Runescape Free Trade is Back - and so is Wilderness

I am soooo super happy that Runescape Free Trade is Back - and so is Wilderness. You may have noticed from the bank picture below that I have a lot of items I could trade so this is a big plus for me.

Of course, this will mean changes in the way people play the game. Cheaters will no doubt increase since you can now steal items form other Runescape players.

I think that the pros outweigh the cons though.

IMO, free trade is a very good thing since not all of us need to have our hands held to protect us from the harsh reality of scammers.

Wilderness being back is also good but lately I have not been doing much combat. If it does become more popular though maybe pk supplies will go up in price. This would be good for skillers.

Personally, I have always maintained that removing free trade and wildy killed a lot of fun from Runescape. I see now that I was right and that even Jagex agrees.

*basks in the feeling of being right*

Meili's Runescape Bank - Blue Partyhat and Rare Items Worth Billions

People have asked me what happened to all those partyhats I'm wearing in the pictures on my Runescape classic website.

I had quite a few holiday items which are now discontinued. I had the complete set of partyhats with multiples of all colors except blue. I also had multiples of the other holiday items, except for crackers because I had pulled all of mine during the Christmas 2001 drop.

Here's the video of what I have now:

Not bad, huh?

WoW returns items for hacked accounts, why can't Runescape?

As a matter of policy, Jagex will not return your items if you should be unlucky enough to be "hacked." If some jerk is able to log into your char by various means, either keylogging, scamming, guessing your password, etc., then that's tough for you. Jagex customer service will help you get your account access back but they will not return your items.

"Our policy is to never return lost items to players that have been scammed." [Source: http://www.runescape.com/kbase/guid/scamming_prevention_guide]

Well, that is just so sweet of you, Jagex. Nice to know that you treat your customers like crap and do not offer any real support for your game. Although the previous link mentions only scamming, they also have the same policy for players who lost items due to someone gaining unauthorized access to their account.

You know, like years ago when Jagex was just a small struggling company, such things were quite forgiveable. But it has been nine years! In all this time, they never even made an effort to improve their customer service.

Meanwhile, in other games they actually have good customer service and mechanisms in place for returning items. World of Warcraft, in particuler, has huge subscriber numbers yet they still investigate every account if it is hacked and restore lost items.


"Luke: Blizzard were great with the issue. I went through both the in-game ticketing system and their online support site to get my items and account back under my control, and they responded quickly and professionally." [Source: http://www.techdigest.tv/2009/04/lost_and_naked.html]

*Note: I have never been "hacked." Nonetheless, I believe our players deserve better customer service than what we are getting.

Girls Don't Exist on Runescape

I am a girl on the internet. There really are quite a few of us.

Women have had a long history in Runescape. Many of the first players and famous people were women in real life. The first smither who got 99 smithing was Bluerose13x. She was extremely powerful and rich during her time since she was literally the only source of player-smithed items.

The first person to get 99 fishing was Tks and all the top crafters were also women. Women in Runescape are everywhere, as old school players, clan leaders, skillers, pkers and player moderators.

Yet in spite of all this, the female RS players must contend daily with the opinion that she does not exist.

"There are no girls on the intarwebs!"
"You aren't a real girl."
"I don't believe you are really a woman."

Why this persistent belief that nobody female would ever play RS? Do we need the XY genes to click a mouse? Obviously not, yet I have met many, many players who are genuinely convinced that female RS players cannot possibly exist.

The reasons are many, varied and also rather pathetic.

"All the girls I know irl don't play games, they just go out for meals."

This is an absolutely genuine reply I have gotten from a (presumably male) RS player. Yes, he really thinks women do nothing but go out for meals.

When the RS player insists that, yes, she really is a girl, the replies are entirely predicatable.

"No pic no proof."
"You're not a girl if u don't show us pics."
"Get on ventrilo."
"Webcam."

Men do not need to go on ventrilo/webcam or show their pics to everyone who asks just to prove that they exist. Why do women have to bother?

