RuneScape:WikiGuilds/Proposals/RS Newspaper/RuneScape Wiki Post/07/Editorials/Polishing Up

Polishing Up
spacing 2009 has been termed by Jagex to be the "Year of Updates". When you hear this, you’re probably thinking: "The year of updates? More areas, quests, minigames, armour and maybe even a new skill? Can I hear a "Boo-yah!"? However, is this really the case? 3 quarters of the year have passed now, and what do we have?

spacing Well, let's see, this year (2009), from January to September, a total of 9 quests were released. Hmm, that's not so bad, is it? After all, that means an average of 1 quest per month. Not quite. Take a look back at the previous year.

spacing 2008 started off with a bang with the release of the Summoning skill. From January to September, 14 quests were released (excluding the Hunt for Surok miniquest). This means that we've had about 35% less quests than the year before. So, less quests in the Year of Updates? I certainly hope they compensate this elsewhere.

spacing Minigames? We've seen the release on the long-anticipated Mobilising Armies, as well as Soul Wars. Let's not forget the repeatable tasks, such as the well-liked Evil Tree, the Phoenix, and more recently, the Skeletal horror. Well, that's not too bad, but again, let's look at 2008.

spacing We had the release of Vinesweeper early in the year of 2008, and the popular addition to free-to-play worlds, Fist of Guthix. We also saw the introduction of 3 repeatable tasks in Distractions and Diversions, Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza, the extremely well-received Penguin Hide and Seek, and Shooting Stars, all of which have become popular daily/weekly activities. So now, comparing the two years, there's no difference in terms of numbers.

spacing Jagex has mentioned that there will be a new skill (and no, it's not Sailing ), but it will only be released in 2010. So, there won't be a new skill this year.

spacing However, one noticeable difference from this year and last year is the number of graphic updates. Last year, we saw the release of RuneScape High Detail. This year, we are seeing a large number of minor graphic updates, for scimitars, two-handed swords, longswords, pickaxes, abyssal whips, godswords, etc. When I asked a friend of mine for his opinion about it, he nonchalantly replied, "Jagex must be running out of coffee."

spacing Okay, so it's safe to say that we've established that there hasn't been an increase in content updates, if anything, there's been a decrease. And some players believe that the graphic updates to some items is somewhat superficial, and others think that it's simply unnecessary. However, does this mean that Jagex hasn't lived up to our expectations? What do I think? No!

spacing This year, Jagex has been a lot more involved with the player community; we see updates talking about the Jagex Cup or the more recent Machinima Competition. Okay, while it is may be true that the weapon updates are unnecessary, it is in my honest opinion that Jagex is simply polishing up the game, to keep everything up-to-date. Don't forget, Jagex has been fixing up some long-time glitches (e.g. the "mis-clicking" a lot of players experience at the Grand Exchange). So, while Jagex may not be giving us "new toys" to play with, they are certainly cleaning up old ones so that players can have a much better gaming experience. We wouldn’t want to play a RuneScape with many areas but with everything breaking apart, now would we ?

So in conclusion, let's remember that the Jagex team isn't a bunch of monkeys typing on keyboards, and probably do know what's the best for the game