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RuneScape

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File:RSthumb.jpg
Person fighting a highwayman in Runescape Classic

RuneScape is a 3D Java based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), launched by Jagex Ltd. in January 2001 as a free-to-play game.

There are often over seventy thousand players online at once, and on busy weekends, over eighty thousand players, spread across its 39 free members' and 21 paid members' worlds/servers (These servers are located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and The Netherlands), making it one of the largest online Java games in the world. There are also a few servers running the "classic" version of the game (split between free servers and member servers). Players represent a wide range of nationalities and ages.

Version overview

  • Orginal Runescape - Renamed Runescape Classic with the release of Runescape 2.
    • Runescape Beta - a non-public development version. No longer running, ended with public release of runescape.
    • Runescape - original game, name now for the series. No longer running under this name.
      • included Free and Members-only versions
    • Runescape Classic - the first version of the game running with the old engine, not updated anymore but still playable.
      • includes Free and Members-only versions, still running as of 2004
  • Runescape 2 - The first major overhaul with redone graphics engine.
    • Runescape 2 beta - a beta version that ran prior to public release. No longer running.
      • Ran as members-only mostly.
    • Runescape 2 - the latest version
      • includes Free and members only versions, still running as of 2004.

Playing the game

File:Rscapethumb.jpg
Knight and archer fighting a lesser demon in a volcano. RuneScape 2

The new player's experience

The new player to Runescape arrives on an island named "Tutorial Island". This island is accessible only once; when players leave they leave for good and may never return. Although some could consider a mandatory tutorial dull and useless, Jagex (and many players) have said that it is vital to understanding the complexities of the game. For the eager learner, the tutorial takes no more than fifteen minutes on a connection without lag. While on the island, players learn about in-game skills such as fighting, communication, cooking, banking, and doing quests. Once a player has completed the tasks assigned on tutorial island, they are transported to the starting city of Lumbridge, and the game truly begins.

A secondary purpose for this island is to serve as an inconvinence to griefers and cheaters who bypass bans by simply creating new characters.

The rest of the game

After completing the tutorial, players are free to play as they choose. They can wander to and from the many cities in the game, fighting and exploring. Of course, fighting and increasing fighting skill is not necesarily mandatory, but it is extremely valuable if one wants to survive in any of the higher-level areas with aggressive monsters. The only available methods of transportation thus far are walking, ships, and teleportation, which requires a high level of magic and some hard-to-find runes.

Skills

Main article: RuneScape skills

RuneScape Skills are abilities that enable players do things in the RuneScape game. Some skills are members-only and some skills are only in newer versions of the game. Many of the higher level abilities in each skill are reserved for members only. Players gain experience in a skill when they use abilities which utilize that skill. A player's amount of experience determines the level of that skill. New abilities are given to the player when they reach certain levels. Higher level abilities in turn give more experience to compensate for the roughly quadratic increase in experience points needed to reach each new level.

Game economy

Runescape has a complex economy for a browser based game. The main purpose of the game is to accumulate expensive items and money. The supply of these expensive items is mostly dependent on a limited number of high level players. But as the number of players with sufficiently high levels increase, so does the supply and amount of rare and expensive items. As a result, these rare and expensive items decrease in their value. For example, rune 2-handed swords used to cost up to 1 million gold pieces in Runescape classic, but now cost 30k. Investing in rare items is very risky due to the nature of Runescape's relatively unstable economy. To prevent saturation, a supply of new players is necessary.

The supply of money in runescape is not limited, which means there is a general inflationary trend. There is generally more money going into the game than out. Again, this is countered by the supply of new players.

Furthermore, prices for rare items such as Party hats (AKA peehats) can sharply jump up or down due to the unpredictable actions taken by their owners. Phat prices are currently in the millions.

Communities

File:Runescape222.jpg
Screenshot of the Runescape 2

RuneScape has many communities within it. Many players have grouped together to form groups known as 'clans'. These clans often have alliances, and occasionally go to war with each other; often meeting in bloody clashes with many participants. Sometimes players enter the war zone to pick up leftover items, such as enchanted amulets and armor.

