The Children of RuneScape Aren't Our Future?

Posted by Makoto on 27-May-2007 at 11:00

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I've seen the rants from the RuneScape Official forums all the way across the spectrum, and it hasn't changed. Everywhere I look, there some sort of post along the lines of, “I'm starting to get annoyed with dumb kids who play RuneScape and totally ruin the game”. Yep, that's right, I'm talking about the youth in RuneScape; those that are between 9 and 14. But why is it that people seem to resent children that play this game so? The answer may not surprise you. Key factors, such as but not limited to their typing habits, begging, and scams, even when they are the victim, and where they found the game altogether are what players judge someone's age by. The baseline discovery: People believe that younger players that do the community more harm than good. I intend to shed some light on this common debate and lift some of the confusion and hearsay regarding it, by going over the most common tests of age, such as typing habits, begging and scams and how they found the game in the first place.

Chatspeak, Txt-talk and Leetspeak: Habits of Typing and Communication

For RuneScape, chatspeak is seen as the slang that many players refer to for their items, for example, Obsidian Maul in lieu of its real name, TzHaar-Ket-Om. (Good luck trying to pronounce it, too.) It's used to shorten things up to make for easier if not more efficient communication between two players; I don't know about you, but I'd get a cramp every time I had to type out the real name for an Obsidian Maul if I were selling it! In many cases, chatspeak can be interpreted as a language that, if anyone seeks to go any further in this game, must be learned; something along the lines of a necessary evil. Txt-talk is a shortened version of everyday English, used chiefly with cellular phones when writing a short message to someone else, commonly known as “texting”. Txt-talk can be used to produce efficient messages to another party, but only if the messages themselves are short, not necessarily spellechecked.

Leetspeak is a way to communicate with another person or persons, but instead of using letters, one uses numbers or symbols to talk. This can lead to messages that are not only longer to type, but very often extremely confusing to read or understand. The only occasion that leetspeak would be acceptable to use, according to the community, would be in the case of a botched key on your keyboard (for example, the “I” key being replaced with the number 1); otherwise it's nothing further than a childish annoyance.

The common misconception between chatspeak and txt-talk is that chatspeak is used only to shorten major or confusing things, such as items, skills, and player-classes, and txt-talk is used primarily as a basic way to communicate strictly between two people, such as communication in an instant messenger environment or with cellular phones. The two have actually become intrinsically intertwined with one another in such a way that they could both be regarded as childish jargon. For instance, take this statement, left in its mint-condition state, “some plz tell me im very poor and i need to make some money”. While it is relatively simple to transliterate, someone who doesn't necessarily have the patience to would refer to this person as childish, or hurl insults at them such as “noob”. Leetspeak also earned its own bad reputation by sounding almost as childish as someone who seemingly doesn't want to use “proper” English online. That same example placed in leetspeak, “s0me1 plz tel m3 im vry p00r n i n33d 2 make m0n3y”, could be referred or grouped in the same category as childish.

My opinion: Just because someone doesn't use home row and talks in chatspeak doesn't make them a child, nor does it make them childish. I've known several players throughout the course of my RS career that have had to use chatspeak or light variations of leetspeak just to communicate with others. Furthermore, one cannot make an assumption of age based on their typing habits alone. I know many players who are in their adult years that suffer from dyslexia, which is a condition which makes it harder for that person to understand what certain words are on a page, or in this case, the keyboard.

The Less Fortunate Amongst Us: The Scammer and the Scammed

Beginners start out with essentially nothing. Very seldom is it that they find friends that they could actually look up to. It takes a week and a half for a player to have enough skills or earn enough money to make or buy their armor. However, every day they see someone with shiny Rune or Adamant armor, frequently trimmed, walking around Varrock, Lumbridge and Falador. One of two things take place, with all players: Either a great motivation overtakes their every desire, to earn that armor, or a great greed overtakes them, to steal that armor from that player.

Almost everyone can get these types of emotions, to either earn or to take by force. It's not just limited to children alone; most every player from veterans to rookies can become overcome with greed. This is where many scams come into play, and this is how victims are made; exploitations of this desire to be rich and powerful.

