First of all, I'd like to slap everyone here for not posting this even though it's been several days. And now, without further ado...

21 February 2008 - The State of Play  

We decided, soon after their release, that we could address many of your problems with them. Your feedback on the Forums has really helped, and we have even been able to consult you on a number of instances. This led to the 'Future Changes to Recent Updates' in January: a list of our proposed changes to our recent content. It's been a while since we released that newspost, and many of you seem worried that we've forgotten about the changes to LootShare, Grand Exchange and our other releases. Well, we can assure you that we haven't forgotten. In fact, we have allocated nearly half of our content developers to getting these recent updates back on track!

We plan to release a State of Play regularly, to give you a real idea of how the most anticipated updates are progressing, so keep your eyes peeled for more news in the future.

The green progress bars will give you an idea of how close each project is to being released.

Grand Exchange Improvements:

Some changes to the Grand Exchange interfaces are entering the final stages of testing. We've listened to your feedback and we are finishing off interface changes to really speed up your selling and purchasing.

We also promised 'a new web page...which will allow you to track item prices over a long period of time'. This is very close to completion and is currently with our Quality Assurance team. This will be a comprehensive and very visual means for you to find out item values and compare them with others, or see how they fluctuate over time. As you can imagine, we believe that this will be really useful to any merchants out there.

Finally, the Grand Exchange pricing errors are being fixed in what will be an ongoing process. We have staff members dedicated to collating information from the Forums and in-game sources, so you'll see amendments occurring as the weeks go on. Here are a few examples of pricing issues that we have remedied:

• We've allowed Summoning items to be traded on the Exchange for a wider range of prices over a prolonged period, and allowed their prices to adjust with their large number of sales.
• We have made the price of items such as jewellery, poisoned dagger and clockwork toys behave more consistently, so that you are always getting a fair deal.
• We've allowed a more generous range of prices on the Exchange for those items that are sold in shops.
• We've also fixed a number of bugs that have been highlighted in the Forums, such as how potions behave.

We'd also like to remind you that the 'Grand Exchange Price Feedback' thread in our Suggestions Forum is the place for any constructive feedback you have on our market prices.

Fairer LootShare:

One of the most requested improvements will be to our LootShare feature, which has been worked on solidly since its announcement in the 'Future Changes to Recent Updates'. We will be calling these changes 'CoinShare'. With it activated, a clan will not receive a high-value item as a monster drop; instead, the item will be put on the Grand Exchange at the median price. The team of LootSharers will immediately gain a share of coins equal to that item's lowest market value, without waiting for that item to sell on the Exchange. This is in final testing, at a similar stage to the Grand Exchange tweaks.

Item Lending:

Currently at a briefing stage is the item-lending feature. It has been incredibly difficult to find that balance between versatility and stopping cheaters from abusing it. We believe we've found a solution that achieves this, and we will give you more news in future articles.

New PvP Minigame:

Clan Wars and Bounty Hunter did a fair job of offering new PvP gaming choices, but they weren't without their problems; in particular, Bounty Hunter was dominated by large clans, which just wasn't how we intended Bounty Hunter to be used. We are aware that this week's Bounty Hunter changes leaves only Clan Wars for multi-way fighters, which does not offer the level of danger and reward that Bounty Hunter did. We can reveal that changes to the Clan Wars arena are at a proposal stage and future multi-way minigames are planned, all of which should alleviate these concerns.

It must also be said that Clan Wars and Bounty Hunter were never alone intended as a replacement for the Wilderness. We saw them as the first in a series of PvP minigames, with other games being briefed that would attempt to cater for all types of PKer. Well, the next PvP minigame is now finishing development and entering the first round of quality assurance. We're certainly very excited about this single-way, one-versus-one safe minigame.

Summoning Improvements:

When we started work on Summoning, we made the decision that it would be interesting, fun and rewarding, while also taking longer than most skills to level up. We feel now that we weren't so hot on the 'rewarding' aspect, which has been an obstacle to many people enjoying the skill. Despite a few tweaks, we still don't believe that it is as rewarding as it can be, and the worst thing we can do is to keep making tweaks every week for a long period of time.

So, we have decided to rebalance Summoning and release it with Summoning Batch #2. This rebalancing is about 20% complete and we will keep you informed about how it progresses. As you can imagine, this is a huge priority for us, so you can expect this percentage to rise rapidly.

We do appreciate that all of these changes are taking a while, and that a lot of people are urgently awaiting them. So, we are treating them as a priority. This is not the last you will see of progress reports like this, either: you can expect similar updates in the future, as we make more of an effort to inform you about the state of play...

