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Overview
A screenshot of the RuneScape Login ScreenRuneScape is an MMORPG (Massive
Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), similar to Guild Wars and Everquest. The
object of the game is to operate in a three-dimensional online "world" by taking
the persona of a character, represented visually by a customisable avatar, and
developing various abilities. Players may do a variety of quests, "level up" by
developing skills, make new friends, interact with them via chat, trading,
mutual missions or quests, etc. The max level in a skill is 99, which takes a
considerable amount of time to reach. The higher the level number, the better
the player's character is in that particular skill. Available skills range from
combat to fishing, woodcutting, mining, smithing, etc, which can allow the
production of items which can in turn be sold for gold pieces (GP) and used to
buy a variety of items, such as better equipment to further the players' skills.
The maximum combat level achievable is 126.
During peak hours, it is common to see around 170,000 players online across the
125 international servers located in six different countries, with a peak in
excess of 197,000 simultaneous logged-in players reached in March 2006. Up to
2,000 players may be on one server at once, allowing a maximum of 250,000 online
players at any one time. These servers are called "worlds" in RuneScape. Servers
are located in the United States (79), the United Kingdom (18), Canada (6), the
Netherlands (6), Australia (6) and Sweden (5)), making it the most popular
online Java based game in the world. RuneScape is usually updated once a week,
with the addition of new skills, quests, or items, as well as many other types
of updates. Larger updates come in occasionally, and these updates take 2 weeks.
In RuneScape Classic there are now only 2 worlds because only a few loyal member
accounts are able to play today's classic version.
History and development
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A screenshot of DeviousMUD. The first version of the game, not released to the
public.Version 1: The first version started out as a one man project. The
developer (Andrew Gower), started working on the original game in 1998. This
version was very different to the RuneScape of today. It had isometric graphics,
and was originally titled 'DeviousMUD'. This version was never released to the
public, and only a few people ever saw it.
Version 2: The developer scrapped version 1, and started work on a complete
rewrite in 1999. Despite being a complete rewrite, this version was very similar
to version 1, with the same graphics and name. This version was released as a
public beta for about 1 week, and then withdrawn.
Version 3: The developer started yet again with a third attempt in October 1999.
This time, Andrew had some help from his brothers Paul and Ian. The isometric
view was replaced in favour of 3D graphics and 2D sprites. The game was renamed
RuneScape and released to the public on January 4, 2001. This version is still
online today but only for limited RuneScape Members. It is currently called
RuneScape Classic. On January 12, 2006, 5,000 RuneScape Classic accounts were
banned. Additionally, play was restricted to members who had logged in at least
once since August 5, 2005. No more accounts for this version can ever be
created.
Jagex Ltd formed: In December of 2001 Jagex Limited was founded as a commercial
operation to take over the running of RuneScape. Jagex acquired RuneScape and
all related technologies, and continued to develop the game further. Andrew
Gower joined Jagex as its lead developer.
Members launch: On February 27, 2002, Jagex launched a new optional "members
service", allowing players to pay $5 USD a month to obtain access to constant
updates on a mostly weekly basis. Paying members had a far greater choice of
things to do, but it was still possible to play the game for free, and the
amount of free content was also increased. While not a new version as such (the
game still ran on the same version 3D engine), this update did significantly
change the focus of the game.
Version 4: Jagex went for yet another complete rewrite. Version 4 changed the
graphics to full 3D and made many other significant improvements. While in
development, this version was called RuneScape 2, but when launched was just
called RuneScape (version 3 would later be renamed RuneScape Classic). An
incomplete beta of this version was available to members on December 1, 2003.
The finished version was launched on March 29, 2004. This is the current version
of the game being promoted by Jagex, and is the version most people think of
when one says RuneScape.
Combat
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Combat is an important aspect of the game, as killing monsters is one of
most direct ways of gaining wealth in terms of both cash and items. Combat is
also needed to complete many of the quests in RuneScape, and can be used to
fight other players. Combat levels are calculated using seven skills: attack,
strength, defence, hitpoints, magic, prayer and ranged. The maximum combat level
in RuneScape Classic is 123, and the maximum in the current RuneScape is 126.
