Note: This will be my last regularly scheduled blog post. I am now a member of the Editorial Panel on Rune Tips (website www.tip.it), and will post a link here when an article of mine is published there. I may also post occasional things on here, but they will not be scheduled regularly.
I'll make this short. For Christmas, I don't want a massive xp bonus, or a frozen ice mask, or free membership, or moderator status. I'm not merely stating this to avoid hypocrisy from my last post a mere week ago.
I've realized I neglected my friends. I prioritized mining experience, among other things, over doing something with my friends. And unfortunately, I didn't realize what I was doing until it was too late.
I've talked to some of them recently, and they're different. We have drifted apart. This anguish can never be fixed-not even by Santa.
Or can it?
Friday, December 16, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
A Christmas Story
This week I have decided to write a short RuneScape-themed holiday-themed narrative. Please enjoy!
You never believed in Santa, did you?
But that was...before. It was before the year you discovered the computer game RuneScape. It was before you spent nights routinely huddled in front of your computer screen in a quest to gain experience and levels. It was before you decided to spend your entire allowance on a game to buy membership because it was entirely that amazing. It was before you dreamed of such a powerful desire that certainly only Santa could fulfill. Yes, this year was certainly different.
You knew you were too big for Santa's lap, but that had not deterred you from writing him a letter anyway, in which you apologized for not believing and asked for your Christmas gift: to become the ultimate RuneScape player. And although you had planned on staying awake all night to greet Santa yourself, it was nearly midnight and your eyes drooped with sleep. Your chest began to fall forward, and you feel asleep so quickly that you didn't feel your face strike the keyboard in front of you.
Without even realizing that you had fallen asleep, you jerked violently awake. Indeed, the computer was still turned on and the RuneScape game screen illuminated your room. Squinting from the sudden exposure to bright light, you wondered where all the jibberish typed in the username box came from. Thinking nothing of it, you erased it and entered your login credentials as usual and notice two unread messages that greet you. With your heart pounding you click the hyperlink to your message inbox, but it fails to load. Returning to RuneScape, you see the connection has been lost and you are soon back to the login screen.
Paniced, you enter your login information but the connection to the login server cannot be established. You attempt to load a different page but nothing will load. You lift up your computer to fling it out the window but something stops you-you see that the wireless internet switch was off. Panting heavily, you turn it back on and navigate to your message center and cannot believe your eyes. The first message informs you that you have been granted player and forum moderator privileges, and the second is a personal note of congratulations on achieving the maximum experience possible in every skill. Returning to RuneScape you gasp in shock as hovering over your skills yields the total of 200,000,000 xp for each one. You type in your bank PIN to find a brimming money pouch, multiple partyhats, masks, spirits shields, chaotic weapons, edible rares, and a complete set of holiday items, even the yoyo that you tragically missed. And you realize something else has also changed: your username is "The_Ultimate" instead of your previous one.
"It's all very strange," you think, not realizing things are about to become even more so. People begin to follow you-everyone in sight on the game and will not leave. Incessantly you are peppered with requests for money, your training methods, and and assault of spam that begins to lag your computer. You turn on your private chat and realize none of your familiar friends remain on the list. Instantly a raging flood of messages conquers your chat window. You quickly turn off all your chats and recognize playing is impossible due to the onslaught of followers. You quickly switch to a nearly vacant world, but have less than a minute of silence before your frenzied followers are on your tail again. Pop-up ads begin to appear faster than you can close them.
You feel something cold touching the back of your neck and your hand snaps back to brush it away. But before you can attempt it, you feel a sharp pain searing down your neck, and everything blends into darkness.
Slowly the world emerges, and you realize you had been asleep the entire time. Although it was all a dream, the pain literally in your neck could not be more real. Slowly you understand what must have happened-the chair tipped backwards and hit the ground. Groaning slightly with the pain, you log back onto RuneScape on your awaiting computer. But instead of the familiar lobby screen, you are greeted by a message informing you that you have been chosen for dual player and forum moderator privileges, inspiring a horrible sense of deja vu. And at the bottom, it informs you that you will also be granted the maximum experience in all skills.
Your hands tremble and heart pounds, almost threatening to break free. There are options to accept or decline, and your mouse cursor is between them. You attempt to move the mouse, but your hand refuses to obey your brain and does not move. You try to strike the keyboard with your other hand, but it is equally unresponsive. You have an idea to turn off the power switch which is somewhere by your feet, but in horror you realize they are also paralyzed.
Completely unexpectedly, something taps you on the shoulder, but not menacingly-it is a soft, gentle pat. With a complete sense of calm you find yourself able to move and whip around. Your mouth hangs open at the incredible sight.
"Merry Christmas," says Santa, and winks before disappearing into the night.
You never believed in Santa, did you?
But that was...before. It was before the year you discovered the computer game RuneScape. It was before you spent nights routinely huddled in front of your computer screen in a quest to gain experience and levels. It was before you decided to spend your entire allowance on a game to buy membership because it was entirely that amazing. It was before you dreamed of such a powerful desire that certainly only Santa could fulfill. Yes, this year was certainly different.
You knew you were too big for Santa's lap, but that had not deterred you from writing him a letter anyway, in which you apologized for not believing and asked for your Christmas gift: to become the ultimate RuneScape player. And although you had planned on staying awake all night to greet Santa yourself, it was nearly midnight and your eyes drooped with sleep. Your chest began to fall forward, and you feel asleep so quickly that you didn't feel your face strike the keyboard in front of you.
Without even realizing that you had fallen asleep, you jerked violently awake. Indeed, the computer was still turned on and the RuneScape game screen illuminated your room. Squinting from the sudden exposure to bright light, you wondered where all the jibberish typed in the username box came from. Thinking nothing of it, you erased it and entered your login credentials as usual and notice two unread messages that greet you. With your heart pounding you click the hyperlink to your message inbox, but it fails to load. Returning to RuneScape, you see the connection has been lost and you are soon back to the login screen.
Paniced, you enter your login information but the connection to the login server cannot be established. You attempt to load a different page but nothing will load. You lift up your computer to fling it out the window but something stops you-you see that the wireless internet switch was off. Panting heavily, you turn it back on and navigate to your message center and cannot believe your eyes. The first message informs you that you have been granted player and forum moderator privileges, and the second is a personal note of congratulations on achieving the maximum experience possible in every skill. Returning to RuneScape you gasp in shock as hovering over your skills yields the total of 200,000,000 xp for each one. You type in your bank PIN to find a brimming money pouch, multiple partyhats, masks, spirits shields, chaotic weapons, edible rares, and a complete set of holiday items, even the yoyo that you tragically missed. And you realize something else has also changed: your username is "The_Ultimate" instead of your previous one.
"It's all very strange," you think, not realizing things are about to become even more so. People begin to follow you-everyone in sight on the game and will not leave. Incessantly you are peppered with requests for money, your training methods, and and assault of spam that begins to lag your computer. You turn on your private chat and realize none of your familiar friends remain on the list. Instantly a raging flood of messages conquers your chat window. You quickly turn off all your chats and recognize playing is impossible due to the onslaught of followers. You quickly switch to a nearly vacant world, but have less than a minute of silence before your frenzied followers are on your tail again. Pop-up ads begin to appear faster than you can close them.
You feel something cold touching the back of your neck and your hand snaps back to brush it away. But before you can attempt it, you feel a sharp pain searing down your neck, and everything blends into darkness.
Slowly the world emerges, and you realize you had been asleep the entire time. Although it was all a dream, the pain literally in your neck could not be more real. Slowly you understand what must have happened-the chair tipped backwards and hit the ground. Groaning slightly with the pain, you log back onto RuneScape on your awaiting computer. But instead of the familiar lobby screen, you are greeted by a message informing you that you have been chosen for dual player and forum moderator privileges, inspiring a horrible sense of deja vu. And at the bottom, it informs you that you will also be granted the maximum experience in all skills.
Your hands tremble and heart pounds, almost threatening to break free. There are options to accept or decline, and your mouse cursor is between them. You attempt to move the mouse, but your hand refuses to obey your brain and does not move. You try to strike the keyboard with your other hand, but it is equally unresponsive. You have an idea to turn off the power switch which is somewhere by your feet, but in horror you realize they are also paralyzed.
Completely unexpectedly, something taps you on the shoulder, but not menacingly-it is a soft, gentle pat. With a complete sense of calm you find yourself able to move and whip around. Your mouth hangs open at the incredible sight.
"Merry Christmas," says Santa, and winks before disappearing into the night.
Friday, December 2, 2011
The Dilemma of "Official"/"Unofficial" Worlds
For better or worse, one can certainly agree that organized player
activity has never been the same as prior to the release of "Themed
Worlds" [THEME] a full four years ago. Sometimes more themed worlds
have been created, and at other times they have been removed or
reshuffled. Nevertheless, through many other updates, such the removal
and reinstatement of free trade, they have remained standing. However,
many players seem dissatisfied with them, even though these worlds
accomplish the job, so to speak, and have created their own alternatives on non-themed worlds. But first I digress to explain a
little about these two types of worlds, and then proceed to compare
them.
