Runescape's Audiance

[Dalcyte]

Many players claim more recently than ever, the past updates have been to easy and not rewarding enough for high combat players. Not just this, but that new additions to the game has made it more friendly to players with low attention spans and who don't like to figure things out and do things easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This might include examples like PC, gaining levels that u don't train in, Abyssal RCing, this used to be a hard skill, but it was made easier. However Rcing may have been to hard, and abyssal brought it up to regular. We have seen pyramid plunder, which in some sense makes thieving easier, but also adds variety to a normally simple skill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As far as quests go, most have been at the medium-easy level, with rewards that are sub-par. Many players are looking for a unique "MEP II"-Like Challenge, with bosses and more complex puzzles and difficult tasks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

runescape now currently forbades anyone under the age of 13 from creating an account. Surely players below this play and get in, its an easy system to bypass, but by using the logic that the players should be 13 of age or higher, and having a higher attention span, harder material should be released with no problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, Runescape may have always been that way, players are just more aware. THe quest cape can exemplify that all the quests are not hard when you put your mind to it. The updates that are recent maybe aren't suit to fit YOU as an individual, but the group as a whole, a new generation of players. Sure they make goofs and bad updates every once and while, its unavoidable. But don't a company who releases weekly updates deserve just a little credit, that is an achievement in itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is runescape becoming more and more geared for a less mature audiance? Debate away.

[poochu]

The quests are very annoying, all based on low-ish leveled people, why not something geared towards 80+ or something? And maybe make it hard and have a good reward?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also about the "forbbiding of the ages" thingo, anyone can lie to make an account. It might be agaisnt the law but i dont think Jagex is going to investigate it? You cant stop the "immature" people from joining unless you can report abuse for being immature. The harder quests idea is great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I belive it is becoming more of a "young player game".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: woot first post :thumbsup:

[Obsessive_Passion]

Yes. I've already posted similar reponses in other threads around the forum, so I'll keep this short. Being F2P, I find this to be an even larger issue. Then again, there's also the problem of rapid technological advancements and the widespread encourage of youngsters to "embrace the technological revolution". So what we're dealing with is the interaction of even younger people with computers, rather than encouraging the old. Indeed, the "children are the future", and from a business point of view, this is the case. As far as I'm concerned, it might be a clever marketing ploy to increase its customer base. But I would only be speculating there.

[Dalcyte]

The quests are very annoying, all based on low-ish leveled people, why not something geared towards 80+ or something? And maybe make it hard and have a good reward?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also about the "forbbiding of the ages" thingo, anyone can lie to make an account. It might be agaisnt the law but i dont think Jagex is going to investigate it? You cant stop the "immature" people from joining unless you can report abuse for being immature. The harder quests idea is great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I belive it is becoming more of a "young player game".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: woot first post :thumbsup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but in a sense, jagex could root out the younger players who illigitemately join. By assuming that only older more mature players play, they could release harder quests/things that make the younger players wanna quit

[warren211]

Surely players below this play and get in, its an easy system to bypass, but by using the logic that the players should be 13 of age or higher, and having a higher attention span, harder material should be released with no problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love how you assume all younger players just skipped through the system and how all 13+ have higher attention spans. Very stereotypical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young players CAN play underage legally. Either:

 

 

 

1) They made an account before the rule was put.

 

 

 

2) They had a parent/guardian send a permission form to Jagex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOT ALL YOUNG PLAYERS JOINED ILLEGALLY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second, you assume that older= more of an attention span. This can sometimes be true. However, I know many teens who have too much trouble solving puzzles and want the puzzle boxes in treasure trails removed. I know of 11 and 12 year olds who think puzzle boxes are easy and wonder how anyone can't do it (its just like whistling. People wonder how anyone can make such a noise, and those that could do it wonder how anyone could not).

[unknowable]

I feel the same way. But some updates aren't that bad, although they focus on just one point, instead of putting several points together a perfect example of this is "Contact" There's almost no puzzling and just running around, talking and killing a monster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know, but many young players don't ask their parents for permission. Parents practically know nothing about RuneScape, even with the Parents Guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nonetheless, there are some nice young people in RuneScape too. Unfortunately it's not enough to balance the big part out. I get many "noob" messages, just because I'm (only) combat 93.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The immature players are taking over, certainly.

[Nadril]

I love how you assume all younger players just skipped through the system and how all 13+ have higher attention spans. Very stereotypical

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On average, however, it's true. Not everyone below the age of 13 has the attention span of the goldfish, but some do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would say that a large portion of jagex's fan base is around the 13-16 age. Also, not to be completly rude to anyone but most of runescapes fanbase is playing Runescape as a first time MMO, thus they don't have much experience in the genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, I would agree that they need higher end content.

[Dalcyte]

 

Surely players below this play and get in, its an easy system to bypass, but by using the logic that the players should be 13 of age or higher, and having a higher attention span, harder material should be released with no problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love how you assume all younger players just skipped through the system and how all 13+ have higher attention spans. Very stereotypical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young players CAN play underage legally. Either:

 

 

 

1) They made an account before the rule was put.

 

 

 

2) They had a parent/guardian send a permission form to Jagex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOT ALL YOUNG PLAYERS JOINED ILLEGALLY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second, you assume that older= more of an attention span. This can sometimes be true. However, I know many teens who have too much trouble solving puzzles and want the puzzle boxes in treasure trails removed. I know of 11 and 12 year olds who think puzzle boxes are easy and wonder how anyone can't do it (its just like whistling. People wonder how anyone can make such a noise, and those that could do it wonder how anyone could not).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i think you're blowing what i said out of proportion. No, i do not have the frame of mind that EVERY 13+ yr old is smart and has a higher attention span. But you can easily make the assumption that majority of 13+ year olds would be more mature than say a 10 year old. Yes, not all players did join illegally, some started at 11 or something before the system, whatever. I'm now talking about future updates after this situation, you can't relate one thing i said to another thing that doesn't relate to the normal topic at all. I am WELL aware that there are smart -13 year olds, i mean...its logical and unescapable. But once again, the majority of 11 year olds are going to be less mature than the 13+ year olds. You'll generally see more of the 10 year olds who find this game on miniclip and get in, begging for free stuff. Most of these players evidently give up, but with the increase in easier updates and more easier objectives, it gives younger players a reason to stay. I hope that cleared things up a bit.

[Mayjest]

I personally have no problem with these updates geared towards a younger generation. I'm 20 and half way through my first year of university studies. Frankly, when I sign into Runescape, I don't want to have to think. I want to have fun, I want mindless clicking, I want random jokes. In short, I want easy entertainment. Cold War was a perfect quest for me. Easy short, lots of interesting new things, complete randomness, mildly funny, and distracted me for quite some time. =D>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I was to have to puzzle out multiple different things and join them all together to make one final point, I'll go back to designing that virtual bank project that's in for next week . :-k

[Viv]

i agree some things have been made way to easy for the people that are 10....they are usually the ones that follow a high level players and ask simple questions. they are also the ones that are more likely to beg cause they can't make a simple 100k by themselves. they are the ones that try to buy your full rune (or whatever) when its not forsale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but i think that the avarage age is 13-17 those people are more likely to play rs and be active for awhile after they start playing the game.

[BlueLancer]

I completely agree. Most RS quests are made with a "scaredy-cat" type of player in mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's compare it to, say Diablo II, which was released ages ago. Some of the quests it contains, being similar to RS, are difficult and if you're not high enough level, you'll get slaughtered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RS shouldn't be a copycat, but it should have real challenges as well, instead of the "rescue the poor kitten by killing the evil boss dog of doom level 65, no food, strategies or potions necessary".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By real challenge, I mean the few quests in RS that can take hours to complete and have very dangerous boss monsters. For example, having to defeat a boss that can shift attack modes and you'd have to adjust your armor in turn (arrow protective, magic resistance etc.) would be a true challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately a few quests, from what I've read, do fill the need for very difficult puzzles, kids with a short attention span wont complete those quests even with walkthroughs if they don't put their brain into it.

[Doughnut]

I know what you mean. Look at all the armor and weapons geared for levels 50 and lower. There is over 300 peices of "crap" armor. Now lets look at the higher end of things. There are 6 sets of barrows armor a couple decent weapons and some ok items. Now lets look at quests. Over half the quests are stupid quests like wanted. Lets look at higher end quests. Hardly any since DT and MM are easy enough that a pure with enough money can get by it. Higher level Monsters? Bah TzTok-Jad can be beaten by anyone with 70+ range 43 prayer and p pots, I've even heard a rumour that a level 48 has the fire cape. Quest Rewards. THEY SUCK! Look at Recipe for Disaster one of longest quests in the game at this moment and its only reward that is worthwhile are the gloves. Why couldn't they have made a weapon in there actually worth while? Jagex needs to start feeding the veterans or pretty soon they'll only have a game that everyone despises because the people who play only say "noob".

[zubeedoo]

Jagex' problem isn't that they don't have enough high-end content, but that they have too much low-end content. Because of this they face the same problem that they do with rares and pures: They didn't work out the way they were expected to, but removing them would anger a LOT of people, so that's not really an option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn't matter how many new quests and whatnot jagex adds, because they will all, eventually, be considered easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jagex releases a new item, one of 3 things happen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1)It sucks, everyone whines.

 

 

 

2)It's good for it's level requirements, high levelled players whine about never getting updates made for them.

 

 

 

3)It's good, even for high levelled players, High levelled players now whine about quests being too easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jagex doesn't release a new item: Everyone whines about the lack of new items.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, if jagex released a truely hard quest, people would complain about it being too hard, because only the truely patient/attentive would be able to beat it. Sorry to say this, but the people whining about things being too easy are now a small minority, you bring in less money then those with no patience, so expect their oppinions to be looked at more then yours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and here's an idea:

 

 

 

If you really want a challenge, do these quests with lower-end stuff. Try to get a fire cape going melee etc.

 

 

 

You either want to have a challenge with quests or you just want to finish them. If you just want to finish them, you get high-end gear, and if you want a challenge, use low-end gear. What jagex has done is in no way wrong, it allows people with both oppinions to enjoy what they do. What people here suggest is allowing them to have fun at the expense of others. Let's say Bob like things easy and Billy likes them challenging:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob runs through quest X with the best gear he can buy, he is happy.

 

 

 

Billy does the same. He is unhappy.

 

 

 

Rather then doing something himself to fix the problem, he whines until jagex makes things harder.

 

 

 

Now Billy can have fun, but Bob cannot.

 

 

 

Had Billy just taken worse gear, they could have both been happy. Jagex in no way forces you to use the best gear you can afford for quests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now before anyone goes and says "Oh but why should we have to change our setups just to get more of a challenge from quests?" Well answer me this: Why should Bob have to change his setup to do them more easily? He's more or less forced to wear high end gear if he wants to do the quests easily, just like you're more or less forced to use lower end gear to get a challenge from them. The only difference is that it's harder to get the stuff he needs then it is for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. I've been busy with ISP's and exams these last few weeks, which is why I've not posted. Also, There may be some eve-terminology in this post as I've been playing nothing else these last 3 months (Rs just sucks by comparisson, I had a guy on eve message me after I killed him telling me what a great fight he'd just had, as well as a guy who'd killed me offer to replace my ship. You just don't see these kinds of people in rs) Only downside to eve is the 15$ a month fee =\

[Dalcyte]

agreed. No matter what you do, you're gonna get some whiners...its invetible, that's why they always have a topic dedictated to it after every post. Shame isn't it? Although i am in agreement with your second statement, some of those points i'm gonna disagree with. Now i'm not mad about quality of quests, i'm fine with it. But a lot of circumstances set up in which if you do it with this u can do it. If you try using weaker things, you simply can't. Good read and post, thanks.

[Nadril]

The problem is jagex trys to make everyone happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That simply is not POSSIBLE in an MMO, or anythign for that matter. Jagex needs to find what kind of play style they want to cater to and cater to them. They may lose some players but their changes would be much more stable.

[swampjedi]

Nadril, I think they have - the mid level player. That's the problem that higher levels are facing. Jagex knows that if they throw the high levels a bone every once in a while, they'll grumble but not leave. Granted, I think this is short sighted, but it seems to be working for Jagex.

[Dalcyte]

Swamp, more and more i'm seeing these complains though. I mean, you'll always get some people who don't like the new quest, but over and over i see it with a new quest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"why can't jagex release high skill level quests"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the fact of the matter is that it will happen, but eventually i guess. Skill wise, i think the majority of the point is that its too easy, and some higher lvl content for skills like hunter should be added.

[dargonhuman]

Granted, I think this is short sighted, but it seems to be working for Jagex.

