With the introduction of a New Year, a tradition that many people observe is the construction of a list that contains resolutions and goals that they wish to accomplish within the year to signify changing one’s life for the better. Starting January 1st, these people try their best to stick with their new year's resolution. With Jagex, their Behind the Scenes spelled out a list of resolutions, the first of which taking place within the first month, by improving the game's old content, adding a revolutionary new idea to imply what direction they will be taking, and several other minor things. This was in the form of the overhaul to the Barrows, the introduction of the first quest with over level ninety in a stat as a requirement, and other events and additions respectively. The main focus is the first two updates since they both show, like a resolution, things such as change on every scale are challenging to deal with.
Like any New Year’s party, the first update of the year started out with a bang. The massive revamp to the graphics and rewards of the Barrows which included giving us a ghastlier graveyard, battle-worthy armor that looked as menacing as its stats implied and a few extra goodies in celebration to the first update of 2012 for a short time, such as Draconic Visages. Naturally, people opposed the changes within seconds of the update taking effect, claiming that the older style was better than the brand new for various reasons, their sense of nostalgia taking effect to resist the change no matter how harmless or beneficial it was. This update was to appeal to those who favored change or were starting the game as a newer player as opposed to a grizzled veteran, which was a resolution for Jagex to work on increasing the incentives for new players to join and other free players to join the world of membership. Despite the mixed results, this resolution to change the game’s looks to make it more enticing to play for current and prospective players alike by making the graphics, including the armor animations, more visually attractive.
The Barrows update was only small scale in comparison to the revolutionary step that Firemaker’s Curse would take. Specifically, this quest would’ve been the first in RuneScape’s eleven years to have a level 90 requirement in a skill, displaying itself as a landmark as to what players could expect in the future by knowing the direction that their content would be taking, but it unfortunately did not happen. By preventing this groundbreaking concept from coming into action by reducing the requirement from 90 to 74, my anticipation for this month, as well as the rest of the year, was slightly dampened, knowing they could go from introducing new content, whether it’s the first quest with level 90 in a stat or a boss that could be a prequel to a new type of gaming style that will eventually be applied in the future. While it’s too soon to judge the quest itself, it will not carry this sense of importance with the requirements watered down.
Let's take a gander at the remaining updates, namely the Hati/Skoll event that will delight fans of the wolf from the previous year and Norse Mythology lovers (myself included) as well as another graphical change to another part of the game. These could be the smaller and finer things in the initial resolution set by Jagex, and it is very likely they will be mostly forgotten because of their minimal impact on the overall game, despite the high potential for success. This article will be written and read by others before these aforementioned updates come out, but it’s worthwhile to note the importance of small-sized things which are worth remembering because these less noted changes to the game display their successes in the year, whether or not the resolution is Jagex’s or yours.
There are still eleven more months left of 2012, so there are still many chances for Jagex to show to us they still have the ability to define “brand new” or imply they can live up to their resolutions more strongly than most human beings. For the time being, I am willing to pay the monthly fee so I can be part of these changes that will occur in the future for both my interests and Tip.It’s as an author. While this month is showing a shaky resolution, there are still hopes to be held for them to produce updates with the quality of being memorable in some way.
