what the hell happened to runescape?

[Tyrant T100]

Members is fine, the problem with non members is the majority of the players use it troll or are just plain rude. Anybody who plays the game seriously pays for members because you're actually playing with decent people.
Same thing happened when TF2 went for free, the game fills with asshats.

 

[Hiphophippo]

I have a good friend that runs a couple bots in that game. He then turns around and sells the items and gold or whatever for TF2 items, which he THEN sells for steam games and paypal money.

Frankly it's distressing how well it works.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The bots came back due to the unlocking of free trade. Runescape is a literal gold mine for bots, and it's almost impossible to stop them.

Just look at the great job Blizzard is doing stopping the gold trade. They're failing, and china is still mass-hiring people to sit there and grind, day after day.

I'll admit, Runescape is falling. I used to love the game, played it for years. It was unique and interesting, and I LOVED the quests. Every one was well detailed and crafted, a work of art. The first time I did the Romeo and Juliet quest, I swear I had a nerdgasm. When I had to retrieve the mythical Excalibur and slay the nefarious demon, I was enchanted by the beauty of it. Gearing up and taking on Elvrag to unlock the right to wear a RUNITE PLATE was intoxicating. I remember the time that Jagex released the "Dragon Plate", being a literal plate that you spin. I thought it was an actual platemail, much to my dismay. It was hilarious. The quest where you had to sneak into the Dark Knight's castle and plant a poisoned cabbage into their stew was AWESOME! It was an honestly fun game. I loved how I could be ANYTHING...If I wanted to be a mage one day, I could! I could also be a warrior, or whatever I wanted. A spell slinging ranger? Hell yes! Most MMO's focus on "Classes" and "Tiers", with preset skills and almost all content based on combat. Do any here remember the time they got their first random event? Suddenly having a demon pop up, and teleport you away to a boot camp was hilarious. Or, not so hilarious when you got the Random Event that summoned a massive plant that...kinda killed you. Good thing they removed that.

I remember training all the skills. From herbology to thieving, it was awesome. I even had fun training Agility, running through the minigame courses. There was honestly nothing like participating in an intense PvP duel, with all risks and all reward. Running out into level 30 wilderness with my DDS and Granite maul, just to get ganked by some guys using the Rock Ring to hide as stones was frustrating but fun. The first time I descended into the deepest wilderness and slaughtered a troupe of high levels was insane! It was addicting. I lost lots, yet I gained lots.

This is a lot of posting. I miss Runescape. I wish I had the time in life to play it, but I don't. Growing up kinda sucks.

Please don't flame me

When you say that, you just made me have a huge nostalgia-attack when I played Runescape a few years ago. Fuck, as much as I rag about the game, it was fun when I played it.

I wonder if Jagex changed things to make botting so easy. They probably just stopped banning them, and made it really easy for them to give their loot away.

 

[Slash Dementia]

My girlfriend and I went on there about two months ago--we used to play--and there were lots of bots there. It wasn't as bad as when you were, though, I guess, since we were able to talk to a few people.

I'd imagine member's worlds to be fine. I don't think that they'd pay lots of bots to be there doing nothing, but then again, I never played as a member.

That said, Runescape took away too much of what made things interesting in the game and put out things that were too player friendly. I enjoyed the game when I played (when it was 2D and the next three years after that) but it died. I aged, and the others who aged with me mostly left, and then the new breed of kids started to play...then the community died, and now they're turning into robots.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

A lot of people just don't talk. If you want to see real people go to the wilderness. I am so glad they brought old pking back.

 

[Squidden]

From what I'm told all they do is fold to people who complain about things without understanding why they're there.
I'm told they restricted chat and trade.
I am told they removed random events and the wilderness.

What happened to Runescape is that Jagex listened to their fans a bit too much as opposed to the people who knew what they were talking about.

They added back the wilderness, and stopped restricting chat and trade about a year ago.

 

[gigastrike]

Dammit, Jagex! You had something special! I respected you for doing what needed to be done to entirely eliminate bots from your game, but you've gone and thrown it all away! I tried to warn people that if they didn't just accept the new PvP options and trade limits that it would come to this, but no one listened! They all just wanted more power for themselves, and Jagex listened!

*Sigh*...I'm glad I left when they brought back the wilderness.

 

[Mike Kayatta]

One of the worst things an MMO developer can do is listen to whining players. It happens every single time: Developers listen, make changes, earn the ire of the vets, lose the vets, then lose the new players too (you know, the ones who whined) because gasp they were only whining because they'd never taken the time to understand the game world before opening their mouths and aren't the games steadfasts. Ultima Online, Runescape, Galaxies, etc. etc. all fallen by the wayside due to major changes that weren't needed. Keep dumbing down games and appealing to a more and more casual base and you will destroy your base. The only reason WoW thrives on a more casual rule-set is because it started like that and never changed.

