I’ll admit it. I am one of the very few who actually likes random events and was totally happy with how the old random event system worked. I thought the events were a charming little quirk of RuneScape life that interjected themselves into the sometimes mundane aspects of skilling. For the most part I found the events amusing, whether they happened to me or to other people. The one exception being when I once was fighting Chaos Druids in the Edgeville Dungeon and I ignored the Lunch Lady too long and got my sorry ass teleported way the hell over to White Wolf Mountain. But aside from that, I usually enjoyed being party or witness to random events. Of course it was also loads of fun to see bots get killed because they couldn’t respond to the events.

Do not get me wrong. I am not particularly disappointed in the recent random event update Jagex performed. I understand that Jagex wanted to cater to those players who found the events disruptive for one reason or another. Though I personally do not see how most random events could be all that disruptive to a legitimate player who is playing by the rules. As far as I am aware players are supposed to be in front of the computer paying attention to what is going on while logged onto Runescape. So if a player gets killed or teleported by a random event, they really only have themselves to blame. It is all part of the game folks.

From what I can tell, the random event update is living up to its billing. Since the update I have not seen one random event. Of course there are a couple of reasons that cause my lack of random events. The update was supposed to trigger fewer random events for higher level players. I’m a pretty decent level.  And I haven’t been on as much as usual. But I can say that I have been playing enough that under the old system I would have had four or five randoms by now.

One thing that really pleases me about this update is its effect on the price of Strange Fruit. Prior to the update, when Jagex announced that the update would limit but not eliminate Strange Plants, I decided to go out and buy a whole shish-load of Strange Fruit [GEC 2544 gp]. I was hedging my bets that the update would cause a radical upswing in the value of the fruit.  It has!  Within ten days of the update the price of strange fruit doubled. I am curious to see how long it will take until the skyrocketing price levels out.

One thing that doesn’t exactly please me, though it does not directly effect me, is how Jagex handled (no pun intended) people who had pickax heads and pickax handles in their inventories. When Jagex pre-announced the upcoming random events update and changes to Strange Plants they also announced the complete removal of the broken pickax event. When the update occurred Jagex decided to magically make all pickax heads respawn their handles and become whole. This wasn’t too bad a solution. At least players who invested in pickax heads got some value for their investment. However, those players who decided to go the pickax handle route pretty much got screwed. Handles were removed from inventories with no replacement what-so-ever. I think that Jagex should have at least replaced the handles with gp equivalent to the value of the handles at the time of the update. Those handles became pretty valuable prior to the update. In fact, when I say this change did not directly effect me, it is only because when I tried to buy handles, I couldn’t find any remaining on the Grand Exchange, and therefore did not have the ability to invest in them. This apparently saved me a significant financial loss.

Another thing that didn’t exactly please me, though it was through no fault of Jagex, was how they handled Frog Tokens. I have for many years just tossed away my frog tokens. I felt, like many other players, that the tokens were a completely useless prize. They were untradeable and therefore valueless and could only be used to get a frog mask or a prince or princess costume, which I never bother doing. Over the years, I am sure, I have dropped well over a hundred of these tokens. Then, of course, Jagex makes their pre-update announcement and suggests that we hang on to these tokens because they could become valuable. And, of course, between that announcement and the actual update not once did the frogs visit me. Once the update occurred all the frog tokens were changed in to mystery boxes and thus those tokens finally obtained at least the potential to have value. This, I am sad to admit, was exactly how Jagex should have handled the tokens and I completely blame myself for not having the foresight that the random event might eventually be retired.

Aside from those things I think Jagex did pretty good with the Random Event update. I like how some of the events are retired but not gone, like Dr. Jekyll and the Strange Plant and the Drunken Dwarf. Those events can still be found, though they no longer directly bother specific players any more. Dr Jekyll will occasionally be seen running to the Varrock apothecary and the Drunken Dwarf might stagger on by and if you talk to him he may give you a beer and a kebab. The Strange Plant still appears southwest of Brimhaven and you can still pick its fruit (which might be a great idea with the prices climbing). Of course if you really miss these random events you can visit some of them by using BKQ on the fairy ring network. Cap’n Hand and Rick Turpentine are currently spending involuntary time at the Port Sarim Jail. And the Shade can be found on the fourth level of the Strong Hold of Security. So I guess I can always go visit the old quirky friends.

