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Tip.It Times - 28th April 2013


tripsis

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

 

 

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Remember, YOU can write an article for the Tip.It Times! You can apply to write full time, or just submit a "one-off" guest article any time you want! Our editors will work with you to ensure that your article is ready for publication. All guest articles can be submitted to @tripsis or any other Editorial Panel member. For more information, including details on how to apply full time, read this forum thread: http://forum.tip.it/topic/209138-how-to-write-for-the-tipit-times/

 

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

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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.

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Enjoy the articles!

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- 99 fletching | 99 thieving | 99 construction | 99 herblore | 99 smithing | 99 woodcutting -

- 99 runecrafting - 99 prayer - 125 combat - 95 farming -

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I found this oddly fascinating:

 

Did you know

 

...that there are at least 341,581 normal trees in Runescape? (excluding dead trees, evergreens, snowy trees, fairy trees, quest variants, etc.) (Thanks to Actiniaria!)

 

I notice that it doesnt include willows, oaks, yews, etc. al.

 

According to a recent NASA estimate, there were 400,246,300,201 trees on Earth in 2005, which works out to 61 per person. (Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96758439)

 

Gielinor needs saplings!

PvP is not for me

In the 3rd Year of the Boycott
Real-world money saved since FT/W: Hundreds of Dollars
Real-world time saved since FT/W: Thousands of Hours

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Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see...

 

The first article is quite nice. But I can't say i really understand the second article.

 

In regards to the first article, I think the author has made a really good point that despite the two being mutually exclusive by nature, a combination of them is necessary for the game to work. I think from the beginning, the fantasy elements in the game have been quite well established, particularly with the quests and lores; but also in other aspects e.g. magic. Given the framework, I think there are lots of room for players to develop and further the fantasy in their own way. The way I see the quests implemented is that they put the players into a position where they form part of this story, engaging in various interactions that would further the story, which with a bit of imagination could provoke some sort of empathy to whatever comes out of it. But whether the player takes the extra step with the imagination is entirely optional.

 

Similarly, with respect to the establishment of GE as the author mentioned, one could see it as a shortcut to the conventional 'visit a local shop and buy what you need' practice that negotiated around the fantasy element of a visit to your local'Flynn's Mace Market' in Falador; but it would equally work if with a bit of imagination to correlate this with the development of a large shopping mall which are forcing local corner shops out of business, which in my experience (I could recommend a few papers to anyone interested) has become more of a trend. (This is perhaps out of the 'medieval'(?) context where RS is supposedly set in, but nonetheless I think the point for imagination to fill out the framework provided by Jagex still stands.) In this case, the 'reality' as the author defined it (the parts of the game in which other humans play a significant role), also exists. For every transaction that takes place, there must either be someone else physically present on the other side (c.f. w2 and store outlets) or someone else remotely present (c.f. GE and Internet shopping (suppose you could only access it in a mall...)). So directly or indirectly, other human do play a significant role in facilitating transactions in GE.

 

I think the balance between fantasy and reality in the game is a bit of an equilibrium and is subjective as well. But nothing really matters...nothing really matters to me.

'Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.' T.S. Eliot

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The first article is quite nice. But I can't say i really understand the second article.

 

I'm going to guess unfamiliarity with the scene, yeah? The two articles, I think, are interconnected. I'll let Alg speak for himself, but the way I understand it, the second article is his report of observing RS users roleplaying, presumably on world 42 and at a specific location: The Blue Moon Inn at Varrock.

 

I said the articles were "interconnected"; maybe the reports would have made better sense if they were fully written in that roleplaying style. But still, it's hard to understand what prose-based/freeform online play is about if you don't have an idea of the setup.

 

This sort of gaming, I'm told, comes from writer's circles and contexts. It's considered "soft" roleplay-- as emphasis is put on telling a story (challenging a player-character concept)-- rather than playing the mechanics (challenge the player, or "hard" roleplay). This playing style comes from very different origins than the wargaming tradition. Wargaming? Yeah, wargaming. The tradition grew out of expansions on board games. Think Risk, battlefield diorama setups (Warhammer, with the figurines, is a modern example), and D&D with pen, paper, and funny-looking dice.

