Tip.It Times - 24th April 2011

[tripsis]

Time for a new release of the: >>>Tip.It Times!<<<

 

I'd like to remind people of the rules pertaining to Times threads:

 

[hide=Read these rules before posting in this thread]

Rampant flame wars have taken control of virtually every week's times discussion topics. The following guidelines must be followed when posting on this topic. Posts that ignore these guidelines will be removed.

 

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2. Spelling and grammar errors can be reported to Racheya by PMing her and they will be fixed promptly. It is not necessary to post them on the discussion topic.

 

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By keeping within these guidelines, Times discussion topics will mean more for the Panel and Administration than just a place for flame wars. Flame wars do not provide any useful feedback to the Times, which is mainly what we're aiming for with these topics: feedback.

 

This policy is effective as of now, November 17, 2010. Any posts prior to the creation of this policy may or may not be removed according to the new guidelines.

[/hide]

 

When replying please make sure to clarify the article you are replying to! Thanks!

 

If you spot any typos or mistakes in the article then please PM them to me :)

 

Enjoy the articles!

[Kata_Phfract__the_slayer]

first post

 

i liked the first article, it was informative and interesting.

not much though.

 

the seconds article i felt was a long winded member bias, well said and all, but still a very narrow vew.

but meh, it takes all sorts to make a world.

 

not a very good times this week tbh, although i should not criticise, they both where better then anything i would ever write!

[Assume Nothing]

I'm disliking the trend of Economic articles that has arisen in the recent months. It seems that they attempt to explain very basic Economic theory, but always lacks a strong conclusion.

 

This week's article by sees_all basically said that RWT may affect us more than we'd like to think, which to me, is just a bit obvious. I think these articles really ought to focus on more lines of reasoning, instead of being an Economics lecture (or a Statistics lecture on the article about the dice game). These articles ought to be persuasive, balanced, and that it delivers a clear and concise message to the audience it's aimed for.

 

On the other hand, the article based on Nostalgia was an enjoyable read, as it did persuade me a bit to take their position of the debate.

 

I hope this post isn't going to be interpreted/perceived as flame, as that's not my intention at all.

[K4ylan]

The removal of Tutorial Island was the one thing I think JaGeX had absolutely no reason to remove; it was way more informative than the two(three?) new tutorials.

[Cow]

I agree, having played through the new tutorial. Instead of learning valuable skills, like you know, the actual runescape skills, you learn how to collapse a basement on a dragon.

[strilmus]

I also liked that the game just dumped you out of a random closet of a house on an island, with no apparent explanation of how you got there, or memories of your life up to that point, as if you were torn fully grown from another world to serve a vague purpose. That is a story that has gone unexplored although there are bits and pieces that only bring even more questions.

[sees_all1]

ought to be persuasive, unbiased, and delivers a clear and concise message to the audience it's aimed for.

persuasive and unbiased? :blink:

[Assume Nothing]

ought to be persuasive, unbiased, and delivers a clear and concise message to the audience it's aimed for.

persuasive and unbiased? :blink:

 

Take out the unbiased. I'm not sure how to phrase it, but my point was to at least present a balanced argument that offers a look from the opposition's position.

[Salad]

I loved the first one, I was always interested in economy in real life, but I found it too complicated, so for me Runescape and it's economy is perfect. It's much simpler, yet is so complicated because of all of the items there is, how the different events affect the economy (mainly updates) and all.

[sees_all1]

ought to be persuasive, unbiased, and delivers a clear and concise message to the audience it's aimed for.

persuasive and unbiased? :blink:

 

Take out the unbiased. I'm not sure how to phrase it, but my point was to at least present a balanced argument that offers a look from the opposition's position.

The audience I'm trying to reach don't have a formal background in the subject I'm looking to discuss. I feel like this thread is a good place to go more in depth for people that want to discuss certain nuances, that I couldn't write about without having everyone else read half a macroeconomics book.

[Assume Nothing]

ought to be persuasive, unbiased, and delivers a clear and concise message to the audience it's aimed for.

persuasive and unbiased? :blink:

 

Take out the unbiased. I'm not sure how to phrase it, but my point was to at least present a balanced argument that offers a look from the opposition's position.

The audience I'm trying to reach don't have a formal background in the subject I'm looking to discuss. I feel like this thread is a good place to go more in depth for people that want to discuss certain nuances, that I couldn't write about without having everyone else read half a macroeconomics book.

 

That's true I guess. I just get a little tired of all the 'Inflation is bad', 'Botting is bad' articles that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

 

I'll wait for a reply from the opposition before I debate here.

[sees_all1]

That's true I guess. I just get a little tired of all the 'Inflation is bad', 'Botting is bad' articles that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

 

I'll wait for a reply from the opposition before I debate here.

