Spanked

--My response is to Hamtaro's article only-- My take on the removal of "old" quests apparently is much the same as the author of the article... though I do see the Jagex reasoning as being legitimate, if they were being honest with their original explanation - though that can be debated since honesty coming from Jagex has been in question for quite some time! Anyway, I remember when they announced that they pulled Romeo & Juliet and that news hit when they updated the game early one morning. If I recall, I was actually playing at the time - though I'll admit my memory could be failing me, not that it matters one way or the other. Overall, I would have to say they were right... the quest didn't really fit into the game so I can not only see it, I can buy it. However, since they've ALWAYS had a habit of "stealing" content from popular culture while giving it a tweak, I'm somewhat puzzled by two things: 01 Why they didn't originally tweak R & J by renaming the characters into something that fit into the realm of Runescape when the quest was first installed? 02 If necessary, why didn't they originally tweak the basic storyline to also fit more into the game? You know... do the same thing they've been doing forever... which is to take something from the real world and tweak it before installing it into the game? For both of these questions, I have this to say. They could easily have made "Juliet" into one of King Roald's daughters while re-naming her and made "the sop in love" Romeo into the son of someone else while re-naming him too... perhaps someone from Falador in the White Knight's castle? Oh, the possibilities... gone wasted. It could even have been something scandalous - an affair of Juliet with some NPC from... drum roll please... the Black Knight's Fortress! Not that I'd like the drama to go too far mind you... but it could have been vastly improved. I think everyone gets my point. Now, let's get back to that whole content inspiration thing, shall we? As I previously stated, Jagex has incorporated (read that as liberally swiped & installed) a TON of things from popular culture into Runescape in one fashion or another... be it in humorous dialog, the basic storyline in a quest... or in a grouping of NPC characters somewhere on the Runescape map... or... in whatever. Example? Anyone remember anything from Star Wars in the mix of a quest somewhere in members play...? I AM YOUR FATHER and I sure do! While you cry out "NO! NoooOOoooOOoooOO!!!", I'm thinking about real world content in-game and I'm not sure how long it would take to compile a listing of all the things in the game that have a blatant or striking similarity to real world stuff... but there's a load and a half of it, no doubt about it. Heck... they've even gone so far as to create an entire mini-game based on a concept swiped from a popular animated series in my not so humble opinion. Anyone know what I'm referring to...? Anyone care to take a stab at it? You, dear reader, might be thinking of a few things... but I'll help you out. I'm talking PENGUIN HUNTING! Yes, one of my favorite weekly things to do while on members play was taken, though they may very well deny it, from Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit series. Specifically, the penguin end of it came from the animated film called "The Wrong Trousers". As you might guess, the "villain"... was... a.... PENGUIN. A sneaky, underhanded, spy-like penguin... not to put too fine a point on it. And yeah... Wallace & Gromit had to figure out what shenanigans were taking place before hunting him down. I'll leave it up to you all to see the film before deciding if I'm spot on the money or off my rocker (you can find it online for free if you look). However, I've already made up my mind. I say SOMEONE inside Jagex HQ was/is a serious Nick Park fan and that is precisely why they paid homage to Nick Park's penguin character or to the film when the whole Runescape penguin characters were dreamed up in the first place... and spawned quests, NPC characters and the mini-game itself. The bottom line is simply this: the programmers could have easily tweaked the original R & J quest to fit into the fantasy land of Runescape just like they can/could anything else... or simply made over the quest to fit once it became an issue with whoever it was that decided they didn't like it. AND IT TOOK HOW MANY YEARS FOR THAT TO HAPPEN? They all of a sudden decided they didn't like R & J after how many years?!? Don't get me started on that issue. Re-working of content has been something that has been going on for the whole of Runescape since the game first started, and other quests haven't been off limits. Why not re-work R & J too? I'll even argue that Runescape itself was re-worked... from what we now know as Classic to RS2. Going further, I can argue it has ALWAYS been re-worked... and is, in fact,,, a re-work in progress? Need I say more about an update for a couple of quests? Here's another idea... why not leave the content in the game... but take away any requirements or quest points? In other words... just leave the content in place and allow it to be entirely optional. Hmmm... I wonder if anyone thought of that...? The modifications to take any quest off the quest list, etc would most likely have been minimal... even if if they didn't wish to re-work the quests to better fit into Runescape. My vote is a total re-working.. and bring them back when completed. Perhaps even with a little dash of scandal tossed in just to throw a loop into it to keep it fresh. After all, what kingdom is without a bit of scandal? :razz: Perhaps there's another reason that the content was removed? Are they running out of memory? Was it hogging up resources? Thinking of it logically, I don't see those things as being an issue. Jagex has long had the cash to buy the power to run just about any code they'd like at more than enough speed to keep everyone happy - as long as they were willing to spend the money on it! Yes... lag has been a serious issue on and off for years. This too has been somewhat perplexing because memory and computing power should be a non-issue due to the available funds. What am I talking about? Spent cash = real world computing power and all the memory you'll ever need. Since that's an entirely different subject though... I'll leave it for another day other than to say once again that I don't believe removing content is necessary from a standpoint of speed and space. If they're having that much of a problem with it, we'll soon see quest after quest disappear to make room for new content - that I don't buy for a second. As for why what is being done in regard to quest removal.... is being done... I'd say that the author was also right on that too. Whoever owns the controlling interest in Jagex (or at least in Runescape as a game) are the ones calling the shots and yes, it's obvious they're determined to squeeze cash out of Runescape and all the old rules have gone out the window. If they deem old content needs to go in order to attract new players, then that's exactly what they'll do. Just like we've seen the introduction of micro-transactions and content only available through a download (the Chrome O/S for the goggles) or by wasting cash on membership cards to gain fancy looking but otherwise worthless items... they're bound to do anything if they think they'll gain more cash. That might mean dumping beloved characters or quests or even entire sections of the current game map. There is no limit... because what they say goes. They own the game and there is no way around it. The trend for the future seems to be to expect the unexpected... and that we all should count on even more change. Some may be for the better, some may be for the worse. All we can do is hope for the better and if we feel up for it? Protest on the official Runescape forums. That's just about the only way to vocalize displeasure... other than to write editorials or a response to one on a fan site :smile: Comments, constructive criticism or suggestions to my response are welcome, as usual. -Spanked (back from the dead!)

This article response is strictly to "In Hindsight..." and has nothing to do with the other. WARNING: if you have the attention span of a gnat - don't bother starting to read. My response is LONG thus the simple or dull minded will get bored easily. From now on, "RS" refers to Runescape. "BPW" refers to Bonus Points Weekend. Regular acromyns apply. My first thought, upon seeing the title was something along the lines of "Well that's a great big batch of DUUUUUH!!". The pattern was clear after the SECOND bonus points weekend. Sure, one could argue that there's no rule that says Jagex must now have a bonus points weekend twice a year nor that each one should come around 6 months after the prior like clockwork. Jagex themselves stated clearly after the first ever BPW that they may or may not do it again. I seem to recall them saying the same thing after the second too. For all I know, they even said the same thing after the third... I wasn't even paying attention at that point because I (along with a multitude of other players) predicted exactly what week it was when the next Jagex announcement would come rolling down the pipe for the ensuing BPW. Some even guessed the exact date (I missed it by one... and lost a load of sharkies in a bet to a fellow player... whoops!). In any case, it was totally obvious to anyone with a brain bigger than the size of a pea as to what to expect as far as I'm concerned . If you failed to plan ahead... well, I'm not going to mock you but I won't feel sorry for you either. You should have known better. New players being the exception, naturally. Yes... unfortunately, the pattern is clear now... and that Jagex seems to be willing to keep it up indefinitely. Just how long "indefinitely" will really prove to be is anyone's guess... but most players I know have decided that it will most likely be a regular thing from now on for a variety of reasons. In fact, I started preparing for the second BPW after the first one was finished on purpose... just in case. It was easy to do. How so? Instead of converting my herbs and seconds into pots as soon as I gained them... I started saving them instead. Ditto for items like Coal and Maple logs and other things I'd normally use up right away or sell off right away. My logic was that even if I saved all my herbs (and other merchable items) for an entire year then it would be a huge advantage to me to do so. All I had to do was plan out my method of pot making & in what order and I could gain the most exp from the next BPW. If there was no next BPW in the next year? I lost nothing... other than some bank space for the herbs and other items. After all, I could always convert the materials to finished pots at any time I so chose to do so be there a BPW or no BPW. I could also always sell my merchable items when it was to my advantage as well. I had plenty of cash to hoard them, so why not do it? It made sense. What was the result of my planning? It was twofold. I gained mass exp in Herblore and scored a 99 long before I actually ran out of pots to combine into extremes. I also made out like a bandit as a merch noob. Since I carefully bought secondary ingredients when prices were at a low average on the GE, I was guaranteed a healthy profit when reselling during the frenzy over the final two days before that BPW started. How much did I make? I won't say... but here's an example. I made 400 million from merching zammy wines alone. I sold them for 5500 each. No, that's not a typo... FIFTY FIVE HUNDRED EACH. If I had known what was coming, I wouldn't have been conservative in my merching either. Mort Myre Fungus went for 3300 each as another example. That seems crazy after the last BPW we just had... when you could buy MMF for as little as 143 ea. But what happened... happened and all I did was use my brain and go with the flow. What it all meant to me was a huge success in both areas. I attained 99 Herblore and made loads of cash too. You could also say I made loads of cash off the pots too... but I kept them all rather than dump them onto the market. Some players didn't believe me when I told them how much I made... except for those that were smart enough to hoard items like me. They also made out like bandits so they knew the truth. Speaking of loads of cash... on this last BPW we saw the result of the continuity of a BPW every 6 months. Since it was totally expected this time around (and even the most lame brained players knew it)... bot users were in high gear the whole time. So were merchers, hoping to cash in. The result? I don't think ANYONE cashed in this time around... as prices crashed and they crashed hard. In fact, as was mentioned in the article, this year... the smart thing to do would have been to buy up a mass of supplies AFTER the BPW was over. From a cash perspective... that would have been the smart thing to do both as a player desiring to level up in a skill AND as a mercher. Did anyone see the reality coming? I doubt it... but I bet a few smart players guessed correctly and have done well. Or should I say... WILL do well once they sell. There are always a few who guess right - it's the same on Wall Street in real life as it is on Runescape in fantasyland. Some win, some lose. One might bring up the question of whether or not what has happened was by design... the design of Jagex. That's an issue best left unspoken at this time... my article is already rapidly expanding. I will say though that if that's true, all they did was support cheaters IMNSHO. Now... let us get back to that whole bot thing... yeah, you knew I was going back there. You so totally did! Jagex has effectively created yet another monster. Yes, I said it and I'll keep saying it. We all already know they're intent on doing squat about bots so let's not go there - we don't need to and the reasons why are irrelevant. But a BPW effects all of us non-cheaters in a HUGE way... whether we like it or not. How so? Cheaters (be they players trying to gain cash and/or easy points in a skill or simple gold farmers who sell it for real world cash) have a huge incentive... to cheat more now than ever. Oh yes. I said it and I'll keep on saying it. They have a HUGE REASON TO CHEAT YEAR ROUND, NOW SO MORE THAN EVER. Call it an unintended consequence... and that may or may not be true... but it is the new reality. Sarcastically I say to all who are reading, "Gee thanks Jagex. You freaking noobs! You've screwed it up even worse than it was before". In all seriousness... sometimes I swear all they do is sit around trying to think up new and ingenious ways to screw up the Runescape economy or screw over the average joe player. You know... players like me. Players that are not Runescape addicts... fame seekers... or cheaters. We play for fun and friendship. Runescape is a GAME... and it is SUPPOSED to be FUN. It's not a contest. Not a way to seek glory or bragging rights. And it certainly should never be about money. Either for Jagex or real world traders that use it as such a device. The integrity of the game must be 100% absolute. PERIOD. Yes, I understand Jagex is a business... and a pretty big one at that. However, we're still talking about a GAME folks. What went from the desk in a room at the parents house in the basement to a company of 400+ in its own complex is now a monster in and of itself. The brothers G let it get that way... and they certainly didn't stop collecting the membership money. Money that has now made them both richer than the average joe will EVER get. That money... is probably why their involvememt is limited. They're out enjoying that same money on things other than the game IRL. By the same turn... I should still be getting the same bang for my buck as I used to get. I should get a game without cheaters... one that's FUN to play IRL. In other words... both the brothers AND all of us should be enjoying life. The bottom line here is that if the trend continues, BPW will do nothing but continue to be a greater and greater threat to the RS economy thus causing average joe players like me to think again and again as to why we should bother to continue playing. I'm already on the edge... and am close to selling off and going back to F2P. For the third time. The worse it gets... the closer I come to deciding to jump off the P2P side and over the fence onto the F2P side. I've done it before... two times for 3 years total out of the last 10 that Runescape has been in existence. In fact, all 3 in the last 5 when the nightmare got really bad. Yes, I came back AFTER free trade and the Wild (in regards to PvP) were eliminated as an example but then Jagex reversed course and look what has transpired... it's the nightmare scenario all over again and it's even worse. Now? I wish Jagex ditched free trade permanently. It has been the only action that worked thus far against cheaters. Sure, it didn't eliminate them but it certainly helped a lot and that cannot be argued. What's another solution...? It's been brought up before but I'll spit it out again anyway. Make players decide on one of two selections: free trade servers or no trade servers. Permanently. If you're on the free trade servers, you never get to piss, moan, complain or whine about anything related to free trade, merching, item costs or the GE. If you're on the no trade side? You get the benefits of being there and have a lot more room to [bleep]. I know how that suggestion will go over... but it was... just a suggestion. Don't get the undies in a bunch. I also realize the technical problems it'll cause too but that is also another entire article so I'll stop now and not go off on that tangent. So... at the end of the day... what do I have to say about a future BPW? I say do NOT eliminate them. However, Jagex should do a few things before continuing them. Here's my laundry list: 01) Consider doing them once a year instead of twice... but flip a coin as to whether or not any given year gets a BPW. If Jagex brass chooses twice a year, flip the coin twice. Some years may get two... others will get ZERO. The idea is being unpredictable and nobody will know just how long it will be... for the next one. 02) Only do a BPW at random on the calendar... in other words, don't make the date predictable. Write a simple program to determine the date. It won't be tough. You can even toss 365 marked cards into a box and pull one at random after you give the box a good stirring. For about an hour. Do whatever works... just do it! 03) Don't make the number of BPWs in any given year "public" inside Jagex HQ. I cannot stand it when a JMOD that's friendly with certain players or fansites lets information "slip out". That's not fair to the rest of us. If the top handful of Jagex suits knows and participates, that's all that needs to be done. Well, as long as THEY don't let anything slip out. If one has loose lips, give them the Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden?!? EXCELLENT!! 04) Don't make the DATE of any randomly drawn BPWs "public" inside Jagex HQ. For the same reasons listed as on number 3 above. 05) Announce a BPW a mere 24 hours before it happens. No arguments. I can hear the outcry & rage already... but that's too bad. They should be completely unpredictable and how much you bank in advance and for how long if you're trying to predict a BPW should be something that's tough to do. For everyone. 06) If the randomness means that a pair of BPWs will be a very short time apart, make it so. Even if those weekends are literally back to back. Let the coin tosses and dates fall where they may... no matter what. It's all about the integrity of Mr. Random and Dr. Murphy Law! Murphy... man i hate that guy :-( 07) Include F2P and get it over with. F2P bot users & RWTers already sell collected items on the G E anyway... so why not let legitimate F2Pers have some fun too? Unless you separate F2P GE transactions from P2P GE transactions... you're doing nothing but punishing the legitimate players. That... is unacceptable. Stop making them feel like third class citizens. They already get the shaft as it is. More like... multiple shafts. 08) Consider putting a max on collecting certain items. Yes, I'm referring to how many you can have stuffed in the bank. Jagex already regulates how many items can be bought & sold in an "X" number of hours as it is... so why not make it so that no one player can flood the market with 2 trillion of one type of item or more all at one shot? I'm sure there will be arguments and rage about that too... but there was rage about the GE from day one and we all got used to it. This will be no different... and the ragers will ultimately stop raging and just play. 09) Last, but not least... consider tying how many of an item any player can have banked to their skill level. Yes, I know this will cause another uproar or raging... all I'm doing is putting forth an idea. Aside from making it harder for low level bot users, it will help stabilize the market somewhat. Which is mostly why I made the suggestion to begin with. Obviously, it's hard for me to say what anyone will think of my response. I'm sure it'll be a love/hate thing. Some will love it, some will hate it and everyone else will fall into the wide area between those two extremes. All the above are my thoughts... that's all they are. Yes, I did try to keep it short but I could have gone on a real writing rampage and branched out greatly so be thankful it's as short as it it. Comments and criticism welcome. As long as it is constructive. Thanks for reading and best wishes! -Spanked

In their article "The Christmas Item Over the Christmas Experience", ForsakenMage wrote, in part: > While participating in the event, it was to my dismay that I found a number of people wishing that the items were tradeable so that they made make money off the event. There's the greed factor kicking in. What I think is that those who wish for these items to be tradable hope for one of two things: 1) There is some money involved so it's "worth" doing the holiday event. A lot of players are just looking for some cash... even 25-50K. 2) Other players are hoping to cash in over the long run ala PHATs. They would collect up as many items as they can in the present day in the hopes that after a few years into the future they'll have billions in the bank for doing nothing other than collecting some items in the past. Ironically, I remember players DROPPING party hats on the ground or dumping them into the general store in the weeks after they originally came out... nobody knew what was coming down the road. Wild to think about it huh? > Some may remember that in previous years, holiday events were holiday item drops that initially only happened once in one day, eventually changing to every few hours. Those items dropped were tradeable and became our discontinued items today. Jagex had changed how holiday events worked because it was simply not in the holiday spirit to have players selling the items that was meant to be for fun. I believe that if Jagex ever saw what was coming (and they should have!) then they never would have made those items tradeable in the first place. Ironically... they could have done something to correct the ever escalating value of those items along time ago... but chose on purpose NOT to. Sure, some of the solutions might have made a few players upset at the time but the bottom line is that they could have and should have fixed the problem way back when. They let the monster get so big that it became too late to do anything about it. Well... they STILL could... but it would enrage a lot more players now than it would have way back when. Though I'd love to see them re-drop PHATs all over again and destroy the rares market thus pinching the merch noobs hard. > Despite these changes, the holiday spirit still hasn't kicked in. Some players may more often than not ignore the cries for help on how to complete the holiday quest, or ignore inquiries about where they got the holiday items to begin with. This, to me, is laughable... and the problem is that the players who cry simply don't do what it takes to find out what to do when the event is released... which is as simple as READING THE INFO FOUND ON THE HOME PAGE WHEN THE UPDATE HITS!! DUH!!! As for the event itself, I liken it to a quest. You can either read a guide or watch a Youtube video after someone posts one and snooze your way through it as quickly as possible... OR take the time to figure it out for yourself and take pride in your accomplishment. MNSHO is that there are far too many crybabies in the world that get everything handed to them on a silver platter... and it's pathetic. I choose to NOT tell anyone about anything other than where to find the starting point of the event if they ask. I figure stuff out, so can they. > It appears the overall event doesn't get the Christmas spirit out of some of the players. We forget to have a bit of fun and enjoyment of each others' company. ROFL! I think you're forgetting who you're talking about. When it comes to the majority of all Runescape players, they're kids. At Christmas... for kids? It'a all ME-ME-ME. Gimme-Gimme-Gimme! Mine-Mine-Mine!! What were you expecting? > Perhaps we need to rethink the idea of how we should celebrate the holidays. Maybe we don't need items to complete the event, although they are admittedly a great incentive to participate. All we need is to find a reason why we should celebrate the holiday. Maybe we could have something like the Brimhaven Agility Arena, but without the tickets, but maybe keep the experience points to at least provide some sort of incentive to come and spend time with others. Or maybe make it similar to other mini-games requiring teamwork. However, it's just a lot of ideas floating around. Items are fun, but not if we're obsessed with thinking about how we can profit from it, or wishing we can profit from it. Quests are fun, but it feels like people are just trying to get them done for the sake of getting them done. We need something more engaging with other players, and experience may just be the way to help us get some of the holiday spirit back. Funny you brought this up. Personally, I would love to see Jagex ditch the traditional style of event for once... and instead have an event that lasted 2 or 3 weeks straight that had some sort of competitiveness to it... with a great big batch of humor tossed in to make it cheerful. How? Well... I thought of several things such as: 1) Gnome Ice Hockey... it could be humans versus the gnome all-stars or PvP with humans going team versus team. You could take 5 or 6 player teams and have them compete for prizes, items or cash by playing ice hockey on a new ice hockey arena. There could be a scoreboard... and a tournament for the top teams. The gnomes could heckle the players based on whether they were winning or losing... of course. And Jagex could also have teams of other NPCs such as demons, elves, trolls or whoever. Perhaps there could be levels of difficulty? Elves could be ranked 10... Gnomes a frisky 5 and Imps a lame numero uno. 2) There could also be a sled or toboggan course... with players pitting their skills against each other or NPCs such as Rudolph, Santa, some elves, random NPCs from around Runescape or whatever. That way you wouldn't need to be on a team but you could participate anyway. Like the Gnome Ice Hockey, there could be PvP with a top scorers table, best times, most style points scored and so on. They could even make it more exciting by making the course randomized all the time... so no player could memorize any of them nor publish guides or videos of what to do or how to "max out" times or scores. 3) Gnomeboarding... yes, I mean clamp on your gnomeboard because there's a new half-pipe in town! Hit the snowboard course in the Penguin Realm and compete for points as you blaze your trail while criss-crossing the snow covered half pipe. While hamming it up with e-motes may gain you points, going too far will cause you to wipe out necessitating a rescue by those little tuxedo clad spies from the North. 4) They could also set up an arena in Varrock square (or wherever) for snowball fights like a mini-Castle Wars game... only instead of using the normal game play by capturing a flag and constantly slaughtering off oponents, you would snowball fight your way to victory by burying other players or collapsing their snow "forts". Skills & levels would mean nothing as your success would depend entirely on your own savvy and talent in figuring out how to win... be it by the most successful pelts on as many players as possible, the most "buries", the most fort collapses and so on. Jagex could program a random playfield for every game, make random pit traps... avalanches, ice lightning "strikes" (temporarily freezing players as they rampaged around in the maze) and so on... all there so that you never knew what was coming and once again so that nobody could memorize the playfield. They could do hilarious stuff like have Jad crawl up out of the TzHaar city for "Jad versus Human" style team smackdowns... who knew Jad loved snowball fights?!?... and he could mock all comers AS HE PUMMELS THEM DOWN WITH SNOWBALLS of all things. Who would see that coming? Nobody! I can envision it now... Jad mocking you as you become buried under the barrage of snowball fire, "Spanked, is that all the better that you can do? You throw like a LITTLE GIRL!" or "That fat guy called Santa puts up a bigger fight than you!". Of course Jagex could use other famous... or infamous NPCs as well. Think King Roald is snooty? Challenge his highness and a few of his elite guards to a brawl in the snow arena! Woot! Like the other events, for the PvP contests and hiscores table, they could have the teams set in advance (players would opt-in for teams they wanted to be on so that friends could play together) and conduct contests with official points scoring. Have a separate hiscores table from the skills table that only lasts for the duration of the event... with the final hiscores table being permanently published somewhere in the game manual... and prizes could be awarded for the top teams and especially for teams that competed against the other top teams. Wow... it could even be something as cool as normal teams with regular Runescape players versus Jagex Moderators for bragging rights! Wooo-Hooo! Make it something like... 1024 or 2048 total teams in an elimination tournament over the last 3 days with several Jagex teams being involved... randomly placed in the brackets. Or perhaps the JMODs could just randomly challenge other teams pre-tournament? Sounds tasty. Overall, it may sound complicated... but in all reality, it may not take that much to set up and do. Talk about the Jagex Cup... they could have the Runescape Winter Olympics or the Jagex Winter Cup! The best part of the deal? They could do it EVERY year for a small 2-3 week period. As long as the games were relatively short in duration (say, 5 mins max time per contest) and fun... it could be a big hit. And since it was year to year... you could always have a chance to be named champion or dethrone the previous year's champs. What I would love to see the most is Jagex programming it so that you could watch the final tournament snowball fights (or other contests) in the official tournament of champions... that way you could watch the JMODs go down to us normal schmucks live and in real time. Not that we'd spend much time heckling them... of course. Nooooo. We'd NEVER do that! Bottom line here? Many players may just be sick of a new e-mote here and there... along with some clothes that they may or may not ever wear again (I didn't see too many Santa suits from last year being worn by anyone this year for example!). Maybe it's time to really give the players something new and exciting to try? Like Dennis the Snow Imp stated during this year's event when I finished it... maybe we should go invade Scourge's house and blast away in some snowball fights... but do it when it actually mean something? Maybe Jagex could set up some meaningful tournaments for those of us that would be interested in such a thing...? I think it could be awesome and the best thing that ever happened on a Christmas in Runescape! Other than a re-drop of Santa Hats... of course :-P -Spanked PS For those that can't stand the huge crowds on the first day or two or three... remember that you have a LOT of time to complete the event. I waited until after Christmas... and took some awesome screen shots with NOBODY around to mess up my pics. Goto the event now and it will most likely be a ghost town on slow servers. I think the event closes on January 11th... holy cow!

I've recently jumped back onto Runescape after about a 9 month sabatical. I had scored a new job and moved... so playing Runescape wasn't a priority during that time. However, I'm back on and I have utilized Rune Tips again many times as I normally do from day to day since the info found is the best. Here's the deal: I have a silly question... or a few silly questions... since I missed out on the information when it came out, apparently back in July. - Where is the original posting made by Jagex stating that they were looking for volunteers to be player moderators? - Can anyone point me to a QFC for the official RS forums? - Are there any other official threads discussing this topic on the RS forums? - Is it even open anymore or is it closed? Perhaps they took it down or locked it (I looked at the news archives but I didn't see anything for an official announcement) as I'm sure that they were flooded with requests by all manner of power hungry F2P noobs so that would be entirely plausible! Anyway, if anyone can help by pointing out what I've obviously failed to find, that would be great. ------------------------------------ As for the article itself, my experience with player mods is that while some are extremely helpful, others are not. I think it boils down to individual personality & maturity... and I'd say that there are probably all types out there in PMOD Land just like there is everywhere else in life. As for them going downhill, I would have to agree based on my own experience with them. When I first started playing back at the tail end of RSC days, I noticed that PMODs generally speaking would quickly move to take care of problems as soon as they cropped up. And they were usually fairly mature... it wasn't hard to tell based on their words and actions. For example, if someone was attempting to pull a scam like the old "I'll trim your armor for 5K" scam, the PMODs would tell the offender that if they didn't cease scamming instantly, they would be muted. And then they'd do it if the offender failed to comply. They'd also often world hop to chase down scammers or return after 5 mins to double check a scammer... which would often shut up until after the PMOD left the area only to recommence scamming. Overall, most PMODs just seemed helpful, competent and decent. And they also policed each other as well. Eventually though, it seemed PMODs simply didn't care about ANYTHING going on around them that was blatantly against the rules... including not doing anything about obvious bots cut-cut-cutting away at some Yew trees or fishing at a local fishing hole. Oh... but it gets even better than that. Read on. Sometimes the PMODs themselves would simply not tell the truth by passing on blatantly bad information OR they would effectively send unknowledgable or inexperienced players on what amounted to being a Noob Quest. In fact, I once got myself into a short arguement with a PMOD after I spoke out against what they were telling another player when I was banking. In all actuality, the reason I spoke up is because what they were telling the other player was completely false so I said so. What did I get for speaking out? I got what appeared to be a snot nosed brat telling me that I was the one who was wrong and that they knew they were right and the fact they were a PMOD proved it. Mmm-K. Yeah. Since it became apparent rather rapidly I was in a conversation with a child, literally so, I terminated the conversation and walked out of the bank... being followed half way to the next building down the street by this PMOD spitting fire since I dared question their authority or knowledge. Ironically, I back doored my way to the other player by adding them as a friend and private messaging them so I could tell them the truth without being interuppted. They didn't believe me at first... but I challenged them to do something really simple: try it both ways, mine and the PMOD way. That would show them who was right and who was wrong. Weeks later, I ran across them in the bank again... and they told me that it was super cool of me to tell them the truth and they did in fact look at both sides of the story to see what was what. They used my information to make up their own mind rather than just doing what the PMOD told them to do. The point here isn't that I was right... nor that I am all knowledgeable and the master of all I survey. The point is that PMODs are often massively inexperienced and in real life are CHILDREN. My not so humble opinion is that children have no buisiness being in charge of anything, including their own set of Lego blocks. They simply don't have the capacity to deal with complex issues, look at the big picture or engage in a serious, competent conversation with an ADULT. Especially when you're talking about complex equations to calculate costs/effects in skilling or when dealing with complex adult issues that some adults talk about in the bowels of a dungeon somewhere when they're just playing the game. Take a hot button topic... such as homosexuality and now you're really in peril. You might get black marked just because you speak out against homosexuality... just because some brainwashed 11 year old reports you because they don't agree with your opinion. Think that wouldn't happen? Think again because it has. Jagex is politically correct... that should be obvious based on their stance regarding sexual "orientation". It doesn't end there though... I was once given a black mark for "language" when all I was doing was talking normally to another adult (34 year old mom of 3 kids) about a rather mature issue. Unfortunately, another player (PMOD) came into range of us and decided that what we were talking about was "offensive" and reported it. Had I noticed that other player sooner... we would have stopped talking about what we were talking about until they left. Ironically, the PMOD never said anything to us directly... didn't even come within 16-20 squares of territory... they just reported from a distance. How did I know it was a PMOD and that they were the reporter? I looked at the "proof" of the offense and figured out based on the text. It wsa obvious who I was talkingto and where we were at the time... and that the only other player around was that PMOD. To me, it was pathetic that I was ever reported in the first place and my adult friend agreed. Interestingly, I couldn't believe that she too didn't get a black mark, something she also commented on. Part of the problem also is that in real life, a kid standing in front of an adult will generally behave because they know there are repercussions for bad behavior. If a kid spit out vile language to me the way they do in Runescape or smarted off they way they often do, I'd smack them so hard their teeth would rattle. The point is that children behave differently when they know there will be consequences for what they do. Kids on Runescape can spout out just about anything and get away with it day and night. They also have no accountability... if they scam IRL, their parents bust them when they catch them pulling something unacceptable. On Runescape, nothing happens unless they just happen to get caught by the largely ineffective RS machine that's in place to prevent bad or unacceptable behavior. That's why I'm a big proponent of adults only servers. Yes... I came up with that idea years ago and I'm sure others did too. The irony there is that Jagex did make a couple of servers that require minimum levels... according to what I read in the archives... but that's not a real solution. It may prevent some things such as those that choose to advertise websites or scam while using low level characters... but it still doesn't isolate the kiddies from the serious adults that just like to play and want to be where there are no snotty kids OR be on a server where they can freely converse without having to worry that some immature kid will report them because they're "offended"... even if they cannot say why they're "offended". Proving your age by showing your ID will go a long way towards eliminating many of the problems. Since it would be voluntary, it would be 100% above board and nobody could complain about it either... and the adults would be able to play on a server that was acceptable to them and meet their needs. If Jagex chose to, they could even make "Free-For-All" servers where there would be no rules on language... in other words - censor free. If you chose to go on that server then you would choose to accept to see the vile garbage spouted by vile idiots. Other servers would have a censor... but would allow adults to engage in conversations about serious topics that kids would largely not understand. I think we all get it... the ideal is that we would be responsible for ourselves and that all players would be closer to being on the same page when playing. After all, no adult wants to be under the rule of a 6th grader that has a god complex. Well, I think that's a long enough rant for now... I do hope that someone, anyone can answer my original questions. Thanks! -Spanked

I remember getting off the noob boat from Tut Island... being in front of the Castle in Lumby... and doing nothing but remembering the words about that dreaded realm known as THE WILD!! Since I didn't know where it was except for the fact that it was to the North, I would move but a few squares at a time to the North while waiting for someone to lay into me. Little did I know... I was a scardy cat by the Goblin Hut and the Lumby cow pen for nothing! ROFL! I saw the store... but had my whopping 25 coins and I couldn't afford anything that I thought was worth getting anyway. I figured out real fast I needed armor and weapons but didn't have the cash to buy any nor the skills to make some so I decided to earn cash as I figured out how. I watched other players take on Goblins and spiders... so I did too. Fortunately, I didn't croak... and was thrilled to get a Bronze Sq. I eventually spotted an Iron Dagger on the floor of the Goblin Hut... snagged that and was happy all over again. I was a fool at first, sold off the runes I got for peanuts to the store rather than use them. Yes, I also sold off a ton of noob junk too while trying to earn cash. I also didn't know how to switch attack modes... so my Defense remained at one for a LONG time as did my strength. I didn't know I should be burying bones like a madman... so my Prayer level was low too. Crap, I was such a noooooobster! Eventually, I decided to wander around further away and learn the lay of the land. I had no clue where anything was and I didn't know all the areas of F2P like I do now. I remember getting pissed as hell as I wandered around while trying to use that totally worthless noob map... that thing needs to be taken out of the game. I think it's far more confusing and non-helpful than it is worthwhile, even though the noob programmers at Jagex updated it. I also remember trying to figure out where a bank was... and I finally wandered to the Varrock West mining pit. I wandered into town... found a bank (cannot remember which one!) and then started wandering around some more. I got back down by Lumby and slayed some cows for food. I cut a few logs to make fires to cook the meat... etc. I had no clue that all I needed to do for cash was to collect hides and sell them in the bank for 100 coins each... wow would that have been a big help! After a few hours of playing and being really frustrated, I logged off. In the coming week, I basically learned how to make a little cash, I did some mining and I got used to where I was going though I never did wander up to the Wild (probably a good thing too!). I remember thinking to myself that seeing those other players in Black, Mith and Addy armor was a big deal... that they were so tough and that they must have been playing FOREVER to get all that money. I also marveled some at the levels... I remember seeing another player with level 100 combat for the first time... and thinking to myself that I would NEVER get that high. Little did I know... little did I know! I don't remember exactly when or how I first died but I think it was a mugger that nailed me. Must have been on day 2 or 3. I do know when I first died that I was over by the runes shop in Varrock so it must have been a mugger. He swooped out of knowhere on me and I thought I was going to take him... got ahead by 2 or 3 points... then started going downhill. 2 other players started shouting to run... but I didn't and ended up dead. By the time I tried to run, I was walking away, fumbling to switch to run when the mugger got me for 3 straight hits. Down I went along with about 1200 coins and some noob items I had gotten. I was saddened... very saddened. Yes, I kept my 3 things but my cash was gone. That really hurt. It's funny how back then you think 100 coins is HUGE... then 1000 coins... then 5000 coins then 10000 coins and so on. I was clueless that 1200 in coins is nothing. Well, it is to a total noob but not to players that have been playing for a week or more! I was soooo clueless how anything worked in the game. I had no idea what items to get that were worth cash, how to make cash fast and at a steady pace or how to merchant. I didn't even know about quests or how to range or mage worth a damn either. Eventually, I discovered that doing quests was smart, I learned how to cast spells after making some runes (doing the Rune Mysteries quest was a big deal!) and I also learned all the controls and how to take "noted" items out of the bank. I still laugh at my noobishness for that... but how was I supposed to know? Looking back, I realize how lost I was... and how much of an advantage it is to have friends that play. You can learn soooo much faster from each other and having someone to back you up as well as learn stuff with is invaluable. Since I found Runescape literally by accident, I had no friend(s) to rely on and it cost me greatly at first. I was about as much of a noob as being a noob gets. I wasn't a bad noob, I was just a noob that didn't know anything. I can be proud of the fact that I never EVER begged for anything... and that I am almost all self taught. I didn't even know about the RS fansites for the first 3-4 months... until I figured out that there must be some online websites and I should search for them. Gee, imagine my surprise when I found Rune Tips and read about how to make an Air Tiara. Imagine my surprise when I learned that I should have done all the quests except for Dragon Slayer and Vampire Slayer before level 5 combat??? I could have shot up to a minimum level of 29 Smithing by simply doing the Knight's Sword quest. I worked Bronze until about level 35 the HARD way. Ouch!!! Oh well... what's a noob to do? All in all, I look back and I too remember that it was exciting... for the most part. There were some times I was so frustrated that I would have slapped the Gower brothers so hard that they would have both landed in the middle of the next week but oh well. I did have fun and found the game to be addictive for a long time. That wore off like it does for most people but I found new challenges in the game. Yup, I also got into the Wild too and I remember the first time I got attacked. Some noob tried to take me out and I basically walked from level 12 Wild to safety while he was wailing away on me to no avail. While I eventually got killed out in the Wild by another player, I learned that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be at first. The fear I had on day one wasn't justified at all... though I realize I was more fearful of finding myself in it and not knowing where to go to get out than I was of being there. That happened to me when I wandered down into the sewer at Draynor and got taken out by a Skeleton... but that's another story for another time. At least I learned to ALWAYS remember how to go back from where I came from :wall:

I believe The Old Nite's son controls his account since he passesd away, that might have something to do with it.