Players can choose which server they want to play on. Each server is termed a "world" and accompanied by a brief description involving either a country or an activity, where the latter group of servers are collectively called "Themed Worlds." As a brief overview, the choice of which worlds became "themed," at Jagex's disposition, seems apparently conjured up in the same manner as generating random lottery tickets, with some notable exceptions. Currently, considering all worlds on the English version of the game, the themed worlds actually outnumber non-themed ones by a small margin of fifty-eight to fifty-four (yes, I counted them).
Indeed, players often refer to these worlds as "official" in comparison with "unofficial" worlds. On these unofficial worlds, a large community of players congregate in activities, much like on official worlds, somewhat "unexpectedly" because Jagex had probably marked another world for that activity. Some worlds marked for one purpose by Jagex may actually be used more extensively for another.
A relatively player may expect that an unofficial world would stand virtually no chance against an official one. After all, once players visit a themed world for some activity, and after seeing the vast quantity of fellow players there, why would they ever choose to go to or form another community on a different world? And furthermore, how would a substantial flow of traffic be maintained without exhaustive effort?
Consider, all debates about it aside, training Dungeoneering, particularly in free-to-play. After a petition, world 7 was officially crowned the world for this activity. For any experienced player who has not spent some time training on this world, I recommend that they do so themselves. Those who have will easily recall some of the frustrations of this world. One issue that more experienced players often bump into on this world is the high density of relatively inexperienced players who, the other players claim, impede their progress by making them wait or have different ideas of how to best complete a dungeon. And while everyone is new at some point, grouping similar levels of players together would seem more effective.
The natural conclusion might seem to be to create another Dungeoneering world with a required level. But aptitude does not necessarily correlate with level, especially in the case of players creating another account. Furthermore, such stratification has proved ineffective and/or unpopular before, and is manifested in the removal of the world for skill level 1,000 and over. This leaves it up to players to find a solution, which came in the form of creating an unofficial world, world 61, for training Dungeoneering.
The advantages of this world are probably already clear. To be succinct, players know what they are doing. Special arrangements for parties are set up, and long strings of floors are completed without breaks, resulting in far greater experience, for all party members, than one could hope to achieve with randomly selected people from the official world. No one will rant for ten minutes when an affectionately named "dinosaur" (bovimastyx) is accidentally killed or quit after a mistake results in a death.
However, these unofficial worlds often have disadvantages due to their very nature. For example, the focus on the Dungeoneering world is to gain experience as fast as humanly possible, which can turn some of its participants into elitists. A small mistake may be enough to elicit flaming and cause other players not to invite the victimized player to future parties. Generally, the treatment of intermediate level players is a little harsh, especially if one attempts something slightly unorthodox.
Finally, there is the issue of perpetuating traffic to this world. In this case, it is done mostly by word-of-mouth. I was told by a friend about it so I visited there and racked up a substantial amount of Dungeoneering experience over a few months. And although I told friends about it, no massive campaigning was required to have people there since they knew they could accomplish their goal-just as the title on the official world successfully lured a far greater number of people.
Not all official words have an unofficial counterpart. For example, the various official rune running worlds are adequate, and despite their sometimes low traffic, serve their purpose well. In such cases there is no need for an unofficial world.
Although it may seem strange, unofficial worlds owe their success due to the very fact that they are not official. Imagine if they were made official with the promotion of "high-level" but without entry requirements tomorrow. The consequence would be an inundation of new players and the old community would most likely migrate to another world. Of course new players can stumble upon unofficial worlds, but they are quite easily recognized, even by factors as innocuous as ignorance of slang. But as more and more themed game worlds are created, one should also recognize the increasing importance of unofficial worlds...unofficially, of course.
[1] "Update: Themed Worlds." Runescape Wiki, n.d. Web. 29 November 2011.
Players can choose which server they want to play on. Each server is termed a "world" and accompanied by a brief description involving either a country or an activity, where the latter group of servers are collectively called "Themed Worlds." As a brief overview, the choice of which worlds became "themed," at Jagex's disposition, seems apparently conjured up in the same manner as generating random lottery tickets, with some notable exceptions. Currently, considering all worlds on the English version of the game, the themed worlds actually outnumber non-themed ones by a small margin of fifty-eight to fifty-four (yes, I counted them).
Indeed, players often refer to these worlds as "official" in comparison with "unofficial" worlds. On these unofficial worlds, a large community of players congregate in activities, much like on official worlds, somewhat "unexpectedly" because Jagex had probably marked another world for that activity. Some worlds marked for one purpose by Jagex may actually be used more extensively for another.
A relatively player may expect that an unofficial world would stand virtually no chance against an official one. After all, once players visit a themed world for some activity, and after seeing the vast quantity of fellow players there, why would they ever choose to go to or form another community on a different world? And furthermore, how would a substantial flow of traffic be maintained without exhaustive effort?
Consider, all debates about it aside, training Dungeoneering, particularly in free-to-play. After a petition, world 7 was officially crowned the world for this activity. For any experienced player who has not spent some time training on this world, I recommend that they do so themselves. Those who have will easily recall some of the frustrations of this world. One issue that more experienced players often bump into on this world is the high density of relatively inexperienced players who, the other players claim, impede their progress by making them wait or have different ideas of how to best complete a dungeon. And while everyone is new at some point, grouping similar levels of players together would seem more effective.
The natural conclusion might seem to be to create another Dungeoneering world with a required level. But aptitude does not necessarily correlate with level, especially in the case of players creating another account. Furthermore, such stratification has proved ineffective and/or unpopular before, and is manifested in the removal of the world for skill level 1,000 and over. This leaves it up to players to find a solution, which came in the form of creating an unofficial world, world 61, for training Dungeoneering.
The advantages of this world are probably already clear. To be succinct, players know what they are doing. Special arrangements for parties are set up, and long strings of floors are completed without breaks, resulting in far greater experience, for all party members, than one could hope to achieve with randomly selected people from the official world. No one will rant for ten minutes when an affectionately named "dinosaur" (bovimastyx) is accidentally killed or quit after a mistake results in a death.
However, these unofficial worlds often have disadvantages due to their very nature. For example, the focus on the Dungeoneering world is to gain experience as fast as humanly possible, which can turn some of its participants into elitists. A small mistake may be enough to elicit flaming and cause other players not to invite the victimized player to future parties. Generally, the treatment of intermediate level players is a little harsh, especially if one attempts something slightly unorthodox.
Finally, there is the issue of perpetuating traffic to this world. In this case, it is done mostly by word-of-mouth. I was told by a friend about it so I visited there and racked up a substantial amount of Dungeoneering experience over a few months. And although I told friends about it, no massive campaigning was required to have people there since they knew they could accomplish their goal-just as the title on the official world successfully lured a far greater number of people.
Not all official words have an unofficial counterpart. For example, the various official rune running worlds are adequate, and despite their sometimes low traffic, serve their purpose well. In such cases there is no need for an unofficial world.
Although it may seem strange, unofficial worlds owe their success due to the very fact that they are not official. Imagine if they were made official with the promotion of "high-level" but without entry requirements tomorrow. The consequence would be an inundation of new players and the old community would most likely migrate to another world. Of course new players can stumble upon unofficial worlds, but they are quite easily recognized, even by factors as innocuous as ignorance of slang. But as more and more themed game worlds are created, one should also recognize the increasing importance of unofficial worlds...unofficially, of course.
[1] "Update: Themed Worlds." Runescape Wiki, n.d. Web. 29 November 2011.
Friday, November 18, 2011
An Open Letter to Mr. Mark Gerhard (Mod MMG)*
Dear Mr. Gerhard,
Perhaps after seeing the great number of players trolling and flaming on the forums, you will suspect this is another article to criticize Jagex's actions regarding the recent changes to the hiscores system. Rather than this, it is a request for you to choose one of two distinct possibilities for the future of RuneScape.
But first, please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are the free players of RuneScape, the ones who have never paid, or are not currently paying, for membership. The reason(s) that we chose to do so are far from uniform. For some of us RuneScape is a game we play only occasionally. Some of us choose not to subscribe to the member's game due to financial constraints, to which today's economy is no exception. For others, our parents did not believe in paying a recurring fee for this game, or we did simply did not want to pay. Still others played on free to play for the challenges it presented and a greater feeling of accomplishment.
Now that you have a brief overview of who we are, we would like to communicate to you an urgent message. Despite the fact that there is weather in RuneScape, metaphorically it still exists, for free players. There are two distinct kinds-Sun and the North Wind-regarding the approach you choose to encourage us to become paying players. The ancient Greek storyteller Aesop has a fable [2] regarding these objects, which personify the Sun and the North Wind as persuasion and force, respectively. The fable narrates a competition between the two with the goal of determining which is stronger by attempting to make a traveler remove his cloak. While the North Wind howled unsuccessfully until it was out of breath, the Sun shone gently until the traveler shed the cloak due to the heat.
