Runescape is one of the oldest MMO among the living. She is as many years as Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot, and a little less than Everquest and Ultima Online. But these games have long ceased to develop: there are no new players, the old ones come in rarely, and the developers abandoned their support. Runescape does not just keep afloat, but strives forward. Veterans even if they do not play, they remember the game with warmth. And newcomers here are also not bad – recently Runescape received a giant update and, in addition to everything else, switched to a powerful engine written on Fashionable HTML5.

Why Runescape still has not drowned? Why last year, eleven years after launch, she suddenly reached the peak of popularity?

► One of the first versions of Runescape

► And that's what Runescape has come to today.

In a nutshell about the concept and the universe

As is usually the case in MMORPG: we are worn on behalf of the aggressors, we train the character. Salt in Runescape in the last paragraph. Here, as in Ultima Online, there are no disgusting levels and classes, instead of them a sea of ​​skills, each of which develops separately. Carry out with cooking – soon you will switch from fried chicken to, say, Curry. You will conjure a lot – the arsenal of spells will expand. Theoretically, you can not fight at all – collect, steal, craft, and spit on combat skills. However, the danger here lies in wait at every step, and you still should not forget about self -defense.

It is more difficult to talk about the universe. In her history there were betrayal, and devastating wars, and the ramps of the gods. Once Gilinor (the so-called world Runescape) was unusable, but incredibly beautiful. God Gothiks, captivated by his beauty, decided to inhabit Gilinor as creatures from other worlds. When the situation was installed, the contented Gatics fell into hibernation deep in the earth's bowels. But, as usual, the tidbit did not go unnoticed from the side. Other gods escaped to Gilinor, and soon a devastating war unfolded between them, which swept out of the face of the world whole civilizations. Of course, in the end, the lawlessness woke Gatics. He expelled the gods from Gilinor and protected the world with an impenetrable barrier.

The inhabitants of Gilinor took more than one millennium to recover after the war of the gods. In the process, people revealed the secret of magic runes and learned to use magic. This marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Gilinor: the fifth era is the era of people. But we know: people only trust the power, they will instantly mumble their world.

They did not dive, but could not protect. A dark magician named Sluske got an incredibly powerful magic staff and with his help killed Gatiks. With the death of the demiurge, the barrier created by him also collapsed, again opening the way to the gods to Gilinor. Thus began the sixth era – the era of the gods. She is current.

Ruthless times

[Bullet]] luck Rhino Bet sister sites in battle means unimaginably a lot. You can miss four times in a row, and then get out of the whole scale.

How would you feel about the game, where you are killed before breakfast, during breakfast and – all -like – at lunch? Surely wary.

But Runescape is loved for cruelty to players. Any belongings then go then, blood, tons of time spent. And death means the loss of everything (almost – under certain conditions, some of the items can be preserved), which lies in the inventory.

Players remember: “The player was suddenly killed before my eyes. A few more players saw the murder, so I rushed to the corpse with all my legs – it was on it a very valuable hat! And I managed to pick it up. There was no limit to joy, although I understood that I had acquired the misfortune of another person … "

The most merciless in Runescape became the first eight months after the release (since January 2001). The only safe place is the city, and in the rest of the world, anyone could kill. PVP was allowed to turn off, but only once, and there was no way back. I wanted to fight again – I had to raise a new character. The players were divided into two oppositions: hardcores liked everything, and adherents of peaceful professions and PVP at the same time did not want to create several characters in order to engage in their favorite business. The developers had to compromise – PVP left only in one specific location (there, of course, it did not turn off at all).

► In the current form of Wilderness (the same open PVP-Location) looks like a cemetery: conquered trees, tombstones everywhere. Let us pay tribute, a large cemetery, even a huge. It is very convenient to fight.

2004: Runescape 2 release took place. First of all improved the schedule. Many things have simplified – skills, for example, began to develop faster. The solution is logical (not all the scare of newcomers with pretense of hardcore), but many veterans got on end – they say, it is painfully easily played.

Players remember: “I prefer the old Runescape-it was simply more difficult. My nerves are still packed before sorting out the city walls, although, it would seem, what to be afraid of … "

Comprehensive availability

Jagex acted correctly, ignoring the then fashion for the signature model. Runescape was conditionally paid. In 2001, the free MMO could seem good magic or scam. But curiosity prevailed. Even when premium accounts appeared (before that the game lived through advertising), and the capabilities of the free were hooked under the root, the influx did not decrease. The next year after the release, the game included a million players.

