28-Jan-2010 - RuneScape Q&A � Mark Gerhard Answers

[BloodAngel]

We got a neat little video!

woo-woo!

 

I love hearing an englishman say the word runescape

 

I can say it for you if you'd like, also the christmas card competition video

if you go to 1:06 Paul_M does say "Machinima Competition starting in January" so I only suspect the Orb of Oculus (I don't know the spelling so I usually say Orb of Octopus) will launch at the same time :)

 

I could say it too if you want :P

And hmm, but smelly if you look it's already the 28th of January here in Lampeter and at home in Hereford (dunno about where in the UK you are ;p) so it wont be this month. hehe kinda obvious

 

Wow you are very close to me when I'm at Uni, are you at Uni in Lampeter? :o

 

Anyway OT: It's not really MMG's place to tell us details of what is going to be released in RS since while he's the CEO he isn't in charge of Content. It would be like the owner of TIF telling everyone what the Crew or TET had planned for the coming months.

Delighted to hear that the new skill is not sailing or necromancy though and that nobody has come close with guesses that they have seen, means it should be quite a nice surprise :^_^:

[jonni]

Q)Coolisme50

IF a 3rd world war broke out amd jagex got nuked......would that mean the end of runescape for forever?

A)Weve already made provisions for that which is why we have a massive tank in the car park and a secret nuclear bunker. So not even the 3rd world war can stop us launching the new skill!

 

anyone starting to think this tank stuff is actually a hint at something :wall:

 

 

Tanks are shipped via boats. Boats go in the water. You know what this means? Polymorphism is the new skill!

 

 

Is he still answering questions?

 

yeah but they're not worth reading tbh

[Ezz]

Wow, I'm really looking forward to the new skill and such coming soon! But I'm kind of hoping that it will come right before the summer, since I got so much work to do these days... Oh well, it'll all be there after I'm done anyways :D

[Ezkaton]

How is an optional filter not a good idea? If you don't like it just turn the filter on, problem solved. I've addressed multiple times to Jmods and they said it is against the law. :/ The main reason why I want it is because the filter censors a lot of Dutch words which can be quite annoying.

 

No it's not that..... It's the fact that young kids would deliberately make accounts with fake ages just so they can turn it off and swear..... which would then lead to frequent abuse, and in a worse case scenario it could lead to bullying. Also they'd have to resort their whole Report Abuse system. TBF most of the words they censor are fair enough really like sex, vagina, penis, swear words etc..... it's only words like peff I'm confused at. But no one really on RS would talk about their sex life or their bodily parts on there, it's what MSN is for..... private conversations with good friends. So therefore there should be no need to take out the system.

Good idea in principle, Bad idea in practise.

 

EXAMPLE: Another thing is that *IF* I wanted the censor taken out and I switched it off and was having a sensible conversation with Draz on RS instead of MSN or Facebook or text him why would I want some kid in the GE spamming swear words and stuff? It's so much easier just talking to him on there where we can have private conversations and if we feel like swearing to vent we vent. Also I wouldn't like the idea that Jagex would be able to see the logs if they chose of the conversations. With MSN I feel secure that Draz (or whoever I'm talking to) and I are the only ones to know about it........ idk, safety and abuse make it bad.

 

 

We got a neat little video!

woo-woo!

 

I love hearing an englishman say the word runescape

 

I can say it for you if you'd like, also the christmas card competition video

if you go to 1:06 Paul_M does say "Machinima Competition starting in January" so I only suspect the Orb of Oculus (I don't know the spelling so I usually say Orb of Octopus) will launch at the same time :)

 

I could say it too if you want :P

And hmm, but smelly if you look it's already the 28th of January here in Lampeter and at home in Hereford (dunno about where in the UK you are ;p) so it wont be this month. hehe kinda obvious

 

Very very very very very early february in that case then ;).. very

 

Very early feb..... well.... the 1st is a Monday.... So maybe then as NR came out on monday?

 

 

He owns 3 tanks.

 

This made me lol, but I highly doubt it's a true fact :P

 

[hide]

We got a neat little video!

woo-woo!

 

I love hearing an englishman say the word runescape

 

I can say it for you if you'd like, also the christmas card competition video

if you go to 1:06 Paul_M does say "Machinima Competition starting in January" so I only suspect the Orb of Oculus (I don't know the spelling so I usually say Orb of Octopus) will launch at the same time :)

 

I could say it too if you want :P

And hmm, but smelly if you look it's already the 28th of January here in Lampeter and at home in Hereford (dunno about where in the UK you are ;p) so it wont be this month. hehe kinda obvious

 

Wow you are very close to me when I'm at Uni, are you at Uni in Lampeter? :o

 

Anyway OT: It's not really MMG's place to tell us details of what is going to be released in RS since while he's the CEO he isn't in charge of Content. It would be like the owner of TIF telling everyone what the Crew or TET had planned for the coming months.

