RuneScape

RuneScape is a 3D Java based massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), launched by Jagex Ltd. in January 2001. For a full history see History and Development.

The game itself has a uniquely done medieval fantasy theme probably most similar to games such as World of Warcraft or EverQuest but often with a less serious tone and extensive original content ideas. One of the more unique aspects of the game is the ablility to do more mundane and non-violent tasks, as well as the more usual RPG fare.

There are often over a hundred thousand players online at once, and on busy weekends, over a hundred and thirty thousand players, spread across its 80+ servers (new servers are added regularly). These servers are located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and The Netherlands, making it one of the largest online Java games in the world. There are also a few servers running the "classic" version of the game (split between free and pay servers).

Overview

The game is set in a fantasy world, where players control their own avatars representing one's self. There is no overall objective or end to the game, aside from a general goal of increasing the character's abilities and passing benchmarks. However, there are plenty of tasks that people can perform in the game. For example, players can interact with each other by talking, trading, and even fighting (though fighting is restricted to the wilderness in the free version while the members version additionally has the dueling and Castle Wars arenas). There are several instances in which a player finds his/her soulmate in the game. Quests can also be undertaken, such as the Dragon slayer quest. However, quests are not compulsory and players have the option of not completing any of the in-game quests if they so desire. There are many other activities such as fishing, crafting, mining, woodcutting, and smithing. As these activities are performed, a character will become more skilled at the activity.

Note: For more detailed information on RuneScape, go to one of the numerous websites regarding the game. There is a list of sites in the links section at the bottom of this article.

RuneScape humor

Whilst there is plenty of serious content, there are also lots of quirky/humorous things going on too. Some of the more unusual things include: The ability to cook a variety of types of pizzas, pick bananas on a banana plantation, hold parties with balloons, and play with yo-yos, spinning saucers, rubber chickens, and toy horses, raising a pet cat which can then do things like catching rats, duelling other players with a rubber chicken (or a bunch of flowers). Around Easter 2005 players had the chance to catch up to the fast-moving giant Easter Bunny (a character no longer present in the game) for a basket of chocolate eggs, and much more besides. In addition, if you search a hay stack, you will find a needle eventually. This sort of unexpected content cropping up often provides a welcome break from levelling and is one of the things which makes RuneScape unique.

There are also a lot of quests that have humorous parts.

• A quest to turn Ernest the chicken back into a human (by repairing the poultrifcation machine).
• A quest that involves shooting your character into a rock.
• A quest to get some goblins to pick their armor color, and they finally settle on the original color as being best.
• Part of a quest to get very drunk on a large barcrawl.
• A quest to catch a wizard's pet scorpions.

Starting out in the game

A player new to Runescape starts out on Tutorial Island. Although it may seem boring to some, Jagex has determined this to be imperative to understanding future gameplay. While on Tutorial Island, players learn about gameplay, controls, combat, communication, cooking, banking, completing quests, and other skills. Once a player has completed the tasks on Tutorial Island, they are teleported to the city of Lumbridge. From then on, players can upgrade their characters in the fashion they desire. They could travel around the character's world between cities such as Varrock, Falador, Port Sarim, etc. Players can also travel around by raising their magic level to a level high enough to perform a teleport to some of these major cities. In Runescape, your goal is to develop your character by raising skills, completing quests, et cetera. Runescape also has a highscores list, where you can view the best 500,000 players overall, and in a particular skill of the game.

Combat

Combat is an important aspect of the game, and killing monsters is one of most direct ways of gaining wealth. Combat is also needed to complete many of the quests, and can be used to fight other players (see player vs player combat)

There are 3 main types of combat in RuneScape. Melee, ranged, and magic.

Melee: Players must train their attack, and strength. The attack stats determines the odds of a successful attack, whilst strength determines the maximum damage you will do.

Ranged: Players must train their ranged stat, which determines the chance of hit. The maximum hit possible depends on the ammo used.

Magic: Players must train their magic stat. The higher the stat the greater the number of spells available and the more likely they will succeed.

RuneScape has a 'combat triangle', which is intended to stop any one class becoming overly dominant. The idea being that magic will tend to beat melee, range will tend to beat magic, and melee will tend to beat range.