Prior to your leadership, Jagex seemed to prefer the approach of the North Wind, by suffocating us via saturating the free to play game with teaser options, which yielded a message that those features were members-only. On February 1, 2009 [3] you were officially appointed to lead Jagex. From that day, the future of RuneScape for us began to look less bleak. You had reassured us that our demographic was not subjugated to paying players. In 2009 and 2010, you won the Golden Joystick Awards, which are decided by vote, and we provided the votes. Indeed, you made several statements that inspired us with hope:
And Jagex proceeded with that plan. The Dungeoneering skill was released and made partially available to us, unlike so many previous members-only skills in previous years. One degree at a time, the forums were made accessible and more accessible to us. Then there was the issue of reintroducing free trade and the wilderness. After rioting, which subsided and was replaced by pleading and begging, you introduced a referendum and implemented it according to the final results (over 90% voted "yes" [7]). For other six months, although we witnessed an infestation of bots, you taught us a valuable lesson that some intervention would be necessary. Over the last month we have seen an overwhelming number of positive updates. There was an announcement about an anti-botting measure, follow by operation "Clutter-Fluster." Substantial efforts toward removing dicing were made. Yet it feels as if these updates have been negated.
This is due to some of the recent updates concerning free to play. Soon after operation CF, many free to play worlds were removed, including the world for 1000 and higher skill total. Although an explanation was provided that this world was under capacity meaning it was on the chopping block, so are many of the remaining worlds. But we are not asking for this update to be reversed or a total level world reinstated.
Most recently, a substantial amount of us and even our paying friends feel alienated due to the removal of hiscores for free players. The claim in the recent FAQ [4] was "99.97% of all bots were F2P." However, economics seems to argue differently. Consider an item which has always been for paying players only, to which no free to play item is even close: raw sharks. Based on the claim that most bots were free to play, the impact should be absolutely minimal on the pay to play game. Can the removal of 0.03% of the total botting we saw result in the kind of behavior seen below?
As you can probably tell or have been told, Mr. Gerhard, we are angry now, plastering the forums with derogatory images and cartoons of you. But the operative word, Mr. Gerhard, is "now." Although some of us have rashly decided to be angry, we will regret that decision and those feelings will soon subside. Removing the hiscores is not a crippling blow to free to play. We will digest this eventually, and we are not asking for you return hiscores to free players. The current series of post-"Cluster-Flutter" updates are equivalent to heaping more hay on a camel's back, and the last straw has not yet been reached.
What we would like is for you to consider the trajectory of RuneScape. The possibilities are a sharp bifurcation. Jagex can try to maximize its income by cornering free players to encourage they to pay for membership, or it can revert to the behavior we have seen over the last two years, aside from the latter half of 2011. Mr. Gerhard, according to your own words, you "strongly believe if you love the free game you will equally love the members’ content and that is sufficient promotion to [you]" [3]. This is the approach of the Sun in Aesop's fable, with the action of opening one's wallet analogous to the traveler removing his cloak. However, removing content from the free game casts a shadow of doubt on these words. We ask you if you still stand by those words.
Reading the recently released FAQ, the answer does not seem to be in the affirmative. The response to one of the questions you pose regarding the remaining lifetime of the free game beings "We don’t need to recall all of the free benefits, do we?" [4]. While it is true that RuneScape has many free benefits, we urge you, Mr. Gerhard, not to be lulled into complacency. The Golden Joystick Awards and the Guinness World Record for the largest MMPORG, which is currently held by Jagex, are prestigious honors, and RuneScape is not the only competitor on the stage. Other games will begin to create more free content with the intent of earning those awards themselves-and if Jagex continues to cut free content, it is reasonable to assume at some point that the games will swap places. You have described the free to play community as "bustling" [5]; do you want it to remain this way?
Lastly, Mr. Gerhard, we are not leveraging this in any way as a threat. We are not demanding the return of any specific update. We have had a great decade enjoying your game and are just as eager for the next. But simultaneously, we are not incapable of moving on. We are clinging onto the small remaining sliver of hope that RuneScape and Jagex are not just about the money, but we don't know how much longer we can hold on. Quotes like the answers in your FAQ serve only to reinforce this notion and dissipate this hope. And once that it, our numbers will rapidly dwindle and we will be scattered like dandelion seeds in the wind. In your FAQ, there is also the implication that all free players who are not botting are considered "dormant." Through more updates and discouragement, this can be made a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is nothing wrong with this, Mr. Gerhard.
You are the only one who can determine which of the two eventual fates that the free to play community can take: restoration or nonexistence.
We're waiting. Choose one.
Your truly,
10,000,000 active free players [1]
*This article has also been submitted to Rune Tips and may be posted on the RuneScape Official Forums, so if you see it there is may not necessarily be plagiarism!
References
Perhaps after seeing the great number of players trolling and flaming on the forums, you will suspect this is another article to criticize Jagex's actions regarding the recent changes to the hiscores system. Rather than this, it is a request for you to choose one of two distinct possibilities for the future of RuneScape.
But first, please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are the free players of RuneScape, the ones who have never paid, or are not currently paying, for membership. The reason(s) that we chose to do so are far from uniform. For some of us RuneScape is a game we play only occasionally. Some of us choose not to subscribe to the member's game due to financial constraints, to which today's economy is no exception. For others, our parents did not believe in paying a recurring fee for this game, or we did simply did not want to pay. Still others played on free to play for the challenges it presented and a greater feeling of accomplishment.
Now that you have a brief overview of who we are, we would like to communicate to you an urgent message. Despite the fact that there is weather in RuneScape, metaphorically it still exists, for free players. There are two distinct kinds-Sun and the North Wind-regarding the approach you choose to encourage us to become paying players. The ancient Greek storyteller Aesop has a fable [2] regarding these objects, which personify the Sun and the North Wind as persuasion and force, respectively. The fable narrates a competition between the two with the goal of determining which is stronger by attempting to make a traveler remove his cloak. While the North Wind howled unsuccessfully until it was out of breath, the Sun shone gently until the traveler shed the cloak due to the heat.
Prior to your leadership, Jagex seemed to prefer the approach of the North Wind, by suffocating us via saturating the free to play game with teaser options, which yielded a message that those features were members-only. On February 1, 2009 [3] you were officially appointed to lead Jagex. From that day, the future of RuneScape for us began to look less bleak. You had reassured us that our demographic was not subjugated to paying players. In 2009 and 2010, you won the Golden Joystick Awards, which are decided by vote, and we provided the votes. Indeed, you made several statements that inspired us with hope:
We feel both games are substantive in their own
right. I want to apologise for habitually over-promoting the benefits of
membership to our free players. I strongly believe if you love the free game
you will equally love the members’ content and that is sufficient promotion to
me. If you can't enjoy the free game in its own right then we're not doing our
jobs properly. We will continue to improve the free game and, crucially, make
it as fun as possible because we know that this is the way that everyone first
discovers RuneScape. [6]
And Jagex proceeded with that plan. The Dungeoneering skill was released and made partially available to us, unlike so many previous members-only skills in previous years. One degree at a time, the forums were made accessible and more accessible to us. Then there was the issue of reintroducing free trade and the wilderness. After rioting, which subsided and was replaced by pleading and begging, you introduced a referendum and implemented it according to the final results (over 90% voted "yes" [7]). For other six months, although we witnessed an infestation of bots, you taught us a valuable lesson that some intervention would be necessary. Over the last month we have seen an overwhelming number of positive updates. There was an announcement about an anti-botting measure, follow by operation "Clutter-Fluster." Substantial efforts toward removing dicing were made. Yet it feels as if these updates have been negated.
This is due to some of the recent updates concerning free to play. Soon after operation CF, many free to play worlds were removed, including the world for 1000 and higher skill total. Although an explanation was provided that this world was under capacity meaning it was on the chopping block, so are many of the remaining worlds. But we are not asking for this update to be reversed or a total level world reinstated.
Most recently, a substantial amount of us and even our paying friends feel alienated due to the removal of hiscores for free players. The claim in the recent FAQ [4] was "99.97% of all bots were F2P." However, economics seems to argue differently. Consider an item which has always been for paying players only, to which no free to play item is even close: raw sharks. Based on the claim that most bots were free to play, the impact should be absolutely minimal on the pay to play game. Can the removal of 0.03% of the total botting we saw result in the kind of behavior seen below?
 |
| Raw sharks, an item exclusively for paying players which is a popular choice for training cooking. What explains the sudden upward trend? Image copyright ©2011 Jagex Ltd and used under Fair Use. |
As you can probably tell or have been told, Mr. Gerhard, we are angry now, plastering the forums with derogatory images and cartoons of you. But the operative word, Mr. Gerhard, is "now." Although some of us have rashly decided to be angry, we will regret that decision and those feelings will soon subside. Removing the hiscores is not a crippling blow to free to play. We will digest this eventually, and we are not asking for you return hiscores to free players. The current series of post-"Cluster-Flutter" updates are equivalent to heaping more hay on a camel's back, and the last straw has not yet been reached.