Delighted to hear that the new skill is not sailing or necromancy though and that nobody has come close with guesses that they have seen, means it should be quite a nice surprise :^_^:

[/hide]

 

Yea I'm at uni in Lampy :^_^:

 

And yea the skill will be a nice surprise; but unfortunately people are getting extremely over zealous about it wanting it now instead of later..... Damn them RSOFers!

 

 

NOTE: if any Mod wishes to censor my post please do so, I don't want to cause any offence.

Edited January 29, 2010 by Ezkaton

[Carl]

He owns 3 tanks.

 

This made me lol, but I highly doubt it's a true fact :P

 

It's a true fact. :P

[Ezkaton]

He owns 3 tanks.

 

This made me lol, but I highly doubt it's a true fact :P

 

It's a true fact. :P

 

Just because I'm tired and British doesn't mean you can take advantage of my gullibility :P

Is it really true though? :o How do you know?

[The Dark Lord]

Why would removing the filter be bad? It's likely that it'll be censored to anyone without the right aged account, but it'll only be uncensored to yourself (which you can toggle on/off) and anyone else who has the anti-filter toggled on. It'll actually get rid of censor evasion since there would be no censor for the people who don't want it...

[Danqazmlp]

The tanks thing is true. He owns three. So he probably really does ride around in them for giggles.

[Carl]

He owns 3 tanks.

 

This made me lol, but I highly doubt it's a true fact :P

 

It's a true fact. :P

 

Just because I'm tired and British doesn't mean you can take advantage of my gullibility :P

Is it really true though? :o How do you know?

 

We're friends. :wink:

[Ezkaton]

Why would removing the filter be bad? It's likely that it'll be censored to anyone without the right aged account, but it'll only be uncensored to yourself (which you can toggle on/off) and anyone else who has the anti-filter toggled on. It'll actually get rid of censor evasion since there would be no censor for the people who don't want it...

 

Ummmmm, hello? Have you recently tried creating an account? There is no way that they can authenticate your real age, it doesn't take a genius to put their birthday as "21st January 1980" or something into their box asking for age. So then 8 year old + half a braincell + a calculator + a friend encouraging him = An account that can turn on and off the filter and they can swear to their little hearts contents. You would honestly see just millions of accounts on F2P GE going "[bleep], [cabbage], [bleep], [bleep], bastard, [bleep], *giggle*" then it's just rinse and repeat. So therefore many of the more adult players (which this would be intended for) would end up having it off being back at square one, with immature little kids swearing their little hearts out.

 

The tanks thing is true. He owns three. So he probably really does ride around in them for giggles.

 

And :o wow, I didn't know....... ima guessing he has some sort of military background?

 

NOTE AGAIN: Any mod wishing to edit my post may do so, however the above profanity is only an example of my opinion of what would go on.

NVM, It edited itself xD that's brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! :P

Edited January 29, 2010 by Ezkaton

[The Dark Lord]

Ummmmm, hello? Have you recently tried creating an account? There is no way that they can authenticate your real age, it doesn't take a genius to put their birthday as "21st January 1980" or something into their box asking for age. So then 8 year old + half a braincell + a calculator + a friend encouraging him = An account that can turn on and off the filter and they can swear to their little hearts contents. You would honestly see just millions of accounts on F2P GE going "[bleep], [cabbage], [bleep], [bleep], bastard, [bleep], *giggle*" then it's just rinse and repeat. So therefore many of the more adult players (which this would be intended for) would end up having it off being back at square one, with immature little kids swearing their little hearts out.

 

Or you could just toggle the filter to 'on' and mind your business. I'd imagine that swearing would be more or less frequent, but censor evasion would drastically be reduced because it's now pointless.

 

And how can you speak for the adult players? Some people would have a problem with it, yes, but those are the same people that can just toggle their filters back on anyway. Runescape is infested with immature players, and it always will be. If you have a problem with that, then you need to be doing something else with your time, to be perfectly honest. You can always turn your chat off at the GE if it bothers you that much.

[Ezkaton]

Ummmmm, hello? Have you recently tried creating an account? There is no way that they can authenticate your real age, it doesn't take a genius to put their birthday as "21st January 1980" or something into their box asking for age. So then 8 year old + half a braincell + a calculator + a friend encouraging him = An account that can turn on and off the filter and they can swear to their little hearts contents. You would honestly see just millions of accounts on F2P GE going "[bleep], [cabbage], [bleep], [bleep], bastard, [bleep], *giggle*" then it's just rinse and repeat. So therefore many of the more adult players (which this would be intended for) would end up having it off being back at square one, with immature little kids swearing their little hearts out.

