Mr Bistro

The high scores table for RuneScape was something that I used to spend hours upon hours looking at. Imagining myself growing to the top and fantasizing about it as a kid. Today like most things, the high scores have become over complicated and filled to the brim making people that want to strive for the top unable to do so.

For those who have played RuneScape for years, the names like Gert Jarrs, King duffy, and of course Zezima have made their name known through their hard work of skilling and combat to best themselves as number one on the high scores table. I have to ask the question: Who is at the top now?

There are so many people that have gone all the way on the high scores now that the front page is nearly full of capped exp players. Suomi was to be the first, but in an act of protest stopped himself by one exp point and left RuneScape 3. Since then 16 players have claimed capped experience on the high scores board.

Many people were not in favor of the prestige system that was thrown out as an idea by Jagex. An idea that I wish was still implemented despite all the negative remarks. A high scores table that would never end and continue to get harder to accomplish. To me, being a chaser of high score fame, would have loved to see something like that. Especially if it worked in the way the ironman high scores do. Separate, but there for the ones who really want it to be.

In saying that, I feel I contradict myself when I talk about the high scores being too complicated. They still are and here is why. Clicking on the high scores does not send me to the actual board, but a title page showing me the top 3 players on each of the boards. On the top of the page is a series of tabs showing the different boards and on the bottom, clickable tabs for the same boards, but with descriptions. I could see this working better with a “Windows 8 style” interface where all the boards are in tile form like on the bottom of the page.

I logged into the website all the time to check myself against friends and now I have to go past the title page before I can even do that. This is an unnecessary hoop that I have to jump through. The core to all these high scores issues and website issues in general is that Jagex doesn’t put nearly as much work into the website as they should. I will admit that it has become flashy, but it has sacrificed the simplicity that the older versions used to have. In 2008 I used the best version of the RuneScape website, everything was easy to find and was set up like a basic forum site with news postings running down the right and the side bar on the left. Why did this have to change so much?

I feel that Jagex should look into ways that they can update their website. Here is what should be different:

One of the first things that should be updated is the forums. They have been a mess for years now and Jagex knows this and have stated it themselves. I know that it will be an undertaking, but with the hard work comes good reward like more reliable feedback, more forum activity, and more likely than not a more condensed and easy to navigate server. I don’t like to have to put in quick find codes and that is something that I think Jagex could work around.

The whole site layout should be more simplified so users can get to and find the news updates or the high scores and clan pages in an easier way. Super big and flashy websites aren’t always the best thing. I would like to see a new method of news and update storage so I can click on a specific year, and then a specific month to bring me right to the articles that I want to read instead of searching for half an hour to find it.

Though there are many other parts to the site that I would like to see updates on, I will not cover them all here. I will finish it off by once again going over the high scores, my once favorite part of the website.

One big fix should be that the high scores sends me to the title page with the tiles that I have talked about earlier. But arriving at the high scores, only the tile portion of the website should change making the page remain dynamic as well as always allowing for a player to find themselves or rate themselves on another players account.

If logged in, the site should find the players location on each of the boards that they are looking at and make it an option in the page number search at the bottom of the scores so I can always just click on it and see how I am against players closest to my exp and level.

Seasonal high scores, I don’t need a second title screen for the seasonal, I would like to just see a page that has the first 10 results for each seasonal score on one page, and them allow me to click into the one that I want to be a part of or am curious about. It doesn’t need the second title screen.

Yes I feel that I was a little on the rant side of things in this article, But I care about more than just the game, and I feel that the website is part of the experience as well. When it becomes more difficult, it keeps the new players away, and I feel that there are too many of those things happening in and out of game right now. Jagex, please show some love for the newer players, make things simple and help them learn the ropes both in and out of the game so they can enjoy it to its fullest early on.