RuneScape Discussion

Runescape has been busy as always, and we have two amazing articles this issue. First, we have The Year of Freeplay? by Xela, which talks about all of the changes for Freeplay, which has been a lot compared to the past few years. Second, we have The Runescape Revamp by Desireful, which talks about the new CEO, Mark Gerhard. Until next time, enjoy those updates!

~ Dr Skull

The Year of Freeplay? - By: Xela

December 10th, 2007. A day that shook the Runescape world, bringing the end of an era for the PKers of the wildy, and ceasing unbalanced trade for all new accounts, with current accounts being given a deadline of January 1st before they too were shackled with trade restrictions. In the aftermath of this great change, huge riots formed on certain worlds with vast amounts of pkers shouting "No PK No Pay". I was personally a bystander in Falador of world 66, using the fast free laws service in its dying days, while the great riots spread. People were handing out pink and blue skirts all over the map, and all of the major cities were crowded with protesters trying to get a message through to Jagex that they wanted their wilderness back.

While these riots carried on, a large proportion of the population were enjoying a new update: the freeplayers. For the first time, the freeplayers were given a minigame in the duel arena, along with the new bounty hunter and clan wars games. Team capes became the latest fashion item and were worn by everyone, filling up the extra bank space that was also added on a day that is mostly remembered as being a terrible day for all players. Is this not the vocal minority's opinion as we so often see in RS history?

In came 2008, and the traditional yearly freeplay update came in the form of the Stronghold of Player Safety, which people assumed, at the time, as being the only thing that the freeplayers would get, as they had what was believed to be the only replacement for the old wildy.

Fist of Guthix brought a new PvP minigame to members and freeplayers alike, providing fun for lots of players and signalling the start of Jagex's scheme for restoring full PvP to the old PKers who were still unhappy with the offerings of Bounty Hunter and Clan Wars. This however brought a change in the update schedule for freeplayers, breaking the usual schedule of one update a year. Players dismissed it as being part of the reconciliation for the removal of PKing.

The Lumbridge and Draynor achievement diary also brought the previously members only diaries to the masses. This proving that freeplay were certainly getting a bumper year and giving them a better taste of the members life than the doomed to fail Gnomecopters that were an obvious advert for membership.

Then came the big one - the graphics update. In what was the biggest update since RS1 became RS2 every player gained the improved graphics that brought RS into the 21st century. Although it was always assumed that freeplayers would get the new graphics, it was by no means guaranteed but once again they came out with something new to enjoy.

The Runecrafting Guild came in August, providing yet another minigame to the freeplayers along with more staves and some assorted other items that soon became fashion items among the freeplay community. This provided another much needed way to train the most difficult skill in the game, but especially so in freeplay.

Finally, in the last replacement for the old wilderness, PvP worlds brought in a new era and possibly a final replacement for old PKing. The whole world became a battle and perhaps it was the greatest one yet. Players still complained about the drops being wrong and the losses they could face for the smallest of rewards, but it brought new armour in the corrupt dragon set and a new way to play and enjoy.

The holiday events are now even bigger with the new quests. We can see how the usual yearly update has been done many times over last year, and all because of the removal of the wilderness. Some may say this is too much of a price, but as a freeplayer who never used it anyway, I can but hope that this stream of updates keeps on flowing.

So, December 10th. Perhaps a day that changed the world, but also the start of the year of freeplay.

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The Runescape Revamp - By: Desireful

This year, RuneScape has a brand new, top of the line CEO that everyone is taking a liking too. He is taking free player and member suggestions to make Jagex a whole lot better. He started off by introducing himself on February 9, 2009 to the fans of Jagex games. His name is Mark Gerhard. He wants the company to be more open and to have feedback from their players to improve the game.

To prove his point he gave this example in "The Future of RuneScape":

"A good example of this is that a lot of free players told us they found our video adverts before the game annoying to the point it was putting them off playing, so we've scrapped them with immediate effect. We now appreciate that it can be frustrating having to sit through a video advert when you just want to play RuneScape, so we have to put our hands up to admit we made a mistake and say that we're sorry. To be completely candid with you, video adverts generate significantly more revenue than other adverts, but as one of our fundamental philosophies is that having fun is more important to us than making as much money as possible, we have removed video adverts from the game."

Jagex is also going to return to the old Development Diaries, except now on a more daily basis. These will replace the monthly Behind the Scenes. Another benefit is that they will be releasing more content, more than we expected. (Quite a shock, right?)

Some players describe the free play portion of the game as a "trial" or "demo". Mark disagrees. He said in his introduction, "We see the members’ version as an expansion pack for those that really love the game." It seems they are planning to improve and expand the free game and make it as fun as possible for all those who can't become members.

With recent updates, like the recent bank update where you can deposit all that's in your inventory, all that's in your inventory, and all that you're wearing just by the push of a button! Most players are enjoying all this fresh content from Jagex.

But the thing that tops off any CEO that has ever been CEO of Jagex is that he wanted questions from the players. He has thousands of questions to go through, and has a team, including himself, who are answering all the questions about Mark and the game. You can see his progress in the news posts with a title that is somewhere along the lines of "RuneScape Q&A". Be sure to check these questions out to learn a little bit more about Jagex, RuneScape, Mark Gerhard, and whatever other little tid-bits are included.

Even though we are just a mere several months into the year, some feel that 2009 is going to have quite a few of "action-packed" updates to RuneScape, along with a new game that is rumored to be released very soon, MechScape.

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