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How RMT is changing RuneScape's economy for the better
RMT has a bad reputation for promoting the seedy underbelly of online gaming, but some MMOs are trying to turn that effect around, like RuneScape. According to developer Jagex, a pair of RuneScape players recently took advantage of their game's Bond system (akin to PLEX or CREDD) to fund their trip to the RuneFest fan convention in October. The studio detailed other positive effects of the Bond system in a press release this morning, explaining that the system has improved the game's economy: Since their September 2013 debut, around 2.3 million Bonds have been purchased; more than 80 percent of those Bonds have been redeemed for membership, with 27.6 million membership days obtained to date. The introduction of Bonds also had a swift and dramatic effect on the levels of gold-farming in the game, which plummeted by 81 percent within weeks, and also helped bring a more stable in-game economy for players. Over the past year, more than 316.5 billion in-game gold pieces have been sunk into Bond trades by the community. RuneScape VP Phil Mansell said that over the last year, "nearly 20% of RuneScape players [paid] for their membership subscription through their in-game efforts and half of the premium RuneCoin currency comes from bond redemptions." [Source: Jagex press release]
RuneScape celebrates player creativity with Golden Gnome Awards
Nominations have opened for RuneScape's Golden Gnome Awards, the fourth such award ceremony devoted to celebrating player creativity and talent. "We want to continue to recognise all forms of talent, moving beyond just the video making awards given in the past," the team posted. "Whether you're an artist, video maker, cosplayer, or a role model for the community, there's a Golden Gnome out there waiting for you." This year the categories have expanded to award excellence in video and live streaming, art, cosplay, and being a community champion. The latter is an "unsung hero" whom players feel should be recognized for his or her contributions. The Golden Gnome Awards will be given out at the next RuneFest.
Old School RuneScape temporarily changes death penalty due to DDoS attacks
The brutal DDoS attacks that have hit RuneScape over the past week have caused the developers of the 2007-era edition to rework death mechanics until the threat has passed. This "temporary change" to death mechanics allow players a half-hour to see and retrieve their items outside of PvP combat; in PvP, the penalties stay as is. "Even with this change, we would strongly suggest that you do not partake in dangerous or high-risk content such as PvP or high level PvM, and as always, don't risk anything you're not prepared to lose whilst these network issues are ongoing," the devs cautioned.
Transformers Universe introduces Macro and Firebreaker
Jagex hopes to add "diversity" to Transformers Universe's character roster with the addition of two new warriors announced today: Macro and Firebreaker. Macro, in his warrior form, carries a heavy broadsword for up close melee combat which he wields like a chivalrous knight. In addition, his shield dome cloaks all allies within its boundaries, removing them from enemy line of sight for a limited time. At the other end of the spectrum, Firebreaker is the first Decepticon in Transformers Universe to feature cloaking capabilities. Sacrificing his shield meter he can extend the duration of the cloak, and can also unleash a computer virus on himself that will devastate the first Autobot he comes into contact with. The studio says over 700,000 players have participated in beta so far. Videos for both characters are embedded below.
RuneScape hit with denial-of-service attacks
Jagex has posted to its official forums the news that both modern RuneScape and its classic servers are in the midst of service disruption attacks. Moderator Tyran explained: As you may be aware, we're currently experiencing service disruption across both game and web services, this is affecting both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. We are aware that RuneScape (as well as other games) are being targeted by attacks which are causing connectivity issues for our players. We are doing everything we can to mitigate any impact on your gameplay experience - our Systems Team are currently working to improve stability across our core hosting platform to improve the situation. The studio warns players to avoid high-risk content where items might be lost, but customer service will investigate items already compromised by the outages. A large-scale rollback is not currently planned; Moderator Ronan posted, "Unfortunately, Old School RuneScape does not have the tool required to roll back or to confirm what items were lost by players and so it will not be possible to refund any lost items."
