The RuneScoop Soapbox

In a recent dev blog, Jagex outlined development in the works to improve and enhance Dungeoneering in a number of ways. Many of these look very promising. Unfortunately, they did not mention any plans to correct the problems with binding in Daemonheim.

As I was writing my extensive guide to Dungeoneering, I experienced first hand just how limited the current system is. You get one bind slot to start, another at level 50, a third at level 100 and a fourth at 120. Most players are never going to get to level 100 in this skill, which effectively means that they will never be able to get more than two bind slots.

In my view, this is a problem. It’s not because I think this makes Dungeoneering too difficult—in fact, I think the skill is pretty well balanced difficulty-wise in most respects. What I dislike about it is that it makes binding very one-dimensional.  (Well, since there’s two slots, I guess I should say two-dimensional…)

Whenever you severely restrict something, people react by concentrating on the basics. And so most players, realizing they have only two slots to play with, naturally fill them with items that will be of the most general benefit, and help them the most overall as they go through the dungeons. For the vast majority, this means binding a high-level melee weapon for their first slot, and a high-level melee platebody for their second. Not everyone does this, but nearly everyone does.

As a consequence, nearly all of the other items in Daemonheim are never bound, because it simply doesn’t make sense to do so. I mean, I like to mage sometimes, and having a high level staff bound would be great, but I won’t use it as much as my spear. I also like having a leather body with high magic defence, but I find when I bind that I am often a liability in a team setting, so I go back to melee. I have never encountered a player with magic robes bound, for example.

This also means most of the “cool” drops from bosses have a lifespan measured in seconds: from when the item is received until the players hit the ladder to move on to the next dungeon. This includes even obviously useful items. I once got a primal plateskirt and would have liked to have kept it, but its stats weren’t as good as my promethium platebody, so why would I? And off it went, like nearly everything else I get from bosses.

The same applies to all of the nifty Slayer items, nearly all of which go to waste. Even cool items like the seeker’s charm or guardian’s ward are virtually never going to be bound, because doing so means giving up a good weapon or the only piece of real armor that can be bound.

The obvious solution to this would seem to be to increase the number of binding slots, but there are two problems with this. First, there are valid concerns about this making Dungeoneering too easy due to players having “everything they need” as soon as they enter the floor. And second, it doesn’t really resolve the “bind the most generally useful items” problem—most players would just do the same thing with their third and fourth slots that they did with the first two.

My idea is to keep the existing bind slots the same and add a new system of temporary binding. The idea here is to expand binding by building upon the existing prestige system. As you progress through the dungeon floors, you’d be able to bind additional items, which would last only until you reset. A scaling XP penalty would apply to balance out the advantage this would give to players using it.

The exact details would need to be adjusted based on gameplay testing, which obviously I cannot do, but here’s how I roughly envisioned it working.

You’d be able to temporarily bind one item for every 10 levels of current progress. So, that would be one item after you do 10 floors on a prestige run, two items at 20 floors, and so on, up to five items at level 50. These would be separate from permanently bound items, and would disappear whenever you reset your progress. An XP penalty would be applied on each floor equal to the square of the number of items temporarily bound: -1% for one item, -4% for two items and so forth.

This system has the following specific advantages:

• Players get more bind slots without becoming permanent walking powerhouses.
• The penalty scales up with the number of items bound: each additional bind costs more than the one before it. This means the first couple of binds are pretty cheap, but as you go beyond that, it becomes a trade-off that players have to consider seriously.
• Players can “tinker with” rare drops and special items without having to give up their permanent binds.
• Interesting items will get much more use and the skill will become more dynamic.
• There will be more variety in playing style; because items will disappear on each reset, runs through the dungeon will change in another way beyond just the randomness of the floors themselves.
• Players who use the prestige system as intended get an intrinsic reward (rather than just the threat of a penalty if they repeat floors).

I think this is a win-win for all concerned and hope Jagex will consider it!

After much contemplation and soul-searching, I have made the decision to transition RuneScoop from primarily a “pay for content” subscription site to a “pay to show support” voluntary membership model. Instead of having much of the site off-limits to everyone but members, all of the content is now freely accessible. Membership remains, but is not something that is purchased to get content, but rather to support the site and gain certain perquisites.

