First treatise on Runescape community.

[gallito89]

Hello, I am writing this piece of fine literary nostalgia because I feel that the game has been changing in more ways than an expanding world. I have been playing this game since early 2001 when the game was still in its infancy and I have been noticing some disturbing trends both in game play and the community. I have also noticed that the customer support for the game has spun into disrepair. These factors have all lead to the general decline of the game in my humble opinion.

 

 

 

To start off, I am writing this because I wanted to lodge a complaint with the game developers over the random event in which you sort out coffins and receive zombie armor as a result. When I came to the complaint page for the first time, I was astonished to find that there is no place to complain about game mechanics. The link it asks you to follow leads to the forums, but the poor design of the JAGeX forums makes posting a suggestion futile. In order for suggestions to be seen, you would need to bump it once every 37 seconds according to my calculations as of 6/24/06. This competition is caused by immature people assuming their opinions deserve greater attention than others so they constantly post in order to allow their thread to stay at the first page, no matter how inane the subject matter. I decided that writing a thoughtful response just to have it disappear within 37 seconds to be a waste of time for all parties involved, so I decided to lodge a complaint under the category of ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅotherÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

[sligo]

I almost can't not respond to this!

 

 

 

Ok, so yeah, I read the whole thing, and I'm not on RS right now, so I can concentrate on my answer (don't expect 2k words though, I don't have that kind of time)...

 

 

 

You are right that the suggestion forums on Jagex are lame at best. For a while about a year ago, I tried staying active there (mostly in the suggestion forum, actually), and 90% of the suggestions where repetitive, lame, stupid, and often violated the posted rules. I don't feel that Jagex ever paid a lot of attention to this area because pretty much none of the suggestions made ever made it into the game. I think, in retrospect, that they provide it as a place to make us noobs feel like we're really contributing. Maybe they do read it. Who knows, right?

 

 

 

So what about it? Well, read on, because the "answer" applies to most of your complaints. On to the next issue you raise. You bring up the aspect of a friendly community, and that you felt the community was much better when it was small. Well, I wasn't playing then - I started playing in the summer of 2004. But let me make a comparison. Recently I decided to find some other games to play. I found this really cool game called "Alliance." I downloaded the interface and went through the tutorial. Cool game, actually got my joystick out of the closet to play it. At any given time, less than 100 players. Small group! So I join a game and play for a while. Game ends when a team loses, and so the players (about 10 of them) are discussing the rules for the next game. Before long, they are arguing like crazy and calling each other names. I tried a couple times to calm them down and make peace but was ignored. Finally I logged out and I haven't played since. What does this have to do with your point? I think it has nothing to do with the number of players specifically - you are always going to have a percentage of people who are jerks. Let's move on to the next issue...

 

 

 

(Same paragraph) - Cheating, scamming and hacking: From the jist of your discussion, I get the impression that you are saying that people are cheating because of the rules, not in spite of them. Hmm.

 

 

 

Your next topic - name calling. Well, I covered this in my tipit times article last October. I don't care to repeat myself.

 

 

 

Next up: Blaming lack of community on developers. Yikes! This hits home (and is probably the reason why I'm responding in the first place!) Why? I'm a developer! Software I've written and support has been installed in companies all across the U.S. and in Canada. The dream of a developer is to write something cool that a lot of people want to use. If it's a game, then you want lot's of people playing it. Don't fault Mr. Gower for living his dream! In just a few years, some kid turned an idea into a multi-million dollar (pound?) business. Now he's living the nightmare of supporting it. Well, his staff is, anyway.

 

 

 

Is it too easy to raise skills? Probably, if you don't mind repeating the same action over a few hundred thousand times. The developers have at least reduced the number of clicks required, thus cutting down on orthopeadic doctor visits. But is this the reason people cheat? I don't think so.

