Thursday, July 31, 2008

C.R.E.A.M.

I grew up on the crime side, the New York Times side… Sorry. Ahh money. Such a major force in the world. The dollar, the euro, yen, pound sterling, francs, lira, pesos, gil... The almighty GP! Why should Runescape be any different? So many people play the game simply to get rich at it. There’s RWT sites that will charge you real world money so that you can be rich in Runescape (hopefully these are fading away into oblivion). There’s countless websites with strategy guides stating that their way to get rich is the fastest and the easiest. Christmas crackers, party hats, Halloween masks all seem to cost as much as the gross national product as several small countries. My thoughts on gp have changed significantly over the years of playing Runescape, and here’s how.

As a lower level I couldn’t help but admire those with an almost limit-less income. They’d talk about the millions they made killing creatures I’ve never even heard of and selling their drops so they could buy armor that I’ve also never heard of. I never begged for anything to be given to me in game, I never really saw the point. Even when I was just starting out I found it to be a little annoying. We all start someplace. We all had to struggle to kill goblins to get that 10gp to get to Al Kharid at some point. Maybe it was because I started playing this game as an adult, but I always wanted to work for the gp. I would run to the pasture, kick cows to death (sorry PETA!) and run their hides over to Al Kharid to sell, and sometimes even try to hop worlds to find that elusive buyer who was willing to offer 120gp each. I toiled away, not making a lot of money and would be in awe of those who could throw millions around and not bat an eyelash. Saving up to buy full rune was a huge deal for me, and I wore it proudly.

Flash forward a couple years to present day. I feel like I’ve become an old man on Runescape. Like the old lady who clips coupons and counts pennies at the grocery store. Sure, I don’t have any problems spending money on things that I need, that’s why I worked for it. However, when you get up there in levels, you start to realize how long it takes to get to that next level. Leveling a few times a day is unheard of as it was when you were younger. Someone told me once “If it gives you experience, do it. If it doesn’t – buy it.” Since then, I’ve tried to live my Runescape life like that. I value my Steel Dragon and Avansie drops much more that I mined my mith, smithed the ores, smithed the bolts, crafted the emerald tips and enchanted them. Sure I could buy a bunch for a few thousand, but I value that little bit of Mining, Smithing, Fletching, Crafting and Magic experience so much more. Unexpected leveling is such a bonus of the game. Getting a Mage level while teleporting on a herb run, getting a Fletching level attaching feathers to bolts, the odd Mining level while getting ess to RC, its these things that are worth more than gp.

There’s the constant debate over the value of Skillcapes. Many argue that Fletching and Cooking capes are worth less because they’re relatively quick to get if you buy everything. First off, any 99 takes a good amount of time and dedication and deserves to be congratulated. These capes might not be fully appreciated by the ones with them, and have gotten them just for the sake of owning a skill cape. However, to the person who chopped all his own trees, picked his own flax, crafted his own bowstrings, the Fletching cape is a huge achievement. If a person reaches 99 cooking by cooking only the food they have accumulated themselves, its also a huge deal. I’ve been dying to get 70 Prayer recently (no pun intended). Now, I do well for myself in game. I don’t have Bill Gates or Oprah kind of money, but I live comfortably. Maybe Noah Wylie in the ER days - kind of money. Sure I could buy a bunch of Dragon Bones, find a gilded on forums and have the level I want. I feel like I appreciate it more knowing that I’ve gotten every one of my bones fighting dragons myself, and squeezing every drop of xp out of them by using the Ectofunctus.

The new lending system is something Runescape players have asked for, and most are now complaining about it. Everyone was up in arms over the trade limit and about not being able to help friends. Now, you can do that in a rather novel way, and people are complaining that their rare items are going to plummet in price. Its almost as if there is some sort of class war in Runescape society. The rich don’t want the poor acting like they have rare items as well. “OMG a lvl 49 with a phat!” In all honesty, who cares? The ones who have made the gp the ultimate goal in playing the game seem to have a lot of stress in their lives. I love my Dragon Chainbody. I fished my tail off and saved forever so that I could buy one. I had always wanted one since I was a low level. Since the update, about 5 or 6 lower levels have asked if I could lend it to them. Did I get upset, refuse to lend it to them, berate them for not being able to make millions and state that I’m boycotting the lending system? No. I wasn’t using it. Here, knock yourself out with it for an hour, kid. I know it’ll be waiting for me at my bank when I get back. It might motivate them to work harder to get one of their own. “Remember how good I looked in that D Chain? Man, I can’t wait to get one of my own!”

