Thank You.

-Soul

We hope to keep spam off the database using this method, and for those of you who are curious as to why we have been posting so seldom, the writers have been increasingly busy nowadays. We apologize for this unexplained hiatus, but we do hope on returning full time to The RuneScape Blog soon! Once we do, we promise to deliver the same quality content TRB was made to deliver.

Direct Link: http://www.therunescapeblog.com/sig/sig1.png

Direct Link: http://www.therunescapeblog.com/sig/sig2.png

Direct Link: http://www.therunescapeblog.com/sig/sig2.png

At this point I noticed a major problem… I’m horrible at graphics, and have no sense of what looks good and what doesn’t. As a result, I decided to assume that everyone will hate those three signatures, and created a slightly different type of signature. For this one, you can choose the colors yourself! Here’s the format:

http://www.therunescapeblog.com/sig/custom_{BG}_{TEXT}.png

… where {BACKGROUND} and {TEXT} are hex codes for the colors you want to use (BG is the backdrop and text is all the text and the border). What? You say you haven’t memorized the hex codes for every color in the rainbow? Well that’s not a problem… head over to http://www.colorpicker.com/ and go crazy! Remember, however, not to include the # in the url. Now that I have sufficiently confused you, let me show you some examples:

(Yes, I did make this one ugly on purpose…)

Direct Link: http://www.therunescapeblog.com/sig/custom_eaff00_ff00ea.png

Direct Link: http://www.therunescapeblog.com/sig/custom_ffffff_000000.png

Direct Link: http://www.therunescapeblog.com/sig/custom_7A9F00_003459.png

Hmm… maybe that didn’t solve my graphical problems after all. Maybe you guys will be able to come up with something nicer looking – make sure to leave a comment if you do! If any of you want to take a shot at designing some signatures from scratch, I’ll gladly take any help I can get, and I’ll code them up right away for everyone to use. If you are wanting to make a design, do whatever you want but try to make them 350px wide if possible, and leave room for the “Recent Posts” and “Statistics” (those two things should be in the same layout as you see in all the above sigs).

The premade signatures will update whenever anyone comments or a new post is made, so they should always be up to date. The custom colored sigs are actually regenerated every time they are loaded, so they may take a wee bit longer to load (not more than a second though… probably milliseconds).

I hope these see some use, and like I said, this post is about sharing so make sure you use these sigs wherever you can to help The RuneScape Blog keep growing! Again, any submissions or suggestions for new designs are welcome! I may get around to making some under-sigs in the next few days

- Cmafai

In any event, this strategy must be working, as after just a few months TRB is already making a large impact all around the web! The one video we have posted so far (See 11′s article on house parties) has received over 1000 views in just a few weeks. Multiple sites from the furthest stretches have cited The RuneScape Blog as a primary source for quality content:

The poster, identified only by the name ThirdEyeOpen, lays out how cheaters and buyers operated as a would-be organized crime ring. ‘Welcome to the Dark Side’ is his chronicle of how he began his Runescape cheating career, and how it all ended. He recounts being ‘interrogated’ online by Jagex Ltd. about his activities, and how the subsequent account banning led to a malevolent wish to get even. His anger eventually snowballed into the creation of an organization of similar-minded individuals, mostly other teenagers, who accumulated a fair amount of real-world currency through exploits in Runescape before cashing out altogether. It’s an interesting read — perhaps a bit disturbing in the sense that he views cheating as a kind of playstyle — but worth checking out all the same.

~ Massively.com

“How to” get 99 Summoning guide, tips and tricks from Deja Vu Xiii who actually got the Summoning cape. I am personally not going to use it and will keep raising Summoning slowly, but if you are in a hurry, take a look.

~ Runewise.net

The RuneScape Blog has also recieved positive notice on PlayNoEvil, Technorati, Digg, and many RuneScape forums.

Once again, thanks to all of our devoted readers, especially those who leave comments and submit suggestions, and thanks doubly to those who have submitted content. We have more articles in the editing/drafting stages now, so be sure to keep checking back!

Update: To help spread the word, we have added an easy-to-use social bookmarking tool to the bottom of each post. Simply select the site you would like to share the article on, and it will be posted!

- Cmafai

Now this brings up the controversial question, “Is RuneScape just a game… or is it a pure addiction?”. Well there are many different scenarios and life stages but i am pretty sure we can all agree that RuneScape is mainly focused on the younger teenage or pre-adolescent group. But could this be the problem? It most certainly can be, but it wouldn’t be fair to place the blame all on one factor. After all, Runescape is supposed to be a fun friendly environment right? I think not.

