According to http://www.MMORPGCHART.com, Runescape has a bigger marketshare than the following games:
Everquest II
The Realm Online
Asheron’s Call
Arnarchy Online
WWII Online
Asheron’s Call 2
The Sims Online
Everquest OA
Shadowbane
Mankind
Eve Online
PlanetSide
Second Life
Horizons
W00T!
-Chris
Thanks for the hint; that’s impressive.
An … applet. 
No Javawebstart, no embedded VM, no nothing, just the old Browser applet. And it works. It does well, as the number of users indicates.
No hardware rendering, no super cool OpenGL effects, no vertex and pixel shaders, no nothing, “just” software 3d. Mediocre 3d graphics in total, but so what: the game is complete, it runs and a lot of people play it. So I guess it’s funny!
Another proof of the so old KISS method. (“Keep It Simple etc” you all know). Another proof that the content is far more important than the packaging.
A big success for a Java game I guess, which hasn’t been discussed a lot here around. Probably many of us talk too much and don’t act. The few developers behind Runscape do the opposite.
Well done, Jagex in good old Britain!
{Edit: typos}
Not to take anything away from what is obviously a great success but have you played the game?
It appears to me to be aimed at a certain market of people populating the web (script kiddie) which is why it does so well.
That said, when it comes down to it, business is business and money is money
Kev
[quote]Not to take anything away from what is obviously a great success but have you played the game?
[/quote]
Well, I just played it for a short while. I’m no real MMOG fan.
[quote]It appears to me to be aimed at a certain market of people populating the web (script kiddie) which is why it does so well.
[/quote]
I don’t know the MMOG audience.
Runescape has got 3d graphics which isn’t as well as “Alone in the dark” many years ago. Apparently graphics aren’t the too important for MMOGs. Not to mention the Telnet ones… 
[quote]That said, when it comes down to it, business is business and money is money
[/quote]
Yes indeed.
Well, the success and lack of sucess of games can be a mystic thing. Many times you won’t know in advance if or if not you’re going to have a big hit. (Brabens Elite comes to my mind.)
When a small software house brings a hit it’s nice in particular, because compared to the big guys with a lot of money in the first instance they didn’t and just dared the risk.
Ah, no, I’m not saying the graphics are the problem. Its the game play… but the community is strong, I guess thats what really keeps it going.
Kev
Soldat grumble grumble soldat soldat soldat grumble
Still the best multiplayer game on the net.
Cas
Worth noting that:
Some interesting stuff about RS:
He worked out a compromise - made it possible to write a lot more in the scripting langauge, so that other programmers could do much more work without touching his source. It was a very successful compromise. It’s probably fair to say that I made a big mistake ;D, but it’s impossible to tell.
The first version used less-than-isometric 3D in a sort of halfway between diablo-1 and zelda-1. All you could do was beat up a sheep with your bare hands. This was in 1998/1999.
They did no marketing until after they were big and very rich. No marketing at all. I think a lot of people have wondered whether they would be making 10 times as much money if they had done a lot of marketing. On the other hand, their profitability is insanely high. YMMV.
The first two years of devlopment (more, depending upon how you count it - do you include the re-writes from scratch?) was done with practically no funding. Given two years just to write code, I think a lot of people could produce something self-sufficient that is ultimately just as successful - but how many people who are really good developers can find that much time?
RS was running for a couple of years as a commercial game before it started charging subscriptions. The “realistic” graph of subscribers, adjusted for this fact, is a lot more clearly exponential.
Their primary audience is much much narrower than for any of the Sony games; perhaps 5 times narrower. An example of how successful you can be by specialising?
I tried to get the GDC organizers to give us a 1hour spot to talk about how it was done and the issues they faced, but almost no-one had ever heard of them, and they rejected the talk. c.f. marketing above.
IMHO their success is almost entirely built on the “free”/viral marketing that their niche audience did for them. I’m not (and never have been) an employee, so I’m just guesisng, but having watched it closely and played it extensively over 5 years that’s the impression I get.
[quote][…]Probably many of us talk to much and don’t act.[…]
[/quote]
“Nerding around”.
Well, I started to kick myself in the arse on a daily basis and get a lot more done than before. Getting at least one thing done each day does the trick, because you’ll usually end up wanting to do “just one more thing”
The biggest drag for me is still art. I can produce half decent game media, but it takes ages. Guess it’s a lack of practise. Having an ass kicking artist (like Chaz) is a big advantage.
Thanks Blah³ for the interesting insight behind the scenes of Runescape. That’s nearly as exciting as a Chesterton detective story!
I’ve to admit I admire what the few (!) devs behind Runescape managed to do: they finished and released the baby and run it - successfully! Started with no fund? - lovely. Independent devs at their best.
They’re modest, too: no big Gamasutra stories, not even talked here in the forum, they don’t tell SUN every 2nd day that their JVM, Webstart, etc would suck… Amazing.
The audience, yes, they’ve got the power.