I realize that this is a somewhat controversial move and wanted to explain why I did it, especially to those who have been good enough to buy membership so far. The simple answer is that there weren’t enough of you. RuneScoop has now been active for around six months and the membership in the site is still only around 100 individuals. And while I have greatly appreciated your support, it’s just not enough to keep the site going and growing.

The idea of making a premium information site where most content is accessed only by paying for it was a risky one to begin with. The simple reality is that most RuneScape players simply do not have the disposable income to spend money not only on RuneScape membership but also on a site like this one. While the content is universally lauded as being high in quality, there still weren’t very many people willing to pay for it.

Upon doing some informal market research, I discovered that most of those buying membership were not doing so based mainly on a logical weighing of the cost of membership against the benefits of the content. Rather, the majority just wanted to support me and the site, and encourage me to continue writing more material.

At the same time, I was beginning to feel discouraged by the small membership numbers, not just for financial reasons, but because I really wanted more people to benefit from the information I have to offer. The small volume of the site was also self-defeating in terms of efforts to get the site financial support through advertising.

Accordingly, I am now viewing membership more as something readers buy to show solidarity with the site and to gain specific perqs, rather than to get content. Members don’t get access to content that non-members do not, but they do get ad-free browsing, access to my “Inside Scoop” investment blog, custom user title in the RuneScoop forums and other benefits. They also still get my genuine gratitude!

With this change I have also removed many of the “nag” and “salesman” messages on the site encouraging players to buy membership. There is no more box on the free site suggesting that players become members – I want people do this only if they want to. I have also eliminated monthly memberships, as they don’t really make sense in this model, they cost twice as much as annual memberships, and they were an administrative headache. (Over the next day or two I will be going into Paypal and canceling existing monthly subscription profiles.)

I realize that this is a fairly significant change, and one that some current members might be unhappy with. I really do appreciate those of you who did step up and become members over the last six months, and I can understand that some of you may think it is not worth remaining members now that the content is all free. If that’s the case, please contact me and I will offer you a “generously prorated” refund of your membership, by which I mean I will refund not only the unused months but the value of the current and previous month as well. The same applies to anyone who is currently on a monthly membership.

Thanks again to everyone for your understanding and support.

Charles

Sorry to the few legitimate people who wanted to comment on this blog, but due to the massive quantities of spam comment notifications flooding my inbox, I have had to turn commenting off.

Feel free to join the RuneScoop forums and post any comments you may have there in an existing or new thread.

Thanks for understanding.

Most of the concern about and opposition to the idea of beta testing for RuneScape seems to be based on issues related to Jagex’s ability to implement such a program while simultaneously maintaing secrecy about upcoming changes. A lot of players seem to be incredibly worried that implementing a beta program will give those involved in the program an “unfair advantage”. There also seems to be a general consensus among the anti-beta crowd that Jagex somehow is dealing with a unique set of circumstances here.

A thorough discussion of all of these issues would take far more time than I have available at the moment. But I do want to throw out a few points for consideration. While you’re not really supposed to number points in an essay, I will put convenience over custom and do so anyway.

1. There is nothing that unique or special about Jagex or RuneScape when it comes to secrecy or security. RuneScape may be a special game, and Jagex a special company, but the design, development and implementation of RS is no different than the process used by hundreds of other companies to make hundreds of other software products. Whatever the issues that are raised, all of these other companies have had to deal with them. And they all have, with very, very few concluding that they had to never implement a beta testing program because of those concerns.

2. Jagex already has ways of ensuring secrecy. This isn’t Andrew and Paul Gower in a garage somewhere designing features and updates. It’s a company with hundreds of people, and I doubt there is anything either planned or in progress within Jagex that isn’t known by dozens of people, including many who are not directly involved. Despite this, real leaks about upcoming features and changes are very rare. Clearly, Jagex already knows how to ensure security in this regard.

The obvious response is to then say that it’s different when you are dealing with players versus employees. To that I say: why is that necessarily so? Sure, employees have something to lose if they violate a confidence, and perhaps more than a regular player ever could. But it is very possible to do the same thing with beta testers: give them a carrot to keep the secrets they have promised, while holding a stick in reserve for those cases where they do not.

