New runescape skill/concept

[Zygimantas]

http://mmohub.org/news/interview-runesc ... uture/296/

 

 

 

 

 

Brendon Lindsey, Chief Editor, MMOLife Network: When we were talking earlier you said one major thing you wanted to do involved "RuneScape" and sort of going and, you know, changing the whole mentality that it's one of those MMO games for kids ...

 

 

 

Mark Gerhard, CEO, Jagex: Like, less than 4% of our players are under 13, and the average age is 16. There are two major [bleep]es; one at 14, and one at 18. And then obviously secondarily one at 19 and weirdly one at 28. I guess that's all of us logging in ...

 

 

 

But the real average age is 16. And there's this perception that there's 8 year old boys playing the game and it's mad. In some respects I'm really happy that some people get our age demo wrong, but it's also been damaging to us because people like John Smedley at Free Realms who admires RuneScape, and openly admit to knocking it off, claims Free Realms is inspired by 'RuneScape.'

 

 

 

But happily even he's got it wrong. You go to Free Realms which is very kiddy, very Club Penguin, and that's good news for us. And my worst possible position is that our 4% of under 13 players go play Free Realms, no worries, the rest of the community will not shed a tear. But the problem is he doesn't stop there, he goes on and keeps telling people that he copied RuneScape and this is a great game for tweens. So it's like "Maybe we should be quiet and just let people think it's a kids game..."

 

 

 

But to be honest it is 16 and up. The best way to describe it is that we actively internally say we're making a game we want to play. And whilst we're not gratuitous with our content -- it might be enjoyed by a younger audience -- but in terms of the gameplay and complexity and puzzling, we've aimed it at an adult mind, not a kid mind. And, I think, that's the message we believe internally and we shared it with our guys. But now, it's important we start saying that publicly.

 

 

 

I think that's one way we may have failed as a company. We just said "Let's make a cool game and who gives a damn what they say." We haven't actually defended ourselves or gone out and said, you know, this is [cabbage]. We've kind of gone "Well, whatever."

 

 

 

And that's because, you know, we never had a marketing function, or a PR function. The company had grown virally and we didn't think it was important. And clearly it is, because if you say nothing people make up their own version of the truth so we'll have to start doing that more, communicating with the rest of the world; and that's part of it. The first thing we'll say is "These are our actual players" and our players are going, "Well thank God, I'm 32 and I'm happy to hear people say this isn't a kid's game." Our players are our best evangelists, so letting them know what we're focusing on is helpful, but now we just have to let the rest of the gaming world know.

 

 

 

We're basically coming out of the dark and started defending ourselves; maybe that's the best way to put it. Refuting the nonsense out there.

 

 

 

Another thing a lot of people say about "RuneScape" when they talk about it is that it's got free-to-play content, but doesn't care about free-to-play players as much. Why do you think that is? Is it true?

 

 

Let me answer that two ways. That wasn't the case when Jagex started. When Andrew built "RuneScape," it was always going to be a free game. He would pay for the service by running adverts. It was the dotcom bubble burst that forced Jagex to go, "We can't even pay for infrastructure anymore, what are we going to do?" so we invented the Membership model and thankfully a lot of our loyal players went across and wanted premium content and paid for it. That's kind of been our runaway success, if you will.

 

 

 

But that wasn't the reason for being. "RuneScape" wasn't started because we wanted to make money and therefore went with the subscription model; it was fairly accidental. So the free game has always been an entirely free game and sort of the graduation path for members. What we argue is that, given 80% of our players are free anyway, it's our most ardent fans who convert to being members. About 20%. But the reality is that there are also free players who go, "This is enough, I'm more than happy." If I think of our top free-to-play player, it's a Dutch 21 year old called S Diamant Y, Sara to her friends, and she's played something like 14,599 hours, 34 minutes and counting.

