Food for Thought

[Kolgan]

Nice, thats prettymuch how ive always thought about money and happyness (wether reallife or in RS), nice read, perfect for t he tip.it times. Good night

[Central_Keeper]

Does anyone have any ideas for figuring out how much money you can acquire in game before it stops influencing your happiness? I'll also confess that I was shocked the real world value was $30,000/year, I feel like I would be unhappy making that amount of money, but I guess that's my perspective.

 

F2P, probably 250mil plus

 

P2P, probably 1 billion plus.

 

That's just my overall guessing. If you are going for lvl 99 all, you probably need double of those figures.

 

Actually, the 30k per year salary is still consider quite low by normal standard, we usually use 20 bucks per hour so it would work out to be 38.4k per year. For the most part, here in Canada, after the tax deduction, we are looking at 28.8k per year. I think if you truly want to feel secure, at least make 4.5k a month => 54k a year if you are single, and total combine (couple total income) 8 to 10k a month if you want a nice life with kids and stuff.

 

If you use that money, it could afford an ok mortgage and other things, but after all the expenses, you are kind of left with 200 bucks saving per month (assume you are single and not married have kids and stuff). I actually manage to get by pretty well with 1.9k a month with everything paid off. Not sure how long that will last since prices of everything else seems to going up like crazy, and salary usually stay the same. I think with more money, give you more security in real life so you don't have to worry about payments, but in RS, its just allows you to buy more expensive stuff or lvl up a skill, so the drive is slight different.

 

Usually, the monthly expenditure are on

 

Mortgage or rent

Car insurance, car gas, car maintenance fee

Phone/cellphone bills, internet bills, TV, Heat

Food

House maintenance fee, utilities bills, condo bills

Medical bills

Insurances for houses or apartment

Additional expenses for children or seniors

 

and the list goes on providing with other expenses such as entertainment or life/medical insurance.

I think average people could probably earn 1mil to 1.5mil in their life time, but so much of it goes to paying off debt or interest by the time they get old, its not much left.

 

Initially, I always wanted a job that can at least make 3.2k a month (2.4k after income tax) until my friend just said don't worry about trivial spending and those middle job, just get a good job and earn as much as you can.

[zotto]

Runescape life used to be easy. After the initial beginners experience where everything was new and exciting I had set myself an impossible goal: 99 slayer.

 

And I did this in increments. First 85 of course, then 90, and then onwards to 99.

 

The problem is really that this was an impossible goal when I started. It would keep me busy for years. But all the changes in equipment, summoning, new dungeons, transport systems all made slayer so much easier.

 

I remember people making fun of me because I wore adamant legs, because I couldn't afford rune legs. The next object of ridicule was d skirt. I wore that d skirt for a very long long time. I liked it. It had enough defense bonus for what I was doing and it wasn't expensive, neither in price or maintenance.

 

I went to slayer 80 without guthans. Couldn't afford it. Then I had the 12M and I got of course scammed. Leaf-bladed spear instead of guthans spear. Back to making money and finally I had guthans. I had managed in the meanwhile with cheap food, and Bones to peaches. Of course bones to peaches back then meant that you actually had to grind away for a few hours to earn the ability to cast that spell. There weren't tablets.

 

But I enjoyed finding out ways to do the tasks with my limited resources.

 

 

I finally hit 85 slayer and some more money came pooring in. There wasn't GWD yet, so the best moneymakers for me were abyssal demons and nechraels. Rune boots were still king. I was still rather poor compared to most.

 

Summona, summoning, and my increased stats etc made slayer a lot easier and I went quite fast through the last 90s.

 

I enjoyed myself mostly with finding out how to do the tasks my own way. When everybody was using prossy and prayer at the iron drags, I started experimenting with tanking them, and realizing to my surprise that it was quite doable. I did the same for other tasks and this is where I got my enjoyment from: the tinkering in equipment and approach.

 

Not so much to get the most efficient method: which means currently the fastest method, but the method that pleased me most, which was often slower than optimal.

 

I hit 99 slayer of course at one point and then there was a void. I fell for the peer pressure: have to get rich like everybody else. And I am only lately realizing it isn't working for me.

 

I enjoyed doing shattered hearts recently. I keep hopping between skills trying to get my rocks, and I enjoy the diversity. It all feels like a game again.

