Tag: Runescape

Jagex Previews New Armor


Ever since Jagex launched the High Definition RuneScape a few years back, many of the game’s assets have fallen behind in terms of visual quality. Over the past few months, Jagex have been slowly upgrading the more popular equipment sets, and this month (possibly this week) the developer is set to release upgraded versions of over two hundred pieces of equipment.

You can preview a few of the armor updates in the link below, the update itself should be going live as soon as this week.

(Source: RuneScape Forums)

Jagex: Balancing Amazing Prizes With…Well, Amazing Prizes


In order to balance the circulation of powerful items, many MMOs use what is known as either Bind on Equip or Bind On Pickup. The former allows you to trade the equipment, provided you haven’t used it yet. The latter renders the item unable to be traded once you pick it up, making the item vendor trash if you don’t meet the class restrictions or already have better gear.

For a game like RuneScape, bind on pickup is mostly nonexistent outside of quest-related items, as well as certain sets of items that decay over time. In today’s update, Jagex implemented a daily spinner game that can be played for gold, resources, and even powerful weapons/armor. Squeal of Fortune costs nothing to play and can be played once (twice for members) each day.

So how does a company balance the idea of potentially injecting a mass of free high level gear into the game? Simple, my dear Watson. High level equipment obtained through this mini-game is branded “lucky,” and cannot be traded to other players, or even dropped through the standard death mechanics. If you die with it, however (skulled, losing everything on death) it will be destroyed and irretrievable.

Granted, there is the issue of Jagex’s big traded prize: 10 million gold. I have faith that Jagex is ensuring that the ten million gold isn’t achieved too much.

Jagex Hires David Solari As Chief Marketing Officer


Jagex today announced the hiring of David Solari as the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer. David Solari is the former Vice President of Codemasters, where he oversaw the release of Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Archlord, and RF Online. At Jagex, Solari will take over and oversee all Jagex marketing activities.

According to the press report, Jagex sees 2012 as “scheduled to be one of the most significant years in the studio’s history.” Jagex currently has three MMOs, Stellar Dawn, 8Realms, and Transformers Online, scheduled for release this year, as well as the continued maintenance and weekly updating of the company’s current staple: RuneScape.

David Solari’s effect on Jagex’s marketing is sure to be seen in the coming months.

(Source: Jagex email press release)

Limited 14 Day RuneScape Members Trial


[UPDATE: THE TRIAL APPEARS TO BE UP AND RUNNING AGAIN, CLICK HERE]

Earlier this month, I talked about how now that Jagex has rid the game of the more troublesome bots, a limited members trial sounds far more feasible. After all, while the free version of RuneScape offers an overwhelming amount of content, the two games are segregated at a level where a subscription should be experienced rather than teased. Granted, I didn’t think Jagex would already have had something in the works.

While there hasn’t been an official announcement, players are reporting that newly created free accounts are being offered 14 days free membership with certain limitations. The details right now are foggy, given most of my information is coming from questionable sources, but the trial appears to be limited to new accounts only, and the trial may be region-restricted. My sources in the UK were the only ones to receive the below message upon creating a new account, while those in US, Canada, and Germany were unable to.

Today is Sunday, so it is possible that Jagex will have some sort of formal announcement this week. For now, however, the trial doesn’t seem to be fully rolled out.

RuneScape: Members Trial Much More Likely


If you had asked me one year ago if RuneScape should have a members trial, I might have said no. Not that such a program wouldn’t be beneficial, but that the rampant amount of cheaters that plagued the game at the time would use the opportunity for free membership, no matter how short, to bot more valuable members items and upend the economy even more. Now that the bots are no longer an issue, there isn’t much of a reason not to allow free players to experience membership.

Not to say that RuneScape’s free version is low quality, but the skills accessible to free players are (for the most part) a far cry from the variety offered in membership. Of the twenty five skills, free players can access sixteen. Seven of those skills are combat related (Attack, strength, defense, constitution, magic, ranged, and prayer). Of the remaining nine, three (woodcutting, fishing, mining) are basic harvesting skills, five (runecrafting, crafting, firemaking, smithing, cooking) are processing skills that revolve around taking raw materials to a place and using them on a thing to create finished stuff, with Dungeoneering bringing up the rear as a combination of all of the above in a secluded area.

Members, on the other hand, is quite a different game to its free to play brother. Weapons and equipment sets with special effects add a whole new level of strategy to combat, as do potions, poisons, curses, new magic books. Skills like summoning can dramatically alter a person’s experience from combat to simple resource gathering. Farming requires time management and mobility while slayer introduces the player to combat that requires more strategy than fight, fight, eat food, kill.

In 2010, Jagex did attempt a membership trial for a week in July, but the program was bogged down by a few unfriendly details. Players were required to submit credit card details, which was charged for $5.95 and set the player up with an automatically recurring subscription. Only if the player unsubscribed during those seven days would the deposit be refunded.

To Jagex’s defense, and as I’ve already said, an unrestricted membership trial at the time would have upended the RuneScape economy table, riddling the members worlds with even more bots than were already present. With the bots absent, there isn’t much reason for Jagex to not offer a taste of membership to free players.

Other than that I have no opinion.

Jagex Unveils ‘Optimus’ Anti-Bot Technology


I don’t think I’ve used that screenshot in almost two years. Last October, Jagex accomplished what many of us had thought to be impossible: busted a grand majority of the bots in RuneScape in one single move known today as Bot Nuke Day, or Project Clusterfutterer. The update demolished reflection and injection bots, or 98% of the bot community according to Jagex’s estimations, and has proven to be successful enough that 40% of the player base was banned within the following month.

On the main RuneScape website, Jagex is enjoying their recent major victory over a major bot writer in a recently settled case, and they announced plans for even more bot eradication, this time focusing on the more basic bots that auto-click or search the screen for specific colors.

We remain committed to our ongoing work to ensure that the successes of Bot Nuke Day are never undone by staying a few steps ahead in the arms race with the remaining bot developers and gold farmers. We’re already well underway with our next generation of anti-botting software called Optimus, which is going to be released shortly, and we’re also currently developing ways to remove the remaining screen-scraper bots from the game. We’ll also be continuing to fight gold-farmers on every front.

Jagex has done quite a bit over the past months to completely rid their game of cheaters and scam artists, from the bot nuke back in October to the removal of popular gambling tools. With the upcoming Stellar Dawn and Transformers Online, Jagex losing their reputation as saturated with cheaters can only boost the game’s receptions.

Jagex Unveils 'Optimus' Anti-Bot Technology


I don’t think I’ve used that screenshot in almost two years. Last October, Jagex accomplished what many of us had thought to be impossible: busted a grand majority of the bots in RuneScape in one single move known today as Bot Nuke Day, or Project Clusterfutterer. The update demolished reflection and injection bots, or 98% of the bot community according to Jagex’s estimations, and has proven to be successful enough that 40% of the player base was banned within the following month.

On the main RuneScape website, Jagex is enjoying their recent major victory over a major bot writer in a recently settled case, and they announced plans for even more bot eradication, this time focusing on the more basic bots that auto-click or search the screen for specific colors.

We remain committed to our ongoing work to ensure that the successes of Bot Nuke Day are never undone by staying a few steps ahead in the arms race with the remaining bot developers and gold farmers. We’re already well underway with our next generation of anti-botting software called Optimus, which is going to be released shortly, and we’re also currently developing ways to remove the remaining screen-scraper bots from the game. We’ll also be continuing to fight gold-farmers on every front.

Jagex has done quite a bit over the past months to completely rid their game of cheaters and scam artists, from the bot nuke back in October to the removal of popular gambling tools. With the upcoming Stellar Dawn and Transformers Online, Jagex losing their reputation as saturated with cheaters can only boost the game’s receptions.

RuneScape Raising Prices: Grandfathering In Current Subscribers


RuneScape is one of the cheapest subscription MMOs currently on the market. Due to increased costs of production and maintenance, in 2008 Jagex increased the price of RuneScape’s membership from $5 USD to $5.95 USD. Just today, the developer announced another price hike, and it is a rather notable increase (based on the previous price). Monthly subscriptions will be increasing from $5.95 to $7.95 monthly starting February 1st.

In appreciation of our existing members, there will be no change whatsoever to anyone who is a member before the 1st February. The price you pay now will be locked in for as long as you stay a loyal member and we will even allow a seven day grace period should you forget to renew.

