It was the best because PvP was the endgame content and skillcapes weren't released yet.

 

People underestimate the importance of pvp endgame. With pvm endgame, there's two options:

1. Bosses are farmable and people will complain about lack of challenge

2. Bosses are challenging and people will complain that they aren't farmable

 

Pvm has been dominant for six years now and people still dont realize that "challenging" and "consistently profitable" are mutually exclusive boss qualities.

 

With pvp, the more skilled you are, the more money you make. If you suck at pking and/or are too afraid to take risks, then you can go farm bosses or skill for less money per hour where there's less risk involved.

 

There's also the fact that bosses are completely predictable and static, whereas other players are always using different equipment, combat styles, and tactics. When you're fighting the exact same opponent using the exact same strategy for hours on end, it gets pretty boring after a while.

 

Rushing and pjing also hadn't grown out of control yet in 2006.

 

Finally even if you were too afraid to risk your stuff, Castle Wars and Fight Pits were still a lot of fun even though they were just a big money sink.

 

Today it struck me how true this is and how it reflects onto me.

 

I don't understand PVM as endgoal, I recently had a wager and lost 500m which was my entire stack. I was rebuilding it to acquire my rares again but if I didn't put that as goal there's really nothing left in Runescape.

 

What? Get drygore and torva? Why? To kill KK and nex over and over with no difference? Max? Why? To join the XP waste crew and then end up with a measly cape? 

 

What a joke. Oh well, not that PVP is any different now. Yay batwing & royal dhide.

The prestige system wasn't out.

 

I thought they indefinitly postponed the current prestige system because of player backlash. I think I read on the fourms that one of the mods admitted it was a mistake and vowed to change it.

 

Anyway, I started playing right before the RS2 launch and I thought the game kinda sucked until RS2 released. The community was better UNTIL about 2006. Then came the bots, the scammers, the cheaters, ect. The community was horrible until free trade was removed, then it drastically improved. Then free trade was reintroduced and it declined again.

 

The prestige system wasn't out.

 

I thought they indefinitly postponed the current prestige system because of player backlash. I think I read on the fourms that one of the mods admitted it was a mistake and vowed to change it.

 

Anyway, I started playing right before the RS2 launch and I thought the game kinda sucked until RS2 released. The community was better UNTIL about 2006. Then came the bots, the scammers, the cheaters, ect. The community was horrible until free trade was removed, then it drastically improved. Then free trade was reintroduced and it declined again.

 

 

Noting the day of his post you will realize that they had not made that clear yet. It was just the blog, and the thought was it would come out regardless. The poll and backlash happened after Fallstar's post.

I think for me RS was probably at it's best somewhere in 2012 before EoC. I played quite alot and had alot of different goals back then. Now that I look back I did like the old combat system more. Don't get me wrong - the new combat system works at some places (Nex for example) but against most bosses and slayer especially it is too tedious. Learn one pattern and then smash it over and over again. For me it just doesn't seem to make much difference. Nex is good example of place where it works because there are multiple tactics to use and you need to learn to use the abilities to survive. All other bosses I've done it's just smashing the rotation that does most damage while having soul split on. I have not tried the newest bosses as it's been a while since I last played. However Kalphite King I found only annoying. I enjoyed that most of the things didn't involve me all too much. Killing things was pretty relaxing and straight forward and if you wanted to manage more you used spec weapons, familiars, dreadnips, cannons and what not. Even if it sometimes (like doing speed runs on fight kilns) felt like managing a few too many things at once it was still more enjoyable than smashing 12312312345 over and over again. After EoC we did get some great updates (like PoP) that kept me interested but now I can't figure what to do when I log in. Nothing really interests me.

Of course years 2006-2008 have special place in my RuneScape memoirs as it was the time I first got membership and got to discover more about the game. I still don't think it was the best time to play but it was more about nostalgia, being younger and all the memories that come with it.

And then there is the very early days of RuneScape around 2001-2002 when I started playing. I was so young back then and we didn't even have computer at home. I had to go to this net cafe to play and only could play like 1 hour every other day. I remember the feeling when we finally got our own computer and I could just play at home (only if it wasn't for the horrible connection). So awesome. I still like RSC and play it every now and then. Shame there aren't much anything else than bots there now.