 

 

 

She's maxed out all skills except one, prayer, which is at 94; 99's the max. And she's done all the quests. And she's never been a member for even 1 day. There are players who have done even more hours if you consider their time playing RuneScape Classic. So there are a lot of people who take pride in just playing the free game, and there's an epic amount of free content there. I don't know of any other games that have tens of thousands of hours of gameplay and are entirely free.

 

 

 

I suppose MMOs have more anyway, due to their social elements, but nevertheless... So the free game was, and is, certainly vitally important to us. It's kind of the proving ground. The problem was, a year or so ago, there was -- let me say confusion, as a subtle word -- as to what part of the business was important. I expect the CEOs focus was just sort of on the profit and loss column, and all of the attention was sort of on "members members members and members conversions" and getting free players to convert to Members by putting members hooks in the free game. Unfortunately that had a really negative effect on the community, as you've taken what was an epic entirely free game and turned it into a sort of demo for the members game which was never the idea.

 

 

 

So unfortunately we had a year where we did that. One of my first orders of business in February was ripping that part out. There are various things we did to monetize the free players. Such as serving long-standing free players video ads. Something like 10 or 15 seconds. Which whilst profitable was simply wrong, not in the spirit of the free game, absolutely wrong. So one of my first orders of business was to rip that out; sort of get back to basics with what's important to us. We love all our players, we certainly do not want to treat our free players with contempt, you know.

 

 

Are you guys actively trying to go back and fix that, then?

 

 

 

We're making sure that the free game itself is being upgraded. Sort of upgrading the graphics and quests. So while we update our member content with new quests and such -- we want to make sure the free players benefit at the same time.

 

 

 

There's also things we've done while building our other MMO "MechScape," like particle effects and specula lighting, and it's like "Well now that we have those why not put them into magic effects [in RuneScape]?" So I do expect in the next year a lot of things will be re-prioritized to focus on the players and improving the game. They tell us what they enjoy, and we'll make more of it.

 

 

 

We've been going through the game and re-working content not appreciated by the players to make sure they understand we care about what they invest their time in. There was this impression that, you know, "RuneScape" has had its day, so let's just get what we can out of it. But certainly the team and I believe this game has another decade or two of life in it. It's been ten years in the making, but its become an institution, and we're not going to stop investing in it now or ever.

 

 

 

Yeah, we're going to create new MMOs as well. And we've got FunOrb, which is sort of our R&D lab to experiment with new game ideas and mechanics and we'll keep doing that because it's fun and we can, but our main focus will be investing in "RuneScape" and growing that.

 

 

I know you were talking about how this year you guys were going to do a lot of things to upgrade "RuneScape" and make it better, will you guys be upgrading the graphics again?

 

 

 

We will be. We're actually doing quite a bit in the field. There's always this weird tension. If you ask a player "Would you want better graphics?" it's like "Yeah." But if given a choice between better graphics or content, what would you choose? Some would answer graphics, but we certainly find the one that has the loudest voices is more content. Once you've established a certain standard, it's just taken for granted. People don't login to check out the textures on your wall or ceiling, they want to login and have fun. So there really is a tension.

 

 

 

While we have a permanent R&D team looking to upgrade our graphics, sound, etc., but the real focus -- almost 80:20 -- is on content, evolving the game and keeping it fun.

 

 

 

But we are doing a a lot on graphics . We're making a lot of performance improvements so they can be more widely appreciated on older systems, as well. We're not quite looking to create a "RuneScape 3" if that's what the thought is; the real effort is on the content. And, if a change sucks, we'll pull it out. Everything has to pass the "awesome test," and if it doesn't re-work it so it passes, or take it out completely. So we're doing that as well.

 

 

 

Any other big updates people can expect to see content wise, then?

 

 

 

We are actually working on a whole new game mechanic. I can't give much away, but it could be an entire game in its own right, or just a skill, or both, who knows [laughs]. That will be for free and members. But, yeah, that should be this year hopefully, needs to be awesome though. I don't want to give it away though because it's really exciting and no one has done it so we're kind of keeping that one close to our chest.

