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RuneScoop.com  9  The RuneScoop Soapbox - Opinion and Commentary on RuneScape and Beyond

The RuneScoop Soapbox - Issue #1 - The Grand Exchange Economy, Part I - "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us" The RuneScoop Soapbox - Issue #3 - Why They Say You Don’t Play

Published: January 13, 2010

Warning: Contains mild spoilers for the quest Nomad’s Requiem.

Oh boy, here we go again.

It seems that every time Jagex releases a new quest that has any sort of reasonably high prerequisites, or poses any type of challenge, whining about capes starts up in earnest. Small but noisy groups of players who currently own the quest achievement cape and think that it is in mortal peril resume their plaintive chants: “The requirements are too high!” “The quest is too hard!” “If I get those levels it will wreck my pure!” And along with the moaning comes the demand that these alleged problems be “fixed” immediately (if not sooner).

And so it was with the release this week of Nomad’s Requiem. This time, for a change, most of the complaints were not the childish “pures” expecting the world to revolve around their efforts to exploit weaknesses in the combat level calculation. Instead, it’s been about the difficulty of the quest, especially the boss fight at the end. Some players started the quest, got beat by the boss, and did what they always do—run straight to “mommy” and demand that the challenge be made, well, less challenging. After all, if they can’t finish the quest, they lose their quest cape! Not fair!

Let’s start with a little secret: the boss fight isn’t really that hard. Sure, he hits for a lot of damage, and it requires plenty of supplies to beat him. So what? It’s a grandmaster quest where the fight is pretty much the only debatable challenge at all—were you expecting a rock crab? Jagex has balanced out his attacks by making the guy much easier than he should have been in a variety of ways. First of all, he tells you what he’s going to do before he does it. Should a boss really even do that? Second, his special attacks all come in a predictable, repeated sequence, with plenty of time to prepare. And third, some of his attacks can be dodged anyway.

If all that weren’t enough, Jagex added in a real gift to players: they took all the danger out of the fight, courtesy of a (cheesy, IMO) gravestone spawn right next to the bank if you die. Some would argue that a fight with no danger and no risk of loss is not a truly challenging fight, but more like a combat-related puzzle. And I would agree with them.

Even the developer of the quest feels it should have been more difficult. And I agree with him as well.

But that’s not really what this editorial is about. It is about the attitude that some players seem to have about quests, and especially the stupid quest cape. It seems that some players have come to believe that if they have ever owned the quest cape, that being able to wear it is forever more is their right. And that Jagex should arrange things so that are never be faced with the prospect of temporarily being without it.

Well, poppycock, I say! The quest cape is not an entitlement – it is a symbol that indicates that you have completed all the quests in the game. Not just the ones you find easy or fun to do or you have the levels to complete. All of them. And that means the quests as Jagex intended them to be, complete with—in some cases—difficult requirements and serious challenges. And it is only natural that as the game evolves, that will mean tougher quests, because otherwise the game would get boring, and the cape wouldn’t mean much anyway. (Does anyone view a fire cape with as much awe today as they did several years ago?)

The idea that Jagex should dumb down its quests for the sake of those who want to retain their quest capes is putting the cart before the horse—or in this case, the cape before the quest. They should pay absolutely no attention to the quest cape in designing quests. None.

Yesterday I heard rumors that “nerfing” the quest was being considered. This would have been a bad precedent that would have led to even more whining and complaining over future quests. I have to give Jagex mega-kudos for denying these rumors, saying clearly that they will not be making the quest easier just for the sake of making it easier.

To the whiners, I say simply this: if you are really that desperate to have a quest cape, then earn it. Fight Nomad a couple of times, learn his attacks and how to best deal with them. Try some different strategies, because that does matter. Or, here’s a radical thought: level up some skills. If all that fails, I assure you that within a week or two, every fan site will have detailed instructions telling you exactly how to beat this guy.

I guarantee that in no time we’ll see players with combat levels well below 100 wearing the quest cape again. And seeing them, we’ll then get to read a large number of complaints that the quest was too easy. You’ll see.

The RuneScoop Soapbox - Issue #1 - The Grand Exchange Economy, Part I - "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us" The RuneScoop Soapbox - Issue #3 - Why They Say You Don’t Play