Tag: Jagex

Diaries From RuneScape: Old School Mobile Beta


I went into Old School RuneScape’s mobile beta with two questions in mind: How well this game would run on my Google Pixel (original, non XL), how well it would perform in my office which is a lead-wrapped dead zone, and how many seconds it would take my Pixel to be drained of its battery. Sorry, make that three questions.

The answer is surprisingly well on all accounts. I didn’t have much reason to doubt that my Pixel could run RuneScape at a good framerate, although I will never underestimate the ability for phones to mess up running the kind of software that computers of 10 years ago could pull off without a hitch. The game equally performed well in an area where Youtube videos regularly have trouble loading (thank you Cricket), and ultimately it drained by battery only slightly less quickly than I assumed it would.

Mobile Old School answers the demand for when you still want to play RuneScape uninhibited by having to go to work, school, or other obligations. It’s honestly the perfect game to port over to mobile, considering 80% of the leveling in the game is best played while having something else do to and not looking at the screen. Jagex designed the user interface from the ground up, and it makes intuitive use of the touch screen controls in order to present a game that is not horrible to play over a long period of time.

I was afraid that the awkward finger tapping controls of your average phone game would compound the already slightly awkward controls of RuneScape, but Jagex has managed to pull off a rather smooth system. Many actions in the game are notably slower than their PC counterpart, especially anything that would require you to right click (hold your finger on screen), but OSRS compensates making it rather easy to right click NPCs even when they are moving. Clicking anything while your character is running can be a chore, but then again I find it equally a chore to do so in the full version.

The only parts of Old School RuneScape Mobile that I didn’t like were factors that ultimately have nothing to do with the phone itself. Tapping the screen with my fingers is responsive, but everyone’s fingers become fat sausage links when you’re dealing with a game that tiles its buttons on what feels like a 10×10 pixel radius. There’s also the matter of battery, which RuneScape just ate a percentage of in the time it took me to write this previous sentence. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the fact that cell phone batteries these days just suck, and if you’re the kind of person that wants to game on their phone or do anything more taxing than idling, and doesn’t carry around a battery pack, I unfortunately can’t help you.

Thankfully Old School RuneScape Mobile uses the same accounts, same characters, same servers as its desktop version, so when you get home and you’re ready to play on the big screen, you’ll be able to transition without a hitch.

[Video] RuneScape: Meet Darren


This week Jagex released the latest trailer for RuneScape, introducing players to Darren, an adventurer who learns that you can’t just start off fighting three headed dragons.

“Anybody who has played RuneScape over the years will know that seizing adventure with both hands will take them on a journey across the game world, whether that’s battling three-headed dragons, sailing the seas of The Eastern Lands, or even interacting with the gods themselves. The new trailer introduces players to Darren as he begins his own adventure to smite King Black Dragon and make great friends along the way.”

The new trailer coincides with a promotional partnership with Twitch Prime. Prime members can redeem a RuneScape package this month containing one free month of membership, Umbral armor, a flame blade weapon, a companion pet, two umbral chests (loot boxes), and 15 treasure keys and 200 runecoins (cash shop currency). You’ll need to link your Twitch Prime account to your RuneScape account, this promotion runs until September 19.

All weapons/armor given as part of the promotion are cosmetic overrides.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Wants To Publish Your Indie Games


Gamesindustry.biz is holding its Investment Summit in September, and RuneScape developer Jagex will be there to seek out new publishing opportunities. After announcing last year that the company is seeking to publish more independent titles, Jagex will join a list of publishers and investors including Nintendo, Sega, Fig, Humble Bundle, and others to give speeches, have lunch, and hopefully close some deals between big name publishers and indie developers.

 “Our participation is an important part of the third age of Jagex as we look to support studios and development talent by opening our live game publishing services to studios seeking success in the living games market.”
-James Burns, Jagex

For more information on the event, check out the link below.

(Source: GI.biz)

Diaries From RuneScape: Let’s Talk About Rune Pass


Now for the record before we begin: I bought the Runepass with my own money, this is not a sponsored post nor was the thought ever proposed by Jagex.