What we would like is for you to consider the trajectory of RuneScape. The possibilities are a sharp bifurcation. Jagex can try to maximize its income by cornering free players to encourage they to pay for membership, or it can revert to the behavior we have seen over the last two years, aside from the latter half of 2011. Mr. Gerhard, according to your own words, you "strongly believe if you love the free game you will equally love the members’ content and that is sufficient promotion to [you]" [3]. This is the approach of the Sun in Aesop's fable, with the action of opening one's wallet analogous to the traveler removing his cloak. However, removing content from the free game casts a shadow of doubt on these words. We ask you if you still stand by those words.
Reading the recently released FAQ, the answer does not seem to be in the affirmative. The response to one of the questions you pose regarding the remaining lifetime of the free game beings "We don’t need to recall all of the free benefits, do we?" [4]. While it is true that RuneScape has many free benefits, we urge you, Mr. Gerhard, not to be lulled into complacency. The Golden Joystick Awards and the Guinness World Record for the largest MMPORG, which is currently held by Jagex, are prestigious honors, and RuneScape is not the only competitor on the stage. Other games will begin to create more free content with the intent of earning those awards themselves-and if Jagex continues to cut free content, it is reasonable to assume at some point that the games will swap places. You have described the free to play community as "bustling" [5]; do you want it to remain this way?
Lastly, Mr. Gerhard, we are not leveraging this in any way as a threat. We are not demanding the return of any specific update. We have had a great decade enjoying your game and are just as eager for the next. But simultaneously, we are not incapable of moving on. We are clinging onto the small remaining sliver of hope that RuneScape and Jagex are not just about the money, but we don't know how much longer we can hold on. Quotes like the answers in your FAQ serve only to reinforce this notion and dissipate this hope. And once that it, our numbers will rapidly dwindle and we will be scattered like dandelion seeds in the wind. In your FAQ, there is also the implication that all free players who are not botting are considered "dormant." Through more updates and discouragement, this can be made a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is nothing wrong with this, Mr. Gerhard.
You are the only one who can determine which of the two eventual fates that the free to play community can take: restoration or nonexistence.
We're waiting. Choose one.
Your truly,
10,000,000 active free players [1]
*This article has also been submitted to Rune Tips and may be posted on the RuneScape Official Forums, so if you see it there is may not necessarily be plagiarism!
References
[1] Adam Hartley. “MMO
developer Jagex outlines 'MechScape.'” Techradar,
17 July 2009. Web. 20 November 2011. <http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/mmo-developers-jagex-outline-mechscape--617551?artc_pg=1>
[2] Aesop. “The North Wind and the Sun.” N.p., n.d.
Web. 20 November 2011.
[3] “Mark Gerhard.” RuneScape Wiki, n.d. Web. 20
November 2011.
[4] Mod Emilee. “Hi-score Changes – FAQ.” Jagex, n.d.
Web. 20 November 2011. < http://services.runescape.com/m=forum/c=91Z2qO9S4P8/forums.ws?16,17,732,63382107>
[5] Mod MMG. “Anti-Gold-Farming Measures.” Jagex, 22 November 2011. Web. 22 November 2011. < http://services.runescape.com/m=news/anti-gold-farming-measures>
[5] Mod MMG. “Anti-Gold-Farming Measures.” Jagex, 22 November 2011. Web. 22 November 2011. < http://services.runescape.com/m=news/anti-gold-farming-measures>
[6] Mod MMG. “The Future of RuneScape.” Jagex, 9 February 2010. Web.
20 November 2011. < http://services.runescape.com/m=news/the-future-of-runescape>
[7] “Wilderness and Free Trade
Vote.” RuneScape Wiki, n.d. Web. 20
November 2011. < http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Wilderness_and_Free_Trade_Vote>
Quest-ion: what makes a (RuneScape) quest?
The very concept of a quest implies that embarking on one entails a great deal of difficulty, and the word itself conjures up images of everything from magic spells to slaying dragons. Furthermore, quests lie safely in the realm of fantasy, enabling them to hold a prominent place in a fantasy game like RuneScape. They also enjoy a tremendous degree of popularity among players-or at least that would be the conclusion from the expansion from the very short initial list of quests to the long list of quests one can easily see today.
However, the idea of quests is a bit tangent to reality, as is perhaps necessary. Consider the slaying of the dragon Elvarg in the free-to-play quest with the highest requirements, including the completion of most previous quests to attain 30 quest points to start it. Yet every player to do the quest accomplishes the same goal: to kill the same dragon. No effort is made to camouflage or circumvent the problem of the seemingly immortal dragon that has been "killed" and its head severed by so many new players. In general the same pattern holds true for seasonal events.
Could there be a quest which breaks this pattern? It would be difficult, not only to involve so many players, but also trivialize the role of each player in the quest. For example, players could be forced to team against a monster of a difficulty so hard that even all of world 1's players would be insufficient to topple it easily. But even then, once the monster had been dispatched, one would return to square one-no new players could fight it without "reintroducing" it. And so it seems that we are stuck with the idea of a repeatable monster for each player.
Another manifestation of the modified element of quests in RuneScape over the traditional definition of a quest is the lack of a real challenge. Simply obtaining high enough skills almost assures success, and attempting a quest with low enough skills, genuinely for the first time, almost guarantees failure. And furthermore, before one interjects about how there are elements that require finding an NPC in a certain location, or doing something in a certain way, consider the amount of literature under the heading of "Quest guides."
I myself, and many other players who will freely admit it, am guilty of using a guide instead of attempting to navigate Jagex's Quest Help system, or figure out a quest on my own. And even though I did so completely under my own free will, I regret not enjoying quests for the true "questing" nature for which they were intended. And due to the soup of guides available, many other players also choose to take that route, and surely many more will follow.
With the nature of quests as they are now, requiring high skills and seeming a tad unrealistic due to the repetitive nature for each individual player, now more than ever I wonder aloud: what makes a quest in RuneScape? Due to both the demand and supply of guides, is it even possible to make a task that matches the true spirit of a quest? In my opinion, the answer is in the affirmative, but does not require action from Jagex. The true criterion for the definition of what qualifies as a quest is given by the judge: the player makes the quest.
However, the idea of quests is a bit tangent to reality, as is perhaps necessary. Consider the slaying of the dragon Elvarg in the free-to-play quest with the highest requirements, including the completion of most previous quests to attain 30 quest points to start it. Yet every player to do the quest accomplishes the same goal: to kill the same dragon. No effort is made to camouflage or circumvent the problem of the seemingly immortal dragon that has been "killed" and its head severed by so many new players. In general the same pattern holds true for seasonal events.
Could there be a quest which breaks this pattern? It would be difficult, not only to involve so many players, but also trivialize the role of each player in the quest. For example, players could be forced to team against a monster of a difficulty so hard that even all of world 1's players would be insufficient to topple it easily. But even then, once the monster had been dispatched, one would return to square one-no new players could fight it without "reintroducing" it. And so it seems that we are stuck with the idea of a repeatable monster for each player.
Another manifestation of the modified element of quests in RuneScape over the traditional definition of a quest is the lack of a real challenge. Simply obtaining high enough skills almost assures success, and attempting a quest with low enough skills, genuinely for the first time, almost guarantees failure. And furthermore, before one interjects about how there are elements that require finding an NPC in a certain location, or doing something in a certain way, consider the amount of literature under the heading of "Quest guides."
I myself, and many other players who will freely admit it, am guilty of using a guide instead of attempting to navigate Jagex's Quest Help system, or figure out a quest on my own. And even though I did so completely under my own free will, I regret not enjoying quests for the true "questing" nature for which they were intended. And due to the soup of guides available, many other players also choose to take that route, and surely many more will follow.
With the nature of quests as they are now, requiring high skills and seeming a tad unrealistic due to the repetitive nature for each individual player, now more than ever I wonder aloud: what makes a quest in RuneScape? Due to both the demand and supply of guides, is it even possible to make a task that matches the true spirit of a quest? In my opinion, the answer is in the affirmative, but does not require action from Jagex. The true criterion for the definition of what qualifies as a quest is given by the judge: the player makes the quest.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Dungeoneering: a case study
**Note: this was written before the Evolution of Combat update. The "90+ f2p combat" penalty no longer exists, but this is kept for historical purposes.**
The expression "you can't please everyone" and its class of small variations has perhaps just as much application to gaming as to real life issues. Consider, for example, the skill Dungeoneering, comparatively with the skills predating it. Visiting any world at any place with a sufficient gathering of people and conducting a quick search will undoubtedly yield a substantial subset who are disgruntled with this latest skill. They will provide different reasons for their displeasure, claiming either it is not a skill, or it is too slow to train. Rather than strongly arguing for one side or another, this article seeks to uncover "the good, the bad, and the ugly" things about Dungeoneering.
