Posts from the Runescape Category at Massively

Age of Conan: Check out our Age of Conan page with all of our interviews, hands-ons, galleries and features! Player Consequences takes a look at whether the fugitive PvP consequence system is too harsh.

Lord of the Rings Online: Check out all the news on Book 14 and our guides on the basics of Monster Play, the new rare crafting trophies, and Hunter fast-travel. Plus, let us help find the perfect name for your dwarf or elf!

World of Warcraft: Check out all the news from the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, including major WoW class changes. Rob Pardo reveals WoW was planned as free-to-play, and says not to hold your breath for a console version.

Massively Features: Find out why you should be playing Myst Online: Uru Live, check out our KingsIsle interview on Wizard101, and peep our first impressions of Requiem: Bloodymare and a video tour of Silkroad Online!

EVE Online: The Empyrean Age has arrived! Check out the wonderful world of alts, our new EVE Online Community Spotlight and The Basics of PVP Fitting.

Warhammer Online: Massively has gone to WAR: don't miss our interviews and hands-ons from EA Mythic's studios, plus our event wrap-up. Check out The Bastion Stair dungeon and our guide to WAR's Order careers!

Runescape's runaway success and brand new HD graphics

by Michael Zenke Jul 1st 2008 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Runescape, Free-to-play

Today's the day for Runescape fans across the globe: the high details version of the game is now officially in Beta testing. Subscribers can jump into the full-screen, widescreen supporting, actually-pretty-darn-good-looking version of Runescape at will. Free players will be able to get the pretty after the Beta test is over. Full details on the new version are available in the official FAQ. If you're looking to get subscriber benefits, now's the time to do it. Folks signing up for the pay-version of the game will be paying about a buck more every month for the priveleage after the 4th of the August. All of these details are on the game's shiny new website, which they've rolled out for this special occassion.

If it seems like Jagex and Runescape have been in the news lately, you'd be right. The runaway success of this game is amazing to see, and the folks at Next Generation have a several-page exploration of the web-based game's histor y. The site talks with Paul and Andrew Gower, founders of the company, about their ambitions to take the accessibility and fun of a MUD and bring it to the web.

Make sure to click through below the cut for a full video presentation on the brand new HD experience.

Continue reading Runescape's runaway success and brand new HD graphics

Tags: jagex, patch, runescape, runescape-hd, runescape-high-detail, upgrade

Runescape High Detail to debut at E3

by William Dobson Jun 25th 2008 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Runescape, Free-to-play

Jagex, the developer of Runescape, has confirmed to IGN that they will be showing the next iteration of their popular free-to-play MMO at this year's E3. They have dubbed this version Runescape High Detail, referring to the game's fancy new graphical option.

Not a whole lot else is known about the the upgrade, other than what was reported by Jagex when they first talked about the high definition version of the game. This earlier news does make mention of a full-screen option which many fans should be pleased about. Thankfully, E3 and Jagex's grand unveiling are not too far away now, and we'll be able to see what this all looks like in action.

Tags: e3, f2p, free-to-play, jagex, runescape, runescape-3, runescape-high-detail

Runescape cheater exposes his 'black market' organization

by James Egan Jun 14th 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Bugs, Exploits, Game mechanics, Making money, Runescape, Legal

PlayNoEvil points out an interesting blog entry on cheating in Runescape. The poster, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes himself as a retired Runescape cheater who devoted five years to the 'darker side' of the game. He states, "This article details all the intricacies of Runescape and cheating and what really goes on behind the scenes, I assure you that it will surprise you."

The poster, identified only by the name ThirdEyeOpen, lays out how cheaters and buyers operated as a would-be organized crime ring. 'Welcome to the Dark Side' is his chronicle of how he began his Runescape cheating career, and how it all ended. He recounts being 'interrogated' online by Jagex Ltd. about his activities, and how the subsequent account banning led to a malevolent wish to get even. His anger eventually snowballed into the creation of an organization of similar-minded individuals, mostly other teenagers, who accumulated a fair amount of real-world currency through exploits in Runescape before cashing out altogether. It's an interesting read -- perhaps a bit disturbing in the sense that he views cheating as a kind of playstyle -- but worth checking out all the same.