 

 

 

As for intelligent conversations, it isn't hard to find someone willing to talk. In fact, I think it is probably easier now than it ever was. Sure, there's lots of kids playing, but I think a lot of them are playing because they want to have fun, which is the same reason I play. Go figure.

 

 

 

Ok, now to summarize, and make my final points. The game is growing in leaps and bounds. As the game grows, the more experienced players want new and different stuff to do in order to stay interested (new quests, new skills, new areas to explore, new challenges, etc). Without this, they'd quit. Right? The drawback to this game expansion is that newer players have more to choose from when they start out. Maybe that's why f2p doesn't get the updates? (Hmm, never thought of it that way, have you?)

 

 

 

Anyway, when more players join, you are going to get the same percentage of jerks, cheaters, and fools. But like any group, the trouble makers get the attention. One in a hundred? One in a thousand? Whichever, but you get the point. The higher population also means more younger players. Most of those young players are great - they are intelligent, well spoken, and just want to have fun. Others, however, think that having fun involves makes the lives of others miserable. This is something rules can't fix.

 

 

 

The point I'm getting to is the same point I made back in October. Evaluate the reason you are playing Runescape. If you aren't playing the game to have fun, and if the game isn't fun for you, then don't play. Do something else. Simple as that.

 

 

 

Enough soap box for now... Maybe more later.

 

 

 

- Sligo

[Xaga]

Interesting ideas, what I will reply will nowhere match what you have.

 

 

 

Originally, Runescape had less people, and therefore these people felt a strong connection with each other. As time went one, more people came, and inevitably the community broke down. While originally only those few who were strong fans of MMORPG played runescape, they all had a bit of respect. The MMORPG realm has increased rapidly since then and with it, tons of people jumping on the bandwagon. With all the people jumping on the bandwagon, things just have to break down. I personally find the downfall of Runescape to be in its increased player base. By making it easier for people to play, it allows more players, which is better for Jagex, but, for the most part, worse for the people playing it. Forgive me for sounding elitist, but small communities tend to work out better than larger ones.

[drk_killer]

I truly felt that I could trust most people in the game. I remember that the Varrock anvils were always full of smiths working on their levels and not once did I hear of an unsavory character walking off with a bar of runite or adamantite. Gem cutting services werenÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t fingered as scams and for those that didnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t have an initial supply of gems it was perfectly kosher to give somebody 12 gems at a time to be cut then returned, they didnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t need to be traded for. The censor was looser and only filtered out the words that were actually necessary and although you could go around them by typing @ran@ and making the word flash in multiple colors, seldom did people do it. Until the addition of customer service to the game there were rules, both written and unwritten, that people followed and therefore there were no real problems that werenÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t the result of stupidity, such as giving out passwords.

 

 

 

 

 

that section brought a tear to my eye i wish i was around during those days just 6 months ago i met somone i say 2 years back and he was not on my list :P rsc has a tight community for the most part, you just have to be there for a while. there are still some nice people on rs you just have to find them :)

[drone243]

:?true about the noob thing when i started playing i remember dying in lumbridge when i were not looking. everyone was calling me a noob i stopped playing because as i explored runescape it kept happening but then i started playing again as my freind told me to he helped me

[Hilramorre]

I agree with pretty much everything you have said. I too have played since early 2001 in the beta stages. Honestly, I would have to say those were some of the best days. That and when members was first being released. When members was first released the members servers were very nice, almost no immature people that I can recall.

 

 

 

As one other person said, the growing playerbase is waht I believe to have caused runescape's feel to have declined. The game itself has gotten better and the community seems to have gotten worse. Alot of my friend when they hear I play runescape look at me like "... why...". I always tell them, the game is actually very good, it's just the people who suck.

 

 

 

One other person said that in order to have the game grow the player base must grow and if the player base grows you will always have more immature people. That simply is not true. I'll point out for you, Achaea. Achaea is the worlds most successful, and I believe largest, text based MUD of the past EIGHT years. They have had some amazing growth both in community and in game content, yet the community is still composed of over 99% nice people. Why? Well, in essence if you're not nice, you won't last long. If you continued to not be nice (and I don't mean roleplaying an evil character, but just trolling) you would probably be banned.

