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A look into past updates/Jagex time management.


Johannas

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Thought this might be worthy of discussion value :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

 

 

 

I've only been a player since 2003, but have done some thinking into how Jagex have managed their time/resources over the last couple of years.

 

 

 

As of today, Jagex have over 350 employees and own 3 offices (all of which are in the UK)

 

 

 

Roughly half our team work on providing our players with support, answering queries and assisting with disputes or lost passwords. Most of the remaining half work directly or indirectly on RuneScape - scriptwriting, coding, graphics, audio and testing all make up the giant development effort required to keep RuneScape frequently updated.

 

 

 

Note:That quote didn't really talk about servers, advertising or language translation... Where are the employees that deal with those major parts of the business?

 

 

 

Obviously a few years ago Jagex had less staff to work on projects, but one would have thought as the years progressed updates would have become more frequent and more in content. This is a small timeline i made with notable events...

 

 

 

2000 - 7 Quests released

 

 

 

2001 - 10 Quests released. 3 New skills (Crafting, Prayer and Fishing)

 

 

 

2002 - 23 Quests released. P2P introduced. 4 New skills (Herblore, Fletching, Theiving and Agility)

 

 

 

2003 - 11 Quests released. Release of RS2.

 

 

 

2004 - 15 Quests released. 1 New skill (Runecrafting)

 

 

 

2005 - 29 Quests released. 2 New skills (Slayer, Farming)

 

 

 

2006 - 21 Quests released. 2 New skills (Construction, Hunter)

 

 

 

2007 - 14 Quests released. Funorb in the making. Mass ban on macros/RWTs, fixing problems associated with this.

 

 

 

2008 - 19 Quests released. 1 New skill (Summoning) Funorb released. Runescape HD released.

 

 

 

2009 - 3 Quests released. Mechscape?

 

 

 

Notice the patterns, less new quests are usually accompanied with a new skill or 2, plus a large update (ie RSHD, RS2) to compensate.

 

 

 

So basically 175 employees deal with customers whilst the other 175 deal with developing the game.

 

 

 

For me, '05 and '06 were rather productive years compared with others introducing on average just below 1 quest a week plus the addition of 4 skills.

 

However even before then updates seemed to be large, there were still a decent amount of additions to the game.

 

 

 

It's just that since 2006 Jagex have slightly dissapointed me in their content. For a company that is supposed to be expanding in numbers and content this doesn't seem to be the case.

 

 

 

In 07/08 we didn't have as many quests, or skills as in previous years.... But this was because of Funorb (and would i be fair in saying that not alot of people care about it?) and the development of the complete graphical update.

 

 

 

Am i fair in saying that Jagex aren't exactly performing well as a company? Runescapers demand content and attention from Jagex but their efforts seem to be concentrated on other areas of the buisness.

 

 

 

With Funorb and now Mechscape taking up Jagex's time, it feels Runescape is being pushed aside.

 

 

 

Or is it?

 

 

 

RSHD was kept quite quiet, and was a surprise to everyone when it was released (more of a relief for me, i wondered what on earth they were wasting time on in the last 12 months)

 

Summoning wasn't announced till a few weeks before when we had Development Diaries...

 

 

 

So should we be expecting a big update anytime soon? There have been no real references to new skills, perhaps this is being kept quiet aswell?

 

Don't get me wrong, i think Development diaries are a good read, and i think it's good that Jagex keeps us updated about certain things - but they don't do this enough in my opinion, i don't really like surprises and hence are losing interest in the game because of the lack of updates.

 

 

 

Edit: The PDF file on this page is also a good read.

 

Thanks for reading. What do you guys think?

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Thank you to tripsis for an awesome sig!

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Yep, they spend wayyy too much on CR for reports, and people STILL whine about it. =D>

DeviledEgg24.png

Drops: 1x Draconic Visage, 56x Abyssal Whip, 5x Demon Head, D Drops: 37, Barrows Drops: 43, DK Drops: 29

GWD drops: 14,000x Bars, 1x Armadyl Hilt, 2x Armadyl Skirt, 4x Sara Sword, 1x Saradomin Hilt, 8x Bandos Hilt, 8x Bandos Platebody, 9x Bandos Tassets, 4x Bandos Boots, 43x Godsword Shard, 82x Dragon Boots

Dry streak records: Saradomin 412 kills Bandos 988 kills Spirit Mages 633 kills - Slayer Sucks

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Why do you only include quests and skills? Other content (squashing bugs, minigames, general improvements, new items, new monsters) take time to develop as well.

 

Exactly. So why do they have 94 people working on developing the game, while 140 field complaints from angry users? How many companies can you name that have a help desk team significantly larger then the rest of the entire company together?

DeviledEgg24.png

Drops: 1x Draconic Visage, 56x Abyssal Whip, 5x Demon Head, D Drops: 37, Barrows Drops: 43, DK Drops: 29

GWD drops: 14,000x Bars, 1x Armadyl Hilt, 2x Armadyl Skirt, 4x Sara Sword, 1x Saradomin Hilt, 8x Bandos Hilt, 8x Bandos Platebody, 9x Bandos Tassets, 4x Bandos Boots, 43x Godsword Shard, 82x Dragon Boots

Dry streak records: Saradomin 412 kills Bandos 988 kills Spirit Mages 633 kills - Slayer Sucks

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I can garutee that Mechscape will not be coming out this year.

"Let your anger be as a monkey in a piñata... hiding amongst the candy... hoping the kids don't break through with the stick." - Master Tang

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Isn't all bugs and glitches fixed by the technical team?

 

 

 

That would at least get a few more for people working on content.

 

 

 

But 140 is a lot for customer support. If only the RS community could get there acts together and stop complaining/getting their accounts into trouble then maybe we'd get more new updates.

 

 

 

Is this for just Runescape or all of Jagex including Funorb/Mechscape?

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To put it bluntly, would the game be better off if we all just shut the hell up?

 

No, as we are currently doing nothing whatsoever to affect the game in any way. The only way it could change it is if people read and understand this, then stop whining and complain about CR when they realize how much it's detracting from their gameplay and update potential.

 

 

 

 

Is this for just Runescape or all of Jagex including Funorb/Mechscape?

 

All of Jagex. It's slightly outdated (2007), but it proves they are even more spread out by developing 3 games at once.

 

 

 

 

I can garutee that Mechscape will not be coming out this year.

 

Source please? I'm assuming your either an undercover employee or working on inside information, as the most recent CEO interview available states:

 

 

 

Geoff Iddison: You're absolutely right, we've got a very, very big investment into another MMO.

 

 

 

Q: Would that be something you would start in Europe again and then filter into more markets across the globe?

 

Geoff Iddison: No, it will be launched in the US and Europe at the same time.

 

 

 

Q: Can we expect it to be launched this year?

 

Geoff Iddison: You can expect it early next year, Q1 2009.

 

 

 

 

This was released recently enough to prove that their schedule would have to be drastically pushed back to not make it by the end of this year, and we've had no evidence that that is the case.

DeviledEgg24.png

Drops: 1x Draconic Visage, 56x Abyssal Whip, 5x Demon Head, D Drops: 37, Barrows Drops: 43, DK Drops: 29

GWD drops: 14,000x Bars, 1x Armadyl Hilt, 2x Armadyl Skirt, 4x Sara Sword, 1x Saradomin Hilt, 8x Bandos Hilt, 8x Bandos Platebody, 9x Bandos Tassets, 4x Bandos Boots, 43x Godsword Shard, 82x Dragon Boots

Dry streak records: Saradomin 412 kills Bandos 988 kills Spirit Mages 633 kills - Slayer Sucks

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All of Jagex. It's slightly outdated (2007), but it proves they are even more spread out by developing 3 games at once.

 

 

 

Um..no. They hired completely new people for FunOrb and now for Mechscape, they're not spreading out the original team to work on three games, it's three completely different teams hired for their respective games.

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All of Jagex. It's slightly outdated (2007), but it proves they are even more spread out by developing 3 games at once.

 

 

 

Um..no. They hired completely new people for FunOrb and now for Mechscape, they're not spreading out the original team to work on three games, it's three completely different teams hired for their respective games.

 

What does that have to do with my records? They are from Jagex Ltd, not from Runescape - Jagex being the company that makes all three of the games.

 

 

 

 

I feel the quality of the recent updates makes up for less updates.

 

What does that have to do with the company having more CR people then every other aspect of the company combined?

DeviledEgg24.png

Drops: 1x Draconic Visage, 56x Abyssal Whip, 5x Demon Head, D Drops: 37, Barrows Drops: 43, DK Drops: 29

GWD drops: 14,000x Bars, 1x Armadyl Hilt, 2x Armadyl Skirt, 4x Sara Sword, 1x Saradomin Hilt, 8x Bandos Hilt, 8x Bandos Platebody, 9x Bandos Tassets, 4x Bandos Boots, 43x Godsword Shard, 82x Dragon Boots

Dry streak records: Saradomin 412 kills Bandos 988 kills Spirit Mages 633 kills - Slayer Sucks

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Thank you for bringing this up. It's nice for someone to go about looking for hard data rather than just making unsupported claims.