Via PlayNoEvil

Tags: black-market, bug, cheat, exploit, game-mechanics, jagex, jagex-ltd, legal, playnoevil, runescape, virtual-currency, virtual-item

RuneScape graphical update sooner than expected

by Adrian Bott May 20th 2008 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Screenshots, Patches, Runescape, Free-to-play

Back on May 8th, free-to-play MMORPG RuneScape announced it had been keeping a big secret for the past year, namely a complete graphical rework. Initial screenshots proved promising, revealing far higher detail levels than before, and a welcome breath of life for a game that - to be fair - has been showing its age a bit. A new, optional detail mode will bring higher quality graphics, and a new fullscreen mode will become available. The only question has been when all this will happen.

The date has now been clarified - sort of. RuneScape users can expect the new graphical goodies 'within a couple of months'. More details will be forthcoming in a new Development Diary. In the meantime, RuneScape players are being encouraged to send in their system specs, so that the upgrades can be accessible to as many players as possible.

Tags: free-to-play, graphical-rework, graphical-update, graphics, runescape, update

An interview with Geoff Iddison of Jagex

by Shawn Schuster May 14th 2008 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Runescape, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual

Recently, it was announced that former PayPal and eBay executive Geoff Iddison was taking over as CEO for Jagex, best-known for their browser-based fantasy MMO RuneScape. Then we heard about the launch of Jagex's latest project FunOrb in February of this year. In a recent GamesIndustry.biz interview with Geoff Iddison, we learn more about his projected role with this new casual games portal and what he thinks about the future of the MMO market.

Of course Jagex plans on keeping up with RuneScape also, as they've just rolled out a German version last year, and plan on introducing another European language version later this year. With FunOrb, they're tackling the casual market, as so many other companies are doing lately as well. While the casual market is an inevitable direction for these companies, we hope their investment in RuneScape proves that the more dedicated market is not being shunned in the process.

Tags: ebay, funorb, geoff-iddison, interview, jagex, paypal, q-and-a, runescape

ION 08: What can game developers learn from web 2.0?

by Barb Dybwad May 13th 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Anarchy Online, EverQuest, Lineage, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Ultima Online, Runescape, Massively Event Coverage

This is becoming a popular topic. Adam Martin, lead core programmer at NCsoft, tackled this topic today in one of ION's morning sessions entitled "Web 2.0: How I learned to stop worrying and love the internet." In light of the low cost, high audience model of web destinations like Facebook and Myspace, are MMOs even a good idea at all? Is WoW the last major MMO we're going to see?

Martin started off with a brief history of MMOs starting with Ultima Online and Lineage in 1997. UO did well for years, remaining in the top 3 or 4 properties in terms of subscriber numbers, while Lineage was absolutely dominating the Asian market. When Everquest came along two years later it addressed a number of the technological problems that had been massively underrated previously, although patching was still a big and painful issue.

Continue reading ION 08: What can game developers learn from web 2.0?

Tags: developer, facebook, featured, ION, ion-2008, ION08, joystiqfeatures, myspace, web2.0

Making/Money: Newbs at Auction

by Alexis Kassan Apr 13th 2008 at 11:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Economy, Crafting, Making money, Runescape, Making/Money

... And we're not talking about selling accounts on eBay.

One of the most frustrating aspects of being a new player in an established game, to my mind, is the cost of start-up crafting materials. Hit up any public market area, auction house, trade square or similar as a newbie and you will see what I mean. Even low-level items of any use (i.e. not vendor trash) are sold for seemingly absurd amounts given the time that would be required at early levels in order to generate the money. It can make the start of a new character infuriating and the game too taxing (pun fully intended) to continue. Why does this happen? What makes these things so costly? Why can't we all just get along...? (Oh wait, that's another column entirely)

Continue reading Making/Money: Newbs at Auction

Tags: alts, auction, auction-house, auctions, components, crafted-items, crafting, economics, economy, featured, inflation, lord-of-the-rings-online, low-level, lowbie, making-money, materials, money, rmt, starting, tradeskill, tradeskills, world-of-warcraft

Runescape clenches the Fist of Guthix

by Michael Zenke Apr 11th 2008 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, PvP, Runescape, Free-to-play, Browser

The developers of Runescape have released information about the new content coming into the game this month. Their April update details a number of new game elements, but the highlight is a brand new combat minigame. Called the Fist of Guthix, the objective of the game is to obtain charges from an energy well located in the center of the gameplay area. The 'catch' is that (as with many parts of Runescape) the Fist is a PvP game. You have one or more opponents trying to kill you as you attempt to complete your goal. The rewards for successfully obtaining these charges is great loot for the level, of course, including the Rune Berserker Shield and the Battle Armor set.