[quote]Getting at least one thing done each day does the trick, because you’ll usually end up wanting to do “just one more thing”
[/quote]
Very true. And maybe on weak point of so many of us: pressed down by the many “other” day-tasks we’ve to do, sometimes you’re just too tired to program even a single line of code for your game…
[quote]The biggest drag for me is still art. I can produce half decent game media, but it takes ages. Guess it’s a lack of practise. Having an ass kicking artist (like Chaz) is a big advantage.
[/quote]
Yes, it is.
You should take a look at the, well, art of the games which the Jagex guy did before Runescape, hehe.
“Nothing stops me now” must be his motto. Good one!
[quote]Not to take anything away from what is obviously a great success but have you played the game?
It appears to me to be aimed at a certain market of people populating the web (script kiddie) which is why it does so well.
That said, when it comes down to it, business is business and money is money
Kev
[/quote]
What’s interesting is that if you look at unique ID’s for an online game, here in the US NeoPets has the biggest “player” population. Currently, their website shows 87,554,028 owners and 124,418,394 NeoPets created. There is a difference between building an online game you as the developer would want to play vs. building an online game that has mass appeal and can make a bucketload of cash
-ChrisM
[quote]The biggest drag for me is still art.
[/quote]
I second that. Back on the Amiga, it was much more simple…everything was 2D and you could draw it in a day or two using DPaint by yourself:
But today, everything has to be 3D. With 3D models, levels and pleasing textures. That’s why i started to write Paradroid in 3D. It still is 3D, but the artwork it quite simple…the droids are “balls”, the levels can be generated from ASCII files and it’s still fun (i hope it is). I agree on the basic “problem”: People don’t get things “done”. From my experience of jPCT-users, there are only two kinds of persons who get things done: Persons, that are using jPCT for something commercial and person who are usign it at university. All the others failed to finish anything…well, except for that russian guy, who’s doing a really great job at developing a turn based stategy game but that’s really seldom.
Regarding Runescape, i admire that it is sucessfull as an 1.1. compatible browser game…something that almost everyone in this forum regards as pointless…
Whoa, Egon you can really push some pixels :o
The appeal of rs to me was the skill system; baking, mining, forging plus alot more.
This example of the success of the lone coder of runescape is proof that focus, motivation, and commitment to achieve something substantial is not that common and is in fact quiet special. It’s certainly rare; not only in gamedevelopment but life in general.
It’s especially rare in business.
Nice artwork Egon. You ought to get yourself a copy of Cosmigo Pro Motion.
Cas
boobies
Of course they do. Jagex put themselves on Miniclip and the number of players shot up and so did the number of complaints. Jagex hardly gets any respect from the players. Its really sad. :’(
Crafting Guild
This skill guide was written by Darkwiz. Thanks to Fudge, Thunderdog for corrections.
This guild guide was entered into the database on Mon, Mar 15, 2004, at 05:41:45 PM by Fudge and was last updated on Sat, Oct 09, 2004, at 08:50:28 AM.
If anything is incorrect/missing or you have new information to submit please post it on the RuneHQ Updates/plans/submissions forum
Requirements: Must have 40+ Crafting to enter. Must wear a brown apron.
Location: Northwest of Rimmington
At lvl 40 Crafting, you are eligible to enter the Crafting Guild. This is the place where you will get most of your crafting tools!
When you walk in, you will be welcomed to the Crafting Guild and you will see The Crafting Master. If you talk to him, he will say, “Hello. Welcome to the Crafting Guild. Accomplished crafters from all over the land come here, all to use our top notch work shops.”
To the West you will find a pottery oven and a table. To the East you will find a jug spawn and 4 potter’s wheels. Head South of the door to find a table with a chisel and hammer spawn. South of that you will find a workbench. Head to the furthest Southern point and you will find a sink.
Head East to the backyard of the Guild. Over here you will find: 6 clay, 6 silver and 7 gold rocks.
To the West side of the Guild, you will find stairs to climb up.
In the northwest corner, you will find a pair of shears, a necklace, and a holy symbol mould. Over in the northeast side, you will find 2 wool spinning wheels. Finally there is a man who manufactures leather, a Tanner. He will make cow hide into leather though he does not sell it.
There is also a Tanner in Al Kharid.
8) 8) 8) there is some tips form me
cya
it’s unfortunate the kind of audience that a free online multiplayer game draws though. for every three players, one is trying to talk, trick and scam their way into stealing other’s accounts, the second is dumbly falling for it, and the third only plays with people they know personally.
I’ve certainly enjoyed playing runescape over the last two/three years. Simplicity is indeed best in my view. I first found out about it through word of mouth, and it quickly spread through my university.
I’ve found that I go through cycles, where at times I cannot be bothered to play it and others where I just can’t leave it. I keep thinking to myself - what is the point of this all… why do I keep chopping trees? 
[quote]it’s unfortunate the kind of audience that a free online multiplayer game draws though. for every three players, one is trying to talk, trick and scam their way into stealing other’s accounts, the second is dumbly falling for it, and the third only plays with people they know personally.
[/quote]
You’ve been out of the MM scene lately?