The reason why RuneScape has more problems with their prayers than other games do is because of the lack of focus on a certain group. Jagex publicly states that RuneScape is focused towards people ages 13+, but does this really stop kids from playing RuneScape? Of course not. From my own experience, RuneScape is widely introduced to kids as young as the age of 8. The wide availability of the internet and children being able to have access to computers more frequently now promotes this idea as well.

Now the controversial issue about this is, Who is RuneScape really focused upon? Society pushes RuneScape amongst youngsters and even though Jagex officially states that their game is for 13+, they do not make a very valiant effort to enforce their policy. After all, their making money right? Of course they are! Children, no matter how radical their parents are, will find a way to buy membership and fulfill their lust for RuneScape.

This is why i believe Jagex is a very controversial company, they tend to focus all their energy in stopping or fixing things that affect their profits. For example, black marketing, they sure did something about that didn’t they? Of course, they needed to stop people from stealing and making money off their product. But of course, children being taught that they should get “drunk” or that they should scam others for self profit, yeah thats definitely something their going to ignore until it somehow affects their capital.

Afterall, Jagex tries to make RuneScape out to be the harmless game that condones cursing/swearing and other acts of vulgarity, but yet many aspects of their game play involve drinking, fighting and scamming for self gain. All of these aspects eventually lead up to the final question, is runescape an addiction?

Well this type of question or comment can be answered in several different ways and im sure their is no definate answer, but i believe that RuneScape is indeed designed to be addictive. It is really no mistake that most of the RuneScape player population is under the age limit, its no mistake that over the years, RuneScape has evolved from what i used to love to a game filled with lust hungry players out for self gain. Of course, Jagex didn’t “intend” for this to happend, they didn’t want to make obnoxious players from kids who grew up playing RuneScape. Of course not, none of this was intentional. Its something that is bound to happend with such a thing.

These types of issues sure don’t affect Jagex as a company, but i hope they do realize that they are ruining lives. Not to say that everyone that ever was addicted to RuneScape or played RuneScape had a messed up life, but RuneScape can ruin lives. It can force kids to kill their education to play something that they think is more important, it also creates social outcasts. Some naive children will believe that playing games will always be better than real life and will grow up thinking life is a game. It will cause a lack of functionality and will help create a barrier between the real world and the MMORPG that they have committed themselves to. Although these effects are not common amongst most RuneScape players, the fact that such a game can have such effects is disturbing, and whats even more disturbing is that a company who claims that they care for their players wont do anything about it except put up a knowledge base article saying to take “breaks”. Yeah. Bull____.

Note: I know this article wasn’t very well arranged but it does express some of the key concepts. Feel free to comment and discuss.

-Soul

I would like to welcome our two new members of this blogging team:

Deja Vu Xiii – A fellow Runescape player and now part-time writer *big cheer*, and;

Cmafai – A coding genius who is here to keep this place looking smooth and running even smoother. *big cheer*

Let the fun begin

Stay tuned for more updates!

~11

To kick things off I will introduce myself, my parter and the communities that make this blog happen :).

Firstly you can call me 11. I’m a Runescape player and I have been since 2002. I enjoy many of the aspects of the game and i find that the most pleasurable part is definitely partaking in player vs player battles. If you want to know more about me, then ask!

Secondly, I would like to introduce my partner, Soul, he is a coding genius and very competent on the internet hehe. His servers will be hosting The RuneScape Blog and he will also be taking care of the site.

Thirdly, I would like to acknowledge the two online communities that have given Soul and I this chance to fund and publish this blog:

• RuneSociety
• RuneCrypt

Both of these wonderful communities have contributed time and effort into getting this blog up and running!

Now I bet you’re wondering what this blog is going to focus on… well listen up!

The Runescape Blog is going to focus on everything Runescape! (der. I hear you say) Well it’s more interesting than that… we strive to provide you with ideas and opinions that are original and interesting to read and we hope that you enjoy reading them as much as we enjoy writing them.

Before I finish i would like to say that if you have any queries, ideas, or just want to chat then you can drop us an email at: rsblog@runesociety.com

So in conclusion I would like to say: Get ready for a big 2008, RuneScape Blogging has never looked this good

~11