All 3 combat types also rely on the players defence and hitpoints stats. The defence stat determines how likely you are to block an incoming attack, wheras hitpoints determine how much damage you can take before dieing. The prayer stat whilst seeming subtle at first, can turn the tide in a fight. Prayers such as the protection spells can render a person invulnerable to enemy attack, and they provide numerous protections.

And of course in addition to that which equipment a player is holding, the potions they have drunk, how much food they have, and countless other factors all combine to determine who will win the battle.

A players 'overall combat level' is derived from the 7 stats mentioned above: attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, magic, prayer, and ranged. The combat level is designed to indicate a players overall strength and is also used to decide which players can fight each other to stop for example, very high level players preying on very new players. The maximum combat in RuneScape Classic is 123, and the maximum in RuneScape 2 is 126.

Player vs Player combat

Players cannot normally fight with each other in most areas of the map. There are however 3 different areas where player vs player combat is allowed in RuneScape, each with different rules and properties.

The Wilderness For a long time the only way to fight other players was to visit the wilderness. The wilderness is a large area of map located in northern RuneScape. The Wilderness has great rewards, but also great risks. The wilderness is the most hostile of the PvP types available, because you can be attacked unexpectedly, and if you die you will lose all but your most valuable items to the person who killed you. Exactly how many items you keep when you die depends on your prayer settings and if you have attacked another player recently. Killing another player in this area is referred to as PKing (Player Killing). As one gets deeper into the Wilderness, they can fight with other players further and further away from their combat level. Which makes it more dangerous. Half of the wilderness only allows 1-on-1 battles, whilst the other half allows multiway combat and potentially huge team based wars.

Duelling Arena The duelling arena is only available to subscribers. Located in the Al-Kharid desert it allows a more formal fight where the players can pre-agree the exact terms of combat, and what items will be gambled. It is possible to change a large number of settings to restrict exactly which items and combat styles are required, and players can choose either to duel for fun (in which case no items change hands), or to wager items which the winner will receive. Because of the ability to limit the risk to a level of your choosing, this way of testing your combat prowess against other is popular with many players.

Castle Wars Castle_Wars

Skills

Main article: RuneScape skills

RuneScape Skills are abilities that enable players do things in the RuneScape game. Some skills are members-only and some skills are only in newer versions of the game. Many of the higher level abilities in each skill are reserved for members only. Players gain experience in a skill when they use abilities which utilize that skill. A player's amount of experience determines the level of that skill. New abilities are given to the player when they reach certain levels. Higher level abilities in turn give more experience to compensate for the roughly exponential increase in experience points needed to reach each new level.

Game economy

See main arcticle: RuneScape economy

History and Development

Note: Although the Developer of the original game is unclear, it was not originally started by Jagex Ltd.

Version 1: Developer started work on the original game in 1998. This version was very different to the RuneScape of today. It had Isometric graphics, and was original titled 'DeviousMUD'. This version was never released to the public, and only a few people ever saw it.

Version 2: 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 only about 1 week, and then withdrawn again.

Version 3: Developer started yet again with a 3rd attempt starting on Oct 1999. This time the isometric view was replaced, in favour of 3d graphics and 2d sprites. The game was renamed to RuneScape and released to the public on January 5, 2001. This version is still online today and is currently called 'RuneScape Classic'

Members launch: On February 27, 2002, Jagex launched a new optional 'members service'. This allows players to pay $5 USD a month to obtain access to new quests, features and skills. Paying members have a far greater choice of things to do, but it is still possible to play the game for free, and there is in fact still more free content available than ever before. Whilst not a new version as such (the game still ran on the same version 3 engine), this did significantly change the focus of the game.

Version 4: Developer went for yet another complete rewrite. Version 4 changes the graphics to full 3d and has many other significant improvements. Whilst in development this version was called 'RuneScape 2', but when launched was just called 'RuneScape' (version 3 being renamed at the same time). An incomplete beta of this version was available to members on December 1, 2003, and then the finished version was launched on March 17, 2004. This is the current version of the game being promoted by Jagex. This is the version most people think of when you say 'RuneScape'.

Community

Players represent a wide range of nationalities, genders and ages. Although the userbase is predominantly English speaking because the game itself is currently only available in English.

