Legal real-world trading is something a lot of companies are playing around with the idea of, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But you have to design your game with real-world trading in mind from day one, you can’t just chuck it on top of the game. In the future we are going to have games, good games, where you’re going to have professional players who create an account and sell it for real-world money and manage to make a living by playing. And that’s going to be fun.

This would be an amazing step forward for online gaming. Just like professional athletes are paid to play sports they love, it sounds like companies like Jagex have real plans to enable online gamers to be able to make a living playing the games they love.

Now I may be reading into it a little too much but, in the interview it goes on to mention that Jagex actually has plans to release a new MMORPG in 2009 which may potentially be called Mechscape. Now there has been a lot of talk and excitement about Mechscape and its potential as a new MMORPG. Yet there hasn’t been a lot of talk about the potential for Mechscape to take on a different gaming style than is currently used for Runescape. I think many are just expecting that Mechscape (if it ever does eventuate) would just be a futuristic style of Runescape. However in reading the entire interview with Irme I get the impression that Jagex “might” be trying to take Mechscape in a new direction, focusing more on “enjoyable” gameplay rather than grinding for levels, and may integrate a system whereby players are actually able to sell accounts and in-game items to other gamers.

Obviously this would be in distinct contrast to the policy they have set for Runescape, but as Irme mentions in his interview, RWT (real world trading) is not necessarily a bad thing if you have the right systems in place, which is a view I have pushed for quite awhile now. I actually think RWT has massive potential to help bridge the economic gaps between third world and developing countries and the economically prosperous first world countries of the world North America and Europe, plus a few others.

With that said, I find it hard to believe that Irme was implying that all “online gamers will manage to make a living by playing” in the near future. Obviously there are great discrepancies between costs of living around the world, in the US, Australia and UK GDP per capita is between $30,000 - $40,000 per year in comparison to India’s and China’s GDP per captias of $4,000 and $8,000 per year, respectively. Still it would be wonderful if gamers have the “option” to be compensated for all the hard work they put in whether they are a high school student or a player from a developing country or just a part time player that plays for sheer enjoyment. However it turns out, it seems that MMORPGs have a very exciting future.

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I for one don’t think that this means there will definitely be a new MMORPG launched by Jagex called Mechscape, as I know that I have personally registered over 30 domains over the last three years of which I have only used a handful, and I’m sure I will never use many of them. So when it comes to a company with pockets as big as Jagex’s I’m sure they can afford to spend a couple of hundred of dollars to have the “option” to call a future game or feature Mechscape.

Anyway I stumbled across a few Mechscape sites recently and one of them referenced a comment made by Imre Jele, who is the Content Chief at Jagex, relating to some of the fundamental problems with MMORPG and having to grind your way through levels:

…the only thing I can tell you now is that we have some amazing products going live next year - a new MMO - and we are tackling this issue at a core design level.

So it would appear that Jagex are definitely planning to release a new MMO sometime in 2009. This is definitely very exciting news for most Runescape players and Jagex lovers alike. I wonder what sort of effect his would have on their Runescape membership if they were to release a new MMORPG in competition with Runescape?

 3-15: Head here.

 Once you arrive start attacking chickens. You can pick up the meat if you want cooking experience. They will also come in handy later so you should hold onto them. The feathers can also make you a bit of money too. Stay even with training your skills. You should get your strength, attack, and defense to level 10. In an hour should receive roughly 5000 experience as a level 3 combat. However it will become more as you level up. Once you finish training here you should be able to move on.

15-30: Start towards the Grand Exchange to sell the feathers that you just picked up. Once you sell them you should have enough for a full steel. If not go to the Varrock west gate and pick up the money from the dead guards until you have enough. Here would be a good place for those chickens you just cooked. Once you buy a full steel head back to the Varrock west gate right by the large bank. Find the little room in the wall and walk up the stairs. There should be two guards here. Start attacking them. In an hour, you should have gained approximately 7500 experience. This is a very rough estimate as when I tested with my level 55 character with full rune I received 10000 experience. Again, try to even out your skills. If you can get them all to about level 20 you should be able to move on.