Although Rule 2 expressly forbids scams of any nature, players who are still gullible will be had by offers to “trim” armor, “trust-trades”, and lures - the latter of which being dashed by the Wilderness Ditch. Players feel that only a child or someone not fully capable of reading the Knowledge Base would only be the ones that fall for such tricks, and that Jagex's most recent update has been catering to the youth of the game.

My opinion: It's not childish to protect players further by adding layers of security ingame. It's also not childish to fall for these types of scams; foolish would be more appropriate. One cannot make an assumption of age based on whether or not they read up on the Knowledge Base or not; in many cases, the bulk of it doesn't tell players all that much about avoiding scams except the base essentials. In the case of the ditch (and I'm sure that plenty will disagree with me on this point), it is not an update just for children that don't know any better than not to fall for lures; it's another layer of security in case someone didn't realize they were headed to the Wilderness and were playerkilled unintentionally, since the previous system only displayed the message once when you went into the Wild.

This Clip Ain't Mini: Affiliates and Their Effect

RuneScape has several affiliates, one of which is Miniclip. Since Miniclip is a game zone common for simple games and is rather popular, children from grades 1 to 8 and even through High School visit the site frequently; mostly to just find a quick game to play during lunch or if they're bored. The effect of the children playing, specifically those below grade 7, is believed in full force to be what is destroying the community.

I've known that children in Elementary School have grown rather fond of RuneScape, and the ones that I know of do quite well in the game. More often than not they earn my respect than someone who is supposedly 16 or 17 years of age; they don't have an arrogance toward another player, nor do they beg for exuberant sums of money.

My opinion: If someone can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the children that play games via Miniclip or MoFunZone are immature, foolish, reckless and don't know how to socialize properly, then I will be more than happy to recant what I've said above. I've honestly met players that are quite young to be playing RS and I've found them to be extremely responsible and mature players. Typically it's the opinion of the grade-school players that the zealous 16 and 17 year olds are the ones that are much more immature than they ever have been, and I for one agree.

What About the Boss? Jagex's Stance on Children Younger than 13

Jagex themselves know that this game is a bit inappropriate for children younger than thirteen. Some of the various things that go on in the game are just a bit over their youthful little heads, and as such, Jagex has placed in their Terms of Service that children younger than thirteen are not permitted to register an account on their own. A specific reference from Jagex urges parents of potential users to create the account with their children:

“While we appreciate that many preteens would want to use our websites, we urge parents to instruct their children not to lie about their age so as to be able to use our websites before they are old enough. Instead, we recommend that parents set up an account and play together with their preteens who are otherwise too young to play the Game.”

Not only do I feel that this would reduce the certain shock aspects of the game in itself, for example, how outright rude the community can be on certain days, it would build a mutual trust between child and parent, so that the latter is not necessarily worried when they play this game within reason for a certain period of time per week.

Conclusion

Age is nothing but a number to me. It's never going to be how old you say you are, it's always going to be how old you act. Hypocrisy on these players based on those three bulletpoints alone is immature and presumptuous of anyone, and no one will ever show you respect if you insist without proving anything that these players are the bane of RuneScape society. As far as Jagex is concerned, I feel that it is important to follow their Terms and Conditions, meaning getting your parents involved; don't lie and run the risk of losing all of that effort and time for nothing. Show them that you're mature enough to handle this community, and they'll be more than happy to let you continue playing when you're old enough to handle it legally.

Comments

Ltje posted on 27-May-2007 13:27

Woah. I agree that it is about how mature you act, and not how old you are. Strangely enough, I believe that there is a quite linear correlation between then. Now you can say that you now people who are 'young' (14-) and mature, same goes for the fact that I came across quite a lot of people who are young and immature.

So basically, that you know some people that act different, doesn't mean that all those people act different. Same goes for mine example ofcourse. Just because I came across some young and immature people, it doesn't mean that all young people are immature, or all immature people are young. Examples doesn't mean anything. Period.

But besides, on a pure biological point of view, young people are simple not mature yet. They don't have a lot of experience in life, and their brain isn't fully grown. They are in the development stage of their life. And there is nothing wrong with that at all.