Originally posted by mike470

I believe that the game of RuneScape will not stay around for much longer.  Here is my rant-

    With the updates, this takes away two main things that many people are looking for in an MMO- PKing, and friends.  With bounty hunter (not realy pking), all you do is get killed by a huge clan, since there is no spot for 1v1 PvP. Not only this, but unless you are by a doorway, there is no possible way to escape.  This game which once had a pretty good PvP system (the only decent part of the game) has now a terrible PvP.  Not only this, but if you ever do get a kill, you just get bsed in the next 3 seconds.   

Jagex just made Bounty Hunter 1v1, and they're working on more PvP minigames.

   Friends.  This was the only other thing that kept me around.  My friends and I would lend things to each other, and when we got a big pk - we would split up the stuff.  Say one of us died, we would lend him 250k, and tell him to keep it til he gets the cash to pay us back.  But now all of this is over.  With the new 3k limit, I am now unable to lend anyone anything.  If I were to do bounty hunter and get a big kill (and magically get out without getting bsed) I could not give any of my fellow friends the a slice of the kill.  This game now is to people who don't like lending things to their friends..

They're also coming out with a Lending system, though I highly doubt it'll fix the problems you mentioned. However, it's either be unable to lend you friends stuff or force the game to be closed down much sooner than the 2-3 years you predict due to credit card fraud from all the bots that were swarming the game previously.

Now that i got the updates out of the way, there are still other reasons why this game will not last long.  -

   Combat System-  This game seriously has the worst combat sysytem in the world.  Not only this, but it al revolves around luck.  Even if I were 10 lvels lower than someone, if I were to get the lucky hits and he were to hit low, then I would win the battle (which makes no sense).   Not only that, but it is a slash, wait, slash, wait, kind of battle system.  Also, one class pretty much owns all at a high level (especially if you f2p).  Melee can easily take out range, since mage has no armour to wear,  and melee takes out range, since range has only adddy against a melee's rune armour.  That is why this game has a terrible combat system. 

Mage is underpowered in most cases, but it can overwhelm melee and range in some occasions. Range isn't underpowered at all if you're smart about it. And the combat isn't boring or dull at all when we're talking about PvP and even PvE in some instances (boss hunting, for example).

   Graphics - I am not one to judge a game on graphics, but these are pretty damned bad.  These are prolly the worst 2D graphics around.  I could care less if you don't need a download.  The downloads are truely terrible, and they have hardly (if even) gotten better over the 5 years this game has been out.  

Take a look at a screenshot of RuneScape Classic, and you'll shut up instantly. Jagex is actually working on its SECOND batch (the first one being RS2) of graphical updating, one town and NPC at a time.

And the graphics are 3D, and they have been since the aforementioned release of RS2.

Plus, the graphics are a lot better than that of many other MMORPGs. For example, Ashen Empires.

   One of These Days - One of these days, a company will be like, "WEll gee, I think we should make a browser based game, so people don't need a download!"  "Agreed Sir".  Not only this, but this company will have a good graphics designer, so there will be better graphics.  And, this is crazy, but they will be....SMART about their game and make.....Useful updates more than once every 6 months!! I know its crazy but it just may happen....It's only a matter of time.

It will happen soon, this year probably, because there's a lot of evidence that Jagex is making another MMORPG.

    Custamor Service - JOKE.  CRAPPY.  WORST IN THE WORLD.  Are many things I have heard about Jagex's custamor service.  At first I was like, now guys, it can't be that bad.  But then came the day I was hacked.  I tried and tried to get my account back, but let's face it, JaGeX doesn't even look at if your hacked.  This is especially for if your f2p, since they really don't care about it.  Even for emembers though, customer service is a joke.  When it comes to the easy stuff they answer, but when something big happens, they just turn the other cheek.  If you do manage to get your account back, then the hacker just has to type in your previous passwords and BAM!, your hacked again.  It's hard to have a good customer service when all JaGeX really cares about your money.

If you can't get your account back, then how come the hacker can get it instantly? I was able to get my own account back within a matter of days after I forgot my password, even though I hadn't set my recovery questions. Jagex has automated machines that can do the job.

I don't think you're being totally honest, but I have to agree with you mostly on this. Jagex's customer support is pathetic.