The game is so much more than just GP. It seems to trivialize it boiling it down to one minute aspect. There’s friends, fun, a plethora of skills to experience, quests to go on, monsters to be slain. Don’t play a game with the sole purpose of making money in it. We do these things in real life, its called work. Do it for the experiences and the experience (xp). Play it for fun, and you know that person who asks to borrow one of your items might be a pretty cool person. There’s too many Gordon Gekko’s in life as it is, don’t be another one.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Even Old New York Was Once New Amsterdam

When the motivation strikes, you have to seize it. I wanted to get a lot accomplished this weekend and got to do just that. I had nothing planned in real life aside from a BBQ and a couple runs to stay in shape, but with as hectic as the last two weeks have been, I just wanted to relax, play a little RS and watch some movies. I've mentioned before that I'm not a big quester. I kind of hate the back and forth-ness of it. Plus my uncanny ability to die in the oddest of situations doesn't sit well. However, as quest after quest is released, I keep falling more and more behind. So I set out to play a little catch up. I was sick of not being able to use Chivalry, so I completed Holy Grail and Kings Ransom as well as defeating all the knights. Someone had mentioned maybe a clan Trouble Brewing trip, plus I wanted the Holy Wrench so I cranked out Rum Deal and Cabin Fever. Tribal Totem and Monk's Friend seemed easy so I got those done. I can't believe I haven't done Big Chompy Bird Hunting so I did that along with Zogre Flesh Eaters (love the name, I'm a huge Fulci fan :P). Grim Tales seemed pretty cool so I did that. I can always use another place to bank so Contact! was interesting (and a little nerve racking at the end, it was the closest I came to death out of them all). And to round it out, Perils of Ice Mountain and Another Slice of H.A.M.

So there you have it 12 quests in a weekend to get me up to 204 QP. Not bad for a reluctant quester. I thought this would come in handy at Tears, but I left with a measly 55. Again. I must be terrible at that. All those quests got me some decent levels. Most notably, 71 Farming, 106 CB, 60 Agility, 62 Thieving. I finally got Summoning up to 60, costing me a pretty penny. Not a money drain, Jagex? Tell that to my wallet... Oh well, I've been doing a lot of herb runs lately, they're worth a bunch. However, I can't bring myself to sell them. I know I'll need them at some point and xp is always worth more than cash for me.

A friend came up with a pretty amusing way to measure Total Levels last night. I pretty much loved it because it instantly brought up memories of long hours of playing Civiliation. Thinking of Total Levels as the year is highly amusing. While my higher level friends are about to embark on The Great War (note - its not WW I yet), I have just renamed Neiuw Amsterdam - New York, the Ottoman Empire will be defeated in a number of days and Louis XIV is starting up the French East India Company.

This made me reflect on my earlier days as a player. Since you start off early AD, I didn't have to invent the wheel or wait for Prometheus to make his daily fire run to Zeus's house so that I can cook my mantas. Instead I've seen the discovery of new worlds, empires rise and fall, medicine make incredible leaps and bounds, the religious persecute and be persecuted, the scientists persecute and be persecuted, the heavens studied, wars fought and generations come and go. In 1664, I've seen a bunch. There is also a long way to go. Now if I can only somehow making it to 2100 without starting Global Thermonuclear War like I always do in Civilization, then we'll be making progress, my friend.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Some Notes & Background

I realize I started this blog and hit the ground running with no real info about why I started it or as to what my experience with Runescape even is. I'm just going to take a couple sentences and address these things and will be back for a proper post later on.

I started playing RS in late 2003 and played for only about 8-10 months. I didn't really do that much aside from F2P quests, wander around and keep myself amused. Around August 2004 I stopped playing, too many things going on in life. Flash forward 2 years. I have some free time, am looking for an interesting game to play and I thought I might as well try to log back into RS.