Other skills, while beneficial, will not increase one's combat level (though it
will increase one's total level, or all of one's levels combined).
Combat is subdivided into three primary categories:
Melee - fighting with weapons
Magic - fighting with magic spells
Ranged - fighting with projectiles
Weapons
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There are many types of weapons in RuneScape including swords, staves,
battle axes, maces, and bows. There are also a host of other members only
weapons, such as halberds and claws. Strong players generally use more powerful
weapons—such as the rune scimitar for free players or the abyssal whip for
paying members—than weaker players. Weapons are generally ranked by attack bonus
and speed, but may also be considered for their special ability, or ability to
be covered with poison. Ranged weapons typically require ammunition, such as
arrows for bows and runes for magic attacks with staves.
Monsters
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Monsters in RuneScape are Non-playable characters (NPCs) that can be
attacked. Not all NPCs are monsters, though, as many are special characters that
cannot be attacked, especially among the human NPCs. There are many monsters
throughout RuneScape, with major groups including humans, goblins, elementals,
gnomes, elves, dwarves, giants, trolls, ogres, undead, dragons, mammals,
arachnids, beetles, and demons.
Skills
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A player using the mining skillWikibooks RuneScape has more about this subject:
Skills are abilities that enable players to perform activities in the game. Some
skills are available only to members, such as fletching, and some can only be
utilised by completing a specific quest. Many of the high-level abilities in
most skills are reserved for members only. Players gain experience in a skill
when they perform activities that utilise that skill, for instance mining a rock
would raise the mining skill. In general, the higher level it requires to
perform a task, the more experience points the performer receives. The combined
skill level of a player partly symbolises the player's status in the game.
In RuneScape, there are currently 21 skills including:
Primary/extraction (such as mining and woodcutting)
Secondary/processing skills (such as smithing and cooking)
Combat skills (such as strength and range)
Tertiary skills (such as agility and thieving)
Quests
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Quests in RuneScape are one-time adventures which serve a variety of purposes.
The novice quests act as tutorials to acquaint new users with the various skills
and abilities. Quests may be started in several places around the RuneScape
world. All quests include some kind of reward such as money, rare or valuable
items, or an increase in skill experience. Each quest also awards a certain
number of quest points, which may be required to access areas or begin other
quests. Some quests are part of an overlapping storyline, the most famous of
which is the Plague City story line, which has been in RuneScape for several
years and currently contains 7 quests. On March 15, 2006, Jagex made their
hundredth quest, a Recipe for Disaster, which is a continuation of their first
quest, Cook's Assistant.
Mini-games
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RuneScape has a number of mini-games. Mini-games are fun activities, which
are somewhat like quests which may be done as many times as the player wishes.
Located within the overall game of RuneScape, they take place in a certain area,
and normally involve a certain skill, such as fishing, agility or combat.
Currently, the most popular member mini-game is Castle Wars.
Mini-games can also be a good way to make money. An example of this is the
Barrows minigame, which can allow lucky players to make millions of GP
relatively easily.
Community
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Players of RuneScape represent a wide range of nationalities, and ages. However,
the user base is predominantly English speaking, because the game itself is
currently only available in English. However, there are also many servers which
are mainly Spanish speaking, so people who prefer to speak Spanish can interact
with other Spanish speaking players on those servers. Recently there was an
increase of Dutch speaking players which in some servers, seem to overwhelm the
amount of English speaking players (this mostly happens on Dutch servers).
Language
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RuneScape players have developed their own "language," which can be
incomprehensible to outsiders and difficult for newcomers to learn. This
consists mostly of the proliferation of in-game terminology and the abbreviation
of commonly used words. Players will also frequently use common Internet slang
when allowed by the language filter. The use of slang and abbreviations allows
for easier communication between established players despite the small space
available in the in-game messaging system. For example, an established player
might say "i sell u r (g) pl8 ardy world 2" While this would be incomprehensible
to new players, established players would know it means-"I will sell you a
gold-trimmed rune platebody in Ardougne, in world 2."
