It seems like just yesterday everyone was frantically trying to collect as many charms as possible for the just released skill, Summoning. But in reality it was over 11 months ago.

I know for atleast for me and alot of other people time seems to past so quickly. A game of Castle Wars feels like, “What, we’re done already?”. Stealing Creation seems be fast paced training which is over in a minute, though in reality it has been 20.

We received many useful and ‘cool’ updates this year. Some of the most expected updates being the addition of the new skill Summoning, PvP Worlds where nearly the whole world is cut-throat, the long awaited and expectant Dragon Platebody, and a HD or ‘High Definition’ version of RuneScape.

Jagex recently ran a poll asking Members what their 7 favorite updates were in different categories. I’ll list the top three choices in each of these 7 categories here.

Question 1 – What was your favourite quest of 2008?
While Guthix Sleeps – 17% (6859 votes)
Wolf Whistle – 15% (6016 votes)
I have not played any of these quests 12% – (4750 votes)

Question 2 – What was your favourite non-quest update of 2008?
PvP Worlds – 15% (5874 votes)
Bank Update, tabs and search function – 12% (4777 votes)
Summoning – 11% (4202 votes)

Question 3 – What was your favourite new item in 2008?
Dragon platebody – 22% (8808 votes)
Dragon claws – 17% (6889 votes)
Slayer helm – 14% (5550 votes)

Question 4 – What has been your favourite graphical update of 2008?
Texturing (RuneScape HD) – 37% (14737 votes)
Fullscreen mode – 20% (8004 votes)
Emote animations – 10% (4187 votes)

Question 5 – What was your favourite new music of 2008?
Other – 42% (16918 votes)
Animal Apogee-Wolf Whistle 10% (3868 votes)
Zombie Invasion-Defender of Varrock – 3% (1308 votes)

Question 6 – What was your favourite website update of 2008?
Grand Exchange database – 45% (18190 votes)
Streamlined log-in, moving World Select and Detail Select functions in-game – 25% (10187 votes)
Other – 7% (2665 votes)

Question 7 – Which of the following was your favourite website feature of 2008?
Other – 30% (11989 votes)
Christmas cards – 15% (5846 votes)
Wallpaper, Barrows Brothers Before the Fall – 14% (5409 votes)

Quests

With the addition of While Guthix sleeps we also received the long awaited and much desired Dragon Platebody. Jagex kept with their mathematical progression on its statistics but in doing so made the Dragon Platebody worse then a Torag’s, Dharok’s, or Guthan’s body armor. Because of this, not many players want the platebody anymore. It is now mainly an item of status, like the Dragon Chainbody used to be. Now that there is a Dragon Platebody which doesn’t require the completion of a quest to wear, the Dragon Chainbody will likely lose its status value and thus also lose its cash value. It will most likely be used mainly as an item for looks when people want the dark red color of Dragon metal but also want to see their arms.

Wolf Whistle was the beginning of the much anticipated skill Summoning, which allowed players to summon a familiar to follow behind them and fight, give bonuses in combat, and grant other useful abilities or bonuses to skills. Many people though this new skill would actually be called Necromancy, or some other variation of the word ‘Necromantic’. The reason behind this idea was because Jagex had added a Necromancer called Malignus Mortifier when they released the Swan Song quest. When seen in-game, he was trying to summon undead or other evil minions. He’ll sometimes summon a Zombies or a Ghost which will follow him around for a few minutes as he walks around. Sometimes his spells fail and he creates only mushrooms.

Now if you haven’t played any of these quests I have but one thing to say…Stop reading this article and go do one of them! Now.

Non-Quests

PvP Worlds (or Player versus Player Worlds for long) were greatly desired by PKers (AKA, Player Killers) after the removal of the Wilderness. The Wilderness was removed due to Real World Item Traders killing each other in order to trade items. The reason they went into the wilderness to kill each other to trade is because Jagex changed the trading system so that a player could only gain or lose a certain amount dependent upon how many Quest Points they had. I will not go into how they did this illegal trading-killing because it is both against the rules and now impossible to do.

The Bank Update, allowed players to categorize their items in up to 8 tabs as well as granting them a search feature. The search feature can be extremely useful if your bank is uncategorized or if you just want to find something quickly. Some people hoped that this update would bring the addition of more bank space, unfortunately that was not the case.

Summoning was one of the most anticipated and desired updates of the early year. It was originally planned to launch late in 2007 but was unable to do so. Instead it was released on January 15th of this year.

New Items

The Dragon Platebody was another highly desired addition this year, however it was also a let down. Many people hoped it would beat the Barrows armor, as you would think an item of such great Legend would, but it didn’t. As I said above, the Dragon Chainbody will likely now lose a good bit of its value due to it not being so much of a status item.

The Dragon Claws were an interesting addition which not many saw coming. Unfortunately I have not yet been able to get my hands on a set so I cannot say much about them. Their special attack hits four times and has a good chance of dealing a significant amount of damage, so the RuneScape Manual says.

The Slayer Helm was by far the most useful item for anyone who likes Slayer. It combines the repelling effects of a Spiny Helm, the Hearing protection of Earmuffs, the Respiratory protection of a Face Mask, and the Nose protection of a Nosepeg with the damage bonus of a Black Mask into one single moderate defense helm. It allows a player to have added bonus damage when fighting Hands in the Wall, Banshees, Dust Devils in the Smokey Well, and Aberrant Spectres. Because the Slayer Helms acts as both Earmuffs and a Face Mask, it can be used to fight the high level Banshees below Pollnivneach.

Graphics

The High Definition version of RuneScape was another largely anticipated update of this year. Many players wanted the graphics of RuneScape to match that of the famous games Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, and many others. Jagex, however, had not though much of the graphics department until more and more people were suggesting graphical changes. Jagex looked into this and now we have RuneScape HD.

The Full Screen addition was over desired. Many people thought it would make RuneScape seem like the popular games mentioned above. Though it comes close, you can still tell the difference between the two. Jagex may try to make RuneScape more like World of Warcraft and many other games but I don’t think they’ll ever be able to truly match them. They would have to launch a new RuneScape, RuneScape 3 which required the players to download a client which required time to update before allowing the player to play. Many players may like this, however I think the majority would rather like to play whenever they want than have to wait for updates to be installed.

The Emote Animations weren’t a big update, though they were largely liked. They made the player move more freely when performing an emote. This update was also the beginning of more emotes to come.

Music

I’m not quite sure what I can say about the new musics. A large amount of people don’t play with the RuneScape musics and sounds on. They usually have their own music playing. I enjoy some of the RuneScape tracks, however most of the ones I like are from previous years.

Website Updates

The addition of the Grand Exchange Database allowed players to check the price of an item without logging into RuneScape and going to the Grand Exchange in Varrock. This was a welcome addition not only to players but to fansite owners also. As it allowed them to get current market values of items.

The revamping of World selection and Graphical detail selection had mixed responses. Many people enjoyed the speed in which you could now log in. However many also disliked the change because they felt it harder to find your favorite world and the detail you want. Thankfully, Jagex added two favorites options, allowing a player to choose two worlds that they could quickly log in to. If the RuneScape game engine detects that your computer cannot handle the new graphics settings then it will automatically change you over to the old Graphics. One useful change that could be done to this update would be that your first favorite world is always selected for login. Currently, though your two favorite worlds are shown there, if you just hit ‘Log In’ then you’ll be put onto a random world.

OTHER?! I can’t talk about other! If I was to talk about some other thing then you could find me talking about the bug with the Attack, Defense, and Strength skills or who knows what. Let’s just stick to the subject at hand, shall we?

Website Features

I told you not to talk about ‘Others’….But if you insist….

*Hours later*

And that’s the bug about Attack, Defense, and Strength. Now, where were we? Oh yes, the

Christmas Cards. There’s probably a million of these flying around this time of year, but how many of them are Jagex’s? The four Christmas Cards put out by Jagex this year are cool, noble, cute, and sweet. First we have a scene of Jack Frost showing his Dad how cool he is. Then we have a scene looking down at the White Knight’s bridge and Falador Rising Sun bar in Falador. Seriously, have you ever seen a White Knight with a spear? Next we have a picture of Bob, the Jagex cat, sleeping by a cozy wood fire with a Santa hat and some holly. The last card looks like something you may see in a classic Christmas story book. I must say, the quality on these is fairly decent.

The Barrows brothers wallpaper was well liked, but how many people are actually using it? I don’t know, but it is a good wallpaper if you like seeing RuneScape figures whenever your computer boots up.

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All in all this year was very eventful for RuneScape. I hope for another good year of updates in 2009.

Merry Christmas! and a Happy New Year!