 

I said writer's circles: so prose-based/freeform online includes fan fiction, slash, yaoi, and the like. The subset communities include anime/manga and furries, and roleplay is more often done over forums, blogs (LiveJournal especially), and such. To quote Alg, it's a "a metagame built around storytelling rather than experience". The players make up their stories to influence the game more than they rely on mechanics to determine the outcome. The give/take of interactions is much more free.

 

I'm making a "quick and dirty" comparison, really: prose-based/freeform online tends to skew more female (fangirls), and wargaming tends to skew more male (fanboys). This is not cut and dried by any means as much of my IRL family does both.

 

The comparisons are a little easier when they're presented in their older contexts, I mean tables, pieces, paper, etc. Gets more confusing in video games-- where the default is much more wargaming tradition, typically. And I say "graphical" video games: if you look at the forerunner of MMOs-- text-based MUD type games, you do sometimes see more writer's inputs (storytelling) with character backgrounds and the like. It also seemed to me that players tended to put in more storytelling when the game was more text than graphics. They hard to work harder to provide some fantasy flavor, I guess.

 

Bored yet? Stay with me. See, The Floating Pen's article has another layer of depth if you ask, "How much do players create their fantasy, and how much do they stick to reality?" It's one thing if you just assume the game developers present all the fantasy. Such is relatively easy in single-player type games as more of the structure is fixed. Not so easy in MMORPGs, which are meant to be played over and over again.

 

I'll cut it short here lest I go on and on. I'm actually surprised there's prose-based roleplay in Runescape, but I've said numerous times that Jagex is accomodating a lot of playing styles. I'd also say with the EoC that Jagex is trying harder to court the more traditional crowd that feeds from the wargaming tradition. I'd also say (AGAIN) that the persistence of these roleplayers shows some health for the RS community as a whole. Oh, and I still miss the Order of Cabbage. I consider the OoC to be a part of the "roleplayer" tradition: for players to take things, even if it's not for what would be considered a "story", and create their own experience that has fairly little to do with XP, quests, minigames, etc. I appreciate Alg for giving us a glimpse of how RS roleplayers do things, but I hope there will be more informative articles on that subject.

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@Alg's article

 

I freelanced for a while in world 42, since I much preferred just being able to jump into any scenario around me rather than applying for a fixed RP with a group/institute/family. It helps a lot more if you can further develop your own character before going into the world of RP, so that you can produce a believable character with consistency in his goals and responses to the world, which allows you to fit him in better than instead of trying to make up something on the spot.

 

It's interesting also to see how everyone can be at each other's throats whilst in character, and then speak and joke well as soon as they go OOC. That's not to say that RP is without its kinks though, as you've seen yourself, or as I've seen from the demon-possessed-half-werewolf-vampyre I met at my first day in the Rising Sun (n.b.: the Rising Sun is not a good place to be). Despite that very strange incident, and several others, I've definitely had fun watching people play out their own stories, always sitting in the little table away from the crowd that lets me observe the development, and it definitely feels rewarding to be able to help others build on their story content.

 

You should give it another try, and not as a spy next time ;)

6Ij0n.jpg

In real life MMO you don't get 99 smithing by making endless bronze daggers.

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You should give it another try, and not as a spy next time ;)

This was something I tried around two years ago, when I was interested in roleplaying but didn't actually know how to go about doing it. I was a 'spy' because I was trying to learn the basics (I only did after joining a roleplay-heavy Pathfinder game). I spun it as a punishment because I was originally trying to write something funny/lighthearted; a newcomer that eventually gets really into the game in spite of their best efforts. I get the feeling that a lot of the community would see it that way.

 

Really only wrote the article because it's the community that nobody talks about, especially since I've spent a bit too much time on game-related fora where the main way to play is to play efficiently (Fire Emblem and low turn count, the 'Scape metagame, a tabletop campaign that's basically a min-maxing arms race). It's the dominant play style, yes, but far from the only one.

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I read the first article, and it was a really eye opener. Indeed, there is a fine scale to balance between immersion in the game lore and interaction with the community. A great article, and a new way of thinking about the game too.

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For what it's worth, I started playing on W42 a while back because I found it provided me with a better PING than other worlds. Since then, I have found it a far more enjoyable world to play on for other reasons. I'm not a roleplayer type per se, but I've grown a strong affection for the people there.

