jagex-games-studio
Latest
RuneScape's mad, mad, mad, Mad May approaches
With the virtual flowers in bloom and the birds and bees merging together to form a hybrid class (beerds), you should expect life and vitality springing forth out of your MMOs this spring. RuneScape is embracing the season by hosting an entire month of prizes called Mad May. Taking place during the titular month, Mad May will dowse subscribers with bonuses and freebies. First up is an extra daily spin on the new Squeal of Fortune game, which offers players a chance to win a variety of prizes every day. Following that is a hefty 5,000 Loyalty Point boost for members. These points may be redeemed for a whole bunch of new items, including emotes and auras. Finally, Jagex will cap off the month by rewarding all subscribers with 250,000 XP on June 1st. In addition to the Mad May bonuses, RuneScape will see the return of Wild Weekends during the month. Details about what the Wild Weekends will entail are forthcoming, as is a special behind-the-scenes look into the game's upcoming projects.
Massively's Easter event roundup: 2012 edition
Whether you're an Easter traditionalist or you simply need an excuse to eat a chocolate bunny, it's that time of year again. It's also time for a few of our favorite MMO devs to don their silly hats and introduce all manner of egg hunts and contests into games like RuneScape, Runes of Magic, and World of Warcraft. That's just the tip of the Easter event iceberg; you'll find several more festively inclined titles in our roundup after the cut. Before you hop on over, have a look at the two bunnies above and repeat after us: d'awww.
RuneScape revamps starting experience, releases new trial and trailer
RuneScape's starting experience has a new coat of paint, and Jagex has released a cinematic teaser trailer to celebrate. The long-running browser MMO now features a fresh newbie area called The Troll Warzone that comes complete with a new quest line and plenty of introductory accoutrements. That's not all, as Jagex has also told us that it is offering a free 14-day trial for new RuneScape adventurers. This includes "full access to the entire RuneScape world, hundreds of hours of members' quests, an additional nine powerful skills, 20 compelling mini-games, full-screen gaming and much, much more." The new cinematic introduces some of the lore behind The Troll Warzone, so be sure and click past the cut to view it in full. [Source: Jagex press release]
RuneScape: Seventh anniversary retrospective
Although RuneScape officially launched in 2001, today marks the seventh anniversary of the end of the RuneScape 2 beta. This was a complete gameplay and graphics overhaul that signaled the rebirth of the game, and it's a date well worth celebrating. The past year has been filled with massive content updates that added clan support, upgradeable clan citadels, a new website, and countless new quests. Player-made battlefields put game design in the hands of players, who have used the system to produce ton of content. Understandably, most people will likely remember this year for one thing: This was the year that RuneScape beat the bots. Following the momentous Bot Nuking Day, players logged in to find a distinctly emptier world but one filled with real people. RuneFest 2011 was a success, with presentations from the game's developers and a special focus on breaking the bots. This year also saw the interesting story that the Dutch Supreme Court ruling that stealing RuneScape items is the same as theft of real life goods. In this anniversary retrospective, I look back at some of RuneScape's top news stories and game additions of the year.
Free for All: Becoming a mediocre trader in several free titles
I often find myself achieving little things in many different games while other gamer buddies of mine are busily conquering actual gods or dragons within one or two particular titles. Sure, I would love to join a group of battleworn adventurers as they took down one of the final bosses in almost any game, but I rarely find the time to work a character into the ranks of the ascended. OK, so I have time, but not if I wanted to do what I do here. That is to say, I am not dedicated to one game because it is my job to tell you readers about several games. About every game. About as many games as possible. I can't do that while maintaining a high DPS score. It's a give and take, but I love to explore, fortunately. Let me tell you about how I love to trade or craft in some of my favorite titles and why it's important to me.