   Updates - REDICULOUS (even for members). JaGeX makes some of the most pointless updates in the world.  I mean, every now and then they will come out with a decent skill, but usually a pointless skill (like construction), which is cool, but really doesn't have much of a benefit.  But staying away from the skills, there are many other updates which no one really gives a crap about.  Like the music update they made.  WOW! NEW MUSIC GUYS!!! Wait, why do I care? How is this trying to make this game better?  What is the goddam point of this update?!  This is just one of the many updates that hardly affect people.  I would wrather get an update every 3 months and actually make a remotley big IMPROVEMENT on the game, than them make updates that no one really cares about.  They should really be making updates that actually help make this better for people who like to pk.  Bounty Hunter is a joke, so mabye they should try to make some updates to fix that instead of worrying about the music?  Although they have constant updates, no one really pays much attention to 95% of them.

One thing I'm getting from your post is that you seem to think that your opinion represents that of all RuneScape players. And your opinion is wrong, because a lot of the updates Jagex makes are really good in the eyes of many different players. Jagex introduces loads of new content regularly, like the God Wars Dungeon, ZMI altar, dozens of quests, and Summoning.

And the music update was made by the audio team, and if you don't care about music then you shouldn't care about the update because the audio team is completely seperate from the developers that make the type of updates that you care about.

    What I'm saying is that this game will not be around for long.  Since it has strpped away kindness, updates destroying the game, terrible graphics, and many other things. 

    I will give it 2 to 3 years AT BEST.

  Thanks for reading the whole thing lol

~mike470~ 

Updates destroying the game? I assume you mean the Dec. 10 updates, and they actually saved the game from credit card fraud due to the autoers, as I mentioned earlier.

And RuneScape has one to two hundred thousand players logged on at any time. The community would have to drop at a ridiculous rate to be dead by 2-3 years. And after the initial dip due to the Dec. 10 updates, it's recovered and is actually growing, as far as I can tell.

In 2-3 years, I'm sure that you'll realize this post is wrong :).

 The thing I don't like about you most is actually the fact that you think you're opinion is shared by everyone else when it's really not.

Technologically, MMOs will always trail behind console games due to the limitations of making a game based on a server and etc. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be surprised to see you dream come true within ten years or less.

Originally posted by altairzq

Originally posted by Scottc

I find it interesting that LOTRO has the exact same game mechanics as WoW and plays just the same, and yet Eve online has a bigger population than it.

You mean Runescape I think.

Both of them work in the context given. The correction is unnecessary (Lol I sound like a lawyer or something).

I don't see anything new with this. All of the games are following their same patterns.

Like many others before you, you forget about RWT.

And I'm sickened that you are sickened that Jagex made a GOOD update because "they wanted to cover their mistakes". Stop being such a cynic.

Jagex staff members have, time after time, stated that there is NO RS3 currently in developement.

Originally posted by K33n0

Yea.. I heard a rumour that apparently they might be returning 1v1 wildy combat. Not sure though. Does anyone else know anythin about this?

Yes, Jagex said they were making a new minigame that would come out by June.

For Pete's sake, people, you must be living under a rock or something to not have heard of this. They stated it in a newspost on the FRONT PAGE of the website.

Originally posted by iamloser

Here is most of the stuff that is now gone.

- No trading cooked for raw/raw for cooked
- No trading herbs for seeds/seeds for herbs
- No trading herbs+seconds+vials for pots
- No trading straight herbs for pots
- No trading cannonballs for steel bars
- No trading fletching supplies for finished products
- No giving double nats
- No trading hides for range armor sets
- No running bones to someone at your altar
- No law running
- No running planks for someone
- No training firemaking and woodcutting together. One person cuts the logs and gives to someone else to burn.
- No hiring people to tan your hides for you
- No giving free loads of fish to people when you're power
fishing
- NO World 16, air's for essance program.
- No tab making companies
- No ore running
- No X-Mas Gifts, No helping friends no charity to new players!
- No ESS FOR RUNES >.<
- No BARS FOR ARMOR
- No ore for knives
- No reliable way to make money
- No drop parties
- No rewards from clan wars
- No chivalry in pking
- No customer service
- No fun
- No point in playing anymore.

 

By the way, my username here used to be Runefruit10, same as my RuneScape username, but with this I got so mad and finally quit RuneScape and made a new account here.

You and Simiswimm, please stop quoting Devilicious on that one, especially after I proved almost half of those to be invalid.

And Simiswimm, they're not going to make santas untradable. Where'd you hear that BS?

Originally posted by K33n0

Surely they could make some allowances for rune/ore running, like a "running zone" were the trade cap would be higher and u could still rune run. Who said law running was still possible through the assist system?? No more benefit for the runner. And what about free stuff to newer players? Jagex said they were trying to improve the community with these updates. I don't think so.

The runner has 27 ess, the crafter assists the runner, the runner makes the laws, and the crafter gets the XP.

