The Tip.It Times


Issue 17399gp

Neglected Mid-Level Players

Written by and edited by Hamtaro

Ask yourself for one minute: how would you fare on RuneScape if tomorrow, you went back to being a mid-level player?

I'm speaking to you, a high-level player with a combat level spanning three digits for as long as you remember. Imagine you started all over as a mid-level player, without all of your knowledge of the game's intricacies and without a bountiful cash stack.

Suppose that for the last year you saw update after update aimed at higher-level players and your friends kept telling you to train in Jadinko's Lair or the new Polypore dungeon, but you simply didn't have the time or levels to explore such content. Imagine training hours a day trying to catch up, but not have enough cash to train fast enough or a high enough combat level to train to get cash. Soon enough you start developing a general disinterest due to the lack of updates that you could access, even with your paid subscription. If you can relate to this scenario, perhaps you can acknowledge the neglect that some mid-level players such as myself have felt recently.

As you most likely know, Jagex's RuneScape improvement campaign is focused on encouraging low-levels to become high levels as quickly as possible, and then rewarding the high levels with a tremendous amount of content. But, as a mid-level member, I've noticed the omission of the distribution of content to mid-levels, which one might loosely define as characters with combat levels around 50-70 and average skill levels about 25-40. It not only irks me because of boredom, but also raises the question of what the low-levels are going to do in the transitional phase of becoming a mid-level player.

As you've most likely noticed (and if you've haven't, check the bestiary), the amount of level 40 to 50 monsters is surprisingly low, especially considering how many weak goblin and zombie variations there are. Furthermore, the few existing monsters satisfying this criteria are often in areas too dangerous for the average level 50-60 player; they are present in areas with enemies such as lesser demons or other demonic or ghastly monsters.

To help get a sense of the lack of mid-level content, simply check out the bestiary or read recent RuneScape news articles. Many of the recent updates such as the newest grandmaster quests, the Polypore Dungeon, and Jadinko Lair, are aimed towards high levels. The requirements for such content seem more challenging than older regular updates, and seem either to serve a longer-playing or higher-level portion of the community.

If we correlate the progression of a game character in RuneScape to a person's real life, one can consider the "newbs" as kids, and the "pros" as adults. However, this neglects a crucial segment of the population: people in late childhood or adolescence. It seems as if RuneScape is ignoring this phase.

This problem does not involve merely a lack of content for these mid-level players, but specifically a failure to create new content for them. Although there are some mid-level quests and activities, they fail to incite a feeling of excitement, unlike some of the content directed a high level players. Picture a player, for example, wishing to complete the quest "Deadliest Catch." Even though the quest essentially spoon-feeds the player with items and puzzles, high level requirements are slapped onto it, rendering completion impossible for this hypothetical mid-level player.

Unfortunately, Jagex doesn't seem to care much about those of us who may think big but just don't have the time or levels to do big stuff. Remember the mid-levels. Remember yourself before you had the dilemma of which skill cape to wear, or before your purchase of a POH with a dungeon and a demon butler. Remember the mid-levels, everyone, because you were once there as well.


Do you have any thoughts or comments about this week's articles? Want to discuss these articles with your fellow RuneScapers? We invite you to discuss them in this forum topic.


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Tags: Current Events High Level Players

Will you use Menaphos to train your skills?



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