort to keep up to date?

 

* We know there are no more behind the scenes. It was clearly stated by the new CEO

 

* There is a thread at the top of this very forum discussing the next - the 150th - quest. A wait until they get it right is hardly surprising.

 

 

 

I realise both of these have already been commented on in this thread. But I suspect many people who read the Times don't go on to read the forum thread.

 

I strongly recommend that the original article be heavily - and obviously - edited of these glaring errors.