It worked. "Your last log on was 635 days ago." Wow. After all this time, you still remember me. And look! I vaguely recognize some of those things in my bank. Some things were different. There were a few new skills, Construction, Hunter and I didn't remember Farming, but could be I just didn't notice it. I decided I might as well get my two highest skills up, Fishing and Cooking. So thats what I did. I kept to myself, as I did when I played before. I just fished and cooked. It probably wasn't until I was in the Fishing Guild when I started seeing the same people over and over, always in the same worlds. We talked and became friends. Their shock would put me on edge when I said I had about 600 total levels and about 50qp. None of that stuff ever mattered to me until I was shown everything I was missing out on. Everyone was migrating to Piscatoris and I looked at the list of requirements like it was a mile long. I needed 19 Mage levels?? This quest so I can do this quest so I can do that quest because I need it for this quest?! So I went out, I worked my tail off. I quested, I leveled, I ran all over RS getting the items we need. When I finally got all the reqs (seemingly FOREVER later). I try to start it and.... No. I overlooked one thing. 100 qp. What did I have? 73. Expletive!

So I herded sheep, I hid from the witch, I don't even know what else I did, but when I finally got there, I couldn't express how accomplished I felt. This is what I had been missing out on. Pretty much since then I've been trying to follow that feeling. Got the diaries done, can't wait for a new one to make me train Herblore (which I hate, but will probably grow to like similar to Farming and Smithing). Got my Skillcape. I love going to group activities and pretty much exploring every section of the game. Although, the fisherman in me is partial to Trawler :P

As to why I started this blog: When I first came to the realization that I wasn't the only adult playing the game, I felt.. vindicated. I could engage in conversations that extended beyond the realms of middle school/high school plight. As my obsession for the game grew, I started to look outside the game itself for insight into it. I came across a few amazingly thought up articles about everything from the sociodynamics of the game to the impact of what certain items/events have on its economy. I also just loved hearing people talk about their accomplishments, their thoughts, their lives, in an intelligent way. At first all I would come across were tips/guides (which are all well and good for the game, just not so much interesting reading), websites who RWT for gold/items and some various blogs with about one or two entries that were abandoned years ago. For me, these thoughtful sites were the light at the end of the tunnel.

However, then I noticed with a lot of the RS changes, changes in real life, etc., the authors of these articles would leave too. There only seemed to be a handful left. I thought I might just start this one, which a lot might not read, but maybe a couple will and like it the way I anonymously liked all those others for so long. A place where I could just put my random thoughts and maybe someone will be amused or find something helpful. So to you handful of readers, thanks for stopping by. And please, stop by often :)

Update: I'm relatively new to the whole blogging thing so bare with me. I just noticed the comments were restricted, this is no longer. And also if there's anything else I can change, please feel free to leave me some suggestions. Although, be prepared to give me a little advice, outside of typing this and playing RS, I'm not that hot with computers :P

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Parkour of Runescape

I've been spending a lot of time at the Brim agility course. I set out a while ago to get 1k tickets to turn in for a sweet 352kxp. The agility course there looks amazing with the graphical update. I had been pacing myself, I found it to be necessary. Agility is one of the skills I find easy to go crazy doing and Brimhaven seems to be the only place that seems to not drive me nuts quick. I think its the fact that it changes up and the frantic sprint to where that arrow can lead next is somewhat exhilirating. The xp is slow, but that big chunk of cashing in those 1k tickets is waiting for me. Just...*sigh, 400 more to go.

I don't mind the Wildy course if I'm with friends. Being there alone, running in circles over and over just waiting for a Rev to come along and put me out of my misery is brutal. I go there knowing I'm going to die. Once I make the trek there, I stay until I die, whether it be 30 seconds or 4 separate log ins. Might as well.

Agility is the skill I can maybe tell you about 1 reward I don't have that I am looking forward to. Lvl 70, the tunnel in the Tav Dungeon from the entrance straight to the Blue Dragons. Once I'm at 70, good bye Dusty Key forever.

