TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About RuneScape's Community and Its Impact on Children       9  Specific Dangers and Behavioral Concerns in the RuneScape Community

Rudeness, Verbal Abuse and Language Greed and Money Obsession

If the abuse and nastiness that players experience in the regular part of the game is bad, it's nothing compared to what goes on where players are allowed to combat each other. The worst is the area called the Wilderness—shortened as Wildy or just the Wild—the area of RuneScape set aside unrestricted player versus player combat (PvP), also called player killing (PKing).

The Wilderness is located in the northern part of the map, and has about 55 levels in it, and the level of Wilderness indicates how far apart two players' levels must be in order to attack each other. For example, if you are in level 5 Wilderness and your combat level is 50, then players from combat levels 45 through 55 can attack you. As you go north from the regular non-Wilderness part of RuneScape and cross the protective ditch, you first hit level 1 Wilderness, then level 2 and so on, so the further north you go the stronger the players who can attack you, making play increasingly more dangerous.

PvP gameplay is not uncommon in MMORPGs, and there are some PKers who are fully aware of its risks and legitimately engage in the activity willingly for the challenge. Unfortunately, the generally nasty nature of the RuneScape community is magnified once it comes down to pitting one player against another, especially because when you kill someone you get most of their items—in the Wilderness, deception and evil are par for the course. Just some of the examples of common behavior here:

• People who befriend new players and convince them to team up to go PKing. The older player then backstabs the newer one, kills them and takes their items. This is a actually a legal type of luring.
  
  
• Another type of luring involves predators who tell players trying to sell items that they want to buy them, then trick the seller into the Wilderness where the seller is killed. This is now illegal, though it was actually not against the rules for over a month in March 2007. See here for more.
  
  
• Large teams, called clans, roam around the Wilderness attacking single adventurers and killing them. Twenty on one slaughters are routine - yay, what fun! Sometimes clans will engage in luring by lying to a new member in saying they are accepted into the clan, then double-crossing them in the wild.
  
  
• Players who exploit problems with the game engine to allow teams to gang up on a single victim, even in areas intended only for one-on-one combat.

The level system in the Wilderness is meant to ensure fair fights, preventing a level 50 player from getting instantly killed by a level 100 player as soon as he steps into the Wild. Unfortunately, there is a very large disadvantage to new players in the Wild, because RuneScape's combat system favors the creation of highly-tuned “killing machine” characters called pures. A new player who is level 50 could end up fighting an experienced PKer whose character is also level 50 but far more powerful. The new player would have no chance.

Not only will a new player who enters the Wilderness likely die and lose most of his items, he will also usually be verbally abused as he dies. Insulting other players is par for the course in the Wilderness, and PKers will call you names no matter what you do, and whether you win or lose a fight. They will even send you abusive private messages afterwards.

Most PKers are proud of their behavior, not ashamed. Taunting, tricking, luring, ganging up on others? They think it's fun. They laugh when other people get upset. They make videos and put them on YouTube to show off.

Sadly, abuse has even become routine in the player combat areas that are supposed to be fun. For example, there is a RuneScape minigame called Castle Wars, which is essentially a capture-the-flag game between teams of players. You can't really die in the game, as you just respawn in your team's start room and lose no items. It's supposed to just be for fun… and at one time it was. Now, every time you fight someone it's a barrage of names and taunts, which ruins the fun aspect (unless you are one of the nasty sorts who gets a thrill from being abusive.)

Does the owner of RuneScape, Jagex, do anything to stop this behavior? On the contrary! PKing is considered a valid part of the game, with all the lying and negativity that comes with it. While Jagex does warn players about the dangers of the Wilderness, this is largely a token effort, especially when it comes to kids who are new to the game. Consider:

• All new players must go through Tutorial Island, where they are taught the basics of RuneScape. However, the Wilderness is not discussed at all on Tutorial Island, so newcomers are dumped into the game not even knowing it exists, much less what its dangers entail. Why?
  
  
• Likewise, there is not a single mention of the Wilderness at all in Jagex's Parents' Guide. Why would parents not be informed of such a serious danger to new players? (see Figure 83 for an example of just how much activity goes in in the Wilderness in some areas.)
  

  Figure 83: PKers in the Wilderness, World 18 Edgeville

  The Wilderness and player killing is a big part of the game for many players, as evidenced by the huge scrum of players always present just north of Edgeville in World 18. Why aren’t new players educated about the Wilderness?

  
  

And it gets even worse. While Jagex warns players who don't want to engage in player killing to stay out of the Wild, the company deliberately adds game content that forces or encourages regular players to go into the Wilderness in order to complete it. Some skills require the player to go where they can get PKed; there are certain monsters only in the Wild; and there are even quests where it is necessary to go there. With these actions, Jagex pits the PKers against those who don't like the activity, greatly increasing the level of conflict between player types in the game.

Rudeness, Verbal Abuse and Language Greed and Money Obsession