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RuneScape – an InDepth Look

I’ve heard numerous times of how RuneScape has “terrible graphics” and “it’s boring”, but I’ve never heard any solid reasons of why they didn’t like this game. Personally, I believe that they just say these things because they think the game is for kids. In reality, there are adults playing this game and there are adults that are developing this game. It’s not a game for the younger generation only. Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of younger kids do play this game, but if you really look, the game is far more than just a kids game. Let’s take a look at what exciting features this game has in store.

Your Very First Steps

When you first create an account and start the game, you start out on an island known as Tutorial Island. This place is one of the most annoying parts of the game and is a lot of the reason why people never start to play and realize the countless hours of fun this game can bring them. When I first started playing, it took me at least an hour or more to get through this because I’m one of those people that like to read everything and know what’s going on in the game. It also used to be very confusing. Now, six years later, they have updated it. I haven’t played the Tutorial Island in quite a long time, but there have definitely been some updates to it and once you get through this treacherous island, the adventure begins…

The Review

Now that you have made it off that island, here is where the fun begins. Some of you may be thinking, “This seems more like a guide then a review.” Well I assure you, it’s a review.

To clear things up, I have played this game but I don’t really anymore. I was a member for a couple years and I’ve experience most of the game and know what’s fun about the game, and what I didn’t like about the game. There have been countless updates in the years that I’ve been playing. Some were for the better, and some were for the worse as some people may think.

As you can see, I rated the Creativity of this game at a 15 because I feel like it stole a lot of it’s ideas from other games. World of Warcraft being the main game JaGeX took their ideas from. Now, I could be wrong, but that’s just my opinion. For any of you RuneScape players, you know about the new skill that was just released about a month ago. This is a dungeon skill and similar to the Dungeons in World of Warcraft. I believe that RuneScape did an okay job on this skill, but it could have been a lot better. The dungeons are repetitive and get boring after awhile, but if you have friends to do them with, then they can be much more fun. I didn’t have people to play with when it first came out so I tried doing them alone. It gets pretty boring and after a couple of days I’m back to not playing anymore.

You may be wondering why I don’t play anymore if this game is so fun. Well, it used to be fun for me. Now I’m just tired of it like anything else. There are plenty of skills that you can level in this game making it different from any other game I’ve played. Unlike other games, you are able to level each skill and are not stuck with just a few. You don’t create a class at the beginning, you just make your guy how you would want him. Either max out all of his skills, or become a “pure” where you only do certain skills. This would be making your own class you could say.

With the all the skills, there are plenty of ways to make money in this game. The economy is well-balanced and money making can be difficult. You definitely need some experience in this game before you can start making lots of money. At first it may be difficult to play because you can’t seem to make enough money, but if you look around you can find guides on how to make some. Most guides either tell you to merchant, or use your skills to make money. I suggest using your skills to make money as merchanting can get on your nerves and make you not like the game even more. Wait on that until you have a decent amount of money and some knowledge about items and their prices.

JaGeX offers a free version of this game with about 20 quests and the ability to level at least half of the skills on your character. To me, I think that is a great deal. You can play for as long as you want on a Free account and there aren’t any level restrictions. You can max out all the “Free-to-Play” skills, but you won’t be able to train any other skills until you become a member. Membership is only six dollars per month and time cards can be bought at most stores (Wal-Mart, Gamestop, etc.) Once becoming a member, a whole new world is opened up to you and your adventure begins again. Members also make money a lot easier/faster because they have access to the whole world of RuneScape and can now train every single skill. Being a member changes the experience of this game by far.

The basic advertisements that JaGeX provides I feel aren’t good enough to lure people into playing their game. They basically just say you do quests and find treasure etc. etc. To me, this would make me wander off and find a different game because most games like this are side-scrollers or are just boring in general. They do have an actual video advertisement, however, which helps a lot more to see what this game looks like.

There are numerous updates all the time (mostly for members) and there are over 140 different servers that you can play on. You aren’t bound to one server like in WoW. Instead, you can use any of the servers you like. There are also servers for a couple other languages as well. There aren’t as many servers, but there are some for anyone that speaks other languages.

So what are you waiting for! Try out this exciting game and find out for yourself what it’s all about. I barely even touched on all the things that are available in this game. There are tons of quests, tons of items, and PVP! Hope to see you soon!

Guide to Making Money in an MMORPG

So you’ve finally reached level 70 in Maple Story! Hurray for you! But wait – your equipment costs HOW much?

The currency systems on many MMORPGs are very similar. Here are three simple steps you can take to make sure you always have money in-game. While this guide won’t be applicable to some games, it will work on most.

Step 1: Pick everything up.

You have no idea how many times I’ve seen higher level players in different games leave their loot behind for me to clean up. No matter what level you are, money is money. Even the tiny amount you get from killing lower-level monsters will add up over time.

And never leave behind loot – especially equipment you find in your travels. You can sell these to NPCs, sometimes for more money than the monsters themselves drop.

Step 2: When you can, sell to real people.

Sometimes the price that an NPC will give you does not reflect how much an item is really worth. Rarity, demand, and many other factors can contribute to an inflation in price among real players that does not affect NPCs. The bunny ear headband you just found might sell for 15 coins to an NPC, but an actual player might be willing to pay 1.5 million coins for it (because who doesn’t love bunny ears?).

Always double check how much an item is worth before selling it to the NPCs. This is especially true for higher-level equipment, rare drops, healing items, and items needed for quests (if they are especially hard to come by).

Step 3: Put money in the bank.

Many MMORPGs offer a storage system, where you can store items and money. I recommend using this feature to the fullest. Every time you pass one of these bank/storage places, deposit a portion of your money into it. In Maple Story, for example, I never leave a town with more than 20k on me. By the time I get to another town, I’ve already gotten enough money to leave more in storage.

Why do this? Simple. When you have money, you are tempted to spend it (ah the parallels between real life and games!). In addition, this method is similar to getting interest in the bank. If every time you go to a bank, you leave behind some money, when you finally need those 10 million coins for a nifty shield, you will have collected that much. Once in a while you might have to do a double take: “I have HOW much in my bank?? But I never had that much at one time! I’ve been putting 20k coins in every time I come here!”

So as long as MMORPGs don’t come out with a credit card feature, (and as long as your game has a storage system), this step is foolproof.

Follow these steps and you will soon be on the road to riches! Or, at least, the road our of poverty. Now if only it were that easy in real life…

A Review of Evony

Evony is one of the fastest growing free Man-on-Man-Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) on the Internet. Game play takes place using your Internet browser. It appears the game engine is written in FlashMedia. I have tried the game using Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome, and even Epiphany. The game worked smoothly in either Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. I noted a little bit of slowdown after a period of play in some lower end PC’s, in which a browser refresh was needed.

Evony places you in the role as a leader of a city, and you are tasked with creating jobs, generating resources, and building armies and defenses. The object is to increase prestige and rank, while keeping invaders from destroying your city. As your city grows, you have the opportunity to attack and take over your neighbors, or forge alliances with other players, working with them to keep even larger forces at bay.

The game contains a chat server with several different chat channels. Once you find an alliance that will accept you, or if you decide to go it alone and make your own alliance, your alliance chat channel becomes active. The chat allows you to coordinate attacks and defend of the cities in your realm. The time line of Evony is generally based on the middle ages. Thus, technologies, weapons, and cities general contain objects from medieval times. There are certain magical items, such as amulets, powders, and charms that you can use to gain an advantage over your opponent.

Evony is completely free to register and log in to play. There are no hidden strings attached. However, if you want to advance quickly in rank and prestige, the game developers have put in place a series of mechanisms and incentives to try to get you to part ways with your cash. Not paying will not impede your progress, as there is always a way to advance through the game. If you form an alliance, or are lucky enough to get into a large alliance, then you always have your team mates to fall back on.

There are some negatives that I have encountered while playing the game. This is a game that is still under development. Be prepared for occasional server crashes. The developers are not shy about tweaking some of the mechanics of the game. For example, you may find that the equations that decide the outcome of combat suddenly change. Since there is active development occurring with the game, new features are being added all of the time. Just be prepared for a few surprises during game play. Expect rule changes as the developers see fit.

The servers at Evony are also prone to outages, as developers work to implement patches and upgrades. In most cases, downtime has only been limited to 10 to 20 minutes. They seem to have a decent back-up procedure in place as well, as there has been little loss of data when crashed occur. Usually, once the server starts up again, you are right back where you are when the game began.

Overall, Evony has a smooth running game engine and an enjoyable experience. The game is more interesting if you join an active alliance. There is a considerable amount of politics, and intrigue that occurs among some of the more active alliances, which could turn a small skirmish over a city or two into all out war.

WoW Wrath of the Lich King: Death Knight Overview

The World of Warcraft has had many really good classes and now has one more to add, the Death Knight. I have been beta testing for a few weeks now and have created a deathknight and achieved level 70. As of now the Death Knight class is very powerful and very fun as well. Death Knights starting zone is in Eastern Plaguelands on the far east side. Starting as a Death Knight, Warcraft lore is everywhere and is almost more of a story than a leveling experience and was very easy and enjoyable to play. Learning about the Lich King and many bosses from Naxxramus as they send you on your quests to do evil deeds.

Death Knight skills are different from the other classes, Runic Power and Runes are how their skills are performed unlike mana for most, rage for Warriors, or energy for Rogues. Blood, Frost and Unholy are the three different runes that are used by the Death Knight. The runes regenerate similar to energy on a rogue. Depending if your spec is in the Blood, Frost, or Unholy the runes can be transformed into a death rune which counts for any rune (Speced for blood will transform blood to death etc.). When skills are used Runic Power is created, almost like a Warrior gains rage when the Warrior swings. Runic power is the second way the Death Knight uses skills. Death Knights have skills of all kinds Damage over time spells(dots), melee skills that do weapon damage similar to Warrior or Rogues, melee skills that consume dots, interrupts for spells and even silences, freezing skills to hold your enemy in place, many many different skills. Many of these skills go well with each other and are meant to be used with each other and other classes. These freezes will go really well with mages and shatters.

Talent trees are fairly complicated and different from other classes. All of the trees have high dps and some tanking qualities. Specing your Death Knight in the Blood tree is more of a raid survival/dps spec, along with being the favorite choice for leveling up. Frost is apparent to be the tanking tree, giving resistances, armor buffs, and damage mitigation. Unholy tree has its survival qualities as well shape shifting into undead, summoning undead minions to fight(can raise your allies as a zombie to control after they die also!), swarms of insects, fighting after death is also an option in this talent tree.

Overall the Death Knight looks very well rounded and can assume many roles in the game from pvp, soloing, smaller dungeons, raids and still not powerful enough to have full raids or dungeons full of Death Knights.

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