Clans Chronicle

Issue Number 12 - Published Autumn 2010

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Tip.It Clan Tournament 2010

By: Killerred005 and HARichards

You load Teamspeak and you hear the sounds of your clan mates' voices. You can sense the energy they have through your headset. You can tell that they, like you, are ready for war. That was what the atmosphere was like for a lot of clans participating in this year's Tip.it Clan Tournament. There were a variety of categories to suit a wide variety of clans ranging from the smaller sized clans and teams all the way through to the Top 10. These categories included the 20-vs-20, 30-vs-30, 50-vs-50 and the 20+20-vs-20+20 (the latter seeing two clans being randomly paired together). The opponents were decided via random drawing against one another. Some of these categories saw over 50 clans taking part, proving the diversity of the clans involved and how highly anticipated the competition was.

It started off with the first live draw of the tournament. Similar to the tournaments that preceded it, the channel was cramped to the brim with those ready to hear the results. That is not surprising considering many clans signed up, including those in the Top 10: Violent Resolution, Divine Forces, The Titans... The results of the matchups are just too numerous to tell, so I'll just skip over that part. Below are highlights of two wars that took place during the tournament. The first is the 2-vs-2 category final between The Titans -&- Blacknights against The Rising -&- Natural Born Killers, the second is between Divine Forces and Corruption in the 30-vs-30 section.

The Titans -&- Blacknights -vs- The Rising -&- Natural Born Killers
2-vs-2 Final

Both teams had beaten a large array of opponents to bag themselves places in the final and both were pumped for the final of this category. There was some controversy over the war world before the war started however after some heated discussion, a world was agreed upon and the war started. Both partnerships boasted a very strong set of levels, almost flawless 120+ units and the stage was set for an epic final.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Bind

The fight was neck and neck for a large portion of the fight down to the 37 v 37 mark where RK decided to send out their sniper unit. This is when BT were able to chain together a quick succession of 3 KOs taking a substantial lead early on. BT then piled Merked05 from RK who incredibly managed to tank through 3 kills rescuing RK from the 3 man deficit in a matter of minutes! Consistently, BT managed to gain a few man advantage however every time this was answered by RK's resilience and they managed to even the odds throughout the fight and at the 21-vs-21 mark, RK's efforts payed off and they claimed a 1 man advantage. Unfortunately for RK, BT were able to pick some solid piles and RK unfortunately suffered a critical DC which set the score as 16-13 in BT's favor, a deficit which BT maintained and RK couldn't recover from. Despite this, RK fought on however The Titans and Blacknights stood victorious with 9 men remaining.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Ryan6666

Corruption -vs- Divine Forces
30-vs-30 - Round

As with any Tournament there are surprises that creep up. One example is the fight during the 30 vs 30 portion of the tournament. The clans that fought were Divine Forces and Corruption. Both clans had their fair share of wins, but before the fight, Divine Forces was picked out to be the favoured one to win. This would be proven wrong once the fight ended.

At the start both clans were pumped, but not as much as Corruption. Cor, being the underdogs in this match had to be as energized and prepared as possible. Their determination is proven right from the beginning of the match, with Cor getting a quick lead by focusing their attacks on the main fall in leaders and mages (not to mention a KO or two including yours truly :oops: ). But that was short lived as DF fought back. It seems that they found themselves because it turned into a strong neck and neck fight (helped with a strong tank from Veseble). Emotions started to become stronger during this part of the fight which was shown by the flames exchanged during the war. Finally when the fight came to a close, Corruption had an unbreakable lead which DF eventually couldn't recover from, ending with a strong 12 left on the battlefield.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Purpledino

After a great deal of fighting, banter and war topics, I bid congratulations to the following clans:

Winner of the 20 vs 20 category: Clan Europe
Runner up: TKO Blitz

Winner of the 30 vs 30 category: Northern Gods
Runner up: Lithuanian PKing team

Winner of the 50 vs 50 category: The Titans
Runner up: Northern Gods

Winner of the tag team category: The Titans + The Blacknights
Runners up: The Rising + Natural Born Killers

These winners also won wonderful signatures which can be found in this topic (also includes the preceding list of winners).

Example:

Chronicle Autumn2010 Clan Europe

Overall, the tournament was a success with things learned by both those participating and those running the tournament. I'm sure these learning experiences will bring a much better tournament next time, which everyone will look forward to. I know I am.