It seems my encounters with Agility are following a friend questing, training, or whatever who goes "Ok go this way" then the blasted "You need 58 Agility to be able to ____." Which is quickly followed by a "Doh! Expletive!" by yours truly. I guess my motivation has been to train to avoid those situations. Thank god I finally got past the part that I can use the shortcut at Ectofunctus getting the slime, running back and forth was killing me. Hop! Skip Jump! I'm there :) 4kxp til about 60 Agility... The cape is amazing looking and I'd love to have it, I just don't think I'd ever have the patience. Kudos to you knimble, limber, fence hopping, tunnel squeezing, rock climbing Agility masters out there!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Strikes & Gutters, Ups & Downs

Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to which skills to train. I got my 99 fishing while others I know hate to spend even an hour doing it. It came easy for me, and I think I've come to realize why. Fishing, like Cooking, can be a very social skill. It can be repetitive, which inspires the people in Rogue's Den, Piscatoris, The Fishing Guild, Catherby or Cooking Guild Bank to interact with each other. Training skills like Mining and Woodcutting are brutal for me to do.

I think I'm a pretty laid back person, in game and in real life. Skills which insipre competition tend to drive me a little nuts. I can be chopping Willows, or mining some ore, get into a good groove and then it happens. All of a sudden someone came up and jumped right in front of you without a word and now you're out of luck. This happened to me the other day at Steel Dragons (on my neverending quest for a dragon face). All of a sudden jumps right in front of you, then when you try to explain to them that you've been there for about 2 hours now, you're greeted with nothing but rude insults and it quickly goes downhill from there. This also seems to be a pretty constant issue when there's two or more groups at KBD.

I try to think about RS thing in RL. It'd be like going grocery shopping and right in the middle you pause to look at your list and the next thing you know someone has taken your cart and are down the aisle. Or getting your card out to use the atm while someone quickly jumps between you and the machine. The amount of rude obnoxious people playing seems to be growing, as is expected as a game grows as much as this have. I just hate to see this behavior, which I guess is why I always liked Fishing. There's plenty of room for everyone. Bring your friends, the more the merrier.

On the other side, after finally securing a Steel all to myself, I get some kills and feel a little comfortable. I leave the monitor for a few seconds to check on some commotion in the other room. When I get back I see that my antifire has run out and I'm incredibly low on HP. I fumble to try and get my inventory screen up, but not being used to the new mode yet (in panic situations) and ultimately die. I run to Fally bank, get a home tele (my house is in Brimhaven, I should be able to get back to my grave in the five minutes) and am off on my way. After chopping the first vines into the dungeon, I notice someone blessed my grave. None of my friends are in this world, who is this person? I send a quick PM stating my appreciation and thanks and that I was running back. I reclaim all my belongings, and he's standing there. Says its no problem. I lost the majority of my Dragon Bones when my Terrorbird died, but I'll deal with that. He refuses compensation at first, but I insist. I trade him a few D-Bones and the rest of the limit in cash. He then goes on his way and me on mine. I'll continue to deal with the obnoxious and rude players if for every 5 of them we gain, we gain 1 good one. There's still good people who play.

Make someone's day, do a good deed every now and then :)

Thursday, July 10, 2008

40,000 Men and Women Everyday

Death and taxes, they're unavoidable. At least Runescape doesn't have sales tax and the G.E. is more like the airport's duty free shop. Death on the other hand, happens. Over the past four or so years, I've died a lot on RS. I hate it. I was never into clans or PK before, and I'm still not a big fan of PK. I wasn't into the competitiveness of trying to prove I'm better than somone by puffing out my chest and trying to defeat them in battle. I'd much rather have a relaxing conversation next to the ol' fishing hole. My thoughts on clans have changed a lot recently.

About 6 or so months ago a friend asked me to join a clan. It was just a few people I already new and was brand new. I kind of like to do my own thing in game. I expressed that I really tried to shy away from anything that I'd be forced to do. I don't mind attending some things, but one day your mood can be different and you feel like working on something else. I didn't want to tie myself down. I was assured I wouldn't have to do anything I wouldn't want to do, and decided to join.

That was a great decision. So many new things to try that I never did. I never knew if you had a group that KBD was basically harmless. I never knew how much fun Trawler was. I was being shown new ways to train skills I had previously avoided. New music was opening up everywhere. My association of clans with pk and being solely cb based was terribly wrong.

