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  • RuneScape: Sixth anniversary retrospective

    by 
    Brendan Drain
    Brendan Drain
    03.29.2011

    When it first launched back in 2001, RuneScape was a primitive beast. Its blocky three-dimensional world was littered with hand-drawn two-dimensional sprites, and most of its sound effects could have been created by whacking random objects with a hammer. Only a handful of quests and skills existed, and there wasn't much land to explore. After over a decade of development, the RuneScape we have today bears little semblance to its primitive ancestor. The map is an order of magnitude larger, the list of quests has grown immensely, and there are countless things to do in the world. With several million actively playing free accounts and over a million paid subscribers, RuneScape has risen from its humble beginnings to be one of the world's most popular free-to-play MMOs. It's been a long road, with a few important milestones along the way. Today marks the sixth anniversary of the date that the RuneScape 2 beta was officially completed and the game's first major overhaul was launched live to players. Anyone who played back then will remember the beta fondly as the rebirth of a game they loved. Since then, regular game updates have added a huge amount of depth and content every year. In this retrospective article, I look back at RuneScape's past to see how it got to where it is today and what's new to the game over this past year.

  • RuneScape March update schedule revealed

    by 
    Jef Reahard
    Jef Reahard
    03.01.2011

    Lest you think this week is all about exclusive GDC news and the launch day of a little fantasy title that you might've heard of, Jagex has given us a heads up regarding its planned update schedule for RuneScape. The month of March will see several game tweaks, and first up is the Elemental Workshop IV quest and the Artisan's Workshop (which will bring an update to the game's smithing skill). Bonus XP is coming as well, with an entire weekend devoted to leveling up twice as fast (or half as long, however you'd like to look at it). Either way, mark your calendars for March 11th through March 13th. Finally, Jagex will be updating the Ring of Wealth, trolls and Trollheim visuals, and adding a new Clockwork Syringe quest that features "home insurance claims, a hazing interrogation, long drops, vengeful seagulls, Barrel Busters, and a boatload of zombio-mechanical madness," according to a Jagex press release. Head to the official RuneScape website for further details.