This takes place in the Wilderness area, located in northern RuneScape. The Wilderness has great rewards, but also great risks. This is also where player characters can fight and kill each other, known throughout the game as PKing (Player Killing). As one gets deeper into the Wilderness, they can fight with other players further and further away from their combat level. So a Lvl 60 player in the Lvl 30 wilderness area can attack players Lvl 30-90. When a player attacks another player in the wilderness, that player is given a skull over his head. If a player with a skull over his head dies, then he loses all of his items (Normally a dead person would lose all of his items except for his three most expensive items, but if he has the prayer power "protect items" and uses it, that person will keep his most expensive item). Half of the wilderness only allows 1-on-1 battles, whilst the other half allows multiway combat and the potentially huge team based wars mentioned above. There are many different weapons, spells, and potions available to assist fighting in the wilderness.

However, the Wilderness isn't only for Player Killing. There are some other activities such as killing monsters and collecting items. There are places to mine, smith, cook, train, fish, collect items, and more. The wilderness is abundant with monsters, most of which are more dangerous than monsters outside of the Wilderness. And the deep members-only Wilderness contains the dangerous Mage Arena. Also lurking in the Wilderness is a lever that teleports a character to the King Black Dragon (often known as the "KBD"), the second most powerful monster in RuneScape. Even deeper in the member's wilderness is a quick escape to a members town, where a person can teleport to Ardougne by pulling a lever. In the northeastern area of the wilderness lurks some of the fabled greater demons. These massive beasts are very strong and very hard to train on if there are a lot of PKers.

Player demographics

In March of 2004 a poll of the age and gender was done on the official website. The poll was only open to members, so it is potenially not as indicative of the total player base. Also, since it was not controlled in any way, people could put false answers. People who are unable to become members would be under-represented and the potential making up an answer does exist. Either way it is one of sources of information on the player base, whether it is correct or not.

The poll results:

  • The poll question: "Which of the following Age/Gender group do you belong to?", and the results
  • Male under 15 years of age : 5492 votes
  • Male between 15 and 25 : 3918 votes
  • Male between 26 and 40 : 533 votes
  • Male over 40 : 264 votes
  • Female under 15 years of age  : 237 votes
  • Female between 15 and 25  : 357 votes
  • Female between 26 and 40  : 302 votes
  • Female over 40  : 270 votes

Developments

On February 27, 2002, Jagex launched a new optional 'members service'. This allows players to pay $5 USD a month to obtain access to new quests, features and skills. Paying members have a far greater choice of things to do, but it is still possible to play the game for free, and there is in fact still more free content available than ever before.

Over the past three years, players have attempted to develop a variety of RuneScape cheats. When Runescape first opened, cheating was at an all-time high, and was rarely prevented. However when Jagex introduced the pay-to-play members service the additional cash revenue meant they were able to start enforcing the rules more efficiently, and they implemented many macro detection routines and protections to ensure that an actual human was playing. Currently cheats are only prevalent in the less protected RuneScape Classic, as evidenced by the occasional mass banning of "worst offenders".

On December 1, 2003, Jagex released a beta version of an improved version of the game, which had been rewitten from scratch (temporarily called "Runescape 2"). Featuring a new 3D-engine and revisions to gameplay, this beta was initially only available to paying members. Jagex claimed that this will make RuneScape the most advanced java-based game in the world. On March 17, 2004, Jagex released the beta to non-paying players.

Just in time to keep their promise, Jagex took the new game out of beta, and finally released it to everyone on March 29, 2004, which gave everyone playing RuneScape (paying or not) the opportunity to play on the new gaming system.

RuneScape 2 overview

RuneScape 2 includes a whole new player interface, which separates the main-view, game-options, minimap, and chat into four different screen areas, allowing tasks to be performed more efficiently and conveniently. These areas are:

  1. The main-view - Which now enables players to zoom up and down in order to see the world more clearly.
  2. A game-options area - A new panel on the side which combines all the gaming functions into one space (Level Status, Attack Style, Prayer, Magic, Quests, Armour page, Inventory page, Friends list, Ignore list, Music player, Player controls, and log out function)
  3. The minimap - Now permanently visible in its own area and has extra icons indicating the location of important locations, such as: shops, quest-points, ranges, furnaces, dungeon-entrances, etc..
  4. A dedicated chat / message area
  5. Lots more updates, often weekly

Graphics

Much improved graphics have been included. The new graphics are now competitive to other popular role playing games, such as Diablo. Shopkeepers and Bankers are no longer jammed when another player is dealing with them. Instead, players can now even trade with them straight away without any conversation at all. Navigation is improved, since clicking on a location now displays a tiny red flag on the minimap indicating the destination until the player arrives or changes their mind. Magic, prayer, and ranging now all include much improved animations alongside with different animations for each kind of action too. Weapon attacks now each have different styles, although these still correspond to the three familiar combat styles from before: Accurate (trains the 'Attack' skill), Aggressive (trains the 'Strength' skill) and Defensive (trains the 'Defense' skill). In addition, players can adjust the angle that they are looking at their character with the arrow keys.

