Author's Notes:
Though I have had a handful of friends that have departed RS for other MMOs, like EQ and WoW, they've only suggested that I try the other games. If I say "no, that's not my thing", they leave it be. I consider myself fortunate.

I had also planned on raising both my hitpoints and my mage level through Pest Control at some future time. Mage always seems to cost me a lot of money since I can't stand alchemy. Guess that will have to wait.

In no game that I have ever played before have I seen players go to such great lengths to affirm to themselves that they are indeed playing in the manner which Jagex intends, and to a further extent, I've never seen a player base so determined to show others that they have the one correct answer to something.

Recently Pest Control was updated, and while this is not an article weighing the benefits and drawbacks of that update, as I don't really play PC, this is more about the nature of reaction to that update. I'd seen quite a bit of commotion on the major forums that I frequent with players exchanging heated words and snide remarks over their opinions.

Pest Control, an extremely popular training minigame, rather unexamined before the recent update, has now become a serious point of contention between the nonPK camp and the pures.

It's mainly the pure players who have actually organized their efforts, both on W99 and in the official forums, to voice themselves, but at the same time, other players have gone through immense efforts on other fansites to justify the position that they never held until the update.

To be fair, there were many high leveled players that complained that leveling so quickly on PC created a class of players FOTB (Fresh Off The Boat), but even so, little serious complaint was leveled, as those with a high combat and little experience with true PvP encounters were merely fodder for the good PKers.

The hand that feeds.

What appalled me though, was hearing the self-proclaimed "knowers of Jagex's intent" calling the fussing pures as noobs who had no clue about the game that "deserved what came to them".

But that's not the only example that springs to mind. I'll usually frequent the forums of large and powerful clans whose members try to be especially disruptive in day-to-day Runescape. Unsurprisingly, they get themselves muted or banned and start on new characters which eventually meet the same fate.

Then they depart to World Of Warcraft for 15 dollars a month, whereupon they promptly find every RS related forum they can post on and make thread after thread about how much "RuneScape sucks" and how WoW is so much better.

All this effort to convince a group of people that don't really care about the former RS player's departure that it was really worth the extra money because they can't keep from getting banned and because the night elves show more skin.

This, combined with the irritating videos on YouTube which are pretty much just the brainchild of a person with an unregistered version of Hypercam and a 85 IQ, begins to make me wonder what the true motive of the directors are. What I find more intriguing, though, is that when a video is made in the opposite effect and clearly labeled "parody", it's subject to even more scorn and ridicule. As if someone could dare voice their opinion.

So in the end, the question that I am trying to answer is, "Is there a right answer at all?". I suppose it all depends on where you're going and how you intend to get there.

If you're looking for a diversion, something to pass the time and in which you don't have to pay much attention to what goes on in the big picture, then none of this should matter at all. If you're looking for a hobby, where you expect the rules and environment to be the same each time you play, then some of these things should be very important to you. In the end, though it's doubtful that you'll be able to change the opinions of those in the camps opposed to you, it's good to know just what those opinions are. Because they will probably defend them as if they were their lives.

this is Sparta?