TruthScape.com - Why Skills? The Many Motivations for Training

Ask RuneScape players why they train their skills, and you’ll get many different answers. A large percentage will mention that they do it to make money, but consider that some of the most popular skills in the game have never been money-makers—in fact, several are notorious “money sinks”. Clearly there is much more than the dreams of riches motivating players to train these skills.

Of course, what matters to you is not why others train skills, but rather, why you do—or why you should. Understanding the reasons why you choose to work on a skill is an essential step in deciding on the best way to approach training.

This is the single most often stated reason for training skills, and it’s true that a good percentage of RuneScape skills can indeed be used to “make a living”, so to speak. At the same time, though, the days of players easily getting rich using several skills are essentially over, due to the important structural changes in the game that occurred late in 2007. The removal of PKing and staking from the game reduced demand for the output of items, while leading to more supply as some of these former customers moved over to skilling themselves. At the same time, the end of open trade between players made other money-making opportunities obsolete.

The matter of skills and money is a large and complex one, and is affected by many factors. For example, there are many skills where you can make money or lose money, depending on how fast you try to train them. There are skills that most people think always lose money, but that with the proper methods (which I will show you) can in fact be profitable. And the converse is also true: certain skills widely considered “great moneymakers” are anything but.

Since the money question is such an essential one when it comes to skills, I’ve devoted a full section of this guide to discussing its various nuances.

Many RPGs force you to choose a class in which to specialize; you then get many powers in certain areas, but others are completely out of reach. RuneScape is different, in that it allows you to train every available skill, and one of the great benefits of doing so is the independence it affords you. For example, having a high Farming level means you can grow herbs you need to train Herblore; likewise, a high Cooking level allows you to make your own food rather than having to buy it.

This is one of my personal primary motivators for raising skills. For example, I remember when crossbows were improved in 2007; I wanted to start using addy crossbow bolts, and this was a great incentive for me to get my Smithing level up to 73. Similarly, I trained Crafting in part so I could make what I wanted without having to rely on others (Figure 127).

**Figure 127: High Levels Grant Independence**
One reason to get level 84 Crafting: if I need a black dragonhide set, I can make it myself.

Simply put, having high skill levels opens up more of the game to you. One notable aspect is quests that have skill requirements; there are also map areas you can only get into if you have the right level prerequisites (like the God Wars Dungeon and the Agility Dungeon). Guilds are another obvious part of the game you can only take advantage of with the appropriate levels.

Not only do high levels enable access to areas now, they do in the future as well. If a new dungeon or other location is added that has a skill requirements, you won’t have to waste time leveling up before you can use it.

Looking beyond the monetary aspect of skill rewards, we find many non-financial benefits. For example, a high Construction level lets you build useful rooms in your house to let you recharge prayer. Similarly, a high Smithing level saves you on Barrows repair costs in your player-owned house. And high Slayer lets you fight monsters that others cannot.

High levels in skills like Magic and Agility are essential to unlocking methods of transportation that make it less of a chore to get from place to place within RuneScape. There’s also an indirect effect here, as many methods of transport are quest rewards, and those quests in turn require minimum skill levels as mentioned above.

For many players, skills are to be leveled just because they are there—they get an inherent sense of accomplishment from raising them. Some view reaching particular skill levels as a goal, such as having one’s lowest skill be at least level 60, or hitting a level target in a specific skill for another reason.

Level rankings are also important to many players; they strive for accomplishments like, for example, getting on the “first page” of the rankings for a skill. Others are interested in raising their total level (the sum of all skill levels), while still others want to hit level 99 to get a skill cape. Some players continue even beyond level 99 in certain skills, trying to hit the 200 million XP cap!

For many players, training skills is all about social interaction and being part of a community of like-minded people. I’ve seen groups of players who spend a lot of time in the Fishing Guild chatting and getting to know each other, for example. There are also clans of skillers who participate in skill-related activities.

Last but certainly not least, let’s remember again that this is a game, and believe it or not, some players are here to have fun! J I’ve encountered many people who tell me that they keep working particular skills just because they find them enjoyable to do. This may cause players to get high XP totals that go well beyond levels where there is any tangible reward.

It’s also interesting to note how much individual personality comes into play when it comes to deciding what is “fun”. For example, I detest training Agility, and so it seems hard to for me to understand how anyone could like it enough to get 140 million XP in it! On the other hand, I’m level 90 Slayer and many people find that hard to comprehend…