Single-spot and isolated training. Almost any previous skill can be trained in a multitude of locations-consider rocks to mine or trees to cut, for example. A skill like Magic is completely location-independent, as players can and have trained it by repeated casts of the spell High Alchemy virtually everywhere. However, Dungeoneering must be trained in the dungeons of Daemonheim, and no where else (aside from some one-time bonus rewards). Furthermore, although it seems fair to argue that every skill is needed to train Dungeoneering, it seems that (excluding rewards) no skill requires Dungeoneering to train it.
Beginner-unfriendly training. One can imagine the frustration felt by a beginner to the Dungeoneering skill-to facilitate understanding this, I have included a short video of what happens in a beginner's dungeon, if they were to repeat a floor on Complexity 1 (the size could unfortunately not be altered; click the pop-out button for full-screen mode). After the skill corners bewildered newbies into Complexity 1 and having a completely irrelevant "Guide Mode" forced on them, as well as alien-named armor, weapons, and food, they are subsequently presented with the "winterface." In this interface, players are confronted with a barrage of numbers, which somehow ultimately determine their total XP. Although these numbers are each a simple concept and easily understood and even predicted to some extent, a new player is completely overwhelmed, especially with a majority taking away their XP even though the decisions, such as "Complexity 1" and "Guide Mode" were out of their control. Although there is a one-off bonus in XP for completing each complexity for the first time, it is not what initially draws the player's attention.
The f2p "90+ combat penalty." Shortly after releasing Dungeoneering, Jagex realized that the lower floors, which are much less xp than the higher floors (see figure), could be completed and cleared "out of the way" much faster by members on an f2p world than by the same players on their own p2p worlds. This left presumably a few solutions: decrease the difficulty of p2p dungeons for those floors or decrease the rewards for f2p dungeons; Jagex chose the latter option and supposedly chopped XP in half for f2p players above 90 combat, claiming 95% would be unaffected [1]. The dependence of an XP reward prior to this update is unknown due to its short timespan, but the post-update dependence for a few dungeons is sketched below and is more complicated than they indicated.
This average combat penalty has effectively been neutralized by bringing along three players with combat level 3, bringing the party's average combat level down to about 50. And in addition, coordination among two high level players responsible for the majority of keying and opening doors is far easier than among five of them. Thus one wonders if the infamous penalty actually affected XP rates substantially or was merely a nuisance.
Cooperation-requisite training. In training most skills cooperation is anything but requisite. Indeed, many skills are competitive for resources, meaning a higher density of people yields lower XP. Furthermore, in general, other people's opinions have limited or no influence on the efficacy of your training-players can and will swear and flame all they want without penalty. The game engine will not retaliate and give fewer logs from the same tree, for example. Dungeoneering differs since there are up to four other people who all must be willing to train together.
Difference from previous skills. Dungeoneering differs from most previously released skills in that it is a "net zero." Nothing is taken in, and nothing comes out. Although rewards are given, they are all untradable, so some players argue it is a minigame instead of a skill. Cooperation among multiple players becomes a necessity for fast experience. Furthermore, although there is some grinding, it is completely different from other skills. If one considers a skill like Mining or Agility with the goal of gaining some experience as quickly as possible, the method is to travel to a designated spot and not move around much. In contrast, Dungeoneering requires a conscious effort to keep track of keys and respond to different situations by offering a degree of randomness. Although it was probably not the initial intention, these factors outlined above also increase difficulty and decrease efficacy of botting this skill-although without a profit motive, it is difficult to imagine many players doing so.
Expensive rewards. Many players claim that the rewards are expensive-such as "chaotic" weapons in p2p, requiring 200,000 tokens to purchase [1], requiring an amount of experience equivalent to level 80 in the skill. However, there is room for disagreement-if they were cheaper, everyone would be using one, and they would become as devalued a rune scimitar.
These are some of the factors that have made players dissatisfied with the Dungeoneering skill in general. Rectifying these problems would require a colossal effort, a lot of programming, and overhauling the whole skill. Anyone is free to suggest ways in which the skill could have been more successful from the outset, but at this point, it is not unreasonable to say we are stuck with it.
References:
The expression "you can't please everyone" and its class of small variations has perhaps just as much application to gaming as to real life issues. Consider, for example, the skill Dungeoneering, comparatively with the skills predating it. Visiting any world at any place with a sufficient gathering of people and conducting a quick search will undoubtedly yield a substantial subset who are disgruntled with this latest skill. They will provide different reasons for their displeasure, claiming either it is not a skill, or it is too slow to train. Rather than strongly arguing for one side or another, this article seeks to uncover "the good, the bad, and the ugly" things about Dungeoneering.
Single-spot and isolated training. Almost any previous skill can be trained in a multitude of locations-consider rocks to mine or trees to cut, for example. A skill like Magic is completely location-independent, as players can and have trained it by repeated casts of the spell High Alchemy virtually everywhere. However, Dungeoneering must be trained in the dungeons of Daemonheim, and no where else (aside from some one-time bonus rewards). Furthermore, although it seems fair to argue that every skill is needed to train Dungeoneering, it seems that (excluding rewards) no skill requires Dungeoneering to train it.
Beginner-unfriendly training. One can imagine the frustration felt by a beginner to the Dungeoneering skill-to facilitate understanding this, I have included a short video of what happens in a beginner's dungeon, if they were to repeat a floor on Complexity 1 (the size could unfortunately not be altered; click the pop-out button for full-screen mode). After the skill corners bewildered newbies into Complexity 1 and having a completely irrelevant "Guide Mode" forced on them, as well as alien-named armor, weapons, and food, they are subsequently presented with the "winterface." In this interface, players are confronted with a barrage of numbers, which somehow ultimately determine their total XP. Although these numbers are each a simple concept and easily understood and even predicted to some extent, a new player is completely overwhelmed, especially with a majority taking away their XP even though the decisions, such as "Complexity 1" and "Guide Mode" were out of their control. Although there is a one-off bonus in XP for completing each complexity for the first time, it is not what initially draws the player's attention.
The f2p "90+ combat penalty." Shortly after releasing Dungeoneering, Jagex realized that the lower floors, which are much less xp than the higher floors (see figure), could be completed and cleared "out of the way" much faster by members on an f2p world than by the same players on their own p2p worlds. This left presumably a few solutions: decrease the difficulty of p2p dungeons for those floors or decrease the rewards for f2p dungeons; Jagex chose the latter option and supposedly chopped XP in half for f2p players above 90 combat, claiming 95% would be unaffected [1]. The dependence of an XP reward prior to this update is unknown due to its short timespan, but the post-update dependence for a few dungeons is sketched below and is more complicated than they indicated.
 |
| A graph of prestige controlled for a few variables against the average combat level of the party. It is suspected that the change in convexity at the endpoints is due to the nature of the cubic regression rather then the behavior of Dungeoneering XP at these extremes.
Image © Arceus 2011.
|
 | |
| A graph of XP awarded for an arbitrary floor plotted against the projected XP for Floor 35, assuming this floor has not already been completed and one has "Prestige 35." It is unknown if converting to reduced variables (Floor => Floor/Prestige) yields the same curve for different prestige. This works for ANY dungeon under the above restrictions.
Image © Arceus 2011.
|
Cooperation-requisite training. In training most skills cooperation is anything but requisite. Indeed, many skills are competitive for resources, meaning a higher density of people yields lower XP. Furthermore, in general, other people's opinions have limited or no influence on the efficacy of your training-players can and will swear and flame all they want without penalty. The game engine will not retaliate and give fewer logs from the same tree, for example. Dungeoneering differs since there are up to four other people who all must be willing to train together.
Difference from previous skills. Dungeoneering differs from most previously released skills in that it is a "net zero." Nothing is taken in, and nothing comes out. Although rewards are given, they are all untradable, so some players argue it is a minigame instead of a skill. Cooperation among multiple players becomes a necessity for fast experience. Furthermore, although there is some grinding, it is completely different from other skills. If one considers a skill like Mining or Agility with the goal of gaining some experience as quickly as possible, the method is to travel to a designated spot and not move around much. In contrast, Dungeoneering requires a conscious effort to keep track of keys and respond to different situations by offering a degree of randomness. Although it was probably not the initial intention, these factors outlined above also increase difficulty and decrease efficacy of botting this skill-although without a profit motive, it is difficult to imagine many players doing so.
