RuneScape

RuneScape
Studio	Jagex Games Studio
Publisher	Jagex Games Studio
Senior Developer	Andrew Gower Paul Gower Constant Tedder
Erstveröffent- lichung	January 4, 2001
platform	Windows , macOS , Linux , Android , iOS
genre	MMORPG
Subject	Fantasy
Game mode	Multiplayer
control	Keyboard & mouse
medium	Download
language	English German French Portuguese

RuneScape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) from Jagex . The plot of the game is set in a pseudo-medieval fantasy world. The formerly free browser game now follows the business model of other MMORPGs that are financed through monthly memberships. It's still free to access, but most of the game world, most adventures, some of the skills, an ad-free game environment, and much more are reserved for paying members. There is also the option of buying various items or game currency for real money in the game. This can be done in two ways. On the one hand by buying bonds, which can be sold in the game with gold, or on various online sites that sell gold and various items despite the prohibition by the terms and conditions. The prices of the online providers are currently around 20–40% more profitable.

RuneScape is one of the most popular online games and has been included in the Guinness Book of Records five times . The world that RuneScape trades in is called Gielinor . Numerous monsters that can be found on Gielinor originate from the mythology of different peoples.

history

From 1998 Andrew Gower, Paul Gower and Constant Tedder developed out of the so-called Devious MUD the 2D - online game RuneScape in Java . To promote the game, the developers put it on the Miniclip website , which offers various Internet games. A community of around 300,000 members from all over the world quickly developed . Updates to RuneScape came weekly , and the visuals improved over time. In 2001, a paid version of the game was released by Jagex , but the free version remained. In 2004 a graphically improved version of the game was developed, the old version has since been referred to as "RuneScape Classic" and is still available to some of the paying players.

To prevent the sale of RuneScape Gold and items for real money, Jagex made significant changes in January 2008 to player battles in the wild and free trade in the game.

In July 2008, RuneScape HD was introduced as a new version with significantly improved graphics with full screen mode, textures and shadows. Also in July 2008, TS Church's "Betrayal at Falador" was the first RuneScape novel to be published, followed by two more in 2011 with "Return to Canifis" and in 2012 with "Legacy of Blood". These books were written in English and have not been translated into any other languages. There are also no plans to translate these or write a sequel.

Player Numbers

According to the numbers from MMOdata, Runescape reached over 1.2 million paying members in late 2007 - before the launch of Runescape HD - while the number of members has since fallen to well below 1 million, putting it behind World of Warcraft , Aion and Star Wars : The Old Republic ranks 4th. In November 2012 the membership was more than 3.1 million, but new players got free membership at that time.

The number of active accounts has long been around 10 million and is cited as evidence of its popularity as a free-access game, but in the course of 2011, over nine million accounts, the majority of active free accounts were blocked for bot abuse. On the so-called "Bot Nuke Day", 7.7 million accounts were blocked in just one day.

In mid-2012, 200 million players had registered on RuneScape. Since then, more than 50 million additional accounts have been added.

The number of members has now stabilized at around 500,000–600,000 players, after having fallen below 500,000 in some cases in 2013.

Versions in other languages

In the meantime there are four different language versions that were gradually published.

German version

From March 7, 2007, RuneScape was available in German as an open beta version, which, however, could initially only be tested by a few selected German-speaking players. A few months later, both the free and paid versions were made available to the public.

Other versions

The German version was not the only RuneScape version in a different language. A French version of RuneScape was published at the end of 2008. Just a year later, in 2009, the Portuguese version of the game followed. The Spanish (Latin American) translation was not published until June 1, 2013. Jagex seems to have decided to support these versions less than the English version. For example, since September 2012 there is no longer a German account manager. On October 22, 2014, Jagex announced that the Spanish version would go offline this November.

Game flow

At the beginning, the user has to create an account and a player character with which he can then log into the virtual fantasy world. The basics of the game are taught in an introductory tutorial . This changed the years several times and is no longer an obligation. As of December 2017, an account can be created and played within 15 seconds (if you have already downloaded the game client). After that, a part of the game world is open to the player to move freely, there is no fixed game goal and no predetermined course of action. The focus is on the further development of the character, which is expressed in various skills. On the one hand, these are combat-related skills such as hand-to-hand combat or defense, and on the other hand, the player can earn (play) money through activities such as fishing, hunting or mining ore, which is needed to buy equipment and items. The higher the level in a certain skill, the more valuable items can be created or more valuable ores can be mined and then traded with other players. Fulfilling tasks (so-called quests ) and killing monsters are further main components of the game. In addition, it is possible for players to assert themselves against other players in the so-called duel arena or in special combat worlds (PvP worlds) to fight them.

Adventure (quests)

Adventures are genre-typical tasks that you get and have to fulfill from an NPC . For this, depending on the adventure, you are rewarded with experience, objects, access to new areas or new skills. It is not possible to definitively fail an adventure; A game character can die in the course of an adventure and lose the items he was carrying, but there is always the possibility of bringing the adventure to an end later.