30-50: Head here.

If you can afford a full mithril it would really help to have one. If you can not however it will not change this step too dramatically. Go down the ladder and walk until you arrive at the level 28 hobgoblins. Start killing these. They will drop some pretty valuable items like limpwurt roots. These can sell for about 650 gold each. This will be far longer than any of the other steps. You should get about 9000 experience an hour. Again, this is a estimate as when tested by me with a level 55 character in full rune I received 10500 experience. Just like all the other steps you need to balance out your skills. If you have the patience to get them all to level 40 it would be to your benefit. This will allow you to wear rune armour which is the best free to play armor. Once you finish this step almost nobody will call you a noob anymore except really good players. Hey, soon even you can be in that level.

50-65: Congratulations, you can now wear rune armour! It is pretty expensive compared to all the other armour but it is well worth it. However you can not use a rune platebody until you do the quest Dragon Slayer.

Right now if you have enough quest points you need to do the quest dragon slayer. This will really help your combat level. As this is not a quest guide I will let you try to figure it out yourself. Or you could search a quest guide. Although I would suggest bringing a strength potion and a lot of swordfish if you are a free player. Once you beat Elvarg the dragon you can now officially wear full rune armour.

Now that you have full rune you should head here.

Start attacking white knights to train your combat. You should receive roughly 11000 experience an hour. You should receive pretty equal to this as my combat level in which tested is 55. You can even out your combat skills again or now you can train a specific skill like strength. This step is quite a boring one as it does take a little patience but the reward is well worth it.

65-126: You will want to go to the deep part of the wilderness now to kill demons. It would be wise to bring a bit of food. Head here.

Demons are one of the strongest free monster. Sometimes they drop rune medium helmets which sell for pretty good gold pieces. This should give you about 13000-25000 experience an hour. This experience estimate will vary greatly as there is a huge diversity of levels now. This step will take a VERY long time to complete. If you ever do you will be in a league of elite players.

Well, that is all. My last word of advice is patience. This will not be an easy accomplishment.

The short answer is “yes” there are other games like Runescape, but there aren’t many that are exactly like Runescape. That is why it is so popular. I have actually written an article on Runescape 100 about online games like Runescape before. This article explains how Runescape has a few defining characteristics that separate it from other major MMORPGs.

Some of the key differences between Runescape and other popular online rpg games are that most online games like Runescape require you to download and install a base version of the game or buy a CD from a gaming store. Where as Runescape is completely browser based and dosen’t require its gamers to install the game first. Runescape, unlike many other online games, also has a free version of their game. Many of the bigger MMORPG titles like World of Warcraft don’t offer a free version. Also with the exception of World of Warcraft there really aren’t any other MMORPGs that are similar in gameplay and have the number of player playing it.

So with that said if you are looking for a fairly similar rpg game like Runescape and are willing to pay a monthly membership fee, World of Warcraft is probably a good option along with some of the other major MMORPG titles - Guild Wars, Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest II, Lineage II and Final Fantasy XI. If you are not looking for an online game that is not similar to Runescape in gameplay style but is free and popular you could check out a few major titles listed in this Most Popular MMORPG list or check out some of the MMORPGs like Maple Story and Silkroad Online.

If you know any other pay to play or free online games like Runescape please feel free to mention them in the comments below.

So many players left Runescape because they felt that minus the ability to perform unbalanced trades combined with players having access to a very large supply pool via the GE it essentially made Runescape money making from the old way of merchanting impossible, or at least not worth the time. This resigned many players to the fact that the only way you could make good money in Runescape was now to just grind your way through skills like, mining, fishing, fletching, runecrafting etc something many players didn’t enjoy.

