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Runescape. What the fuck is going on.
TurnpikeLad
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What's up with this game? I've never seen anything like it. It came out in 2001 and since then has gained subscribers, first slowly and then at an exponential rate. Right now, it has around six million active players and one million paying accounts. Walk into a public library and there you will see a legion of 11 to 14 year olds engrossed in this game.
As far as I can tell the game is crap. It's an utter (one might say anachronistically, Korean-style) grindfest dressed up in late 90s homebrew graphics. Character models have around 50 polygons, no textures and ugly colors, and the landscape is made of Legos. Everyone I've heard from who's played it thinks it's interminable and is annoyed by the limited gameplay and endless grinding. Yet its numbers keep appreciating. More new players joined this year than last.
Is it because the base game is free? Maybe, but there are many other free MMOGs around, some of them amazingly charming and enjoyable. Also, a million paying subscribers is an incredible number in and of itself. There must be some charm to it that I'll never understand.
As far as I can tell the game is crap. It's an utter (one might say anachronistically, Korean-style) grindfest dressed up in late 90s homebrew graphics. Character models have around 50 polygons, no textures and ugly colors, and the landscape is made of Legos. Everyone I've heard from who's played it thinks it's interminable and is annoyed by the limited gameplay and endless grinding. Yet its numbers keep appreciating. More new players joined this year than last.
Is it because the base game is free? Maybe, but there are many other free MMOGs around, some of them amazingly charming and enjoyable. Also, a million paying subscribers is an incredible number in and of itself. There must be some charm to it that I'll never understand.
TurnpikeLad on
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God dammit.
i mean, it's free, there's no download, and you can pretty much make a character and go
not to mention the fact that it allows you to play with friends
that made it ideal for playing in school
we had a computer class that was way too easy, all of my friends would finish days ahead of time, then bam pop open runescape and get to killing
it's no more a grindfest than WoW really.
i actually used to be a member because for 5 dollars a month it wasn't bad
Anyway, I've convinced him not to and I'm furthering my improving his videogame taste which for the most part is good, he just has some friends with awful [or lack of] taste.
WoW has really opened up the market, though. A few games released a long time ago are skyrocketing into millions of subscribers. Dofus is a good example - a simple, flash-based MMOG that hovered at 100,000 subscribers for a few years and then took off. So I guess I can understand a bit.
Heck, Barbie World has 4,000,000 users.
But neertheless, most of the other free MMOGs I can see how they might become popular. I just can't understand Runescape. Maybe it's just that you can play it from any computer anywhere without installing.
"AGH!"
***Runs to Exit Door***
"Aghhhhhhh!"
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like i said, that's pretty much exactly it
it's a semi decent MMO when you get into it
and more importantly you don't have to have a 600 gig install it's "so you have java installed then? great lets get playing" all of our schools computers had it already, and they didn't exactly encourage us to install games on our student drives
in fact i almost got banned from computers for installing WoW
it's also a good game for people who are just starting to play games
it's not so addicting that they'll start playing, play a whole lot, then get burned out on the whole concept, but it's not so slow that you feel like you aren't getting anywhere
it's almost the perfect intro to MMORPGs
Bingo.
Imagine you're a teenage kid. You've managed to gain access to your own computer at home, and hence, can play just about anything that lacks monthly fees. Would you rather
A: Play a free MMO that requires an installation, limiting you to your home machine.
or
B: Play one that can be played within a web browser, hence allowing you to play at any machine connected to the webernet.
The answer is pretty obvious. Combine with the lack of taste of the average teenager, and you have a recipe for Runescape players.
LF3M - Raid on HT Shopping mall. Skank, Ho and Bitch Teen classes needed. Lvl 60+ only.
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Best reply ever.
i use to work at a boys and girls club n during computer time fist fights would happen because someone stole someone else's loot. i got hit in the ribs with a fucking pool cue because of this game.
eventually we banned it...and then the kids found the flash pokemon mmo.
360 Gamertag: Baronskatenbass Steam: BaronVonSnakPak HgL: AnsonLuap
I'll just go ahead and assume that said offender got that pool cue right up his ass.
I admit, it seems pretty crazy that this game appeals to so many, especially considering the graphics. All I ever hear from my 12 year old nephew is bullshit about "are the graphics good?".
I guess there are worse things to be into if you're a teenage kid with too much time on your hands.
As much as my 23 years of life are telling me not to, I have GOT to hit that up.
I think I've seen screens of it before. If it's the same since I saw them, they don't let you catch Pokemon yet, all the trainers look the same, and you get to pick 6 Mewtwos right at the beginning, because you get to make your party from all the first gens.
Fuck that, thats a wipe fest just waiting to happen. You need skilled players who have heavily read up on the strats and watched youtube videos to make it past there.
Honestly you get just as good epics from grinding Malibu Beach House faction so I don't get the point in doing that tired old content that the devs keep shoveling out.
edit: free game? may have to try it...
Rock Band DLC
Everythign needs to be shortened. If someone could figure out a way to shorten the word I, they would win the interwebs.
Ok, that's just fucking pathetic. I'm all for "This is Québec, we need to know French here" but god damnit, why is it so hard to also know the language the rest of the world is using?
Sorry for the derail.
On the subject at hand, personally, I too have witnessed Runescape become so popular without understanding why. Obviously, it HAD to be good, right? Well, I don't think so. The graphics are just too horrible to me. I know it's all about the gameplay, don't be the graphics whore, but come the fuck on! Super Mario Bros' graphics are absolute trash on a purely technical aspect by the year 2007's standards, but the game still has its charm from 20-so years ago. Runescape graphics just look like the blandest shit. It has not been made with love.
I don't personally see why so many people complain about the game. I also don't see why so many people are obsessed by the game, either. I couldn't bother to grind past level 60, it slowed down too much. And I hate Grinding (this is why I gave up on WoW after a year, at level 57).
I haven't touched Runescape since I purchased Guildwars, and WoW, both of which I have given up on (I'll probably try Guildwars again though... and WoW is always waiting for me to feel like trying to level up just a little more).
In closing: For what it is (a 3D MMORPG with a large selection of quests, that requires no install other than Java, and amazingly runs entirely out of a web browser) it is not a bad game at all. It's not a great game either, and it could do with another redo of the engine to get better combat and gameplay out of it.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
The Picnic Table Maneuver.