 

[Scow2]

Runescape isn't failing. People are just losing hope in it for little to no reason.
Seriously, did you see the flaming that happened when they released a Refer-A-Friend system?

A bunch of elitist whiners on the forums and a bunch of snobby billionaires at the Grand Exchange are what's killing Runescape.
It's not Mark Gerhard or lack of vision or the investors controlling updates; it's the whiny bitches.

That said, I still play and love Runescape. If you play with a friend, it's much less depressing.
My friend and I stood face to face in front of the Grand Exchange with katanas acting like we were guards for hours.
We would ask people stupid riddle questions like "What is the square root of a potato".
Another time we slayed a few goblins then pretended to notify their next of kin in Goblin Village dressed in army outfits (maam, I'm afraid I have some terrible news. your husband was killed by a random newb with a fire spell. He was mugged and his bones were pilfered.)

Humdrum activities while playing solo can become immersive epics of hilarity and awesomeness with a friend.
That said, it's the community that makes that game fun. Find a good clan and you'll be having fun in no time.

hahaha that sounds hilarious (Ive done eaqualy stupid things too) years ago two people were having an argument and I hung around and followed them, making it clear I was eating pop-corn and being entertained, they were relaly offended

BUT Im not criticizing the game..Ive been around on and off even through the wilderness thing

I think it was a year since I last logged in, and the thing is..from the little I played there were NO real playes..jsut bots everywhere, literally, I could tell because no one would talk, ever, that was part of the apeal to be ablwe to talk and strike up conversations with anyone

from what I remember it was NEVER this bad, even before they cracked down on bots..I must have started around 2004

its no longer a game its a pathetic factory..a zombie wasteland, what the hell happened?

IF they never talk... it's not necessarily because they are bots. They may be Alt-Tabbers (Like bots, but actually controlled by a person) because the mechanics are so lazy, or they just don't want to talk. Unless their names are just random characters, and even that may just be someone who can't think of a username so pounds on the keyboard.

Runescape has the same problem as Minecraft in making players act like Bots.

Personally, I feel that the Grand Exchange was the best thing to ever happen to Runescape. And the trade limits almost completely annihilated the Bot Population. But, as people got used to No Bots, the inability to make "unbalanced" trades such as all High-level item exchanges and "Starter/Assistant kits" traded between genuine friends started killing the game.

Also, farming. The absolute worst skill to grind. Unfortunately, it became popular enough for some other company to make a game that's just a more refined version of it, and harvested terrabytes of data from ignorant Facebook-users (When Farmville wishes to access your profile, it harvests everything it can find there).

Personally, I think it's time for Runescape 3 to come out, jumping from top-down RPG to the more conventional First Person, with the skill levels and item-types still intact so players can port over between versions.

 

[Vault101]

Runescape isn't failing. People are just losing hope in it for little to no reason.
Seriously, did you see the flaming that happened when they released a Refer-A-Friend system?

A bunch of elitist whiners on the forums and a bunch of snobby billionaires at the Grand Exchange are what's killing Runescape.
It's not Mark Gerhard or lack of vision or the investors controlling updates; it's the whiny bitches.

That said, I still play and love Runescape. If you play with a friend, it's much less depressing.
My friend and I stood face to face in front of the Grand Exchange with katanas acting like we were guards for hours.
We would ask people stupid riddle questions like "What is the square root of a potato".
Another time we slayed a few goblins then pretended to notify their next of kin in Goblin Village dressed in army outfits (maam, I'm afraid I have some terrible news. your husband was killed by a random newb with a fire spell. He was mugged and his bones were pilfered.)

Humdrum activities while playing solo can become immersive epics of hilarity and awesomeness with a friend.
That said, it's the community that makes that game fun. Find a good clan and you'll be having fun in no time.

hahaha that sounds hilarious (Ive done eaqualy stupid things too) years ago two people were having an argument and I hung around and followed them, making it clear I was eating pop-corn and being entertained, they were relaly offended

BUT Im not criticizing the game..Ive been around on and off even through the wilderness thing

I think it was a year since I last logged in, and the thing is..from the little I played there were NO real playes..jsut bots everywhere, literally, I could tell because no one would talk, ever, that was part of the apeal to be ablwe to talk and strike up conversations with anyone

from what I remember it was NEVER this bad, even before they cracked down on bots..I must have started around 2004

its no longer a game its a pathetic factory..a zombie wasteland, what the hell happened?

IF they never talk... it's not necessarily because they are bots. They may be Alt-Tabbers (Like bots, but actually controlled by a person) because the mechanics are so lazy, or they just don't want to talk. Unless their names are just random characters, and even that may just be someone who can't think of a username so pounds on the keyboard.

