Being a self-made player

[Everyonedies]

This is for the OP mostly... I have never bought a level either check my stats if you want and you will see levels that cost money or have no way of training without spending money are really low. I only get summoning levels from lamps, Penguin spotting, or Tears of Guthix. My construction is low also but im going to be doing defender of Varrock to fix that(i hope). While i never buy levels i do however sell things on the GE. Getting Ess off the GE isnt that bad but you could always kill banshees(sp) an hour of killing them will give you about 1k ess. maybe more. I do buy coal off the GE if i need to but i always make a profit from everything i do so i guess im not as do it yourself as some might be. But i guess i just dont understand whats one about power training on money making skill just to power train another skill with money just to get some cape and then repeat again and again until you have to train the non buyable skills just makes no sense and doesnt seem fun to me but whatever floats the masses boats i guess....

[Tylon_Dragadon]

inefficient...comparative efficiency

 

I'll first state that I do agree with your assertion that it is better to gather the money and buy resources when it'll be faster/more convenient. But that word, efficiency, is funny when you apply it to a game. I'm a big supporter of the idea that you should play games for the pursuit of your own enjoyment, and if you're doing something that is boring you to do you should seriously consider why or alternatives that reach same goal.

 

 

 

So when you're planning a goal, one that involves the collection of resources, gaining a pile of gold to buy the materials is a legitimate method. There just seems to be some of us who would rather go about getting it ourselves, spending more time potentially, but there's a certain rewarding feeling reaching your goal AND getting a bonus of gold. An example being someone who gathers the materials for making 1k yew longs to reach a level versus paying for the materials and coming at a loss/break-even. It just seems to be a matter of preference to me. Now, I am planning on getting a BCP and tassets sometime in the near future, so I'll be paying the avansies a visit. I'll probably end up getting 73 smithing beforehand though and working all the addy bars into bolts and fletch them, then sell. Less profit, sure, but I'll get exp and money. Ultimately the former is my goal.

 

 

 

For the record, my definition of efficiency is growing herbs at Catherby, while cutting yews, doing Calculus homework, and listening to Dragon Force.

 

I integrate at the speed of metal.

 

 

 

But yeah, whether your goal is exp with time or money well spent, do what you like.

[Dire_Wolf]

I understand that "Buying" a skill sounds cheap, but it is not. The cash you use to get them, comes from somewhere.

 

 

 

Example

 

Player A kills Green dragons for a week>Uses cash to buy logs for 99 Fletching

 

Player B cuts trees for a week>Uses logs for 99 Fletching

 

 

 

Difference?

 

Nothing. Both worked hard for the logs/cash...

[W00tpecked]

A dying breed? Nah, just a clueless one.

 

 

 

LOL.

[Huzzah]

I never got the whole arguement that buying secondary skills then training the gathering skill afterwords. Since coming back to runescape after a two year break Ive planted myself down by some willow trees. You see, Ive decided that since I got 99 fishing before quitting its time to work on a new skill for a bit and decided on woodcutting. Then again I always thought the fire making cape was pretty neat. So Ive decided to just chop willows and burn the logs as I get them rather then running all the way to the bank or fighting over the over-crowded willow trees of draynor. Is this such a bad idea? I mean I want to get both 99s eventually how is it better to spend the time making fires outfront of a bank only to spend hours and hours wcing later?

 

 

 

Some skills like runecrafting I would buy. I hate mining and I don't believe my level has went up at all since like.. 2003, lol. But other skills I don't see the issue with doing it yourself. Woodcutting/firemaking at a spot like the rimmington willows or fishing/cooking in the fishing guild for example.

[Dire_Wolf]

Buying supplies for a skill is not buying a skill....

 

 

 

You just pay the extra cash for the better exp. The cash you got is something you worked for...

[3hitm4g3u]

A dying breed? Nah, just a clueless one.

 

 

 

:lol: :lol:

 

 

 

I do that when I want to level several skills in one chain of action, but generally I buy skills.

[Me_Hate_Libs]

I'm entirely self-sufficient. I have never once bought anything off the GE or from another person. Only ever sold.

[Omali]

I'm entirely self-sufficient. I have never once bought anything off the GE or from another person. Only ever sold.

 

 

 

I find it incredibly difficult to believe your equipment came 100% through drops and smithing it.

[xSxqPowerx]

I am the exact opposite, and I have my reasons.

 

 

 

Firstly, I don't enjoy raising those gathering skills - therefore I spend my money doing what I enjoy. I've never gathered my own materials to level up.

 

 

 

Now, since what I enjoy is killing boss monsters, and this happens to be very profitable, it is actually more efficient for a player like me to simply buy my levels.

 

It's also more efficient if I ever do want to train fish/woodcutting/mining to powertrain them and sell off whatever I collect.

[Me_Hate_Libs]

I'm entirely self-sufficient. I have never once bought anything off the GE or from another person. Only ever sold.

 

 

 

I find it incredibly difficult to believe your equipment came 100% through drops and smithing it.

 

 

 

I wear Torags, which I got from Barrows, an Abyssal whip, which I got from demons, with wild pies, but if I'm honest, it was total luck. Also use a Slayer helm, which I got from drops, plus buying the other things from Slayer masters, Drag boots from Mages, Gloves from RFD chest, bought an Onyx and used some assisted crafting to make it, and enchanted it, plus a Berserker ring from Dag Kings.

 

 

 

Before that, I got all my drag stuff from drops or shops. And same for Rune, but that was on Classic and buying from Adventurers Guild.

 

 

 

I make my own food, cut my own logs, mine and smith my own bars, mine and craft my own runes, all that.

 

 

 

Maybe this would explain why I've been playing since late 2001 and only CB lvl 123, and no noncombat skill over 89? I also receive the occasional assist from other players.

[spooferfish]

I supply myself with supplies unless I'm powertraining something, then I buy. But I never buy potions, I just get herbs and make them :D

 

 

 

I had a character that was going to be completely self sufficient, but I forgot the account name. :(

[Me_Hate_Libs]

I supply myself with supplies unless I'm powertraining something, then I buy. But I never buy potions, I just get herbs and make them :D

 

 

 

I had a character that was going to be completely self sufficient, but I forgot the account name. :(

 

 

 

It was "pl0xgivemestuff42"

[Troacctid]

I never got the whole arguement that buying secondary skills then training the gathering skill afterwords. Since coming back to runescape after a two year break Ive planted myself down by some willow trees. You see, Ive decided that since I got 99 fishing before quitting its time to work on a new skill for a bit and decided on woodcutting. Then again I always thought the fire making cape was pretty neat. So Ive decided to just chop willows and burn the logs as I get them rather then running all the way to the bank or fighting over the over-crowded willow trees of draynor. Is this such a bad idea? I mean I want to get both 99s eventually how is it better to spend the time making fires outfront of a bank only to spend hours and hours wcing later?

 

 

 

Some skills like runecrafting I would buy. I hate mining and I don't believe my level has went up at all since like.. 2003, lol. But other skills I don't see the issue with doing it yourself. Woodcutting/firemaking at a spot like the rimmington willows or fishing/cooking in the fishing guild for example.

 

Well, burning the logs you chop actually is more efficient overall, especially in f2p where banking is so much more difficult. But a lot of the time there's a disconnect between what you want to gather and what you need to process. For example, bowstrings are important for training fletching, but worthless for training crafting. And you mentioned rune essence.

 

 

 

The idea of buying materials is that you get to play the game on your own terms. If there's something you don't want to do, then you don't do it--you just make money somewhere else, and use that money to pay someone else to do the thing you didn't want to do. In this way, you never have to do anything you don't want to do, unless you don't want to make money.

[stonewall337]

Inefficient, yes.

 

 

 

Waste of time, no. If that is how you enjoy the game, by all means carry on.

 

 

 

Sometimes I will buy raw materials, other times I will gather them. It all comes down to how fast I want the level, or if the gathering skill is one I am training, such as fletching and WCing.

[Me_Hate_Libs]

Inefficient, yes.

 

 

 

Waste of time, no. If that is how you enjoy the game, by all means carry on.

 

 

 

Sometimes I will buy raw materials, other times I will gather them. It all comes down to how fast I want the level, or if the gathering skill is one I am training, such as fletching and WCing.

 

 

 

Also, doint it all by yourself means it's pure profit.

[Troacctid]

Inefficient, yes.

 

 

 

Waste of time, no. If that is how you enjoy the game, by all means carry on.

 

 

 

Sometimes I will buy raw materials, other times I will gather them. It all comes down to how fast I want the level, or if the gathering skill is one I am training, such as fletching and WCing.

 

 

 

Also, doint it all by yourself means it's pure profit.

 

No it doesn't. You still lose value on some of the conversions.

 

 

 

Items have value even if you don't sell them. I mean, think about it this way: what if instead of processing your materials, you sold them all for the equivalent gp? You'd have some amount of money. What if, hypothetically, you then went back a week later, changed your mind, and bought back those same materials for that same amount of gp, and proceeded to process them as normal? You'd lose exactly the same money.

 

 

 

If you view every multi-step process as a single step, everything is pure profit as long as you end up with more than 25 gp in your bank, because that's how much you have at the beginning. I can powertrain to 99 construction and end up with 3k gp in my bank and it would still be pure profit.

[stonewall337]

Inefficient, yes.

 

 

 

Waste of time, no. If that is how you enjoy the game, by all means carry on.

 

 

 

Sometimes I will buy raw materials, other times I will gather them. It all comes down to how fast I want the level, or if the gathering skill is one I am training, such as fletching and WCing.

 

 

 

Also, doint it all by yourself means it's pure profit.

 

 

 

It is pure profit in the sense you are not spending things, but you are losing potential profit by gathering things worth ~150k an hour instead of making ~400k an hour and buying what you ned.

[Torlen]

I never quite understood peoples hesitations to contribute to the social system by purchasing materials.

 

 

 

I mean, it is an MMO, the people that exist alongside the game with you aren't just their for talking. If your game play is unaffected by them, why not just do a single player game and talk to people in a chat room instead? At least then you don't have to worry about spot thieves.

 

 

 

Every 99 I have, I paid for in some way, and I honestly couldn't imagine playing any other way. It is a game and I don't necessarily have fun collecting the particulars I need for a skill.

 

 

 

*Edit*

 

 

 

I've noticed some people claiming being "self-made" make you a wealthier player because everything you do is profit. I can assure you, money is something I rarely ever don't have enough of, even after spending 100m+ each on smithing, farming, and prayer. Not being self-made means you don't have to collect the petty things you need for another skill, you can stick to the most expensive and turn a quicker profit than those who end up turning a valuable raw material into something usually useless.

[Golvellius]

I was DIY for a long time.

 

I only traded and sold stuff to get armour and weapons.

 

It was alot of fun in the old days (05-06), but sadly Jagex doesn't recognize you and has all but killed DIY with the ludicrous money that was given out from coinshare.

 

 

 

Sadly I ruined my account by buying prayer levels from 90 to 98 when a friend gave me his phat after he quit.

 

It felt like nothing like an accomplishment getting to 98, so I went and got my last level at pest control like a real player.

 

Its hard to go back to DIY once you start buying though.

 

I was able to do 99 smithing, crafting, fletching with clay tools that I collected myself which made it more of an accomplishment.

 

 

 

My advice, don't listen to the knuckle draggers on this forum.

 

They preach the same bs over and over: farming is great money, buy your skills its a multiplayer game, summoning rocks...

 

Just play your game.

 

You'll enjoy it more.

[Torlen]

It felt like nothing like an accomplishment getting to 98, so I went and got my last level at pest control like a real player.

 

 

 

I'm all for people playing their own game, but I lol'd at this. Most serious players are against Pest Control because of the insane amounts of xp you get without trying hard at all. I consider saving the money to buy the bones (which I did) more of an accomplishment than coasting through pest control for a few days.

[Ren]

Muggiwhplar posted a very good thread about buying skills a long time ago that had a lot of good discussion. Check it out. You might find it interesting.

 

 

 

Honestly? It doesn't matter how you train your skills. Every player is a self-made player. This isn't real life, where some people are born into poverty while others are born into wealth. Every character starts with the same amount of gp in their bank, and every character needs to earn their money.

 

 

 

Think about it. Unbalanced trades are dead. Discontinued items aren't around for free anymore. Any penny you have, you had to get somehow. What's the difference whether you got your smithing level by buying steel bars or mining gold to smelt? If you bought those materials, you had to work to earn the money, too. Everything you get, you get because you work for it somehow. So we're all self-made players.

 

 

 

I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. Brilliant. =D>

 

The money used to buy skills was never part of a trust fund from anybody's rich parents or some random luck (Olly aside <!-- s<3: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_love.gif" alt="<3:" title="Love" /><!-- s<3: --> ) like winning the lottery. Buying ore with money from selling logs is entirely logical. Thank you for showing me this. :pray:

 

Olly just steals other people's chances at luck.

Edited March 7, 2010 by laura0077

[Fools_Taco]

How do you spend all your money then?

 

 

You can only play the way you do for so long. It gets to a point where the only thing to do with your gold is to dump it into a cape. I think i had made about 300m off slayer what else is there to do with that cash then buy the bones for 99 prayer.

[jsboutin2]

Inefficient, yes.

 

 

 

Waste of time, no. If that is how you enjoy the game, by all means carry on.

 

 

 

Sometimes I will buy raw materials, other times I will gather them. It all comes down to how fast I want the level, or if the gathering skill is one I am training, such as fletching and WCing.

 

 

 

Also, doint it all by yourself means it's pure profit.

 

 

What do you use that profit on, then?

[Mecakoto]

Was the bump just to take a stab at Olly necessary?