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First Impressions of RuneScape 3 from a returning player
Over a decade ago, two brothers working out of their parents' house in Nottingham set themselves the impossible task of building their own graphical multi-user dungeon, a genre that later evolved into the MMOs we know today. RuneScape launched to the public in 2001 as a low-res browser game with only a few hundred players and 2-D sprites for monsters, but several years later it boasted over a million paying monthly subscribers. The 2007 Sunday Times Rich List even estimated the Gower brothers' business empire to be worth over £113,000,000, due almost entirely to RuneScape. The secret behind RuneScape's success is that it's been continually updated throughout its lifetime, not just with regular infusions of new content but also with several major graphical and gameplay overhauls. The game was recently reincarnated as RuneScape 3, which is as far as it gets from the primitive game many of us grew up with. It now boasts a visually improved HTML 5 client with graphics acceleration, orchestral music, some voice-acted quests with cutscenes, and a fully customisable UI. This combines with last year's Evolution of Combat update and over a decade of new quests and zones to produce an MMO with more depth and character than many other AAA titles. In this hands-on opinion piece, I put RuneScape's three major versions side by side and look at how far RuneScape 3 has come since those early days of punching 2-D goblins and mining for fish.
Jagex announces RuneScape 3 for summer 2013
Jagex has announced Runescape 3! A "significant improvement on all fronts," building on the last 12 years of the original game's development and history, RuneScape 3 looks as if it's following in the footsteps of RuneScape 2 by improving on the existing game rather than serving as a standalone title. RuneScape 3 won't require players to create a new account. Players will simply keep using the same avatars they always have. The game will take advantage of the HTML5 engine and web GL to run faster, look better, and suck players in even more deeply, though folks running with older computers will still be able to use the old Java client if they prefer. Jagex is promising more details in the coming weeks. Skip below the cut to check out the announcement video.
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.
The Game Archaeologist and the Forbidden RuneScape: Words with Paul Gower
The Game Archaeologist is a lazy adventurer-slash-professor who dons his trademark cap for a weekly expedition through some of the most famous MMOs of the past few decades. Each month he chooses a different title to examine its highlights, talk with its developers, and invite its fans to share their experiences. Some of you may be old enough to remember comedian Rodney Dangerfield's classic line, "I don't get no respect!" Double negatives aside, Dangerfield's catchphrase resonated with many people -- perhaps even the team behind RuneScape. Despite being one of the most popular MMOs in the world, it's battled a perception of being "that" MMO that's not quite a full-fledged member of the Big Boy's Club. Lord knows that browser-based titles have struggled against such negativity ever since their inception, and RuneScape is no different. But as I stated last week, perhaps it's high time we get over our exclusion of RuneScape from the discussion whenever MMOs are brought up and start giving the game its due. My inbox's spent a busy week receiving all manner of testimonies about RuneScape, and I saw a common theme of fondness for what was many players' first MMO. Next week I'll let these testimonies out of Pandora's Box (if you haven't already, send me your own RuneScape story via email!), but today I've invited Paul Gower, one of RuneScape's founders, to share his perspective on making and running a gaming phenomenon. Hit the jump to level up!
The Game Archaeologist and the Forbidden RuneScape: The highlights
The Game Archaeologist is a lazy adventurer-slash-professor who dons his trademark cap for a weekly expedition through some of the most famous MMOs of the past few decades. Each month he chooses a different title to examine its highlights, talk with its developers, and invite its fans to share their experiences. I don't know about you, but when I first heard of RuneScape a few years back, it was sold to me as "the poor person's World of Warcraft." In fact, I knew several teens who couldn't afford a monthly WoW subscription and had to "make do" with RuneScape as an alternative, and so I mentally filtered the title as being outside of my sphere of interest and moved on with my life. That was when I started to crochet. All adventurers should know how to crochet as a survival trait. In retrospect, I should've ignored the stigma and checked it out for myself, because while the above may be true for some, RuneScape deserved a lot better than to be blown off by a dismissive comment. No matter how some have pigeon-holed it as being less than worthy of proper MMO status, RuneScape is a behemoth of a game in both size, features and playerbase. In fact, as of right now, RuneScape holds the #2 spot for players, boasting a population well into the eight digits. So as of this month, we shall endeavor to put away any ignorant stances as we explore one of the most popular and longest-running MMOs of our time. Join me after the jump as I share RuneScape's greatest highlights -- and exactly why none of us should underestimate this game again.
