Tip.It Times: 19 April 2009

[cat666]

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the positive response to my guest article. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous for opening myself up to such public scrutiny.

 

 

 

:)

 

 

 

Altricious

 

 

 

You should arrange a real life meet for us older people. In a real pub!

[Lock813]

(This is about 3rd article)

 

I understand how annoying it is when players do nothing but beat other players down, when no one stops to help anyone else, like new players, out a bit with the game. I heard about runescape from a friend, and started playing about 4 months after that. I've had my account for about 3 years, and about 2 years ago the players really changed towards immaturity and pures. By no means does this mean all pures are bad, but the majority of pures beat down other players with lower levels than them, and can usually find some way to insult you. I myself have a few pures, none with 90-99s yet though, but I at least try not to insult other players. Anyways, as i was saying, about 2 years ago the players turned away from helping each other, you could find no-one waiting at Lumbridge to help out new players, and the game was suddenly about pures and money instead of skills and fun. I leave for a couple months and bots have taken over rs... not like bots weren't a problem before, but now everyone seemed so mad about it instead of just letting it be and getting on with their lives. It was fun to kill the average green dragon autoer, and taking a mod down to a yew tree in an f2p world was always a good laugh, but RS just wasn't the same anymore... Then Jagex kills merchanting and pking, and all hell broke loose. since then no one has been the same, and the average player isn't as nice as before either. Most RS players now think its all about money, but we're not paying for memberships to make money on a game now are we? At the moment i am in a clan and the leader has left for a couple months due to personal problems, and the clan is now falling apart. The co-leaders dont care, and I really dont want the leader to come back to 5 people as a clan.

 

It was a nice read overall, something to do while cooking ^^

[Altricious]

 

 

 

You should arrange a real life meet for us older people. In a real pub!

 

 

 

Not a bad idea, except I live in the US. :( Someone on your side of the pond will have to do that. I'll be happy to have a drink for you here while you're all doing it there.

[pokemama]

It's so nice to see forum users discussing the SUBJECT of the articles, instead of the writing quality.

 

 

 

Admittedly, that's because the quality of all the articles this week was excellent - but when it's not this good, I wish people would still remember that the discussion is about the SUBJECT, not flaming the author's skills.

 

 

 

I enjoyed the articles immensely, including the fictional article by Necromagus. Normally I'm not big on RS fiction, but he's an excellent writer and I'll read anything from him.

 

 

 

I mostly agree with Darkdude's article. The topic really leads to Jagex releases, though. I seem to recall the new Jagex CEO promising at the beginning of the year to cut back on the frequent token (or "lame") updates in favour of less frequent but meatier content. As someone else posted, that's not been the case overall. Chosen Commander was excellent, but the last two haven't been as favourably received. (I haven't done them myself.)

 

 

 

I strongly DISAPPROVE of Jagex focusing on "updating old content" .... that's no benefit for me, as a current customer I've already DONE all that! Put a couple-three people on it maybe, but don't expect me to sacrifice new stuff for it, sorry. (Plus, it makes my job as a Crewbie that much harder, since they don't tell us what they've done so we can update our guides, lol.)

 

 

 

I'm too chicken to fight boss monsters, but tryto's article was a good read regarding the balance between soloing and grouping. In the past, Jagex has generally FAILED (imho) at group content. Trouble Brewing is a classic example (water continues to be abused), griefers turn up at stuff like Trawler and Great Orb project, and getting up a Barbarian Assault team (the best focused group game, with a dedicated role for each person) is nigh-impossible since the rewards are so blah. Blast Furnace was meant for groups - but turned out to be solo-able. In contrast, Penguin Hunting was meant as an incidental activity - and instead has become so firmly entrenched as a group activity that the Quick Chat lists it as such. Castle Wars, Pest Control, Stealing Creation and Clan Wars are among the few successful group games.

 

 

 

Altricious, it's great to hear from another adult player of Runescape. I hope that Jagex eventually learns how many of us there are, so they don't overlook our requirements. If we wanted more adult content and attitude ... we'd already be playing WoW. We LIKE the Runescape environment and community, and that's why we chose Runescape instead.

 

 

 

Thanks again to the users who posted their opinions on the Times TOPICs here, I enjoyed hearing your thoughts.

[Earth_Poet]

Admittedly, that's because the quality of all the articles this week was excellent

 

 

 

Can't argue with you there. Great job this week! :thumbsup:

 

 

 

- but when it's not this good, I wish people would still remember that the discussion is about the SUBJECT, not flaming the author's skills.

 

 

 

Who...mwah? :^o

[waheera1]

It's so nice to see forum users discussing the SUBJECT of the articles, instead of the writing quality.

 

 

 

Admittedly, that's because the quality of all the articles this week was excellent - but when it's not this good, I wish people would still remember that the discussion is about the SUBJECT, not flaming the author's skills.

 

 

 

I enjoyed the articles immensely, including the fictional article by Necromagus. Normally I'm not big on RS fiction, but he's an excellent writer and I'll read anything from him.

 

 

 

I mostly agree with Darkdude's article. The topic really leads to Jagex releases, though. I seem to recall the new Jagex CEO promising at the beginning of the year to cut back on the frequent token (or "lame") updates in favour of less frequent but meatier content. As someone else posted, that's not been the case overall. Chosen Commander was excellent, but the last two haven't been as favourably received. (I haven't done them myself.)

 

 

 

I strongly DISAPPROVE of Jagex focusing on "updating old content" .... that's no benefit for me, as a current customer I've already DONE all that! Put a couple-three people on it maybe, but don't expect me to sacrifice new stuff for it, sorry. (Plus, it makes my job as a Crewbie that much harder, since they don't tell us what they've done so we can update our guides, lol.)

 

 

 

I'm too chicken to fight boss monsters, but tryto's article was a good read regarding the balance between soloing and grouping. In the past, Jagex has generally FAILED (imho) at group content. Trouble Brewing is a classic example (water continues to be abused), griefers turn up at stuff like Trawler and Great Orb project, and getting up a Barbarian Assault team (the best focused group game, with a dedicated role for each person) is nigh-impossible since the rewards are so blah. Blast Furnace was meant for groups - but turned out to be solo-able. In contrast, Penguin Hunting was meant as an incidental activity - and instead has become so firmly entrenched as a group activity that the Quick Chat lists it as such. Castle Wars, Pest Control, Stealing Creation and Clan Wars are among the few successful group games.

 

 

 

Altricious, it's great to hear from another adult player of Runescape. I hope that Jagex eventually learns how many of us there are, so they don't overlook our requirements. If we wanted more adult content and attitude ... we'd already be playing WoW. We LIKE the Runescape environment and community, and that's why we chose Runescape instead.

 

 

 

Thanks again to the users who posted their opinions on the Times TOPICs here, I enjoyed hearing your thoughts.

 

 

 

Happy to say I ALMOST entirely agree with you! I do have one small issue to take up however:

 

 

 

Author Skill... As possibly the most obvious pedant and critic regularly posting on the times feedback forums, I regularly criticise the quality of writing. This is for one reason only - ensuring the quality of writing improves. Where possible I try to give helpful feedback for suggestions of how to improve articles rather than just flaming the author, but even so I often end up criticising the author's skill rather than the topic.

 

 

 

I often find that a good topic can be ruined by poor quality writing, so I feel there is a requirement for some criticism where it is due. It is because of this that I criticised Necromagus for some of the more gratuitous descriptions and other discrepancies in part 1 of rat kings. I'm happy to say that, whether he read and acted upon my comments or not, the quality of his writing in the remaining parts of the rat kings series HAVE vastly improved. Conversely, Altricious' article this week had a topic that appeals to me purely because I am a more mature player and she happens to hold the same view on RS as I do! Added to which it was written in such a way as to make it an interesting read even if you do disagree with the content.

 

 

 

Just for the sake of [very debatable] humour, would you read/enjoy a topic on your favourite aspect of runescape if written by an illiterate 12 year old? Or conversely would the majority of merchants give a damn if a Ph.D scholar of economics tried to demonstrate how runescape's very basic economy runs, whilst using complex models based on micro- and macro-economic studies?! I think not, the first would obviously be an issue of writer skill, but so would the second as, no matter how well he wrote it, it would be well wide of the mark with readers' expectations. Thus writer criticism is both relevant AND crucial to ensuring that quantity and subject are matched by QUALITY.

 

 

 

Oh and just before I sign off again, a little pointer to those that didn't enjoy the latest fremennik quest:

 

Yes it was too long, given the fairly poor rewards. And it wasn't the most entertaining "easy" quest by a long way either... But do bear in mind the introduction of a new and apparently peaceful Mahjarrat, with clear references to the ritual of regeneration. Taking into account the recent activities of Lucien in WGS, and the ambiguity of the prophecy tablets in Glorious Memories, this could be a small introduction for a new Grandmaster quest due in the future. It doesn't make Tale of the Muspa any better as a quest, but it could lead to some nice updates in the future. Let's hope eh, we're well overdue some GOOD quality updates!

[Sunli]

 

Just for the sake of [very debatable] humour, would you read/enjoy a topic on your favourite aspect of runescape if written by an illiterate 12 year old?

 

 

 

I think you are a bit snobbish if you ask me ;)

 

 

 

I would acctually not only read the article, if written by an illiterate 12 year old, but also enjoyed in tremendiously if the content and the soul of it was highly interesting. Thats the remarkable thing about our brain we cna raed a txet evnehtuohg ist wrtetin lkie tihs :geek:

 

 

 

Kids can have a great deal to teach us if we listened.

 

 

 

Also, I have known and do know a great deal of people, both in runescape and outside, that have dyslexia. Theres nothing wrong with an dyslexics intelligens, they just have trouble spelling and reading. Acting snobbish and haughty about how an article should look like or how it is spelled, can scare them away from sending in a piece for us to read, which could acctually be something worth reading and something valuable to learn from! :shame:

 

 

 

Thank you Altricious for a great read by the way! I too are an older player, like Pokemama and Cat, and I know tons of others who are "older then dust" playing. Please feel free to add me ingame both you and Cat for a chat :

[RuneAge]

I read the first topic it was a great read :thumbsup: , and personally, i prefer to fight in groups rather than soloing, because of the plus factors: It's less dangerous, Its more "fun" to fight with your friends and share the excitement, rather then going alone and getting less kills in one trip.