The EndgameEdit This Entity
Credits: Lilmikee
Now, for the past month or so I've been boring myself to death with fishing (perhaps the least interesting skill ever, since you can do it without paying attention). This results in a lot of time for me to muse on the state of the game. Now, my intent is to reach level 99 (which would make it my first because I'm EXTREMELY lazy), and I'm fairly certain I am not the only one to ever question the point of actually achieving a skillcape. Naturally each skill has a given benefit for maxing out the level (or at the very least, a fancy cape and hood to bolster your ego), but other once you have reached the skill cap, you are ostensibly done with it. The time spent smithing sets of rune armour is better invested in training another skill.
I'm not overly concerned with the "point" of achieving a skillcape, as people are naturally inclined to do something purely for the sake of doing it (and thus proving it can be done). To add to that, there exists people who draw a level of amusement from the act as well, or some sense of satisfaction from completing long term goal. Either way, people will do so for entertainment. Questioning why anyone should bother obtaining a skillcape at all leads to questioning why one should play the game at all, and this only continues ad infinitum until you are discussing whether the universe truly exists and if you might really be a brain in a jar. That goes beyond even my level of pretentiousness, and I'd rather focus on something a little more grounded.
Mainly, I'm wondering what to do with a skillcape once it is actually acquired (aside from showing it off, naturally). The level 99 benefits are usually marginal and not actually worth the effort, and outside of combat there's little reason to utilise a skill once it is maxed. At the very least with your combat skills you can pit yourself against other players in a test of preparation and luck (there is no actual skill involved in combat; you equip yourself, stock up on food and hope for the best). Beyond this however, there's very little use for a capped out skill. Ultimately I reached a conclusion that seems like it should have been obvious from the beginning: Runescape needs an endgame.
I don't mean that Runescape needs an "end" in the sense of "you have completed the game". That would be quite contrary to concept Runescape is built around; an ever-expanding universe providing more and more for the player to experience. An "endgame" is something to do at the upper limit of the game's difficulty curve. To draw a comparison, the Pokémon series of games do not have an actual end, and even after finishing the plot line there is typically a lot left to do (be it collecting or battling). This is the endgame, and this is where Runescape is lacking.
The Majority of Runescape is around the mid-levels. Between level 40 and 70, most of the content unlocks to players. Now, to put this in perspective, here's some numbers. It takes thirteen million experience to reach level 99 in any given skill. It takes a meager one million to reach level 73. One million experience in each skill will unlock the overwhelming majority of game content, compared to a small sliver available to putting the same amount of experience towards just two skills. What this means is that once you hit the real "grinding" stage of Runescape, you have seen and experienced most of the game all ready. You are gunning for 99 because there is nothing left to interest you. However, once you DO max out, there is even less for you to do because all you can do now is max out another skill. Something big needs to be placed at those upper levels as an incentive for players.
Now the first thing that comes to mind for most people is multi-man dungeon crawls. A little like the god wars, but difficult enough to require a full team of players. This does have two rather large flaws, however:
1) This has been tried before and sooner or later there will be a group of players who figure out how to complete the dungeon solo. Without adding arbitrary puzzles that require two people, these dungeons will eventually be "solved".
2) This only produces more combat-based dungeons and further neglects other skills.
There's also a matter of rewards: unless there's something worth shooting for, then anything at the endgame will be mostly neglected (such as the Trouble Brewing minigame). At the same time, there has to be a stable game balance so the higher levels don't utterly crush the lower ones (being honest, I think this is fair dues. You worked for your levels so you deserve to crush other people underfoot). To create a viable endgame, we need something:
* That is entertaining at levels of skill (I'm of course thinking of 99 here, but at a minimum I would say 93+).
* That provides a use for maxed out skills.
* That makes use of all skills, not just combat.
* That doesn't imbalance the overall game (at least not too harshly) in favour of high levels.
I haven't bothered brainstorming ideas, though (there's a Suggestions Forum if you care to give it a shot yourself). The reason being, I haven't yet approached the main obstacle for Runescape's endgame. Ultimately (as almost every problem in Runescape seems to do), it boils down to Jagex. As a company, they like to appeal to the largest possible range of players with their updates, which is why most in game content falls into the 40-70 range. Too low and it's trivial for the higher-levels to concern themselves with. Too high, and the lower levels complain about the difficulty level. This doesn't explain why the 90's are left almost completely in the dark, however. Level 90+ content consists almost entirely of "You can create/do X at this level", which is just rewarding players with more of the same (steel titans, rune plates, etc). I'm not saying they're being left out (which is actually an impossibility), but Jagex has largely ignored the upper end and they're doing this on purpose.