 

 

 

That's what we need on runescape. We need JAGeX to stop banning people for things they've never done (like my old account, thanks there JAGeX) and start banning them for things like; scamming (I'veemale characters trying to sell their body, again, JAGe reported plenty of blatant scammers and JAGeX tells me they arn't going to take action against them.), extremely profane words (Reported female characters who were trying to sell their bodies by using some very colorful advertising to JAGeX told me they would not take action.), and overall being an idiot. Sorry guys, but if you run around screaming "free items pl0x pl0x pl0x" I think you should be banned, same for asking someone for a fight and if they decline calling them a chicken and such for as long as they are logged in.

 

 

 

Some might find that harsh, but I believe it would help the community.

[gallito89]

I must say that I feel you have misunderstood a couple of my points Sligo. First off, small communities in an mmorpg are different from those of the game you mentioned, whetehr it be a shooting game, sports game etc. In a role playing game your reputation has a direct impact on your ability to buy and sell items, work together with other people, and in Runescape's case, be able to walk through the wilderness without being stalked. The biggest misinterpetation was stating that I feel that developers have tried to make the game worse. I absolutely do not feel this way, I don't think they added a single thing to the game without feeling that it was necessary or would be helpful. I am currently a senior in high school and I will be going to college for game design and development so I obviously hold no grudges against my future peers. I think you may have also gotten the sense that I dislike younger players, I have a little brother and my neighbor's sons play. I am not even old enough to vote, buy alcohol, or cigarettes. I am certainly not "old" either and many of the people on my friends list are around 12-13 and as you said, many are intelligent. I find verging on insulting that you feel I do not enjoy this game. I have played it for all these years because I love it and I have fun while I play, most of the topics I write about Runescape are upbeat and look at the positive aspects but not everything is perfect and not everything has gotten better with time. The main things that I like in life are reading, writing, Runescape, and chess and last night I managed to do three of the four at the same time. I agree, if this game isn't enjoyable than it shouldn't be played, but I certainly feel that it is still a great game.

[Hilramorre]

A question now arises though, what do we do to have this changed?

 

 

 

By the way gallito, add me in game if you would. You seem to have a pretty clear view on many things and one I agree very much with. My in game name is Hilramorre.

[Xaga]

I believe I am the one which said that larger communities become worse. However, I may not have been specific enough. I agree, the MUD community, has been extraordinary in their ability to remain a good commnunity in nearly all games. But keep in mind, MUDs are not nearly as easily accessible of a medium as Runescape is. People must find MUDs in order to play them. Runescape can be found on miniclip even. MUDs have escaped this by remaining as a relatively exclusive community. By forcing people to work to find good games they will wnjoy, it keeps those who hate to work, i.e. those who scam and cheat, away from the game.

 

 

 

Okay, rereading, that may be a bit extreme, but it conveys the point.

[Hilramorre]

I believe I am the one which said that larger communities become worse. However, I may not have been specific enough. I agree, the MUD community, has been extraordinary in their ability to remain a good commnunity in nearly all games. But keep in mind, MUDs are not nearly as easily accessible of a medium as Runescape is. People must find MUDs in order to play them. Runescape can be found on miniclip even. MUDs have escaped this by remaining as a relatively exclusive community. By forcing people to work to find good games they will wnjoy, it keeps those who hate to work, i.e. those who scam and cheat, away from the game.

 

 

 

Okay, rereading, that may be a bit extreme, but it conveys the point.

 

 

 

All I did was type in a search on google, I think it was something along the lines of "Free text based MUD" and I found a site with a list of the top 100 and Achaea was at the top.

[sligo]

I must say that I feel you have misunderstood a couple of my points Sligo. First off, small communities in an mmorpg are different from those of the game you mentioned, whetehr it be a shooting game, sports game etc. In a role playing game your reputation has a direct impact on your ability to buy and sell items, work together with other people, and in Runescape's case, be able to walk through the wilderness without being stalked.

 

You make a good point here.

 

The biggest misinterpetation was stating that I feel that developers have tried to make the game worse. I absolutely do not feel this way, I don't think they added a single thing to the game without feeling that it was necessary or would be helpful. I am currently a senior in high school and I will be going to college for game design and development so I obviously hold no grudges against my future peers.

 

 

 

Awesome. I see a lot of advertising on TV for game design training. I hope this industry doesn't suffer the same fate as the "dot-coms" of the late 90's. I suffered similarly when I left school in the early 80's to try my hand in the job market as a programmer. I was at that age when everyone said "That's the business to be in! You'll make lots of money!" Well, by the time I hit the job market, there wasn't a job to be found as a programmer. I ended up getting stuck in a job for 9 years that was a total dead end.

 

 

 

I think you may have also gotten the sense that I dislike younger players, I have a little brother and my neighbor's sons play.

 

 

 

Actually, I didn't quite get that impression. However, the presense of immature players (regardless of age) does bring down the community atmosphere for everyone.

 

 

 

I am not even old enough to vote, buy alcohol, or cigarettes. I am certainly not "old" either and many of the people on my friends list are around 12-13 and as you said, many are intelligent. I find verging on insulting that you feel I do not enjoy this game. I have played it for all these years because I love it and I have fun while I play, most of the topics I write about Runescape are upbeat and look at the positive aspects but not everything is perfect and not everything has gotten better with time. The main things that I like in life are reading, writing, Runescape, and chess and last night I managed to do three of the four at the same time. I agree, if this game isn't enjoyable than it shouldn't be played, but I certainly feel that it is still a great game.

 

 

 

It's not that I think you don't enjoy the game, but the mere existence of your post indicates that you have some issues. From the standpoint of the game mechanics, the game is pretty cool. The people on your friends list are cool people and you enjoy good conversation with them. However, it's the people on your ignore list with which you have a problem. Truthfully, me too. More than once I had to move someone from my friends list to my ignore list as well. Didn't like doing it. Felt bad about it, but I think it was the right decision nevertheless.

 

 

 

Is there a solution to the problems you've described? That's a tough one. I don't think there is without changing the nature of the game.

 

 

 

Let's explore some ideas:

 

1. Raise the cost of membership. Part of the appeal of this game is its reasonable cost. For each incremental increase in cost we would lose a percentage of players as they have to weigh the entertainment value of playing versus the cost. I think we'd lose a lot of the ne'er-do-wells pretty quickly (at least in P2P) because these people won't be able to justify their behavior with the cost. Conversely, there is a limit to this because RS has to stay competitive in its marketplace. When the price gets up to where other games are, we'd lose players to those other games from simple economics.

 

 

 

2. Tighten the game rules to ban things like begging, following, name-calling, and other annoyances. This can be tricky. Do this and people will get banned incorrectly. This becomes a customer support nightmare. Not only that, people will just become more creative in finding ways around the rules.

 

 

 

3. Make the rares available again. Oh boy, this is a can of worms! Imagine what would happen if you could buy a p-hat from a general store for 5 coins. I can hear it now "The economy would be ruined!". Sure thing. But what would this do for all those cheaters and beggars? Interesting, right. Not the answer, obviously, but something to think about.

 

 

 

4. Regionalize the servers. Basically, this means that you'd only be able to log in to a small group of servers. I.E I would only log in to the Chicago servers and I wouldn't be able to log in to Amsterdam if I wanted to. This would destroy the international flavor of the game, make forum trading useless, as well as community events (like those sponsored by Tipit). On the other hand, it would enforce the sense of community in the smaller groups because people would get know each other in those regions. This way, reputations would be meaningful.

 

 

 

Ok, these suggestions are extreme. But how do you balance the growing player base and maintain a sense of community? I submit that you can't. I can't be on a first-name basis with a million people. I can't do it with a thousand.

 

 

 

So I'm back to my original point - play the game because you enjoy playing. If you don't then don't. Can't be more basic than that.

 

 

 

- Sligo

[Hilramorre]

3. Make the rares available again. Oh boy, this is a can of worms! Imagine what would happen if you could buy a p-hat from a general store for 5 coins. I can hear it now "The economy would be ruined!". Sure thing. But what would this do for all those cheaters and beggars? Interesting, right. Not the answer, obviously, but something to think about.

 

 

 

 

I've thought something like this should be done for a while, but to fix the economy and how unfair it is for many players. So many players have achieved an unfair advantage through party hats, which were never meant to be expensive at all. I know plenty of people would be whining "I spent 100 million gold on a party hat and now it's worthless?!" Quite frankly, I would tell them tough luck, you were buying a useless item to begin with. I wouldn't mind party hats being frozen where they are, being reduced to one per person and be like how bunny ears and scythes are (if you die while having one you can rebuy it at a certain shop).

[gallito89]

"Let's explore some ideas:

 

1. Raise the cost of membership. Part of the appeal of this game is its reasonable cost. For each incremental increase in cost we would lose a percentage of players as they have to weigh the entertainment value of playing versus the cost. I think we'd lose a lot of the ne'er-do-wells pretty quickly (at least in P2P) because these people won't be able to justify their behavior with the cost. Conversely, there is a limit to this because RS has to stay competitive in its marketplace. When the price gets up to where other games are, we'd lose players to those other games from simple economics. "

 

 

 

I see no problem with this actually, the average cost for a subscription per month for an mmo is currently $15, seperation of members servers by monthly fee works fine for games like Everquest, simplypay more for not too many more options, but it would keep most grievers away.

[sligo]

I think that would make an intereresting poll here on tipit... At what point would you say the game is too expensive and quit?

 

 

 

Range it from $10 to $100 per month and see where the numbers fall. I'd probably quit playing if it was higher than $10.00 per month.

 

 

 

- Sligo

[eyehawk78]

I use to play runescape way back in rsc, however I stopped playing it when all my friends at my school did. i.e. it became uncool. However I was very much a fan of the game.

 

I came back in July 2004 and the difference in player attitudes towards newer players was immense.

 

When im fishing lobs in catherby i cannot stand the torrent of mindless drivvle that other players banter about. (Granted occasionally you can have a half intelligent conversation). Being a Man City fan (avatar? lol) I generally talk about football and/or man city however the conversation is often ruined by people with a pinhead brain saying "Football sucks!!!!!!!(with a lot more !'s) and runing the conversation.

 

Quite frankly I am thankful jagex created an ignore list and the ability to turn off public chat. I now resort to talkin to people I already know through private chat.

 

But as someone metioned before it may only be 1 player in every 100 who is like this but as the community grows those 1's add up until you have a infestation.

 

Then again nothing can be done about it, I remeber reading a tip.it times article (I think it was the one about customer service) that said runescape was a great idea that grew too large and got out of control.

 

This is one of the most intellengent and true comments ive ever heard about runescape and I thank you tip it for still having a community where itellengent people can discuss runescape and recieve helpful advice!

[Adamfostas]

I'd like to bring the perspective of a recent RS convert (November 05) in here, since this is the first intelligent post I've seen for a while.

 

 

 

I arrived when the community had already descended into the pits of pl0xdom you so accurately described, and so cannot really relate to these almost mythic halcyon days of yore, when folk were nice to one another and could bear to type the elusive 'o' in 'kk'. I admit, the conversation at the fishing factory in Catherby tends towards the banal (although I've just got 68 fishing, and am hoping the Guild will turn out to be better), but I don't look to talk in such places. Fishing is something I do in the morning, when I can flick between RS and the newspaper, only turning back when I hear the strange little shrieky sound that means a troll has taken a dislike to my avatar's face. Rather, I only bother talking to people if they are engaged in the marginally more celebral skills, such as crafting, smithing or farming.

 

 

 

Because they're not quite so interesting to the morons as combat (and first-order support activities such as fishing), you'll find a far higher level of conversation there. The best place to meet interesting people in the whole game, I have discovered, is the gem rocks at Shilo. Because they're pretty much the most effective way of raising your Crafting level (unless you want to spend monotonous hours at Mor'ton), those there tend to be able to spell, which is the single thing I look for in deciding whether to spend time talking to people or not. It's the equivalent of finding a club that suits your interests in a large city (which the population of Runescape is comparable to; it's a city around the size of Edinburgh or Reading with a very low average age). Back in the 4-server times of which you speak, Runescape was a large village.

 

 

 

As a consequence of this change, it's impossible to get to know everyone in the game any more (although, I suspect, in many cases you wouldn't want to). What is required to adapt to this changing environment are precisely the same mechanisms that are used in large cities to recreate this feeling of community, which I touched on briefly above: clubs and interest groups. In RS, this would require support for non-combat-based clans, which already exist in small numbers. If, as has been hypothesised elsewhere, Jagex are going to implement a new clan chat system, we may have a partial solution to your worries. Who's up for a debating clan?

[Xaga]

All I did was type in a search on google, I think it was something along the lines of "Free text based MUD" and I found a site with a list of the top 100 and Achaea was at the top.

 

 

 

Okay, fair enough, I didn't really bother to check. I suppose finding a MUD isn't too hard, but how many people even know about them? Perhaps I may not be right on this, but if i mentioned MUD to everyone I met, I'd be lucky to find 1 person who might have a clue as to what I'm saying. However, if I go around asking about MMORPGs, though there are still few people, it certainly beats out 1. I just see it as with the boom of the MMORPG, the accessibility increased, the transparency increased. It is more well known. There was once a time on the internet where the only conversation was intelligent conversation, there was no spam, no viruses. The internet used to be an easy way for top scientists to transfer informatoin to each other. Even when the world wide web went mainstream, viruses and spam still lagged a bit behind. How many people play MUDs? How long have these people been playing MUDs for? I would bet that there are less people playing MUDs than runescape and most of them have been playing for years.

 

 

 

Solutions? Unfortunately, I can think of little to none. Raising membership fees would work, but we have to keep in mind, graphically, customer support, gameplay: this all pales in comparison to most other MMORPGs. Although I'd be against it, no longer offering free version would in fact solve a lot of problems. But I am a free player myself. It would be possible to hire more people for customer support who will spend their entire time finding rule breakers. But silly immature people will always be here, whether we like it or not.

[tyrant_iv]

plz make posts shorter- i cant read the whole thing because it bores me -srry 2 say this but get 2 the point quiker- and dont u think jagex has its hands full already with the massive amounts of players and enquiries?

[gallito89]

plz make posts shorter- i cant read the whole thing because it bores me -srry 2 say this but get 2 the point quiker- and dont u think jagex has its hands full already with the massive amounts of players and enquiries?

 

 

 

This is the reason I made this post.

[sligo]

plz make posts shorter- i cant read the whole thing because it bores me -srry 2 say this but get 2 the point quiker

 

 

 

Yes, brevity is an art form. One that I myself am not particularly blessed with. *Sigh*

 

 

 

Freedom of speech is a great thing. Freedom to ignore is even greater. :wink:

[Hilramorre]

"Let's explore some ideas:

 

1. Raise the cost of membership. Part of the appeal of this game is its reasonable cost. For each incremental increase in cost we would lose a percentage of players as they have to weigh the entertainment value of playing versus the cost. I think we'd lose a lot of the ne'er-do-wells pretty quickly (at least in P2P) because these people won't be able to justify their behavior with the cost. Conversely, there is a limit to this because RS has to stay competitive in its marketplace. When the price gets up to where other games are, we'd lose players to those other games from simple economics. "

 

 

 

I see no problem with this actually, the average cost for a subscription per month for an mmo is currently $15, seperation of members servers by monthly fee works fine for games like Everquest, simplypay more for not too many more options, but it would keep most grievers away.

 

 

 

I'm just going to make a couple points quickly here.

 

 

 

1) You have to make the comparison of the other games compared to runescape, and the prices of them compared to each other. Runescape quite frankly in most aspects is not near as good of a game. It defenintly has a certain charm which many of us love, however this is probably because of how long we've played it. However to anyone new (and to those who can't afford it of course) they could simply go play another, better, game for around the same price (WoW, EQ2, FF11).

 

 

 

2) There are still plenty of intelligent people (such as myself) who can't afford that. There are also many unintelligent kids who are spoiled by their parents and their parents will simply buy it for them no matter what. I'd really only see that making the situation worse, but who knows, maybe it would help.

 

 

 

All I did was type in a search on google, I think it was something along the lines of "Free text based MUD" and I found a site with a list of the top 100 and Achaea was at the top.

 

 

 

Okay, fair enough, I didn't really bother to check. I suppose finding a MUD isn't too hard, but how many people even know about them? Perhaps I may not be right on this, but if i mentioned MUD to everyone I met, I'd be lucky to find 1 person who might have a clue as to what I'm saying. However, if I go around asking about MMORPGs, though there are still few people, it certainly beats out 1. I just see it as with the boom of the MMORPG, the accessibility increased, the transparency increased. It is more well known. There was once a time on the internet where the only conversation was intelligent conversation, there was no spam, no viruses. The internet used to be an easy way for top scientists to transfer informatoin to each other. Even when the world wide web went mainstream, viruses and spam still lagged a bit behind. How many people play MUDs? How long have these people been playing MUDs for? I would bet that there are less people playing MUDs than runescape and most of them have been playing for years.

 

 

 

Solutions? Unfortunately, I can think of little to none. Raising membership fees would work, but we have to keep in mind, graphically, customer support, gameplay: this all pales in comparison to most other MMORPGs. Although I'd be against it, no longer offering free version would in fact solve a lot of problems. But I am a free player myself. It would be possible to hire more people for customer support who will spend their entire time finding rule breakers. But silly immature people will always be here, whether we like it or not.

 

 

 

I understand what you are saying about people's recognition of the two, however most people do not know text based games as MUDs. MUD stands for multi-user dungeon/domain/dimension. If you were to ask the peolpe you know if they know what a text based game is I'm sure there are a fair amount who would. If you asked most people on the street if they know what an MMORPG is they'd probably say know. Ask them what an online role playing game is, and more would probably know. It's alot about the wording.

 

 

 

As far as the amount playing. MUD's are sort of an underground world now adays. They are drowned out by all the banter about graphical games. There are many very good MUDs with THOUSANDS of players online. I would be suprised if overall there are not more people playing MUDs than playing runescape. I might be wrong, but I would willing to stake money on it.

 

 

 

plz make posts shorter- i cant read the whole thing because it bores me -srry 2 say this but get 2 the point quiker- and dont u think jagex has its hands full already with the massive amounts of players and enquiries?

 

 

 

Heh, I'm afraid if you think that way (also, you're typing is a dead give away as to this) then this thread is not for you. This thread is meant to be about longer more in-depth discussion about many aspects of runescape I do believe.

 

 

 

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Also, Adamfostas made the point that it seems those who are really into skills such as, crafting, smithing, and farming (I'd also add herblore anything over what's needed for quests and I'm sure there's otehrs that I can't think of at the moment.) tend to be more intelligent. From what little I can remember, that was defenintly true.