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Normally at this time of month we recap what was talked about during the last month, but today we’re going to talk about the last year! As has become tradition we have asked our writers and dear editor for their favourite articles and they delivered.

Going in alphabetical order we’ll be starting with Alex. Alex is our resident quester and story teller, Anachronia is laden with Dragonkin relics, his favourite personal article was A Dragonkin Story. It covers lore of the Dragonkin and some predictions on where this race may go in the future. His favourite article written by someone else comes from Cireon in the form of Untangling Spaghetti Code because in addition to other factors it was very relevant to Alex’s own personal growth as a programmer.

Speaking of Cireon, his favourite article written by a peer came from Tanis. RuneScape’s Road to Accessibility highlights where the game has been, what it does well, and what it can do better in terms of accessibility. As we saw with Alex, this list wouldn’t be complete without letting the writers talk about their own work. Cireon’s own personal favourite is Hunting My Own Treasures where he details forgoing Treasure Hunter and finding your own value in game!

David has built his reputation on being one who knows PvM but as with all things in life, balance is key. He chose to feature Alex’s A Dragonkin Story because of his love for epic quests and appreciation of lore. Personally though for him, it comes back to Elite Dungeon 3 – High Highs and Low Lows because on the whole it’s a balanced piece, reflects the content well, and a great deal of research went into the article.

2019 was a joy and filled with many great updates from my perspective but the two closest to my heart were 120 Farming and 120 Herblore. Because of this my favourite article written by someone else is David’s 120 Herblore and Farming Isn’t a Game Changer – And That’s Okay, it also happens to be Tanis’ favourite by a peer as well. All too often players get worked up if an update doesn’t change what they see as important or the high level crowd doesn’t get new toys — that was the main criticism of 120 Herblore; David explained why this is not a problem, both Tanis and myself agree with this. My own personal favourite is Jagex’x 2019 Victory Strategy because it’s still relevant today, notes were hit on this with major content releases in 2019, and it hammers home my successful content mantra, “This is RuneScape 3.” And last but certainly not least, Tanis’ own personal favourite was his RuneScape’s Road to Accessibility piece. This piece has been highlighted by Cireon already, Tanis feels this was his most in depth ever on this subject and it provides a springboard to move forward on the accessibility front.

A roundup of 2019’s articles wouldn’t be complete without hearing from the editor himself. So here’s what King Kulla had to say:

My pick for Informer article of the year for 2019 comes from Cireon, entitled “The Missing Filter”. In the article, Cireon details the importance of communication for a company like Jagex, and how it can be easy to tell if someone else is failing to communicate, but a very difficult trait to recognize of yourself. For example, rather than being concise with expectations of upcoming updates, Jagex can share explorations too early on livestreams, or meander off topic in the newsposts. In effect, they are losing control of their message, and this can cause confusion and anger from the playerbase over a change of plans or cancelled update. For an insight into how Jagex could have a better communications vision going into 2020, check out Cireon’s “The Missing Filter”, and indeed all the other writers’ articles on Informer as we step into a new decade of RSBANDB.

Before we get on the happy trail that is 2020 and begin excavating remains in a couple months or so, I’ll just mention the year wrap up that Update did. We had a fantastic 2019 in Review podcast where we covered combat, skilling, and best update of the year plus controversies and live streams. Give this one a listen if you want to hear about 2019 and how good the Mining and Smithing rework is.

Patreon supporters can also listen to our latest monthly bit, A Decade of RuneScape. Earth and David joined Tanis and myself to look at the decade that started off with Dungeoneering, saw EoC, the introduction of micro transactions, and the evolution of RuneScape to what it is today. Not many out there can say they’ve been there for that, so give this a listen!

We’ll be back in early February with a review of January’s articles!