OSRS — Oldschool Runescape.

[Meaty Clackers]

I only play once every couple years when they are doing a league event. It scratches the itch, I burn out faster, no giving a **** about the state of the live game. much healthier

[Oyster Sauce]

I'd actually like to see Gielinor in a different genre. Neopets had a PS2 spinoff game back in the day. Let me go on a little Fableesque adventure.

[rusty_shackleford]

I'd actually like to see Gielinor in a different genre. Neopets had a PS2 spinoff game back in the day. Let me go on a little Fableesque adventure.

ask and ye shall receive a piece of ****

[Oyster Sauce]

I'd actually like to see Gielinor in a different genre. Neopets had a PS2 spinoff game back in the day. Let me go on a little Fableesque adventure.

ask and ye shall receive a piece of ****

Runescape 3 doesn't count

[rusty_shackleford]

Runescape 3 doesn't count

This is RS3 tho

---

a major issue with nearly all the new content I engaged in is it felt like someone was constantly trying to be funny, then I remembered this is an issue in nearly all modern games I play except they made it even worse
the medieval theme runescape originally had is completely gone, it's some weird high tech magitech mashup, basically has zero identity

[rusty_shackleford]

a major issue with nearly all the new content I engaged in is it felt like someone was constantly trying to be funny, then I remembered this is an issue in nearly all modern games I play except they made it even worse

this happens every time, you can't have ****
something will have a joke, then it will be used as a stepping stone to completely transform a franchise around it because it already existed so you can't say no to it because it was always there you see?

everything turns to ******* ****
painful seeing all these old games(franchises, even) ran into the ground by people who weren't even born when they released

[rusty_shackleford]

what do you think the economy of run escape would look like if you only got XP for failing?

[rusty_shackleford]

oh, I forgot to post this

Selection_009.webp

Some of you will get it.

[rusty_shackleford]

I should do a writeup of my thoughts of RS3.

Towards the end it was becoming very clear that the game is just poorly designed in basic ways that I can't stand e.g., arbitrary 28 slot inventory with arbitrary stackable items, herbs that take up the same space as a piece of armor, etc., This bothers me to no ******* end.

what do you think the economy of run escape would look like if you only got XP for failing?

I still stand by this, the XP you get should be relative to your chance of failing the task or failure is somehow a part of learning. I should make a thread on this.

You know what's ******* boring?
Running back and forth from the bank to grab items just to create summoning pouches to raise my summoning. It feels completely arbitrary. How does creating the pouch to summon something make me better at summoning?
'Crafting' is far too broad and yet has so little.
Skills that could have been reworked and they've had years to do it(e.g., firemaking into survival)
so on and so forth

Really, just a complete mess. RSC was acceptable for its time because it was ambitious, but much of what I liked about it was the adventure game elements mixed with RPG.

[rusty_shackleford]

Don't like how my character can — and was expected to — be good at everything.

[Tweed]

I thank God every day that I was a cool kid with (someone who had) a credit card and I could play UO instead of UO for poor kids.

[rusty_shackleford]

Runes are a neat way to add reagents that actually matter for magic and are a central part of the setting itself. I rarely see reagents actually matter when they should be incredibly important for casters in RPGs.

…

Setting!
That's something I should elaborate on.
Runescape didn't really have a story. Well, no. It had a bunch of stories! Runescape was the setting that stories happen in.

But now it has a bunch of main plotlines and marvel cinematics and *yawn* time to hold down the spacebar while this girlboss girlbosses very girlbossingly because I can't skip the cutscene
(Yes, there are cutscenes!)

But you see, Runescape — and I'm referring to Runescape as originally intended here, neither RS3 nor OSRS — did not have a story. It didn't need a story because it had stories. A bunch of different one-off quests, some quests that were related as time went on, and so on. The setting may have been a little silly at times, but never to the level it is now. It was a very even-handed level of silly that also acknowledged it was squarely a quais-medieval fantasy game, it was not a comedy game or a comedy setting.

I don't think I ever finished Dragon Slayer in the original Runescape game come to think of it. I know I had decent gear around the time RS2 started rolling around, which is probably also around the time I stopped playing it.
For those that didn't play it, Dragon Slayer was the original big quest. And as you can guess, you slay a dragon. Which is awesome.

---

Speaking of old quests, they removed Romeo and Juliette. Why? I have no idea. I fondly remembered that quest.