There is nothing magical that transforms someone from untrustworthy git to saint by virtue of receiving a Jagex paycheck.

Most Jagex employees have regular accounts. How does Jagex prevent them from taking unfair advantage? Either they have a way, in which case it can be deployed here as well, or they don’t, in which case it obviously doesn’t really matter that much.

3. There are already trusted groups of RuneScape players. Would Jagex just pull random people off the street to hire as employees and share private information with? Of course not. And they shouldn’t, and needn’t, do that with beta testers either.

Nobody in favor of beta testing is suggesting they take applications from random players, or that people that Jagex knows nothing about should be allowed to enter such a program. Jagex already has groups of players that they entrust with power and information: player moderators and forum moderators. I believe there is also a forum for maxed out players, where some information is made available to which the average player is not privy.

These folks have already proven themselves to have at least a basic level of trustworthiness, or they wouldn’t be in their positions. And as reference in point #2, they have something to lose if they don’t do as they promise.

4. Risk of disclosure is not a justification for never allowing private information to leave a company. While some players may think that the idea of future updates being leaked would be some sort of unimaginable disaster, in the end it is just a few items changing in price in a game. There are tons of companies that use non-disclosure agreements to protect againt real potential financial loss if secrets are violated: we’re  talking about millions of actual dollars being on the line, not just millions of geepees. If they can find ways to make things work, so can Jagex.

5. The impact of potential leaks is severely overblown. Suppose Jagex implements a beta program, and one bad apple gets into the program and violates confidence. I don’t think this would really be the end of the world. It’s not so long ago that all updates were telegraphed via a “Behind the Scenes” posting at the start of every month. This didn’t exactly cause any major problems, and in fact, many players wish those announcements would return.

A more recent example of deliberate “leaking” of an upcoming event was the bonus XP weekend. And while that did cause distortions in the market and make a few items difficult to buy or sell for a while, it wasn’t the end of the world.

6. Bad updates and quicky fixes can be just as disruptive as leaks. Don’t underestimate how badly the market and the game as a whole can get messed up because of poorly-considered updates. The recent positive feedback loop with respect to the jewelry trader is just one of many examples. Avoiding bad design decisions means avoiding these disruptions.

7. Jagex can manage the “unfair advantage” issue. There are a number of ways that Jagex can minimize the issue of some players getting unfair advantage due to knowledge they have about upcoming items. For example, they could restrict player trading during a beta test period; or they could prevent those who agree to be testers from logging in during the run-up to a release. These players can be monitored and managed as necessary to ensure compliance with policies designed to ensure fairness.

Even better, they could just stop with all the secrecy and tell us what’s in the pipe. If everyone knows the basic gist of the updates, nobody has an unfair advantage.

Picking players who already have achieved so much that they don’t need an unfair advantage would also help. I highly doubt that someone with all 99s and a billion gp in the bank is going to risk his/her account and status by violating a pledge of secrecy as part of a beta program.

8. I’m more concerned with what I am doing than what others are doing. Even if Jagex did absolutely nothing to prevent beta testers from getting the inside scoop and taking advantage of it, I really wouldn’t care all that much. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it’s a small price to pay for a quality product.

So there, I said it: I don’t really give a fig if a beta tester makes a bit of money on the side. It would be a tiny drop in the bucket, certainly not even close to all of the money made by merchant clans, for example.

Insider trading happens in the stock market. Nobody suggests this as a reason to shut down stock trading. The idea that something that would improve the game for everyone should be shot down because of the chance of a few people getting a small advantage for a few days or weeks is short-sighted and silly.

9. The issue is design and balance, not bugs. Opponents of beta-testing keep focusing on bug-fixing, usually saying something like “a small number of people won’t find bugs any better than Jagex’s in-house testers”. True—and irrelevant. Jagex doesn’t need players testing releases because of bugs; it needs them because the company consistently puts out releases that need tweaking due to not having properly anticipated how real customers would use them.