Expensive rewards. Many players claim that the rewards are expensive-such as "chaotic" weapons in p2p, requiring 200,000 tokens to purchase [1], requiring an amount of experience equivalent to level 80 in the skill. However, there is room for disagreement-if they were cheaper, everyone would be using one, and they would become as devalued a rune scimitar.
These are some of the factors that have made players dissatisfied with the Dungeoneering skill in general. Rectifying these problems would require a colossal effort, a lot of programming, and overhauling the whole skill. Anyone is free to suggest ways in which the skill could have been more successful from the outset, but at this point, it is not unreasonable to say we are stuck with it.
References:
[1]
"Dungeoneering rewards.” N.p., n.d.
Web. 10 November 2011.
Friday, November 4, 2011
The World's Largest MMOG
Of course, this post's title refers to the game RuneScape. Keen-eyed readers will glean that from the title that I have made an error in my omission of two letters from the acronym "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)." I assure them that my "mistake" was intentional, for the gameplay of RuneScape, and other games in general, should adhere to the description, abbreviated as six letters or not, plastered over their respective homepages.
My argument, as one may have anticipated, is that the "Role-playing" element disappeared from RuneScape long ago, and has not yet resurfaced. At first, this claim may elicit much debate-of course you can "role-play" by doing anything from fishing lobsters to felling trees. It is hard to speculate on the developers' predictions for the evolution of RuneScape ten years ago. Indeed, significant changes such as upgrading the game engine to enable "RuneScape 2," [2] the version of the game enjoyed by the vast majority of players, creating an entire new revenue stream for the company in the form of a "pay to play" (or "p2p") version, and the sequential addition of new skills to appease a paying customer base. But these updates are not the cause of the aforementioned changes.
On January 2, 2008, Jagex instituted an update which affected every RuneScape player ever since [3]. Of course, this is the removal of free trade, and its subsequent reinstatement on February 2, 2011. But the topic neglected in players' discussion is the second half of the update, which still persists today-not free trade, but the introduction of the Grand Exchange.
Often abbreviated as the "G.E." by players, this innovation effectively destroyed any role-playing by the majority of players. Prior to this update, imagine a medium level player who, although not exceedingly wealthy, wanted to go player-killing, or "pking." An essential staple for pking is a strong weapon to score a KO on an opponent, and the one of choice was a rune two-handed sword. The requirements for creating this sword are daunting-85 Mining to obtain the ore and near 99 Smithing (feasible by boosting one's Smithing level to obtain '99' temporarily). But for any current player, the reaction is instantaneous-buy one from the G.E.
A far less extreme example is food, another pking staple. For example, in free to play, one could travel a substantial distance to Karamja, fish the raw food, and then cook it. This still requires a reasonable investment of time in training one's Fishing and Cooking skills, but meeting them is a far more feasible task for a new player than the above example Yet instead, most players choose to buy their fish off the G.E. for the obvious advantages in terms of convenience.
Although my experience on RuneScape does not predate this update, but some research and imagination have yielded me the conclusion that in pre-G.E. times, obtaining desired items was either more difficult or costly. Whereas today one simply puts in a buy offer, for which countless sellers compete and vice versa, before a player had to find someone with the desired good, and perhaps pay substantially more. This also applies to the quantity of items-a single player buying one inventory of food will pay much more than someone buying a "lifetime supply" of ten thousand, due to the inefficiency of making many trades, each to a different buyer. All of these are so-called transaction costs.
With the advent of the G.E., most transaction costs were wiped out. There was no need to shout in world 1 that one was purchasing a few swordfish repetitively in the hopes of finding a seller. This occurred not only because the G.E. collected all the market participants in one place using a computerized system, but also due to its lack of concern with the relative quantities of a perspective buyer and seller. If a seller has ten thousand swordfish to sell and a buyer needs only twenty-five, the G.E. will happily match the offers, despite the unlikelihood of the seller with a bulk quantity selling such a small fraction at the bulk price in a player-to-player trade. Furthermore, bots were able to find ample buyers for their goods, given they lowered the price a small fraction.
Perhaps the addition of the "Assist" system, by which players can "borrow" the skills of a higher level player in return for not receiving any experience, helped, but only infinitesimally. In creating a rune two-handed sword, one needs runite ore-and obtaining the ore is almost equally difficult to smithing the weapon, and there is only assistance in certain skills, which exclude Mining. But this would still involve tracking down a player willing to provide the assistance for a negligible amount of xp.
In conclusion, for better or worse players are able to purchase their goods from the Grand Exchange with minimal transaction costs, and for a relatively cheap price due to bots. The massive "bot-nuking" advertised prominently on the homepage and implemented recently [1] may lift some of these items off the "floor" temporarily or permanently, but it will not change the element of purchasing goods. Of course, modern life is filled with markets resembling the Grand Exchange, but the setting of RuneScape is not exactly contemporary-or is it?
References:
[1] "Bot-Nuking Day: Making RuneScape Fairer and More Fun!" Jagex, 25 October 2011. Web. 3 November 2011. <http://services.runescape.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=4831&dir=n&allcat=true>
My argument, as one may have anticipated, is that the "Role-playing" element disappeared from RuneScape long ago, and has not yet resurfaced. At first, this claim may elicit much debate-of course you can "role-play" by doing anything from fishing lobsters to felling trees. It is hard to speculate on the developers' predictions for the evolution of RuneScape ten years ago. Indeed, significant changes such as upgrading the game engine to enable "RuneScape 2," [2] the version of the game enjoyed by the vast majority of players, creating an entire new revenue stream for the company in the form of a "pay to play" (or "p2p") version, and the sequential addition of new skills to appease a paying customer base. But these updates are not the cause of the aforementioned changes.
On January 2, 2008, Jagex instituted an update which affected every RuneScape player ever since [3]. Of course, this is the removal of free trade, and its subsequent reinstatement on February 2, 2011. But the topic neglected in players' discussion is the second half of the update, which still persists today-not free trade, but the introduction of the Grand Exchange.
Often abbreviated as the "G.E." by players, this innovation effectively destroyed any role-playing by the majority of players. Prior to this update, imagine a medium level player who, although not exceedingly wealthy, wanted to go player-killing, or "pking." An essential staple for pking is a strong weapon to score a KO on an opponent, and the one of choice was a rune two-handed sword. The requirements for creating this sword are daunting-85 Mining to obtain the ore and near 99 Smithing (feasible by boosting one's Smithing level to obtain '99' temporarily). But for any current player, the reaction is instantaneous-buy one from the G.E.
A far less extreme example is food, another pking staple. For example, in free to play, one could travel a substantial distance to Karamja, fish the raw food, and then cook it. This still requires a reasonable investment of time in training one's Fishing and Cooking skills, but meeting them is a far more feasible task for a new player than the above example Yet instead, most players choose to buy their fish off the G.E. for the obvious advantages in terms of convenience.
Although my experience on RuneScape does not predate this update, but some research and imagination have yielded me the conclusion that in pre-G.E. times, obtaining desired items was either more difficult or costly. Whereas today one simply puts in a buy offer, for which countless sellers compete and vice versa, before a player had to find someone with the desired good, and perhaps pay substantially more. This also applies to the quantity of items-a single player buying one inventory of food will pay much more than someone buying a "lifetime supply" of ten thousand, due to the inefficiency of making many trades, each to a different buyer. All of these are so-called transaction costs.
With the advent of the G.E., most transaction costs were wiped out. There was no need to shout in world 1 that one was purchasing a few swordfish repetitively in the hopes of finding a seller. This occurred not only because the G.E. collected all the market participants in one place using a computerized system, but also due to its lack of concern with the relative quantities of a perspective buyer and seller. If a seller has ten thousand swordfish to sell and a buyer needs only twenty-five, the G.E. will happily match the offers, despite the unlikelihood of the seller with a bulk quantity selling such a small fraction at the bulk price in a player-to-player trade. Furthermore, bots were able to find ample buyers for their goods, given they lowered the price a small fraction.
Perhaps the addition of the "Assist" system, by which players can "borrow" the skills of a higher level player in return for not receiving any experience, helped, but only infinitesimally. In creating a rune two-handed sword, one needs runite ore-and obtaining the ore is almost equally difficult to smithing the weapon, and there is only assistance in certain skills, which exclude Mining. But this would still involve tracking down a player willing to provide the assistance for a negligible amount of xp.
In conclusion, for better or worse players are able to purchase their goods from the Grand Exchange with minimal transaction costs, and for a relatively cheap price due to bots. The massive "bot-nuking" advertised prominently on the homepage and implemented recently [1] may lift some of these items off the "floor" temporarily or permanently, but it will not change the element of purchasing goods. Of course, modern life is filled with markets resembling the Grand Exchange, but the setting of RuneScape is not exactly contemporary-or is it?