It's hard to say Jagex is doing anything wrong here, but there is a problem that they need to address. Once you start hitting those 90's, you stop seeing the point in doing any of the lower level activities. Following this, once you realise your only reward is really just a pretty toy, you stop seeing the point in grinding up too. This is why we need an endgame. Without one, eventually people will just question the point of playing at all, quit Runescape in frustration and become philosophy majors who think they're actually a cranial Jellyfish.
And that would be more boring than fishing.
I'm not overly concerned with the "point" of achieving a skillcape, as people are naturally inclined to do something purely for the sake of doing it (and thus proving it can be done). To add to that, there exists people who draw a level of amusement from the act as well, or some sense of satisfaction from completing long term goal. Either way, people will do so for entertainment. Questioning why anyone should bother obtaining a skillcape at all leads to questioning why one should play the game at all, and this only continues ad infinitum until you are discussing whether the universe truly exists and if you might really be a brain in a jar. That goes beyond even my level of pretentiousness, and I'd rather focus on something a little more grounded.
Mainly, I'm wondering what to do with a skillcape once it is actually acquired (aside from showing it off, naturally). The level 99 benefits are usually marginal and not actually worth the effort, and outside of combat there's little reason to utilise a skill once it is maxed. At the very least with your combat skills you can pit yourself against other players in a test of preparation and luck (there is no actual skill involved in combat; you equip yourself, stock up on food and hope for the best). Beyond this however, there's very little use for a capped out skill. Ultimately I reached a conclusion that seems like it should have been obvious from the beginning: Runescape needs an endgame.
I don't mean that Runescape needs an "end" in the sense of "you have completed the game". That would be quite contrary to concept Runescape is built around; an ever-expanding universe providing more and more for the player to experience. An "endgame" is something to do at the upper limit of the game's difficulty curve. To draw a comparison, the Pokémon series of games do not have an actual end, and even after finishing the plot line there is typically a lot left to do (be it collecting or battling). This is the endgame, and this is where Runescape is lacking.
The Majority of Runescape is around the mid-levels. Between level 40 and 70, most of the content unlocks to players. Now, to put this in perspective, here's some numbers. It takes thirteen million experience to reach level 99 in any given skill. It takes a meager one million to reach level 73. One million experience in each skill will unlock the overwhelming majority of game content, compared to a small sliver available to putting the same amount of experience towards just two skills. What this means is that once you hit the real "grinding" stage of Runescape, you have seen and experienced most of the game all ready. You are gunning for 99 because there is nothing left to interest you. However, once you DO max out, there is even less for you to do because all you can do now is max out another skill. Something big needs to be placed at those upper levels as an incentive for players.
Now the first thing that comes to mind for most people is multi-man dungeon crawls. A little like the god wars, but difficult enough to require a full team of players. This does have two rather large flaws, however:
1) This has been tried before and sooner or later there will be a group of players who figure out how to complete the dungeon solo. Without adding arbitrary puzzles that require two people, these dungeons will eventually be "solved".
2) This only produces more combat-based dungeons and further neglects other skills.
There's also a matter of rewards: unless there's something worth shooting for, then anything at the endgame will be mostly neglected (such as the Trouble Brewing minigame). At the same time, there has to be a stable game balance so the higher levels don't utterly crush the lower ones (being honest, I think this is fair dues. You worked for your levels so you deserve to crush other people underfoot). To create a viable endgame, we need something:
* That is entertaining at levels of skill (I'm of course thinking of 99 here, but at a minimum I would say 93+).
* That provides a use for maxed out skills.
* That makes use of all skills, not just combat.
* That doesn't imbalance the overall game (at least not too harshly) in favour of high levels.
I haven't bothered brainstorming ideas, though (there's a Suggestions Forum if you care to give it a shot yourself). The reason being, I haven't yet approached the main obstacle for Runescape's endgame. Ultimately (as almost every problem in Runescape seems to do), it boils down to Jagex. As a company, they like to appeal to the largest possible range of players with their updates, which is why most in game content falls into the 40-70 range. Too low and it's trivial for the higher-levels to concern themselves with. Too high, and the lower levels complain about the difficulty level. This doesn't explain why the 90's are left almost completely in the dark, however. Level 90+ content consists almost entirely of "You can create/do X at this level", which is just rewarding players with more of the same (steel titans, rune plates, etc). I'm not saying they're being left out (which is actually an impossibility), but Jagex has largely ignored the upper end and they're doing this on purpose.
It's hard to say Jagex is doing anything wrong here, but there is a problem that they need to address. Once you start hitting those 90's, you stop seeing the point in doing any of the lower level activities. Following this, once you realise your only reward is really just a pretty toy, you stop seeing the point in grinding up too. This is why we need an endgame. Without one, eventually people will just question the point of playing at all, quit Runescape in frustration and become philosophy majors who think they're actually a cranial Jellyfish.
And that would be more boring than fishing.