If you are not interested in investing in Runescape and using the Grand Exchange then this post will be of no interest to you.  But if you spend your time trying to figure out which GE items will make you the most profit, then read further.

 I have reached the point where I can safely say I have about 80% of all the items I want entered into the Grand Exchange Central Database. Nearly 2000 items with individual values exceeding 3 billion gp.  Because I have devoted a lot of time to the development of the GEC and plan to devoting even more time I have finally got a paid hosting service and a real domain name. www.grandexchangecentral.com. Everything GEC related has already been moved over to the new server and domain and I have setup 301 redirects so visitors from search engines and other blogs can seemlessly be transferred to the new domain. I am sure there will be a few bad links that will crop up, but for the most part everything appears to be functioning properly. It is best to make this move now while the GEC is still small and has very limited search engine placement and visitors.

My blog, Runescape Thoughts, will continue to remain on my free x10hosting account. I plan on continuing to write articles with the same frequency that I currently am now. Which is about one every week to ten days.

Concerning the GEC, I just need to finish off food, range and mage weapons and parts and I will be pretty much finished setting up the database. I am sure when I finish entering those items I will remember a whole lot more things to add, but at least the end is in sight. There are a smattering of a few dozen other non runedexable items I also want to add. Anyway, I see the initial DB building finishing up in the next week or two.

After I get everything entered I am going to proceed by doing following things, all likely simutanoiusly.

1) I will review all the items I have entered into the GEC and confirm alchemy values and parts lists for accuracy. I’ll also try to setup logical comparisons. Anyway, I will likely just work on 25 items a day so it will be about three months before I finish with the “polishing” of the database.

2) I will be continuing to develop and design new content and ways of analyzing the GEC data. We have charts and tables and tickers, but there can always be more. Recently I started working on a Currency Exchange page where Tokkuls and other Runescape currencies are compared to gp. I also plan on tracking the value of the Gold Piece to see how it has performed against itself. The are tons of way to display the wealth of information in the GEC database.

3) I am going to set up some forums that will focus on investing on the Grand Exchange and other ways to make money in Runescape. Real world trading and exploiting bugs and using cheats will be strictly taboo and users who promote such activities will be banned. Of course other general discussion areas will be available.

4) This  item I am most excited about. I will be setting up a Mock Grand Exchange.  A mock exchange can be used as a “game” or as an investment training tool. Users will be allotted a certain amount of mock (virtual) gp and be able to purchase items in the mock exchange. Then they can track how those items perform over time without the risk of using real gp in the real Runescape. After I get the bugs worked out I might even implement contests where users can compete against each other to see who is the best investor.

5) I will finally start actively promoting the Grand Exchange Central. Currently I have made no attempts to mention it on other fan sites or blogs. I want a stable and advanced system in place before trying to bring a bunch of visitors to the site.

All of this and more.  And it is all for free.  I have written this site because I love the game and also because it gives me an excellant chance to train my coding and web development skills.  I have no plans now or in the future of ever charging to access the GEC or any parts of it.  The GEC for me is fun and I would rather have a great and well visited free site then a so-so and barely active pay site.

After reading some of the feedback about the February 2009 minor update delay and the feedback to some of the Mark Gerhard’s posts about RWT I have come to the conclusion that the people at Jagex really do need to make a few separate areas for some “special” players. Most of the feedback was constructive and proper. But a lot was so mind numbingly idiotic I nearly had to scream.  And that is why I suggest the following separate and restricted Runescape Worlds.

Brat World:  Let’s get the most needed world out there first. I think an easy way of getting a point across would be to restrict players who get mutes or temporary bans to a special type of “half-way-house” world to play on for a month of two. Of course those worlds would need to be quick chat only, and maybe even a more restrictive version of the current quick chat. If not quick chat only then at least filter out the word “noob.”  That would be traumatizing to most of the people sent to that world because they don’t know how to chat without using ”noob”  in every other sentence.  Wow, I just used “noob” two sentences in a row.  Now three.  Maybe I should be sent to this world.

There would only need to be two of these worlds, a free player world and a members world. If they are always full then it is simply too bad for the people waiting to get connected.  Brat World isn’t supposed to be as pleasant as the greater Runescape.  Maybe some other restrictions could be placed on these worlds. Like a two hour daily play limit. I would like to see such a world nice enough for “rule breakers” that they actually feel like they have been given a chance to redeem themselves and yet unpleasant enough so people won’t purposely try to get sent to one of these world.

