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.

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

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 :)