RuneScape Message Board

Jagex send word that their third iteration of the enormously popular fantasy MMO – Runescape 3 – has materialised on this internet, right here. The game is kicking off with a ten-week event, in which the players must battle for “Lumbridge”. That might not sound very glamorous, but it gives players the chance to work together in PvP activities, with the ultimate goal of being champion of the event, and actually changing stuff in the world. Jagex explain: “You’ll be able to join one of the two factions, and to collect divine tears – fragments of condensed, Guthixian energy that can be gathered through combat and skilling, both on the battlefield and off.” Unpronounceable energies are the best kind.

Lovely trailer below.(more…)

“Runescape, eh?” I say, to the cold silence of the RPS virtual office. No one is listening. And, well, cards on the table: none of us have ever played Runescape. Adam was living in the jungle at the time, Alec was trapped inside a Micro-ATX case in a cupboard at Future Publishing, and I hadn’t yet taken material form out of my constituent angry ghosts from a haunted house in Kent. No, we do not know the ways of Runescape. Which makes writing a pithy intro about the arrival of the third game a little tricky. How am I doing? Ok then. What I do know is that it’s being in delivered in HTML5, meaning it can actually be pretty impressive in a browser, and that it’s happening on the 22nd. These things, and more, are discussed in the dating trailer, which you can see below.(more…)

Runescape 3, the next big update to Jagex's twelve-year-old MMORPG, will be released on July 22. In addition to making the leap to HTML5, the new Runescape will also feature a new quest system which lets players "directly shape the future of [Runescape's world], its inhabitants and scenery for the very first time."

Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku's Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. The Victim Knocks Twice FREDERICK, Md.—An 18-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison for shooting a friend who interrupted his video game session back in December. Dylan Jesse Gray, 18, and friends were playing games that evening when the unnamed victim knocked on their door. After no one answered, he rapped on a window, annoying Gray. He told authorities he grabbed a .32-caliber handgun from his bedroom, believing it was unloaded and intending to scare the victim. Instead he fired a shot into his upper right chest. "Why, man?" the victim asked at Gray's sentencing hearing on Thursday. "I made a careless mistake," Gray said. "I'll send you a letter," the victim said. After Gray apologized again, the victim said, "It's OK," according to the Frederick News-Post. Another friend admitted to police that he brought the gun to Gray's residence and tried to hide it later. The victim even attempted to cover for Gray and his accomplices, telling authorities he had been shot in the street by teenagers he didn't know. In addition to the seven-year sentence of active time, Gray was given an 18-year suspended sentence. [Frederick News-Post] Cops Say Xbox Controller Used in Crazed Assault LOUISVILLE—A 26-year-old man is in jail after a violent attack on his girlfriend in which he beat her with "an Xbox controller" and broke down a bathroom door attempting to set her purse on fire. Police officers, called to the scene by the victim as she was locked in the bathroom, entered the residence after hearing her pleading for help and "the sound of fist-to-skin contact," reports The Courier-Journal of Louisville. James Comenzind has been charged with wanton endangerment, assault, resisting arrest and unlawful imprisonment. [The Courier-Journal] Oxford Graduate Says Something Dumb OXFORD, Miss.—A 20-year-old man accused of plotting to attack his local high school admits making statements to that effect while playing Runescape but says in no way was he being serious. Joshua Brandon Pillault is facing federal charges of domestic terrorism in his trial. He was arrested Oct. 8 after a gamer from Virginia heard him discussing the attack in Runescape's chat and contacted local police. Pillault is scheduled to go to trial on June 24. [The Oxford Eagle] Reward Offered in Slaying of Developer ATLANTA—Police are offering a $25,000 reward for information on the May 25 murder of Patrick Cotrona, a developer working for Atlanta-based Eyes Wide Games. Police say Cotrona, 33, was walking with friends to a bar when two suspects, believed to be in their teens, jumped out of a car demanding his wallet. They shot him once in the abdomen and then fled. Cotrona graduated from Georgia Tech, with highest honors, in 2003 with a degree in computer science. He was a senior engineer at Eyes Wide, which has adapted television properties such as Top Gear and The Walking Dead into Facebook games. Cotrona's death is the latest in a string of violent crimes that are believed to be linked. In another, a 22-year-old man was shot in the face, though he lived. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, facing criticism for his administration's public safety record, has vowed to find those responsible. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] Lots of strange things happen in the pages of your local newspaper or on the 6 o'clock news. If you see something, say something. To me, that is. I'd like to write it up. Remember: You need not reveal your identity. To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

Jagex's CEO has revealed the company wants RuneScape on tablets by the end of the year, with Smart TVs and consoles also possible.