And finally:

10. We are customers, not children. I find the notion that it is impossible for Jagex to find a small number of real players who are trustworthy enough for a beta testing program highly insulting. We are customers, not little children who can’t be trusted with anything. Beta testers should be adults who have already proven that they are reliable and trustworthy, and they should be treated as such. Believe it or not, there really are people out there who place a higher value on their personal ethics and reputation than making a few extra gp in a game.

From where I sit, RuneFest 2010 is shaping up to have a lot of similarities to many recent in-game RuneScape updates. It’s a great concept that has a lot of potential, which is being wasted due to poor implementation and decision-making, largely as a result of Jagex’s consistent lack of understanding of its customer base.

This could have been a really positive event for all concerned. Jagex could have made this something to draw the RS community together, to make everyone feel included and like they mattered. The company could have gotten a huge PR boost from the event, increasing their prominence in both the gaming world and outside of it. And everyone could have had a lot of fun in the process.

But it’s not really working out that way. I’m sure that the event as currently proposed will still be fun for those who attend, but the way it is being organized and promoted is leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of many more who won’t be there.

The first issue is the extremely high ticket price for the event. The nominal price of £75 comes to over £80 once fees are added (over US $125). This means that not only is it nearly impossible from anyone outside the UK to attend, but it also prices the event out of reach of many of those who live locally as well.

Jagex counters criticism of the high cost by saying that this is a “non-profit event” and that they are only trying to cover costs. But is that really anything to be proud of?

The last report that I read about Jagex’s financial performance indicated that the company made £18,300,000 in profit in its last reporting year. And don’t get me wrong: the company has earned the right to make lots of money, by making an excellent product enjoyed by millions.

But they’ve needed the help of millions of customers to get there. In Jagex’s words, the primary goal of RuneFest 2010 was “to thank our dedicated RuneScape players around the world for their support and to have a really good time together in real-life.” But do you really thank people by inviting them to an event and then making them pay for it? From where I sit, this would be like a businessman inviting his biggest clients out to dinner to thank them for past business, and then making them split the bill.

This is a company flush with cash, largely earned from children, teens, college students and young adults with little income—and some with massive debt. Would it really have killed them to subsidize the event so that more people could attend? Companies do this all the time: to legitimately express their appreciation, and because of the positive feelings and PR it generates.

Incidentally, the argument that the price was set high to keep the number of people who wanted to buy tickets low has no validity. If overcrowding was a concern, a lottery system could have been used to prevent that from happening. In an event purportedly aimed at the entire community, choosing who is able to attend based on random chance is a lot more fair than just skewing it in favor of those with the most money.

The attempt to orient this event only to adults is another way that RuneFest is turning out to be more divisive than inclusive. Was there really any need to make alcohol a primary feature of the event, and to specifically discourage minors from attending?

Jagex has for years tried to pretend that RuneScape is primarily aimed  at adults, and this seems consistent with that effort. But we all know that this is simply not the case. There are large numbers of RS players who are underage, and making an event of this sort and specifically excluding them is a slap in the face.

Finally, there is the matter of the Flagstaff of Festivities, an in-game item that is accessible only by those who buy tickets to RuneFest. This is such a colossally bad idea that it almost defies comprehension.

Let’s leave aside the debate about whether or not an in-game item that can only be obtain by buying something with pounds sterling constitutes real world trading. I do think that this item sets a bad precedent in that regard, but that’s not my biggest problem with it.

What bothers me about this most is that it is yet another way that Jagex has, either intentionally or unwittingly, made RuneFest more about dividing the RS community than uniting it. In addition to some players being able to attend the event while others cannot, now there’s an in-game reminder for the have-nots to see on a regular basis.

Was putting an item in of this sort really necessary? Was restricting it only to those who buy tickets really necessary? And did Jagex really not foresee the reaction this would elicit, based on the response to similar decisions in the past?

It seems to me that making the item available to everyone would have been a nice way to give a little something to the entire community, so we all felt included —including those of us without the financial wherewithal to jet off or ride a train to London for a party. It also would have been a positive promotional tool for RuneFest, instead of something for RuneScape players to argue over.

Overall, I think RuneFest represents an opportunity squandered. Through a lack of forethought and generosity, Jagex has unfortunately turned something that could have been entirely positive into something that many people have mixed feelings about, and for good reason. And that’s a shame.