So, it’s finally up! We’ve spent a few months working on RuneWire and I’m so happy to see it out. It all started out one evening when Shane and I were talking about ways in which we could expand the RS community. I didn’t want something that would conceivably bring an onslaught of people to our forums, I wanted something that created two communities in one. I used to be an avid user of Twitter and Jaiku, but I lost interest because I felt that what I ate for lunch was not significant content.

I figured that if a group of people had a common interest (Runescape), then it would be possible to bring more people together toward an actual purpose. With RuneWire, people could reach out to each other and relate more easily. My idea of what RuneWire would be was actually really basic compared to what it’s going to be. When all of us put our heads together, we though up so many awesome features that will be arriving soon. Without Shane to do the entire back-end work and Jeff to do the CSS, this never could have happened. So thank you, guys.

I wanted to sort of shed light on what you can expect from RuneWire in future, but I do not want to completely “spill the beans”. You can look forward to a really awesome group system which will allow you to do things that aren’t quite possible on most forums and blogs. That’s all I can say for now.

Now, go sign up for Beta testing and add “extremewench” as a friend

Get it while it’s hot, applications for beta testers are coming soon.

(Yes, I like being mysterious)

So every now and then, there has to be a gap in posts where the e-drama dies down and the boring MQ shows through. I decided that since some people think that I’m negative toward a lot of fan sites (even though I’ve only expressed criticism of two), I’ll post a few sites that I believe are innovative in thinking up great new ideas relating to Runescape. Feel free to suggest any other ones that you think make the grade in terms of creativity. These are in no particular order, by the way.

1. RuneTUBE: It’s a good idea, but unfortunately it’s a little too niche. There is the ability to make groups, but there is no spark for a community. Unfortunately, there is little to no activity on it and it is now for sale. I guess that all-encompassing gaming video sites like GeeVee or even just plain old YouTube get the traffic. I think it deserves some credit though, since the idea was there. Another like-minded website, RuneRate, rewards top views with GP and it also seems to be dormant. I suppose it’s too narrowly focused of an area.
2. United Freedom Fighters (UFF): A bit of a cheesy site, but it has good intentions. UFF is essentially a free-for-all clan for anyone, regardless of level or clan affiliation. I’m not sure about the success of the clan, but these guys seem out to have a good time instead of worrying about winning. Go them.
3. RuneWise: I actually had never heard of this site until Vaskor first commented on my blog. Though we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things, I always thought that his site took a wonderful and more personal approach to Runescape advice. I actually recommend that you go there and enter your stats and see the suggestions you get for raising skills. If in doubt, there’s always the RuneWise forum to go to. I like the idea, it’s wonderful and it beats the impersonality of some of the larger sites.
4. Lumbridge City: A little hesitant to put this one here, as the site is well..it’s messy and clumsy. They have a bit of a tourist trap of a website running here, but the idea of a Runescape social network isn’t too bad. It allows you to do what sub-forums normally do, but in a more open way. You can create a clan group and message and organise events or you could visit the marketplace. There are many social capabilities offered here, and I give credit where it’s due. I don’t give credit for them trying to monetise on their “Runescape Power Guide!” and their numerous gold-selling ads. The site is a bit of a sham when they could’ve done more with it. Shame, I think.

Yes, I could only find four. I did try, but I felt like all Runescape sites were trying to just offer what’s already on Tip.it, RuneHQ, and the other huge Wal-Mart-ish RS sites. I think that sites who specialise in a certain area or promote a different way of thinking are the most creative. Rather than trying to do everything, why don’t we just be good at something?

So, yay, clan support is finally here! I think that I may actually find it more enjoyable to be on RS doing mundane things if I can talk to random people. I wonder how long that will last. I didn’t get very long to test out the new features (other than the “kick” function, thanks to AMV…heheh, never ask me to kick you because I will do it!), but I’ll do a few more things tomorrow with it. Anyway, I’m pleased. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Jagex must have been working on it for a very long while before releasing it. But, I somehow doubt it. It’s been asked after for a long time.

Along with the new chat system was a whole new user interface design! I like it. It looks a little more.. hrm, can’t put my finger on it. It just doesn’t seem like the good old RS look. But, nobody likes new interfaces at first. We get used to them after a while. Anywho, in case you don’t already know, our chat channel is “RSBANDB” and you can join by typing in “Mike12088″ into the clan field.

On another note, I finally finished the last Harry Potter book. I’d meant to do so sooner, but I hadn’t been in the reading mood as of late. I loved it! In the past, I was never really “for” Harry Potter because I essentially disliked that it was so popular. Then I gave it a good try and I’ve loved it ever since. And, yes, you’re hearing this from a twenty year old. I think my favourite part of the book was when Harry gains Kreacher’s loyalty or when Luna and Xenophillius show up at the wedding. Gotta love Luna and her radishes dangling from her ears.