So far (as of July 2012) there are 183 adventures and several new ones are added every year, but only a small part of them is open to the public. Most adventures have certain requirements. Game characters who are unilaterally focused only on combat or only on other skills quickly reach their limits.

The adventures are grouped into different narrative threads, each of which reveals parts of the history of the countries and peoples of Runescapes. A number of them deal with the history of the dwarves, others lead into the worlds of goblins, trolls or elves. Although there is no fixed order of the adventures as a whole, these narrative threads make numerous interdependencies between the adventures. A large number of other adventures is usually a prerequisite for the difficult grandmaster adventures in particular.

Skills

There are 27 skills, there are 99 levels per skill and a maximum of 200,000,000 experience points that the player can achieve. Exceptions, however, are dungeon lore, inventions and berserkers with a maximum level of 120. This leads to a maximum overall level of 2736 (24 times level 99 plus three times level 120).

The skills are divided into four groups: Combat, Extraction, Processing and Independent.

Combat skills include attack, strength, defense, magic, ranged combat, prayer, life, and summoning. From these combat skills, a generic value is also determined, which shows the relative combat strength of the player for all to see, the combat level. This can be between levels 3 and 138. It is on the part of the developer company Jagex Ltd. not published how this mean is calculated. Mapping the life points, referred to as hitpoints in English, using a skill is also a specialty of RuneScape in the MMORPG world.

The gathering skills allow the player to gain resources. These include mining, logging, agriculture, hunting, fishing, theft and mysticism.

The artisan skills with which the player can process raw materials into useful items are forging, handicrafts, cooking, architecture, botany, rune-making and fletching.

The independent skills include sparking, dexterity, berserking and, since 2008, summoning.

Dungeon science is a skill above all previous ones, as you need some of the skills you already have in the individual levels. B. open the locks of a door with the help of theft, plant food or drive away evil beings with the help of prayer. Due to the fact that there are also monsters in the various dungeons, a high skill level in the combat skills makes exploring easier.

Mini-games

Mini-games are variety in the game. There are both combat-based ones, in which you have to compete against monsters or other players, or peaceful, in which you have to collect things, for example. In these mini-games, it is often the case that there are two different teams competing against each other. There are special rewards, for example, in several combat-based mini-games you can get hybrid armor that requires level 85 in defense.

Fight monsters

There are numerous monsters on RuneScape that have different combat levels. As a rule, monsters with a higher combat level are also more difficult to defeat.

Boss monsters are monsters that have a particularly high combat level and special attacks. Jagex has been putting more emphasis on releasing boss monsters lately. For example, with the adventure Shadows over Ashdale, the first boss that can be defeated by free players was published. It wasn't until August 2013 that the most difficult boss on Gielinor was released: Vorago, who can only be defeated in a relatively large group of players. The newest boss is Araxxor, which was released in July 2014.

Updates

Jagex regularly brings out new updates. Most of these consist of improvements and minor revisions, but adventures, mini-games and the like are also released. Relevant updates are announced at the beginning of each month in a "behind the scenes" article and in a video.

Festive events

So-called "festival events" are held on official holidays as follows:

Christmas (since 2001)
Easter (since 2002)
Thanksgiving (since 2008)
Halloween (since 2001)

However, for some time now it has no longer been mandatory that these festive events take place or have something to do with these "festive days". At Easter 2014, for example, instead of an event suitable for this holiday, a fun fight between two RuneScape gods was staged.

These holiday events are usually only available in the game for a few weeks.

Skills

While new skills were introduced once or several times a year at the beginning, only four skills were added after 2006: Dungeon Studies, Summoning, Mysticism and Invention. The newest skill, Invention, appeared on January 25, 2016. Thus it is now possible to use the energies gained from the "Mysticism" skill.

Mini-games / mini-games

Jagex often turns to the development and revision of mini-games, for example the mini-game "The Exterminator" was improved in July 2014 and the mini-game "The Coup" was published in February of the same year. In addition, the mini-games are divided into “safe” and “dangerous” mini-games. In safe mini-games you keep your items after death, but in dangerous mini-games you lose them.

World events

Lately, Jagex has placed more emphasis on events that are supposed to connect the communities and have large dimensions. The first world event started on June 22, 2013 as part of the release of RuneScape3. During this world event, the two main gods Saradomin and Zamorak fought against each other. In this confrontation, Zamorak lost and had to flee. The 2nd World Event followed from December 2013 to January 2014, in which two gods fought against each other again. At this event, Bandos lost to Armadyl and died.

Updates

In 2014 Jagex released several new versions of the program, including five new adventures and a new mini-game. It is planned that in September 2014 ^[obsolete] the elf city will be published, which will be one of the three largest cities on Gielinor. It should consist of 8 districts and, because of its size, will be published in two different steps. Another new version of 2014 should be the release of the retro mode. This is similar to being in RuneScape as it was before the evolution of combat. The retro mode beta was open from June 16 to July 14, 2014 and had five worlds that could each hold 2000 players. Retro mode was released on July 14, 2014. There are several English worlds on which only the retro mode can be played, but on most of the retro mode and the Edk run in parallel. Nothing has changed in the three German worlds, they are still playable for players who use the Edk as well as for retro users.