development

I feel like I just wrote one of these. Like, you know, last year. Except now it’s this year, and it’s the end of this year. Am I going crazy or is time just going VRRRRRRROOOOM bye? Eh, I blame work. When you enjoy doing what you do, time just flows on.

So, what happened in Runescape this year? Well, nothing much. Things were relatively calm and slow this year as the folks of Jagex worked on some nice quality of life changes and making the ELDER GODS ATTACK RUNESCAPE AND THREATEN ALL LIFE ON IT HOLY SMOKES THINGS ARE GETTING FREAKIN’ NUTS! You know it’s bad when the Gods themselves all team up and you end up literally fighting stuff alongside all the God Wars 1 and 2 bosses. Next thing we know, we’re going to have Vorago, Telos, and Solak all ganging up, stacking on one another like a totem pole, and punching Jas’ face in.

Things are getting pretty crazy in Runescape, and it’s super exciting! We got 4 epic, unique bosses to mess around with, one of which was a skilling boss that was teased during the 2013 Runefest. Yeah, 8 years in the making. Think that’s wild? I personally conversed with Mod Mark Gerard during that and he told me why Runescape on mobile was but a pipe dream, and look at where we are today! It can take a while, but by golly the folks of Jagex deliver! We’re going to see some pretty epic stuff in these coming days quest-wise. And world-event-wise. The Elder Gods are awake and active, and we jacked their eggs from them, and they are cheesed! How are we ever gonna handle it?

And after it’s handled, what happens next? Will we see an even bigger threat than the Elder Gods themselves? So big we end up TEAMING UP WITH THEM AS WELL?!

Whew! So much escalation! But then, that’s been Runescape’s formula since the start.

The game itself has progressed as one big giant story throughout the years. Updates left and right, 3 entire revisions of the gaming engine, a number of spinoffs like Darkscape and Old School Runescape, and some very gutsy game-changing moves like the ban on trading and immense bot-detection algorithm. I’ve watched the team build up from a few brothers in a basement to an entire Cambridge Headquarters. just the passion and energy gone into such an immensely developed game is staggeringly inspiring, and if you’ve yet to be convinced, they’ve made videos and books detailing all of this for those who, unlike me, didn’t start playing back in 2001.

Back then, Runescape was HARD. There was no make-x, you have to manually click everything, you were locked in combat for 3 turns and couldn’t eat during it… for a while, you couldn’t even see how much exp you had, and levels came seemingly at random. Did that make the game better? Where you gathered resources and grinded in the mere hope that it would be enough, and when you did finally get the level, it comes as a great surprise and achievement? I’ll let you think on that.

And look where we are now! So much content that it would take years just to experience it all! YEARS! You ever see a [recent] max-cape or master quest-cape speed-run? Nope! And this is why!

20 years now. The game’s existed for 20 years. 20 years of development, of build-up, of content creation. I mean, that’s gotta be a world record at this point; I don’t even think WoW has had this much effort put into it.

My props and cheers to you, fellow scapians, for joining me in this whirlwind of exploration, grinding, and achievement. What’ll next year bring? I have no idea, and I don’t want to know. I hate spoilers. I wanna see what happens as it comes, because that’s how stories work.

Also I finally got my Completionist Cape this year after 20 years of gaming. Yeah, I’m a super casual. Will I get it trimmed? Maybe in another 20 years.

Until next year,

Cheers, cannoneers!