A word filter is used both in the RuneScape game and in the RuneScape forums.
The filter is used to block out words and phrases defined by Jagex as "offensive
language". Over the history of this word filter, more and more combinations of
letters are being censored. When a string of characters is censored, it is
replaced by a series of asterisks. This constant evolving can cause many normal
phrases to be censored. For example, players cannot say the internet slang word
pwn, as the "pw" in the word is a common abbreviation for password. Since
advertising websites is in violation of RuneScape rules, all URLs are
automatically censored as well. In order to combat this, players may resort to a
modified version of leetspeak, although dodging the censor is a violation of
Jagex rules. Some symbols are automatically removed from phrases as well,
including ^, _, { and }, ~, ¬, < and >, /, and any non-English characters (for
example, Cyrillic.)
Fashion
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Rare items, such as Santa hats, Halloween masks, various coloured party
hats, and other past holiday drops are fashionable because they are somewhat
unique and because their scarcity has made them extremely expensive. Their price
has also made these a symbol of wealth and status in RuneScape.
Most armour in RuneScape requires that a player meet minimum levels before they
can be worn. As players achieve these required levels, the best armour available
to them becomes desirable both for combat and to communicate their level. The
best armour, only available to members, has the additional appeal of
communicating membership when using free servers, even though the combat bonuses
they provide only work on member servers.
Some armours are ornamentally trimmed with colour. Rune, Adamant, and Black
melee armours, leather, blue and green dragon range armour, blue magic robes may
be trimmed in gold or a colour similar to the armour. Rune may also be trimmed
in the colours of the three main RuneScape gods. Kiteshields may also be trimmed
with heraldic designs in opposite quadrants. Trimmed armour combines the
communication of wealth with the functionality of armour. Also in tresure trails
you can get some rare items, which you will never be able to make or buy
anywhere else.
Graphics
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RuneScape currently has fully 3D graphics. Although some people argue that
Runescape has "bad" graphics, the game is developed using Java, which focuses on
having graphics compact enough to be loaded quickly in a browser, and as such,
there comes a point where the graphics can be improved no longer. The game does
not sport Next-Gen graphics, as many online games do not, but players are quick
to point out that "graphics aren't everything". Since the game does not require
a download or a CD to play, and it is played entirely on the desktop explorer,
the game's graphics will never be the same standard as modern PC games.
Character appearance
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A lot of emphasis has been placed on allowing players to customise their
character. Players are given a wide choice in creating character models, from
hairstyle to facial features and gender. Appearance can be further optimised by
wearing or wielding different items, with each different weapon having a unique
image.
In addition to these small equipment changes, players may also change their
appearance radically with special equipment, or during certain events. All
morphs are temporary, and players may not attack while morphed. Some major
morphs include:
Free World morphs
Mushroom - Malignius Mortifer may turn the a player's character into a mushroom
if they follow a specific chat path.
Frog - If a player does not talk to the frog prince/princess, the character will
be teleported to the frog homeland, and turned into a frog.
Egg - As of April 10, 2006, completing an Easter "Holiday Mini-Quest" can give a
character the ability to turn into an Easter egg with the help of a "Easter
Ring" given to them by the Easter Bunny.
Members only morphs
Stone - Wear a ring of stone. This makes the player immune to any non-combat
form of damage. This includes poison, and most hazards. The effect ends if the
player enters combat, tries to move, or removes the ring.
Imp, Sheep, or Rabbit - if the character enters a castle wars portal wearing
certain god items that contradict the god of the team the player is on, such as
amulets, god trimmed armour, and mage arena god staffs the character may be
morphed into one of these.
Various - Players visiting Zanaris (Lost City) may be temporarily morphed into
various creatures like pigs and chickens.
