Dear loyal TruthScape readers,

After many months of deliberation and considering alternatives, I have made the decision to shut down this site (with the exception of the TruthScape forums, which remain open.) I understand that this will come as a disappointment to many of you, though probably not a big surprise, given that I had not updated the site in many months. It's disappointing to me as well, but it was necessary.

I initially started TruthScape as a response to what I and other (mostly adult) players perceived as serious problems with RuneScape, and its developer Jagex, in the areas of rule and policy consistency, protection of younger players, community monitoring and customer service. Some time later, I decided to add to the site some detailed gameplay guides. As an avid RuneScape player who is very good at devising efficient methods, I had learned a great deal about the game, and wanted to both share my knowledge, and partially justify the time I spent on the game by earning some money from my writing.

Things have changed a great deal in the last year or so, in some ways for the better, and some for the worse. On the plus side, Jagex has a new CEO, and has shown a new spirit of cooperation that I find most welcome; the company has also made structural changes to the game that have made many of the issue sections of TruthScape obsolete. On the downside, while there are many people who read my gameplay guides, I have not been able to come close to earning enough money from ad revenue to justify the literally hundreds of hours it takes to write them, and they too have in some cases become out of date due to changes in the game.

I know that some people think that everything on the Internet should be free and written just for the joy of doing it--in fact, that's what I did for quite some time. But being in the middle of a severe economic downturn, I just don't have the luxury of spending hour after hour playing video games and then writing about them just for personal enjoyment. I'm an adult with a mortgage and three kids, and writing is a big part of how I earn my living. I simply cannot afford to spend time writing material and giving it away for free, nor can I devote large amounts of time to revising content that is no longer accurate or timely. Given this, I have determined that it is best for me to just shut the site down and move on.

I want to thank all of you who have read, supported and provided contributions to the site, and I wish you the best in both your online and especially your real world endeavors.

Best regards,

Charles (aka Qeltar)