RuneScape: Why So Addictive?

Most of you should have heard about Runescape by now. You know that MMORPG that everyone gets hooked on at one time or another.

So what is the big attraction? The graphics aren’t impressive, the gameplay can be laggy, and most of the time when you play it you spend most of your time doing the same thing over and over again to get levels. Levels, which, no matter if you have 99 in every skill it can’t be transferred to anything else in real life.

And yet, this game has over a hundred million accounts signed up and most times when you log onto the game there are usually more than one hundred thousand people playing.

Why? Here are a few reasons why I believe Runescape is so addictive:

1. The lure of ‘one more level’ is probably the strongest. People want to get to the next level so that they can use that new weapon or armour, show off to people, or make that new item which they can sell for lots of money. And not only that, but the tab which has been recently implemented, the Objectives tab, makes people more aware of their goals by showing a percentage complete bar.

In the end, most people have no idea why they spent so much time leveling and only then do they realise that they have wasted a lot of time.

2. Money. Players of Runescape want money in the game as much as a beggar wants it in real life. Of course, to get a substantial amount of money in the game you have to work for it, which takes both time and effort. The main reason to want money is to gain rare items such as Party Hats and Santa Hats that are worn to show wealth. These items can cost up to hundreds of millions of gold coins. Of course, most people are just showing off then.

3. It can be fun. Runescape can be fun if you are playing with friends or doing quests. However, the problem in F2P is that there are only a very limited amount of quests, and you can usually complete all of the F2P things within a month (Maybe two for Dragon Slayer) depending on how much you play. P2P, or members, has over a hundred quests of varying difficulties which can keep even the most advanced gamer occupied for quite a while. However, having to pay around $10 per month is a bit of a downer for P2P, which really detracts from the game.

Well, these are just a few reasons why I believe Runescape is so addictive, however there are probably more.

Happy Gaming!