 

Or you could just toggle the filter to 'on' and mind your business. I'd imagine that swearing would be more or less frequent, but censor evasion would drastically be reduced because it's now pointless.

And how can you speak for the adult players? Some people would have a problem with it, yes, but those are the same people that can just toggle their filters back on anyway. Runescape is infested with immature players, and it always will be. If you have a problem with that, then you need to be doing something else with your time, to be perfectly honest. You can always turn your chat off at the GE if it bothers you that much.

 

Why should I have to switch the filter on when it's an update designed for those people with more than half a braincell and about 16 or so years of life behind them? The update would be intended for those of us with age, not those who have friends and can calculate that someone born in 1991 is 18 or 19. Also why should I have to stop my discussion because some child is yelling swear words all the time? I have personally never used F**K or S**T on the game, I vent my frustration to Chee, Draz, Iyis, Serp etc when they're on MSN instead or them to me, so why should we let children be able to do it?

 

And again the point comes up that, why should they infringe on my playing? On an update designed for the freedom of speech?

And yes, haha! You should drop by a conversation between draz, iyis, chee and myself if you wana see how immature, random and disturbing people can be; but that's where it should stay, in private on an IM and off a game.

[Overdoziz]

Why would removing the filter be bad? It's likely that it'll be censored to anyone without the right aged account, but it'll only be uncensored to yourself (which you can toggle on/off) and anyone else who has the anti-filter toggled on. It'll actually get rid of censor evasion since there would be no censor for the people who don't want it...

Ummmmm, hello? Have you recently tried creating an account? There is no way that they can authenticate your real age, it doesn't take a genius to put their birthday as "21st January 1980" or something into their box asking for age. So then 8 year old + half a braincell + a calculator + a friend encouraging him = An account that can turn on and off the filter and they can swear to their little hearts contents. You would honestly see just millions of accounts on F2P GE going "[bleep], [cabbage], [bleep], [bleep], bastard, [bleep], *giggle*" then it's just rinse and repeat. So therefore many of the more adult players (which this would be intended for) would end up having it off being back at square one, with immature little kids swearing their little hearts out.

You will only see a bunch of stars if you turn on your filter and you can always just put them on your ignore list. I don't see the problem.

[Ezkaton]

Why would removing the filter be bad? It's likely that it'll be censored to anyone without the right aged account, but it'll only be uncensored to yourself (which you can toggle on/off) and anyone else who has the anti-filter toggled on. It'll actually get rid of censor evasion since there would be no censor for the people who don't want it...

Ummmmm, hello? Have you recently tried creating an account? There is no way that they can authenticate your real age, it doesn't take a genius to put their birthday as "21st January 1980" or something into their box asking for age. So then 8 year old + half a braincell + a calculator + a friend encouraging him = An account that can turn on and off the filter and they can swear to their little hearts contents. You would honestly see just millions of accounts on F2P GE going "[bleep], [cabbage], [bleep], [bleep], bastard, [bleep], *giggle*" then it's just rinse and repeat. So therefore many of the more adult players (which this would be intended for) would end up having it off being back at square one, with immature little kids swearing their little hearts out.

You will only see a bunch of stars if you turn on your filter and you can always just put them on your ignore list. I don't see the problem.

 

The problem is effort my dear child, effort.

A. Why should Jagex create an update that will only be abused?

B. Why should I have to take the time and effort to block communications to people?

C. Why should they impede my freedom of speech with their abuse of a system?

[Danqazmlp]

I agree with Ezkaton. Firstly there really is no need. Secondly, he is right. The whole point would be so maturer, 18+ players could talk and use words currently censored. However, these mature 18+ players don't need to and don't swear. It is only immature youths who resort to swearing and needing the censor. So the update is not needed one bit is it? We can politely talk with the censor there, it really does not effect our gameplay. And even if it was introduced, we would have immature kids swearing all of the time (trust me), and we would end up having the filter on. So the total opposite of the design would happen. Immature kid would have no filter, mature people would have it on. see the reasoning there? It is un- needed.

[RSBDavid]

Will the Orb of Oculus be released before the end of July?

 

A) Yes, next week in fact!

 

:thumbup:

[strilmus]

The more they say the new skill is original, the more I think that it's total bull and somebody is already doing it...developers are very bad when it comes to scoping their competition unless they base their entire game on topping the competition. Then it sucks because they forgot to make a game. It's pretty funny.

 

I just hope it's not too much of a letdown when they finally get around to doing it.

[Troacctid]

Well, this is my abridged version of the whole Q&A, just the stuff I thought was notable.

 

Merchant clans:

 

Merchanting has always been around in RuneScape and it's an underlying principle of character development and game play strategy.

 

However, it's true that some merchanting clans can mislead people and a lot of players can end up losing game money.

