Scams are the Germs in Runescape…
Scams, the tricks scammers try to use to get our items and cash, are very closely related to the microscopic bacteria that make us sick. They share many similarities, including the ability to make you “sick” – or at least highly annoyed. That is only one of the similarities, however. There are many more.
Scams and bacteria are similar in that they evolve and adapt to fit new situations and fool ever more vigilant players. If a certain scam, previously unknown, is written about, the scams will change to fool players. For example, there is a scam where one person offers an item (always a cheap one) for an expensive item, and tries to accept the trade before the other person can realize the trade is bad. Now, this scam is widely known and, since players understand item values better, it is now easily avoided. In response to this new “immune system” against the scam, the scam changes to fool players yet again. In this case, two or more people will do the trades. One person trades the cheap item for the expensive one, while the other person(s) offer extremely high prices for the cheap item. This fools players into thinking that they will make a profit. The scam has just evolved into a whole new scam that is even more effective than the first.
Another instance of scams adapting to changes in Runescape occurred when the German Servers were released. Since the names for certain items, such as magic logs, are so different, scammers used these servers to trade cheap logs for large amounts of cash. This was highly effective since the majority of players do not speak German.
Finally, there will always be new scams because, like bacteria, scams are invented everyday. Unfortunately, this is somewhat due to the updates we all know and love. Due to these updates, new ways for scams to be used open up and an intelligent player, unfortunately, decides to exploit the new “weakness” to gain money or items. Soon, a new scam has invaded Runescape, one for which we have no defense against, due to the little knowledge we have of it. Unlike in real life, there are no antibiotics for Runescape, which is an excellent reason to make good use of your “Report Abuse” button.
With so much nasty bacteria in Runescape, we must be on the lookout for new scams, so that they can be reported, not just to Jagex, but posted onto forums or blogs such as mine. Leave a comment here. I’ll happily record the new scam to warn other players of the dangers. In this way, we could effectively build up an “immune system” for Runescape. As Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is power.” How true.
Runescape is Good for You
Found this while surfing the BBC site. It’s very old, but still interesting. I find it interesting that a game could be teaching life skills, not that I’m surprised. Runescape teaches hard work (getting 72 woodcutting in 3 weeks) and budgeting/money management. It’s nice to know that my “addiction” is doing something other than ruining my eyes.
After reading the article, I would like to pose a question to my readers: What do you do to “chill” in Runescape? Whenever I need to “chill”, I head to Relleka. It’s usually pretty quiet and pickpocketing Relleka citizens is a lot of fun. I especially like the Viking style and all the wintry terrain. It reminds me of a quiet, Christmas snowfall, which I find very beautiful and relaxing. When I’m here, I usually spend time thieving fish from the stalls, and cooking them.
What is your favorite place to relax or hang out with friends?
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Other the past few days, I’ve worked on a bunch of things, namely 40 runecrafting and the Grand Tree quest, which was pretty good. The demon was easy (I maged it with 40 mage), though if I had meleed it, I expect it would have ended quite differently. The Gnome King’s naivety was very annoying – he seemed to be unable to accept that Glough (the antagonist) was really evil. It seems like all the quests include one of 3 things:
- A Naive king, lord, or some other official
- A guy who hates humans, monsters, or everyone else
- A megalomaniac who wants to conquer Misthlin, Ardougne, or all of Runescape
The list is a bit depressing. Unfortunately, it’s also a little biased, since I’ve only done a few quests. But personally, I would like to see an interesting and innovative quest – something that hasn’t been done already.
Oh, before I forget (again) I changed my player’s look again. The red was starting to hurt my eyes, so I changed to naturally brownish colors. My hairstyle is black samurai.
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In other news, I saw the Bourne Ultimatum yesterday, which was an awesome movie. It was very intense and action packed, and not at all confusing. The entire thing was realistic, even if not plausible. I highly recommend it. Now I just have to watch the first two.