[la la la]

WRONG. You modified the original graphs, which looked like this:

 

 

 

[hide=disclaimer]Sorry to those of you I offended, who are happy with not-so-hot mates or unhappy with good-looking mates. It was all in fun.[/hide]

[Central_Keeper]

WRONG. You modified the original graphs, which looked like this:

 

 

 

[hide=disclaimer]Sorry to those of you I offended, who are happy with not-so-hot mates or unhappy with good-looking mates. It was all in fun.[/hide]

 

Man, then those without girlfriend or wife must be extremely unhappy.

 

@Zotto, I think your opinion is what most players felt when they started playing. I keep using mith scimitar until I was combat 75 since I thought it was good enough. I didn't change to full rune until combat 92 since I thought my mix and match armors (addy, steel, dragon hide leg, black) were more than enough.

 

The thing is, I often hear people talk about their plans of efficiency, but it won't work until you carry it out and be consistent. So I just train them until they are lvl 99, and then move on to next skill. The cash come from training those skill will add up to a very nice amount (assuming its resource gathering)

 

Even thought I have 100mil gp in bank, I still think I am not rich. In fact, I think I have minus 500mil now because of potential prayer 99 and rc 99 to work on, lol. Still something will work out, boat will always straight themselves out when they reach port. (or crash trying)

[Fairness]

This is my version of the curve. But in my picture, the lowest $ ammount represents what I deem "necessary" to play the game. Anything more than that, I feel should be spent or given away as much as possible. This is one of the reasons I really didnt like the trade updates. Every christmas I used to stand in the middle of varrok and give out some rune sets, and smith free armor (my bars) to anyone who wanted it. Its still possible to do this, but it just isn't the same.

 

This caught me. According to your curve, the poorer you are, the happier you are. So if you give away money, you're making others less happy. Way to go, jerk.

[D Jay99]

 

Also, I definitely don't need more than a 200m bank myself. I do occasionally want money to train skills, but that just comes from herb runs and doesn't have to be in my bank.

[la la la]

Flattering. The irony is that I broke up with my girlfriend over spring break.

 

BACK on topic, I think it's obvious that people with different goals have different standards of happiness, both in life and in RS. Some people in life simply want a job they love, and no matter what they are paid, if they can live comfortably and have that job, they are happy. Others want women, some feed off of money, some off power. It's different for everyone. The same applies to RS. Some people want to skill, some want to merchant, some want to boss hunt, some want lots of friends.

[Springyguy]

I think the best way to get happiness in runescape is to set yourself goals, because after all the hard work then you will feel like you have achieved something worth-while, which is why I think that the achievement tracker thing that is now avaliable was a great idea.

 

Some of my goals are getting level 30+ on all skills and get 10million just so that the numbers will go green, these may seem weird and not very high, but for me they are what make me happy =]

 

Another thing that makes me happy is minigames, I love them all especially castle wars where I (a level 90) managed to get the flag and run it back to my saradomin base being able to survive being attacked by many maxed out players for some reason, although we later lost the game it felt like a real achivement to me =D

 

Smiley Elvis btw ------> 2=D

[phamthebac]

I think that the relationship between money and happiness is one of the most interesting, most complicated, and most sensitive questions in the study of happiness.

 

Studies show, unsurprisingly, that moneys impact on happiness is greatest when you have the least amount of money.

 

But if youre one of the lucky people who has enough money to cover the basics food, shelter, even a car -- does that mean that money cant make a difference to your happiness?

[tortilliachp]

hapiness says something about upbrining, not actual quality of life. For that we have the UN Human Development Reports: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/

 

Rich nations always score well, Norway consistently scores best, in terms of actual quality of living.

 

Norwegians are not the happiest people on eath, ranking only 9th. http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/05/world-happiest-places-lifestyle-travel-world-happiest_slide_3.html?thisspeed=25000.

 

What does happiness suggest? a state of mind. we norwegians obviously take a lot of things for granted (like free university education). that doesn't mean others moving to norway wouldn't become happier living here though, a major flaw in the money / happiness research and its analysis.

[Rachellove9]

Very interesting to read. I know why I love RS. It's the other players and the interaction with them. I find that once you turn lvl 100 people are less likely to talk to you first. You have to be more open and outgoing to make friends. I never really worry about the gp. I'm far from being the richest player but my bank is very interesting and I always have things in it to work on. Often I find treasures I didn't even know the worth. I try not to go below at the very lowest like 3 million and I rarely have more than 12 million in my bank. It's what I call the comfort zone. I don't think I want to be super rich cause then I'll lose interest in doing the little stupid things I still can enjoy. I pick my flax, spin it, cut the trees, fletch them, then mine essense, do the natures ect ect It isn't about anything more than a great relaxing game and a fun time to chat to people.