Magic

Magic requires a certain amount of Runes (Air, Mind, Water, Fire, Earth, Body, Chaos, Cosmic, Nature, Death, Blood, and Soul; or requires optional staffs such the three different staffs of the three Runescape Gods: Saradomin, Guthix, and Zamorak, or the "Iban Staff" for "Iban Blast") and the four elemental staffs: Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. Newly available in RS2 for both paying and non-paying players is the added ability of "Runecrafting", which allows players to craft their own runes. Players can still choose to buy their own runes from the witch Betty, Aubury in Varrock, or (the fastest way) to buy from another player who already has thousands of runes. A new feature has been introduced recently from Jagex for mages. Now mages have their own armor made from splitbark. You can acquire it by cutting a hollow tree and presenting the bark to an odd-looking wizard in the Wizards Tower.

Note: For splitbark armor you need to be a member to cut a hollow tree and you also need to bring lots of money, bark, and fine cloth.

Equipment

File:Equip.JPG
Screenshot of the equipment page

For the melee class, often called "warriors", there are bronze, iron, steel, black, adamantite, runite, and dragon metals for both armor and weapons. Available weapons include: daggers, short swords, scimitars, long swords, two-handed swords, hatchets, battle axes, maces, throwing knives, arrows, halberds etc. Available armour includes: chain-mail body, plate-mail body, skirt armours, leg armor, medium-helmets, large helmets, wooden shields, square shields, kite shields, etc. Most of these items are available in each kind of metal. Dragon is a metal that has slowly been added to, and all of its items look unlike items of other metals. The dragon medium helm, for example, has a pair of horns.

Rangers typically use long and shortbows made of 'regular' logs, oak, willow, maple, yew, or magic wood, as well as arrows and throwing weapons made of all the metals bronze-runite. Armor for them includes leather, hard leather, studded leather, green dragon hide, blue dragon hide, red dragon hide, and black dragon hide. Vambraces, the most powerful armwear not obtained in a quest, are made of the above listed items and require ranging experience to use.

Mages typically use robes as armor, and staffs for weapons. Not much variety, but spells require mystical Runestones to be cast, and there are many types of runestones. Elemental staffs can provide unlimited runes of their element when wielded, but otherwise runes are expensive. Mages also have access to splitbark armor, but this armor is very expensive and cheaper alternatives often give better magical bonuses.

Aside from this basic equipment, many other weapons and armor are obtained by way of quests, but the sheer variety of these items makes it a very difficult task to list them all.

Combat mechanics

Players in Runescape generally fall into three major classes: warrior, ranger, and mage. There is no actual definition of these classes; people generally level up their statistics respective to these classes. However, all of these classes use Prayer. Warriors are possibly the most common class; fighting in melee mode increases Strength, Attack, and Defense. Wizards are the second most common class and emphasize magical spells. In RS2, magic use has greatly proliferated due to significantly increased damage. Lastly, there is the Ranger, which emphasizes skill in archery and projectile throwing. All of these styles increases hitpoints(hp).

RS2 has a class triangle, whereby a Warrior defeats Ranger, Ranger defeats Wizard and Wizard defeats Warrior (analogous to the rock, paper and scissors triangle).

Some people have chosen to train each of their combat skills to the same level. There is no way of defining their exact class, although it is suggested by the armor they wear. If they have a significant level of each of the three class's skills or none then there is no way of making a definitive classification.

Warriors will usually wear armor such as platebodies or chainmail. Common warrior weapons include scimitars (which some players call "skimmys"), battleaxes, longswords, and the infamous 2h sword (2h is short for two-handed). Also, leather gloves and boots are a must-have. To wield and wear better weapons and armor, players must train attack levels and defense levels respectivley.

Wizards will wear wizard's robes, wizard's hats, and anything else that has the word "wizard" in it. Recently, Jagex released a new mage armour. This is obtained by completing one of the many quests throughout the game. Which quest do you have to complete? You'll just have to find out. Also, some wear priest's or monk's robes, for the religous look. Staffs are a must-have, magical or not (but more likely magical).