My game time credentials in RuneScape are such; I have played RuneScape since 2004 pretty much nonstop, my account has more than 187 days of pure game time invested and I’m willing to be that I’ve easily put over a grand in real life dollarydoos through a combined cash shop purchases and the fact that my membership has literally not lapsed since March 2005 and still has me grandfathered in at the $5/month rate. Knowing this, it probably shouldn’t surprise you that I dropped the $10 on the Runepass almost immediately.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that RuneScape’s Runepass didn’t disappoint me in the slightest. There have been a lot of comparisons of this pass to ones sold in Fortnite, in PUBG more recently, and in games like Counter Strike: GO and Dota 2. If you compare Runepass to other games, it’s a terrible value proposition. Fortnite’s battle pass costs $10 and each season runs for about two months where as RuneScape’s first pass costs $10 and gives you approximately 15 days to complete 30 tiers. In Fortnite from my understanding you can generally accumulate enough v-bucks to essentially buy the next season pass, in RuneScape you get jack all in terms of existing content. In Counter Strike: GO, the items you obtain from passes can actually be sold on the market and used to buy more games on Steam. Here? Don’t even think about it.

On the subject of Dailyscape: Dailyscape is the lovingly applicable name given to RuneScape by players concerned that the game has become heavily reliant on daily tasks and while Runepass does contribute to Dailyscape, I’m willing to argue that it does so at a much lesser degree than previous events. This is RuneScape we’re talking about, so ultimately most stuff is going to come down to a grind. As someone who quit the previous three treasure hunter events because the gain of currency was stupidly slow.

This time around the point gain isn’t excruciating. The daily repeatable task has been gaining experience, starting at 10,000 then 100,000 and increasing from there. Daily pass tasks are simple things like cut 50 logs, mine 50 ore, etc. It’s the kind of stuff that you can complete in the matter of a few minutes by going for the low level and thus easy to mass-produce resources.

To put it into perspective, if you completed both weekly tasks: Complete 5 slayer tasks and harvest 50 times from farming patches which take no time at all, you’re five levels deep. There were 28 daily tasks that stacked (meaning you didn’t have to log in every day to complete them) and individually might take at most ten minutes to complete. That’s 140 points, or another 14 levels, and you’re up to 19 levels. This leaves 11 levels to be gained via experience which can likely be done by playing an average of an hour or so a day.

On the subject of MTX: On the subject of real money economy, Jagex has stated that the aim for this is that if Runepass is successful on the non-public level that they are aiming for, that it will lead to less Treasure Hunter promotions.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Jagex has the same relationship with promises and timelines as, well as I do. Jagex makes a lot of promises, a lot of those go unfulfilled. When it comes to money, especially, Jagex has not followed up on a lot of promises in the past. Let’s not forget that most of RuneScape’s microtransactions go directly against some promise that Jagex has made in the past in one form or another regarding what players can and cannot buy.

On the subject of rewards: On the subject of rewards, for $10 the Runepass rewards are rather…crap. A small handful of untradeable cosmetics and a bunch of untradeable experience items. And if you’re a maxed player who doesn’t much care for the ocean theme? There’s nothing for you here. I’d like to see Jagex put better rewards in future Runepasses considering this is something they expect players to throw $10 in for on a semi regular basis.

Give something good as a reward, to at least give the impression that people are getting their dollar’s worth. Throw in some rare tokens, some runecoins, something.

In Conclusion: Again, it’s hard to pass final judgement since this is effectively a pilot program and a lot of it depends on how Jagex treats its other microtransaction promotions going forward. If Runepass proves successful and they ease up on the other promotions as a result, all the better. If they double down on both, then we have a problem. But Jagex does need to have some sort of perspective on price and quality. If they’re going to charge the same amount that other games do, they can’t offer a fraction of the duration and rewards.

This Week’s Update Killed Old School RuneScape’s Economy, So Jagex Rolled It Back


Old School RuneScape is reeling from a massive bug that resulted in the servers being taken offline for a few hours and, in an unprecedented move, Jagex rolling characters back to pre-update. An unfortunate oversight in this week’s update allowed players to turn various items into fat stacks of cash upon death. As you can imagine, Jagex didn’t want players generating coins in the billions out of thin air and out of concern for the integrity of the game, they delivered a quick Vulcan nerve pinch and brought the servers offline so the bug could be fixed.