---

There's way too many items that have just one use, especially so in newer items but a lot of quest items etc., This seems to, again, cropped up after I stopped playing. This is what happens when you have nerds who played MUDs make the original game vs people who didn't. Also a major failing of stagecraft vs simulationism, as @WhiteShark would note. Simulationism requires much more up-front effort, but the fruit of your labor is always there. Stagecraft has to be done repeatedly or the illusion falls apart.
I need planks to put down over this crossing. No, it can't be "maple planks", it has to be "planks" because they did not create a simulationist game where things have properties.

---

I'll post more stuff as it comes to me I guess.

As far as quests go, honestly the best ones I did were from the ~2011-2014 era. I suspect maybe more from 2014-2017 or so? But I didn't do most of those. A lot of the RS2-era quests were dogshit, just running back and forth for no reason fedex ********. I suspect at this point they were being pressured to release new content constantly and the new hires just weren't good enough to do it.
New quests(read: post-gamergate) are terrible because it's like a bad soap opera written by libtards.
~2011-2014 era quests were very nice. I did the two at the mage tower and listened to all the dialogue, interacted with everyone to learn more about them, etc.,
These quests did not have any tedious, timewasting parts.

Another one is One Piercing Note. You get to solve a murder mystery at an abbey possibly involving a demon that has returned to kill again. I have not read it, but it was perhaps inspired by The Name of the Rose? Anyways, yeah, props to the guys who did those quests. Content that takes itself seriously is great, I really enjoyed it.

[rusty_shackleford]

Another one is One Piercing Note. You get to solve a murder mystery at an abbey possibly involving a demon that has returned to kill again. I have not read it, but it was perhaps inspired by The Name of the Rose? Anyways, yeah, props to the guys who did those quests. Content that takes itself seriously is great, I really enjoyed it.

Thinking back on it, it's incredible how seriously this quest took itself vs the new content. It's the kind of sincerity you just don't see at all anymore in video games. It was a full nunnery devoted to Saradomin. It had a history, and so did the sisters there.
They even recorded a full hymn:

The song, mixed with the other major song from the quest, plays at the end and it made me stop just to listen to it. It was such a great song for the finale of the quest.

The quest does not have a single bit of combat, by the way. It's probably about an hour long if you don't cheat and use the wiki. It's just a murder mystery at a nunnery.

---

Rune Mysteries/Rune Memories are the two wizard tower quests. I really enjoyed questing with Ariane but there were like 4 total then she disappears, I was disappointed. She's still used in the majority of splash screens, advertisements, etc., Apparently it was decided by A/B testing — shockingly, the average Runescape player(or potential player) likes attractive red-headed women.

Ariane is one of a band of 'heroes'(that your character is also part of) that you encounter in quests, but they can also appear randomly in the world. If you talk to them they'll comment on your activities, it's neat. But it's so underutilized that it's sad. Apparently they just stopped using them except for one character(Raptor). Raptor ends up being a GIRLBAWSS in one of the modern quests in a SHOCKING REVEAL despite definitely being a man before being retconned because he had voiced lines.

Honestly, as far as prime years go, the OSRS people are fuckin dumb. But I'm not really surprised because the only updates it gets are making bosses drop more loot, because it's just full of people who do nothing but kill bosses + bots.

---

Oh right, they revamped a bunch of old quests during the 2011-2014 era too and they're pretty good. The new Demon Slayer(a quest that was available in the original Runescape game) was enjoyable, true to the original quest but improved in a lot of ways.

When I say 'modern' quests I mean up to probably 2022-2023 or so, which is PEAK woke. I did exactly one quest made this year and it was enjoyable. It's a fun little one-off quest about finding a baby duckling and returning it to its family, very Runescape Classic-ish kind of quest imo.

---

It's crazy how much GamerGate completely broke the industry across the board. It's roughly the same exact date in every single area of western video games, ~2015-2016.

[rusty_shackleford]

Another one is One Piercing Note. You get to solve a murder mystery at an abbey possibly involving a demon that has returned to kill again. I have not read it, but it was perhaps inspired by The Name of the Rose? Anyways, yeah, props to the guys who did those quests. Content that takes itself seriously is great, I really enjoyed it.

Dance with me, adventurer!

► Quest spoiler

Got a big ol' when she died.

[rusty_shackleford]

Looking at the dev team of the game now and I'm reminded how gender balanced(or even tipped in favor of women) dev teams are despite making a product that is consumed almost entirely by males unless it's one of a handful of specific subgenres.
It's funny because they like to talk about the need for diverse voices etc., to make products better but uhhh maybe that's not true if your target customer is almost a single monolithic bloc?