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Spotlight On: TR and NBK's Collaboration in the TiCT 2010

By: dfchester

2010 was a great start for Tip.It. Tip.It Administrator (Das) told the Clan Staff that the posts/topics/members in the Clan section increased exponentially which was a great success to us personally. To carry on to increase Tip.It’s popularity, we decided to hold a Tip It Clan Tournament. We had a category which was spoken of a lot on the Clan Section: `2V2`. I decided to interview two Clans on their path of the Tip.It Clan Tournament 2010: TR and NBK. I interviewed one person from each Clan: Tesh (Head Warlord) from NBK and Big Dumb Ape (Leader) from TR.

dfchester: What are your opinions on the 2V2 category?

Tesh: I personally think it was a very good category, especially the fact that 2 clans would pair up. Personally our friendship { TR } literally went from nothing to something, I think I could say as well as half of NBK that we all made some new good friends. xD

BDA: I think it was a nice change and a good way for people from different clans to get to know one another. I think that it may not have been the best choice for a "fun" category, because it really wasn't any different from a normal fight except the fact that there were two clans on each side

dfchester: If you had to make one change on the 2V2 category, what would it be?

Tesh: I wouldn't change anything as it was good. The only thing I possibly didn't like was the round robin if anything as we had to fight 1 clan twice.

BDA: If I could have changed one thing, I think that there should have been some sort of requirement to enter in that category. I have no complaints about NBK at all, but our partner before that was Team North America, they informed us that they wouldn't be able to pull 20 people, lol, I think that kind of thing would have been nice to avoid :P Fortunately, they withdrew and we were partnered with NBK, which turned out to be an excellent match.

dfchester: What has been your toughest war in the 2V2 category?

Tesh: I personally think our hardest war was against Corruption + Dragon Hunters, as we were down a few from the beginning but our members kept fighting and we pulled it through. :)

BDA: TT and BK without a doubt.

dfchester: How has your relationship been with your partner Clan?

Tesh: Well we never really knew The Rising. I personally knew them from warring them with my country Clan, but I can say that me and rest of NBK made new friends in TR and our relationship literally became from nothing to something. So our relationship overall was very great, we got along together, had no problems and I personally thing that was the reason we got far in this specific category.

BDA: Lol, NBK is great. I had been spending a bit of time with them before we were paired up, and since the pairing, a bunch of TR have started spending time in their IRC and vice versa. We've been hanging out on each other's forums, Vent, etc. We're also hoping to get a few PKs with one another in the future. They're just a great bunch. :P

As you can witness yourself, Tip.It Clan Tournament has created a closer relationship with these two Clans and for me personally, it has been a pleasure to help other Clan situations. So thanks to all of the Clans who participated!

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Dungeoneering

By: HARichards

Jagex stated that Dungeoneering was Runescape's biggest update so far. There was controversy over the skill itself, such as it seemed more like a Minigame than a skill, it relied on all other skills to be completed, it was extremely similar to a feature in World of Warcraft, it didn't really help you elsewhere in Runescape, and there were just a few rewards you could buy - to name a few.

Regardless, Dungeoneering has had a profound impact on Clanning - especially in the Clan Wars Arena, mainly due to the introduction of the Gravite Weapons and other rewards that can be purchased with tokens gained while training. These rewards, such as the Gravite Weapons, required 40 Dungeoneering to wield but cost 80,000 tokens and when you received 1 token per 10exp, it would have required a Dungeoneering level of almost 71. However, Jagex decided to half the prices of most items down to 40,000 tokens which made most awards available at much lower, more suitable levels. The most prominent reward items include the following:

  • Gravite Rapier: this weapon is as fast as a rune scimitar but has better offensive statistics and primarily stabs, exploiting one of Full Rune's weaknesses.
  • Gravite 2H -&- Longsword: these weapons are superior to their rune counterparts and enable the wielder to hit 300's in F2P when potted and praying.
  • Gravite Staff: the staff has +15 Magic offense AND defense bonuses, combining the defensive strength of the RC staff and offensive strength of an Elemental Staff. The Gravite staff also has a 5% damage multiplier allowing Fire Blast to hit up to 168, instead of a mere 160.
  • Arcane Blast Necklace: This necklace gave a +12 Magic Offense bonus and similar to the staff, gives a 10% damage multiplier, meaning Fire Blast could potential hit 176, instead of just 160.
  • Gravite Bow: like the other Gravite Weapons, the shortbow also exceeds that of its Maple counterpart with an extra +18 Ranged Offense bonus.
  • Maple Sighted Longbow: the Longbow sight, when attached to a Maple Longbow, increases its bonus exponentially from +29 to +110, almost 4 times as powerful. The sight increases the rate of fire slightly and allows the user to wear full rune and still retain a +104 Ranged Bonus, double that of the Gravite Shortbow.
Chronicle Autumn2010 Longbow

Like the RC Staff, Berserker Shield, Explorer's Ring and different Magical Robes, these new items increased the variety of warring gear and bonuses massively. Members who trained Dungeoneering could benefit their clan by using these rewards to hit higher, snipe more efficiently and tank longer - which in Clan Wars, where there is an emphasis on quality over quantity, could change the tide of a battle if out-numbered or out-leveled. As a result, the introduction of these weapons to F2P Clan Wars brought controversy of their own.