And last, but not least, there are rangers. Of course, they'll have a bow with them: Oak, willow, long, short, any kind. Leather, and dragonhide armour gives you ranging attack bonuses, so don't be surprised to see a ranger with a coif or cowl, gloves, or vambraces. There are lots of types of dragonhide armour, including green dragonhide, blue dragonhide, red dragonhide and black dragonhide, only obtainable from the colour of the dragon. Green Dragonhide is the only that is obtainable for free players.


Quests

Here are some of the quests available in Runescape 2, although many of these were orginally for and are still available in Runescape Classic

  • Standard/Free Quests
    • Novice Quests
      • Rune Mysteries
        • The primary developer of the quest was RuneScape worker 'James B'. The quest is availbe to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest: "Recent research at the Wizards Tower has found a way to create Runes for the first time in centuries. Assist the head wizard Sedridor in his research and he too may teach you these secrets!" Quest Information- Start point: Lumbridge, To start: Speak to the Duke of Lumbridge, Quest length: short, Minimum requirements: None, Members only: No
      • Cook's Assistant
        • The primary developer of the quest was the Developer Paul Gower, and had a converstion done by Andrew Gower. It was one of the original quests in Runescape Classic and is in the Runescape 2 as well. The quest is availbe to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest: "The Lumbridge castle cook is in a mess. It is the Duke of Lumbridge's birthday and the cook is making the cake. He needs a lot of ingredients and doesn't have much time." You need one egg, a bucket of milk and a pot of flour. Quest Information: Start point: Lumbridge Castle, To start: Speak to the Cook, Quest length: short, Minimum requirements: None, Members only: No
      • Sheep Shearer
      • Witch's Potion
        • Witch's Potion The developer of the quest is the RuneScape developer Paul Gower, with a coversion done by Simon B. It was one of the original quests in Runescape Classic and is also in Runescape 2. The quest is available to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest: "Become one with your darker side. Tap into your hidden depths of magical potential by making a potion with the help of Hetty the Rimmington witch." Quest Information: Start point: Rimmington, To start: Speak to Hetty, Quest length: Short, Minimum requirements: None, Members only: No
      • Romeo & Juliet
        • The developer of the quest is the RuneScape developer Paul Gower along with Rob L. A conversion was done by Simon B with a coversion done by Simon B. It was one of the original quests in Runescape Classic and is also in Runescape 2. The quest is available to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest: "Romeo & Juliet are desperately in love, but Juliet's father doesn't approve. Help them to find a way to get married and live happily ever after. " Quest Information: Start point: House west of Varrock, To start: Speak to Juliet, Quest length: Short, Minimum requirements: None, Members only: No
      • Pirate's Treasure
        • The developer of the quest is the RuneScape developer Paul Gower with conversion was done by Graham B. The quest is available to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest:"Redbeard Frank knows where secret pirate treasure is hidden, it may require some work to persuade him to let you know where though." Quest Information Start point: Port Sarim To start: Speak to Redbeard Frank Quest length: Medium Minimum requirements: None Members only: No
      • Ernest the Chicken
        • The developer of the quest is the RuneScape developer Paul Gower with conversion was done by Graham B. The quest is available to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest:"Veronica is very worried. Her fiancee went into the big spooky manor house to ask for directions. An hour later and he's still not out yet. " Quest Information Start point: Gates of Draynor Manor To start: Speak to Veronica Quest length: Medium Minimum requirements: None Members only: No.
      • Imp Catcher
        • The developer of the quest is the RuneScape developer Paul Gower along with Simon B. The conversion was done by Simon B It was one of the original quests in Runescape Classic and is also in Runescape 2. The quest is available to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest:"The Wizard Grayzag has summoned hundreds of little imps. They have stolen a lot of things belonging to the Wizard Mizgog including his magic beads." Quest Information Start point: Wizard's Tower To start: Speak to Wizard Mizgog Quest length: Medium Minimum requirements: None Members only: No
      • Prince Ali Rescue
        • The developer of the quest is the RuneScape developer Paul Gower along with Rob L. The conversion was also done by Paul Gower It was one of the original quests in Runescape Classic and is also in Runescape 2. The quest is available to non-members and is classified as novice level. A quote from the website talking about the quest:"Prince Ali of Al Kharid has been kidnapped by the scheming Lady Keli. You are hired to stage a rescue mission." Quest Information Start point: Al Kharid palace To start: Speak to Hassan Quest length: Long Minimum requirements: None Members only: No.
      • Goblin Diplomacy
      • Doric's Quest
      • The Restless Ghost
      • Shield of Arrav
      • Vampire Slayer
      • Demon Slayer
    • Intermediate Quests
      • Black Knights' Fortress,The Knight's Sword
    • Experienced Quests
      • Dragon Slayer
  • Member-Only Quests
    • Novice Quests
      • Murder Mystery, Observatory Quest, Gertrude's Cat, Dwarf Cannon, Druidic Ritual, Fishing Contest, Sheep Herder, Plague City, Monk's Friend, The Hazeel Cult, Biohazard, Elemental Workshop, Priest In Peril, Nature Spirit, Death Plateau
    • Intermediate Quests
      • Clock Tower, Jungle Potion, Merlin's Crystal, Witch's House, Sea Slug, Tribal Totem, Tree Gnome Village, The Tourist Trap, Digsite Quest, Big Chompy Bird Hunting, Tai Bwo Wannai Trio, Shades of Mort'ton, The Fremennik Trials
    • Experienced Quests
      • Waterfall Quest, Scorpion Catcher, The Holy Grail, Fight Arena, Lost City, The Grand Tree, Watch Tower, Shilo Village Quest, Temple of Ikov, The Underground Pass, Hero's Quest, Family Crest, Legends Quest, Troll Stronghold, Regicide Quest, Eadgar's Ruse, Horror from the Deep, Throne of Miscellania, Monkey Madness, Haunted Mine