That's most businesses btw

[Stack of Turtles]

Don't like how my character can — and was expected to — be good at everything.

I like that because I am good at everything.

[rusty_shackleford]

Don't like how my character can — and was expected to — be good at everything.

I like that because I am good at everything.

you're jewish so you can't level your prayer score because your people killed God :/

[Stack of Turtles]

Don't like how my character can — and was expected to — be good at everything.

I like that because I am good at everything.

you're jewish so you can't level your prayer score because your people killed God :/

I'm actually the same ethnicity as you.

So yeah, like you said.

[rusty_shackleford]

Quests, gear, etc., were supposed to be the goal of the grind but I actually don't see any goal to the grind when I'm playing which is one of the reasons I quit. Why am I grinding? I couldn't answer the question. I didn't care enough about the quests to want to grind to do them, let alone the fact that very few even require skills higher than 75 or so.

When I was leveling herblore to be able to do the quest to unlock the fairy ring travel, I was working towards a tangible goal. Same deal with unlock achievement equipment, etc.,
But just grinding to get a number higher? I find no enjoyment in this.

[rusty_shackleford]

[Oyster Sauce]

Embrace altoholicism instead

[rusty_shackleford]

Whenever I think about playing I just think about the things that disappoint me + made me quit, and it makes it go away

[Solaire]

About 3 years ago Fagex added a quest to RS3 titled "Succession" wherein a **** woman takes the throne from Saradomin (an old white guy), the god of order and wisdom. At the end of the quest you're treated with a 9 minute unskippable cutscene depicting a crowd of (white) subjects cheering her coronation, to the tune of a cringeworthy song. To my knowledge this is the only unskippable cutscene in the game.

Saradomin:

► Show Spoiler

Saradomin_(Sixth_Age).png

Saar-adomin:

[Jordy]

Sir, this is a Wendy's an Oldschool Runescape thread.

[Brent Prices]

Quests, gear, etc., were supposed to be the goal of the grind but I actually don't see any goal to the grind when I'm playing which is one of the reasons I quit. Why am I grinding? I couldn't answer the question. I didn't care enough about the quests to want to grind to do them, let alone the fact that very few even require skills higher than 75 or so.

When I was leveling herblore to be able to do the quest to unlock the fairy ring travel, I was working towards a tangible goal. Same deal with unlock achievement equipment, etc.,
But just grinding to get a number higher? I find no enjoyment in this.

That's why you should play ironman mode

[rusty_shackleford]

Quests, gear, etc., were supposed to be the goal of the grind but I actually don't see any goal to the grind when I'm playing which is one of the reasons I quit. Why am I grinding? I couldn't answer the question. I didn't care enough about the quests to want to grind to do them, let alone the fact that very few even require skills higher than 75 or so.

When I was leveling herblore to be able to do the quest to unlock the fairy ring travel, I was working towards a tangible goal. Same deal with unlock achievement equipment, etc.,
But just grinding to get a number higher? I find no enjoyment in this.

That's why you should play ironman mode

I was

Hardcore ironman, 0 deaths

[Brent Prices]

I also play ironman mode and I disagree with this take then. I'm into lategame and still feel like there's a purpose for any grind I am doing. Either a gear upgrade, unlock something new, new cosmetic/pet, accumulate resources for grinds etc.

It's in normal mode where a lot of grinds feel like are being done only for GP to buy the certain item at grand exchange, and therefore a lot of grinds where the gp/h isn't that great feel useless.

Quests, gear, etc., were supposed to be the goal of the grind but I actually don't see any goal to the grind when I'm playing which is one of the reasons I quit. Why am I grinding? I couldn't answer the question. I didn't care enough about the quests to want to grind to do them, let alone the fact that very few even require skills higher than 75 or so.

When I was leveling herblore to be able to do the quest to unlock the fairy ring travel, I was working towards a tangible goal. Same deal with unlock achievement equipment, etc.,
But just grinding to get a number higher? I find no enjoyment in this.

That's why you should play ironman mode

I was

Hardcore ironman, 0 deaths

I don't find hardcore ironman enjoyable because it locks you out of so many grinds and make other grinds so much more tedious.

And yeah if you have more than 0 deaths you aren't a hardcore anymore so it checks out

[Oyster Sauce]

World of Warcraft



OSRS

[rusty_shackleford]

one has vastly more content than the other

[Brent Prices]

Wow -> microtransactions + expansions + box price + subscription

OSRS -> subscription

Only ******* are fooled by the subscription price solely without judging VALUE.