Some clans wanted to ENCOURAGE the use of these items. Since these items were F2P, it meant every single player could get them if they trained the skill. Some felt that like other combat skills, the rewards were there to help those who trained. For example, higher magic allows you to cast successful blasts and binds more often and splash opponents' binds when tanking. The same applies to Dungeoneering, those who trained the skill got enough reward tokens to get better weapons with greater bonuses. The items, unlike Corrupt Dragon, did not depend on "luck" or money. Some people feel that allowing Corrupt Dragon in smaller wars just proves which clan is richer or luckier with PvP drops where as Dungeoneering is available to everyone; it is not based on luck or who has the most money - merely whoever can train a skill.

However other clans wanted to PROHIBIT these items in their wars. Some officials argued that a large portion of the clan world is semi-retired, meaning their members don't play Runescape to skill or train but only to enjoy themselves in Clan Wars. As a result, these members prefer not to train Dungeoneering because it is time consuming and they prefer not to play RS in that manner. Some Leaders dislike allowing Dungeoneering items in Melee+Binds only fights since the styles prohibit the use of Range and Blasts - both of which are skills just like dungeoneering and therefore are penalizing the ability to use those skills. Others imply that Dungeoneering isn't a skill, it's more of a Minigame and therefore doesn't warrant training like a skill would - therefore not reaping the rewards. Others feel that it devalues organization and that by simply having better items you could beat a clan that out-classes you in other aspects.

At the end of the day, these items are available to everyone - just like other updates which have affected F2P warring. As seen with previous updates, clans that fail to keep up are left behind requiring their officials to arrange wars where Dungeoneering is not allowed so they stand a better chance of victory. However those that adapt, evolve and include the changes are not as limited when organizing rules and are able to progress and exploit these new warring tools to their benefit, making wars more exciting and adding a whole new aspect to the warring scene.

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How has the Clan World evolved?

By: Ralph

How has the clan world changed since 2001? How have clans adapted to change and accepted it? How are we being pushed even now by Jagex to change our ways and limit ourselves to the cold cruel world they have forced us to become? The answers to these questions and more reside in this article, based on a variety of information from various clan's historties and personal interviews with old clanners. Lastly, before we get started, a tremendous thanks to Sirius from BlacKnights for all the help, along with the officials from a variety of clans who gave their time to help me out. Couldn't have done this without you!

Chronicle Autumn2010 Beginning

In the beginning, it was just Runescape Classic: a much smaller and far less diverse game than the one we have come to familiarise ourselves with. Every world was a PvP world, where just outside the gates of Lumbridge you could destroy someone and loot their corpse for limitless riches. However there was a setback: there was no multi-combat! This may seem like a huge setback to warring to clanners today, however really mult-icombat was not even really thought about until it was realeased (much later on). At this time in RuneScape history, there were fewer than 10 servers! However unlike today, the small amount of servers was not a particularly large setback, because there were not a lot of clans competing at the time. It did not take long for people to realise that PKing was easier to do in groups and teams, thus the first clans were born. BlacKnights, Gladiatorz, The Sabres, and a few besides spawned from leaders who played since the beggining of RuneScape itself. This era of clanning was a much kinder and more peaceful environment then the present day's clan world; clan fights were much more respectful and much closer than the fights seen today. Honour and respect ruled here, rarely was the thought of a devious act formed or executed. The majority of clans fought in the barbarian village, Al-Kharid, and Karamja, where random PKers strayed less often. RuneScape Dinasty was also formed around this time, and closed after a little while but quickly re-opened. RSD was crowned #1 Clan in Runescape after defeating the Gladiatorz in a war.