Other April additions include a new installment of Treasure Trails, the fourth quest in the Myreque quest seires: "Legacy of Seergaze", graphical improvements to the Morytania entrance area and brand new improvements to the website. The Grand Exchange Database is set to go live this month with graphical and technical improvements, fulfilling the players' economic needs. Elsewhere on the site, there's an announcement that they're changing the way that they charge players through PayPal. The result will be a lower cost for folks who exclusively use that service to pay for their subscription.

Tags: april-update, fist-of-guthix, runescape

TurpsterVision: Battle of the Beards

by Mark Turpin Mar 18th 2008 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Video, Reviews, Runescape, Humor, TurpsterVision

Every Tuesday think "T" for Turpster and take the "a" in "day", capitalise it, remove the little bit in the middle, turn it upside down and you get a "V". Put the two together and you'll have TV for TurpsterVision -- the best Internet video podcast on Massively! (Never mind that business about it being the only video podcast on Massively...)

I really hoped that I haven't peaked as an MMO reviewer, because this week's episode, complete with costumes and musical accompaniment, might be the best TV yet.This week our friendly co-lead blogger, Mike Schramm, punished me by having me review what many regard as an absolutely terrible game.

With that said we invite you to join us after the break to see if Turpster can survive against such a title and hopefully answer the question on the lips of players around the world: Can Turpster really sing? I fear the answer to that question is no, but that doesn't stop him from trying!

Continue reading TurpsterVision: Battle of the Beards

Tags: bad-games, dress-up, featured, free-to-play, funny, java, joystiqfeatures, Knight, lionel-richie, lol, lost-the-game, parody, runescape, Song, the-t, turpster, turpster-vision, turpstervision

RuneScape February preview shows off new music, dungeon graphics

by Michael Zenke Feb 8th 2008 at 6:00AM

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Patches, Runescape, Free-to-play, Browser

The RuneScape site looks ahead to what will be added to the game throughout February. Just as they did back in November, the folks at Jagex lay out the big updates coming to the fantastically popular free-to-play browser-based RPG. This month the two big additions are a brand new music system and a graphics update for the Edgeville Dungeon.

The music system sounds particularly noteworthy, with players able to unlock tracks achievement-style. Netting all 500(!) gives you access to a unique emote. The new graphics for the dungeon, on the other hand, are a follow-up to a brush-up that the overground area of Edgeville previously received. Other additions include a new Construction puzzle, a spring-time event involving rapidly breeding rabbits, and a new farming amulet.

Tags: behind-the-scenes, jagex, runescape

RuneScape dev: buying MMO gold is like funding prostitution

by Mike Schramm Feb 6th 2008 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Game mechanics, MMO industry, Making money, PvE, Opinion, Runescape

And not just because somebody gets screwed. No, RuneScape's Imre Jele tells Eurogamer that gold trading is like prostitution because the worst part of it isn't necessarily the problem itself (most games can deal with gold trading in their economy), but all the other problems that come along with it-- gold farmers, illegal purchases, and so on. Jele says that stolen credit cards are often used to buy gold, and we've all heard of the working conditions and pay of many gold farmers out there.

Jele also says that he's taken steps to stop the gold trading by making unbalanced trades illegal in his game, and has called out other industry players to do the same. But finally, he lands on the real matter at the heart of the problem-- we have to aim at the reason players want to cheat in the first place. If you make games fun, says Jele, players won't need to cheat at all. We're not quite sure exactly how the prostitution metaphor holds up in there, but he has a point.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

Tags: credit-card, crimes, eurogamer, gold-farming, ilegal, illegal, imre-jele, legality, prostitution, runescape

A snapshot of today's gold-selling/power-leveling market

by Michael Zenke Dec 26th 2007 at 3:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, MapleStory, Business models, Economy, Exploits, Game mechanics, Runescape, Academic

GameSetWatch, the alt.blog on CMP's Gamasutra network of sites, has up a discussion with a gold-farming boss. "Mr. Smith" is one of the owners of a gold-selling site, and submitted an article looking at the current state of the virtual currency market - from his perspective.