References:
[1] "Bot-Nuking Day: Making RuneScape Fairer and More Fun!" Jagex, 25 October 2011. Web. 3 November 2011. <http://services.runescape.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=4831&dir=n&allcat=true>
[2] "RS2 Launced!" runescape.com. Jagex, 29 Mar 2004. Web. 3 November 2011. <http://services.runescape.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=204>
[3] "Unbalanced
Trade Removal." runescape.com. Jagex, 2 Jan 2008.
Web. 3 November 2011. <http://services.runescape.com/m=news/unbalanced-trade-removal?allcat=false>;
Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Come back, n00b!
Do you reminisce about the days when a player whose username consisted of several substitutions of English characters for numbers, in the "language" known as "1337," would pester you for stuff? Do you miss the days when these players would eagerly type their unsolicited sob stories via private messaging or even public chat in the hope of earning your sympathy? Do you recall fondly when seemingly an endless amount of people lost their stuff in the wilderness, and naturally, as the most experienced person on their friends list, they turned to you for financial aid?
All veteran players on RuneScape, even those who plead their innocence of committing the act firsthand, can distinctly recall a player recently engaged in the act of shooing a "n00b." "N00b," or equivalently "noob," which technically refers to "A person who, regardless of experience, lacks the skill or [competence] to be competitive in a certain game" [2] is a derogatory term, despite its derivation from "newbie," which simply means "new player." However, in RuneScape, and perhaps other games, this insult is overused.
Countless times, comments similar to "Go away, noob!" have been reiterated regardless of whether the player is requesting free items or money, or truly seeking advice in order to earn their own money independently. Together with the inclusion of more higher level game content, the literal (and only) interpretation of these comments created a slow trickle of players who joined and shortly left. This yielded to a mass exodus via the "snowball effect," effectively responsible for some of the unpleasant changes seen since Free Trade and the Wilderness were released. While song lyrics are hardly a repository for sound advice, they are often quite applicable (modulo a change of grammar), i.e. "Don't it always seem to go/That you don't know what you got 'till it's gone" [1].
These noobs, the influx of fresh players into RuneScape, were the foundation under which the RuneScape economy was set upon. By performing remedial tasks they generated raw resources, which other players could not be bothered to collect themselves because they sought fast experience in comparison with the monetary gain that harvesting raw materials yielded. For example, consider rune essence, which is required to train the Runecrafting skill, known for being one of the slowest and most tedious to train (at least prior to the advent of new minigames, teleport tabs, and various other rewards). To obtain a high level, a player may feasibly have used hundreds of thousands of essence that they bought from the Grand Exchange.
Of course, someone had to mine that essence, a repetitive task which consists of mining one "inventory," or 28 essence at a time, at a rate of an inventory a minute or so. Formerly, when the price of essence was higher, this provided substantial income (scaled to the needs of a new player), hence providing a good balance. But as these new players slowed ceased to exist, the price of essence crept up-or at least, that would have been the natural conclusion. However, some people began to see a way to enrich themselves by creating automated scripts called "bots" to mine the rune essence while paying little or no attention to the game themselves, with the idea of selling the gold for real money to other players.
At first this idea may have seemed preposterous-why would people trade their real cash for virtual currency? But apparently some new players weighed the calculation and must have found that spending an hour working, or a week of their allowance, to buy their way into the game was more desirable than grinding out money for hours. Encouraged by the revenue, the companies botting set up even more automated scripts and advertised in all places where players congregated: Lumbridge, the Grand Exchange, Edgeville, etc. As more and more people bought gold, the market was flooded with the supply of raw commodities and their price dropped through the snowball effect. Not only did the price of gold in dollars drop (at least according to the advertisers' quoted prices), but earning the same amount of gold as a noob became impossible. Earning 10M would require 20 or 30 hours of mining rune essence, or less than one hour of wages at minimum wage. All of this was due to the absence of noobs.
At first, the higher level players enjoying soaring profits from crafting a glut of these materials into more valuable end products, such as nature runes for alching. But before long bots were also set up for those methods, to earn more gold to sell to customers. Now, when entering the game surrounded by advertisements to buy 10M for a relatively trivial amount of real money and no other apparent way to make money, new players quickly bifurcate into two groups: they quit or buy money.
The economic stability and future of the RuneSacpe economy may be uncertain, but there is one thing I will declare with certitude: I miss the noobs.
Note: Buying RuneScape gold or items for real money or any other service outside of RuneScape constitutes "Real World Trading" and is a breach of RuneScape's Terms and conditions. It is strongly recommended that you do NOT engage in such transactions.
References
All veteran players on RuneScape, even those who plead their innocence of committing the act firsthand, can distinctly recall a player recently engaged in the act of shooing a "n00b." "N00b," or equivalently "noob," which technically refers to "A person who, regardless of experience, lacks the skill or [competence] to be competitive in a certain game" [2] is a derogatory term, despite its derivation from "newbie," which simply means "new player." However, in RuneScape, and perhaps other games, this insult is overused.
Countless times, comments similar to "Go away, noob!" have been reiterated regardless of whether the player is requesting free items or money, or truly seeking advice in order to earn their own money independently. Together with the inclusion of more higher level game content, the literal (and only) interpretation of these comments created a slow trickle of players who joined and shortly left. This yielded to a mass exodus via the "snowball effect," effectively responsible for some of the unpleasant changes seen since Free Trade and the Wilderness were released. While song lyrics are hardly a repository for sound advice, they are often quite applicable (modulo a change of grammar), i.e. "Don't it always seem to go/That you don't know what you got 'till it's gone" [1].
These noobs, the influx of fresh players into RuneScape, were the foundation under which the RuneScape economy was set upon. By performing remedial tasks they generated raw resources, which other players could not be bothered to collect themselves because they sought fast experience in comparison with the monetary gain that harvesting raw materials yielded. For example, consider rune essence, which is required to train the Runecrafting skill, known for being one of the slowest and most tedious to train (at least prior to the advent of new minigames, teleport tabs, and various other rewards). To obtain a high level, a player may feasibly have used hundreds of thousands of essence that they bought from the Grand Exchange.
Of course, someone had to mine that essence, a repetitive task which consists of mining one "inventory," or 28 essence at a time, at a rate of an inventory a minute or so. Formerly, when the price of essence was higher, this provided substantial income (scaled to the needs of a new player), hence providing a good balance. But as these new players slowed ceased to exist, the price of essence crept up-or at least, that would have been the natural conclusion. However, some people began to see a way to enrich themselves by creating automated scripts called "bots" to mine the rune essence while paying little or no attention to the game themselves, with the idea of selling the gold for real money to other players.
At first this idea may have seemed preposterous-why would people trade their real cash for virtual currency? But apparently some new players weighed the calculation and must have found that spending an hour working, or a week of their allowance, to buy their way into the game was more desirable than grinding out money for hours. Encouraged by the revenue, the companies botting set up even more automated scripts and advertised in all places where players congregated: Lumbridge, the Grand Exchange, Edgeville, etc. As more and more people bought gold, the market was flooded with the supply of raw commodities and their price dropped through the snowball effect. Not only did the price of gold in dollars drop (at least according to the advertisers' quoted prices), but earning the same amount of gold as a noob became impossible. Earning 10M would require 20 or 30 hours of mining rune essence, or less than one hour of wages at minimum wage. All of this was due to the absence of noobs.
At first, the higher level players enjoying soaring profits from crafting a glut of these materials into more valuable end products, such as nature runes for alching. But before long bots were also set up for those methods, to earn more gold to sell to customers. Now, when entering the game surrounded by advertisements to buy 10M for a relatively trivial amount of real money and no other apparent way to make money, new players quickly bifurcate into two groups: they quit or buy money.
The economic stability and future of the RuneSacpe economy may be uncertain, but there is one thing I will declare with certitude: I miss the noobs.
Note: Buying RuneScape gold or items for real money or any other service outside of RuneScape constitutes "Real World Trading" and is a breach of RuneScape's Terms and conditions. It is strongly recommended that you do NOT engage in such transactions.
References
[1] "Big Yellow Taxi Lyrics." lyrics007.com. N.p., 3 June 2010.
Web. 21 October, 2011. <http://www.lyrics007.com/Counting%20Crows%20Lyrics/Big%20Yellow%20Taxi%20Lyrics.html>;
[2] "Urban Dictionary: n00b" Runescape.com. N.p., 2 December 2003. Web. 21 October, 2011. <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=n00b>;
Friday, October 14, 2011
To Forgive or Not To Forgive
After two years of closely following and reading the articles from the changing format of the list on the homepage of RuneScape, I thought I had (empirically) determined that the probability of Jagex expressing any emotion in the form of regret, or the notion that at anytime in the future they would, was comparable with the success rate of a new player attempting to solo the Corporal Beast with full mithril armor. The spectacle of witnessing a player whose discouragement for voting RuneScape "best free-to-play game" via a YouTube video directly caused his fall from "grace"-the player lost Forum Moderator and Player Moderator privileges-only reinforced this belief [3,4]. Hence, witnessing the apology [2] recently published on RuneScape's homepage left me flabbergasted.