So it is normal for youngsters to act different then the older ones. It is how they become mature. So let them be immature. It's good for them. And don't be so political correct to call them mature already when they are biologically immature.

Skatedog111 posted on 27-May-2007 14:22

I'm 14, and in the terms of communities related to RuneScape I do very well. Leading a clan that is 6 or 7 months old, is something you wouldn't expect from a 14 year old. So my point on that is, anyone who puts the number 14 into the young category may want to re-think that one.

I do agree that those who are 12 and below can get alot angrier, and quicker, on the little things in RuneScape, which lead to probably this entire topic here. Those who are young, or those who are beginners in RuneScape may not have picked up yet that you have a choice to respond to anyone who talks to you.

I believe 1/3 of the users who are under the age of 20 are actually mature in RuneScape. The rest of the 2/3s are immature users, wether or not they be 19 years old or 6 years old. I'm pretty sure this is true, I'd bet my money on it.

Users who are 16-18 usually are the ones that decide who is right and who is wrong, or what oen is the noob, and what one is the better player. This just causes bias opinions. One person, who is 16-18, states that if you use leetspeak, you are a 'noob' or 'immature'. Do the users who are 14 and below have a say? No, in most cases they don't. So they fight back with rushed words, resulting in spelling mistakes, and utterlly useless comebacks, which just adds to the 'noob' or 'immature'.

If the users who are under 14, and the ones above 15, can learn to keep their place, and remain calm, there would be no arguements like this. I hate it when smoeone calls me a noob or treats me differently when I tell them my age. I then proceed to tell them of my clan I founded, and many other things that you would think is quite odd for a 14 year old to have done. They then try to act as if they said or did nothing, and if that doesn't work, they just leave me alone...

I probably made about 8 spelling mistakes, and I'll leave them there, to proof w/e point I can make out of them.

Blooblyblobl posted on 27-May-2007 15:50

I agree that what matters is a given person's level of maturity, not their age. However, age cannot be discounted, because overall there is a correlation. Now, I have certainly met plenty of "younger" players with a high level of maturity, and also (unfortunately) plenty of "older" players who are quite immature. However, just because some younger players enhance the community, there are plenty of others who, simply by being younger and less mature as a result, detract from it. I feel that the older (15-16 ) immature players are a different case because they *should* be more mature or whatever, however I'm also frustrated when I try to be friendly and help out a 9-year-old kid, and then since I helped him I get pmed *every single time* I log on, asking for more help. Indeed, one person asked me to make them a mith helm so they could sell it, and wouldn't listen when I told them I'd give them 2k instead since the helm sells for 2k but costs more than that. I even have a couple people I know in real life on my ignore list since they wouldn't stop begging me for stuff, and when I did give them stuff they didn't take care of it and just ran off and lost it.

In general, I only offer help in the form of advise rather than items, mostly because I usually get bugged for more stuff. As I already said, there are plenty of exceptions on both sides of the "age line", but *overall* the younger players are more immature and bothersome. I also like that JaGEx acknowledges that some players under 13 *are* mature enough to be playing (shortly after the segment quoted in the article), but that it should be up to parents to decide whether their child is mature enough to be playing or not.

As far as the greed thing goes, I have witnessed many respectable merchants with several hundred million gp succumb to greed and turn to scamming for easy extra money (Mostly playing off some players' lack of math skills, offering 1 million willow logs and claiming they're worth 250m instead of 25m or whatever, but I also know of a high-level player mod who stole 200m off his "friend" Wink , and so as far as the scamming goes I agree 100% that it is not tied to age, and indeed I tend not to report the scammers who I think are younger (and are doing it to try to replace what they lost), but rather try to talk them through the frustration they're feeling after being scammed by someone who's just greedy, and convince them that scamming someone else really won't fix anything. The people who should be mature enough to not scam I have no sympathy for, however.

who plays posted on 30-May-2007 08:51

I've always wondered where the blaming on younger players came from. Personally I thought it was/is about immaturity, which isn't always, but (as said below) most of the time is, linked to age. Yes, there are immature old and mature young players. Yes, you indeed give some examples, but a few example only prove something wrong in mathematics, not in real life. The fact I "blaim" the young players is because of my real life experiences with people from all ages. And younger people are just more immature, it's very simple.