 

 

 

However, I have serious issues with the measurements you use. Just counting the number of quests are very misleading, as it equates huge quests like RFD to such as In Pyre Need. It'll be much better to have seperate quest counts by difficulty.

 

 

 

Secondly, only measuring quest/skills missed some significant part of the rs update schedule, that is: minigames (and to lesser extend, bug fixes and balancing). At the minimum, I will think that the development time takes for minigames are on par with the more difficult quests, and for more difficult ones like Stealing Creations, possibly the development time takes for skills like farming.

 

 

 

Without these two corrections, it'll be impossible to make a proper judgment over how JaGeX is performing. If interested, I will be happy to gather this data over the weekend so we can have a more constructive discussion.

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Thank you for bringing this up. It's nice for someone to go about looking for hard data rather than just making unsupported claims.

 

 

 

However, I have serious issues with the measurements you use. Just counting the number of quests are very misleading, as it equates huge quests like RFD to such as In Pyre Need. It'll be much better to have seperate quest counts by difficulty.

 

 

 

Secondly, only measuring quest/skills missed some significant part of the rs update schedule, that is: minigames (and to lesser extend, bug fixes and balancing). At the minimum, I will think that the development time takes for minigames are on par with the more difficult quests, and for more difficult ones like Stealing Creations, possibly the development time takes for skills like farming.

 

 

 

Without these two corrections, it'll be impossible to make a proper judgment over how JaGeX is performing. If interested, I will be happy to gather this data over the weekend so we can have a more constructive discussion.

 

To be honest, I think it is almost impossible to collect hard numerical data on how good the updates are. We just don't know how many man-hours went into an update (the only real measurement), so I would advise using the best possible alternative - I think my employee numbers provide enough information for an enlightening discussion :P

DeviledEgg24.png

Drops: 1x Draconic Visage, 56x Abyssal Whip, 5x Demon Head, D Drops: 37, Barrows Drops: 43, DK Drops: 29

GWD drops: 14,000x Bars, 1x Armadyl Hilt, 2x Armadyl Skirt, 4x Sara Sword, 1x Saradomin Hilt, 8x Bandos Hilt, 8x Bandos Platebody, 9x Bandos Tassets, 4x Bandos Boots, 43x Godsword Shard, 82x Dragon Boots

Dry streak records: Saradomin 412 kills Bandos 988 kills Spirit Mages 633 kills - Slayer Sucks

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Still there are working on loads of content and you forgot 2008 had the first Grandmaster quest the largest quest to date.

 

 

 

Working on:New BH,MA,EL possibly,The next BIG quest,Weather and Time hinted at,Dwarf Quest,Dungeon Maps,The Pub in Ardy is getting updated soon.

 

 

 

There is alot coming they have a good time management and there content is useful.

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[hide=]

To put it bluntly, would the game be better off if we all just shut the hell up?

 

No, as we are currently doing nothing whatsoever to affect the game in any way. The only way it could change it is if people read and understand this, then stop whining and complain about CR when they realize how much it's detracting from their gameplay and update potential.

 

 

 

 

Is this for just Runescape or all of Jagex including Funorb/Mechscape?

 

All of Jagex. It's slightly outdated (2007), but it proves they are even more spread out by developing 3 games at once.

 

 

 

 

I can garutee that Mechscape will not be coming out this year.

 

Source please? I'm assuming your either an undercover employee or working on inside information, as the most recent CEO interview available states:

 

 

 

Geoff Iddison: You're absolutely right, we've got a very, very big investment into another MMO.

 

 

 

Q: Would that be something you would start in Europe again and then filter into more markets across the globe?

 

Geoff Iddison: No, it will be launched in the US and Europe at the same time.

 

 

 

Q: Can we expect it to be launched this year?

 

Geoff Iddison: You can expect it early next year, Q1 2009.

 

 

 

 

This was released recently enough to prove that their schedule would have to be drastically pushed back to not make it by the end of this year, and we've had no evidence that that is the case.

[/hide]

 

 

 

Mechscape is playable its just not out yet. :D

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Mechscape is playable its just not out yet. :D

 

Just saying that it seems to be on track for a release this year, and I'm curious as to where haloproman got his information that it wouldn't be.

