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Jagex unveils new RuneScape website
Jagex announced today that it is giving the official RuneScape website a makeover. The update will add a couple of features to the popular F2P title's website, such as a new wiki and an events section, which should help the community pull together. The studio is also updating the site's news feed in order to ensure that players can get the latest in RuneScape news all the time. To check it out for yourself, just head on over to the official RuneScape site. [Source: Jagex press release]
Free for All: Why RuneScape is almost perfect for me, not bots
As I write this, I am eagerly awaiting the morning and the Bot Nuking Day in RuneScape. Hopefully, this means that "98 percent" of the bots in game will be busted, destroyed, banned and "nuked." Of course, I can't say that I have ever met a bot. For all I know, they are a friendly bunch, restricted only by the crippling desire to grind out items and gold. Poor fellows; this is going to hurt to watch. Other than the bots (who otherwise seem like charming individuals,) I enjoy myself in the game. In fact, I love the game. There are few titles that reside in that warm spot in my gut (I keep my heart there), but RuneScape is one of them. If you'd like to skip the article so you can post snarky comments about how horrible Jagex is and to claim I'm not actually having fun, you have my permission. Otherwise, click past the cut!
RuneScape announces clan citadels
Jagex made a huge announcement today, one sure to bring beaming smiles to the faces of all RuneScape fans. On July 26th, RuneScape will see a monumental new addition in the form of clan citadels. These fortresses aren't any ordinary castles, though. They're floating castles! That's right, clan citadels will be situated on levitating pieces of earth high above the clouds, providing an undoubtedly breathtaking (and vertigo-inducing) view from the top. Acquiring one of these prestigious strongholds will be no mean feat, however. Clan members will need to work together to gather the considerable resources required to construct their citadel. Progression will be tiered, allowing players to watch as their guild's home grows before their very eyes. The citadels will boast "a huge range of customization options" to ensure that each clan can craft a stronghold that suits its taste. This members-only update will go live on July 26th. Until then, keep an eye out for more news on RuneScape's newest undertaking, and head on over to the official site for the full details.
Transformers MMO to become a reality
The time has come for Autobots and Decepticons to roll out into the MMO world! As of this morning, we've heard news that Hasbro has entered into a contract agreement with Jagex (most commonly known for its popular free-to-play title, RuneScape) to develop a brand-new game based on the incredibly popular Transformers IP. While details on just what players can expect from the Transformers MMO are still scarce at this point, the release states that the developers are aiming to launch the game sometime in 2012. Will this also be a free-to-play title, considering Jagex's experience? Will this be geared more toward children than adults? Will we be able to build our own super-awesome Transformers or just play as iconic characters? At this point it's all up in the air, but rest assured we'll keep our ears open for more news.
Massively's guide to RuneScape's wilderness and free trade
Back when the open-world PvP of Ultima Online was more than just a memory for most people, it just seemed natural for a game to let players beat each other to death. Having open-world PvP in an MMO checked off another item in the list of things that attracted people to the genre. RuneScape's wilderness area was Jagex's compromise between letting players smash each other's heads in and not alienating players who don't want their heads smashed in. While most of the game remained PvP-free, the wilderness to the north was an open PvP bloodbath complete with corpse-looting and rude language. PvP was removed from this area several years ago as part of a major effort to beat the RMT business. At the same time as wilderness PvP was removed, limitations were placed on the amount of gold a player could gain or lose in player-to-player trades every 15 minutes. Trading was migrated largely to a new Grand Exchange system with built-in price limits. This all but killed the game's emergent trading professions, severely limiting the scale of shops and making life harder for the wheelers and dealers out there. Both the trade and PvP restrictions were lifted just over a month ago, and players are quickly learning to take advantage of all that's been brought back to the game. Skip past the cut for Massively's look at how you can take advantage of free trade and wilderness PvP and how RuneScape's community has reacted to the revival of these long-lost features.
Massively's exclusive interview with RuneScape's lead designer Mark Ogilvie
Last month, Jagex did the unexpected when it opened up a major game-changing decision on its popular MMO RuneScape to a public vote. As part of RuneScape's 10th anniversary this year, Jagex gave players the chance to vote on whether they want PvP in the wilderness and free trade between players to be restored. These are two key features that were removed from the game around three years ago as part of an anti-RMT campaign. Over 1.2 million votes were cast in the public referendum, with over 90% of them asking for the revival of wilderness PvP and free trade. The much-loved game mechanics should be returning to RuneScape in early February. At Massively, we took the opportunity to interview RuneScape's lead designer Mark Ogilvie on the upcoming changes and what the future has in store for this popular browser MMO. Massively: When you initially put out a vote on the restoration of wilderness PvP and free trade, did you expect the response to be as overwhelming as it turned out to be? Mark Ogilvie: We really weren't sure. I spend a lot of time talking to my players, but you often find that PKers are a vocal minority. We wanted to run a referendum to see what the truth was, but we really weren't sure what was going to happen. We had a bit of a friendly sportsman's bet to see where the percentages would be, and I'm quite proud to say my guess was pretty spot on. I was really pleased when my bosses said, "let's ask the players and see what they think." Taking the risks to do something like that, putting a decision that big in our players' hands -- that's quite brave. Skip past the cut to read the rest of our exclusive interview with RuneScape's lead designer Mark Ogilvie.