If you are looking for more information on the earliest saga of the clan world, click here to be taken to a very early history , written by TIMMYMWD of The Sabres.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Wilderness

In 2003, the wilderness (almost exactly as we know it today) was released. This confined clans willing to fight to the wilderness only, and as such clans having multiple fights on the same server became much more common than it had ever been. Fights usually disallowed returning, as it was considered a No-Honour act at this era of the clan world. It was very rare to see people above 100 combat even at this time, and since it was still single combat only, tactics mattered very little in the fights that were held. Having high levels won wars during this time. As said previously having above 100 combat was very rare, because it was so difficult to train in RS Classic. The Alliance, one of the first strong alliances to work out (next to The Syndicate Alliance, which was previous to it) was formed at this time, consisting of the BlacKnights, the Gladiatorz, Jagz, and 'THE'.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Rs2

RuneScape 2 was released in 2004, bringing about one of the largest changes the clan world had ever seen. Training became exponentially easier, making combat level difference in clans an even larger factor in wars than it had ever been. Another even larger factor came into play when RuneScape 2 was released: multi-combat wilderness! This revolutionalized the way warring happened and completely changed any tactics that were once used to defeat opponents. Piling was created here, and spamming became much more pronounced than before, due to it not being 1v1's anymore. Clans spammed [Clan][Target] (such as BK on Miner) more often than not during this saga, and those previous to it. Damage Incorporate opened around this time, and quickly became very powerful due to the vast levels they had. Zeonic Force was another clan that was exceptionally powerful, and challenged and fought DI multiple times to different results. Zeonic Force closed however, and the Sacred Templars spawned from them. The clan known as Eternal Honour (present day) came from what was previously known as ZF and ST. The Mighty Red Dragons were added into The Alliance in 2005, and the BlacKnights left shortly afterwards. DI and BK were in their prime at this time, both being very powerful. BK lacked levels however in comparison to DI, and were swept aside as DI became the renowned #1 Clan in RuneScape. Respect was there in spades, and clans rarely fought with flames amongst each other, preffering to acknowledge defeat and praise the victory of other clans.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Goldenage

Dark Slayers was formed (roughly) towards the end of 2005, along with Divine Forces. Dark Slayers very quickly grew to seemingly limitless power, and soon became the undisputed rulers of the Clan World. DS was a strongly honour-based clan, as nearly all clans were at this time, and clans followed their example with respect and dignity. In 2006, the mini-game pest control was released. This indirectly affected clanning in an enormous way. Maxed combat was easier than it had ever been to attain, with levels flying by in a fraction of the time they used to take. This led to an exponential rise in the amount of people with maxed combat, and levels were finally starting to matter less and less in wars, and tactics and preparation began dictating the victors of wars. Due to the mass uprise of combat levels in clans, PKRI's were formed as the new way to judge the way clans were ranked. Rune sets became relatively cheaper, and the amount of servers was exceptionally great. All of this led to clans allowing returning, and soon it became the custom. Whichever clan's members would return more, would be the winning clan. Clans started becoming "No-Honour" and NI (Noobs Incorporated) became very popular during this time. Although crashing was happenning rather more than it had before, this was the greatest era in the clan world. Violent Resolution was also opened in 2006, a kind of merge between the clans previously known as Awaken and Hostile. Awaken came from a line of clans that were related to each other, and all were arguablly "No-Honour" in nature. VR has only become stronger and stronger up until present day. Sadly, the age was not to last. In December 2007, Jagex changed the way clans fought forever, and brought hell upon us. The wilderness was removed, and in its place sat a hellhole called Clan Wars Arena, which was the poorest substitute that Jagex could offer to clans in recompense for destroying their world. The Clan Chat was released, although only clans born after the removal of the wilderness used it for anything other than events. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) was the preffered method of communication to clans that braved to stay alive after Jagex had destroyed the world. Dark Slayers, known by most to be the strongest clan RuneScape has ever known, closed at this time.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Arenasaga

Only clans too stubborn to close braved through this era of the clan world. They fought without loss or gain, and with hardly any emotion as winning or losing mattered much less than it did when fighting with the thrill of losing your items lent wings to your feet. Many clans were formed during this time, and although it is considered the lowest point in Clan History, many clans were born that had previously been afraid to PK and lose their items. These clans are presently known as W17 or W141 clans, and the name is tagged as if the clans were filth. Many of the clans born during this period have turned out to become rather powerful, and many are still growing and becoming stronger. Clans born during this era are slowly expanding today and more and more are trying out Wilderness fights and finding it to their liking. Clans that were created in this era are also holding a different purpose. They are the ones we should be respecting and thanking, for it is them that keep the clan world alive. Clans that remain in CWA recruit completely new members that have never clanned before, and teach them the basics before they go on and join higher ranked clans in the world. They really do deserve more respect than they are given. Being in Clan Wars Arena forced clans to improve their organization, which led The Titans to become one of the strongest clans in the world, alongside Damage Incorporated. Crashing was eliminated, even though it had never been a very large problem in the clan world, and eventually a new layout arrived that allowed every rule to be incpororated into the arena, eliminating the majority of "No-Honour" acts that were common. PKRI's were also finished, and it was back to matched or full out clan wars fights where rune sets didn't matter one bit, but levels and organization did. Also introduced during this time, was the Bounty Hunter Crater. This was a better substitute than the Clan Wars Arena for most clans, however it still wasn't an apt replacement for the old wilderness. Clans fought in the crater for awhile, until Jagex managed to end even that by imposing some new rules, making it so multicombat fighting was nearly impossible in the crater.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Awakening