 

 

 

No kidding; eventually all those low-levels JAgex is currently catering to will become high level. Heck, there's really no "eventually" about it; since the release of Pest Control, we've already seen an explosion of 100+ combat levels. Sure, there will always be more mid-levels than high-levels, but by that same logic, there will always be more low-levels than mid-levels, too, but that doesn't mean Jagex needs to release more Sheep Shearer-type content to cater to them.

 

 

 

In the same light, continuing to ignore the high-levels as Jagex is doing will become a problem as the high-levels will begin quitting out of boredom in larger and larger numbers, eventually leading to a kind of "critical mass" in which the influx of new players sticking around long enough to become mid-levels won't be able to keep up with the demand. That's admittedly a bit of a worst-case scenario, but it could happen easier than I suspect JAgex thinks.

[danmull2009]

I think the mid-levels are the biggest audience. When you get to higher levels, things become repeditive and it becomes boring and you sometimes quit. I have seen this happen many times.

[dargonhuman]

That's what we're talking about; if Jagex worked to make the game more interesting and less repetitive for high-levels, less of them would quit.

[Cdub]

I agree in that most of the new content Jagex releases is geared at mid-level-players. But that's not to say they don't release challenging elements for higher-level-players. I think, however, they are in large part ignored. 99 Skill Capes were one of the best all-around updates of 2006--both from a high-level-player's and Jagex's standpoint. It's a challenge, it's engaging, and (in large part) can't be completed in what is considered a reasonable timeframe for a mid-level-player. However, other than updates like this the new game content Jagex is releasing simply isn't addressing the needs of seasoned players. I suggest finding challenge wherever you can, if you're one of these players. Some of the greatest challenges in RS are overlooked. Things like Full CW Gold Armour present what is potentially the most difficult aspect of the game--going above and beyond the typical goals of the RS-userbase.

[swampjedi]

I'd be willing to bet that there is sound business logic behind the "level" of updates released.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps Jagex knows that the average account (totally random numbers) lasts 6 months and reaches 70 combat. Then perhaps they would be able to increase that average time by releasing updates geared at or slightly above that level, so that the average time would increase. If they release updates for too high of a level, this "average" player might get discouraged and quit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps Jagex also knows that once you reach 100 combat or 40m xp (again, random numbers), you're invested enough in the game that you don't quit easily. They want to get you "over the hump" so that you'll stay, but not give you any more than necessary.

[Dalcyte]

I agree in that most of the new content Jagex releases is geared at mid-level-players. But that's not to say they don't release challenging elements for higher-level-players. I think, however, they are in large part ignored. 99 Skill Capes were one of the best all-around updates of 2006--both from a high-level-player's and Jagex's standpoint. It's a challenge, it's engaging, and (in large part) can't be completed in what is considered a reasonable timeframe for a mid-level-player. However, other than updates like this the new game content Jagex is releasing simply isn't addressing the needs of seasoned players. I suggest finding challenge wherever you can, if you're one of these players. Some of the greatest challenges in RS are overlooked. Things like Full CW Gold Armour present what is potentially the most difficult aspect of the game--going above and beyond the typical goals of the RS-userbase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i 'd agree with this pretty much. They do release challenging elements for higher lvl players, but not to the extent that a lot of players want. The newest fremennik isles quest is a great example of what players are pleased by. It's quest in which its a fun thing to do, its got funny material, good plot and storyline and just a nice framework to it. Plus it has a semi-difficult monster at the end that would give lower lvls a run for their money. This is what we like to see in general, but they obviously have to release lower lvl quests as well. But how much you do it in is they key. Easy things are fine, but the amount is primarily the determinent.

[Alg]

all of the updates that can be great for high levels are neglected

 

 

 

one of them is barbarian assault,

 

 

 

the first day i was on a team with levels 70-90, we did well for the first nine rounds, then got massacred multiple times on the tenth. an hour later i was on a team with everyone 90+ and we still had trouble with the queen, but won.

 

 

 

now if you look at barbarian assault, it's completely abandoned, and it was a good update for higher levels

[Evil_Entity0]

but in a sense, jagex could root out the younger players who illigitemately join. By assuming that only older more mature players play, they could release harder quests/things that make the younger players wanna quit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But Jagex wouldn't want to cut out their main player base...