The (big) problem is that there's a 30k cap on the amount of XP you can get in a DAY. For a high level crafter, that's a whole lot (sarcasm).

Originally posted by GoopyDragon

Also, RuneScape's customer service...oh boy...
Tell me how many people you've TRULY reported.
Tell me how many of those reports were TRULY investigated.
Tell me how many of those reports were TRULY acted upon.
When you think about it, RuneScape rarely EVER actually listens to the common-folk of the community.  They say that every time you report, they will investigate it thouroughly.  Guess what, Plently people get banned every day for false reports, and plenty people are not banned for things that they should be banned for.  RuneScape's operators only listen to their mods.  This has always annoyed me greatly.

As far as I know, almost every report gets through to Jagex (or more specifically, Jagex's automated machines), and they usually issue a blackmark unless its something stupid like being reported for bug abuse because you were killing a spider.

I once got busted for saying an uncensored spelling of the f word and I received 0.3 blackmarks.

Can you play on your friend's computer? If you have only 0.1 blackmarks you should be able to.

And the person that told you that they appreciated the apology was a computer.

This is the first time I've ever heard of someone being IP banned for anything other than gold-farming, so I'm not really sure what to do.

First you say that Jagex messed up by making Duel Arena F2P.

Then you criticized Jagex for getting rid of the wilderness.

The two things listed above are intertwined; the first is the cause and the second is the effect. I hope you realize that.

I also hope you realize that they did these changes because of the problem with Real-World Trading, and for the most part it's been quite effective. RWT would have 'screwed' the game a lot more than these updates have if something hadn't been done.

And RuneScape's either the second, third, or fourth most popular MMO in the world (damn the unreliable statistics).

Originally posted by deviliscious

I guess it is official .. Jagex's new target audience is 6-  8 yr olds LOL.

Read the article that AkaJetson posted. It's merely a side-project of Jagex's that only involves a small portion of the company, and obviously they're trying to target all audiences.

But either way, I'm hoping that MechScape or whatever the new MMO they're working on is targeted toward the 13+ age group.

Originally posted by NagelFire

Maplestory.

You see.. dont think of it like picking which game is better.. think of it like picking which game sucks less.  And quite frankly, Runescape fails in almost every regard.

Communty = trash

Gfx = trash

Customer service = trash

Mind you.. Maplestory doesnt have a superb community or gfx... but they are better then runescapes imo.

And everybody's opinion is different, but in no way does community, customer service and graphics entirely decide how good a game is.

PIRATES! That's all I have to say about it, that and I wonder how many subscribers this game will bring.

Originally posted by deviliscious

I have had summoning on several games and yes it is for kids .. do adults really care about summoning?  No, in fact the majority of adults would rather have a player with more options and strategy for that player in combat rather than have stupid creatures that do it for you.  Adults were routing for engineering and items to use in clan wars such as fortresses, cannons ect ... but oh yea clan wars was killed winner takes nothing LOL.

Do you actually know anything about the skill? It adds a whole new layer to combat, and takes as much strategy as would be possible with RuneScape's current combat system.

But yeah, it's annoying that Jagex caters to kids.

Here's a very nicely written article on why Summoning is a brilliant skill, one of the best Jagex has come up with, as well as an answer to some of the complaints there are against it. Again, I did not write this.

www.truthscape.com/html/ts_TheTruthScapeSoapboxIssue9WouldYouLikeThatonaSilve.htm

Not so sweet for many people. Jagex needs to hurry up on the minigames that they said they're working on.

Most of the RWT organizations quit to go play another game, because RWT is much less profitable now. Players don't like to wait while some dude in Asia makes money for them; they want to get money right away.

And how could Jagex possibly not know this? They certainly won't take any drastic action against it, but they run the game and know a lot more about it than we do.

And RuneScape is not dead, if you actually opened your eyes. There were 215k players logged on yesterday morning.

I think that at least part of it's going to be F2P. If it is, then addictinggames.com and all those other flash websites will go out of business.

Originally posted by tooned

Why should anyone ever settle if they don't have to? I would never settle for second best in anything that I do why would I pay good money to settle for less than the best? Each and every person has a right and responsibility to set the highest standard in everything that they do. So why would they expect to not set the highest possible standard for everything that they buy. There is no way that I would ever spend my hard earned money on something that is imperfect. If that imperfection is an annoying door squeak or a game that does not offer a flexible enough idle timer. The fact remains that an individual with the abilty to set and meet a standard of excellence should always expect and demand excellence.

 

There is a distinct border between striving for excellence and sheer vanity. Not buying something for a matter as insignificant as a squeaky door or a somewhat annoying log-out timer is crossing that border.