Adult World: I believe from some of Mr. Gerhard’s responses to player questions that this type of world is actually being kicked around. And I whole heartedly believe we need a few adults only worlds. I don’t mean making these worlds a lot more risque with half naked players and no filters on chat. I don’t mean kinky worlds (this post is going to get a lot of hits) I just mean worlds where everyone is at least eighteen years old.

One of the reasons I don’t chat too much in Runescape is the idea that I may actually be talking to a strange fourteen year old kid. It just seems creepy.  Also, sometimes some of the kids write incrediably idiotic things and I just want to chime in and say “get off the computer and don’t come back till you graduate”. That is not how all the kids are or even most of them. But there are a few mind numbingly immature brats out there. How Jagex would go about getting confirmations on adult status and so forth, I don’t know and can not fathom, but I am sure it can be done. Before anyone says that kids will still be able to get in because they always have gotten unto adult sites. I agree. But there would be a lot less of them.

Newb Free World:  Please note that I used the term Newb (as in new player) and not Noob (as in jack ass player). I think it would be technically unfeasible to create a non-jack-ass world. Every group has one or two or fifty. Here I mean a world where a player has reached a certain level of game play that indicates that player has a fairly good understanding of Runescape. Minimum limits would have to be obtained, such as a combat level of at least fifty or quest points of at least 32 or at least one skill at 70+ or all of the above. I think these worlds would be a nice reward for players who have put in the time to get familiar with the game and who would rather not spend a bunch of their time helping new players or seeing the same questions over and over again.

Noob Only World:  Note this is the type meaning jack-ass. Here we could send the biggest pain in the asses who walk the streets of Runescape. It would be like the Brat World but for those players who are on the cusp of permanent bans for behavior problems.  It would be a PvP world, and if you die your character gets deleted. Or at least your character has all its bank items removed, and its skills and quest points zeroed out. Also where you died any NPC that wanders by will spit on your bones. Heck, make that a special emote on this world.  “Spit On Bones”.  Okay, maybe this last world is a little extreme.

Wonderful news for those of you interested in the investment side of this website. The Grand Exchange Central has now surpassed the 1000 items mark. This exceeds how many items I thought the database would contain and is only half of what I expect to have entered into the database within the coming weeks. Each item is updated daily and we are now maintaining a 90 day history on all items (though because the GEC itself is not 90 days old it will take a little time to fill in the histories). I am kicking around keeping a year long history of weekly averages.

Another big news item is for those of you involved in Summoning. The GEC now contains a listing of all the summoning pouches and scrolls. But the best part about this is the “parts list” included on each item page. Now at a simple glance you can see exactly how much each pouch will cost to produce. This will let summoners out there see which pouches actually make a profit (sorry, most do not).

Even though the GEC is not as complete as I would like, to the best of my knowledge, I have all the headwear, bodywear, and handwear already entered. There is also a lot listed that is not included in those categories. I am diligently working on getting footwear, weapons, and legwear entered. And please remember that the GEC only lists tradeable items (it is an investment website after all).  Also, if you happen to spot something I may of forgotten please leave a comment here or on the GEC main page.

I’ve also started to add alchemey values to various items.  I will add these values to the rest of the database as time alows.  Right now I have to go back and add to a 1000+ items, so it may take a little time.  Newly added items will have the values added imediately.

After reading the nice personal post by Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard I decided to read through many of the replies he received. I couldn’t read all of them because there were already 5000+ replies within the first day. But of the ones I read, most were well reasoned, well written, and well thought out. But I did read a few comments that made me want to reply but I didn’t want to waste the space on a 5000+ rely thread in the forums, so I will do it on my personal blog.

Real World Trading: Someone mentioned that real word trading doesn’t hurt anyone. I do take exception with this point, at least in part. I understand that a person selling a character or goods for real world money would still need to work to get that character to where it is valuable or get those items through various other means such as mining or what-not. In that respect it seems alright. Someone did the work. Why shouldn’t they get paid? In fact, that is how the internal Runescape economy works. Many people buy items they would rather not work on getting. I for one almost never cut down trees, I buy the logs. I buy the secondary ingredients for summoning pouches because I am not going to spend hours hunting around for those ingredients. That is what drives the internal Runescape economy.