:lol: Did you read the article?

TLDR; Botting is causing deflation.

[Assume Nothing]

That's true I guess. I just get a little tired of all the 'Inflation is bad', 'Botting is bad' articles that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

 

I'll wait for a reply from the opposition before I debate here.

:lol: Did you read the article?

TLDR; Botting is causing deflation.

 

Yes, I did. The posts went slightly astray, as I'm referring to the articles within the last 9-12 months.

 

Here's a little topic for you: In RuneScape, which is worse: Inflation or Deflation?

[Haaa_Haaa0]

[spoiler=Long Quote]

That's true I guess. I just get a little tired of all the 'Inflation is bad', 'Botting is bad' articles that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

 

I'll wait for a reply from the opposition before I debate here.

:lol: Did you read the article?

TLDR; Botting is causing deflation.

 

Yes, I did. The posts went slightly astray, as I'm referring to the articles within the last 9-12 months.

 

Here's a little topic for you: In RuneScape, which is worse: Inflation or Deflation?

 

 

Neither are actually particularly damaging, except when they are rampant. As long as values inflate or deflate at a regular rate, then players are able to cope and plan for the flucuations; this massive crash is an example of hyper-deflation, and proved damaging to some peoples net value (my own included). On top of this, prices were thrown out of wack due to fears and speculation of where the prices would finally settle. Like all things, though, it has started calming down and Runescape is returning to business as usual.

[BioIce]

There's a thread around here where essence bots weren't updated for a while to help raise the price of ess and pure ess. This month, rune essence went up from 22 to 27. Pure went from 87 to 183 and is crashing again. Just a small example of RWT being a strain on the economy.

 

2nd article's longwinded, but on the subject of gnomecopters and in-game advertising, if Jagex had kept that and little things like agility giving a boost in F2P players would feel pressured to get members. Not that it's a bad thing. Jagex certainly wouldn't seem hypocritical now with their statement of "F2P is not a demo" when everywhere you look there are limitations.

 

Then again it looks like things are headed towards the gnomecopters again, just look at all the in-your-face member things all over dungeoneering in F2P, not to mention the dual holiday event this Easter with members coming to F2P worlds hacking at evil hawthorn trees.

[Adamfostas]

I would agree with the above poster who said that the first article lacked a tightly argued conclusion; you don't necessarily need to go into significant depth to provide one. While there's nothing wrong with providing an observational piece, inflation is something about which many articles have been written on tip.it already, and this one didn't go anywhere new. I'd be less critical if this weren't a highly interesting time for RS economically, and the subjects you could have written about being as diverse as:

 

- The contrast between inflation caused by credit expansion (i.e. Alching) and inflation caused by lower output (i.e. Fewer bots)

 

- The relationship between inflation, the cost of levels, and Jagex's freedom to make high level content

 

- The role of pure essence as a credit expansion enabler

 

While, to be fair, you do touch on the above you don't really explore them in depth. I'm convinced you could, so it's a shame that you didn't.

[Assume Nothing]

[spoiler=Long Quote]

That's true I guess. I just get a little tired of all the 'Inflation is bad', 'Botting is bad' articles that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

 

I'll wait for a reply from the opposition before I debate here.

:lol: Did you read the article?

TLDR; Botting is causing deflation.

 

Yes, I did. The posts went slightly astray, as I'm referring to the articles within the last 9-12 months.

 

Here's a little topic for you: In RuneScape, which is worse: Inflation or Deflation?

 

 

Neither are actually particularly damaging, except when they are rampant. As long as values inflate or deflate at a regular rate, then players are able to cope and plan for the flucuations; this massive crash is an example of hyper-deflation, and proved damaging to some peoples net value (my own included). On top of this, prices were thrown out of wack due to fears and speculation of where the prices would finally settle. Like all things, though, it has started calming down and Runescape is returning to business as usual.

 

However, inflation or deflation is rarely uniform for all goods, thus it's quite detrimental to the economy if the inflation/deflation rate is high.

 

Take the inflation in 2009 for example: Whips went from a steady 1.4m to above 4.5m, which is roughly a 200% increase, whilst the Armadyl Godsword went from 60m to 120m, a 100% increase. It could be argued that this isn't fair for those who slay Kree'ara, as this isn't the normal market forces that has caused the inflation.

 

The problem with inflation would be that it's harder to stop than deflation. All JaGex needs to do to fix the current deflation would be create a monster which drops a somewhat significant amount of coins, or something that could be sold to the NPC for a significant amount of coins. Creating an additional effective money sink is difficult because it's hard to incentivise people to actually use the money sink, given the amount that exists already.

[Assume Nothing]

How did I manage to doublepost?

