Runescape

Runescape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) first released in 2001 by brothers Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Studio.  The game is a browser based game and can be played on even the most basic of PC’s.  Since being released in 2001, Runescape has had over 200 million unique accounts created and has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest free MMORPG and the most updated game.

RuneScape takes place in the world of Gielinor, a medieval fantasy realm divided into different kingdoms, regions, and cities. Players can travel throughout Gielinor via a number of methods including on foot, magic, or charter ships.  Each region offers different types of monsters, resources, and quests to challenge players.  The game current allows players to train up 15 different skills via gaining xp for doing certain actions in game; players are also able to create their own character to give their game more of a personal feel.  However if players wish to, they can pay approx $5 per month to become a ‘member’.  This gives them access to 11 extra skills they can train up, new monsters, weapons and armour, and access to the full game map.  Runescape is also a community heavy game, with an official game forums as well as ‘clans’.  Which players can meet up to level up their skills, or fight the many boss monsters that roam the world.

Runescape in 2001.

Runescape currently has 209 quests available to paying members with varying levels of difficulty and skills required, however players do not have to complete these quests to play the game.  Although if they choose to level up their skills and complete these then they can get access to new monsters, armour or weapons that will make their experience in the game a lot easier. As well as giving varying chunks of experience in skills.

Since its first release back in 2001, Runescape has gone through many changes,  the most noticeable is the graphics.  In its first release, Runescape was a mix of two and three-dimensional graphics.  Which was very advanced for a browser based game at the time.  In 2004, ‘Runescape 2’ was released.  With this the game had a fully three-dimensional environment.  The initial release of the game was rebranded as ‘Runescape Classic’ which although is not available to play anymore to new players, if your account has logged into Runescape classic at least once. You can still play this version of the game.  In 2012 the combat system was reworked granting players access to a customisable ability bar where they could set up attacks based on the combat style they were using.  This update did not sit well with many of the players and Jagex seen a great decline in their active members.  However since then many player have come back and have accepted the changes to the combat system and most prefer it.  However in 2014, Jagex released ‘Legacy mode’ Which gave user the ability to play the active version of the game, using the old combat styles.  The current version ‘Runescape 3’ was released in 2013 with the main change being that the game now supports HTML5.

Runescape 3 Boss Fight

In February 2013, a poll passed to create a separate incarnation of RuneScape as it was in 2007. It was originally created as an exact copy of the game from August 2007, but it is continually updated by a separate development team. New content is voted on by the players. Data on Old School RuneScape is separate from RuneScape 3.

Runescape 2/Old School Runescape

Although there are new games being released every month, popularity for these games can decline very quickly.  Runescape boasts that it still has over 85,000 active accounts daily for Runescape 3 and a dedicated fan base of over 40,000 players on ‘Old School’.  And with its ongoing weekly updates, still makes it one of the freshest games around.