At last, after roughly a year of clanning without risk, Jagex had introduced PvP worlds, and later on BH Worlds (along with +1). This has led to an uprise and surge of clans being formed by people who had quit clanning when CWA was released, and who were starting to trickle back into the clan world as these worlds gave them heart again. For awhile clans surged, but it wasn't to last. Altough many clans were being formed, we were squished into a very small amount of servers, even including Brazillian, French, and German worlds. This limited the amount of clean fights possible, and crashing has become habit. Divine Forces and Violent Resolution beef had begun, and the crash war had ensued. After DF crashed a VR war after an agreement not to crash, VR ended DF and DI's fight. This ignited such a turmoil in the clan world that every clan that PK's has been affected. Honour and No-Honour have blended together so completely that nearly no clan is completely honour or no-honour respectively. Today's world is truely a survival of the fittest type of scenario, and while this favours clans with a large amount of members/The Top 10, it limits the opportunity for smaller clans to expand and become stronger, if they are being crashed everytime they are out. The Titans have shown themselves to become probably the most organized and most powerful CWA clan during the Jagex 2009 Clan Cup, and are going to have to defend that title this year-round. Clans have always shown to follow whoever was "#1" in the way they comport themselves. This was apparent with the prosperity DS and DI brought, but was diminished when DF and VR took their stand against each other. Smaller clans are crashing each other now too, just to get some action, and rivalaries have been taken to a whole new level. Ddos'ing, hacking, and even subtle real life threats and actions have been taken, all for the sake of a bunch of pixels in a game we are starting to hate.

Sirius from the BlacKnights Clan has agreed to answer a few opinion questions on how he believes the clan world has changed, its ups-and-downs, and how he expects it to change in the future. Thanks again, Sirius!

Ralph (Pyrox) asks: Since RuneScape 2 was released, do you think Jagex has been releasing beneficial updates in regards to the clan world? Or that they have been negligent to our requests?

Sirius responds: For a long time Jagex completely ignored the clan world. We asked for something like CWA for years. I think the changes they have brought have been for the best overall because they have evolved the nature and variety of warfare. There are still a lot of improvements to be made though, especially with PvP.

Ralph (Pyrox) asks: What do you think Jagex can do (within reason) that would help advertise the clan world, and also help bring a stronger bond of unity within clans? Would more events similar to the Jagex Cup help? Or what physical updates could they release into the game that would help clans prosper again?

Sirius responds: Aside from updating the mechanics of PvP and CWA, there are plenty of small things they can do. Clan Chat for example was a huge step towards promoting and standardizing clans. From what I've heard there are plans to develop an official Jagex clan rankings system. I can't imagine how this will work, but if it comes out it will surely revolutionize the community.

Ralph (Pyrox) asks: Many people regard Dark Slayers as the most respected and strongest clan of it's era. Do you agree with the hype that DS manages to maintain even today?

Sirius responds: I would consider DI and RSD among the most dominant of all time, considering their longetivity.

Ralph (Pyrox) asks: Over the course of RuneScape's clan history, do you believe that the clan world has been gaining momentum or disintegrating? What do you believe to be the cause of this? Have we reached a point of no return?

Sirius responds: The clan world, along with the game itself, has exploded in growth over the past few years. I think the future is bright unless Jagex make any radical changes. As shown by your article we've been through several very different phases of warring and competition. If the past is any indication of what's to come, clans will continue to evolve and become more technical in their strategies.

Ralph (Pyrox) asks: How has the vision of #1 changed? Does #1 mean anything anymore, or is the #1 clan judged by hype and attention these days? How is it different from pre-2007?

Sirius responds: All rankings have progressively become more and more blurred. The rise of PK Run-ins is the single most contributing factor towards this trend. Up until about 2007, all judgments of power were decided with single, 1-4 week prep, full out wars with no returning. Obviously things are much different now. There are several different ways to measure a clan's strength: organization, numbers, levels, activity, etc.