The other night a few friends and I decide to make a quick KBD run. We had 4, it would be no problem. We get there to see a bunch of other people. We manage to get a kill, but I'm a little impatient so I decide to hop to see if there's another empty world available. I ran to the corner as to not "wake up" under the dragon itself. As the clock to world hop finally hits 0, I found myself under the dragon (must have gotten bored and started wandering around) and dead withina few seconds. The world was empty, I called to my friends and they promptly got there to bless my grave. I run to the fally bank, grab a games and tele to BH. I make the run from BH bank to the wildy tele obelisk and activate it. Level 13. Level 18. Level 23. Wby does this thing never go where I want it to? Try it again. World 50. And there it is. That sound. That sound I despise more than anything in RS. A rev is attacking. More appropriately, revS. Plural.

Needless to say I'm frozen, and taking damage. Then there it is, a change of scenery. Central Falador. With a PM stating, "what happened to your grave? it disappeared." I have to do the walk of shame to fally bank again. My friends dash to bless my second grave, losing all the items from my first death (nothing major, just a bunch of p pots). Then it happens again, friends death. I think the thing I hate the most about death is the hour or so of errands for getting all the quest items back. Mass blessings and graves everywhere. How quickly a little clan field trip can turn into a disaster.

Monday, July 7, 2008

A Great Time to be a RS Player

The new graphics were finally released last week and I can't get over how amazing they look. I've been slowly exploring everything I can, wandering around with an amazement much like that of a 5 year old on his very first trip to Disneyworld. I love the full screen mode, it makes switching back to the old version to cut some lag that much harder to do. I went to kill a load of steels (in hopes for a dragon face drop) and loved the detail of the scales on the metal dragons. The brimhaven dungeon looks incredible.

Enough gushing. The July BTS also just came out. There are two things mentioned in there that almost has me giddy. The new searchable/tabbed bank and finally, after months of thought and practically begging on the forums, a new achievement diary. I loved the motivation the other two diaries gave me. I had never really trained farming, but the thought of being able to cook in the nice quiet cooking guild and never have to be surrounded by the loud (and frequently rude) people at Rogue's Den, got me to bust my tail on it. I pretty much grew to love the skill. It was easier xp-wise when I bought my seeds, but I hate paying for things I can get on my own. Also, the limitless Shiloh teleport was a good motivation to train cb, being that I'm more fond of skilling, this was a tough one for me. Also, I'm not that much into quests, and that Varrock Museum made me do many that I probably would have avoided altogether.

Sadly, its just an easy/medium diary, but at the same time I'm glad its for Lumby. Had they created an easy diary for a somewhat more interesting place (Relleka, Seers or maybe Mortyania) I would have been a little disappointed.

I'm almost drooling at the thought of being able to get up and join friends in whatever they're doing instead of holding them up because I'm staring at my bankspace because I'm a pack rat and I can't seem to find the items I need. Ever. I'm already thinking of what my tabs will be. I can see it now: runes over here, seeds over there, armor in that corner, and quest items I think I'll need so I'll never throw out, but will never use anyway in the far back corner.

Unlike a lot of people on the forums, I've really enjoyed Runescape's updates of the past year. I hated the luring (almost dishonest) of the pkers and am glad to see them go. Now when I have a clue that leads me deep in the wildy, I actually usually do it, instead of dropping it. They made the changes they had to in order to get rid of RWT and they took a lot of flack. I think they did what was needed to save their game, albeit how unpopular the decision was.

A lot of people were pretty upset upon the release of the GE, which up until RS HD, was my favorite update. The thought of being able to spend my time playing the game, opposed to standing in the bank for hours screaming on deaf ears about what I'm selling had me almost ecstatic.

With change there is always going to be opposition. Some hate the graphical updates as much as the removal as PK. However, I welcome it. The game is a character of its own, which needs to grow and mature over time, as well as face difficult decisions. While some might not be enjoyable now, perhaps you can see the benefit down the line a little. The game is changing, it needs to be changing, but lets enjoy it. It is a game after all :)