 

 

 

Basically, this was going to be our 2010 game -- we were going to create another game -- but we said, this just ties in so nicely with "RuneScape" and it's cool, the community would love this, so let's not make it another game, let's just put this in the game.

 

 

 

Sorry for being so cryptic about it! [laughs]

 

 

 

Trust me, I'm used to it. Corporate for only a few months and already you're hiding secrets... [laughs]

 

 

 

[laughs] I know! But what I realized is that if we hide stuff and then say "Yeah we're going to build this and it's awesome and the most exciting thing we've ever done!" and then launch it and it's like "Eh?," we've almost set ourselves up to fail before we even started. So we don't want to spin it; we want it to be a big surprise. So it will be a skill, and we will introduce a whole new type of gameplay as well, but you'll see it when it's ready.

 

 

 

Frustrating for some, but it's sort of like getting a gift, isn't it? It's a surprise, but if you are expecting what you get it never quite hits the mark.

 

 

 

Is it hard to build up anticipation when you can't tell people what there is?

 

 

 

Our PR chap is certainly pulling his hair out. He's like, "People are asking about stuff, can I tell them this?" and we'll say, "No." Or he'll go, "I'm at this event what can I talk about?" and we'll say "None of this, none of that." Right now, our strategy is stealth, which is probably frustrating for him. [laughs]

 

 

 

Time will tell if that works ...

 

 

 

Posted by Brendon Lindsey

 

May 27th, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the last two questions, new skill is coming next year :ohnoes:

[Poppet]

Sorry but this is old.

[Smackapotato]

Hasn't this been found and posted before?

[Poppet]

Hasn't this been found and posted before?

 

 

 

Yes it has.

[Racheya]

Old interview is old =/

[Range_This11]

No more Mechscape!

[Zygimantas]

Can be locked then, I knew the interview was from May but I couldn't find any posts about it so.....

[Zygimantas]

No more Mechscape!

This isn't referring to mechscape, its referring to another project Jagex was said to be working on.

[Poppet]

Can be locked then, I knew the interview was from May but I couldn't find any posts about this so.....

 

 

 

True it still is nice imformation yet its not really needed here. :l

[aspeeder]

But what I realized is that if we hide stuff and then say "Yeah we're going to build this and it's awesome and the most exciting thing we've ever done!" and then launch it and it's like "Eh?," we've almost set ourselves up to fail before we even started. So we don't want to spin it; we want it to be a big surprise.

 

 

 

Sounds suspiciously like MA's release :lol: , except that most of the blogs about it said that it's not that great but it's totally new.

[3hitm4g3u]

New gameplay thing was most likely MA.

 

 

 

Good thing they didn't brag about it much then; it really is an "eh?" update.

[Dexek]

Sorry but this is old.

 

 

 

Yep, seemed like deja vu. Nice to have a re-read though. Now I'll be speculating about this big update once more.

 

:lol:

[Amundogus2]

I don't think it was MA. I doubt they planned MA to be a seperate MMO.... a strategy game isn't really an MMO, and how could you really see MA as a skill, helping out with general gameplay in RS, like all other skill do. Certainly not game changing.

[Peronix]

New gameplay thing was most likely MA.

 

 

 

Good thing they didn't brag about it much then; it really is an "eh?" update.

 

 

 

Doubtful it was MA, they said this new update would be f2p. Also they said this hasn't been done before; I'm pretty sure I've seen RTS styled minigames in other MMOs. Whatever it is, it probably ties in with the now unused space on the interface.

[RSBDavid]

inb4lock

 

 

 

This is CONCRETE proof of sailing.

 

 

 

 

 

THis is an old article

[aspeeder]

I wasn't speculating that the "new skill" was MA, just that the situation sounded similar to what happened with MA, i.e. hype it and then have the player base give a resounding "meh" when it came out.

[Zaaps1]

less than 4% of our players are under 13, and the average age is 16.

 

 

 

Does this make me feel better or worse? Better because I know that most players really are mature, if they try. After all, most 16 year olds can be well-mannered when they try. But I feel worse because none of them try in RuneScape. Turns out that it's the 16 year olds that act immature too, not just all the little kids.

 

 

 

I mean, we all knew that there are 13+ people who act immature. But if only 4% is under 13, that means there are A LOT of 13+ people who act immaturely, not just a handful.

[Outsanity]

Gah...you got me all excited thinking jagex leaked more info about the new skill, only to have my heart crushed. :(

 

 

 

Oh, and zaaps...most 16 year olds are immature. 16 is still very very VERY young. Unfortunetly you can drive at 16, which is why there are so many accidents caused by minors, especially with alchohol involved. Either way, while it annoys me, I don't expect many 16 year olds to be very mature. Once you hit your 20s you start to mellow out a bit more (usually).

[Ezz]

I wasn't speculating that the "new skill" was MA, just that the situation sounded similar to what happened with MA, i.e. hype it and then have the player base give a resounding "meh" when it came out.

 

I don't recall them hyping it. They even made a development blog about 2 weeks before it came out and said it probably wouldn't be very special or fun gameplay-wise, but that it was a new thing for them and that's why it took long to make.

[Zaaps1]

Oh, and zaaps...most 16 year olds are immature. 16 is still very very VERY young. Unfortunetly you can drive at 16, which is why there are so many accidents caused by minors, especially with alchohol involved. Either way, while it annoys me, I don't expect many 16 year olds to be very mature. Once you hit your 20s you start to mellow out a bit more (usually).

 

 

 

That's true, I mean I'm around that age and I guess sometimes I can be immature, and same goes with most of my friends.

 

 

 

However, people our age CAN act mature, if they try. I know this is true. It's just sad that most of us don't try hard enough when interacting with others over the internet.

[aspeeder]

I wasn't speculating that the "new skill" was MA, just that the situation sounded similar to what happened with MA, i.e. hype it and then have the player base give a resounding "meh" when it came out.

 

I don't recall them hyping it. They even made a development blog about 2 weeks before it came out and said it probably wouldn't be very special or fun gameplay-wise, but that it was a new thing for them and that's why it took long to make.

 

Sounds suspiciously like MA's release :lol: , except that most of the blogs about it said that it's not that great but it's totally new.

 

I know, but despite the lack of hype the high expectations were still there despite thier best efforts.

[Outsanity]

Oh, and zaaps...most 16 year olds are immature. 16 is still very very VERY young. Unfortunetly you can drive at 16, which is why there are so many accidents caused by minors, especially with alchohol involved. Either way, while it annoys me, I don't expect many 16 year olds to be very mature. Once you hit your 20s you start to mellow out a bit more (usually).

 

 

 

That's true, I mean I'm around that age and I guess sometimes I can be immature, and same goes with most of my friends.

 

 

 

However, people our age CAN act mature, if they try. I know this is true. It's just sad that most of us don't try hard enough when interacting with others over the internet.

 

 

 

Because the internet, unless you choose otherwise, can be totally annonymous. =-/

[Zaaps1]

Oh, and zaaps...most 16 year olds are immature. 16 is still very very VERY young. Unfortunetly you can drive at 16, which is why there are so many accidents caused by minors, especially with alchohol involved. Either way, while it annoys me, I don't expect many 16 year olds to be very mature. Once you hit your 20s you start to mellow out a bit more (usually).

 

 

 

That's true, I mean I'm around that age and I guess sometimes I can be immature, and same goes with most of my friends.

 

 

 

However, people our age CAN act mature, if they try. I know this is true. It's just sad that most of us don't try hard enough when interacting with others over the internet.

 

 

 

Because the internet, unless you choose otherwise, can be totally annonymous. =-/

 

 

 

That's right, which is an unfortunate trade-off, but inevitable nonetheless.