April Fools' jokes

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The April Fools jokes were a series of humorous pranks made by Jagex in attempt to fool players into believing that a new, much-wanted item would be introduced into the game. Most involved Diango and his toy store. The players believed they would be receiving a rare item such as a Dragon Platebody (which has now since been released in-game) or a mountable/pet horse. Instead, the players received literal meanings of the items, which happened to just be cheap toys.

2004

Main article: 2004 April Fools

On 1 April 2004, Diango was introduced to the game as a cowboy-like person. Diango claimed to be selling horses. Those horses were actually toy horseys and were toys the player could play with while shouting phrases like: "High-ho, Silver and away!" or "Come on Dobin, we can win the race!"

2005

Main article: 2005 April Fools

On 4 April 2005, another joke was played; this time it involved tricking players into believing that they would get a Dragon Platebody. Diango talked about rare Dragon Plates. Those "plates" ended up being spinning plates you could spin on a stick by clicking the spin option.

2007

Main article: 2007 April Fools

On 1 April 2007, a fake Behind-the-scenes update was posted onto the main page. The post claimed the release of Cabbage-based items. The items slated for release was a "Cabbage Rune" for powerful new Magic spells, a strong Cabbage armour set that's weakness was from rabbits, and a tool for the Farming skill that would turn cabbages being grown in a patch red. The following day the post was deleted and replaced by another, this time real Behind-the-scenes update.

2008

Main article: 2008 April Fools

On 1 April 2008, the joke played involved getting a Dragon Kite. Some of the first players who talked to Diango about "Dragon Kites" were probably fooled into thinking they would actually be receiving the nonexistent Dragon Kiteshield (likely never to be added due to the existence of a similar item, the Dragon-fire shield ) but instead got a real kite with a picture of a dragon on it that could be held in the weapons slot. Since its release, the dragon kite has become somewhat popular among players.

2009

Main article: 2009 April Fools

On April 1 - 2 in 2009, The event involved cabbages becoming alive and wieldable. When players attempted to pick a cabbage, the cabbage would pop up and say a random phrase before hopping around. If a player kicked one of the cabbages from the Draynor cabbage patch all the way to Oo'glog, the player would meet the god of all cabbages, Brassica Prime. Many players thought this to be an unworthy reward of such a hard and time-spending task.

Also, this was added to the patch notes: "Seagulls have now been added to the Hunter skill and can be found along some coastlines. You'll need to wave your butterfly net in a gullible fashion to catch these birds." Many players searched for gulls to catch, only to realise how gullible they had been.

2010

On the 1st of April Jagex relesed a news post advertising a Theme park 'under construction' in England called Wet 'n' Wildy. A poll was released along with humorous options as to what the players would want to do, and what they would want in it. A hoax visitor's map was also released to show how the theme park would look like. And in the name of the image http://services.runescape.com/m=devblog/images/aprilfools/wildy_en.jpg (it contains the word "aprilfools" in the link). This has since been changed to not reveal that it is an April Fools joke. The current URL is: http://services.jagex.com/m=news/img/Large/wildy_en.jpg. There was even a post in the developers' blog, and also a FaceBook group.

Trivia

• The custom of playing tricks on friends on 1 April is believed to have originated in France in the middle 1500s. Before that time, one calendar was used throughout Europe. Under this calendar, each new year began on 1 April. On that day, people celebrated by exchanging gifts and visiting each other. Then in 1564, King Charles IX of France adopted a new calendar and decreed that each new year was to begin on 1 January. However, while most people followed their king's decree, there were some who did not like the idea of the change and refused to accept the new New Year's Day. These people soon became the butt of jokes and tricks by their friends and neighbours because they continued to observe 1 April as New Year's Day. These friends and neighbours sent mock gifts, invited these people to fake parties, and played tricks on them because they were "April Fools," people who clung to their April New Year's Day. There are, however, other possible explainations and the myth busting website Snopes has an article on the topic.

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