Ralph (Pyrox) says: Thanks for all the help, Sirius. Much appreciated!

Sirius responds: No problem.

So that being that, I'll leave it to you to make your own decision on how the clan world has changed since it began to the current era. Many of you were not around during the Runescape Classic time, but have gathered to form a strong community over the years that will continue to span for years to come (hopefully)!

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Does Size Always Matter?

By: Killerred005

Clans that are always mentioned more because of their power or power that it once had. However, does that make them better than smaller clans?

Large clans; they're mentioned continuously and are the focus of debate all the time. Top 10/20/30 lists are focused on that. With large clans, there is the thrill of pulling high numbers, having a massive community and active forums. It also presents opportunities such as staff roles over a larger amount of people which can be useful for improving skills for later on in life. Member to member relations aren't always as strong as in smaller clans, but once you make friends, you make a lot of them. The community associated isn't always pretty, but it isn't bad all of the time.

Smaller clans have their own fights, their own PKRIs, their own events, but on a smaller scale. Take an uncapped PKRI with 100 people on each side from a larger clan, and shrink it and you have a smaller clan. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that unless there is a damn good AC. With smaller clans now, more and more are using the clan wars arena which may be fun for some and boring for the rest. Member for member, smaller clans are more focused. One member can mean the difference between a win or loss. For example, if they were one hit during a clan wars arena match, it would give the other clan the lead fairly quickly. Community-wise they're usually cleaner. What is meant by that exactly? For one, there is less ddosing and flaming, but also the rivalries tend to be a lot more productive. If you look at top clans it tends to be rather bitter.

So, what kind of clan is really better? I suppose it's really up to the member themselves to decide what they want.

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Name of the Game

By: Laikrob

Hi, my name is Laikrob, and I play RuneScape. Well, at least it used to be my name, but I will come back to that later.

How do we choose a RuneScape name, username, login name or forum name? In my case, it was a random collection of letters from my names. Some choose characteristics, skills or items from the game or what they expect to be, such as Runemage, Skillpure, Abyssalwhip or Dark_Slayer. Personality, gender, location or interests can also be involved: Happygirl, London W, Manu Sucks, Lady Gaga... Characters from books, movies, TV or other famous people are used too, in addition to celebrities of all kinds.

So you have found this new game, Run Escape or whatever. Some guy you go to school with said it was pretty good, and you decide to sign up with it – you even have the perfect user name in mind. But nope... It's taken. Plan B. No, that's gone, too. Here's how many start their user name raffle, where they start combining their previous ideal names with numbers, use alternative letters such as capital i for L and so on, or end up with JaGex's more or less butchered auto suggestions. Or, as many have experienced, they just sign up with whatever crappy name they can think of, because they don't expect to be playing for long.

There are also those who are signing up with their second account, or know that this is a game they might end up playing for a while. When Zezima was the #1 player, there were a huge number of players with similar names, such as Zezlma, Zez1ma, Zezime and so on. The same thing is of course happening with today's top players, just on a smaller scale.

Some people are creative when signing up. I can mention some names from my screen shot gallery and friends list that are punny or original (some aren't totally G rated and a few are banned or changed): Dontaskme4it (Pmod), Trade, Evenly Odd, Flailed, Capurass, Pay My Bills, Moderator, Manager, Ho On Drugs, Killingalot, Mypoopcanfly, No Fun Ok, Free, Failed Specs, Des Troyer, Imadrunk1, Halfabrain....

Chronicle Autumn2010 Paymybills

When it comes to the clan world, some have chosen their user names more carefully than others. The Sabres did in example encourage their members to include the word ”Sabre” in their RSN by letting the recruits with Sabre accounts get in on lower combat requirements. (They still do this, and highly encourage members to include "Sabre" in their display name.) Other players in turn asked why they had the word "Sabre" in their names, giving them free advertising. Not a bad move at all, and a few other clans or PKing teams also strived to get similar names. However, if you wanted to become or stay a top clan, you had to count on new high level members who never had planned to join their clan, so you could only partly implement that.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Bind 2

This all changed with one of the most anticipated and feared non-game related updates: name changes. This allowed players to change their displayed name to something other than their original login name, which for many was a relief. Finally the numbers could be gone, or they could get rid of the ridiculous name they created 5-6 years ago when they never thought they would play again. Some would only change if a specific name was made available, or if they had to because their old name was deemed inappropriate. Shortly after the update, a bunch of unused account names were freed (either by JaGex or players releasing their newbie account's names for their mains), and all of a sudden it got more common to see original names walking around.