[Money Wasted]

Very good read worthy of the tip it times :thumbup:

 

Earlier today I was enchanting bolts for magic xp and profit but I was not enjoying it at all. After I realized that I thought to myself: Why am I doing this? Money, of course. Then I realized I don't even need the extra money. I just wanted more. So I started stringing amulets because it was more bearable even though I was losing money and I'm glad I did :)

[Central_Keeper]

Very good read worthy of the tip it times :thumbup:

 

Earlier today I was enchanting bolts for magic xp and profit but I was not enjoying it at all. After I realized that I thought to myself: Why am I doing this? Money, of course. Then I realized I don't even need the extra money. I just wanted more. So I started stringing amulets because it was more bearable even though I was losing money and I'm glad I did :)

 

Yeah, perhaps the topic starter could tidy it up and expanded more to make it into a Tip It Time article.

[Pirate_Felix]

 

This is my version of the curve. But in my picture, the lowest $ ammount represents what I deem "necessary" to play the game. Anything more than that, I feel should be spent or given away as much as possible. This is one of the reasons I really didnt like the trade updates. Every christmas I used to stand in the middle of varrok and give out some rune sets, and smith free armor (my bars) to anyone who wanted it. Its still possible to do this, but it just isn't the same.

I think you are referring to this

Be honest, who is still having the same amount of fun as they did when they first started?

[Skeptical]

Well written. But the one important thing you didn't address is addictiveness, which is a psychological thing as well, and much like crack, once you had it, you'll be coming back for more.

 

That's the big thing: it's not really a rational decision to play, at least for a lot of people.

[CheapMark]

Very interesting topic indeed :)

 

I feel that it may, for some people, be dependent on money, happiness, but I for one think otherwise.

 

I have created countless accounts to just mess around at a low level - fishing pures, def pures, range pure, even my main account atm - a F2P pure (oh god prayer is fun :ohnoes: ).

 

But I think having a large amount of knowledge behind the game helps to - you know where to go, what to get, what to do etc. - which is something money cannot buy. You mine coal all day - make a decent profit - but not know what exactly to do with your money.

 

So a bit of knowledge and money is good.

 

But your conclusion that at a certain point money creates no more happiness is absolutely spot on :) I have had around 15 mil gp, I am now on 3 mil gp (F2P). I probably love playing the game more that I did with 15 mil gp.

 

Great topic muggi :thumbsup:

[Made0f12une]

Very well said and thought out. I found everything that you touched upon to be very on par and very thought provoking. Mostly because all of the principals you outlined applied to myself as a player, and the exact reasoning why I left (fun factor was gone) and why I came back (looking for that fun factor again).

 

I really enjoyed your comparison of money and happiness to a players 25gp total value you have when you get off Tutorial island and the sheer amplitude of fun that you have when you first start out. I find that those moments when I first got attached to this game irreplaceable and i think that's whats always bringing me back. I desire to feel the same way I did playing this game as I did when I first started playing on RSC.

 

Although I do find that money has some impact on your happiness level because depending on your overall total wealth kind of limits you to what you can do in the game. If you have a higher GP value you can do more leisurely things such as Boss hunting and powerskilling. However if you have less of a face value it not only limits you to the activities that you do but also in the skills that you can train (construction is almost completely out of the question if you lack in material wealth). Thus it puts players in this "rock and a hard spot scenario" where despite not wanting to train something, may not really have a choice, because they need to make money to reach the skills they want to train.

 

All in all though Runescape is extremely diverse and vast and I'm completely positive that there is something to do so that everybody is happy, despite how much money they may have. If not, don't play :)

[Pkmastachaos]

Haven't posted in this forum for ages now, thought I'd keep it that way but this thread merits a post.

 

[OMG Sterotypical person who left Runescape post]

 

I can honestly say I fell into this category at some point in time, like you, I also came to the same realization which hopefully everyone will at some point. Runescape is a video game, and should be treated as such. Not an escape from real life, not somewhere to gloat and show off; but just to have fun. I used to play hours on end, sometimes up to sixteen hours... Just grinding, doing things I didn't enjoy just for the sake of getting an Achievement cape at the end of the day. Needless to say when the goal(s) were completed I was back to square one, moving towards a different skill, and starting the infinite loop again.

 

Yeah, sad isn't it? Unfortunately many people continue doing the same thing; although not all people. For those who play for all the right reasons, good job. Sadly this goes on for most games, hopefully in time people will realize their mistakes, like I did.

 

[/OMG Sterotypical person who left Runescape post]

 

Good post by the way, although nothing new to me, it should help out those in need of change. :thumbup:

[Wiv]

Have you ever watched this? it touched me very much like your points. I love reading and hearing about my problems and sitting hear and realizing.. omg there right. Yet i never do anything about it. I continue to play, i cant stop. I look back at all the mistakes Ive made and the only thing i can pull out from my experiences is to not let it affect others. You can read about your mistakes and you can be told that what your doing is wrong... the hardest part is admitting to, taking responsibility and changing your ways. I'm not saying that i hate Runescape or what its done to me, I'm just saying that don't sit there and blame the game or the people who make it. Look in the mirror and say its my fault. I will continue to play Runescape but! I kno know the errors of my ways.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKBRG_QgEAM

[Central_Keeper]

Have you ever watched this? it touched me very much like your points. I love reading and hearing about my problems and sitting hear and realizing.. omg there right. Yet i never do anything about it. I continue to play, i cant stop. I look back at all the mistakes Ive made and the only thing i can pull out from my experiences is to not let it affect others. You can read about your mistakes and you can be told that what your doing is wrong... the hardest part is admitting to, taking responsibility and changing your ways. I'm not saying that i hate Runescape or what its done to me, I'm just saying that don't sit there and blame the game or the people who make it. Look in the mirror and say its my fault. I will continue to play Runescape but! I kno know the errors of my ways.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKBRG_QgEAM

 

Actually, that video is pretty what most people thought of in the first place when they see high level player. Again, I think everyone proves a valid point right there. It's just most people like to label something first, and state the reasoning behind it. I don't think it would be errors as your ways since you simply do an action, and other judge and present the final score.

 

For most people, whether it was the process of achieving the goal, or hitting the goal in the end, its more or less personal satisfaction, and different number or praises and negative comments. I just hope that by my own standard, I can play the game relatively well, and do well in real life as well.

 

I often take my own character as sort of self idol, if I can train to be like that, perhaps I can motivate myself a little more in real life too, lol

[Wiv]

Actually, that video is pretty what most people thought of in the first place when they see high level player. Again, I think everyone proves a valid point right there. It's just most people like to label something first, and state the reasoning behind it. I don't think it would be errors as your ways since you simply do an action, and other judge and present the final score.

 

just to be clear did you actually watch the video? or did you just assume it was the south park wow video? because its not -.- i'm not trying to pick a fight i'm just asking because of the whole high level comment.

[elucin8er]

Lol this is why I pk and monster hunt now. I wil however grind other skills to make this experience better ( prayer herblore summoning etc ).

[Central_Keeper]

Actually, that video is pretty what most people thought of in the first place when they see high level player. Again, I think everyone proves a valid point right there. It's just most people like to label something first, and state the reasoning behind it. I don't think it would be errors as your ways since you simply do an action, and other judge and present the final score.

 

just to be clear did you actually watch the video? or did you just assume it was the south park wow video? because its not -.- i'm not trying to pick a fight i'm just asking because of the whole high level comment.

 

I didn't not watch the video, but perhaps I should have coined it as "image", since that's the first image I see based on YT preview. If the video depicts something else rather than what I think it was (yes, I was referring to the WoW parodies in South Park), then I would have rephrase the statement slightly. The comment I was trying to say is people have this automatic response toward certain things when they first see it. Sort of like associative web, and tend to react it in the a certain way. I am a high level player myself, and saw both positive and negative comments regarding to high level players.

 

Quote: Actually, that image is pretty much what most people thought of in the first place when they see high level player. Or rather, sitting in front of computer a lot.

 

It's just a relative statement that most people will "associate" with when they see a player with high skill set, because it would required a lot of time sitting in front of computer. But like my other RS friend have said, you can't label someone as something else when you have not known the other player.. As a general reflective response, that's why term like nolifer is a derogatory term imo as well.