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.