Community

Players of the computer game RuneScape represent a wide range of nationalities and ages; however, because the game itself is currently only available in English, almost all players speak English to some extent. Players who speak languages other than English tend to gravitate to worlds that are populated by other players who speak the same language. For example, some worlds have a percentage of players who speak Spanish, Dutch, or Lithuanian.

Filter
A word filter is used in both the RuneScape game and the RuneScape forums. When a string of characters is censored, it is replaced by a series of asterisks. The filter is used to censor advertising and "offensive language" such as swear words, hate words, and certain words that could be inflammatory. Over the history of the filter, players have devised ever more creative ways, including use of a modified version of leetspeak, to slip by the filter. This deliberate avoidance of the censorship mechanism is considered a serious violation of Jagex rules of conduct and has resulted in more and more combinations of letters being censored. For example, for a long period of time, the internet slang word pwn was censored, as the "pw" in the word is a common abbreviation for the word password. Also, since advertising websites is in violation of RuneScape rules, all URLs are automatically censored as well.

Overhaul
On 16 May 2006, the chat filter was overhauled. Symbols, such as /, which had been completely locked out, are again permitted, and many words, such as the aforementioned "pw", can now be used. The filter was improved to allow additional symbols, such as vowels with accents as well as §, £, and °. Some non-Latin characters, such as letters in the Cyrillic alphabet, which had appeared as asterisks like a filtered word, are rendered as question marks. This update has also caused some problems. Some words were removed from the filters in error while some are now filtered for no obvious reason. For example, in some instances, when pluralizing words, replacing the -s with -z now often results in censoring. (Typing nothing but an "s" also results in a filter.)

Moderators

 * See also: Moderators Knowledge Base Page

Jagex Moderators
Jagex Moderators (J-Mods) are employees of Jagex, and occasionally log into the game to talk to players. All Jagex moderators with the exceptions of Paul, Andrew, and Ian, have "Mod" as a prefix in their names. In RuneScape, they are identified by a gold crown beside their names, visible during public and private chat. On RuneScape's official forums, the gold crowns are shown beside their name, and their posts appear highlighted in gold. They have the ability to alter their skill levels at whim and may generate items within their inventory to assist in testing content before it appears in the publically in the RuneScape game. Jagex moderators also have the ability to appear at any location in the RuneScape world. They do not appear in the hiscores tables.

Player Moderators
Player Moderators (P-Mods) are regular players who have been carefully selected and invited by Jagex to help maintain the order of the RuneScape environment, keeping it safe and free from rule-breaking. Player moderators are identified by a silver crown beside their names when they send any sort of message in the RuneScape game. They are given the ability to mute players for a period of 48 hours and send priority abuse reports that are directly sent to a member of the Jagex team. Player moderators have access to the Player Moderator Center, an area on the RuneScape website that allows them to perform their role more effectively. P-mods are not expected to spend greater periods of time playing RuneScape than normal players, and are not even obliged to make use of their special abilities.

Forum Moderators
Forum Moderators (F-Mods) are normal players who work to carry out the tasks of managing RuneScape's official forums. Forum moderators were handpicked from a group of normal players by Jagex staff because of their ability to prove consistently that they have the temperament and judgement needed to help monitor fairness and rule breakers in the forums. They are given the ability to move and lock threads, hide posts or entire threads, edit titles, and temporarily ban players from posting. Like player moderators, they are given a private set of forums that are primarily used to help perform their role more effectively. Forum moderators have a green crown beside their name, as well as a green background when they post on the forums. They are not identified by a crown beside their name when they send a message in the RuneScape game.

Fashion
Armour

Rare items, such as Santa hats, Halloween masks, various coloured party hats, and other past holiday drops are fashionable because they are somewhat rare and because their scarcity has made them extremely expensive. Their price has also made these a symbol of wealth and status in RuneScape. These items can not be obtained except by purchasing them from another player as they have been 'discontinued'. As these items are dropped, lost, or hoarded by players, they increase in price and become even more rare. Most armour in RuneScape requires that players meet minimum levels before they can be worn. As players achieve these required levels, the best armours available to them become desirable both for combat and to communicate their levels. The armours that are available only to P2P players have the additional appeal of communicating status as P2P members when using free servers, even though the combat bonuses they provide only work on P2P servers.

Trimmed armours
Some armours or other clothing are ornamentally trimmed with colour. Rune, adamant, and black melee armours, leather, blue, and green dragonhide ranged armours, and blue magic robes may be trimmed in gold or a contrasting colour. Rune armours may also be trimmed in the colours of the three main RuneScape gods. Rune, Adamant, and black kite shields may be trimmed with heraldic designs in opposite quadrants. These trimmed armours combine the communication of wealth and "cool"ness with the functionality of armour, but are not in any way stronger or better than untrimmed versions. Players cannot trim armours; they can be obtained only by trading with other players or by completing treasure trails. Trimmed armours should not be confused with heraldic armours, which are created by players in player owner houses. Only full helmets and kite shields can be made heraldic, and the resulting armours are no longer tradeable.