Various Primates - During or following the Monkey Madness quest, players may
morph into various primates on ape atoll and Ardougne zoo by wielding special
greegrees. This also conveys the benefit that no NPCs on Ape Atoll will attack
the player.
Character animations
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There are many different animations in the game for the variety of things
players can do, from combat to the numerous quests. There are also "emotes",
which are animations that allow a player's character express an emotion whenever
they choose. A player will start with most of the emotes, but 8 of the emotes
must be earned. The Goblin emotes requires getting to a certain point of the
Lost Tribe members quest; the other 6 are from random events that can happen to
both free players and members. The remaining two, however had to be gained
during a specific holiday period (the 'Scared' emote was from Halloween 2005 and
the "Rabbit Hop" emote was from Easter 2006).If the player was unable to acquire
that particular emote, they will never be able to get it.
Detail Levels
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RuneScape can be run on high or low detail level. Choosing to run it on the high
detail mode gives different things a more graphically intense texture and
design, as well as producing sounds; low detail gives everything a cleaner cut
look, removes sounds and reduces in-game latency. Some monsters will appear also
less detailed than others in the low detail version of the game.
Area appearance
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Since February 2005, Jagex has put a massive effort forward to update the
RuneScape free world cities, beginning with Lumbridge and Draynor Village. In
September 2005 they announced that Thurgo's Peninsula (Port Sarim and Rimmington
areas) had been graphically updated. On the 20th of February, 2006, Falador and
the Barbarian Village were graphically updated. The Lost City of Zanaris was
updated as well. Jagex plans to ultimately improve the graphics of the whole
free world without causing more lag for people using dial-up internet
connections. However, as RuneScape is Java-based, its graphics engine will
always be limited in capability compared to a lot of modern games.
Random events
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A variety of both positive and negative random events can take place in
RuneScape. Random events are used to prevent the use of "macros" (automated
scripts which play RuneScape with little or no human interaction). Random events
can also add variety to some of the more repetitive activities in the game.
Players must respond to most of these in the correct manner or they will receive
a negative effect such as being teleported across the map. For example, if a
random event requires a player to talk to the Mysterious Old Man, that player
should respond, or they may receive a negative effect. Another example of a
random event is a mime, where a player is teleported to a stage and must mimic
the actions of a non-playable character. After completing the challenge the
player then receives a reward which can vary from clothing resembling that of a
mime, to emotes that resemble mime movements.
Moderators
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There are three types of moderators in RuneScape, each given different
abilities.
Jagex Moderator (J-Mod, JM, Staff)
J-Mods are employees of Jagex, and occasionally log into the game to talk to
players.Jagex Moderators are employees of Jagex. Each employee of Jagex has an
in-game counterpart. In RuneScape, they are identified by a gold crown beside
their name, visible during public chat. On RuneScape's official forums, the gold
crown is shown beside their, and their posts appear highlighted yellow. In a
previous version of RuneScape's official forums, their posts were highlighted
green, with the addition of the words "Jagex Mod" beneath their name.
Jagex Moderators also have a number of additional abilities for play testing
purposes. It is confirmed that J-mods may change their skill levels at whim and
may generate items within their inventory. They are also known to possess a
special "J-mod teleportation ability" which enables them to appear anywhere on
RuneScape. However, their accounts do not engage in either combat or trade, and
do not appear in the high score tables.
Player Moderator (P-Mod, PM)
P-Mods are hand-selected by J-Mods.Player Moderators are a team consisting of
regular players who are handpicked by Jagex. They serve to help maintain
RuneScape, keeping it safe and free from rule-breaking. Along with all a normal
player's account features, player moderators are given the option to mute that
person for 48 hours. P-Mods are not employees of Jagex and they receive no
tangible benefits. They are not expected to spend anymore time playing RuneScape
than a normal player would nor even expected to make use of their special
abilities. P-Mods are identified by a silver crown beside their name in both
public and private in-game chat systems, but are not identified on RuneScape's
official forums. The silver crown of a Player Moderator cannot be removed for as
long as the player is still entitled to moderator abilities. Player moderators
also have use of a Player Moderator Centre, which contains tools and information
which allow the Player Moderators to perform their role more effectively in the
game.
