Interviews with Runescape Fan Sites: Zybez

Today's interview is with W13. As founder, developer and long time owner of Zybez he hardly needs an introduction :)

Q: How would you describe your site in a few words?
A: Zybez is where RuneScape players go to for quest guides, help, tips, and to talk to other players.

Q: Can you tell us about major milestones of your site? A little bit of a history?
A: Zybez was founded in early 2001, making it one of the first RuneScape fansites.

Q: What inspired you to start a Runescape fan site?
A: Andrew Gower, the founder of RuneScape, told me to make the official 'help' for RuneScape. After I had wrote some guides, he changed his mind and I ended up putting what I had online.

Q: What were your original goals for the site?
A: At first I didn't have goals, but when I did, my goal for Zybez was simple: #1 RuneScape fansite. *check*

Q: Had your goals changed over time? If yes, how and why?
A: The goal remained the same. We just kept scoring over and over.

Q: Was it the first web site you ever created?
A: I've created many websites before and during Zybez.

Q: What technologies were used to create the site? Did you add new technologies into the mix after you created the original version?
A: Zybez was based on PHP from 2001 to 2009. In 2009, we recoded the site in .NET.

Q: Is there a unique feature/service your site provides to Runescape players?
A: Zybez is the home of clans. If you're in a serious clan on RuneScape, then you're on Zybez's Clan Discussion forums. That's where it all goes down and fight results get posted. Some of our unique features that were unique until other sites copied them include RuneScape calculators. Zybez is also the home of SwiftKit, the ultimate downloadable toolkit for RuneScape. Zybez also provides really powerful quest guides that show exactly which quest requirements will be satisfied by doing a quest. We're also proud to say that we have the highest quality quest guides for RuneScape. Feel free to compare and see for yourself.

Q: Which feature/service took the most time and effort to create?
A: We recoded the entire website to modernize it, and it shows. The process took a year to do.

Q: Which feature/service was the most complex from the programming stand point?
A: The most complex part of Zybez is something nobody will ever see: our ultra-powerful staff area. This lets us manage the entire website and also track our progress and stay organized.

Q: Is there a feature/service of the site you are most proud of?
A: I was most proud of our item price database until Jagex decided to steal that idea and release it as the GE on their website. But I'm glad they stole it. It is now very useful for all players! However now, I'm most proud of our interactive commenting and screenshot system. For example, if you've got a clue scroll in RuneScape and you're trying to solve it. All you have to do is punch in the clue into the search box on Zybez.net and then instantly be shown maps, screenshots, and comments from other players about exactly where and how you'll find the solution!

Q: Did you start the site alone or with friends?
A: I started alone and I solely worked on it until about 2003.

Q: Are you the only developer of the site's code?
A: Nope. We have a dedicated programmer.

Q: How much time do you normally spend supporting the site? A few hours a day? A few hours a month?
A: 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. Often weekends.

Q: What is the most difficult/challenging task you have to do to maintain the site?
A: Nothing is difficult. We've got everything streamlined. The greatest challenge we face is Jagex. However, we're working hard to overcome that.

Q: How many staff members do you have? How did you find/chose them?
A: Our staff fluctuates. If you include everybody involved (including forum moderators), then we have around 200.

Q: Are there aspects of web site management you were able to completely delegate to others?
A: Yes. I don't do very much at all. Lol. The most visible part of the website that I handle are news posts. They're pretty demanding because Zybez is the most frequently updated RuneScape website when it comes to news. Many of our visitors check our main page every single day, and they're met with at least one brand new news post. :-)

Q: Did you even had to deal with hostility and/or attacks from other fan sites?
A: Yes, in the past, but I think everybody's mature enough now. We get DDoS attacked from various script kiddies all the time (a few times a week), but that's a problem we've overcome as well.

Q: Did you ever consider making money with the site or is it just a hobby?
A: Two years after keeping Zybez advert-free, it was apparent that I'd either have to give up my hobby or turn my hobby into a business. Of course, RuneScape websites aren't very great for money, and even now it's not very much of a business. It supports itself and that's good enough!

Q: What do you think about the current Jagex's fan sites support program? Do they do too much, too little? Is there something you'd wish would go differently?
A: Jagex is eons behind when it comes to community and fansite support. When I tell other game publishers about how Jagex runs their community and fansite program, they laugh out loud. I believe Jagex will have to stop blackmailing fansites into signing advertising contracts with them if they want to have a healthy fansite support program. If you want to see what happens when a fansite doesn't want to sign a contract, log into RuneScape and type in "Zybez".

Q: Do you still play Runescape? If yes, how often?
A: I play every day. I'm an addict and the only help I need is Zybez RuneScape Help.

Q: What's you Runescape goals, if any?
A: My goal is to finally get a 99. All my friends have at least one 99 and I feel I'm making them look bad by being a newb.

