Anyone who reads my articles knows I’m not a fan of Legacy Mode and the process that Jagex is using to bringing it back. I could write another article whining about that, but I won’t. Besides, it’s not horribly entertaining to hear the same stuff over and over. Instead I want to write an article about healing – acceptance, if you will. Since Legacy was mentioned I have been using the potent, mind-glue mantra of Disney’s Frozen: Let It Go. But one night I realized I am an incredible hypocrite. You see, I have clinged to a part of past Runescape. I myself struggle with moving on from something in game and I think it’s time I take my own advice.

In one of my very first articles I wrote for RSBandB I revealed my fondness for Dragon items and how sad it was to see these once great armour pieces fall out of favour. For older players like me they hold a special place in our history with the game. You gotta understand the situation. Back in 2005 there was only a handful of different armours. The dragon set was even more special because there were only a few pieces released. For the longest time we had the dragon med, d square shield, and the d chain. Those were the top dogs of armour. If you wanted to be a badass, you had to have those. And the d chain was a pipedream in those days, only the best of the best could afford that. That would be like making the price leap from Barrows to Nex gear today, and that was only for the one item! It took major work to get that kind of cash.

And so started my obsession. That dragon med… oh man. The day I bought one in Fally world 2 was a joyous day. The silliest part was it wasn’t even that great. But it didn’t matter. I had one and I didn’t take it off. Then dragon legs were released and again I had a goal: Keep scraping till I could afford it. As those fell out of favour when barrows came out I of course bought those sets, but my dragon items still remained and I did at least use them from time to time. Then the big announcement came – that one I had been waiting for. Nothing in Runescape ever had me as pumped as the day Dragon Full Helms were released. Again, you had to be in the time to understand my feeling. New dragon items were a joke. The spinning plate and the kite with a dragon on it were running gags and trolls by Jagex. No one expected any new dragon item to ever be released again. For me the DFH was the mac-daddy.  And with a price tag of 50M it fueled me like nothing else ever has in RS. It took me ages. Hell, 50M is expensive in today’s market, but back then it was bordering elitist price range. I got my DFH after many months of slaying and saving. I had to sell off my bank but it was finally mine and it may as well been glued on. Then the crash came. Only a month or so after I got my DFH the market was crashed when PvP worlds were released and these were dropped randomly for killing a player carrying a certain amount of cash value. People abused the system and the flood of helms to the market sent my 50M nestegg investment to an 8M pile of unicorn manure. Furious yet undaunted, I kept my helmet and worked to get the recently released dragon plate armour. Since then, that has been my go-to flashy gear. Full dragon complete with the gold ornamental trim. I was wearing relics as Bandos and Nex gear was released but I didn’t care. It was finally all mine and I worked so hard and waited so long.

Six years later I still had dragon armor in my bank. I’m maxed melee but I still had level 60 armor despite having and normally using better armor. I mean come on, I even have full Tetsu to use. By all accounts it is trash gear for my level (let’s be honest, it was always not great). The other night when I had my realization, I decided it was time. I was holding on to something I worked so hard for but was ultimately worthless bank space wasting gear. I needed to move on. I needed to grieve and come to terms with my loss. I needed to let it go.

I went through all the classic stages of coping with loss. This was pretty much my thought process. The first stage was denial. Dragon isn’t that terrible. I worked so hard to get it, I can’t let it go! Well, I’ll just put it up on the Grand Exchange, you know, just for kicks. WHAT? That’s all this stuff is worth anymore?! Oh God, the second stage. Anger. I wasted so much money! Damn Jagex for crashing the DFH! How could they forsake their once legendary armour set! Ok Rickles, get a grip. I mean, come on. Dragon is still pretty good. It’s a decent armour. It doesn’t degrade plus it looks awesome. Ok, now I’m bargaining – that’s stage three. Ugh… I can’t believe this. So much time and money wasted. Here’s stage four: depression. Imagine if I had put forth my money towards a Santa hat like I could have. My 50M could have been…130M. Oh why!

So then I sat there. I stared at the GE screen for a while. I’m not sure how long. The wheels in my mind were turning but there wasn’t an outcome. Then I came to a decision. I hit the sell button. I put the next piece of armor in and hit sell again. And again. And again. And again. Then it was all gone. I closed the window and closed Runescape. I finally reached the stage of acceptance.

The past couple of days have been interesting. I have been playing like I always have – getting on to do ports and my daily things. I don’t even miss my dragon armour. I guess that’s the way of knowing if you’ve truly moved on past something and I guess I have. I don’t think of the game any differently. In fact I have a renewed sense for the game. I guess I’m looking for my next obsession. Who knows, maybe that’s what you need to play this game for as long as I have. Look, I don’t know if this experience is relatable to something like the old combat style and Legacy. It doesn’t really matter because it’s coming back whether I like it or not. I guess I have to accept the facts on that, too. Oh hey, acceptance. That’s the final stage. Heh.