► It is better to call the free version a saturated sample – it’s easier to say what access is not cut to than to list the iconic possibilities. But the subscription is inexpensive – now, for example, about eight dollars a month.

2006: In its own way, the anniversary-a hundredth task was added to the game. That in this special? Tasks in Runescape rarely roll to the genocide of monsters or postal instructions. For the most part, these are truly exciting adventures with their mini-strokes. They have a lot of mini-games (to play the desired melody on the wind organ in order to remove the sorcerer out of balance, for example) and elements of classic adventure games (like searches for the desired object in the mountains of unnecessary ones). Collecting a hundred such quests is not so easy.

[[Bullet]] In 2007, PVP was again redrawn. Forbidden to butt in Wilderness and compensated by competitive mini-players. It turned out fun, but did not pull on a full replacement. The players complained, but the developers returned the previous system only in 2011.

The online game market at that time was much more modest than the current one, and a million players had a few more. Here, another competent (albeit unusual for a full -fledged roe deer) is manifested – Runescape is completely played and played in the browser. With a tortoise Internet (many then had only one), not everyone could download the game and play with convenience, and Runescape was launched without any problems almost everywhere and with almost any Internet. This is relevant even now. Launching a game in a browser, many simply use it as an interactive chat.

Players remember: “Suddenly I discovered that I was only doing that I am sitting in a chat with friends. Although he could have spent money on another game instead and really play it ".

2007: Runescape was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular parole mmorpg. In the next three years, she also entered there in the same nomination.

Soul conversations

That there is communication in modern online roofs? Usually – a cold discussion of strictly gaming topics (inside guilds, of course, differently): in what heel to poke this boss, how to cope with a cable -rise task, and also the merchants call. There is almost almost no speech about gratuitous mutual assistance.

► In 2010, Runefest was first held – Runescape players. In general, the usual such gaming festival with cosplayers, contests and other. But the jerk was strong-after all, the first "living" event in nine years.

So, in Runescape at the dawn of MMOG, when everything was new, the smallest community formed. It was in the order of things to hello with random passers -by and for “thank you” to help those in need. At the same time, no one snapped up with the rescued conversation at least on a political topic, for example. In the general opinion, over the years, people in the game have stolen. Yes, now you can’t chat on abstract topics, but the echoes of the bright past are still making themselves felt. Then who will say hello (just like that!), then a living rolevik will cross the road.

► relatively small crowd in the local market. The peak here is often gathering more at the peak.

Players remember: “To earn money, I decided to make bowstring for bows, and then sell them. Soon I met a guy who bought all my bowstrows from me at once. He became my regular client. We traded, talked and eventually became friends. In real life, he was a sailor. Once he said that he was sailing for six months and play, of course, he could not. He left my sword for me so that I would use it for now. Six months have passed, but that guy has not entered the game … Now it has passed for five years, and I hope that everything is good with my virtual friend. I still shore his sword ".

2013: Almost half a million players voted for the launch of servers with the version of Runescape August 2007. Soon the servers launched and even sometimes update them. Alas, only subscribers can be nostalgic yet.

► In 2012, two iconic events happened at once. Firstly, the bar of registered players reached 200 million people. Event number two – new trailer. Still, this is the face of the game, and Runescape did it in its own fabulous.

Runescape 3: About global

The sixth era barely took up Gilinor. Those who were not too lazy to read in tasks and dialogs to understand a difficult, but fascinating plot, will probably be happy to read a new page in the history of Gilinor. And they will not just read it, but they will be able to add it themselves. “How the sixth era will end, players decide,” the developers say. About how this will happen, Mark Ogilvi, chief designer Runescape, told us in general terms.

“First of all, players affect the world of game in global events. In these events, players change the future of characters, locations, and these changes are irreversible. Players can literally write the history of the world. Ultimately, having gone through many trials, the players will become more powerful than the gods, who were previously worshiped. If they want, of course ".

When this article was written, two deities defeated the city of Lambridge in the camp and try to get each other from the world. You can join anyone, and, in theory, the outcome of the battle will determine what will happen next.

* * *

Runescape becomes kinder for the player every year. No droplets are surprising that, according to veterans (they generally tend to complain about everything new), in the current Runescape, purple sky and dull grass. Nevertheless, rarely someone forever says goodbye to Gilinor.

All quotes are the statements of Runescape players on various forums and sites.