But here is what people forget. Runescape is designed for everyone, no matter who they are in the real world. Remember that 80% of the people who play Runescape are free players. Many (I am not saying most, just many) of those free players are free because they cannot cover even the small monthly fee. I spent a year playing free because I was too broke to play, and every once in a while I still tighten the buckle and by-pass a month of membership. Plus there are the kids who can’t get their parents to cough up the dough. The concept of a Free Runescape World is based on the idea that no one should be excluded because of their real world financial issues. And those free players are a very important part of what keeps Runescape running.

Now lets say that Jagex suddenly loosened up and started allowing real world trading. This becomes a nightmare. Many, if not most, of the most powerful and wealthy in game players will be those people who bought their way in. Not because they earned it, but because they had real world money. How is that fair inside the world of Runescape? It is bad enough I have to deal with rich snobs in the real world who never earned their money. I don’t need to deal with that in my relaxation also. Should I become one of the 10% most wealthy players in Runescape only because I dropped 1000 real world dollars on a Blue Party hat? Should I speed my way with all the advantages that real money can buy to level 99 while the remaining 99% of players cannot or will not drop a bunch of real world money. The ban on real world trading gives all players a fair and equal ground to fight on.

Does this mean I don’t think people should make real world money off the games they love to play? Certainly not. There are countless books for sale about investing in Runescape and advancing in Runescape. Many fansites including this one have ads (and I try hard to block ads that are suggestive of RWT but they grow like weeds). Those are legitimate ways to make real money from something we love. But there could be other ways if the people a Jagex implemented some major advancements.

One thing that could make real world money for players and yet keep things within the world of Runescape fair and balanced is the introduction of player made non-tradeables. This blog receives the bulk of its visits from people who are interested in clothing. Maybe Jagex could introduce a costume development package. Thus taking a page from the people at SecondLife. People could design their own clothing and sell it for real world money. These items would be visible within the world of Runescape, but would be untradeable (and have no effect on stats) thus preventing real world money translating into gp. Maybe we could relax that untradeable stipulation to only give-awayable. These items could still be given away to other players for free. So you could give a nice new trench coat to a friend for their birthday, but no gp or other items would be involved in the trade. The people at Jagex would have to come up with a way to make that work, but it is doable. Of course it doesn’t have to be restricted to clothing, maybe posters could be made to hang in player owned homes. In any case the clothing or other items would have no advantages beyond cosmetic, like a lot of the current clothing available.

Another thing I noticed when people were commenting on real world trading is the statement that real world traders can be slowed down but not stopped. This point is valid. It also borders on idiot when thought out. Theft and bank robbing are illegal and there are many laws to prevent these things. But people still steal and rob banks. Just because people still do it doesn’t mean we should cut our loses and make them legal. They are wrong and if the best we can do is slow these crimes down then as a society that is what we need to do.   In the real world laws are made to stop or slow down the few who would do wrong and the rest of us by default have to suffer the burden.  That is society and the cross that we must bear.  In Runescape, real world trading is wrong (if we wish to preserve fairness) and we should support reasonable efforts to slow it down.

I would like to take this moment to appeal to those of you who think that some of the practices that Jagex has taken to curb real world trading has hurt the game. I agree with you. The initial changes to the wilderness and player killing were poorly made. I don’t pk, but I always knew it was an important part of the game and when I discovered what was done to pking I was very disappointed. Again, I don’t pk, but if I did and I justed killed a player wearing all dragon armor, I want that frigging armor. I think if they are wearing and wielding it and they die, it should be given to victor (minus the top three of course). Anything in their inventory is just lost (that would help with the RWT).  The new PvP concept is a nice step forward, but more needs to be done.

Also, I agree with people about trade limits, to a point. I don’t think the limits should be abandoned all together. But they need to be further relaxed. I think these tight limits are what is causing the downward spiral in the Runescape economy (which almost all of the GEC charts show). Something needs to be done before the economy collapses to nothing. Right now it is not reasonable to do long term investing in Runescape items because almost all items, though they have a roller coaster graph, everything is still progressively devaluing.

Anyway, there is my 2 gp worth of comments on real world trading.