Runescape has the same problem as Minecraft in making players act like Bots.

Personally, I feel that the Grand Exchange was the best thing to ever happen to Runescape. And the trade limits almost completely annihilated the Bot Population. But, as people got used to No Bots, the inability to make "unbalanced" trades such as all High-level item exchanges and "Starter/Assistant kits" traded between genuine friends started killing the game.

Also, farming. The absolute worst skill to grind. Unfortunately, it became popular enough for some other company to make a game that's just a more refined version of it, and harvested terrabytes of data from ignorant Facebook-users (When Farmville wishes to access your profile, it harvests everything it can find there).

Personally, I think it's time for Runescape 3 to come out, jumping from top-down RPG to the more conventional First Person, with the skill levels and item-types still intact so players can port over between versions.

but then for some reason as I understand they got rid of all that...reverted back to the old systm aparently

anyway I disagree, as Ive said Ive been playing on and off since..hmm around 2004 and it was never like this, back in the early days you could tell the bots because they were all in the "default" look, green pants, khaki tops, bald

its not the case now, I know not everyone talks, but when you stand there at a crowded spotoffering 5k for somone to say "hi"....and no one says anything you know thats not just people being quiet, its different now, Im sure of it, one of thhe few rare people i came across said it was about 50% bots (even members I think) it wasnt like that before

I imagine people are just botting now to keep up with the bots

also...first person? since when has that ever been standard for RPGs? only ones I think give you the option are fallout and oblivion...I hate first person anyway

 

[Tanakh]

So everyone is a zombie now? Wait, that sounds like when I played it...6 years ago...

This.

 

[jjallen08]

if you honestly think that there arent many bots on a member server, go to world 84. theres a mining place where at least 1000 bots are at at the same time.

 

[Scow2]

also...first person? since when has that ever been standard for RPGs? only ones I think give you the option are fallout and oblivion...I hate first person anyway

Sorry, by First-person I merely meant the direct-control of your character instead of Point+Click interface.

 

[Kevak]

I maxed out magic and got both spellbooks about three months before they removed the wilderness and added trade limits, soon quit after I realized everything was boring because I could kill anyone within only a few rounds with the Lunar book, I came back about a month into the wilderness removal and hated it and left again, even though they recently added it again along with removed the trade limits, the damage had been done, most vets including me refuse to keep playing.

Wait

They removed the wilderness?

Why the fuck? Jesus Christ...

OT: Man, I remember playing Runescape back in the day, good times were had. I dont think I ever got past level 60 or 70, still, it was fun. Occasionally, maybe once every 2 months or so I have this wild desire to go back and start playing it properly again, but then in the space of a second that flies by and I remember that there are much better games out there, that its probably deserted or full of bots, that it pretty much got ruined slowly by stupid changes...

*Sigh*

Yah, I miss the old days of Runescape too, there were so many more people and i've had so many fun game sessions, but as you said, stupid changes ruined the game. MMO's lately have been going downhill, I mean have you seen the shitcarna/incarnage update for EO? It's a game about internet spaceships, we don't want avatars and a overpriced item store, we want more internet spaceships, we want the drone number nerf removed, we want the mining update they promised us years ago, we want the PoS shield effect given back to the teleport module it came from, we want the mining laser effects back, we want the game to be good again, but sadly, CCP won't change it back, they are too stupid to realize they are going to ruin the game by ignoring the players and the only other alternative to Eve is WoW, which I hate with a passion as of the Lich edition and Cataclysm didn't help it in any way.

 

[Kevak]

~snip~

Personally, I think it's time for Runescape 3 to come out, jumping from top-down RPG to the more conventional First Person, with the skill levels and item-types still intact so players can port over between versions.

I agree entirely with this, Though I think the option to switch between third and first person would be better then only first person, and some new magic stuff, my mage knows everything and it got boring.

 

[Flying Dagger]

I had a couple good accounts on that... I think the market for free to play MMOs has opened up, meaning many more and better alternatives, I left when the wilderness was removed, what they replaced it with didn't interest me and I sold my account for £80 (level 117 or something without that one skill they added in which did pets). Which, whilst crazy considering the hours i put into it, bought me this lovely monitor I'm using now.

I moved on to Rappelz - which I played for a long time, a fairly decent grind MMO, til I burnt out and tried guild wars, and again burned out after 300 hours...

Been waiting for a new MMO ever since, and I think GW2 might just be the one.

 

[Bob_F_It]

RuneScape is loaded with bots because Jagex have made gold farming a piece of cake, but more than that, they don't actually care about bots anymore. Every lethal random event has been removed, and all others have had their frequency drastically dropped.
I suspect that the reason behind opening the door to bots is because there's a new majority shareholder who sees bots as just more income (the Gowers used to hold 52% of Jagex, but now it's about 5% being held by Paul).