June 18, 2010

There are two words that I find cringeworthy in Runescape.

1) Fair. As in “No fair, I don’t have level 70 and I want to use an SGS” or “It’s not fair that he has more money” or “no fair, I died”. You can come up with your own. First of all, tough. Secondly,most of the time when people say things are unfair what I hear is “It’s not easy for me” or “I don’t want to work that hard to do it”. Runescape is incredibly fair. Much more fair then real life. In Runescape I start out at the exact some point as everyone else. How I chose to use my time is different then how anyone else uses theirs. But different is not unfair. Different is different.

What I appreciate about RS is that I’m not forced to be in a specific template-Human Paladin Circus Clown or Dwarf Ranger Acrobat. Therefore there is no default that lets one group have an advantage over another. If you want a pack yak you can go train and get one. Nothing is stopping you (well, maybe your parents) from doing so. No choice prevents you from a path except for the choice of how you spend your time.

I know a guy who chose to train his way to 99 Attack via experiments, armored zombies and a couple of other things. He wanted to get it as fast as he could. Now he complains about it being unfair that he’s poor. It’s not unfair. You can have money or speed, rarely both.

2) Luck or Lucky. “oh you have 91 runecrafting? lucky!” or “Jad is just about luck” or “I never get anything good, I’m so unlucky”. A lot of times when I hear people get called lucky I want to strangle the person saying it. 91 runecrafting is not about luck, nor is 85 slayer or any other skill. It’s about grinding out the skill. To say it’s luck is insulting to the person doing the work. My friends who have high levels (however you want to define that) aren’t lucky. They worked at that skill past the point most people do and are relatively higher. Jad is about luck? Really? So the guy with the youtube video with like 12 fire capes is super lucky? I doubt it, I’m guessing he’s worked on his skill of killing Jad.

Does luck play a role in Runescape? Certainly. Some people get better drops/clues then others. So yes, there is a luck element to it. But in RS (as in RL) luck tends to happen to those who prepare the best. Sure, you could win the lottery. But most people I know with a lot of money worked at it very hard. They were “lucky” because they had laid out the groundwork to take advantage of opportunities as they arose.

Side note:

At this point I've gotten one dragon skirt drop, one dragon legs drop, 3 god platebody things from clues....and that's about it. Combined not even 5 million in high end drops. (Many many millions in all the other random stuff). I've got 90 Slayer all other combat at 89 or 90. That's a lot of combat there with more to come. And along the way I've been able to get nearly all my skills to 90 and beyond, I have the gear I need to do what I want to do. Nothing fancy mind you, but to be honest my playing style doesn't require anything fancy. I realize I'm different but my point is this, you can go far hitting a lot of singles and not hitting home runs for cash. It's a different mindset then others but it's very effective and never boring.