Yet another Jagex interview [30 august]

[Kiriyama]

There's also nine years of content there and we're making more content every week.

 

 

 

The only reason why RuneScape is always ahead of the curve is because it's updated weekly

 

 

 

 

Sorry Henrique, that's the biggest load of bull I've heard all week

 

How come?

 

Runescape does have 9 years of content.

 

It is really the pioneer of browser based MMOs.

 

 

 

I was focusing on the it's updated weekly part, which it never is anymore

 

 

 

He said they make content every week, not release.

 

 

 

I would rather see a monthly/bi-monthly update schedule with larger updates. This would give the developers and QA time to work out bugs. There is so much content already (quests, achievement diarys, minigames, skills, items, bosses, ect) that there is a probably small, if any, amount of people who have actually completed even 3/4ths of the existing content.

 

 

 

Lrn2read.

 

 

 

Bolded the part for you too.

[wab]

We succeed because we have failed before, several times in small scale. We learned from those mistakes.

 

 

 

they actually admit they fail sometimes :lol:

 

 

 

good read, but I don't buy anymore the "weekly update" thing -.-

[strilmus]

Whoa, hold up. No other sci-fi MMOs? That's ridiculous! In order for that to be true, they would have had to start the Mechscape project AGES ago.

[Great_one]

it's updated weekly

 

Was this update done last year? If not then they are lieing out of their [wagon].

[ladylinux]

We succeed because we have failed before, several times in small scale. We learned from those mistakes.

 

 

 

they actually admit they fail sometimes :lol:

 

 

 

good read, but I don't buy anymore the "weekly update" thing -.-

 

 

 

Just because they don't post a news letter or release patch notes, it does not mean they do not update the game. Tiny little tweaks can be made live in game without interrupting your gameplay.

[Skull]

Mechscape beta is planed for next year, but maybe not.

 

 

 

I love the detail you put into these answers JaGEx. :roll:

[Gandorf61]

it's updated weekly

 

Was this update done last year? If not then they are lieing out of their [wagon].

 

It's like saying "I go to school from Monday-Friday". Do you really go to school every weekday? Of course not but most of the time you do during a school year. Jagex updates almost every week; sure they miss a few here and there but for the most part they stand true to weekly updates.

 

 

 

 

 

As for whether or not F2P can be considered a "demo" you can look at it from both sides. Technically F2P could be considered a demo as much as P2P could be considered an expansion pack. Runescape started off as a free game, a game a lot smaller than it is today. Back then when membership didn't exist would Runescape have been considered a demo? No, because it was a full game back then that could exist by itself, much like F2P is today. If P2P didn't exist F2P would be considered a full game. Another thing to think about is how many demos do you know actively get updates? While F2P only gets a few updates a year, that's a lot more than any demo I've ever heard of. And aren't demos supposed to attract gamers to buy the full version? Then why would Jagex be removing all member related things on F2P worlds. To me that looks like the opposite of trying to attract people.

 

 

 

I think if Runescape had been released today, never been played before with F2P and P2P then we could consider F2P to be a demo. But since F2P has existed before P2P, and by itself would be considered a full game, we can only conclude that F2P is not a demo. Demos aren't complete games with updates and player support.

 

 

 

 

 

Probably the most interesting part of the article was that they can export the game to all three consoles and are looking into the new Google OS. Nothing really much on Mechscape though, bases sound cool, but overall it seems like they're still trying to keep everything hush hush for now.

[Distracted]

Decent interview, I'm curious as to what this non-grinding thing will be in MechScape.

[Guest]

Where are you people getting your figures from? It's not fair to post

5%

as an argument when it's a completely made up figure. F2P has a huge roll in the rs community. The majority of people would spend most their time Skilling, Pking, or chatting to friends. Pick one thing you cannot do.

 

Of course the expansion has to be significantly broader, otherwise people would question why they're paying each month.

 

 

 

On another note

 

 

 

It can't possibly be 105 active members.

 

 

 

105million active members and to quote roughly 20% of all players are members..

 

 

 

21million members at $6 each

 

$126million per month?

 

1.5billion p.a

 

 

 

Bill Gates.. Watch out.

[ladylinux]

Where are you people getting your figures from? It's not fair to post

5%

as an argument when it's a completely made up figure. F2P has a huge roll in the rs community. The majority of people would spend most their time Skilling, Pking, or chatting to friends. Pick one thing you cannot do.

 

Of course the expansion has to be significantly broader, otherwise people would question why they're paying each month.