RuneScape opens up Soul Reaping for fun and profit
How do you feel about reaping souls? Would you consider it as a potential career choice? The latest RuneScape update really encourages players to take part. After all, Death is really backed up, and he could use your help taking down some of the game's bosses. Just stop by Death's office, let him assign you a target on a daily basis, and you're off to the races! In this case, "the races" means "kill the boss and claim its soul." So why would you do this other than the simply joy of serving as Death's administrative assistant? Successfully reaping bosses provides reaper points, which can be cashed in for rewards like a reduction to instance creation costs, an increase to bonfire health boosts, and new crafting items. There are also cosmetic rewards if you'd rather just look really pretty. You can read all of the details on the official update page, which should encourage players to really jump in there and start clearing away bosses for a good cause.
RuneScape releases its 1,000th music track
For those who are into MMO soundtracks, RuneScape's score is something of a legend due to its sheer size. This past week, Jagex added its 1,000th music track into the game called "The Book of a Thousand Songs." The song, a ballad, was created and performed by the audio team and developers. Players will unlock the track when they log into the game to use in their in-game music player. You can hear the new track after the break and see how it was made! RuneScape announced its first-ever expansion, Lost City of the Elves, earlier today.
2001's RuneScape announces its first-ever expansion
Who says old games never get new content? Jagex has just announced Lost City of the Elves, the first expansion pack ever for 13-year-old sandbox MMO RuneScape. The expansion, which is being rolled out gradually beginning today, will bring to conclusion the long-running Elf Quest campaign and mark the start of a new adventure, Plague's End: "From today, high level players can begin their journey towards Prifddinas by taking part in the new and epic Plague's End quest, the largest adventure in RuneScape to date. As well as being voted by RuneScape players as part of the game's Player Power initiative, the development of the Lost City of the Elves has seen considerable collaborative efforts between Jagex and the community throughout its creation. The expansion pack is being released in three parts to enable players to experience and enjoy all areas of the new content. Today's release of Plague's End will be followed by the unlocking of one half of the elf city in September, and the second half in October." The expansion also includes new skill training methods, wearables, minigames, a "guild social hub," and the largest city in the game to date. [Source: Jagex press release]
RuneScape launches first batch of name cleanup
RuneScape is freeing up a lot of names now. The developers announced a while back that old an inactive names would be getting removed from the list soon, and the first batch is due to hit very soon. That means former members who have not logged in for two years and free users who haven't logged in within six months will have their character names dropped back into the pool of available sobriquets. The upside? Members will have access to a lot of new options for name changes. The first batch will cover names starting with A through C, and Jagex intends to post a page listing the reclaimed names; however, the page will be accurate only at the time of reclamation, with no updates to show what's been taken. So if you're hopeful to finally change your character's name to Arquebus, you'd better be ready.
RuneFest tickets on sale this week
If you're a RuneScape fan and you'll be in London on October 11th, you might want to know that tickets for this year's edition of RuneFest are now on sale. Passes are £99 each, or you can get in for free (and even get a hotel room!) with RuneScape's in-game bonds. The event starts at 10:00 a.m. local time and runs through 7:00 p.m., with an afterparty and late-night gaming scheduled through 11:00 p.m.
RuneScape announces Twitch integration
Do you want to show the world your adventures in playing RuneScape? It's going to be just a wee bit easier to do so now. Jagex has announced today Twitch has been successfully integrated into the game, allowing players to start streaming at a moment's notice with no need to run external software. The community team celebrated with a four-hour livestream event delving into the lair of the spider lord Araxxor, a new boss voted on by the player community as a whole. Jagex has gone on to announce that RuneScape will not be the only game to feature built-in streaming capability, with Transformers Universe (currently in open beta) set to receive the functionality as well. Marketing director Neil McClarty stated that RuneScape is already one of the most popular games in terms of audiance, so players taking part in the streaming process will find it that much easier to keep viewers happy with this integration. [Source: Jagex press release]
Transformers Universe MOBA now has motorbikes
Jagex's Transformers Universe MOBA has added Swagger and Diabla to its roster of playable bots, the first such addition since the free-to-play title transitioned into open beta. Swagger is an Interceptor-class Autobot who uses his cloaking device to enable hit-and-run gameplay that Jagex says will decimate Decepticon players with reduced defenses. Diabla, on the other hand, is a damage-focused Decepticon who roams the map hunting for single targets and "takes them offline without a second thought." You can read Jagex's full PR spiel after the break. [Source: Jagex press release]
RuneFest 2014 dated for October 11
Jagex has announced the date and a few key details on this year's RuneScape-flavored real-life event, RuneFest. On Saturday, October 11, Jagex will be returning to London's Tobacco Dock for the largest RuneScape event of the year. This year will feature panels and parties that promise to be bigger and better than ever before. While more details are still forthcoming, we do know that the cost will be £99 for a full One-Day Pass. You can keep an eye on any further RuneFest news by watching the event's Facebook and Twitter pages.