Jagex notes this increase in price as due to increased investment into RuneScape over 2011 and planned in 2012. This could be related to the facelift talked about by Kotaku for this year.

Jagex Wins Lawsuit Against Bot Makers


In a measure that will certainly cause more rage-filled comments here at MMO Fallout, Jagex has won their case against bot makers, with some tasty bit of extra information to top it off. In the case of Jagex Vs Impulse Software, the judge ruled in favor of Jagex on counts of copyright infringement under federal law, circumvention of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, trademark infringement under federal law, Computer fraud and abuse under federal law, and Tortious interference with contract (Tortious interference is when your actions damage a company’s relations with customers/business partners).

In addition, the members of Impulse Software are now forbidden by court order to write bots for any Jagex game, help write bots for any Jagex game, and even play any Jagex game, as well as releasing the source code for their bot software. The URL’s will be transferred into Jagex’s possession, as well as a large amount of documents they had relating to the program. In addition, Impulse has been ordered to put out a public apology.

The amount that Impulse is paying to Jagex has been sealed, so how can this news get juicier, I hear you ask. Pay attention to this little snippet:

Within 10 days of the entry of this Order, Defendants shall identify and provide all contact information in their possession to Jagex for all current or past resellers,script developers, code developers, and customers for any product marketed, licensed, or sold by Defendants dealing with any Jagex Game.

The developers and customer list handed over to Jagex? I smell Jagex Vs Jon Doe 2: Electric Boogaloo coming soon to a theater near you.

(Court document)

Gambling In RuneScape: Just Say Neigh To Gambling


Back in November, I discussed a growing problem in RuneScape: Gambling. The introduction of dice brought with it an underground casino-style ring of players setting up shop by the Grand Exchange (RuneScape auction house) and betting on dice rolls. In order to combat the in-game street dice, Jagex removed the item entirely, at the same time making way for the less popular gambling techniques to fight for control of the market. Enter horsing:

Toy horses were introduced by Jagex way back in 2004 on April Fool’s Day joke, as a gag item for players who had asked for horse mounts. The horses can be played with, where they broadcast one of three phrases randomly. In its use in gambling, a player would offer his wager (trade money or items to the house) and place a bet one which one of the three phrases would appear. Then the house would activate the horse, and the player would win or lose depending on what the horse said. As with the dicing, this carried the risk of the house simply walking away with your money, regardless of whether you won or lost.

In a hotfix today, Jagex removed all three of the horse’s phrases, replacing it with one: “Just say neigh to gambling!” On the forums, Mod Emilee posted to announce the change, reminding players that gambling is not supported by Jagex. Players should be alert for scams, especially in a game like RuneScape where Jagex does not return any coins/items stolen even if the scam artist is found guilty and banned.

Still, this doesn’t stop the multiple other gambling methods in RuneScape:

  1. Flower Game: This uses Mithril seeds. The seeds are planted by a player, and grow into a random color. The gambler places a bet on which color he thinks will sprout.
  2. Dungeoneering Cape: The dungeoneering cape, which can be bought by players at 99 dungeoneering, selects one of three emotes randomly. The gambler bets on which emote will appear. Unlike the other gambling methods, this can be rigged to produce a specific outcome every time. This is also far less prevalent, as it requires over thirteen million experience in Dungeoneering to obtain the cape.
  3. Seal Emote: The “Seal of Approval” emote from RuneScape’s Christmas events. When used, the player turns into a seal with a backpack displaying a random number between 1 and 6. The gambler bets on which number will appear.
  4. Christmas Wand: I may be completely off on this, but this one appears to be based on the holiday item. Using it on another player throws either a Christmas pudding, a bauble, or a snowball, randomly. The player bets on which will be thrown.
  5. Classic Cape: In this method, the Classic Cape generates one of three emotes, and the gambler bets on which one will appear. This is much less prevalent, because the cape can only be obtained by players who have access to RuneScape Classic. In 2005, Classic shut down to new accounts. Since then, Jagex had opened the game up to new players on multiple occasions, with the last event in September last year to be the last ever. Now Classic is only accessible by those who had played it at one point.

These are just the gambling methods I discovered after about fifteen minutes of searching, so no doubt more exist. Jagex is going to have a long fight on their hands to get rid of every easy form of gambling available to players.

(Source: RuneScape forums)

(From MMO Fallout: