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http://runescape.com/ is a Java site my son uses all the time. AT&T Connect web conferencing service is one I use at work all the time. There are certainly folks that need it for a bunch of different things, but I will certainly stipulate that it isn't used on the desktop (thankfully!) as much as it was. That said, at work, every time we send out a Java security patch we get calls from users of all kinds of vertical market apps about how the patch broke their app and we have to get the vendor to get a new version out really quick. Quite annoying how it always breaks stuff as it moves forward.

That link should be http://www.runescape.com/

For some reason it ate part of my text mentioning the iphone and tagged Windows onto the end.

It is so stupid that everyone ignores Runescape
The number two MMORPG, and of course the number one free to play one. Free to play version is kind of like a starter and indeed is missing many of the functions you want, however the full version ($5 monthly) has most.
It has been around since 2001 and is developed in England. The pay version still has weekly updates.

Runescape is a skill based MMO (where every skill is trained semi-independantly), there are no character classes, every skill is open to every player.

Thieving: most NPCs can be pickpocketed, thieving is a skill that can be leveled. Only in a few scenarios can you actually steal from other players though.
Looting: Runescape still has a very harsh death tax. In PvM, if you die you lose all but the 3 most expensive items you are holding (there are modifiers to this of course, you have 5 minutes to retrieve your corpse, unless a party member "blesses" your gravestone.) On PvP worlds, you lose all but your 1 most expensive item, and on certain worlds all of your gear is dropped as loot, but not every time. Griefers don't get a full loot drop, cerial noob killers get hardly any drop at all.
Player housing: There is a skill called "Construction" which you use to modify and improve your house... adding things such as a wardrobe (can store certin kinds of clothing without taking up bank space), repair bench(discounting the cost of repairing high level gear), teleport room (access to many "free" teleports if you have the magic level to build them), combat room (where you and your friends can have friendly, safe fights for fun). Player owned housing is instanced, unlike UO, so it is not as "epic" since there is not limited real-estate, but the housing is more useful, especially for Clans and group trips (imagine meeting in one place, where you can resupply, buff, etc then one guy teles the whole group to the action)

All that being said, Most MMOs are "barely 3D" at best, and RS is only really 3D in polygon terms... There is no need to jump, there are plenty of multilevel dungeons and things like that, but terrain usually doesn't matter and targeting is very simplistic... like most mmorpgs, but RS wears it on the sleeve a bit more, and it is 3rd person perspective.

• £3.50 - £6.00
• $5.95 - $11.96
• €5.95 - €7.50

per month.

So Jagex's Runescape MMORPG has had this for a couple of years in random events to defeat macros.

http://www.runescape.com/

So what are some examples of Java applets that you have problems with?

Without a doubt there were a lot of shitty Java applets out in the past. After all it was the first way for a lot of people to build multi-media websites and as such it suffered by it's easy entry point and the fact people didn't have any previous examples of what they should doing with multi-media on their website.

However I would say most applets aren't a problem. Most of my wait time on Java based gaming is the downloading of content, just like Flash games.

Lastly, if Java was that shit I doubt one of the the world's largest MMORPGs (Runescape) would use it. More so when the applet has to perform along side flash adverts for non-paying customers.

I'd suggest you make shortcuts on their desktops (or put them inside a folder "Games") that are just browser bookmarks to various good online flash games. Here's some that I think are fun: http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17727 http://www.kongregate.com/games/preecep/desktop-tower-defense-1-5 http://www.fugly.com/flash/819/flash-tetris.html http://www.runescape.com/ http://www.thegamehomepage.com/play/tangerine-panic/ I suppose another option may be SNES emulators and whatever if you can find legit free roms for them. Good luck

RuneScape?

In epic quest stories, the quest is about what the journey makes the person on it.
In a game it's about phat loot.

I know it's not the best MMORPG out there, and it's more targeted towards younger players, but I rather liked the quests in Runescape. They are more like little adventures, complete with puzzles and (more or less) humorous conversations with NPCs, and some of them advance the story line. All of the 100+ quests (except for the very early, intro-type quests) have a story that requires problem solving skills; some involve fighting, some don't. There is even a murder mystery quest, where you have to solve a classical whodunnit just by talking to various NPCs.

The rewards are different for each one: experience, gold, quest items, abilities, access to new areas, pieces of clothing, access to new ways of transport, new shops, new pets, new emotes, etc.

Too bad that Jagex ruined much of the game when they took out PvP and free trading in their grand war against gold farmers. I haven't been playing for a long time now, but when I see the simplistic go-there, collect-x-items, kill-y-creatures type of quests in other MMOs, I think RS actually got part of the game right.

CJ

You don't necessarily get the best graphics, but Linux users can always play java/flash games etc. http://www.funorb.com/ and http://www.runescape.com/ are worth a look if you're into that type of thing.

There's an interesting article by the RuneScape development team on the problems scammers and real world traders cause for the game and about possible solutions that they are implementing:
http://www.runescape.com/kbase/view.ws?guid=diary06

Excerpts:
The majority of bots that we ban from members have been paid for with stolen credit card numbers.
Such accounts don't earn us money, they cost us money in bank refund charges.

During 2006, we banned bot and real-world trader accounts carrying RuneScape gold and items worth over 200 billion gp. During 2007, so far, we've banned over 525 billion, which has a real-world value of over $2.6 million US - that's an increase of over 250%.

this game is addictive!

Yup, this machine was probably built for XP. And from your statement I'm guessing that your parents aren't doing anything on a computer that needs to be done. I know if my mom can't get her email or watch a flash video one day she just decides to do something else for a while.

A student, otoh, has work that needs to be done. And in a timely manner. And often using whatever wierd software the school/prof says they will. Things like "CPU" and "RAM" aren't bells or whistles. They're the basic needs for getting work done. The fact that a better CPU or more RAM also makes it possible to play a game doesn't mean that games are all a better machine is good for.

If you're that worried about your kids playing a game on the PC you buy them then you'd better remove all the other bells and whistles too... like Flash... and the web browser... and Java and the OS... because they can be used for entertainment too.

1. set up an array of game servers ...like any other online game
2. configure the servers to accept incoming streamed video...as well as queueing protocols
3. provide the users with the VOIP call-in numbers, IP address, etc in order to submit their audio/visual content
4. (Profit!!!)?

Note: Here, I'm talking about having user-submitted audio/visual content to be broadcast server-wide on a public server. This is what I believe the Parent refers to -- not to just six of your friends connected to a private game server hosted on your local LAN. DISCLAIMER: I have not played many online games in a while (short of Runescape, so please tell me if I'm jumping to the wrong conclusions!

Any MMORPG with textual chat most assuredly implements an obscenity filter to keep users from typing words like f**k, etc. With user-submitted, streamed audio (or video or pictures), it would be much harder (I would imagine) to filter out "bad" stuff.

I can imagine my GTA character walking down a street similar to Times Square with multiple jumbotron(TM) screens. I look to my right and watch as a screen changes from an advertisement for Viagara to a webcam feed of "Coeds in the Shower" (Note: the last link points to a related article "Google Video: Asleep At The Wheel" ...not a video of coeds in the shower" ....so return your hand back to the mouse, please!).

I guess the key here is that the streamed audio/video would be broadcast to users similar to how it is broadcast in real life...and probably wouldn't work in a game setting. ...and if implemented, may affect the game rating (?)

--

All I could think of when reading this was "1M Subscribers... and 10M bots/grinders".

Seriously, the number of Chinese people either using bots to grind or doing it manually, then selling the gold they make for real world money, is ridiculous. At times my brother (who's about the right age to play the game) has seen swarms of level 3 players chopping down wood for money. You start at level 3, so basically these people have accounts simply to chop wood, not to train up.

The problem has got to the point where Jagex are banning 8000 people a day.

Here's a release from Jagex, the company behind Runescape, about it: http://news.runescape.com/newsitem.ws?id=785

You mean Final Fantasy XI Online?

*snickers* No, I mean Final Fantasy XI. The game is just "Final Fantasy XI". It's not Final Fantasy Online, it's not Final Fantasy XI Online, it's just "Final Fantasy XI". That's the complete title.

I don't think saying that "very few people still play it" is accurate.

Compared with WoW, very few people still play it. Compared with Second Life, very few people still play it. Hell, compared with Runescape very few people still play it.

SE is on record saying that as long as people continue to play FFXI, they will support it. I believe them.

I believe them too - but that's completely irrelevant to my point.

When Square-Enix was still developing FFX, they announced that they were planning on it being the last single-player Final Fantasy, and that future Final Fantasy games would be MMORPGs. Originally I think the plan was something like a 3-year MMORPG and then they'd move on to the next FF MMORPG.

Well, they discovered in the course of developing FFXI that this simply wouldn't work. FFXI became a traditional MMORPG in the style of EverQuest, and they returned to single-player games.

In short, they've made these big sweeping statements before, and they've proven that they're willing to change course if they find themselves going down the wrong path.

http://www.runescape.com/

Not a bad java client for a game.

Though I strongly dislike that game and java itself for many reasons.

they call Puzzle Pirates silly

Well, yeah, it is silly, but in a good way. It is supposed to be a bit of playful, lighthearted fun, not a gritty realistic pirate simulation complete with veneral diseases and scurvy....

And as the article points out, they are doing quite well with that concept. Also check out the upcoming Bang!Howdy by the same team. Java based, just like RuneScape, and Wurm Online. The last one is pretty impressive considering it is made by only two developers.

I RTFA and it was complete bull. If they approve game demos and mods to their list why they didn't list any good games? :p

There's lots of really good games available for free. For example old commercial games that have been released as freeware (I'm a diehard abandonware fan). Just to mention few: Betrayal at Krondor, Beneath a Steel Sky, Descent: FreeSpace, FreeSpace 2, Hidden & Dangerous, One Must Fall: 2097, Railroad Tycoon Deluxe. Then there's open source games like America's Army.

There's also free multiplayer games: Freeciv, Allegiance, Starsiege: Tribes and even MMORPGs like Anarchy Online, Kal-Online or RuneScape.

Check these Wikipedia lists for more great free games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_ga mes_released_as_freeware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_first-pe rson_shooters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_g ames

I'd say any of these is better than all the games mentioned in the article. :p

If you'll look to the parent of my original post, and then to the parent of that post, and work your way down, it really does make perfect sense.

The post quoted TFA as saying this hadn't happened in 470 years, and then mentioned that it should be 1996 then. The responder completely missed this point, however, and went on to state that he could, indeed, add numbers to make 13. The post to which he was responding pointed out that, when adding 1,520 and 476, you indeed get 1,996

I apologize for not making some snarky comment about this in my original post.

Can I get back to Runescape now? I'm killing Iron Dragons, and you *know* how much they hate waiting!

As another one to add to the list already given, http://www.runescape.com/ is a browser-based MMO that doesn't have classes.

look at runescape

http://www.runescape.com/

it has a free version, and a pay-for version with a ton more content for $5/month.

massive world with 2D graphics like Final Fantasy VI or Seiken Denetsu 3

Oh, you mean somthing like http://www.runescape.com/?

I believe that the popularity of this game parallels that of EverCrack. It is my understanding that the client is written in Java.

I'd highly recommend RuneScape. It's a great MMORPG that's free and will run on any machine. I work at high schools that are out during the summer & last summer I got so addicted that I had to cut myself off... however it's summer again... and I'm back on...

Further proof that you don't need photorealistic graphics to make a good game that people will use.

The runescape business model (make a quarter of the game world and three quarters of the skills free for everyone and encourage people to join as members to be able to use more skills and visit the rest of the world) seems to work pretty well. It's also an MMORPG that puts less emphasis on pretty graphics and highly detailed useless objects, so it probably doesn't require a team of 20 designers.

Using firefox on linux, create a new account over at runescape and play the game.

The game is a Java applet that requests to be run outside of the sandbox. You will be prompted if this is okay. If you click "yes" then you are running code with no restrictions.

I'm not suggesting that the developers over at Jagex are putting anything malicious into their code. The point is that, from a security perspective, it is very easy to run unrestricted code from a web browser irregardless of what the underlying O.S. is.

On Runescape, they accually do that.

Only differance is that they only do it when you sleep, not when you buy things.

What's funny is that I play a massive online adventure game called RuneScape that is completely written in Java. Oh yeah, it's also kinda 3D-ish, lag is mainly from so many people playing at once (over 5K+ at any given time spread out over 36+ servers) and it's fairly fun as adventure games go.

Did I mention it was played online through a web browser and that I don't use Sun's vm (I use Blackdown)? If not I think I just did. (;

Not a replacement for something existing, but I find RuneScape still very impressive. It's an MMORPG in Java. Great if you're bored at work.

Not a party game, but an absolutely awesome, and free, mmorp. Runescape. I've been addicted since I started a few months ago. If you decide to check it out, i also highly recommend RuneHQ as it's an incredible resource for playing the game.

I believe the mini-mmog Runescape uses Java for its 3D engine - although it's pretty primitive.

Here's a game who's graphics will blow you away and settle this once and for all, Java can be used when performance is REALLY needed. BEHOLD! The ultimate 3D java MMORPG game, Runescape! Screenshots here.

:P

Not all that sizable, or good for that matter, but there is a Java MMORPG called Runescape, which is in semidecent 3D landscapes with Godawful sprites for players. Last time I played, a true 3D version was in Beta, it's probably out by now. Still, in the name of Java vs. C++ you could kill some rats. Registration is required, and there is a nice tutorial island. It's ad supported, so watch out.

Sure, Runescape doesn't have the best graphics (though they are planning on changing that soon), but you can play it for free as long as you want (they have and enhanced "members" version, for which you need to fork a $5 monthly fee) and it runs on any platform with a Java 2 plugin available (I play it on Linux).

Heffel

It seems that theyget most of the money from commercials, but you can pay 5$ a month to get a few extra quests and spells. I don't plan to pay extra, but I still have good fun. Have a look at the fan page too.

... I have yet to see a Java app that is worth my time.

I won't even get into to how great Tomcat and other server-side java technology is for developers, but I will mention a few client-side java apps:
Jedit - The fabulous text/code editor.
Robocode - Learn to program! Play a cool game! Same thing!
LimeWire - Everyone loves P2P! Share the love.
Runescape - An MMORPG that runs on Linux and Mac (besides Windows) thanks to java? Hell Yeah!

Go back to browsing msn.com you mindless XP automaton! Not everyone creams at the sight of another buggy MFC shareware app.

One new discovery of mine is the Java based massively, multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Runescape.

It's Java based and it's free. There is a small download but you can pretty much play it anywhere as long as you have a Java enabled browser. Currently, Runescape uses three servers and their FAQ says it costs $50,000 a year to run the game. I've been playing for two weeks and the most people I've seen on Runescape at one time is ~800 per server (2500 total). The game is less than a year old and the website says it is still in beta. The company who develops Runescape is Jagex. They're probably the best ones to ask this question because Runescape is one of the most popular, free MMORPGs available today.

- rk