War of Legends celebrating first anniversary with lots of cake
It's time for a War of Legends-style birthday party and you're invited (you'll also be the one getting the presents, in case you were wondering). Jagex's browser-based MMORTS is celebrating its first anniversary by giving away a limited edition in-game item and hosting various parties and community events. Each War of Legends player will receive a birthday cake that includes several items that speed up construction, assist in resource gathering, and equip your armies. You can also find more birthday cakes (filled with random reward items) in the wilderness over the next week, and there is no limit to the number you can acquire. Finally, the Jagex team is hosting a series of land-grab events as well as high level sub-cities waiting to be invaded and plundered for their valuable resources. War of Legends is free-to-play, and Jagex executive Oliver Kern says this isn't just a marketing term. "A number of our high reputation players have never spent a dollar and are still with us today, leading our biggest and best alliances. In War of Legends free-to-play really means free-to-play," he said.
Jagex offering fans a chance to shape the future of RuneScape
Outspoken fans of RuneScape (and more specifically, the game's former Wilderness implementation) are being given a unique opportunity to shape the future of the title. Jagex has just announced a public vote to determine whether the old mechanics will be restored. "We have released a host of new content which provides a comparable PvP experience to the old Wilderness, and mechanics to allow increased trade limits with long term friends but we are still regularly told by players that they want more. We want to find out whether the passionate voices we hear on this topic are truly representative of entire community or just a vocal minority. If the vast majority of our players support the campaign then we will restore these features to the game as quickly as possible," says Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard in a press released dated yesterday. So, whether you want to score one for virtual worlds with consequences or you'd prefer your online games (or at least RuneScape) be safe havens and relatively free of risk, Jagex is offering you the chance to shape an MMO that is quite rare, if not unprecedented.
RuneScape wishes members a merry Christmas with its December update
Christmas is quickly approaching, and with it many MMOs are gearing up for a December update. For EverQuest II, World of Warcraft and many others, this means it's time for the annual Christmas festivals or other wintry festivities. Other games, such as EVE Online and Asheron's Call, will be giving players a major patch this month to add new content or features. Players of RuneScape will be similarly celebrating the holiday season with a Christmas patch full of goodies. Included in the update will be improvements to the Warrior's Guild, new hit splats to give additional information about damage, and the new area of Daemonheim for subscribed members. The Warrior's Guild will be getting a new challenge called the Cyclossus, and many of the previous challenges will be updated to include additional rewards. Daemonheim will bring players the winter Heimland Games, with activities ranging from snowball fighting and snowman decoration to ice skating and something ominously referred to as "seal sliding." To top off the December update, a new Damage Soaking stat will be added to several pieces of high-level gear to fix what Jagex calls "an imbalance between the potential damage per minute (DPM) and damage capacity (DC) of higher-level players." If you're one of RuneScape's several million players, you'll have a lot to look forward to this holiday season.
Jagex Games Studio wins patent infringement case
Jagex Games Studio, renowned as the maker of RuneScape, has announced its success in securing a non-infringement judgment in a case brought against it by PalTalk Holdings. PalTalk initiated patent infringement legal proceedings against Jagex (as well as Activision-Blizzard, Sony, Turbine, and NCsoft) after being awarded a settlement in a similar claim against Microsoft in 2009. PalTalk claimed that Jagex had infringed on U.S. patents relating to server group messaging systems and further alleged that it had suffered "in excess of tens of millions of dollars" in damages. Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard didn't pull any punches when expressing his displeasure at the perceived frivolity of the claim. "It is exceedingly unfortunate that the U.S. legal system can force a company with a sole presence in Cambridge, UK to incur a seven digit expense and waste over a year of management time on a case with absolutely no merit," he said. "This anomaly, which could easily break smaller studios, doesn't happen in the UK since you can pursue frivolous litigants for the costs of such claims," Gerhard stated.
Jagex announces first ever RuneFest for RuneScape players
When it comes to free-to-play MMOs, many of the newer generation of gamers cut their teeth in Jagex's web-based fantasy game, RuneScape. Thanks to so many players jumping in, having fun, and telling friends, their playerbase has grown steadily over the years until they are now one of the powerhouse companies of the F2P space. That's why we're sure that RuneScape players will be interested to hear that Jagex is planning on throwing one hell of a party as their way of saying thanks to their community, in the form of RuneFest 2010. Slated for Saturday, August 28th, in London, RuneFest 2010 will offer long-time fans of the game a chance to interact with the crew from Jagex through panels, events -- and over a few drinks, we're sure! While the specific details such as venue, pricing, and a full schedule of events are still in the planning stages, they have mentioned live events, panels, competitions, and promise that attendees will be "privy to an exclusive gameplay experience on-site that will be like nothing experienced before or again outside the RuneFest walls." For those interested, there's an email sign-up over on the shiny new site they've created just for RuneFest. Players also have the option of signing up for first crack at early tickets, which are expected to go on sale later this month.
RuneScape art director on the Zanaris redesign
RuneScape is a game with a long history and one that's attracted millions of devoted fans over the years. That said, we think most would concede that RuneScape was getting a bit long in the graphical tooth. Improving RuneScape's graphics seems to be a priority for Jagex Game Studios from what we've read in the latest dev diary by the title's art director Mod Joe. He writes about the redesign of the fairy area Zanaris, originally 'just a standard brown dungeon' which was later revamped to be blue, yet still didn't convey the 'magical' look the designers wanted. The first dev blog on the Zanaris improvements (of which two more are to follow) focuses on the concepts that needed to be re-worked, from the look of the fairies themselves to the environment they populate. Have a look at Mod Joe's development diary for more on the ways Jagex has worked to improve the look of RuneScape.
Runescape cheater exposes his 'black market' organization
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