Guilds

If players attain a high enough experience level in a skill (or done enough quests) they can often gain access to a guild. A guild in the game is simply a building the player can enter into, which offers some game items and features. They were first present in the original Runescape starting with the guild for if you completed enough quests, followed by the mining guild. This feature was continued in Runescape 2 and now there are many guilds - some of which are not in runescape classic. Also, some guilds are member-only since not all skills are avaible to free/standard play.

The guilds as of 2004 include The Champions Guild (32 quest points), The Cooks Guild (32 cooking), The Crafting Guild (40 crafting), The Fishing Guild (68 fishing), The Heros Guild (completed the heros quest), The Legends Guild (completed the legends quest), The Magicians Guild (66 magic), The Mining Guild (60 mining), The Prayer Guild (The second floor of the Monastery)(31 prayer) and The Ranging Guild (40 ranged).

Mini-games

There are some other tasks besides the usual quests and skill leveling, which are essentially games within a game. These include for example Fishing Trawler, Treasure Trails, Mage Arena, Agility Arena, Gnomeball, Games Room, and Castle Wars. All of the these mini-games, however, are only for free-member players.

Random events

File:Treespirit.JPG
Tree Spirit random event

Random events can take place in the game. These are mostly bad things that happen randomly. While most people like the few positive random events, the unlucky ones are largely detested. They can have some benefit but can also do annoying things and harm the player (such as teleporting across the map). Whether future versions will continue to have the annoying negative random events is a matter of debate, given the amount of hate that exists for having unlucky things happen. JaGeX maintains that this is to help prevent macro programs.

  • Guardian: Potentially dangerous and annoying: River Troll, Rock Golem, Watchman, Zombie, Tree Spirit, Shade, etc. River trolls generally attack you when you have been fishing in the same place for a long time. The same goes for the Tree Spirit and Rock Golem. Zombies and shades appear when you have buried a lot of bones.
  • Inconveniences: Random breakage of equipment such as pickaxes when mining and hatchets when woodcutting. You can generally avoid these by not clicking to mine on a smoking rock, trying to cut down an Ent, or not fishing where there is a whirlpool or 'Big fish'.
  • Dangerous and Annoying: Swarm, Ent, Whirlpool, Exploding Rock, Poison Gas.
  • Gift Givers: Drunk Dwarf, Genie, Mysterious Old Man, Maze, Strange Box, Strange Plant (Members only), Mime.

Game credits

A abridged list of some of higher ranked development and managment team of RuneScape.

Development Team

  • Lead Designer/Programmer: Andrew Gower
  • Head of Content and Quests: Paul Gower
  • Mini Games: Ben D, Tom de R
  • Head of Graphics and Maps: Anthony A
  • Music and Sounds: Ian T
  • Head of Website and Databases: Chris S
  • Head of Quality Assurance: Andrew C

Publishing Team

  • Commercial Director: Constant T
  • Operations Manager: Daniel C
  • Billing Support: Rob S
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