 

For one, the roleplayers, in general, take me back to the times in RSC when people would gather round in places like the Blue Moon Inn and simply exchange ideas, socialize and what-not. There is a sense of "community" there that is unlike anything I've seen on any other world -- not since the early days of RSC, in any event. In many ways, I think, one of the reasons why I enjoy W42 as much as I do now is because it reminds me of why I started playing Runescape in the first place, and is because it reminded me so much of RuneQuest, which was a paper/pencil roleplaying game I played with my friends and family. In any event, W42 has re-kindled a lot of that for me.

 

Secondly, I've found the community far more inviting and friendly. Seriously, the prick to player ratio on W42 is far lower than on any other world I've frequented. I've made a lot of new friends amongst the roleplayers, themselves.

 

Thirdly, the people on W42 are generally some of the most brilliant people I've met in game -- they are certainly the most creative and intellectual people I've ever met in game.

 

|^_^|

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I fully agree, Blyaunte!

 

I essentially play exclusively on W42, because as thejollyroger and articles indicate, there is a great relationship between immersion and community. RuneScape itself is casual in many ways - log in, gain some XP, do a quest, do a D&D, log out - but on most worlds it's never really played how I expect a "fantasy" MMORPG to be played, unlike on W42, where people tend to really attempt to fit into the world of Gielinor. W42 is also OutfitScape central, with many inventive and creative combinations that work into those players' assumed characters. I'm not really into the actual RPing scene, past yelling "Eat shit, Saradominist filth!" every once in a while at those blue-hooded deviants, but I enjoy it all the same. :) There are always the detractors though, those who go on W42 knowing full well what its purpose is and serve only to disrupt the joy of those doing their own thing, but as you said, Blyaunte, the prick:player is tolerably and unusually low.

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I fully agree, Blyaunte!

 

I essentially play exclusively on W42, because as thejollyroger and articles indicate, there is a great relationship between immersion and community. RuneScape itself is casual in many ways - log in, gain some XP, do a quest, do a D&D, log out - but on most worlds it's never really played how I expect a "fantasy" MMORPG to be played, unlike on W42, where people tend to really attempt to fit into the world of Gielinor. W42 is also OutfitScape central, with many inventive and creative combinations that work into those players' assumed characters. I'm not really into the actual RPing scene, past yelling "Eat shit, Saradominist filth!" every once in a while at those blue-hooded deviants, but I enjoy it all the same. :) There are always the detractors though, those who go on W42 knowing full well what its purpose is and serve only to disrupt the joy of those doing their own thing, but as you said, Blyaunte, the prick:player is tolerably and unusually low.

 

LOL! I thought I saw you on there once - hanging outside the POP portal! |^_^|

 

As for the detractors, I've certainly seen enough of those too. Hell, I've been in one particular Clan Chat and had the "Oh look, there's a W42 loser ..." attitude, aimed in my direction.

 

Basically, those kinds of people are little more than bullies, trying to suppress the individuality of others and enforce their idea of conformity upon the rest. They're best ignored. They're simply not worth the time of day. :rolleyes:

nyuseg.png

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I fully agree, Blyaunte!

 

I essentially play exclusively on W42, because as thejollyroger and articles indicate, there is a great relationship between immersion and community. RuneScape itself is casual in many ways - log in, gain some XP, do a quest, do a D&D, log out - but on most worlds it's never really played how I expect a "fantasy" MMORPG to be played, unlike on W42, where people tend to really attempt to fit into the world of Gielinor. W42 is also OutfitScape central, with many inventive and creative combinations that work into those players' assumed characters. I'm not really into the actual RPing scene, past yelling "Eat shit, Saradominist filth!" every once in a while at those blue-hooded deviants, but I enjoy it all the same. :) There are always the detractors though, those who go on W42 knowing full well what its purpose is and serve only to disrupt the joy of those doing their own thing, but as you said, Blyaunte, the prick:player is tolerably and unusually low.

 

Haha awesome i'm glad i'm not the only one weeding out the blasphemers! ;)

 

:D

Sway all day, Butterfly flaps all the way!  tumblr_inline_mp4i2qAGS11qz4rgp.gif

✿ ♥‿♥)

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