One time I joined an IRC channel for a Runescape-related community. Right away, I got kicked. Then again and again until I gave up on reading the final message (and the reason for the kicks) "fuck off, there are no girls on the internet." Another reason I have been kicked from IRC -"tits or gtfo."

Comment please, I would really like to know what RS players think about all this.

Runescape thinks its players are fat!

Runescape thinks its players are fat! Picture proof provided!

New state of RS after Dec 2007

On December 2007 Jagex announced their anti-RWT (Real World trading) updates which have drastically changed the way RS is now played. Trade restrictions and the Grand Exchange have limited the exchange of items between players. The Wilderness as a player killing area was also removed. Stake duels are still possible but very limited.

Of course, like many other Runescapers, I was not happy about these updates. I will be leaving members for a while because of my dissatisfaction with recent changes.

During the time when the changes were announced, there was mass hysteria in the various fan forums and, predictably, the RS official forums. At the time I noticed various trends of the replies of players who supported the updates. Here are my observations of the various RSOF poster types:

We have all read the rants about people who complain excessively each time there is an update. What about other types of posters though? Let's categorize them.

Daddy Knows Best

He is firmly on the side of game developers and views them as the ultimate god-like authority on everything whose will must never be questioned. He feels emotionally attached to dev team and often comments on their "hard work" and how sorry he is that people flame devs. To him all players who complain are just crybabies or ungrateful kids who don't appreciate the effort being made for them by the game companies. He regards the game as the sole property of devs and players should be grateful that game makers allow them to play their game.

Give It Time

No matter what the complaint is, he always responds with "give it time." Even if people are dying in droves to unfair players, according to this poster all players have to do is to give it time and everything will be hunky-dorky. Due to the nature of MMORPGs, over the long run this poster is often proven right as most players will likely prove to be sufficiently addicted to the game to continue playing so eventually even the worst controversies will blow over in time.

"A Kenyan man once said to me, 'You can get used to anything.' He used to stick mice up his ass for twenty bucks a time."

Wannabe Mods

These posters may be similar to the Daddy Knows Best variety but their motives are much less pure. Whether it is the official forums or a fan forum, they stick up for authority figures and are always anxious that all the rules are always followed to the letter. A common refrain of theirs is "mods should," for example "mods should lock this" or "mods should move this to rants." Another hallmark of the Wannabe Mods is their constant quoting and reminders to others of the rules.

Ranters Who Rant About Ranting

A special breed of poster who posts only because he wants people to shut up. He hates rants yet he reads them a lot and can't stay away from them so his constant pet peeve is "people who rant" even though his own posts are are as incoherent as the rants he professes to hate. Whether they realize it or not, these posters start an endless cycle of ranting. First there are ranters, then ranters who rant about ranters, then ranters who rant about those who rant about ranters, then ranters ranting about ranters who rant about those who rant about ranters, and so on. The cycle is endless and ridiculous in the extreme. They often have no sense of humor and answer seriously even the most ridiculous posts about rants because their posting time is completely taken up with ranters.

Best Update Ever

Much like stores in real life that seem to have the "best sale" or "lowest prices" every time they have a sale, for every update there are posters who love it so much they declare it the "best update ever." Whether they have been playing the game for 1 week, 1 month or 1 year, they confidently proclaim the update to be the "best ever" and thank the game developers for their genius update. Sometimes they painstakingly list each and every positive point of an update, no matter how small it is, just to emphasize why this one is the "best update ever."

The Perennial Kisser of Behinds/Bootlicker

One of the most common of posters, this one just wants to suck up to mods and game developers so he can score brownie points. Privately he may have his doubts but publicly he always makes it a point to stand up and be counted as a supporter of each update and, by extension, game developers. He likes to refer to people by their first names or nicknames even if these people have never spoken to him personally. In his mind, he views complainers as fools because complainers never get anything. He regards himself as smart because he knows game developers have the only real power in the MMORPG so he is always on the winning side.