I’ll be honest and say that until I read Vaskor’s Runescape money making guide I too was quite resigned to the fact that making easy Runescape money was now virtually impossible, but apparently it’s not, and if anything is now even easier than before because a merchant’s ability to buy and sell is now much faster, thus saving time in regards to off loading your inventory, and doesn’t actually require you to be present for the trade (allowing you to get back to playing Runescape). The only downside is that the margins on many merchantable items is obviously much lower than it used to be, but it is still quite possible to make well over a million gold a day with little effort.

Principles of Making Easy Runescape Money on the GE

So the basic principles of Vaskor’s Runescape money making guide are:

• You’re looking to trade in items that are traded “moderately” rather than as a commodity so that there is some fluctuation in supply and demand through the day.
• You are looking you buy in BULK below the medium price, and sell in BULK above the price you purchased for. Obviously the trades can take quite awhile to complete.
• You need to take advantage of all 6 of your trading slots.
• Do your research - you need to monitor changes in prices and use your common sense to find bargains.
• Sometimes it pays to speculate on the increasing demand for products as a result of game changes. In these instances sometimes it pays to buy at slightly above the medium price and then attempt to sell at the high price on the expectation of growth in demand.

Most of these Runescape money making tips are pretty basic, but with so many things in life, making easy money isn’t about being a rocket scientist, it is just about a little bit of common sense combine with a bit of hard work. Best of luck making your Runescape millions.

Whilst it looks like Jagex have got on top of the Runescape money and gold selling industry, I still think that many real world traders will continue to plague Jagex not in the gols sellign context rather they will look to upscale their service to include poweleveling and selling runescape accounts. What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

Before I go any further I’d just like to point out that Jagex clearly have done probably the best job of all the MMORPGs in eliminating gold selling, and I commend them for what they have done. However, throughout this article I don’t really condemn or support Runescape gold selling, powerleveling services or Runescape account trading because I personally take the view that all these sorts of services are a result of increasing players demands for such things and that in principle where there are demands there generally needs to be reforms and going against strong player demands constantly is rarely a good business strategy in the long run.

It wasn’t so long ago that I was writing about the Runescape Gold Selling Problem and how I thought they could solve it considering there was actual evidence to suggest that despite their best efforts Runescape gold sales were continuing to grow. At the time I suggested that Jagex consider the option of selling gold themselves and profiting from the sales whilst essentially destroying the black market. I definitely didn’t see these recent changes that they were to implement a mere 6 months later. None the less they have achieved their primary objective of significantly reducing RWT.

Increases in Runescape Account Hackings

So whilst the ability for players to buy Runescape gold from RWT has been removed, it would seem that a new market has spawned – buying Runescape accounts and Runescape powerleveling services. These styles of services are much better known in the World of Warcraft industry. However I believe that these new style of services where players will be required to give their Runescape account details over to the companies providing the service will result in a number of scam websites offering similar services with the sole intention gaining Runescape account passwords with the intention of hacking Runescape accounts. Please protect your Runescape passwords so your don’t get hacked. Thankfully much has been done in recent times to reduce the effectiveness of Runescape hackers stealing items or an account itself, like bank pins and being unable to make unbalanced trades. Though obviously hiring these new sorts of services still comes at a great risk to an individual’s Runescape account, where as in the past the main risk was the few dollars you spent buying Runescape gold, assuming you are excluding the risk of being banned by Jagex for engaging in such practices.

Increases in Buying Runescape Accounts Ready Made

So whilst I imagine most Runscapers are not willing to give over their Runescape account passwords to powerleveling and gold farming services, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an increase in the number of people buying Runescape accounts that have already been setup with certain amounts of gold, skills and having completed certain quests. Obviously this will probably a lot more expensive than buying Runescape gold, but I’m sure there will definitely be a market there, especially amongst older players who really don’t have the necessary time to develop their characters. When you consider that many Chinese gold farmers are probably not paid much more than $1 an hour you could probably buy a character with 60 in every stat for around $1,000 I’d assume.

