December - 10 Years After

Ten Years

On November 23rd, 2004, the Sal's Realm forums were created. I think we can all agree it has been a wild journey.

Salmoneus writes:

It was 8:35 on a Tuesday night when it happened: the forums were officially opened and announced on the site. Fast forward ten years and here we are. So much has happened... Christmas parties and hunting trips, IRC and clan chat, forum fads and inside jokes, newspapers and podcasts and site redesigns... the list goes on. So many memories! It has been an amazing ride and it's been awesome to see the community grow and flourish and change over the years - it's not something you get to see every day.

I'd just like to thank all of you for being part of this wonderful community, because YOU'RE what makes this community so special.

A'ight, enough sappyness. Happy b-day fellow Slammers!

Around RuneScape

Prifddinas Batch 2

Out this past month is the second half of the elven city of Prifddinas! This includes the following:

• A new agility course
• Crystal hatchets and pickaxes
• A new method of training prayer
• New level 80 crystal weapons
• A new method of training divination
• New combination potions
• And much more!

This update has been met with positive response, but there has been a bit of resistance to all of the new completionist cape requirements. Many of these new requirements look like they should belong in the trimmed completionist cape, not the regular completionist cape. Some other things, like the level 80 crystal weapons, are incredibly difficult to obtain compared to other level 80 weapons and also degrade to dust. The new prayer training method also is slower and more expensive than normal gilded altar methods. As you can see, this update still should require some balancing.

OSRS Integrity Poll

In 2007scape or Old School RuneScape, there has been severe backlash to several new playing trends: NMZ AFKing, splashing, and commission staking. For those who do not play, let's explain these three things.

• NMZ AFKing is a form of melee combat training in which a player enters a minigame called the Nightmare Zone (NMZ for short). The Nightmare Zone is a place where players can fight waves of bosses fought in previous quests. No random events are encountered here. This allowed a player to buy a Guthans set (which heals you) and AFK for six hours, giving tons of combat experience without gamplay.
• Splashing is similar to the above except it trains the magic skill and requires the player to get to a -65 magic bonus and attack a monster that never damages them (such as a small spider). Again you can AFK for six hours.
• Commission staking is where a player will get a maxed melee combat player to stake an amount of money on behalf of them. The non-maxed player gives the maxed melee player an amount of money and the maxed player stakes it, usually on a fight with prayer, food, and armor turned off. This can be seen as a 50-50 chance of winning if the maxed player stakes another maxed player. If the maxed player loses, the player loses their money and the maxed player loses nothing. If the maxed player wins, the maxed player will take a certain percentage of the winnings (usually 5-10%) and gives the rest to the lower leveled player.

These three have been seen as hurting the integrity of Old School RuneScape and the game had begun to feel more like a private server. To get a firm public opinion of this, Jagex set up a poll asking what the public thought of these trends. For most of the options, there was no clear consensus on what should be done. This caused Jagex to take actions themselves, which is not something that is often done.

• Splashing has been removed from Old School RuneScape in places where random events can be interacted with. If a random event interacts with you, you will stop auto casting spells. Splashing can still be done where there are no random events, like PvP worlds, but these may be removed in the future.
• Organized commission staking has been removed. Jagex's rationale for this is that much of the winnings won from commission staking are real world traded. Non-organized commission staking, like getting a friend to stake for you once, is not against the rules.
• NMZ AFKing will still remain in the game as it requires relatively high stats and the amount of people who voted for this to be removed was the lowest out of all the options.

How will this impact Old School RuneScape? We aren't sure, but it's going to be nice to see splashers out of Lumbridge so new players can continue to play without this interruption.

The Month Ahead

The RuneScape Christmas Event has already been released. It involves delivering presents to NPCs such as the Wise Old Man, Queen Ellamaria of Varrock, Reldo the Librarian, and others. Players can deliver a present daily for an experience lamp.

Several bosses have also received a holiday make-over. The Corporeal Beast, Chaos Elemental, and Har-Aken now wear Santa Hats, Vorago is now decorated in Christmas lights, and Nex's Ice Prison has been replaced with Christmas presents.

In Old School RuneScape, the 2005 Christmas event is expected to be replicated and placed into the game. For those who do not remember or were not present, the event involves crafting and delivering Christmas presents to a mysterious bearded man near the Taverly Gate. I wonder who he could be...

2004

The Sal's Realm forums were created on November 23rd, 2004, around 10 years ago. In this section, we will go into what happened in 2004 in the real world and RuneScape.

The Real World

• Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won big at the Academy Awards
• Google introduces Gmail
• Former United States President Ronald Reagan dies
• Ken Jennings wins record money on the gameshow Jeopardy!: over $2.5 million
• The Boston Red Sox end the "curse of the bambino," winning the World Series for the first time in 86 years
• Popular television shows Friends and Frasier end

More specifically, on November 23rd, 2004:

• The popular MMORPG and major competitor to RuneScape "World of Warcraft" is released
• Popular CBS news anchor Dan Rather resigns amid hoax involving forged papers hurting George W. Bush's war record

RuneScape

• RuneScape 2 was released!
• Tirannwn, Morytania, and Relekka were added to the game
• Player moderators were added to the game
• Yo-yos were given out as a Christmas holiday item
• Monkey Madness and the Dragon Scimitar were released
• Everyone's favorite minigame, Castle Wars, was released

A Salute to our Fallen Brethren

On November 30th, our beloved member Renegaderp suffered a fate more terrible than death: getting banned from RuneScape until the day he leaves for University (presumably by his parents, but it would surprise me no less if Lucifer himself inflicted such evil). This pairs him with Army of One, who had likewise been banned a little while earlier.

But fear not, brothers and anyone else who might fall victim to this plague! Escaping the tyrannical rule of your progenitors might appear a gargantuan task, but a RuneScape warrior never surrenders! And, thankfully, we're here to guide you down the path of glory.

First, go to Starbucks. This beacon of hope provides everything you need in life: Free Wi-Fi. No, that list wasn't supposed to contain any other items.

Next, plug your laptop into an outlet or something. They let you charge your shizzle, right? I've never actually been there. If they don't let you, show them your certification, which obviously consists of all the 99s on your RS Hiscores. They will no doubt confirm your identity as a true RuneScape warrior and you'll be free to do whatever you want.

Don't have a laptop? Fret not! Just bring in your desktop, complete with the tower, multiple monitors, keyboard, mouse, etc., and hook it up. Now, while you're woodcutting and training agility and whatnot, you can also stare into submission those inferior laptop users!

How will I sleep, you ask? Why, with a cardboard box, of course! You can make your own out of spare cardboard if you have the capability, but it might be safer to leave the art of cardboard box construction to the pros. You can find some good deals, too.

Once you've set up your new home, you'll have everything! Coffee for sustenance, a cardboard box in which to sleep. Again, no, that list wasn't supposed to contain any other items.

Before long, you'll be as successful and beautiful as a man from a stock photo!

What were you doing ten years ago?

Considering the forums are now ten years old, we thought we'd ask some of our users what they were doing around the time Sal's Realm was created.

Arianna

I was deciding what I actually wanted to do after high school. Turns out, I had no clue.

Army of One

Far out man, I'd of been 7 at the time. Sitting in a Year 2 primary school class with my teacher who ignored me every time I put my hand up and gave me time out because I yawned. Didn't find RuneScape for another 2 years, but I do believe I'd met the friend who later did introduce me at the time. Ten years man, it's insane to think about...

Shooter585

I was so young that I don't really remember. My hobbies have changed a lot since then, but I was still rooting on my Philadelphia Eagles, who went to the Superbowl that year! I am sensing a return this year! Go birds! Also Sals is good too.

Zooey

9 years old being homeschooled and going ham on neopets.

Jna

10 years ago I was 8; didn't play runescape yet. I was living in the States and don't really remember much else :P

Bwauder

Had a few business setbacks that year, pretty sure I was living very quietly doing rewiring & oddjobs to pay my way in someones attached flat avoiding ... "creditors".

Sobend

Me, I had just gotten out of school for Thanksgiving break and believe that I went to a friend's house to "party." We bought 4 liters of coke and watched the Jurassic Park trilogy. We thought we were kings.

DXMichael

Hmm, back when I was nine....quite honestly I don't remember, but knowing me, I was probably on the floor playing with my Thomas The Tank engine toys hah.

I didn't play Runescape until a few years after.

Supersal69

10 years ago was still an OAP (Old Age Pensioner) at 35. Didn't find RS for another 3/4 years. I'm sorry memory loss was probs playing lotr games on ps2. Was obsessed with lotr at that time.

Leo Crimson

Still sitting in Grade 4; played F2PScape on and off.

Fatalysm

Let's see...12 year old Matt. He liked hanging out with his brothers, skateboarding and and doing small jumps with bikes. He also discovered Runescape with his brother and we started a clan when we were in secondary school. We wore H.A.M clothes and thought we were epic.

Also started experimenting with art on computers a WHOLE lot more!

Guitarguy

I was still stuck on Tutorial Island because I didn't have Sal's to guide me.

Chaoss

I was 11, so I was probably naively enjoying life haha.

Nitua

10 year old Nitty would probably have been playing Pokemon LeafGreen for hours on end to train his team to level 100 only to have his little brother overwrite the save file. I wouldn't discover RuneScape for another year.

Redkirby

I mostly devoted my time to the clan I was in at the time. Reflecting on it, I was dumb back then. haha

21galancas

10 years ago I was serving in vietnam and I got a little bit of amnesia. I think.

Christmas Party!!!@@

Sal's Christmas Party is in planning stages! It will likely have members and freeplay portions and have a similar format to last year's party. The most probable date is the Saturday before Christmas, the 20^th of December.

If you have any suggestions, PM a forum moderator or a clan chat moderator who will then pass your ideas along.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed the first ten years of the Sal's Realm forums. We will do our best to ensure the future is as bright as the past!

By the way, try not to overdo on the holiday stuff this upcoming month!

Contributors

Writers: Sobend, Guitarguy, Salmoneus
Write-ups: Arianna, Army of One, Shooter585, Jna, Zooey, Bwauder, Sobend, DXMichael, Supersal69, Leo Crimson, Fatalysm, Chaoss, Nitua, Redkirby, 21galancas