Bow Down to Him, for He is the Great One

If a pmod, mod or game developer should post, this poster goes into raptures over him. Ecstatically going along with whatever mods or devs say, this poster's goal is to make friends or have a connection with his idols. Squeeling "omg you posted, you posted, I love you so much and this game, thank you!" like a star-struck fan, this poster only wants to love and be loved in return.

Me, Myself and I

This poster feels it is important to post that since the update or controversy doesn't involve him, he doesn't care about it. 99% of players might be affected but he wants people to know that he isn't directly troubled by it therefore it's great to be him. He admits that it might suck for other players but as long as his own playing style is untouched he is happy.

Substitute Posters

Has your training area been completely ruined by an update? There are other places. Is your character now obsolete? There are other types of characters. Are your skills now unprofitable? There are other skills. This poster has the answer to everything because to him each aspect of the game can be easily replaced by another aspect. He is the type of player who enjoys doing everything so he simply cannot understand why people whine when their favorite things are taken away. After all, there is always something else to do.

Let's See YOU Make One

This poster thinks every complaint is invalid because they were not made by a game developer. His motto is "if you can't make a better game then shut up." He likes to ask other posters if they think they can do better than challenges them to develop their own game. He doesn't even care about what the other poster's complaint is, he just thinks all complaints by non-game devs are inherently invalid.

Marquis de Sade's Brother

To the sadistic poster, human suffering is sweeter than mother's milk. The more people complain and whine, the better he likes it. Common examples of posts are titled "LMFAO, Pkers owned by update" or "Don't you just love it when nerds cry?" These posters thrive on pain and chaos. He loved riots and posts on quitting posts by saying "goodbye and good riddance." Sarcasm is his favored tool and harsh posts by other people delight him. He is the the player hater of MMORPGs. He may hate merchants, skillers, duellers, pkers, boss teams, veterans, wealthy or any other type of player, but one thing is for sure, he hates them with a vitriolic vigor. Frequently he hates them because he has had bad experiences with these types of player before or perhaps he just envies them.

Runescape rare items (partyhats, santas, masks, easter eggs and pumpkins)

To a new player, bewildered by the astronomical prices of holiday items from Runescape Classic (also known as Rs1, or the first version of Rs), rares can be a mind-boggling phenomenon. Why is a colored party hat with no equipment stats or any actualk benefits cost hundreds of millions of gold pieces? One word: rarity. Such items, though useless, are the rarest items in Rs so they are worth that much to players.

Allow me then, an older player who was actually there when these rares were dropped explain a bit on how we used to look at these items.

In 2001, two holiday items were introduced, pumpkins during Halloween and crackers at Christmas. Pumpkins can be eaten and traded. At that time, very few got pumpkins as it was thr first holiday item. During Christmas however, people were already somewhat expecting a Christmas item and many were dropped throughout the day.

A rainbow system message would flash on the screen saying "Merry Christmas" and then crackers would appear on the ground. Players would then race each other to get the items. This was just a funny game and no one got upset. Those who got none could easily buy or ask friends for the crackers as no one put much importance on them. They were just a fun item. Crackers are meant to be used on another person and the two people recieve random prizes which always includes one party hat of a random color. For example, I pulled a cracker on Who Da Best. He got 10 iron ore certificates and I got a white party hat.

Some people did not bother to get any party hats or crackers. Some bought theirs. Some sold them. Some dropped their items on the ground. Some sold theirs to the general store. Many ate the edible items (easter eggs and pumpkins). A few kept the items.

In my pics website, a top player wearing a white party hat while pking in the wilderness. At the time this was considered cheap as party hats were worthless. One of my friends used to pk wearing a party hat then drop it for space whenever he got a kill. Another friend was scammed for 500k gp because he didn't know what a pumpkin was, he thought it was rare. Ironically, it has become rare now and it is worth more than 1 mil.

Now as to myself personally, I kept some of the rares, especially the wearable ones like party hats, santa hats and masks. Many people dropped their holiday items because of the very limited bank space but I had an advantage as a pure since I did not need bank space for skills. I just liked the look of party hats so I used them for events such as weddings and level up parties.

