What's up guys it's me Jeremy.
We're doing something a bit different today, with a video that is not going to be about
League of Legends.
Out of all of the games that has stood the test of time, probably the most iconic of
them all is Runescape.
Created in 2001 this Legenday MMO by Jagex has had over 250 million accounts created
since its release, and to this day, still has an active, healthy and growing playerbase.
And throughout time the developers have done a lot of things right and some not so much,
but there's one thing the game truly succeeds at from a game design perspective, that has
allowed it, at least in my mind, to truly stand the test of time.
Runescape as a game succeeds at making grinding fun.
Whether you are playing the modernized Runescape 3 or the classic OG Old School Runescape,
we'll be referring to both games in this video together hand-in-hand as simply Runescape,
since pretty much all of our talking points apply to both games equally.
Hundreds of Massively Multiplayer Online Games have come and gone, and the biggest fault
that these forgotten and unplayed games typically have, is that they fail to make their long-form
gameplay interesting.
The gameplay consists of killing 6 wolves to level up so that you can go on to kill
6 move wolves in a new area, gain some more levels, and kill some more wolves, until you
get bored and uninstall.
Grinding is and always will be a pretty big part of the MMO genre as a whole, and so that
aspect is typically what defines the gameplay of an MMO.
And making grinding fun is, at least on the game design side of things, is the number
one thing that has contributed to the long term success of the game as a whole.
Sure, Jagex has done a ton of other things that also contributed heavily to Runescape's
long term success, but from specifically a gameplay perspective, making their grinding
elements fun is what allowed the game to last longer than the lifetime of some of the people
watching this video.
There's quite a few ways that Runescape accomplishes this incredible feat, and it's
the culmination of all of these things together that has made the game design massively successful.
In runescape, you as a player are given complete control over what to do.
Because things are based on individual skills and definied quests and such, a player has
infinitely more opportunities and choices than you would expect in a more traditional
MMO where you start at level 1 in the zone that you stay in from level 1-10, and then
moving onto the next zone from level 10-20 and so on.
In Runescape, there is no set path, no strict levelling zones or areas, the entire world
and every part of it is open to you in some way shape or form.
Right off the bat you get to choose what you want to grind at, and that level of control
gives a lot more interest to the repetive elements, since you never feel like you are
forced to do something.
The introduction of choice already does a ton to make grinding feel less like a chore,
and much moreso like you are working towards your own set goal.
Although repetitive grinding is a massive part of runescape for sure, it never really
feels like it is forced on you the way the levelling grind might be in a more traditional
MMO where you gain experience, level up, and eventually hit the overall level cap.
As well, Runescape does an absolutely fantastic job at giving you meaningful, significant
rewards at the end of your grind.
Although the grinding aspects definitely do get tedious, you are always met at the end
with an extremely satisfying payoff.
It leaves you feeling like you worked hard on a project and ended up with something awesome,
which is a feeling that can be quite hard to come by, and not only just in gaming.
It does an amazing job of giving incredible satisfaction upon accomplishing a goal, be
it by giving you an epic item, unlocking a new and exlusive zone, or gaining access to
a new piece of gameplay, very rarely does a grind in runescape to obtain something feel
like a waste when you finish it, and by giving you a good feeling of accomplishment, you
are always left at the end feeling like the grind was worth it, and you're excited to
start on the next one.
Another aspect that Runescape introduces as well, is that they typically add in some amount
of randomness to the repetitive and boring elements.
There's loads of random stuff in the game setup to where you might be grinding for an
hour or so, and hey here's this random extra bonus reward for no reason, or maybe you randomly
get some extra XP, a nice free item, a rare drop, or if you're extremely lucky, one
of the coveted rare pets.
By introducing these random rewards to respective aspects of gameplay, things are kept a little
bit more interesting.
Along the way to your epic reward at the end, you're bound to stumble upon some nice little
bonuses, and there's also a slim chance of getting something that is super rare and
awesome too.
This randomness allows the repetitive gameplay to actually have moments that are different,
and allow the entire process to feel just a bit less repetitive overall to be enough
to not get bored along the way to reaching your goal.
The cycle of pacing between repetitive grind session to a meaningful reward, mixed in with
random elements, all while keeping the grind under the control of the player, allows you
to always be reaching for the next goal, and for things to not get too dull along the way.
Although Jagex is often praised for their heavy community involvement, consistent updates,
and constant improvements to Runescape, the game design is an aspect that goes quite underappreciated,
and overall has contributed a lot more than you might think to its long term success,
and is a great game to take inspiration from for MMO game design.
I know it wasn't a league of legends video today, but I want to try and make more of
theses video essay type things about design for video games as a whole, and Runescape
is a game I've played since elementary school, and still do to this day, so I felt it was
a great place to start with this type of content.
So let me know what you thought of this video, and I'll see you guys next time!
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