December 13, 2008

2:04 AM


Java Failing Experts

As much as I hate it, I'm really starting to see Runescape heading straight for downfall, all due to pure company incompetence. Having more than half of the recent updates being classified as 'fail', you can see where this is going. But worst of all is the company's lack of concern for the players themselves.

Stealing Creation:
A mini-game where two teams gather resources and fight for control. The mini-game was introduced with horrifically vague explanations. No, the objective here is to explain the game as clearly as possible, not write a mystery novel! We're looking for hard numbers, proper explanations.. not to be left in wonder of what we're supposed to do!

Secondly, as with most mini-games on RS, players usually play it for the reward. The rewards were just as vague. They say the rewards will help gain more experience while training. By how much, they do not say. 10%? 20%? 1000%? Might be 0.0001%. And so players were left on their own to determine the figures for themselves. And the best thing here was....... the rewards don't work! Every single one of them was bugged to oblivion. Makes us wonder how the heck this update managed to pass quality control. You wouldn't even need a brain to realise that something was wrong if the item didn't work at all.
However, this won't be the last you'll see of quality issues. Oh no, its just getting started. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

(Note that it has been more than a month since the update was released. Although Jagex[the company] says a fix will be coming soon, I still don't see it anywhere..)


While Guthix Sleeps:
The first ever 'grandmaster'-level quest to be released. Players gain a piece of the Dragon Platebody,the most anticipated release for years, upon completion of the quest. Along with that, players can also kill new high-levelled monsters called Tormented Demons in order to gain these pieces as well.

And honestly, the Dragon Plate has been the biggest letdown of all. Weak stats for something so highly anticipated, can be worn by practically anybody, and worst of all.. ugly looks. In fact, I'll let you judge: link. Does it in any way scream epic? Fashionable even? Can you say.. spaghetti arms? As you can see, quality control isn't been the only division that requires a major overhaul. I mean, what did the design department do to create the supposedly most epic armour? Take an ordinary platemail and add a few spikes to the shoulders? Since I can obviously do a better job than that without even trying, should I be having their job instead?

Jagex 'set' the market price of the plate at 30M. Just days later, the prices plummeted, all the way to less than half of the original price. link What happened, they wondered? Was it because it had stats that was weaker than a piece of armour that costed 50 times less? Was it because it made players look like walking tomatoes? NO! They decided that prices were dropping so much because supply was too high. So they implemented a HIDDEN update which made killing Tormented Demons insanely hard, with drastically reduced drop rates. Of course, the poor players who were farming them had no idea of the update.. oops.

Fremennik Achievement Diary:
The true breaking point is here. The point where I knew that the company who once cared so much for their players is dead. Who once took the welfare of their players as the utmost importance. Somewhere in between, the company took an unfortunate turn, changing their business model from customer satisifaction to pure profits. So what if thousands of high-levelled players lose millions of gold from our mistake? They're just a miniscule fraction of our total player base, no big deal. Easily replaceable.

Getting late, so I'll leave the ending for tomorrow or so. I'll just end with this. Read and understand my frustration.