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