Basically, what I am saying is that the early holiday items were fun. We liked them a lot. However, they were hardly important or rare at that time.

All about Andrew Gower

I was talking on AIM with an old player, Gregechidna6 (3rd to 99 hp if I recal correctly), who mentioned that he still had pictures of Andrew Gower. When I failed to see what was unusual about that, he commented that most players nowadays have no idea what he looks like. Well, if anyone still has Skittles's old "ballerina pic" I would really like a copy. :)

Until then, we will just have to content ourselves with the excellent "Unofficial Andrew Gower Archive" at http://gowerarchive.googlepages.com/ which includes pictures and personal information about Andrew Gower.

I also have stored in my computer some old posts in newgroups such as comp.graphics.animation. Here are two posts, one even has the adress and telephone numbers of Jagex (old).

Hi all!
I'm currently halfway through writing my own mud :-) In a desperate attempt
to make it stand out from the crowd, I've opted to make it a real-time mud
complete with graphics, and a point and click interface.

I've never written anything quite like this before, so I'm not sure what
problems I might face. I know its not exactly the same as running a text
based mud, but presumably some of the problems I might face will be the
same. Any advice, ideas or general feedback would be very much appreciated!

I've already spent a *lot* of time on this project! I've had to write my own
engine entirely from scratch. When it goes online all you'll have to do to
play is go to my webpage, the java program which handles all the graphics
will load, and automatically connect to the server. I'm amazed how well
things are going, because to start with I never thought this idea would
work, but its now working very well. The network code is very optimised and
only requires a bandwidth of about 0.3k /sec to play smoothly!

It should go online in about a month (hopefully!), and I might start taking
on beta testers slightly before that. For more details and screenshots visit
this webpage: http://sleepy.fitz.cam.ac.uk/mud/

Thanks
Andrew Gower

This was taken from googlegroups.com which has an archive.

Hi,
We are interesting in purchasing some 2d sprites for our new runescape RPG
game. (see http://www.jagex.com/runescape.html)

The sort of thing we need is animations of various monsters to use in our
game. For instance a dragon, a giant-rat, a giant-spider, a skeleton, a
ghost, etc... To give you a sense of scale we imagine the skeleton would be
aprox 48x88 pixels (doesn't have to be exactly that size). The rat perhaps
97x53 pixels (side view size). The dragon would perhaps 140x100 (side view
size).

Each monster needs to be drawn facing 5 different directions with 3 frames
of walking animation per direction (we are actually using 8 directions, but
for 3 of them we are just flipping other views to save memory, the monsters
need to be designed so they flip without any obvious innacuracies, (e.g
objects switching hand) but we're not worrying about the shading being the
wrong way around on a few frames as this really doesn't show up).

We also require a 3 frame combat animation per monster, this only needs to
be drawn from one viewing angle (sideways on - facing right).

If anyone thinks they can supply these graphics or knows a good place where
I can look please contact me via email. We would need to own any graphics we
commission, such that they are exclusive to our game. We are also interested
in top-quality graphics only, as we aiming for a professional quality game.

Graphics should be supplied in 256 colour gif format. No jpegs please, and
no anti-aliasing or dithering! (It takes too much memory, this is going to
be an online game so has to download quickly). We do of course still want
them to look good, so good shading and fine detail is important.

If you can supply these graphics please tell me:
a) how much will it cost per monster (Each monster requires a total of 18
frames of animation)
b) do you have any relevant samples of work I can see? For example any
animating sprite of a monster or person. The more examples the better, as we
have no shortage of internet bandwidth here. We won't use any samples you
send us in our game without paying you.
c) Any other relevant information you can give me

Thanks

Andrew Gower
Jagex Software (http://www.jagex.com)
Unit 213, 48 Regent Street, Cambridge, CB2 1FD, England
Tel: +44 (0)870 3215241

Disclaimer: This blog is not in any way connected to Jagex, Andrew Gower or Runescape. The information here was taken from usenet archives and are freely available online for anyone who wishes to search for it.