For clans, the impact was big. Many chose to include their clan's name in their display names, which was a great way to advertise without breaking rules. Some clans took full advantage of this, by changing their display names to the almost identical ones to confuse their opponents, in example the fall in leader – a few of them chose to mock their rival clans or clan leaders.

The many sudden name changes led to confusion on rules in wars, tournaments and so on. This happened because the clan member lists weren't updated often enough or the members themselves failed to report it to the clan leaders or whoever were responsible for updating them, which in turn led to accusations about bringing non-members to fights. Of course, there was also vivid discussion about the honour in tactics such as the previously mentioned one where the clan members choose identical display names, as this made calling difficult.

Chronicle Autumn2010 Anchovy

One of the biggest objections clan leaders had to this update, was that this made tracking clanemies a lot more complicated. It turned out that their log-in and display name history would be gone after 3 months or when they changed their name again. An option was to use the friends or ignore list to keep track of them, but for the bigger clans this was impossible. The task of managing member lists was also increased, as many chose to change their display name monthly and didn't always remember to pass on the message. Another big issue was ending or ex member lists, as the (former) clan leaders had no viable means of hunting down previous clan members and find out their new RSNs, and many of the leaders were retired anyway. This resulted in clans showing with a list of outdated names with a lower combat average than they really had.

No F In Luck, Autoer, Sdrawkcab, Tuckin Fypo, Pussy Crunch, Selling, Someone Irl, A Good Lay, Crap Account, Im Jesus btw, Voose Lagina and Balls. Several of the more or less funny names I have listed were eventually banned, more or less deservedly, and many players have accused the Jmods of not having a sense of humour and for always being unreasonable. Thankfully JaGex have their bright moments. Some of you might be familiar with Limparse – a member of Tip.It forums, who has been muted, banned and had his name changed several times, despite the name having a valid meaning in Portuguese. After over a year of discussion, campaigning at Runefest (there were buttons!) and talking to Jmods, he was able to permanently change his name from Limpy, which was his temporary name, and back to Limparse. While one can argue that it took them a while, the story had a happy ending.

Why is a user name so important that someone is willing to campaign to get it back? Or regret for years that they picked the wrong one? First of all, we see it every time we log in and play. Most of us use help sites, clan forums, IRC and clan chats as well, and there are references to it or it's listed in most of those. It becomes a part of our identity as a player. It can give away our intentions or interests, can hint about age and our sense of humour - or lack of same. Some choose to stick with the same one, and others change it as often as possible; it all reveals a little about us as a player. With the name change update, it's natural to wonder whether the identity part of the display names is slowly disappearing, as it is becoming increasingly easy to change our name and erase our past?

I was one of those people who swore I'd never change my RSN, as I didn't have any numbers in it and it was unique. JaGex have released some previously empty accounts, in example did two staff members here fittingly get Newb and Toad. Some of my other friends have grabbed their first or middle names as soon as they were freed, and one day there was a PM in my inbox. It turned out my real name had been released.

My name is Laila and I play RuneScape.

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Jagex Interview

By: Laikrob

(Please note that we had lots more questions, but the majority of them were about future content, updates or plans, which would only have resulted in ambiguous responses. Hopefully you'll enjoy the responses we received to the remaining questions.)

General:

1. Was there ever or will there ever be any thoughts or ideas on downloading map packs or certain parts of RuneScape to possibly make it run faster/better?

Mod Chihiro: We already cache certain assets as part of the normal download, and only send them again if they change, but almost every update adds or changes some of them.Because of this, providing separate downloads for assets makes less sense for RuneScape than most online games, as we’d have to ask you to re-download them after almost every update anyway. The engine team is constantly looking for ways to make the game perform better, so I’d never say never, but I think at the moment there are better performance gains to be had by improving the way the game renders, and optimising the client’s game settings for their PC set up.

2. Have you considered making a Castle Wars game or world with the option to risk some items?

Mod Mark: No. I am not sure why this would be cool unless we increased rewards for risking items, which I am reluctant to do.

3. What makes working at Jagex fun?

Mod Chihiro: Working on games. Working with people who love games. Working on a game where you actually get to talk to the players about playing the game while you’re still working on it. And ninja zombie monkeys with inflatable bananas.

4. If you were to expand some skills past level 99, which would be logical to choose based on potential and rewards?

Mod Mark: We do not plan to raise any skills beyond 99 at this point. Answering your question would suggest that we were going to. Sorry!

Clans:

5. What changes will we be seeing when it comes to clan support, both on and off RS official forums? (Recruitment, for example.)

Mod Timbo: Communication is a major thing that we think needs to change with regards to clan support. It is common knowledge there are different factions within the clan community, such as the RS Community, the official RuneScape boards clans, the Tip.It clan community and the in-game clan community as well as many more. At the moment, communication between each of the communities from Jagex is either one-sided or it’s difficult to tap into those communities for a whole number of reasons. This isn’t what we want, we want a two-way conversation with the entire clan community; this will certainly be one of the major changes.

6. When it comes to planning and grafting updates and renewing older areas of the game, do you ever find yourself having to accommodate because of the large influence of clans in RuneScape? How do you get around some update ideas that could upset the balance of clan warring and lifestyle?

Mod Timbo: We have to consider many kinds of players when creating updates. Story players, PVP players, skillers, pures and clan players are all part of the game as a whole.As shown by our actions on the official forums – clans do matter to us and we want them to feel part of the game.

7. Why does Jagex not participate more in fansite activities like posting on fansites on a more regular basis, and listening to what people outside of RSB boards have to say? Most of RSB clans are novice compared to RSC and TWR clans, why not look into what they have to share with Jagex?

Mod Hohbein: The level of honest, no-nonsense feedback we see on fansite forums is great and we do keep an eye on fansites to see how their communities react to updates. We’ve never been big on posting on fansite forums ourselves; the way we see it, players visit fansites to post on an unofficial forum that isn’t directly associated with Jagex. By posting in an official capacity on a fansite’s forum, I’d be concerned that we would deter some players from sharing their honest feelings on that fansite.

Mod Timbo: I would just like to make it extremely clear that we do not only use the opinions of those on the RSB boards. Personally, I read the major clan forums countless times each week to see the big topics, what’s being discussed and the feedback about particular issues. As to why we haven’t posted on these sites, you can refer to Mod Hohbein’s answer. Not all of the feedback and suggestions we use are only from the clans that operate on the official RuneScape forums, but from all fansites and major clan forums.

8. What is your view (if any) on clans who use 'no honour' tactics, such as mass name changes, crashing and cape switching?

Mod Timbo: All of these tactics are within the game mechanics and the rules, it’s just like someone in real life using underhanded tactics to get a promotion or to get one over on someone else. Of course, they aren’t within the spirit of the game or the spirit of the clan community, so we wouldn’t condone anyone using such tactics.

9. Will you ever allow clans to advertise their websites on RuneScape forums and in game... without getting reported?

Mod Hohbein: The first thing to bear in mind when considering allowing players to openly advertise clan sites is that there are dangerous websites out there that pose as clan sites in order to lure players in and steal passwords/keylog them. The second thing to remember is that there are *a lot* of clan sites out there.We have a list of supported/recognised fansites on the RSOF, and we allow players to discuss these fansites in-game and on the forums without any repercussions. This list is relatively short and we’re able to keep an eye on all of the fansites listed to make sure they continue to be safe for players to visit.Creating a similar list for clan sites would be very difficult for the reasons highlighted in the first paragraph – and a public-facing list of this kind is needed so that players know which clan sites they can talk about, and so that the chaps at Jagex reviewing reports know which sites are safe for players to talk about when deciding whether action needs to be taken.We’d really like to start supporting clan sites in this way – it’s just a matter of finding a way to do it!

10. Clan memberlists integrated into the high scores – any thoughts?

Mod Timbo: It’s a technically challenging project. It’s not something we are saying no to, as it is a good idea – but it’s not something you’d be likely to see any time soon.

11. What clan events do you have planned for next year?

Mod Timbo: It’s difficult to plan events for the whole clan community; clans each have their own plans week in and week out alongside fansite events and competitions that are run regularly. What we’ve done in the past year with the Jagex Cup for example is to “officialise” existing structure of events in the clan community such as a tournament. Or for a different type of event with the Clan Celebration Month, trying to involve those not already in clans to show off the different type of areas that clans are involved with.For the next year, having more tournaments and competitions, perhaps not as large as the Jagex Cup however, involving different activities, minigames and PvP is certainly what we want to do.

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Sneak Peek

Next Clan Chronicle will among other things contain a guest article about the always heated issue: Clans vs. Teams.

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Chronicle Credits

Laikrob - Editor
tripsis - Chronicle Editor
dfchester - Chronicle Author
HARichards - Chronicle Author
Killerred005 - Chronicle Author
Ralph - Chronicle Author

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RuneScape 2007
Find this page on the Internet Archive with a date as close to Aug 10, 2007 as possible.

Will you use Menaphos to train your skills?



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