DeviledEgg24.png

Drops: 1x Draconic Visage, 56x Abyssal Whip, 5x Demon Head, D Drops: 37, Barrows Drops: 43, DK Drops: 29

GWD drops: 14,000x Bars, 1x Armadyl Hilt, 2x Armadyl Skirt, 4x Sara Sword, 1x Saradomin Hilt, 8x Bandos Hilt, 8x Bandos Platebody, 9x Bandos Tassets, 4x Bandos Boots, 43x Godsword Shard, 82x Dragon Boots

Dry streak records: Saradomin 412 kills Bandos 988 kills Spirit Mages 633 kills - Slayer Sucks

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[hide=Jagex Staff]JagexStaff.jpg[/hide]

 

Yep, they spend wayyy too much on CR for reports, and people STILL whine about it. =D>

 

Jagex has more people in customer relations than every other category combined??? :shock:

 

Yikes. I've dealt with major oil companies that don't commit those kinds of staff resources to drilling and refining, let alone customer support. Heck, Imperial Oil's nation-wide POS help desk, that's for retail site technical support, is only open for 12 hours a day in Canada (apparently people on the West coast don't need support after 4pm local time).

 

 

 

Given how only 35% of their staff is in development, I think they've done an excellent job of adding new content and updates to the game.

 

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A good amount of the quests durring those years they rolled out 20 or more of them were really just filler. Go talk to this guy and then talk to that guy then get this thing and then bring it to that guy and then go back to the first guy and talk to him then fight some low lvl monster you cant fight again after the quest and then the quest is done 2 qp 3000 minning xp and 2000 attack xp and maybe if your lucky some lame [wagon] piece of equipment that allows you to get into some area that you really will never go back to ever again....

 

Ohh ya i wanted to add that id rather have less quests released but have them be involved well thought out and give good rewards that bring something of value into the game.

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Given how only 35% of their staff is in development, I think they've done an excellent job of adding new content and updates to the game.

 

 

 

Ya, and given that 35% of their staff is TOTAL development for all 3+ games they have going, that is quite extraordinary they can produce updates at the frequency they do.

 

 

 

In all honesty, I'm sure they took many of the staff from Runescape, to develop Mechscape. Andrew said Mechscape was developed in Runescript, so its only logical they would take some employees from Runescape to work on Mechscape. They would not hire a completely new staff to work on it, which has never done Runescript coding before.

 

 

 

If they did hire new staff, I'm sure some of the employees would have to take the time to train the new staff. That also would take a considerable amount of time.

 

 

 

But in reality, People see a small update and assume it only takes a small time to code/develop. Some small updates could take more time to code/develop than a quest or minigame, simply because a quest/minigame uses pre-existing code, they just have to write it. Some small updates change the way the code works/runs and thus can be much more time consuming.

 

 

 

Either way, Jagex has done, and continues to do a great job, despite what anyone whines or crys about.

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Now i know when i started playing RS, 2005 because i remember farming release but not slayer ::' And i Do think Jagex are working on mechscape atm so no new skills this year or maybe in october/november :ohnoes:

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1593th to 99 Farming - July 08.

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Remember that customer service also includes billing.

 

 

 

This is an important sector to ensure there are no credit card frauds etc.

 

With over a few hundred thousand paying members, they need a big team here.

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Remember that customer service also includes billing.

 

 

 

This is an important sector to ensure there are no credit card frauds etc.

 

With over a few hundred thousand paying members, they need a big team here.

 

Cases of fraud aren't something you actively look for, and it's not something you need a team of 140 people to manage it. Companies like Dell have hundreds of millions of customers, but they don't have tens of thousands of people whos job is to look for credit card fraud :roll:

 

 

 

 

Ya, and given that 35% of their staff is TOTAL development for all 3+ games they have going, that is quite extraordinary they can produce updates at the frequency they do.

 

Exactly. So what would happen if they halved CR and doubled development? More whiny noobs would complain about not being able to contact Jagex, and the rest of us would twice as many updates.

DeviledEgg24.png

Drops: 1x Draconic Visage, 56x Abyssal Whip, 5x Demon Head, D Drops: 37, Barrows Drops: 43, DK Drops: 29

GWD drops: 14,000x Bars, 1x Armadyl Hilt, 2x Armadyl Skirt, 4x Sara Sword, 1x Saradomin Hilt, 8x Bandos Hilt, 8x Bandos Platebody, 9x Bandos Tassets, 4x Bandos Boots, 43x Godsword Shard, 82x Dragon Boots

Dry streak records: Saradomin 412 kills Bandos 988 kills Spirit Mages 633 kills - Slayer Sucks

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