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RuneScape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by British developer Jagex Limited, programmed in Java. With nearly nine million active free players and 800,000 paying members, RuneScape is one of the top online games in the world. RuneScape offers both free and subscription content and is designed to be accessible from any location with an Internet connection and to run in an ordinary web browser without straining system resources.

RuneScape takes place in the imaginary realm of Gielinor, which is divided into the Kingdoms of Misthalin, Asgarnia, and Kandarin, as well as the tropical island of Karamja, the Kharidian Desert, and the Wilderness, among others. Movement throughout RuneScape utilizes three methods: foot travel, vehicle assisted travel and magical teleportation. Each region offers different types of monsters, materials, and quests.

Players, shown on the screen as customisable characters, can see and interact with each other. They set their own goals and objectives, deciding which of the available activities to pursue as there is no linear path that must be followed. Players may engage in combat with other players or with monsters, complete quests, increase their experience in the available skills, or have a simple conversation with other players. Players interact with each other through chatting, trading, participating in mutual missions, and playing combative or co-operative mini-games.

History and development

The first two tries were both done by Andrew Gower and Paul Gower in 1998 and 1999. Despite efforts to clean up both versions (as they used isometric graphics), both versions looked similar and were scrapped.

The Gower brothers then made a third attempt. The game was named RuneScape and released to the public as a beta version on 4 January 2001. This version is still online today and is currently titled RuneScape Classic. Now, due to major backlash from the community, no one can create new accounts on Classic, for fear of macro programs.

On 27 February 2002, Jagex launched a service available to paying members. This allowed players to pay approximately £3.20 GBP ($5.00 USD) a month to obtain access to a more extensive variety of additional features. This service was optional while free content remained. This service significantly changed the focus of the game. As technological advances kept coming over the years, Jagex began to make massive changes to RuneScape. The most major change—albeit this revision was originally planned to be a graphical update— Jagex instead worked to completely rewrite the game engine. They introduced a version that consisted entirely of three-dimensional graphics, with other significant improvements. While in development, this version was named RuneScape 2. After the Beta period expired, this newer version was renamed to RuneScape, and the older one was changed to RuneScape Classic. An incomplete beta of this version was made available to paying members on 1 December 2003, and the finished version was launched on 29 March 2004. Another revision on 16 May 2006 was made to the game, addressing many "under-the-hood" issues, and revision of the word filters. This is the current version of RuneScape that Jagex is currently advertising.

Servers

Jagex maintains 133 servers in six countries. Servers are numbered and referred to as "worlds" by RuneScape players. Each of the 131 RuneScape servers has a capacity of 2,000 players, allowing up to 262,000 simultaneous players. The two RuneScape Classic servers are each limited to 1,250 players, allowing up to 2,500 simultaneous players.

RuneScape servers are located in the United Kingdom (20, including both RuneScape Classic servers), the United States (79), Canada (14), the Netherlands (6), Australia (6) and Sweden (8).

Graphics

RuneScape can be run with high or low detail graphics; high detail mode enhances texture and design, whereas low detail is an attempt to reduce latency on older machines while maintaining a high level of game performance.

RuneScape allows and seemingly promotes a customisable avatar image; a character can choose from a wide of variety of clothes, armour, weapons, hairstyles, colours, genders, et.al. Unlike many games in the genre, player characters must be human. Even so, certain items can transform a player into a vast variety of animals or inanimate objects, such as monkies, mushrooms or an Easter egg!

Due to the fact that RuneScape is a Java based game, its graphics will never reach full capacities in other popular MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft or EverQuest. Many players believe that for a Java game, its graphics are extremely advanced as such.

Advertising

To support RuneScape's free content, Jagex displays advertisements above the playing screen on the free servers. Free players often complain at the amount of latency they put on their computers whilst they play, particularly Flash advertisments on older machines. Jagex has also signed an exclusive marketing and distribution contract with WildTangent Games, which allows WildTangent to handle advertising in and around RuneScape. To pacify fears of possible in-game advertisements, Jagex moderators have stated that there will be no in-game advertisements.

Gameplay

Storyline

Unlike many popular MMORPGs, RuneScape does not have a set storyline in which the game is completed. Instead, the character is set on a number of quests which add to the overall storyline. Quests in RuneScape are either one-time adventures or form a complex storyline. Their purposes vary from letting new players become acquainted with the game, rewards, unlocking special areas, etc.

Skills and combat

Skills in RuneScape are abilities that enable players to perform activities in the game. Players gain experience in a skill when they perform activities that utilise that skill, for instance mining a rock would increase the mining skill. In general, the higher level required to perform a task, the more experience points the player receives, and the more desirable the result. The combined skill level of a player partly symbolises the player's status in the game. RuneScape has twenty-two trainable skills in four categories: Combat-Related (Attack, Strength, Defence, Magic, Ranged, Prayer, Hitpoints and Slayer); Extraction (Mining, Fishing, Woodcutting, Thieving, and Farming); Processing (Smithing, Cooking, Crafting, Runecrafting, Fletching, Construction and Herblore); and Independent (Firemaking and Agility).

Combat is an important aspect of the game, as in many cases determines what you can or cannot do in certain situations, namely quests. Other skills—the skills that do not compromise of the Combat skills themselves—do not appear on the character, but are found in the RuneScape highscores. The weaponry in RuneScape is based off of a medieval nature; various items, spells and items themselves stem from the Renaissance era, whereas most of the higher-end equipment is purely fantasmal. Unlike similar games, RuneScape does not require players to choose a character class. Players are not bound to a specific category of combat, and they may freely change between the three forms of combat at any time simply by switching weapons, armours, methods of attack, or activating certain prayers to help deal more damage (or resist damage).

Interaction

Non-player characters populate RuneScape. Almost every NPC in RuneScape can be attacked, although some, such as shopkeepers, cannot be engaged in combat by players. Attackable NPCs are generally referred to as monsters, whether they are human, animal, elemental, or demonic. Each type of monster has its own strengths and weaknesses. Monsters are either considerably aggressive (attacking any player who comes within range, regardless of level), non-aggressive (not attacking players unless provoked, regardless of levels), or partially aggressive (attacking only those players who are within a predetermined number of levels above or below their own level). This can make certain areas within the game dangerous to players depending upon their own combat levels. Aside from NPCs, players can fight against other players in player versus player (PvP) combat in certain areas of RuneScape.

RuneScape features mini-games for its players, which are activities somewhat like quests but that can be done multiple times. Mini-games take place in certain areas and normally involve a specific skill. Many mini-games involve cooperative efforts or allow players to compete with each other.

Community

Players of RuneScape represent a wide range of nationalities and ages. Because the game is currently only available in English, almost all players speak English to an extent. Players who speak languages other than English tend to gravitate to worlds that are populated by other players who speak the same language. For example, some worlds have a greater percentage of players who speak Spanish, Dutch, or Lithuanian. It is not uncommon to see different languages on the chat screens throughout RuneScape.

A group of official forums created entirely by Jagex programmers is available to players on the RuneScape website. By accessing the forums, paying members are able to participate in game discussions, make arrangements to buy or sell items, and interact with the community. Free players can read the forums but are unable to post messages. Each forum has its own specific list of rules enforced by forum moderators. In early April, the RuneScape forums underwent major code revisions, which added many useful features for regular user and forum moderator alike.

A number of fansites have been established, these sites provided how to guides for all tasks in the game. Each individual fansite varies, as content is updated at their own pace, and not necessarily Jagex's. A majority of existing fansites have a lot of verifiable information about the game RuneScape, and a handful of other nifty features as well. To counter the use of these sites, Jagex introduced the Knowledge Base and Quest Help guides, both providing much faster and accurate information about RuneScape than any fansite ever could.

Criticism

Press reviews

According to BBC News, playing RuneScape as much as working on homework is not necessarily a bad thing. It can instruct players about working hard to achieve goals. Studies show that the nature of most games, including RuneScape, can teach teenagers vital skills as they enter the labour market. The Guardian stated that Runescape is one of the fastest growing out of all of the MMORPGs. Online RPGs are one of the few internet businesses that can entice people to pay for online content. Just RPG, an organization that reviews online role-playing games, says that "It's rare for something that's free to come with no strings attached, and is actually fun to boot." RuneScape does just that. The Yahoo Buzz Log states that the unrealistic roles of the characters in the MMORPG Runescape can provide good entertainment when people need a break. According to PC Gamer UK, RuneScape 2 should be a great success. "Available via your browser, the game can be fired up on a narrowband connection, in just a few minutes."

Player feedback

RuneScape has been criticized for several of its primary components, such as graphics and gameplay. Paying members of the RuneScape community argue that RuneScape's graphics are substandard. Because RuneScape is designed to run in a web browser and download quickly, its graphics will never compare particularly well with desktop PC games. Some disagree with this compromise, whereas others argue that the quality of a game does not depend solely on its graphics, and point out that the graphics actually compare quite well with other browser based games. Tasks in RuneScape are frequently criticised for being repetitive, requiring users to click repeatedly in the same pattern to train skills.Jagex designed the farming skill with this criticism in mind, but their efforts to make it less repetitive were criticised for making the process of levelling far too complicated. Learning the game for new players, however, is generally considered to be fairly easy. Players begin in a secluded area populated only by other beginners and are led on a set path where they learn the skills needed to succeed in Gielinor. Moreover, since it takes several hours to develop a character, many players regard playing RuneScape as a lifestyle, not a side activity. Playing RuneScape can be addicting, since players can play RuneScape more than they do anything else.

The community as a whole has also been criticized. Attempted scamming is common in RuneScape, although this exists throughout the MMORPG genre. Scammers use diverse methods to trick players into trading items for much less than they are worth or into revealing their passwords. Players attempting to take advantage of the game use automated bots or scripts to play the game for them, which is against the game rules.Jagex has taken various measures to prevent cheating. They introduced random events that require immediate human response and provided safety warnings in the player trading system. In response, Jagex has banned over 15,000 accounts through an advanced macro detection system. RuneScape's chat filters have the ability to censor obscene words and letters though players are often able to use intentional misspellings, leetspeak, or symbols to bypass the filter. To combat this, Jagex made changes to the filter on 16 May 2006 that were successful in alleviating some of the problems, although other problems remain. The chat filters can occasionally block legitimate words; words that innocent players often type in for can be blocked just because of these problems. One of the legitimate words that has been blocked for unknown reasons was the word "fletching" , a commonly used word referring to the skill, although, this has been fixed as of August 22, 2006. Some people are also annoyed with the enormous amount of words that are blocked, claiming that since the game has an age minimum of 13, mild swearing such as "damn" should be allowed.

Business aspects of the RuneScape franchise have fallen under criticism, as well. Players criticise RuneScape for not having enough free content or not updating the free content often enough. While RuneScape does have a considerable amount of free content, most weekly updates and features for high-level players are limited to paying members. Additionally, due to the limited customer support team employees and the ever-growing number of registered users, players have expressed dissatisfaction with Jagex's customer support. Jagex has attempted efforts to increase the size of their customer support team and has expanded their online Knowledge Base in order to alleviate some stress off the staff.

Most of the time the background music is a very simple tune. Music in the game enhances feelings and emotions to go with the scenery and the mood.There are sound effects included in the game as the player practices a skill, most of which become very annoying after a while.

Footnotes

1. "WildTangent Explores RuneScape" - GameDaily BIZ, 17 July 2006. Retrieved 30 July 2006.
2. "Virtual gamers reveal themselves" - BBC News, 7 October 2004. Retrieved 15 June 2006.
3. RuneScape world map - RuneScape.com, retrieved 15 June 2006.
4. "How gaming is all work and no play" - BBC News, 14 March 2006. Retrieved 15 June 2006.
5. "DeviousMUD". Retrieved 26 August 2006.
6. "Nearly 5000 RS-classic accounts banned" - RuneScape Customer Support News, 12 January 2006. Retrieved 4 March 2006.
7. "The biggest update ever..." - RuneScape Game updates news, 13 February 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2006.
8. RS2 Launched - RuneScape Game update news. Retrieved 30 July 2006.
9. Game engine update - RuneScape Game updates news. 16 May 2003.
10. 11 more servers online - RuneScape Game update news. Retrieved 26 August 2006.
11. "WildTangent Explores RuneScape" - GameDaily BIZ, 17 July 2006. Retrieved 30 July 2006.
12. List of Medieval Swords and Daggers] - Renaissance Swords, retrieved 26 August 2006.
13. "The Basics of Player Killing". - RuneScape Knowledge base, retrieved 26 August 2006.
14. New RuneScape Forums! - RuneScape Game update news. Retrieved 26 August 2006.
15. Knowledge base release March 2006
16. "How gaming is all work and no play". BBC News. 2006-03-14. Retrieved 2006-08-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
17. "Rune to move". Guardian Unlimited. 2003-12-11. Retrieved 2006-08-08. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
18. Gasperazzo, Wendy (2006). "Runescape". Just RPG. Retrieved 2006-08-08. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
19. Hurd, Gordon (2006-05-08). "The Rundown on Runescape". Yahoo Buzz Log. Retrieved 2006-08-08. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
20. Sutherns, Mark (2003-12). "Runescape 2: browser-based Goblin basher goes 3D". PC Gamer UK, issue 129. Future Publishing. p. 145. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
21. ^ Archae The Great (2002-03-19). "RuneScape: "It could be ALOT better but it's still fun"". Gamespot GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-08-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
22. Mihalick (2006-01-17). "Runescape". ONRPG. Retrieved 2006-08-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
23. ciruiz88 (2002-06-14). "RuneScape:"Addicting as hell... but with room for improvements"". Gamespot GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-08-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
24. "Over 15000 RuneScape accounts banned for cheating" - RuneScape Customer Support News 19 January 2006. Retrieved 30 July 2006.
25. Game Engine update - RuneScape Customer Support News 16 May 2006. Retrieved 31 July 2006
26. Jagex (2006). "RuneScape:Benefits for Members". Jagex. Retrieved 2006-08-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
27. "New Improved Game Guide Released" - RuneScape.com, 13 March 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2006.
28. Black_Cheese (2006-02-27). "RuneScape: "It's fun for a while, but it gets old pretty quickly"". Gamespot GameFAQs. Retrieved 2006-08-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
29. Cloud8976 (2005-03-30). "RuneScape". GamersInfo. Retrieved 2006-08-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links

• RuneScape - The official RuneScape website
• Jagex site - The official Jagex site
• Knowledge Base - The official RuneScape guide
• Forums - The official RuneScape forums

Wiki

• RuneScape Wiki

Official affiliates

• Miniclip (runescape.com)
• Mofunzone (runescape.com)

• Browser-based games
• Java platform games
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
• Miniclip games
• RuneScape