2011. Another year, another year of RuneScape. We of RSC/Zybez wish you a happy 2012. To look back on 2011, I have asked a few people from RSC to write about their favourite aspects of 2011. First off, I’ve asked Shadowandy on his views on RuneScape nowadays. He has been playing RuneScape quite a while so you can assume he knows a lot about RuneScape.

’To me RuneScape has definitely changed graphically as I started playing towards the beginning of RuneScape 2. I did have an Account in RuneScape Classic but quit after like two days of playing it. I do like how they've made the Skills easier but it's also a slap in the face if you done them the harder way. For example I mined Granite to Level 99 Mining to have the Living Rock Caverns released a few months later. I also feel Jagex wanted to bring old players back with the return of the Wilderness and Free Trade. This might have brought some players back but I think a majority who quit back then have moved on from RuneScape. I do like Jagex's new ideas like making voice acted Quests because it's more interesting if you're a vocal learner than just reading text. Something I would like to see is to make the Dungeoneering Skill more fun. At the moment it seems like the same grind of revealing a whole floor then beating a Boss. What makes it worse is you need to find four other people to get the most XP from it. This is why it's my last Skill holding me from being the Max Total Level again.

-Andy’’

You might have noticed the word ‘’voice acted Quest’’. This brings us to the next subject: Quests. Ramu, who has just recently obtained a Quest Cape, has a few things to say:

Quests of 2011. King of the Dwarves, The Prisoner of Glouphrie, Elemental Workshop IV, A Clockwork Syringe, Deadliest Catch, Salt in the Wound, The Branches of Darkmeyer, Ritual of the Mahjarrat, One Piercing Note. Each one is a fine example of new things to look forward to about every other month in the world of RuneScape. It's that one piece of content that you do and never have to do again but the rewards stick with you forever.

This will highlight just this years quests. With my Quest Cape hanging proudly on my characters shoulders it lets you look back and proudly say they were awesome. Now I don't put up with that bs that quests suck or are boring. They are not boring, they are more fun that doing the same skill over 1000 times. I can't lose a debate when it comes to trying to convince others to do quests, it's their pure laziness that keeps them from getting such a cape; well and levels to but never get all the levels and then start doing the quests. You get experience doing quests so do the ones you can do and worry about the higher ones later.

That's what I did for the first two released this year: King of the Dwarves and The Prisoner of Glouphrie. I didn't have the levels right away but I went and did them as soon as I could. King of the Dwarves gets you access to a pretty nice mining area but me being already 94 mining at the time, it wasn't that appealing. That golden mining suit however had me staying there until I got the whole outfit, 95 mining was just a perk of it.

The Prisoner of Glouphrie had quite a bit of puzzles. Most of them were colour puzzles. I feel sorry for anyone that is colour-blind since you wouldn't get the maximum enjoyment out of that quest. Rewards were pretty sweet; a spirit seed storage, which I haven't even tried yet so can't tell you anything about it, and a new glider. That I have tried and it decent while doing farming runs but probably isn't in the best location ever since you have to run down gnome stronghold's big tree to just get to those patches.

Elemental Workshop IV I don't remember squat. Just another batch of puzzles. Doing it right when it came out doesn't help my memory but I think you get some type of armour you will never use. Still it has to be done if you want to wear that cape. Might as well do all four of those Elemental quests in one day for a challenge.

A Clockwork Syringe was pretty fun. Mixing it up by battling a robot in your player owned house. I can just imagine someone starting the quest and forgetting about it. Months later they would miss-click into their house and get killed. This was the first quest to give you Dungeoneering experience reward. Throwing in a 'Rum'geon was pretty weak. That teleport scroll you got was only handy during the quest. Afterwards it's another piece of junk.

Deadliest Catch was another puzzle. Taking a boat to go kill this giant Thalassus. I remember that there was a poll to vote on that creatures name. Best part of this quest. You get to hunt that sucker 10 more times after you finish if you ever want your completionist cape. I did it right after I was done with the quest. Was another thing I never have to do again. Weildable fishing nets were awesome; then they released that tool belt and made them junk.

Salt in the Wound also known as the second quest to give dung exp. I really liked this one since it mixed it up. You control three other NPCs at the same time and have to travel through this dungeon pulling levers and such. Not to bad if you have a guide, or you will get confused a lot. Trying to kill the purple jellyfish looking boss was also a challenge. Best part was you didn't have to do it alone.

The Branches of Darkmeyer was the look forward to quest of the year I believe. It pushed along the vyrewatch quests. Pretty good one it was. Killing the boss wasn't terrible and it gave you a nice place to kill vyrewatch. 500 corpses need burned for completionist cape; no longer a big deal. The reward Drakan's medallion is very handy to get to Burgh de Rott. Takes you to barrows and just everywhere awesome. Best part is if you are over in the swamp and teleport to another place in the swamp, it doesn't even use a charge.

Ritual of the Mahjarrat was a pain in the butt. I did it the day of release without a guide, which made it much harder. The boss round has like four different rounds and if you don't know what you are doing; be prepared to die. Then you die again trying to get back up there by a PKer. Welcome to learning that there is a back door to get up there that is safe. This one is definitely one to do. Gives great rewards and a new area to kill glacors, which I hear are good money and place where you die a lot.

Now for the last quest release of this year, One Piercing Note. The first fully voiced quest with its own music. Great if you want to take your time, if not then you skip threw the chat pretty fast anyway. Best part is the rewards; lots of prayer experience if you illuminate your god books. Spent a good 6 million getting them just for that prayer exp. You can also recharge your prayer by listening to musicians. The catch is you have to be wearing this stupid looking outfit that you wouldn't be seen dead in. So that part was pretty useless.

That is it for all the quests released this year. Overall they were some fun ones. I look forward to the quests that will be released in 2012. Especially since I can just do them as they come out and don't have to worry about losing my cape until then. Remember a quest week makes you strong. ‘’

Quite an article, but it shows perfectly what Quests have done. There is more than just Quests though, so I’ve asked Robinhoodrs for his views on Player-killing nowadays:

‘’If this year hasn't been crazy enough for you, it sure has been a huge rollercoaster for the PKers of Runescape. It all began with a crazy, mind-blowing front-page post from Jagex. Yes, the return of the 'Old Wilderness and Free Trade'. This update was indeed a game changing update back in 2007 and it was a huge blow to the PKing community, but with the news it was all coming back, the PK community saw big name 'old skool' PKers coming back to the game and teams opening their doors once again to battle for complete control of hot spots all over the Wilderness.

The Start Of The Old.
Word spread over the forums and people were contacting their old friends that yes, Jagex was putting the Wilderness and Free Trade back with full loot. This alone made a lot of people return to the game and mainly the slowly dying PK scene. But with this one update Jagex hoped it would re-fuel the dying Wilderness and bring life back into the game.

Lets not say it wasn't a success, because it was. Loads of 'Old Skool' PKers came flooding back to the game and many new teams opened and the PKing scene was crazy. Teams battling it out in many of the old PKing spots for their spot at being #1. Edgeville was packed to the brim with old & new PKers and let us not forget about the Duel Arena.

But it came to light that many of the 'Old Skool' PKers that came back couldn't handle what Jagex has done to Runescape, with Summoning being a huge factor in Single PKing. Also with Damage Soaking, new Weapons, Armour, Spells, Graphics and the overall feel of Runescape changed from what they left, it came to them once again quitting.

The End Of The Rush
With 5 months gone-by and the PK scene once again slowly dying, not only because of the lack of support, but the fact there is no need for a regular player to go into the Wilderness any more, the Wilderness has once again became a graveyard, it is a rare thing to find people going past level 5.

And once again with Jagex adding more and more over-powered Weapons, Armour and Spells into the game it is only deemed to get worse. The fact there is only about 3 PKing teams left in Runescape that PK past level 5 says it all, the Wilderness is dying. Yes, Jagex did try and bring back the old Wilderness, but the fact is the game has changed and so have the players. The reason why it was so fun back in 2006 to PK was because it was so simple, easy and people were having fun. Now it has all changed with the updates Jagex has made over the years since 2007.’’

Finally, I have asked Slip what his favourite update was:
‘’ 2011 has been for me as I would imagine for others a mix matched year in Runescape, there have been some updates that are loved and others that have been loathed by the community. On a whole though this has been a very good year for Jagex with the reintroduction of wilderness PKing and free trade bringing many players back at the start of the year along with the bot-nuke in October which finally took out 98% of the bots for good.

Overall this year has brought around some fantastic updates, some skill orientated like the Livid farm and the Artisan’s workshop and some PvM based such as the addition of Nex and the Dominion tower. On top of these prominent updates already mentioned there are also the quests released this year, 9 in total, with the King of the Dwarves setting the stage for the final quest in the Red axe series through to the Ritual of the Mahjarrat – the epic conclusion to a collaboration of quests starting in 2002 ending the Mahjarrat quest line and hinting at a Dragonkin line to follow.

The update that has been one of the best for me this year however, is the release of the capes of distinction. The update allowed many people to set new and larger goals with the prospect of something rewarding at the end, goals to which I have set myself as I plan on trying to get both the Max cape and the Completionist cape before I am eligible for the Veterans cape, I have about 9-10 months left.

2012 looks set to be a good year in terms of updates from Jagex, with the bot issue under control at long last they are finally able to push forward with more innovative updates both to pre existing content such as the graphics through to currently non-existing content such as the release of new quests. Of the updates known to be coming in 2012 I am personally looking forward to the player kit update and the release of Mournings end part 3 MEP3 and I still remain sceptical on the Player owned ports.

TheSlip.’’

That wraps it up for 2011. It has been a good year, and we can only hope 2012 will get even better. And what was YOUR favourite update of 2011?