Well that Fizzled: The Trade Movement to Fally

Recently while browsing the Runescape Forums I've been coming across discussions of moving trade to Falador East Bank and the park. It seems big names in RS like Chris Archie, Wr3cked, Thirdagefilm and some others are attempting to push the chaotic trade center of Varrock westward.

The big move took place this past Sunday and supposedly they were hosting a day of trade in world 305, the new trade world. I'm sure a lot of people showed up considering the combined youtube following of all of them. I didn't make it (I'm bad at research. Sue me) so xM A Xx and I decided to show up the next day and see if it worked. I figured that if it did there would be at least some people trading there. This is what we found:

 

Empty. Well actually not entirely. One guy wearing a tiara tried to sell law runes to no avail and a couple mining bots ran through. I'm just saying that if Runescape had crickets, you'd hear them.

I can see why those popular Old School personalities thought a move-over could be successful. Those guys do have a TON of people who listen to them, tens of thousands even, but big brother Jagex has more. Runescape 07 has hundreds of thousands of daily players and I'm sure a ton of more casual ones. I seriously doubt all of them heard of where they should have been trading on Sunday.

On Sunday world 305 probably had a hundred people trading and bargaining at any given time and maybe a few thousand attended in the course of the day. But while they were having their little party worlds 301, 302 and 309 were bustling trade worlds, still going strong.

Those players that went to Fally on Sunday were still playing the game on Monday and if they're anything like me they needed stuff. Stuff to fletch, stuff to eat, stuff to shoot, whatever, Runescape players constantly need stuff. Again, if they're anything like most of the Runescape population they're very very impatient. To get what they need they maybe (although I doubt it) stopped in Falidor but when they saw that not everyone came back that day what do you think they did? Went to Varrock where people were still trading without having ever known about the Fally trade movement.

Those Youtube players tried to start a tradition unorganically. They just didn't figure that pretty much every player in Old School values convenience over doing something that admittedly would be pretty damn cool.

I'm not sure why people started trading in Varrock when the Old School servers went up; I'd suspect its habit from trading near the GE in EoC. Whatever it is I don't think it's going to change anytime soon so I'll see you guys in West bank :)

Rare Items Rant

Jagex is seriously considering reintroducing rare items, both tradeable and non tradeable, back into the game. We can now all potentially get the party hats, dragon masks and the rubber chickens we've always drooled over. Obviously the implications on the economy will be huge but first I'd like to sum up what the developers are considering.

The developers are likely reinstating both tradeable and non tradeable items back into the game but the method by which they do so is still being polled. The options for both types of items are as follows:

1. Distribute them like before (dropping, holidays, etc.)
2. Appear as rare rewards from treasure trails.
3. Distribute them through very rare monster drops.
4. Buy them for cheap in an NPC shop.
5. Buy them for a lot in an NPC shop.
6. Have them given out as rewards from community events.
7. Give one of each rare item to every old school player.
8. Have them appear as rare drops when skilling.
9. Introduce new seasonal events for each of them.

Let me tell you, the community is hugely divided. The polls as of tonight are essentially right down the middle. But to me some choices have bigger ramifications to the game than others.

The first group of choices is numbers 4 and 5: buying them from NPC's. What will happen if the devs choose this is that the prices will have a fixed rate in the economy. No one will buy or sell them for more than they can get them at the store and they become as useful as the colored robes from Canifis. Maybe me and some veteran players might pull some nostalgia out of it but otherwise Jagex would have added a useless novelty with no real impact on the game: the worst option in my opinion.

The next group of choices with similar implications to the economy is 2, 3, and 8. These options all allow players of skill or experience to get these items. For non tradeable rares like the rubber chicken this offers an interesting badge of honor. Players could show off their sickle or Easter egg ring to pick up girls at the Ardougne Bar scene, or to showcase how much time they've spent on this game (although do we really want anyone to know?). I like the idea of this but I think it would be better suited to skill or monster specific items. For instance a rare woodcutting drop could be a golden branch (I don't know. Its an example). Again, the notion of non tradeable items gathered from the word seems interesting but it's not fitted to Yo-yo's and Reindeer hats.

For tradeable items it's different  If Jagex made it possible to obtain tradeable rares like Santa Hat's from treasure trails, skills, or monsters they've added yet another pricey piece of junk like berets or elegant robes to the economy. It won't change much. And do we really need more assholes like the picture below wandering around?

Finally the last group is 1,6,7 and 9. These are the “money” options and possibly the most risky. These options all limit the amount of these novelties released into the game. Maybe I shouldn't but I assume that Jagex wouldn't be stupid enough to allow players to obtain more than one per account. This would curb but not eliminate people stockpiling these for sale at a much later time. Realistically most smart players would have a bank looking something like this (excusing the other expensive items).

I'm sure the prices would eventually rise as they did with the holiday items in modern Runescape. And considering that blue party hats are currently a whopping 2.14 Billion goddamn coins on the Grand Exchange I don't think they would ever stop. 

The Runescape 07 items would act differently in the economy however. With no Grand Exchange there would be no definite prices to them, only a relative range. When the amount of rares in the game shrunk significantly or when certain players stockpiled them all they'd be traded by the richest players to try to turn a profit. This very chaotic mechanic of trading is, I think, very suited to how the old school economy should be: fast paced, unregulated, and mean. 

The only downside is that players could use this method, along with a pre stocked bank of rares to gather too much money, greatly damaging the games economy. 

On a personal note, I think Jagex should hold new holiday events (option 9) to release the old holiday items. Old School Runescape is a new game and as I've said a better game. The developers have already given us old players something to feel nostalgic about so I vote we make some new memories for every player. 

Weekly Event with the xM A Xx Clan!

xM A Xx is holding a weekly event for all my blog readers and his Youtube followers. The vote is on the right of the page. It closes Friday night so get your vote in for what we'll do this weekend! The options are:

Castle Wars: Fairly self explanatory. Two teams, two castles, one victor. Maybe we'll break the teams up as me and Max. Comment if you have an opinion.

Clan PK'ing trip: We all go out and swarm anyone in our path. Watch out for friendly fire.

King of the Hill Brawl: We all gather in a big multicombat zone and brawl to the death. Last man standing wins all the loot and has their conquests posted on this page.

The date and time will be announced shortly (I know how spotty Max can be). Feel free to comment if you have something to say. We'll see you there.

-Joe Leo

Welcome to Old School 'Scape

When I heard that Jagex might release an old 2007 version of Runescape I think all those who used to play pictured this new release to be exactly as it was six years ago. Every person, slang, nuance and tradition would be put right back in what to me was its sacred place. In this sense we were all disappointed.

Old School Runescape having been out for months is finally taking on form. Looking at this newly hatched game I saw that it wasn't the same Runescape I had left after the introduction of the grand exchange. People talked strangely, fought offbeat, traded weirdly. Maybe the difference was the introduction of younger players who had never played old Runescape, maybe it was the influence of players coming from current Runescape. Whatever it was this game was simply better.

The old guides don't apply much anymore for dominating trade or fighting in the wild. That's what this blog is for. I (swordedge199), with the help of my brother (xM A Xx) and his clan, are going to put together guides, commentaries, articles and ideas to create a complete picture of Old School Runescape: a game much more novel and enjoyable than I could ever have hoped for.

-Joe Leo