And I even question the reliability of your few examples. There is no evidence their claimed age is actually their real age. Younger players can easily lie about their age, because they think being old is "cool". I, however, doubt a lot of players lie they're younger then they're actually are (besides some older men, but that's a totally different issue). I only consider the "mature" players believable. However, most "mature" players won't say their age anyway (it's stupid, unnecessary and irresponcible).

One more remark about bad spelling and grammar. You also have to consider there are also non english speakers playing this game, so there english isn't very good (I'm one of them). I think it's about the intention of at least trying to write normal english more then the real english itself.

PK JinX posted on 30-May-2007 21:55

I`ve been playing on and off RS for a while now, maybe 2-3 years and I have never used "txt-speak". I've always used proper grammar. I find it really interesting and odd at the same time when a young kid comes up to me and adds "sir" or "miss" (depending on the gender of my character) at the end of their sentences. It's really weird considering that I'm not old enough that being called "sir" is normal. It's nice to know that people can act mature when appropriate.

And in addition to what "who plays" said, it's the intention of the English, not the actual English, the more you type, the better your English becomes, provided that you have a spell check somewhere. (In this case, I'm using Firefox's built in one).

Lastly, combat level is just like age, it's just a number.
I have two accounts, one that's more than 110, and another one that's lvl 75. When I'm on the 75, higher level people, like even those in the 90s treat me like a kid, but when I'm on my other account, the same people treat me with respect.

jaklumen posted on 02-Jun-2007 02:57

Two observations:

1. It's a fair assertion that 16 and 17 year olds can be immature. My experience is that they are sometimes insufferably competitive.

2. I've found way too much drama among the adults who play RS.

lord abdool posted on 16-Jul-2007 15:19

that is 1 of the truest things ive heard and it kinda makes me sad about that 1 time i called a group of people a group of "annoying 11 year olds" and though in
that peticular case the majority of them turned out to be 9 it reminded me
of something that nobody on here wants to here but im gonna tell everyone
anyways

when i started playing i was 8 this was in 2001 when the game started and for some odd reason i did extremly well considering my age i got to lvl 80 in 8
months of 2 hours a week playing time and got my brown (rune) full and everyone seemed to think i was some (50 year old nerd who lived with his mom) and when i ol them i was 9 they seemed to not believe me saying 9 year olds were dumb a
and couldnt play this game AND THIS WAS IN RSC eventually i got banned when reaching lvl 92 from just abusing the fact that i wouldnt get beat for swearing
(which also gives some people the basis for there young/immature opinion)
now im 13(well 14 tommorow) and im leading a clan on the forums even at a time a mod for a fansite forum and have my own site and have had 8 accounts 3 of which reaching lvl 80 b4 something intervined (banned pressured into
selling ect)none the less this along with your article proves that those annoying 11 year olds can actually grow into decent players as long as we dont crush there
self esteem and that they dont really get short tempered unless we give them something to be short tempered about

and as something to add (without the if long article)
this is that just because 11 yr olds dont generally seem to be good realise they have there parents capping maximum computer time and its usually maybe 15 minutes a day meaning not even enough time for a quick castlewars match so they have no real time to get good and learn the game i was fortunate because i had free time while in technoligy class and i could (thanks to my slight autism) have a a "short 1 hour break" everyday or 2 on top of my 2(i conned my way into 4) hours of time a week giving me the time to learn everything within a week or 2 and having 7 friends who played with me helped a bit.

and im sorry coolmaster112 ill give u those therdey gold pieces you wanted to buy the bronze shortsword from the lumbridge shop keepers general market that was gone by the time u got the therdey gold pieces it was gone Sad

Feverient posted on 24-Jul-2007 16:21

How about the comments about players being too old? I find it a touch annoying when I admit my age and people say I should find better things to do with my time, like get 'drunk' and declare rather matter of factly that I have no social life because I've reached combat level 120. All these stereotypes Sad Good article though!

Fev