RuneScape players vote overwhelmingly in favor of traditional combat option
RuneScape has never shied away from interesting ideas and democratic experiments, a fact that is well illustrated by today's announcement that the game will be implementing a "legacy mode" option on Monday, July 14th. Over 80% of players polled voted to add in the mode, which modifies the current game to work with the traditional rather than the new combat system. Legacy mode uses the traditional combat system, pre-RuneScape 3 interfaces, the old mini-map icons, the old animations, and a life point cap of 990. When it goes live in the game, players can switch it on and off as desired. Jagex is also pushing through a few global changes to combat across the board, including an equal balance between melee, ranged, and magic attacks.
RuneScape naming system opens up to more frequent changes
RuneScape is tweaking the way character names work, and players will now have the opportunity to change names more often. There's also a revised system for inactive character names to expire. Through the use of a bond, characters can now change their names as many times as they'd like without waiting a month as was required previously. Character names will also expire for inactive accounts that haven't logged in for two years or more as well as those accounts that have never become a member and haven't logged in for six months. These expired names are up for grabs, but their original owners will be notified via email before losing the name. If you haven't played in a while, simply log in within the next seven days to keep your name.
Transformers Universe launches open beta for the 4th of July
The Transformers Universe MOBA, whose first beta event kicked off last March, will formally enter open beta this weekend because nothing says Independence Day like battle robots, am I right? The open beta weekend will be marked by a double experience event, a 24-hour livestream starting at 11 a.m. EDT on July 5th, and "$75,000 in prizes to be won." In a press release issued today, Jagex CEO/CTO Mark Gerhard said the game had seen almost two million battle victories during the span of the closed beta. [Source: Jagex press release]
The Daily Grind: Are you a RuneScape vet?
The other day Justin asked how many of you were playing TERA, based on the fact that it doesn't get a lot of press or MMO blog coverage. Today I'd like to pose a similar question about RuneScape. The game has been out forever, but in my MMO travels, I've talked to very few people who have played it. Obviously someone's playing it, though, and probably a lot of someones judging by Jagex's consistent update pace and its fan conventions. So how about it, Massively readers? Are you a RuneScape vet? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
RuneScape's legacy mode goes into testing next Monday
If you yearn for the way that RuneScape used to play before its shiny makeover, Jagex both hears and feels you. That's why the studio has prepared a new option called "legacy mode" that will begin testing on June 16th. Legacy mode allows players to access traditional combat, the pre-RuneScape 3 interface, the old minimap icons, and a 990 hard cap on life points. This mode can be freely toggled on and off at will. Jagex will see how legacy mode tests and will poll players as to whether or not they want it brought into the live game. The team's also preparing a patch to improve combat and better balance characters' stats, penalties, and bonuses.
RuneScape shows you the making of an epic quest
RuneScape puts more thought than most MMOs do into the creation and execution of its quests, so when the devs want to share how they make one of these, it might behoove you to show some respect. No, you don't need to kneel. Maybe give it a solemn nod or something. In a new video -- one that you, yes you, can watch after the break -- Jagex takes its playerbase on a tour of the making of "The Mighty Fall" quest. Get a feel for where this quest fits into the greater storyline as well as see how an entire team works together to fashion such a mission. We don't think you'll be disappointed.
Old School RuneScape begins two-week free trial
Old School RuneScape, also known as RuneScape 2007, has begun to offer a two-week free trial for those interested in going back in time to a simpler version of the game. Players can access the free-to-play server by making a brand-new RuneScape account or by using a subscribed account. Jagex said that if the trial is successful, it may become a permanent addition to the game. The one big restriction for the F2P server is that yew trees will not be harvestable in order to combat gold farmers. Old School RuneScape is a 2007-era version of the game that Jagex resurrected following an enthusiastic player vote. Even though it required a subscription to access, it grew to over a million players by October 2013.
