Screenshot Contest!

Me and Max are hosting a screenshot contest exclusive to this blog. The rules are simple.
1. The screenshot has to involve Old School Runescape.
2. Anything goes. They can be impressive, creative, confusing or hilarious.
3. Multiple submissions are allowed.
4. Make sure the picture is in .jpg .png or .gif format.

The winners will be chosen within the week.
1st prize - 200k
2nd prize - 100k
3rd prize - 50k

Send the screenshots to the email address rspicturecontest@gmail.com with your runescape name, and a quick explanation or caption to go with the picture (bonus points if it makes me laugh).

Good luck and happy screencapping.

-Joe Leo

Dragon Claws in Old School?

How to take a Screenshot in Runescape

It's incredible easy in a few simple steps:

1. Be in Runescape doing whatever you want to take a screenshot of.

2. Press the PrintScreen button on your keyboard.

3. Open up Microsoft paint and hit ctrl-v or rightclick>paste it onto the canvas. 

4. Use the select tool and drag the box around whatever you want to capture. In this case I captured the screen as well as my inventory, chat log and map.

5. With what you want selected hit the crop button in the top toolbar next to the select tool. 

6. Save your file as a .gif or .png file (the file size is much smaller than .jpg).

7. Congrats, you've made a screenshot!

There are currently 16 people playing!

 Despite the fact that Runescape seems to be commercially dwarfed by other big games (especially other MMO's) Jagex actually dominates a very nuanced market. With no download, no fee and no time limit you can enjoy a huge slice of what Runescape has to offer. You don't even need a top of the line computer. With such a small hassle compared to other big titles there must be no downside, right? 

This model works great and supplies the world of Runescape (EoC) with a supply of new players. It's constantly growing and repopulating. But where does this leave us Old School players? Not in a good place, let me tell you. The problem is that as new player come in every day they're building their account in EoC. Eventually they'll pay for membership and the option to play Old School becomes available but it's doubtful they'll ever transfer to it. By this point they've invested a ton of time in their character. Not many people would want to give all that up.

Another problem is that Old School frankly just looks worse. The combat, I imagine, looks boring, the graphics are worse and the world is much smaller in terms of players and content. Mind you, I think Old School is MUCH better but it won't seem that way to incoming EoC players.

I worry that despite the initial surge of players into the 2007 servers the population will eventually taper off. More of us will stop playing while too few people fill their spots. Hopefully this bleak prophecy won't come true but unless Jagex makes some changes to what content is freely available I don't see much of a way around it. All we can do is convince our friends to join us and enjoy what we got while it lasts.

-Joe Leo