[Crit2h]

I thought both articles were well written.

 

Talking about 2nd article first, I enjoy watching gnomecopters tours as well as having tutorial island back. (Being pure f2p) It's more meaningful obviously... To those who are old players, tutorial island is the standard procedure to start off but it's fine. A fine read.

 

1st Article.. Hi sees_all (Don't think you remember me anyways in RS). If I were to choose, Inflation in RS is significantly better. While the supply of GP that is still being held by RWT companies/inactive accounts have no significant impact (except to cause the value of raw materials fall during the trades,but kept in bank = stagnant value), if it remains in the hands of botters (because runescape doesn't generate interest rates), the strain on the economy is caused by the inflow of the supply of raw materials that is not controlled. Items and coins are generated in Runescape as usual as players play it. Free Trade has been certainly 1 cause, as stated. I think I am going abit off topic.. So I will continue only with refreshed thoughts.

 

Blah.

[BioIce]

I would agree with the above poster who said that the first article lacked a tightly argued conclusion; you don't necessarily need to go into significant depth to provide one. While there's nothing wrong with providing an observational piece, inflation is something about which many articles have been written on tip.it already, and this one didn't go anywhere new. I'd be less critical if this weren't a highly interesting time for RS economically, and the subjects you could have written about being as diverse as:

 

- The contrast between inflation caused by credit expansion (i.e. Alching) and inflation caused by lower output (i.e. Fewer bots)

 

- The relationship between inflation, the cost of levels, and Jagex's freedom to make high level content

 

- The role of pure essence as a credit expansion enabler

 

While, to be fair, you do touch on the above you don't really explore them in depth. I'm convinced you could, so it's a shame that you didn't.

 

Ask for a follow-up article then. Might get it too.

[Jonanananas]

Interesting Articles this week, I'd definitely be interested in a follow-up article. It explained nicely how inflation and deflation occur and what they're symptoms of, but in that manner of speaking, it didn't really tell us what the disease does. I think a large factor of that is that the balance between skilling and Monsterhunting(or anything that uses these cheap resources) is shifted. I'm one of those who would hope that it would shift back a bit again ;)

 

 

The second article was even more interesting for me, it's really the question if it's just nostalgia or if it really was better. Regarding tutorial island, I would definitely choose that one, preferably with the advisor system removed. I've played both, and the unstable foundations in itself is imo, next to useless. The old tutorial explained a few skills, basic fighting and then threw you out in the world. The new one explains basically nothing but then has the advisor system which cuddles you up like a little baby. I do think I would definitely prefer the old way and it's not just nostalgia.

A reopening of tutorial island would be great, even if just for the memories. I think it would make for a great quest tbh - One of the funny, self-ironic ones.

 

Regarding gnome copters, it's an interesting idea and I would personally be in favour of it. However, one thing your article fails to address is the real reason why they were removed. You do name it, but then you continue talking about how great it would be to get F2P into members, when that is exactly the problem with it. MMG wants to avoid a deprecation of the F2P game, which is a honourable goal. What you should have done here is showing how gnomecopters advertise members content without deprecating F2P gameplay. I think they're great because they are optional and you decide yourself if you want to take a tour, so if you don't want to see it, you don't have to. They advertise members without forcing it on F2P, unlike some of the other things that were removed(such as non-working pickpocket options or non-working options to open gates to member's areas). Nevertheless, an interesting and good article.

[Tim]

First one, Its moments im glad 90% of my bank is just raw cash (minus Robin, ranger boots, fury and a few bits and pieces).

[hfbrads]

The article states that the best protection against botting induced deflation is hoarding GP.

 

I disagree. Botting only causes deflation in raw materials and commodities. The best guard against this is rares (failing that, high level gear).

[sees_all1]

The article states that the best protection against botting induced deflation is hoarding GP.

 

I disagree. Botting only causes deflation in raw materials and commodities. The best guard against this is rares (failing that, high level gear).

Botting most dramatically decreases the price of raw materials, but the amount of GP RWTers sap from the economy causes deflation for everything. Rares aren't a viable strategy for those that don't have enough to buy one, and even then not everyone can own a rare.

 

High level gear don't protect against deflation either. Take a look at the 90 day graphs of the godswords - high level gear, all with a pretty much downward trend. Same with spirit shields.

[Crocefisso]

Thanks everyone who took the time to respond to my article. As always the feedback is much appreciated, and will be taken into consideration next time I write an article for the Times (though I think it may not be for a while, after three consecutive weeks).

 

I think it would make for a great quest tbh - One of the funny, self-ironic ones.

 

 

That is a brilliant way of phrasing the sort of quests I had in mind when I wrote that. Good to see someone shares my approach. :mrgreen: