It is the year 2007 and Str_Elf3523 has just purchased RuneScape-membership for the first time ever. Although it is almost a completely new plane, the player already knows where to travel to: the Castle Wars arena. One of his friends at school has told him of the fierce battles being fought there. But since Str_Elf3523 lacks the Magic level to teleport to any area of the members’ world, he is forced to walk all the way from Falador instead. After a long and exhausting travel, Str_Elf3523 arrives at the prestigious Castle Wars lobby. However, a pop-up screen suddenly appears, asking if Str_Elf3523 would like to teleport to Falador. In a moment of sudden panic and ignorance, Str_Elf3523 accepts the offer. And with that click, he is back at Falador square again. A long walk ensues again...

Frankly, no one has ever played RuneScape under the alias of Str_Elf3523 ; this character is completely fictional. However, the scenario has in fact probably happened to a few of us, including yours truly. The essence of this problem is the inability of the new member unable to explore the new areas. Heck, the same thing applies to new players in general. Getting around can be difficult for those who have just started, and for that reason many favour a system that enables you to teleport to locations without having certain requirements. And a while ago, Jagex (finally) implanted that into the game mechanics: the Lodestone Network. This network of stones is able to teleport you to various popular locations, free of charge! What ensued was a storm of rage, stating that this undermined all previous forms of teleports. In my opinion, this reaction was exaggerated, and now I'm going to explain to you how so.

For years, teleporting to specific locations has been a privilege. For most of the teleports available, you either had to complete a quest or have a certain skill level in Magic. In the case of the Ardougne teleport spell, all of the above. If I look at the list of the items I use to get around the world of RuneScape, many have originated from these principles. Though some of those items are freely available for everyone (jewellery with teleporting functions, teleport tablets), many are in fact untradeable: items such as the Ectophial and the modified teleport tablet are the results of the progress of your own account.

The longing for the ability to teleport to every part of Gielinor has grown and has been fed by Jagex over the years. Already-existed teleporting methods gained new locations to teleport to, and new items were introduced as well. Given items such as the Ring of Slayer, the modified teleport-to-house tablets and the teleporting scrolls from the Treasure Trails, it is indeed easy to travel around. Those who have enchanted a Wicked Hood with all of the tiaras are now able to teleport to every RuneCrafting altar twice a day, free of charge. And let’s not forget the various transportation networks, the Spirit Trees and the Gnome Gliders having the most usage. Heck, I'd dare say that it is faster to teleport from location to location than to walk nowadays. A place such as Ardougne has 4 teleport locations (for your interest: an Ardougne Cloak teleport which brings you either to the north or the south of the city, the old Ardougne teleport and the Lodestone location), 5 if we also consider the possibility to teleport from Edgeville to Ardougne using the wilderness lever. We must face the truth: Teleportscape is a reality. We have a teleport for every location, if not multiple ones within each location.

So why is it such a problem that new players get a few useful locations to teleport to? Jagex even placed the Lodestones a bit out of the cities, so that the walking distance to the original distance compensates for the free teleport. And even if you have the ability to teleport with other means, you still benefit from this update! Because the Lodestones teleport you to other parts of known locations, you in fact profit from this. And let’s not forget that changing your spellbook is now much easier, given the fact that the Lodestones are also located on the Lunar Isle and the Bandit Camp.

When you have the ability to teleport yourself to every part of the globe, you should not worry about a few stones. And luckily, I see zero complaints about the Lodestone network today. Besides, would you let someone else experience the pain you, me and Str_Elf3523 suffered from?