Most players play the game fairly casually spending a few hours a week playing. However it is not uncommon for a dedicated player to spend in excess of four hours a day training his character; there are even a few rare cases of players regularly spending over ten hours a day online.

Clans

RuneScape players often band together to form groups known as 'clans'.

Many clans are just groups of friends who help each other in the game, have (in-game) parties, organize events etc...

Others are more focussed on player vs player combat, and form armies to gain an advantage when PKing (People Killing) in the wilderness. These clans often form and break alliances with each other, and fight each other in large clan wars to see which clan is the best!

The game currently has no formal support for forming clans of players, so such groups are largely held together by trust at the moment. Although a developer news post last year hinted at the possibility of a proper clan system being added in the future.

Player demographics

In March of 2004 a poll of the age and gender was done on the official website. The poll was only open to members, so it is potenially not as indicative of the total player base. Also, since it was not controlled in any way, people could put false answers. People who are unable to become members would be under-represented and the potential making up an answer does exist. Either way it is one of sources of information on the player base, whether it is correct or not.

The poll results:

• The poll question: "Which of the following Age/Gender group do you belong to?", and the results
• Male under 15 years of age : 5492 votes / 48%
• Male between 15 and 25 : 3918 votes / 34%
• Male between 26 and 40 : 533 votes / 4%
• Male over 40 : 264 votes / 2%
• Female under 15 years of age  : 237 votes / 2%
• Female between 15 and 25  : 357 votes / 3%
• Female between 26 and 40  : 302 votes / 2%
• Female over 40  : 270 votes / 2%

In January of 2005 another similar poll was conducted. The same flaws existing in the last poll were also present here. It is to be noted that the overall number of players had risen dramatically, and there is no decline in any particular group's numbers in the game(at least not among the paying members), even though the percentages have shifted.

The poll results:

• The poll question: "Which of the following demographic groups do you belong to?"
• Male under 16 years of age : 42170 votes / 66%
• Male between 16 and 25 : 12463 votes / 19%
• Male between 26 and 40 : 2382 votes / 3%
• Male over 40 : 1067 votes / 1%
• Female under 16 years of age : 1769 votes / 2%
• Female between 16 and 25 : 1305 votes / 2%
• Female between 26 and 40 : 946 votes / 1%
• Female over 40 : 844 votes / 1%

Quests

Quests in RuneScape are one time adventures which serve a variety of purposes. The novice quests act as tutorials to get new users acquainted with the various skills and abilities as well as giving them some extra money. More difficult quests serve as a rite of passage which tests the player's and their character's abilities. All quests include some kind of reward such as money, rare/valuable items, and increases in abilities. Some quests are part of an overlapping storyline. Each quest also awards a certain number of quest points. 32 quest points will grant access to the Champions' Guild. The members-only Heros'(at 50) and Legends'(at somthing over 100) quests grant access to their respective guilds upon completion. Quests can be found all over the map, in the game's three kingdoms of Misthalin, Asgarnia and Kandarin, as well as some even more distant lands.

For a list of the quests in RuneScape, see Piehole.

Graphics

The graphics of RuneScape, while not revolutionary on the whole, are of good quality for a freely-available Java game. The latest version of the game is rendered in complete 3D. A lot of emphasis has been placed on allowing players to customize their character. Players are given a wide choice in creating character models, from hairstyle to facial features. Additionally, appearance can be further optimised by wearing/holding different items, with each different weapons having a unique image. There are also many different animations in the game for the variety of things you can do from combat, to magic, to the various quests. The game can be run on high or low detail level. While high detail gives different things more texture or design, low detail gives every thing a cleaner cut look, and reduces in-game latency.

Random events

A variety of random events can take place in the game. Jagex maintains that this is to help prevent macro programs. They 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 will receive a negative effect (such as being teleported across the map) Some of these negative effects can be quite annoying, but most can be easily avoided if players are paying attention. Some random events will also give players a reward if they react appropriately. The random events which give rewards are generally far more popular. Some players dislike random events which can give penalties but no rewards and consider them annoying hindrances.

The following is a list of the different random events in the game at the time of writing.

