quests

How can you perform CPR on a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game? Simple! MMORPG CPR is, like the human version, a way to make a game live again.

Voila!

Now what exactly is the point of this article? You’ll just have to read on and see.

I was looking at the Behind the Scenes for January; Kalphite King, Hati and Skoll, Kharidian Desert Achievement Diary, Demon Flash Mobs(?), and of course(to my loathesome joy) Squeal of Failtune and Solomon’s Generally worthless Store.

Kalphite King…alright…

Kalphites are bugs, right. Insects? Not Mammals? With most insects, the females are the dominant ones and the ones that survive. Since the Kalphites are supposed to be insects, kind of like ants, it really makes absolutely no sense for there to exist a Kalphite King. But, throwing reality out the door, let’s humor ourselves. Currently we don’t know all that much about the Kalphite King. Of course when this article is published the Kalphite King may be released. We know it will be a new boss, probably accessed from the Kalphite Lair, that will likely be capable of killing a player in one hit. After all, they say he has the most damaging attack ever.

But, that’s not my beef with this pest. My beef is, Why do they have to release lots of high-level, team only, end game, uber hard, boss monsters? I am not saying this because I don’t like challenges or can’t fight some of the bosses they’ve released. I’ve fought with the best in multiple games and know I’m capable of it. The thing I don’t like about this is that it only appeals to certain people. It appeals to those people who like an insane challenge-and who also like combat. Skillers do not do this type of thing, usually. That is not at all to say they cannot, simply that they choose not to.

Now, I’m not against high level combat, I’m not against high level skilling. But lately it seems they have mostly been adding content that either requires high level skills, or requires intense combat. Both of these are good things. There are many popular games that have one or both of these.
But they are not Runescape things.

…I just lost my train of thought…

Oh well, moving on.
The Kalphite King is going to drop high level weapons, I’m sure these will be worth using considering the fight you’ll have to go through.

Now, while this fight with the new Kalphite King will probably be pretty good and the weapons will be worth millions, I’m kinda stumped on this one thing.

This is high level combat. Intense, high level combat. Most of the updates lately seem to be towards drawing people in. You know, getting more subscribers. Of course every game needs to do this, but Jagex has been doing so more lately.
The part that confuses me is, if you’re bringing new people in, why do you keep making so many high level quests and combat. Most of your new target base isn’t high enough yet. Unless…

Unless experience has been made so easy you can go from 0-60 in 5 seconds. Well, more like 4 to 190 in a week.

Back to reality?

CPR. Do you know CPR? I know MMORPG CPR. The question though is, does Jagex? We know they are hurting financially because they banned lots of bots, all those bots were members so that takes a lot of money out of their income. We also know that the recent few months of updates have been focused on getting new players in and getting more players to spend more than $5 a month on Runescape.

More money means better and more updates, right?
No, not necessarily. I know a low budget game that creates awesome content. Jagex is a high budget game a lately they have been giving…how should I say…’junk’ updates?
You disagree, I can see it. No problem. But, how many of the updates in the passed 6 months do you use or benefit from at least weekly? This includes all the SOF and Solomon updates.

Yea…less than 10%?

You can’t diet to permanently lose weight,
You can’t cut/raise taxes to permanently remove debt,
And you can’t increase membership/revenue by decreasing the quality or quantity or game updates,
Nor can you increase the quality or quantity of updates by increasing revenue.

You can’t do MMORPG CPR by suffocating the heart of the game. Only by feeding it, helping it breathe, can you accomplish CPR.

How do you do this?

Instead of making updates which shun your older(by older I mean long standing, not aged) subscribers, make ones that cater specifically to them. Not in loyalty programs, just in updates that mean something to them.
When your older subscribers enjoy the game they are more likely to invite their friends to it.
It has been proven that the most effective, most efficient, AND most cost effective form of advertising is (drum roll please)

Word. Of. Mouth.

Yes, YOU are much more likely to play a game if your friends play it. *I* am much more likely to play a game if my friends play it. HECK! I never would’ve played Runescape if my friend hadn’t suggested it.
I don’t know about you, but when I see an ad for a game whether on Steam or some other website, I don’t give it much mind UNLESS I know a friend plays it.
“It’s a new game, so what? I already play too many games to get into another one.”
BUT! If you know your friend plays the game, you’re more likely to try it out.

So, why does Jagex try to force its way to success when it was already very successful in previous years? I cannot answer that.

I would say to Jagex: Look back on the years past, 2005-2009, and see what updates you did. The updates you did back in those years were the awesomness, the 1337ness that was, Runescape.

But Jagex stopped doing updates like that and lost its 1337ness and its best players.

Concluding Remarks

Well it’s almost midnight and I’m very tired from a very long weekend. What does that have to do with this article? Nothing.

Jagex has been trying to do CPR on Runescape – and itself as a company – for the past 2-3 years. They have mostly failed and the game’s critical life signs have been slowly but surely going downhill. The game may be alive and running, but it’s really just in a comma.

If they want to wake it from this coma then they need to talk to it and ask it what it wants. I find it hard to believe that the Runescape community wants all of these recent updates. If they do, then maybe Runescape is destined to remain on life support. I think the heart of Runescape wants to see the days of old. Not necessarily exactly everything from 5 years ago, but the same kind. Meaningful updates. Quests that continue quest chains people love and are familiar with. Weapons that have their purpose, but aren’t hands down better than other weapons. Skills that are useful, but not time consuming or money sinks. Mini-games and activities that give more fun than experience.

Make it so that players want to love RuneScape, not just _play it.