Known Email Addresses:

• industrial@jagex.com

• interviewing@recruit.jagex.com

• osupport@recruit.jagex.com

• jobs-modeller@recruit.jagex.com

• advertising@jagex.com

• business@jagex.com

• jobs-prmanager@jagex.com

• polls@jagex.com

Locations of listed offices or related locations:

11 Sturton Street, Cambridge, CB1 2SN, UK

90 St Andrews House (haha!), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB4 1DL, UK

St Johns Innovation Centre Cowley Rd near Cambridge CB4 0WS, UK

This photo is where all media enquiries on behalf of Jagex are received.

Alleged Phone/Fax number for Jagex:

Info for the Sturton Street address:
Tele: 01223 503 861
Fax: 01223 515 212

Employees:

300 since June 2007 (Wikipedia)

Investors:

Insight Venture Partners

That’s right. If you code up your own goal sigs for your site, then you ARE STEALING FROM DRAYNOR. I’m amused at the ignorance that sometimes goes on there. They actually believe that the idea of making goal sigs is stealing their idea. Hello, Draynor, guess what? RSBANDB were the first to introduce stats/goal sigs. Do you see us coming to you about it? No. Instead, we continue to do what we do to remain competitive. We don’t sit around and whine. We also don’t send little love notes to Leetscape (the supposed perpetrators who “stole” the goal sig idea) telling them that they need to remake their goal sigs.

Do the goal sigs look similar? Yes.

Leetscape goal signature:

Draynor goal signature:

Is that copyright infringement? No. Because they did not copy Draynor’s exact graphics. Draynor, if I were in your position I wouldn’t whine about this. I’d make new (hopefully better) goal sigs. When it comes down to it, people want something that looks nice. These sigs are just mediocre and you all apparently ripped them from an open source code. Here is an excerpt of what a Draynor mod (who somehow appointed himself as ambassador of Draynor.net) sent the admin of Leetscape:

Draynor.net Mod:
Hello, I’m a moderator on the Draynor.net forums and I have noticed the similarity between our signatures. I’m talking about the goal signatures of course. I don’t know if you got the idea from us or if it is complete coincidence, but I was wondering if you could perhaps make a few changes so that they don’t look identical. Draynor.net has had our goal signatures up for a while now and we would really appreciate if you did this.

Thank you,
Draynor.net Forums.

Admin’s Reply:
They will not be changed as you never made them (Draynor).

They are a fully open source created by JazzC, RuneCrypt used them first, then Clooth copied the idea 100% using the code created by Jazz, they’re totally free and come like that as default, sorry but your developers did nothing to develop them at all.

Cheers to you, Leetscape.

We all complain about Jagex’s lack of regard for community, and rightfully so. But a lot of the things we ask for (clan support, possible fan site linking) aren’t being done. Now, there are a few reasons as to why Jagex aren’t willing to do the implement. The first reason might be that it may already be in development, but it’s not an immediate priority. The second reason might be (for linking to fan sites) would be that they’re worried that they might be linking to sites that could jeopardise the safety of their members (ie keyloggers and sites that sell gold).

Now, at least Jagex might have some semblance of a reason as to why they’re holding off on supporting the fan site community. But there is one other thing that they could do to help fans out: creating a fan site kit. I saw this on the official Guild Wars site and I was amazed at how they uploaded concept art, screenshots, and high resoultion logos for use in fan sites. If Jagex uploaded their concept art, some good 3D renders of characters, and other “goodies”, then fan sites would at least be able to make sites that reflect the game. Look at the graphics of the bigger fan sites right now:

• Tip.it: Well, I gotta give them credit.. they tried to make little runes for their logo. Other than that, no RS-related graphics are in the main theme.
• Rune HQ: There’s..some sword. And a dude with his arms raised. Yeah.
• Zybez.net: They actually have a screenshot of users interacting. Nice, but not attractive at all.
• SwiftSwitch: Now these guys deserve the gold medal in my little survey. The website looks great, they have a nicely rendered picture of a warrior dressed in dragon armour. 10/10 to the guys at SwiftSwitch.
• RuneVillage: Nice try, but it looks like some 3D artist from 1995 made this.
• Runescape Realm: Oh god. So much wood. Make it stop.
• Sal’s Runescape Ream: Same as Zybez.

Even at RSBANDB, we don’t have a Runescape-related theme. So, please, Jagex, if you want people to grow more interested in the game, start at a small project like this. It will cost you nothing and it’s a good start on building community relations. Hell, I’ll even be as bold as to suggest that you hire someone as a community relations director. Just, please, stop with the new Slayer monsters and quests. We need something more.