Naturally, one might be skeptical that I deem this as an "apology." Indeed, a cursory glance at the title and first few paragraphs yields no new information, and may instead lead disgruntled players to dismiss it and stop reading. Yet patience is a virtue, and ascertaining this conclusion required not only a close reading of the article, but time to consider its meaning. Here I contribute my analysis. An excerpt from the second paragraph is:
On the other hand, cynicism will always dictate that people invent (not necessarily illogical or unreasonable) explanations for Jagex's insincerity. Indeed, in my experience, of the few players that did read the article (which, as a percentage of players seemed low, judging from asking my friends, who are not fresh newbies), most had a pessimistic attitude regarding the amount of change that would stem from these promised updates, and instead cited incentives such as earning votes for the Golden Joystick Awards, selling RuneFest tickets, and providing encouragement for players to renew their membership.
There is more of the article that merits discussion. In addition to asking for the help of the players, Jagex also seems to strongly endorse a different sentiment by quoting an article from the fansite Rune Tips:
Some research yields that the recent post on Tip.it that it quotes above is presumably [1]. In any case, the thrust of the quoted portion of the article is twofold. Firstly, it can be interpreted as a statement about supply and demand: if there were no demand for "botted" or "rwt'ed" gold (gold generated by companies that practice botting on many different accounts), then the supply would diminish, as these companies would no longer find this practice profitable. Secondly, it implicitly claims that the majority of accounts who bot either have an affiliation with one of these companies or are not blissfully ignorant that they are violating the rules. Although it could be argued that the former group is larger than the latter, in a sense it is irrelevant-whether players encourage botting or bot themselves has no effect on the economy. Either way, excess raw materials flood the market and lower prices. Jagex has reaffirmed that there is a finite amount they can do by themselves, by asking for our help [2].
The conclusion that I draw from [2] is that Jagex has admitted the flaws in its approach to dealing with bots, especially considering the promises it made with the reintroduction of free trade and the wilderness. Cynically one can say that they are trying to "buy time" or merely generate more revenue from lost paid subscriptions. Another point of view is that Jagex is asking for forgiveness and truly cares about improving their game. Indeed, if one doubts the sincerity of this article, one could certainly say that they do not forgive Jagex. Also up for debate is the efficacy of Jagex's plea for players not to bot, and almost an admission that by the players who make this rule-conscious decision to bot, they are fueling it and may be the only ones who can make a substantial contribution to resolving the problem-by stopping.
Due to the highly "emotive" nature of this issue [2], one would expect a bifurcation in reactions to this article, which I have detailed. Some players weary of promises dismiss this as a marketing ploy, while others may give Jagex the benefit of the doubt and a second chance. Each individual player will confront, perhaps subconsciously, the question I am about to propose. I need not discuss the consequences of either outcome. In addition to apologizing for the manner in which they have handled the botting situtation so far, Jagex has promised:
Therefore, I ask you, the reader, regarding Jagex and its collective stance and actions on bots so far, to consider carefully the grave dilemma: to forgive or not to forgive?
Note: We attempted to contact the player "Jiblix" who was mentioned in this post and interviewed by Rune Tips [3], but our messages were not answered.
Naturally, one might be skeptical that I deem this as an "apology." Indeed, a cursory glance at the title and first few paragraphs yields no new information, and may instead lead disgruntled players to dismiss it and stop reading. Yet patience is a virtue, and ascertaining this conclusion required not only a close reading of the article, but time to consider its meaning. Here I contribute my analysis. An excerpt from the second paragraph is:
As I have stated above, this is simply reiterating the content in January's article and is prone to encourage the stereotypically impatient player to feel more dejected and angry than before. However, later in the article Jagex admits, "We recognise [sic] that we have not been the best at communicating what we are doing and that changes today." This is corporate and professional (two unsurprising attributes), but most stunningly, indicative that Jagex has shown, or claims to be showing, remorse. In other words, it is the closest in this situation from a company that one can expect to hear to "We're sorry and we're going to do better," regardless of its sincerity or lack thereof.At the beginning of the year, when we brought Free Trade and the Wilderness back, we promised that we would couple that with programmes [sic] that would combat the inevitable botting that would result from that decision. [2]
The Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijn [5]
On the other hand, cynicism will always dictate that people invent (not necessarily illogical or unreasonable) explanations for Jagex's insincerity. Indeed, in my experience, of the few players that did read the article (which, as a percentage of players seemed low, judging from asking my friends, who are not fresh newbies), most had a pessimistic attitude regarding the amount of change that would stem from these promised updates, and instead cited incentives such as earning votes for the Golden Joystick Awards, selling RuneFest tickets, and providing encouragement for players to renew their membership.
There is more of the article that merits discussion. In addition to asking for the help of the players, Jagex also seems to strongly endorse a different sentiment by quoting an article from the fansite Rune Tips:
And finally, we would ask that you refrain from using bots or supporting gold farmers. If there is not a market, then bots will not exist. As was so eloquently put in a recent post on Tip.it “Standing up to Jagex [by voicing one’s opinion on the botting issue], one might argue, requires a certain amount of courage, but much more is required to stand up to one’s friends”. The player went on to say, “The community needs to stand up for itself by following the rules and shunning those who do not. Lacking customers, the websites that set up the bots will close, and the only botter will be the isolated real player. Ultimately, following the three pillars of the code of conduct that Jagex set up-“Honour,” “Respect,” and “Security” are a responsibility of the players and the community as much as they are of Jagex.” [2]
Some research yields that the recent post on Tip.it that it quotes above is presumably [1]. In any case, the thrust of the quoted portion of the article is twofold. Firstly, it can be interpreted as a statement about supply and demand: if there were no demand for "botted" or "rwt'ed" gold (gold generated by companies that practice botting on many different accounts), then the supply would diminish, as these companies would no longer find this practice profitable. Secondly, it implicitly claims that the majority of accounts who bot either have an affiliation with one of these companies or are not blissfully ignorant that they are violating the rules. Although it could be argued that the former group is larger than the latter, in a sense it is irrelevant-whether players encourage botting or bot themselves has no effect on the economy. Either way, excess raw materials flood the market and lower prices. Jagex has reaffirmed that there is a finite amount they can do by themselves, by asking for our help [2].
The conclusion that I draw from [2] is that Jagex has admitted the flaws in its approach to dealing with bots, especially considering the promises it made with the reintroduction of free trade and the wilderness. Cynically one can say that they are trying to "buy time" or merely generate more revenue from lost paid subscriptions. Another point of view is that Jagex is asking for forgiveness and truly cares about improving their game. Indeed, if one doubts the sincerity of this article, one could certainly say that they do not forgive Jagex. Also up for debate is the efficacy of Jagex's plea for players not to bot, and almost an admission that by the players who make this rule-conscious decision to bot, they are fueling it and may be the only ones who can make a substantial contribution to resolving the problem-by stopping.
Due to the highly "emotive" nature of this issue [2], one would expect a bifurcation in reactions to this article, which I have detailed. Some players weary of promises dismiss this as a marketing ploy, while others may give Jagex the benefit of the doubt and a second chance. Each individual player will confront, perhaps subconsciously, the question I am about to propose. I need not discuss the consequences of either outcome. In addition to apologizing for the manner in which they have handled the botting situtation so far, Jagex has promised:
We are committed to ridding our game of bots. We are committed to providing a more open discussion with you about the real challenges that we face as a result of our efforts. We are committed to involving you more in this war so we can win this fight together.
Most importantly, we are committed to continuing our investment in evolving and making RuneScape a great game to play and an amazing community to be a part of. [2]
Therefore, I ask you, the reader, regarding Jagex and its collective stance and actions on bots so far, to consider carefully the grave dilemma: to forgive or not to forgive?
Note: We attempted to contact the player "Jiblix" who was mentioned in this post and interviewed by Rune Tips [3], but our messages were not answered.
References:
[1] Arceus. "A fresh perspective
on bots." Tip.It. Rune Tips, 18 September 2011.
Web. 14 October, 2011. <http://www.tip.it/runescape/?times=679>
[2] Clough,
Daniel. "Update on our ongoing battle against bots." Runescape.com.
Jagex, 11 October 2011. Web. 14 October, 2011. <http://services.runescape.com/m=news/update-on-our-ongoing-battle-against-bots>
[3]
Hamtaro. "Interview with Jiblix." Tip.It.
Rune Tips, 4 September 2011. Web. 14 October, 2011. <http://www.tip.it/runescape/?times=671>
[4] Jiblix.
"Is this the good deal?" Youtube.com. LtdMods, 20
August 2011. Web. 14 October, 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-U-vFzw-ic>
[5] van Rijn, Rembrandt. The
Prodigal Son. 1662. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Web. 14 October, 2011.
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