Increase in the Selling of Runescape Accounts

On the topic of buying Runescape account, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if a number a new sites selling unwanted Runescape accounts start popping up. I mean with so many Runescapers constantly quitting the game, it makes sense that many of them may look to attempt to gain financially from all the hard work they have put into their characters, and I’m sure with new Runescape trade limitations essentially destroying the Runescape gold market that many of the previous Runescape gold buyers may well look to shortcut the whole process and just buy a high level Runescape account that has easy means of making money. So with both an increase in supply and demand for such transactions I wouldn’t be surprised if some Runescape account brokering firms start to emerge, much like the common day real estate agent. Obviously there are some complications with such things, but I think most of the complications could be alleviated if a somewhat “trustworthy” Runescape account broker was to emerge.

I know a lot of these ideas are quite speculative but I’d love to hear what you think on the issue. Please leave your comments below.

An interesting question that arises from these figures is, why are these search terms going against the general trend of the game, which has been going from strength to strength in recent years? Is it that players have begun to realise that there aren’t any really good Runescape cheats out there? Or are they are learning that using Runescape cheats will get you banned? Yet that doesn’t explain why players are searching for Runescape hacks at a fairly consistent rate when most players should have worked out by now that information on how to hack Runescape or how to hack Runescape characters is pretty much non-existent on the web.

The only theory that I can think of that partially justifies the downward trend of players searching for Runescape cheats and Runescape hacks is that it would appear in recent times players have refined their search terms when looking for ways to cheat Runescape, searching more often with terms like Runescape bots and for a Runescape auto which are more accurate to what they are actually after. These terms over the last 12 months have been trending up if anything:

With that said it is really interesting to note the distinct drop in the number of searches Runescape auto right before New Years 2008. I wonder if this has anything to do with the new trade restrictions or if this was just a natural flucation in the serach statistics that seems to happen around Christmas and New Years. What do you think?

The new trading rule states that if you are in F2P, you can only trade over 3k worth of stuff, or if you drop an item worth more than 3k, it will not appear on the ground. For P2P Players the maximum trade allowed is 30k If you have the quest points. The lootshare system is a way on runescape to share the loot between team members. When people go into a Clan Chat and put Lootshare On in a lootshare system world, once the team have killed a monster, and all members of the chat with lootshare on are in 10 spaces of the person, the loot is shared.

Many people know that the lootshare system may not be fair. Does anyone, bar Jagex, know the system. It seems that one day when your in a team, your luck is with all the drops, then the next day, you have no luck at all. Do we really know how the system works? And how do we get round in sharing the items?

In the past, the person who dealt the most damage to the monster in a team, gets the drop. Without lootshare on, the person who still does the most damage receives the drop. It was the same when we went Pking, whoever dealt the most damage to the guy, gets the loot. RuneScape brought out the lootshare system to prevent this, but has it just made this worse? Is it really easy for people to understand a complex system?

Take it from this point of view. Lets say your clan is going to go to the King Black Dragon. You all gear up, get into your clan chats and turn your lootshare on. As you walk up to the gate, lootshare is active. Once you go inside, you charge the KBD and kill it. You look at the lootshare system and it shows:

Magic Phil2 Recived 1 Dragon Bone
You Recived 1 Black D-Hide
Magic Phil2 Recived 1 Dragonic Vissage

You are happy for the moment, as your friend has found a rare item, The Dragonic Vissage. Then you realize and come to face reality, you can’t get a share of it. Yeah sure you can go Bounty Hunter and get somone to help share it, but then what if somone is hunting you down and find you? What if a Rogue comes and kills you after you get your share? Is it really worth the risk going to these places and not getting drops? Is it worth the risk of getting killed?

Also, the lootshare system has broken friendship’s and clans. Many people who get a drop are afraid of what it will do to there friends. How will they be treated after they get the drop? Will they still be your friend? Will they still kill monsters with you? Many people have experinced this and are upset. Has RuneScape made a system that breaks friends? Has RuneScape really thought the lootshare system out?

So, is it a good system, or a bad?