Smith makes two interesting points in his discussion: that power-leveling is now the 'growth industry' for RMT services, and that the newest workforce in the marketplace is ... wait for it ... North Korea.

The cost of these power-leveling services has also dipped considerably as new players enter the marketplace. Competitive pressure has dropped the price from about $6/level to more like $2.50/level in World of Warcraft. All 70 levels now averages about $250, down from a high of almost $500.

Tags: farmers, final-fantasy-xi, gamesetwatch, gold-farming, gold-selling, lord-of-the-rings-online, maplestory, rmt, runescape, world-of-warcraft

Runescape cracking down hard on RMT

by Michael Zenke Dec 18th 2007 at 6:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, Patches, Runescape, Free-to-play, Browser

It's the season for talking about holiday events and ... virtual world trading, apparently. The free-to-play browser-based game Runescape has combined both in its recent website updates. A post from last week indicates that they're making some hard choices in an attempt to put a stop to botters, scammers, and gold sellers. Their solution, which they acknowledge won't be making them any friends, is to no longer allow unbalanced trades.

It will be tough for law-abiding players, but it will also be tough for us, as we will certainly not be gaining money or members with this update. Instead, we are doing this for the good of the game, which is as dear to our hearts as it is to you. Soon, the hard part will be over and done with. The unbalanced trade changes will be made in January and we certainly don't plan any more hard changes in the foreseeable future.

Their first post on the topic is deliberately vague, but a follow-up outlines the specifics of the January trade fixes.

We're planning to raise the 3,000gp staking/trading limit for certain players. This will be proportional to the number of Quest Points you have, with the top-end being ten-times what it is now! This should still offer protection from cheats, while also giving you more flexibility in your staking and trading activities.

They've also put up the yearly Christmas event, featuring the Queen of Snow, snowball fights, and a Snow tournament. The big present for this year, apparently, is going to be safe trading in the new year.

Tags: balance, economy, jagex, rmt, runescape, trading

Nielsen ratings say WoW is top dog of the PC domain

by William Dobson Dec 12th 2007 at 10:13PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Runescape

GamesIndustry.biz has their hands on the latest data from the Nielsen Company that tracks game usage from April to November this year. It isn't a big shocker that World of Warcraft has the highest percentage of PC players in an average minute, as they are doing amazingly well by everyone's estimation, but Nielsen was able to provide a figure on the average amount of hours played per week: just over 17.

This seems like a huge amount for the average. Obviously there is a large quantity of very heavy users that are skewing it that way, but it must mean that it's not uncommon for even the most casual players to sink in a few hours here and there. The closest competitor to WoW for people playing in an average minute was The Sims, and its average usage was 5 hours a week. Not even close.

It is worth noting that Runescape comes in at third place for the PC, above Halo and Halo 2. Oh, and forget the big 3 in current-gen consoles -- the Playstation 2 is still where it's at, taking up 42 percent of all console-gaming time.

Tags: average-hours, data, nielsen, the-nielsen-company, usage, wow

One Shots: It's an epidemic!

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 27th 2007 at 2:04PM

Filed under: Screenshots, Runescape, One Shots

In our never-ending quest for game news and views, some of the writing staff have been heading out to the four corners of the MMO market. This generally means logging time into games we wouldn't normally play. Much like Eloise, I recently headed into the world of RuneScape, and admittedly found much the same experience with some of the players. Now this isn't to say I didn't like it at all; personally I found the stalkers and beggars downright hilarious. Of course, I also freely admit that I have a weird sense of humor.

So today, I share with you the above screenshot I took to show what happened to me literally not 30 seconds after I'd completed the tutorial and landed in the main RuneScape world. "Money plz" he repeated to me about 15 times as I spoke with the kindly old man who was helping me find my first quest. "money need kthx." All the while I was howling with laughter at someone hitting the very obviously just-spawned me up for cash. A quick ignore and I was on my way, but it raises the question -- how do you handle the inevitable beggars and annoyances? Do you give them an earful, or just laugh at them for being so utterly stereotypical?

Do you have a story to tell, or a screen to share from the far-off corners of the MMO multiverse? If so, send them to us at oneshots@massively.com. Your image and story could be featured next for us to all enjoy -- or cringe at.

Tags: beggar, browser, featured, free-to-play, jagex, java, oh-no-you-didnt, one-shots, rune-scape, runescape, silly, stalker

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