RuneScape bonus XP weekend generates workshops, strategy videos
If there's one thing we've learned about the RuneScape community, it's that these players are very, very serious about bonus XP weekends -- so serious, in fact, that there are forum threads, workshops, and videos devoted to helping players get the most out of these events. Starting tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. EDT, RuneScape will be throwing open the gates to a truly insane bonus XP weekend. Unlike most MMOs that try such events, RuneScape won't just slather a steady percentage increase all over players' XP bars. Instead, players will log in to find that their first half-hour of play has a 2.7x multiplier for training activities, and then every 30 minutes after that the rate will decrease until it bottoms out at 1.1x for the remainder of the weekend. The bonus XP will go away on Monday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, and if you want some tips on how best to maximize this opportunity, hit the jump to watch one of the aforementioned help videos. What, you thought we were joking? [Source: Jagex press release]
Test your luck with RuneScape's Squeal of Fortune
It's time to step right up and spin the... squeal? Jagex Games Studio, creator of the ever-popular browser-based title RuneScape, announced in a painfully punny press release today that a new minigame known as Squeal of Fortune has been added to the game. As anyone familiar with the game's real-life namesake may have guessed, the minigame is a game of chance that involves spinning a wheel for fabulous prizes. Of course, RuneScape puts its own twist on the classic game show by somehow involving the squishing of goblins. We're not sure we want to know. At any rate, players can win all kinds of prizes from Squeal of Fortune, ranging "from valuable day-to-day resources to legendary and powerful weapons," so what are you waiting for? Head on over to RuneScape's official site and go for a spin. [Source: Jagex Games Studio press release]
Interview confirms World of Darkness dev team, predicts DUST 514 sales
When CCP Games laid off 20% of its worldwide staff back in October of last year, the World of Darkness dev team bore the brunt of the cuts while DUST 514 continued on course for its launch later this year. In an interview over at TenTonHammer today, CCP's new Chief Marketing Officer, David Reid, joined CEO Hilmar Petursson to discuss the development of both games. Hilmar reveals that a team of 60 developers are currently working on WoD, and that DUST 514 will be playable at this year's EVE Online fanfest event in March. Despite acknowledging that the entire PlayStation Network comprises a total of 60 million users, Reid asserts that DUST will bring "tens of millions of people that play shooters on PSN into the New Eden universe," going on to make the bold statement that "EVE could be the biggest game in the world at the end of 2012" as a result. Reid also claims that "EVE Online is the only game in the West that has shown consecutive growth year after year," a statement that's sure to upset RuneScape developer Jagex and others. The statement also comes with a slightly bitter note as this year EVE may have lost its record of continual subscription growth during the summer drama.
Jagex wins court case against RuneScape botters
Jagex Games Studio is trumpeting its legal victory against Mark and Eric Snellman. The brothers formed a company called Impulse Software, which now owes Jagex unspecified damages following a two-year legal battle concerning macro and botting tools for the company's RuneScape MMO. The brothers have been muzzled as a result of an injunction, and they are forbidden from discussing Jagex, RuneScape, or the lawsuit. Additionally, the pair must relinquish "all websites, domains, source code and customer details to Jagex along with all the details of all those individuals who have developed scripts for iBOT and sold or re-sold those scripts," according to a company press release. Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard vowed to protect RuneScape users from similar threats in the future. "We have spared no expense fighting this case, as demonstrated by the seven figure bill this action has cost, but the point of this and other cases of its kind is that we will continue bring to justice those who set out to harm the game or our beloved community. We are delighted to say that we have convincingly neutered them after a very long battle," he said. Jagex also says that its "Bot Nuke" operation, which began in October and includes a suite of code obfuscation tools, has rendered 98% of RuneScape bots obsolete. [Source: Jagex press release]
Jagex reveals Transformers Universe, gears up for BotCon
The upcoming Transformers MMO from Jagex officially has a name. Transformers Universe also sports a new official website, and we encourage you to head over and sign up for the game's newsletter if Autobots and Decepticons are your thing. Transformers Universe will be a browser-based free-to-play MMO, and the scuttlebutt surrounding the project seems to indicate a planned launch sometime in 2012. Jagex, maker of the long-running RuneScape browser game, has just pushed out a press release featuring the name reveal as well as some info relating to BotCon (the official Transformers fan convention). Jagex will be of course be pimping its new ride at the con (which runs from June 3rd to June 5th in Pasadena, California) and promises that visitors "will be the first to see the graphical style and direction for the game."
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.
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 gets RuneScape fraudster arrested in the UK
For quite some time now cheating in an MMO generally only carried with it the repercussion of a virtual slap on the hand. Fake someone out of an item or two, and a GM might intervene, take the stuff and suspend your account. Do something against the terms of service and generally speaking, one might get an account ban. For many farmers and internet fraudsters, this really didn't seem to be much of a deterrent. Just start up a new account and off you go again, taking virtual items, breaking TOS/EULAs, or bilking people for money. Well, that is until now. According to CasualGaming.biz Jagex Games Studio, not content to simply run the cheaters out of RuneScape, actually managed to successfully work with the Police Central e-Crime Unit in the UK to run down an online thief in the real world. The 23-year-old man was reportedly tied to a recent rash of account phishing scams according to an investigation, for which he was arrested. Furthermore, Jagex says that not only are they working with the PCeU overseas, but also with the FBI in the United States. Whether or not other MMO companies will follow this lead and start to chase down the Internet fraudsters plaguing their games for prosecution remains to be seen, but it's definitely worth reading the entire story for Jagex's side of things. [Via PlayNoEvil]