• Guardians: Being quite dangerous and annoying, they include River Troll, Rock Golem, Watchman, Zombie, Tree Spirit, and Shade. River Trolls generally attack you when you have been fishing in the same place for a long time. Tree spirits and Rock Golems may rise when woodcutting or mining, you may even be hit 3 times in a day by a rock golem if you are unlucky. You can also be attacked by a Tree Spirit even if you are not cutting wood but you happen to click on the tree. Zombies and Shades may rise when you have buried a lot of bones. Guardian monsters are always considerably tougher compared to the player they are attacking, but their loot might be worth fighting for.
• Annoying: Swarm of Insects (only escapable by running away; otherwise it keeps attacking until the player dies), tree changing into an Ent (causes hatchet to break), Whirlpool in water (only high levelers can fish in these), Smoking Rock (mining such a rock will cause an explosion which injures your character and breaks your pickaxe, which may be fixed by the pickaxe merchant Nurmof in the Dwarven Mines), Poison Gas, Moving Fishing Spots, Big fish (steals your fishing equipment).
• Inconveniences: random breakage of equipment such as pickaxes when mining and hatchets when woodcutting. You can generally avoid these by not mining a smoking rock, not trying to cut down an Ent, or not fishing where there is a Whirlpool or Big Fish. Damaged equipment is easily repaired though, either by player himself or by visiting certain NPCs with required skill. Pickaxes can be fixed by "Nurmof" in the Dwarven Mines, and "Bob" at the "Bob's Axes" in Lumbridge can repair your hatchet that was broken by trying to chop down an Ent. When fixing items, a small cost is incurred based on the value of the equipment. Split hatchet and pickaxe heads can be fixed by using the shaft with the head.
• Teleporting: A Mysterious Old Man will sometimes appear, and teleport a player to a special location. In order to return, a player must accomplish a given task, such as mimicking a mime or navigating through a maze as fast as possible. A generous gift or special ability is granted for the accomplishment.
• Gift Givers: Drunk Dwarf with beer and kebab, Genie with magic lamp, Mysterious Old Man with a strange box, and Strange Plant. If ignored, even gift givers can hurt a player (Dwarves and Plants), or teleport him to a random location on a map (Genies and Mysterious Men). When a lamp is rubbed, you can choose what skill you want to gain experience on. A menu with all of the available stats is opened, and you may choose a stat you wish to advance and gain experience equal to (level*10). Note that people playing the free version may not choose to advance member's stats with such a lamp. A strange box is a special item, since it can multiply when unattended. Unless a player opens the box and solves the riddle inside, their entire inventory might fill up with boxes. Once all the boxes have been cleared, a small gift is given, usually an uncut gem, an uncut diamond if lucky (or in Member's case, a half-key or a cosmic talisman), but only a small sum of money when unlucky.

Weapons

See main article: RuneScape weapons

External links

• Official Runescape Links
  • RuneScape
  • Jagex Software
• Runescape Fansites
  • RSCheatNet (fan site, macros, cheats, forums)
  • Zybez (fan site, guides, forums)
  • Runescape Tips (fan site, guides, forums)
  • Runescape Community (forum only, Unofficial Runescape Encylopedia)
  • RuneVillage (fan site, guides, forums)
  • Rune Headquarters (fan site, guides, forums)
  • Runescape help, tips and guides (Fan site, guides, forums)
  • RuneScape Faces (player photos)
  • Runescape Tavern (forums)
  • RS Inn forum (fan site)
  • Runescapia
  • Rune Today (forum)
  • ARENAscape (fan site, text-browser based MMORPG)
  • Sal's Realm of RuneScape (fan site, guides, forum)
  • Runescape Source (fan site, guides, forums)
  • Runeweb (fan site, item database, guides with pictures, replacing RuneNews)
  • Rune Universe (fansite, guides)
  • RuneScape Hall (fan site, guides, forums)
• Runescape Clan Websites
  • Phoenix EliteA clan that will probably take anyone level 50 and above
  • The 25th Legion
  • Industrial Goth Clan (Pk, Skill-based, and Community clan for goths and others alike.)
  • The Moriquendi
  • The Tsunami Clan
  • Pkers Clan
  • FEAR Clan (fansite, clan community)
  • OptiRunescape (helpsite, community)
  • Corruption Clan (clan community)