The Lost Story of Runescape

The couple walked to the gates of the castle.  It was a small castle in a small land, but the couple had no large dreams.

Vivathia aspired to becoming an archer, and when they passed a vendor who had a plain bow on his table, she delightedly paid the pennies required.

Fargrist, liked matters piscatorial, so acquired some basic fishing implements.  A line and a hook and some bait.

They had barely finished shopping when Vivathia spied an evil looking goblin lurking near the river.

She screamed a battle cry and shot at the goblin, but for some reason ran up to it and punched the goblin instead.

Fargrist asked her if she had bought arrows.

Vivathia was very rude.

Fargrist laughed.  He tried to punch the goblin, but could not.  Apparently it was against the Monster Code to have too much fighting going on.

Vivathia was very rude.

But not as rude as when she died a short time later.

After she got back, they both decided they liked Lumbridge, and went fishing.

So began a story that spanned eight years and ended when the lands fell into darkness and Fargrist and Vivathia were banished.

Furniture crashed as it was tossed outside.

Jake was nervous.  He was being pushed forward to ask what was happening at Dylan's house.  Not so much a house, but in Varrock it counted as one.  Perhaps a hundred years ago it would have seen its glory days.

Jake entered the front door.

A demon looked at him.  Jake had seen demons before, the churches had artworks of them.  This one was definitely more mobile though.  Skin a swirling oily red with smoke tendrilling from it like wisps of steam from a cup of tea.

Jake would have liked a cup of tea.

The smoky eyes of the demon regarded him.  The demon looked to be redecorating.

"Cup of tea?", it asked. 

Jake nodded.

"Alrighty then, take a seat.", and the demon indicated a table with pot and cups set out.

Jake wasn't sure if he'd missed them or if something uncanny had happened.

The demon smiled half a smile.

"It's alright.  I'm from Human Resourcers."

Now Jake was afraid.

Human Resourcers were infamous soul collectors, with an ancient history.

"I'm Clare.", the demon mentioned, as she poured the tea out.  Funny, Jake hadn't thought of her as female before.

She replaced the pot on the table.

"My title is Community Disengagement Generalist, I take a big picture view of our Human Resources and work out how to increase harvests.  It seems this world, Gielinor is it, has need of my generalisation."

Clare smiled.  She looked very human now.  

"Don't worry about your friend Dylan, he's gone to a much happier place."  Clare picked up a toothpick and delicately put it between her teeth with a wicked grin.

She waggled the toothpick at Jake.

"Jake, could you do me one tiny little behest?  We are concerned that the supply of humans here is diminishing faster than our predictions foretold.  Could you run along and get your King?  He's in a building here somewhere, they all look the same to me."

She smiled.  "But then again, you all do too." 

Jake ran off.

lvl?

95

kl

lvl?

17

lol

how much bank you got?

100mill

cool

u?

10

lel

got hacked

k

you stake?

yeah got cleaned glitched me

lunch is almost over, should get back to work

yeah should get that update ready for Tues

Dungeoneering.

Imagine it, if you will, you are a trained warrior about to pit yourself against the great unknown. 

Down into the pit of Daemonheim.

But first you have to undress.

Now go enjoy your looting and exploring.

Except you won't get any loot.

You will be paid like an employee.

But not in gold, in tokens.

Sort of like food stamps, but less exciting.

This is the beginning and ending of every foray into Daemonheim.

This is the story of Daemonheim.

This is one story.

When we aren't distracted, big questions nag at us.

We don't much like big questions so we like being distracted.

These big questions are things like, 

Why?

One of those eternal questions.  Why am I here?  Why am I alive?  Why is my pay so lousy?

Games and stories can help us find our own personal answers to those questions.  Our own personal meanings.  We learn from games.  We learn from stories.  That learning is fun.

MMO games, like Runescape, are ideally placed to exploit this confluence.

Unless they decide to be distracted.

Distracted by the pursuit of wealth for example.

Maximise the monetise.

Which paradoxically does the opposite.

If you sell dreams and stories, then you have to be deft handed, have a soft touch.   Jagex would have put a Coke ad on page 2 of Lord of the Rings.

Story is Runescape's future.  If they can find it again.

Runescape could let every player write their own story, without the distraction of ads, without the distraction of greed.

But it takes bravery to create that story, because not many do.

Valve does, but that's another story.

 And it could be told better.