 

We believe that every player has the right to choose how they want to develop their character, but at the same time we think people should have honest and frank information to hand - so they can make informed decisions about their in-game choices.

 

This is why we have set up a thread aimed purely at informing players about the benefits and pitfalls of merchanting, with a particular emphasis on clans - you can find this information on quick find code: 74-75-817-59124146.

 

Steve

 

 

On trade limits:

 

Yes botting has reduced substantially since we decided to permanently ban all botters our systems detect, as a result we will be liberalizing the trade limits in due course.

 

 

Playing Runescape in its own client:

 

Yes, we are working on creating a client that can be downloaded if you dont have Java installed or if you prefer not to play in your browser. This should be coming very soon.

 

 

10% of players are PKers:

 

Its a great idea, Shortstak, although we find only about 10% of our players are PvPers so we need to balance our development efforts between PVP upgrades and other content updates.

 

 

On whether making a new f2p skill will cause Jagex to lose money:

 

Yes it will; lots and lots according our learned finance folks and their pretty charts and graphs. To us, though, its more important to provide a great gaming experience to our players. For the avoidance of doubt, Jagex stands for Just about the Gaming Experience.

 

To echo this point, we recently developed Bouncedown for the iPhone and simply gave it away free to our community because we believe everyone should have access to a high-quality free game. Since then, Bouncedown has been the #1 free game and application on iTunes for some three or so weeks with more than 10 million downloads.

 

On the financial side (since I get asked this a lot), as long as we can pay our brilliant teams good remuneration; cover studio operating expenses; have some fun from time to time; and continue to invest in new games, talent and a massive amount of R&D to remain an industry leader, we'll remain very happy indeed.

 

We believe financial success is the side effect of creating world-beating entertainment and not our purpose for creating games. In my previous experience, most companies tend to get this wrong by thinking about it the other way round to Jagex. Naturally, we cant make everything free otherwise we wouldnt have the resources to create anything at all, but we always try to either provide a completely free game or a great free game with some value-added content for our most ardent fans.

 

 

On micropayments in Runescape:

 

Its not currently in the plan. We certainly wouldnt be prepared to do anything that could unbalance the economy or provide players an unfair advantage in game simply by paying for it, however, if the items were cosmetic and untradeable I cant see the harm in it. The key question is would players actually want this and, if so, what type of stuff would they want to be able to purchase?

 

 

On free trial periods of membership:

 

I would be happy to let free-players experience the additional members content if they really want to. We always thought it was just our most ardent fans that wanted to sign up for even more content, so we figured they would just find out more about it if they really wanted to over time. You will notice that we never overtly promote or try to sell membership to the community, as we dont want to cheapen the free game or make people feel obliged to sign up as a member. I would love to hear the communitys thoughts on this; would free-players actually want to try membership for a few days?

 

[RSBDavid]

I would love to play RuneScape in a local application. There would be some significant performance gains.

[strilmus]

Hm. I don't know what we'd do with cosmetic items seeing as the equipment system restricts this kind of thing to using for events and skilling. Not that it would be a bad thing but I haven't touched many of my costumes.

 

Maybe it would cut down on using high level armor status symbols in place of actual fashion sense but eh.

 

Most of Runescape has already married to the idea of slamming their head against a brick wall for respect ("I slammed my head against the wall 100 million times! I am better than all of you!"), I think any other ideas remotely 'progressive' to the world of old school mmo grinding would be rejected so hard. :D

[Great_one]

"Yes it will; lots and lots according our learned finance folks and their pretty charts and graphs. To us, though, its more important to provide a great gaming experience to our players. For the avoidance of doubt, Jagex stands for Just about the Gaming Experience.

 

when did this happen? It has always stood for JAva Gaming EXperts hasn't it?

[Flyingjj]

"Yes it will; lots and lots according our learned finance folks and their pretty charts and graphs. To us, though, its more important to provide a great gaming experience to our players. For the avoidance of doubt, Jagex stands for Just about the Gaming Experience.

 

when did this happen? It has always stood for JAva Gaming EXperts hasn't it?

I thought so. Though they have apparently changed it to "Just About the Gaming EXperience;" It's in the header on their corporate website.

[Lady_Shahdie]

Will the Orb of Oculus be released before the end of July?

 

A) Yes, next week in fact!

 

:thumbup:

That soon??? Oh dear god, I think I'm going to cry :grin:!

[Toad]

Will the Orb of Oculus be released before the end of July?

 

A) Yes, next week in fact!

 

:thumbup:

That soon??? Oh dear god, I think I'm going to cry :grin:!

 

It's getting launched with a machininimamama contest

[Youmu]

With all these pures out there, it's kinda surprising how only 10% of the RS populations are pkers. I'm not complaining though. :P

 

(Hope the +1 PvP worlds really do come out!)

 

Anyways, can't wait for the next Q & A.