So 2012 was best year of the game in my opinion, 2002 has the fondest memories and around 2007 I played the most. I'm not sure if the game has changed too much since 2012 or have I just grown out of it. Regardless, I still stay around and observe if there is something that gets my attention to get playing. I thought divination could've been one but the skill was the most boring thing ever since agility came out.

@ 'enjoyed that killing most things was straight forward, relaxing didn't require a lot of effort'

 

l2momentum

 

Everything but bossin' (and dg to an extent) works just fine with momentum and is nice and straightforward, relaxing and doesn't require a lot of effort.

It's vastly underwhelming versus using abilities though.

 

Mashing the same rotation is nice and straightforward, boring and doesn't require a lot of effort.

@ 'enjoyed that killing most things was straight forward, relaxing didn't require a lot of effort'

 

l2momentum

 

Everything but bossin' (and dg to an extent) works just fine with momentum and is nice and straightforward, relaxing and doesn't require a lot of effort.

 

According to AlmostLost, somewhere in HLF he has a post, Momentum just isn't worth it for most things anything (I think he specifically mentioned Dung and Slayer). I presume, him being one of the top players, that he tested this out somewhat meticulously or got it from someone else who did.

Of course momentum is lower dps than mashing abilities, it's meant to be and of course thats not the metagame ideal way to do slayer etc.

But for mass killing like slayer where you wanna be a bit afk and spend less effort it's perfectly acceptable to use unless you are a super obesseive metagamer who absolutely cannot bare to even a millisecond of xp waste by using non optimum methods.

Everyone has a favourite year. Mine was 2004, I hated RS2 at first but came to love it, such a huge change and upgrade from RS1 (although I still really like RS1), overall the year I had the most fun. 2005 through 2008 had some pretty fun updates too, but also more grind. 2009 onwards is meh to me, there were a lot of small things I didn't like with many of the updates, not the least of which being microtransaction-y things of course.

The problem with momentum is that it isn't reasonably less DPS than using abilities - the difference is huge if you have a basic understanding of when to use which ability.

 

IMO momentum needs a buff so that you can achieve ~ 80% of the DPS using abilities gets you, with the caveat that you can't use momentum on bosses at all. No one I have spoken to about it, and I suspect very few people globally, enjoy using abilities for hours of slayer.

I would like to point out that, a few months ago before they nerfed magic damage, I was able to out-dps people with chaotics at bandos. I was using ahrims book and wand and blood barrage. Not ONCE did I lose the kill.

I would like to point out that, a few months ago before they nerfed magic damage, I was able to out-dps people with chaotics at bandos. I was using ahrims book and wand and blood barrage. Not ONCE did I lose the kill.

 

Shocking that when magic damage was uncapped by equipment in the way that melee and ranged were it could out DPS better gear in those classes...

2006 was the year I started so it was an excellent time for me.  I've enjoyed most of the years of playing RS except when players lost control of general prices due to the G.E and I think capes of achievment, while nice in their idea, changed the focus of the game a little too much.  Just my tuppence worth :D

2006 and 2007 were the golden years of RS for me.  Quit as EoC came, but I really do miss the old days

2006 was a better time due to articles like this: http://www.tip.it/runescape/times/view/27-english-its-proper-form

One of the best times I've ever read and it sticks with me to this day.

A lot of it (for me) is the simplicity and the mindset of the players at the time.  There was nothing overtly complex about RS in the 05-07, and the mindset of players was a bit more relaxed - not everything was done for the sake of efficiency and maxing out.  Heck, I'd bet that 99% of players had no real expectation of ever maxing, especially pre-skillcapes.

2006 was the best year ever for me, however 2010 was just as great except much less people I could play with and lots of old stuff gone.

 

I prefer 2006 over 2013 anyday though. and it's not because of nostalgia, people can like 2006 more for many reasons, and tiny screen didn't matter to me in any way, I had more fun playing in 2006 then I ever have in 2012-2013.

 

and I agree with above poster - much less greed in '06 and not everyone was obsessed with "99s" and "skillcapes" and nothing else... in 2006 I didn't see a SINGLE person being rude over them having a stupid cape or a "99". God I miss not seeing only skillcape-nerds.