 

 

 

On another note

 

 

 

It can't possibly be 105 active members.

 

 

 

105million active members and to quote roughly 20% of all players are members..

 

 

 

21million members at $6 each

 

$126million per month?

 

1.5billion p.a

 

 

 

Bill Gates.. Watch out.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought they had only one-million members a couple of years ago. If you are right, then they have boomed exponentially.

[Guest]

Where are you people getting your figures from? It's not fair to post

5%

as an argument when it's a completely made up figure. F2P has a huge roll in the rs community. The majority of people would spend most their time Skilling, Pking, or chatting to friends. Pick one thing you cannot do.

 

Of course the expansion has to be significantly broader, otherwise people would question why they're paying each month.

 

 

 

On another note

 

 

 

It can't possibly be 105 active members.

 

 

 

105million active members and to quote roughly 20% of all players are members..

 

 

 

21million members at $6 each

 

$126million per month?

 

1.5billion p.a

 

 

 

Bill Gates.. Watch out.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought they had only one-million members a couple of years ago. If you are right, then they have boomed exponentially.

 

 

 

Ah sorry - after reviewing the interview with Mark Gerhard. Seems i got it wrong.

 

 

 

Mark Gerhard: More than 10 million. It depends if you're taking a day, a week, three months. We did another stat for the Guinness Book of World Records that was total active unique [users] over time, and that was just over 105 million. So 105 million people have touched it.

 

 

 

In the section where the questioner asks Mark how many people play RS. He states, 10 million players.. I'm guessing thats accumulated over 6 months (going by their previous meathods of measuring used). But a total of 105 million people have played, now whether thats 105million accounts or IP's.. we don't know.

 

 

 

But even still, roughly 2 million paying members. (in runescape alone)

 

 

 

$12,000,000 per month

[Bloodstain]

it's updated weekly

 

Was this update done last year? If not then they are lieing out of their [wagon].

 

It's like saying "I go to school from Monday-Friday". Do you really go to school every weekday? Of course not but most of the time you do during a school year. Jagex updates almost every week; sure they miss a few here and there but for the most part they stand true to weekly updates.

 

 

 

 

1. It's supposed to be every two weeks now, although it isn't

 

2. The last update that actually introduced something new to the game was August 10, a quest. All the other things are stuff they would have just added to the "in other news" section of the old updates

[Lep]

Wait wait wait, let me get this straight... they can easily make amazing graphics and even transform the code into console code, but can't do something like increase POH room limit easily? :roll:

[Mike_Ike111]

Wait wait wait, let me get this straight... they can easily make amazing graphics and even transform the code into console code, but can't do something like increase POH room limit easily? :roll:

 

 

 

 

 

"Make no mistake, we can up the polygons in MechScape dramatically and have parity with any kind of game that's out at the moment. The problem is, that would remove or reduce the accessibility. We still say we want the same experience, but we don't accept the cost in terms of space and bandwidth and everything else. And we had to build the solution to that ourselves."

[Lep]

Wait wait wait, let me get this straight... they can easily make amazing graphics and even transform the code into console code, but can't do something like increase POH room limit easily? :roll:

 

 

 

 

 

"Make no mistake, we can up the polygons in MechScape dramatically and have parity with any kind of game that's out at the moment. The problem is, that would remove or reduce the accessibility. We still say we want the same experience, but we don't accept the cost in terms of space and bandwidth and everything else. And we had to build the solution to that ourselves."

 

 

 

If I'm not mistaken, that means they already solved the issue...

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

There's also nine years of content there and we're making more content every week.

 

 

 

The only reason why RuneScape is always ahead of the curve is because it's updated weekly

 

 

 

 

Sorry Henrique, that's the biggest load of bull I've heard all week

 

How come?

 

Runescape does have 9 years of content.

 

It is really the pioneer of browser based MMOs.

 

Okay, Racheya, we get it, you're a Jagex fangirl, and take their word as law.

 

 

 

F2P is a damned demo. It gives you a small portion of the game compared to when you upgrade to membership, which gives you access to the full game.

 

 

 

The thing about your example about taking away P2P and leaving F2P and you'd have a full game, that's true. However, it doesn't mean that with the way it is now, that F2P isn't a demo.

 

 

 

Sure, maybe you're not limited on how long you can play, but you are limited to a minimal amount of stuff in F2P.

 

I don't take their word as law, I just like to think that the people who make the game probably know a little bit about what they're doing with it and what they consider it to be.

 

 

 

Just because you say it's a demo doesn't mean it is, the fact that you can have a full gaming experience with just F2P does mean that it's not a demo. You have a game and more if you have P2P but like they say, P2P is an expansion.

 

 

 

I think Jagex are one of the biggest bunch of donkeys there is, and I still agree with Racheya.

[ilovecuttingyews]

I am no expert on MMO's but imo f2p is the game and members is the 'expansion'. Just looking at WoW as an example, there was the original WoW, and then there are (and will be soon) 3 expansion packs. I think that if Blizzard gave away the original WoW game free it would be considered the complete game for f2p.

 

There is a phenominal amount of stuff to do in F2p. Even if there was no p2p I would still play the f2p version because it is so big.

 

 

 

On topic, that was a great article, one of the best I read from Jagex.

[Omali]

Runescape falls into the category of a Freemium title, in that the game is inherently free with restrictions that you have to pay for. F2P does not technically have any hard limits because, even with the free stuff, you can still get to the end-game, 99 in each f2p skill. P2P brings in new areas, new stuff, and new skills as "premium" content.

 

 

 

If you want an example of a demo MMO, look at Cartoon Network's Fusion Fall. In that game you only get a small taste (level 4, 3 "perks") before the game slams the door in your face and orders you to pay up.

 

 

 

The major difference between Runescape and Fusion Fall is the messages they convey.

 

 

 

Runescape is "Like that? Want something more efficient? Throw me a few bucks and I'll be glad to show you the way. But if not, that's cool."

 

Fusionfall is "Yea, I think you've had enough. PAY ME NOW"

[Me_Hate_Libs]

This interview, not surprisingly, didn't tell us one [deity]danmned new thing about anything. Other than Mechscape might have a beta next year... maybe... perhaps... possibly... eventually... someday...

[Randox]

People calling f2p a demo forget that f2p was originaly a self contained game of its own (actualy, it might be a bit bigger than the original). The f2p game is complete in its own way. The missing components of the game where missing at its conception (for example fletching), and some of them are missing in members (the ability to create basic mage robes fro example). When they made members, they didn't take anything from the free game, they just released what now totals over 1000 distinct expansion packs. Every update is another expansion pack.

 

 

 

F2p was considered a complete game at one point, and that does not change no matter how much bigger members gets. And I am going to side with the world record anyways and say that f2p is a complete game also.

 

 

 

No grinding? Thats got my attention for mechscape. I don't want to leave my RS charecter behind, but I hate grinding.

[Profins]

Just a small funfact: Runescape has been played by over 105 million players.

 

 

 

Question, is that individual, or number of accounts created?

 

I would assume the "10 million players" are only active accounts.

 

 

 

Edit;

 

The article says 105M users, but what would define a "user", each separate computer it has been played on?

 

Sorry if this has been posted:

 

Mark Gerhard: More than 10 million. It depends if you're taking a day, a week, three months. We did another stat for the Guinness Book of World Records that was total active unique [users] over time, and that was just over 105 million. So 105 million people have touched it.

[Me_Hate_Libs]

He makes it out at some point in the article that 105 millon players have "touch" Runescape or whatever it is.

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure that it's been 105 million accounts created. And about 75 million of them were chinese bots. -.-

[Den]

Interesting read.

 

 

 

Wonder when we'll be getting to try Mechscape though.

[Aneron]

 

 

 

 

looks pretty cool. if they never make another interesting update in RS again at least MS might be promising. no skills and no experience makes me pretty curious though lol. conquering millions of planets doesn't sound much better but I'll wait to see

 

 

 

and for the record the fact that F2Pers can play for as long as they want to whatever level they want and have access to more than half of the skills in the game removes any question of F2P being a demo

[Bauke]

Just a small funfact: Runescape has been played by over 105 million players.

 

 

 

Question, is that individual, or number of accounts created?

 

I would assume the "10 million players" are only active accounts.

 

 

 

Edit;

 

The article says 105M users, but what would define a "user", each separate computer it has been played on?

 

Sorry if this has been posted:

 

Mark Gerhard: More than 10 million. It depends if you're taking a day, a week, three months. We did another stat for the Guinness Book of World Records that was total active unique [users] over time, and that was just over 105 million. So 105 million people have touched it.

 

Yes but how is that defined? IP addresses? People change IP addresses over time. And they might just create multiple accounts over time. I don't think there's a precise way to measure individual users, and therefore I wonder what method was used.