A few quick links...

Two quick links:

• G is gathering opinions on making RS blogging forum/meeting (I am not entirety sure). Check it out.
• Ren explaining the Stellar Dawn/MechScape situation.

MechScape won't happen. Stellar Dawn?

Just found out about it: long awaited MechScape release wasn't just postponed - the whole game project was canceled. Ouch... Jagex plans to salvage some assets from MechScape and use them in another game (currently planned for 2010, currently called Stellar Dawn).

Here are the sources:

• from MechScape World (should it be renamed now?...)
• from Gameindustrybiz

Mechscape as of April 2009

Everything there is to know about Mechscape at this point. As you might have guessed, from Ren. A lot of interesting facts, but, unfortunately, still no Mechscape release date.

WoW vs Runescape

Very old post (from 2007!) from a player who moved from Runescape to WoW. And, no, I am not advocating such move. But I very much agree with author's attitude towards the whole "WoW vs Runescape" comparison thing. Indeed, almost all articles and videos on this topic are so biased based on which game their authors happened to currently play! Mostly biased towards WoW too. This post is like a gulp of fresh air in this regard.

And yet... could WoW indeed offer better gameplay? Would I dare to try it? After all I still find it enjoyable to play Runescape. So, probabaly not, at least not yet. And then, who know? Could be MechScape too.

Jagex's 2008 finances

Jagex's 2008 finances from Ren. The grows slowed down in 2008 apparently. Profit was flat, I guess, because of additional spendings on big 2008 Runescape updates and MechScape development.

January 2009 in Runescape

Review of January updates from TruthScape.

I feel a bit uneasy about the past month as well as overall Jagex's strategy for 2009. I mean, yes, fixing and polishing existing content is a good thing. But it does awfully look like Jagex has limited amount of effort they put into Runescape considerably. Maybe it's just me, but behind all these "clean and polish the game" statements I see resources re-allocation. Yeap, less people working on Runescape, more people trying to get MechScape out of the door. IMHO, of course, but a strong one, if you know what I mean.

Affiliation with MechScape World

I am happy to announce that MechScape World and Runescape Reader's Digest are officially affiliated now!

You might be already familiar with MechScape World and Ren (its owner), as I linked several outstanding research reports Ren made about Jagex and Runescape in the Runescape Reader's Digest before. These reports were published on TruthScape forum (at least that was were I found them).

While MechScape World site and forum are obviously focused on upcoming new Jagex's MMO, there is also a great deal of Runescape related information to be found there. And, of course, Ren's research reports. Here is the latest one which among other things (like MechScape and ThirdScape) talks about Runescape future and Jagex's plans for Runescape.

Enjoy!

Interview with Jagex's CEO Geoff Iddison

New interview with Geoff Iddison. Two things caught my attention there:

1. Speaking about P2P vs F2P: "About 60 percent of the game content is behind that subscription barrier."
Haven't heard this figure before.

2. Speaking about Mechscape payment model: "But going forward, we are considering in our future MMOs having not just subscription but micropayments too."
I hate micropayments in MMOs...

Jagex Domain Name List

I guess not much of an interest for a regular players, but I know some people were looking for it. So here it goes: Jagex Domain Name List.

Plus, if you are interested in MechScape, the site is worth checking out.

Get Paid to Play Mechscape?

A few days ago I posted a link to Imre Jele's (Jagex’s Contents Chief) interview. I read it then, and it was quite insightful and interesting.

But look at this unusual conclusion Chris made based on this interview. Is there indeed a possibility that Jagex would make Mechscape open and legal for RWT (controlling it within the game itself)? I personally doubt it. For me it seems that Imre was talking about possibility for such games to exist, but not about Jagex's plans to embark on a game like that, and definitely not referring to Mechscape.

But what do I know? :-) The possibility is there.

The future of Jagex games

The topic about MechScape was floating around for quite a while now, but this article summarizes it well. It also links to a few Jagex developers/employees blogs/sites which is kind of interesting as well.