Runescape: I Am NOT The Babysitter!

Does not play well with others... but I skill great!

Recently I embarked on a side goal of getting my mining to 90, and my smithing to 99.  Mainly to make dungeoneering more fun.  During my time in the Living Rock Caverns, and world 84 in general, I've noticed a rather frightening trend.  While many of us have been upset at Jagex for allowing the 'bots to become such a major problem, I never realized how it was shaping the entire Runescape community. 

I'm a loner by nature, and enjoy quietly skilling, or roaming the world of Geilinor, without being bothered by anybody.  Most of my time is spent on world 160, where talking is restricted, and I'm more likely to be left in peace.

So it came as a shock to be on world 84, (for mining gold in the Living Rock Cavern) and see how things have changed.  Now, you're guilty of botting unless you respond to all the children clamoring for attention.  People call me by name, begging, borrowing, chasing, wanting my time and attention. 

If you don't respond, … then you're automatically a bot.  When in the world did THAT happen?  Because I like to play in solitude, I've been called names, insulted, followed incessantly, and talked about between players as if I'm not there. 

It may seem rude, for me not to respond.  To me, it's rude to intrude on my time.  When I play, I'm focused on my goal.  Unless I'm specifically hanging out with my wife, or real-world friends, in which case we usually get together to work on a skill together, or hunt penguins.  I don't generally strike up random aquaintances with strangers whose faces and names (and locations) are total mysteries.  When someone tries to take away my time, they're stealing from me.

Yesterday someone persistently continued to ask if I could loan them a godsword.  I wasn't holding one.  Wasn't standing there, yelling "Godsword for loan or sale!"  I gave them no reason to assume I'd be glad of their attention.  And if harrassing me in the bank wasn't enough, then he chased me from Edgeville, to the Varrock shortcut, before giving up.  At that point, he got quite vulgar and called me a bot, among other things.  I never responded once, not even to retaliate.  Never gave him any reason to think he deserved anything from me, yet he acted like I was the one who had done wrong.

This whole attitude, that I 'owe' another player my attention merely because they demand it, bothers me.  I play because it's fun.  Don't need anybody telling me how to play.  If, occasionally, I choose to interact with someone, it's because they were polite, or caught my interest.  Not because they have the right to demand it. 

I sure hope there are other players out there who agree.  I'd hate to think I'm offending the majority of Runescapers here :^)

But still, for the unsupervised children roaming the internet…I am not your mommy nor your daddy, and do not owe you anything.  If you must intrude on my fun, please do so courteously, don't demand, and I might actually be nice.  Either way, I'm not a bot… surly, grouchy old guy, yes.  Bot, no.

Runescape Bonus Experience Weekend Coming Up Again

Dinner should be ready in a moment

If you haven't heard yet, it's true... Runescape will be hosting a Bonus XP Weekend from the 11th to the 13th of March.  Last time we had one, I used it to get my 99 in Construction.  Monique used it on a multitude of skills, but she played consistently all weekend and really maxed out her bonus points!
     If you don't remember how it went, you generally get a 2.7x experience bonus the first 30 minutes.  The next 30 minutes nets you 2.55x exp.  Every thirty minutes, the XP bonus reduces a bit, until you get to 10 hours.  After that, you get a constant modifier of 1.1x until the weekend is over.
     Some skills don't get any improvement.  For instance, if you're using a player owned house, or the ectofuntus to work on Prayer, the skill bonus won't apply.  That's a downer, because Prayer is the main skill Monique is trying to raise.  In lieu of raising Prayer, she's going to work on Herblore.  She's always enjoyed it, and wants her next 99 to be Herblore.  Though she might spend some time working on other skills.  In particular, Agility.  We both need to raise that a lot.

Crafting...I'm Urning this experience (bad pun)

     I'm going to be working on Smithing and Crafting.  Smithing is easy, I'm smelting gold ore for that.  But Crafting is a weak spot for me.  I don't like messing around with it, and as a result, I'm pretty low on Crafting.  On the good side, now that Urns have come out, I can make Urns to raise my crafting level fairly cheaply.  But it's still slow and boring.  So I'll spend most of my XP Bonus Weekend on Crafting.  I need nearly ten levels for my Elite Achievements. 
     I think it makes a lot of sense to use the extra experience on skills you hate, so you can knock them out of the way faster... or expensive skills, so you can afford to level up more.  I'll save the free and fun skills for normal times.  Though like Monique, I may spend some of that time on Agility.  It's free, but tends to be boring.
     Regardless of how you plan to spend your Bonus XP Weekend, I'm sure Runescape has something to offer for at least some of your skills.  Even if it's not the one you most want. 
     Believe it or not, there are a small group of immature whiners (name-calling, yeah, I really shouldn't, I know) who like to complain about everything.  They figure since they had to walk to school uphill, in the snow, both ways, every day of the year, then nobody else should get to ride the school bus.  Or, in Runescape terms, since they earned their 99's the hard way (whatever way that was) then it cheapens the skill for someone else to have it easier.
     Speaking as someone with several 99's, and several skills close to 99, I don't mind.  Sure, maybe I got some of mine the hard/expensive/long way.  But that's okay, because... I was a) having fun and b) playing a game.  If someone is not enjoying the game, maybe it's time to find a new game.  If they're truly upset that someone else gets to play and have more fun than they did, maybe it's time to turn off the computer and play in the real world for a while. 
     Seriously, it's just a game.  If it quits being fun, I'll find something else to do.  I play Runescape to get away from working, jobs, responsibilities... for a while.  If it starts feeling too much like work, why the heck would I keep playing?
   
     I thought very hard about not expressing my opinions here... but decided to let it stand.  Those of us who simply enjoy the game often get shouted out and flamed by those who can't tolerate other opinions.  So, there's my opinion.  Comments are welcome, even opposing comments... as long as we can keep it civil and express our thoughts coherently.  So if you disagree, and can say so nicely, I would be happy to discuss it, and share our thoughts.