When converting a stack of items into a stack of coins, it’s appropriate to check that the calculation doesn’t overflow the max integer limit of the game’s language (2.1 billion). Unfortunately, the logic used for this calculation was incorrect, and when executed on stacks of other items (not the pouch itself) the result was to convert the stack to 2.1b coins. Regrettably, although the pouches were found to be acting correctly during testing, the flaw affecting other items was not spotted as it was not expected to have changed.

Unfortunately MMO Fallout investigations have discovered evidence that Jagex didn’t so much reverse the update as much as it did transport all of us to a timeline where the bug never happened, and all of us happened to conveniently disappear around the same time. Keep an eye out for doppelgangers.

(Source: RuneScape)

Old School RuneScape Mobile Hits Open Beta


Old School RuneScape has officially hit open beta on Android devices and every member will get their chance to play. Following a successful first day, Jagex today has allowed an additional 250,000 members in with increasing access over the next couple of weeks. With the full launch later this year, including release on iOS devices, players will be able to get their grind on no matter their location (so long as they have cell service).

Also important to note is that the beta is not a segregated part of the game, and players will be on the live servers with their live characters.

(Source: Jagex Press Release)

RuneScape: Jagex Unveils Ocean’s Bounty


This week’s RuneScape update is Runepass, a limited time event running from July 2 to July 15. Ocean’s Bounty gives players a set of daily tasks that can be completed to level up the pass and gain more rewards. The pass has two tiers, one for free and one that is purchased for 400 Runecoins (approximately $10 USD or three bonds at 195 coins each). Those who have not purchased Runepass will have access to two tasks, one daily repeatable task and a weekly task with longer requirements for completion, while those who do buy the pass will have access to two additional daily tasks as well as the bulk of the rewards.

The Runepass appears to be Jagex’s answer to the Battle Passes that have become popular in games like Fortnite over the past few months.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex To Shut Down RuneScape Classic


After seventeen years of existence, Jagex today made the surprising announcement that its flagship title RuneScape Classic will shut down over the next few months.

Posted on the official website, Jagex’s explanation for the sunset is related to advancing technology making it more difficult to properly police the game of macros and for community safety. Over time the game has gradually broken down and Jagex is unable to fix them or promise any sort of reliable long term support.

RuneScape Classic has not been officially supported for about 14 years now and hasn’t been open to the general public for most of that time. There have been several periods where Jagex opened up account creation to the public, however the game has been mostly closed off to those who weren’t already playing for most of the last decade.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Will Shut Down FunOrb In August


It’s been eight years since Jagex ceased development of FunOrb, and the developer this week announced that the service will be coming to an end later this year. The decision, according to the announcement, comes down to changes in hardware and software leading to FunOrb’s library of games becoming increasingly difficult to access.

Over the next 3 months we’ll be slowly winding down FunOrb. After 8th of May 2018 it will no longer be possible to purchase new FunOrb membership, and after 14th of May 2018 it will not be possible to create new FunOrb accounts. However, we’re not turning the lights out just yet. To make sure that everyone has a chance to enjoy these games one last time, we’ll be keeping the servers online until 7th of August 2018.

Membership will cease to renew after May 8, and players with combined memberships with RuneScape will need to choose a new membership option. FunOrb was launched in 2008 as a mini-game portal and remained active for nearly two years until Jagex ceased development of new titles in early 2010. The website has remained in maintenance mode since then.

(Source: FunOrb)

Additional fun fact: I ran one of the two main FunOrb fan websites, solidified in carbon here.

RuneScape Finally Gets Around To Cleaning Up Edgeville


If you follow RuneScape like I do, then you know that things take a lot of time to progress in the world of Gielinor, with Jagex just recently finishing up quest lines that have been in progress for over a decade with others that still haven’t seen a conclusion. In the case of Edgeville, parts of the town were blown up at the conclusion of the quest Ritual of the Mahjarrat, where the Dragonkin go on a rampage, burn a couple buildings down, and kill a few people.

Ritual of the Mahjarrat released over six and a half years ago, back in September 2011, and the town has remained smoldering ever since. Now you finally have a chance to get in and scrub up, repair the buildings burnt down, and clean up the skeleton of the poor guy who got roasted seven years ago and nobody bothered cleaning up. As a reward, you can look forward to a heaping helping of experience in various skills.

(Source: RuneScape)