Aging, Dota 2 being superior to League of Legends in every conceivable way, malevolent actors, she gets the kids and the house, rainfall, Donald Trump putting it down a 12 year old’s throat, and sub-par video game development; there are many things in life that are absolutely assured, but we only have time for that last one.
Runescape is an Enigma
I could not imagine a more embarrassing game to admit to playing, and yet, it seems everyone who plays video games does or has. I think its cringe-enducing effects have something to do with the name: Runescape. Runescape. Wuuuunescape. It simply reeks of the inability to change your own oil.
All the same, Runescape, specifically OSRS, stands as the best MMO that’s ever been created and has been trending upward in terms of quality for at least the last decade. Many people who haven’t played video games for long, or often, will say that OSRS succeeds because it opens up an alternate world where “you can do anything or be anyone.”
Just as an aside, if you hear someone talking like that about video games, disregard what they say. Less than 1% of video game players play video games pretending that they are literally someone else. Most everyone on earth plays games as themselves playing a game. They are taking part in a hobby within life, not drugging themselves to escape it.
The truth is that OSRS succeeds for a lot of reasons; the gameplay is both simple for newcomers and complex for long-term MMO grinders, the skills are grindy and repetitive in a vacuum, but interact together to make an economy of decision making and resource management that is uncontested by any peer, and the game has history, it has a culture that cannot be easily side-swiped. The game’s gear progression is also lateral, linear, combative and utility focused all at the same time (it’s incredible.)
Inspect, Look Closer, Study, Eye, Ponder
Instead of delving into each of these facets of gameplay individually, one could simply take a look at the examine function.
You can examine ANYTHING in OSRS and at any time. Every single thing in the game has an associated examine option. Often times, the examine text that shows up is mundane and obvious: a wooden stick might examine as “it’s a stick.” while other examines are puns, or hints during quests.
You’re walking along the road between Lumbridge and Varrock and you right click a tree: you can examine that. A farmer? A chicken? An odd patch of dirt? A sign post? Your sword? His sword? Our swords? Your mother and father? There are examine options for all of this. Which means the developers took the time to ensure there were examine options for all of this, which means the developers needed to have something, anything, to say about everything they have put or will put into the game.
I have no qualms with the man that says a good piece of art has to come from passion and a mature taste in the finer things, even if I don’t necessarily think that has to always be true, but a man who says good art can come in forms that lack remnants of these things altogether? Christ, what a moron! “Back to spending 80 dollars on AAA hero shooters, trash! Back!” I say to him! They are everywhere, these people: they indulge in mass amounts of very little at all, and the advertising I am forced to endure on a daily basis revolves around appeasing their desires. But this is a rant for another day: my point is that OSRS has the ingredients of an intelligently made game, and the examine function is proof of this concept.
In short? It’s the little things that make a game; it’s the attention to detail, the mature taste, the storytelling methods, the writing, and an adherence to a style that meshes well with everything that came before that makes a game not just playable, but playable and universally enjoyable for nearly three decades now (my goodness!)
If you haven’t tried OSRS, go play. It’s free. Pickup an axe, chop some trees, and examine the world around you, even if just for a little bit.
Cheers,
–E
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