Whatever happened to "It's only a game"? I mean, as good as it gets, there is a load of stuff out there which sort of spoils RuneScape as a whole. Macros, noobs, scammers and obsessive playing are the main things I'd like to focus on. They ruin the game for everyone, and here are my views on why. While it may be true that I am a free player and not a member, I have seen members many a time, and I'm familiar with how it works.
Autoers
I'd be hard pressed to find a single average player who hasn’t seen an autoer in their time on RuneScape. They are all over the place. They ruin the game for everyone by filling up the pockets of some fool who can’t be bothered to play properly. They give RuneScape a bad name, and therefore other MMORPGS are more popular. You may say, "It's a fact, get used to it", but for those people that play only an hour a day, getting to 60 woodcutting is quite something - especially after months of playing. They go to the yews, only to be pushed out by Autoers, who were created only a couple of weeks before and are filling their inventories with logs. And who gets the money? The same fool who later gets bored with the game and wanders off in search of another MMORPG.
There is one more thing about autoers - they may have forced JaGex to change the way we craft runes. Although I'm sure JaGex was slightly unhappy about the large quantities of runes being sold by free players to members, and some free players getting the simple essence for runes trick, we probably all know their main concern was autoers. No doubt you've seen some of them in the essence mine, up to 50 strong in World 1 at times. And the consequence of all this autoing? High essence prices for members and free players stuck without any way to get runes but to buy them.
Noobs
There is a mixed view on noobs. Some say a noob is simply a new and inexperienced player (newb), others call them idiots (noob). By "noob", I mean the latter of the definitions. I recently walked into a Bank only to be insulted that I was a good for nothing free player. The guy was level 50 odd with mystic. I told the guy to go away and that I had once been a member (OK, so I lied, but then it was the only sensible thing to do...). I play the game mainly to talk to my friends from school and other friends from other parts of my life. I don’t expect to be ridiculed when I am relaxing at home.
It's a bit sad that people feel they have to attack people and get on them just because they might get picked on in real life. I know you may argue and ask what about beggars and low levels??? Well, I'll get round to those in a moment, so read on. There will always be newbs, so don't complain about new players who ask you questions like 'Where's Falador?' Unless you used the world map when you were new (most people don’t to start off with), then you shouldn't really get angry at new players. All you have to do is tell them how to use their map or show them the way.
Scammers, Beggars and Merchants
Okay, I know that there is technically nothing wrong with merchanting, and I have done a bit myself; but, I think there are no places quite as bad as World 1 or World 2. It's a free-for-all of people yelling 'Selling Rune pl8 for only 55K!' and/or 'Buyin santa hat 30.2M', and unless you know you have at least 200% of the amount of money you need to buy an item, then I'd steer clear of it. The prices vary wildly. On the same day, I saw a rune H1 kite go for 100K, then 700K gp. That’s nuts. I mean, I know that I’m not going to be able to complete my Rune (g) set without buying the helmet, but at least I should be able to find someone who doesn’t try to nick the rest of my set or who doesn’t up the price by 10K every 5 minutes!
Sure if you want money, merchanting is probably the way to make a decent amount for the least amount of work. How hard is buying something then selling it for a few extra coins? Quite hard it seems -- it stops working completely when 2,000 people cram onto one server with the same idea. No doubt you’ve also been scammed, losing a set of addy to a 'trimmer' or miscounting the zero's on that insane offer for your mystic. We all hate scammers. Merchanting is OK, I suppose, it's the people that try to pick your pockets clean that I don't like - and it's definitely not relaxing. There are also the beggars... the never ending 'Money plz' or 'My friend hacked my account and made my lvl drop to 10 and then he stole my rune.' Sure, it's good to be kind sometimes, but remember, it’s a game. I don’t think other people want to be pestered non-stop while they're trying to play during their free time!
Obsessive training
There are some people out there who like to play for hours on end, and get lost in their little fantasy world, the adventures of 'RuneScape_Player_1,000,000' (not in use at time of writing), or whatever their character happens to be called. One thing that I can't understand, though, are those people who spend their entire day getting from 50 to 70 in one skill. I thought the point was to get it after playing for a while, not to get to the top in the fourth week. Sure, goals are fine, but I really pity people that go nuts and go whole hog and throw their social life away. Again, 'It's a game, what is it going to do for you?
Party Hats and some other rares could also fall into this category. Why would someone pay 500M for a piece of blue virtual paper? You’ve got a load of people following you around begging for money, or even worse, into combat hoping you kick the bucket. That money could be better spent elsewhere, in my opinion. For the same amount of money, you could get to 99 smithing from level 1, and still have some left over for your POH. Santa hats aren't as bad, since anyone could work towards one if they tried. But some things are just ludicrous!
Some final thoughts
So, what’s the point of all this? Whatever happened to the times when we all used to play to have fun? We used to get along, talk about our fishing levels without having to worry about some arrogant idiots laughing at you. I just wanted to point out that while you're trying to sell your rune (g), or working on getting your attack to 70, or doing whatever it is that's important to you, just stop, think for a moment, and remember:
'It's only a game'.
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