Q: What kind of Runescape player are you? Which Runescape aspect is most appealing to you: quests, role-playing, skilling, pking, minigames etc.?
A: I'm the time-waster. I spend a lot of time standing around doing nothing. If you go to the GE and you find a bunch of guys just standing around, well, I'm one of them. Other than that, I try to live a well-balanced RuneScape life. You can see by my stats that I'm fairly well-rounded. I've done a bunch of quests. Oh yes, I also do weeklies like penguins, circus, and tears of guthix.

Q: Are there other Runescape fan sites you personally use as a Runescape player?
A: Oh boy. Now this is a tough question to be honest about! As much as I'd love to say "No way! Zybez is the only woman in my life!", it won't be true. I'm a cheater. If I don't find what I'm looking for on Zybez (which is VERY rare), then I allow myself to check RuneScape Wikia. I don't go on any other fansites because they're all outdated, too slow, or just messy looking.
Other than that, I go on RuneHead.com for clan memberlists and I go on Draynor.net for my signatures. Both are excellent sites.

Q: Do you follow/read Runescape blogs and news papers from other sites?
A: Other fansites have blogs and news like Zybez does?

Q: Is there something you don't mind revealing about your RL (age, country, hobbies etc.)?
A: I'm in my 20's now, but I started Zybez in my early teen years. I'm from Canada. I love traveling to new places, cars (the expensive types that I'll never be able to afford), and experimenting with surgical objects.


Thank you very much, W13!

Interview with W13

A rare interview with a major Runescape fan site owner (W13 from Zybez). And what even more rare, an interview taken and published outside of the owner's fan site. Great job, Tankler, thank you!

Zybez's Runescape Blog

I feel somewhat guilty about me always criticizing articles coming from Zybez's blog. The reason is that I actually use the site just as often as I use Tip.it. If you brush aside the RWT past and don't mind over-moderation of the forum, Zybez is a very good Runescape site. Why is it not recognized by Jagex? The story about "competitive ads" is murky. Zybez published its version of the story, but Jagex didn't. And I don't want to speculate about it.

Anyway, Zybez is not on the list of the approved Runescape fan sites and, not surprisingly, resentment seeps into their blog. If you are looking for articles with anti-Jagex sentiment, that is the place to go. And sometime those articles irk me enough, that I feel a need to voice my opinion, hence those negative reviews...

So why I keep reading it? Well, because, it is not all bad, of course. In fact, many of the articles in Zybez's blog are just normal Runescape related articles without any kind of bias and some of them are quite good. Like this one about skills needed for pking from a non-pker point of view.

So, yeah, when I am criticizing Zybez's blog posts, I am not really trying to paint them in black...

Runescape Guards Invasion

One of those awesome and somewhat creepy "Grand Central" type events big fan sites and clans do in Runescape from time to time. Scale of this one is truly amazing.

Jagex, Zybez and RWT ads

I am trying to be positive as much as I could with my posts, deals and thoughts. But sometime the stuff I read, while looking for a daily link, irks me so much that I can't restrain myself from writing about it. I am sorry.

As you might have noticed the whole topic of Jagex reaching out to Runescape fan sites still bothers me. I understand and accept Jagex's reasons for working only with "big ticket" fan sites, but why wouldn't they be honest about it?
Take Zybez... Great fan site, yes, one of the best from user interface and content stand point. But used to have (and probably still has) an exclusive deal with RWT companies to serve their image ads. Obviously Jagex can't openly say that they support Zybez, while ads are so bluntly there, so they work with Zybez owners to find a compromise. Fine. Compromise is found: two top ad spaces are filtered from RWT, the third spot remains RWT occupied. Now Zybez can say that they filter the ads, but bad Google "sometime" brings RWT. And Jagex can say: Zybez is cool, they do what they can. Everyone is happy. But what a hypocrisy!

Again I am sorry for such negative post. This is the link that made me write it. Such a mixture of hypocrisy, immaturity and egocentricity...

Why Doesn't Jagex Support Sites?

Somewhat interesting discussion on RSC about Jagex's reasons to not support any fan sites. Some good points there, but you can also get a good feel on how "my fan site centric" people become after getting involved into a particular fan site community. I wish people would be just a little bit more open minded...

P.S. I've already published my thoughts about Jagex's position towards Runescape fan sites in this blog. Here is the link, if you are interested.

Runescape Scare Mode

Nice article from Zybez blog. I quite agree with the author: don't play the game in "scare mode". Accept the changes or, even better, view them as opportunities! And, by the way, that applies to real life too...

Runescape Tome Database

Yet another service from Zybez I didn't see before! The Tome Database - collection of Gielinor books taken right from the game. Great idea and awesome library.