18 year-old Thomas Frongillo from Oxford, England, has been arrested and charged with "threatening to commit a crime and threatening a bombing or hijacking" after being accused of leaving hostile messages in an online game run by Jagex, the publishers of Runescape. While the game in question is not disclosed in a report on The Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Frongillo - a student at a local police academy - is alleged to have typed "I'm shooting up my school tomorrow”, and also of having made anti-Semitic comments. The comments in question were first picked up by Jagex employees last week, and quickly forwarded to local police. Fongillo's lawyer says the comments were meant as a "harmless jest". Oxford man charged in threat against college [The Worcester Telegram and Gazette, via Game Politics]

I never actually played much Runescape. Growing up, I was a snobby, Everquest-obsessed so-and-so. “Look at all these graphics,” I’d say. “My Iksar warrior is made up of so many polygons that you practically can’t count them but still kinda can.” I did have a few friends who swore by the lo-fi MMO, though, and it’s not hard to see why. Back then, free, easily runnable portals to lands beyond our wildest imaginations were hard to come by. Runescape, then, holds a very special place in many hearts, and for that reason it will never dieeeee. And so, we arrive at Runescape 3. Yes, there was a Runescape 2.  Find out what warrants the curvy, alluringly sensual new digit after the break.

(more…)

A shame SOE didn’t do this for Star Wars: Galaxies, or it might still be with us now. Following enthusiastic voting from some 440,000 paying RuneScape players, Jagex have resurrected the apparently beloved 2007 version of their long-running, secretly enormous MMORPG, to run alongside the flashier current version. It’s being pitched not as a roll back but a favour to the faithful, who will also play a part in deciding what gets updated in the old client.(more…)

#crime A 19-year-old Fordham University student is looking at 15 years in the slammer after allegedly putting a BB gun to the head of a classmate and demanding that 4.7 billion Runescape coins be transferred to his character, reports the New York Post. More »

#runescape When you talk about MMORPGs in the United States, most minds jump to World of Warcraft. And yes, with subscriber base that peaked at twelve million and still hangs out around ten million, WoW was and is a big deal. More »

#fineart Here's something cool. Runescape, the venerable (and hideous) MMO that's now over ten years old, is getting a graphical overhaul later this year. More »

Developer Jagex is positioned to ship Runescape across all consoles, free-to-play and with complete cross-platform capabilities, if CEO Mark Gerhard has anything to say about it. Which, as CEO, he does. Gerhard told Develop that some console owners wanted to charge for Runescape, which he sees as absolute lunacy. "People get this for free. You're shooting yourself in the foot," Gerhard said. "But Sony was ahead of the game; they said they get it. They understand free. But all three said, 'okay, but we won't let our console play online with any other.'"

Gerhard is waiting for the console market to realize cross-play is a universally beneficial strategy, at least with Runescape, as it doesn't have any graphical aspects that favor one console over another. "I think they [Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo] will open up their platforms a bit more, liberate them a bit more. It's just a matter of time," he said. "But we're well placed to be on all devices soon so we can have a global community."

The Clan Citadels update promises to fill RuneScape with floating castles and in-game clans!

Quietly one of the most popular games on the net, RuneScape is not exactly short of players. It has, for the longest time, however, been short of a way to provide those players with the same kind of community-building infrastructure as other popular online games. The latest update fixes that, and it’s proving popular, as Jagex report: “In just 24 hours more than 250,000 RuneScape players have formed clans, including over 370 clans containing 50 members or more. The update gives RuneScape clans a real presence in the game and included a host of new features including individual clan camps, chat channels, clan customisations, clan websites and new in-game content; Rated Clan Wars.”

RuneScape is free to play, and has been out for a very long time indeed.

Denton, Texas - Likewise, RuneScape has many guilds to cherish on. Guilds are like stores that sell weapons or armors that you cannot buy in any other places. Also, you could say that guilds are institutions where you'll get resources. Those guilds are categorized into several parts like Pay-to-play...

UK-based Jagex is hopeful that it has the touch to make a successful Transformers MMO outside of Japan. The developer of browser-based fantasy MMO RuneScape has worked out a deal with Hasbro which will see its game released in North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand sometime in 2012.

There's little to go on beyond Jagex CEO Mark Gerard's promise that the title will be "dynamic and action-packed" -- and no word if it'll be based on the classic G1 Transformers or any of its subsequent iterations (or even the Bayformers).

Asia is getting its own, separate Transformers MMO from China's NetDragon. It's slated to roll out there this year.

#morethanmeetstheeye Autobots wage their battles to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons online next year, as Hasbro grants the power to create a massively multiplayer online game based on the robots in disguise to Jagex, the folks behind popular free-to-play MMO RuneScape. More »

#crime A 54-year-old Massachusetts man is in police custody in Detroit after allegedly initiating multiple sexual encounters with his virtual bride - a 13-year-old girl he married in the online role-playing game Runescape. More »

The Gods have gone, and the dark masters spread their power.