Forum Moderator (F-Mod)
Banim, a forum moderator, posts a thread about the new version of RuneScape
forums, released on 10th April 2006.Forum moderators are also a volunteer team
consisting of regular players that work to carry out the tasks of managing
RuneScape's official forums. Like player moderators, forum moderators are
handpicked by Jagex staff, and are not employees of Jagex, so they receive no
monetary benefits. Forum moderators are given the ability to move and lock
threads, hide posts or entire threads, edit titles, and temporarily ban players
from posting. Like player moderators, they are also given a set of forums that
are primarily used to help perform their role more effectively. Forum moderators
have a green crown beside their name, as well as a green background when they
post on the forums. Forum moderators are not identified by a crown beside their
name in the game area of RuneScape.
Economy and money
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The RuneScape economy is similar in many ways to real-world economies, as
supply and demand play an important role in determining the price of items. The
currency used in RuneScape is Gold Pieces, mostly referred to as "GP" or
"Coins". Unfortunately, the RuneScape economy is plagued by inflation, as the
number of Gold Pieces in circulation is unlimited, and ever-increasing due to
NPC drops and alchemy. Conversely, many valuable items decline in price as more
of them appear from NPC drops.
Criticism
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RuneScape is criticised for a number of reasons:
The game's graphics are limited by the fact that RuneScape is designed to be
downloaded quickly and run in a web browser.
RuneScape has a mandatory chat filter, which often blocks things with no
relevancy to swearing or bad language. In addition, it is easy to use
misspellings of filtered words to bypass the filter. The filter also makes it
hard to talk in other languages than English as it blocks various types of
words.
Some players are dissatisfied with Jagex's automated customer support, and the
lacking support for non-paying users.
Some tasks in RuneScape are very repetitive. Certain skills can be levelled by
repeatedly clicking in the same pattern.
Efforts to make skills less repetitive have been criticised for making the
process of levelling too complicated, especially in the farming skill.
Announcing trade in-game between players is usually done by going to a major
city in the game and repeating offers to buy or sell in the chat window. It
leads to highly congested chat channels and difficulty selecting trade offers.
The official marketplace forum is available to members only, which makes it hard
to arrange deals without resorting to repeatedly shouting out offers in the
chat.
Some players criticise the game for not having enough content and updates for
non-paying users.
Some players criticise RuneScape for stopping the rare item holiday drops from
being tradable.
Some players criticise that the "Pure Rune Essence" made the Runecrafting skill
harder and longer.
Membership
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Some players may choose to pay
for extra content. The monthly fee by credit card is, GBP£3.20, USD$5, CAD$7.30,
or EUR€4.60. Players who pay to play RuneScape are given special status on their
account. This "member's status" gains them many advantages both in and out of
the game, such as:
Over five times as much of the map to explore
Over five times as many quests
Exclusive worlds
Transportation advantages, i.e., may take short cuts when travelling and canoe
down rivers
Hundreds of additional items, such as the Dragon and Barrows weapons and armour
360 bank spaces (More than double the bank space allowed to free players)
200 spaces on friend's list (Double the space allowed to free players)
Six new skills (herblore, fletching, thieving, agility, slayer, farming)
Huge amounts of additions to the original skills (e.g.: Dragonhide in crafting,
Baked Potatoes in cooking, Sharks in fishing)
Mostly Weekly updates
Access to posting on the official forums
Better customer support
Access to voting in polls
More in-game music (high-detail only)
Several mini-games, such as Castle Wars and Barrows.
More Random Events
More player vs. player features (e.g. Duel Arena, Games Room, Castle Wars)
More team-based interactions (e.g. Dagannoth Kings, Kalphite Queen, Pest control
minigame, Blast Furnace)
Access to the first RuneScape game, commonly known as RuneScape Classic.
(However, only people who have played since August 3rd, 2005 will be able to
play, even if they are members.)
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