After a not-so-short stint with World of Warcraft and Runescape, I’ve decided to make the bad life decision of getting back into MMOs. Instead of the nostalgia-filled experience I thought I would have by reentering the world of Runescape, I was met by a community of tryhards. They, however, do one thing right: have the game down to a T.
Online guides detail the most time and cost effective ways to level from 1-99, 99 being the maxed level. When there are parts of the game that are clunky or inefficient, players rally together and provide suggestions to Jagex, the game-maker. Often times, Jagex implement the changes – when they do not, users take it into their own hand and create third-party clients, giving them options and modifications that makes their experience more efficient.
Recently, Jagex opened up a part of their forum called Rune Lab, where users can post suggestions and have both the community and Jagex staff members respond. Popular ideas have been implemented into the game, under joined development.
Ideas are not always passed – for major changes to the game, 3/4th of all voters must agree with it. Often, this make change difficult (getting 3/4th of any community to agree on anything is difficult). The personal modification, however, makes an interesting point – if you don’t support it, they’ll just do it themselves.