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Acknowledgments The RuneScoop Soapbox - Issue #1 - The Grand Exchange Economy, Part I - "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us"

In addition to having a great deal of practical information about RuneScape that I’m in the process of documenting here on this site, I also have many opinions and comments that I want to share with you. (I’m the proverbial opinionated bastard.) Unlike many other sites, RuneScoop is completely independent, which makes it an essential source for hearing the unvarnished truth about controversial issues. I always endeavor to be fair and to base my views on facts and evidence, while having no qualms about tackling serious issues head on.

Some of the editorials in this section, which I am calling issues and numbering sequentially, will be simple comments about RuneScape gameplay. Others will delve into deeper issues, ranging from game design to community problems to the greater RuneScape community and beyond. I hope that you will find these articles worthy of your time, even if you don’t agree with everything I have to say.

Here are the Soapbox issues at present. I will be continuing to add many more in the coming weeks:

• Issue #1 - We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us (January 8, 2010): Having reached the second anniversary of the removal of free trade from RuneScape, I relaunch the Soapbox with the first in a series of articles on what I call the "Grand Exchange Economy". I'll be looking back at how well the GE has fulfilled its potential, its good points and bad points, and some of the problems it has and how they can be corrected. I start not in the place most expect—pointing the finger at Jagex—but rather by looking at how players also bear responsibility for the scourge of merchanting clans and price manipulators that plagues the economy today.
  
  
• Issue #2 - Putting the Cape Before the Horse (January 13, 2010): Jagex should not design or alter quests based on the whining of players who have come to believe that the quest cape is some sort of an entitlement. Because it isn’t. Oh, and the new quest isn’t that hard anyway.
  
  
• Issue #3 - Why They Say You Don’t Play (January 19, 2010): High level players sometimes accuse Jagex developers of not playing their own game. This comment is unfair, but there’s a kernel of truth to it—it represents the frustration felt by players who believe that the company introduces content that it wouldn’t if its developers played the game seriously.

Acknowledgments The RuneScoop Soapbox - Issue #1 - The Grand Exchange Economy, Part I - "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us"