[Kitnoforlife]

RuneScape, alongside many other MMORPG's, is generally updated every week (other games on a somewhat similar scale). It undergoes many updates per year, with each one Jagex claiming that something is getting fixed or improved or revamped. Yes, we can all agree that Jagex is clearly doing something right, because their game is still going strong; but in reality, they're constantly fixing something. It seems like Jagex is never doing the right thing, ultimately. There don't seem to be any true, satisfying updates, because after awhile there's something needed to be fixed about them.

Definition of "perfect" by www.dictionary.reference.com:
"...excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement."

The question: Do we play a game that will never be perfect? Or are there just factors that affect updates when new updates are released, causing them to need a rework?

Personally, I feel perfection is relative to the mind, which ultimately concludes that there is no such thing as perfection. However, I'm curious as to what other people think.

This post has been edited by Kitnoforlife: 01 November 2009 - 05:55 PM

[mageking9000]

The definition of perfect is-excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement. Imperfect would mean-not perfect; lacking completeness. Obviously nothing can be perfect beyond theoretical improvement because people can think of a heck of a lot of things wrong with runescape:whistle:. However, runescape is lacking completeness. We need more skills, solve the problem of inflation, underpowered magic, etc etc. So, runescape is an imperfect game.

[Shauly]

The advantage that a game like Runescape has over other games is precisely this fact. Runescape is constantly updated with new content that keeps users interested. Lately they have been doing a lot of improvement on past updates rather than new content, but generally updates give new things to do. If you view the updates as fixing bad, rather than improving ok and good content, then of course it will seem as if we are playing a junky game and Jagex is constantly scrambling to keep up with the standards of the industry and our demands.

Shauly

[Arno]

Please take note of our 5-sentence rule. All topics must contain at least 5 constructive sentences (asking a set of questions does not count).

OT:

What is perfection? Is anything perfect in this world? I have yet to see something that is truly flawless. Also, I'm pretty satisfied by the updates Jagex is releasing. What you are presenting as facts is actually very subjective. Jagex keeps growing, and so does Runescape, so they must be doing something right. If they were truly as foolish as you make them out to be, don't you think the game would have been cancelled years ago? Instead, they're still going strong and they're even getting awards for it! We should not expect perfection, as nobody and nothing is perfect. What we can expect is being able to log in, have fun and be satisfied by the things we do with the things that are given to us.

Besides, perfection would be utterly boring. Try to imagine a perfect world, full of perfect people. No fights, no disagreement, no opinions, no change, no flaws. Only perfection. I'd want to kill myself after the first day. There should always be room for improvement, thus a game should and could never be perfect. There should always be something for us to criticize, otherwise the game would grow stale. Not to mention that something as dynamic as a game, which is played by people, can never, ever be perfect. When it stops changing and updating, it will wither and die. It needs evolution, progress, regression even. It keeps Jagex on their toes, it keeps us wanting to log in and find out what will change next week, how PvP can be improved, how many cool quests can be released next year, and so on.

"There don't seem to be any true, satisfying updates, because after awhile there's something needed to be fixed about them". Satisfaction is not related to there being things to fix. I'm very much satisfied by the recent updates Jagex has been releasing. In fact, I don't have any complaints what so ever. Does that mean I don't want Jagex to update their updates? No. There's always room for improvement, even if the begin product was already satisfactory. "If it's not broken, improve it!" is a better version of "if it's not broken, don't fix it".

[Goyatuzo]

If RuneScape were perfect, why would people criticize the game? If it were close to perfection, I believe it would receive critical acclaim near to WoW. No game in the world is perfect, which is why there is a market. Improvements generally introduce some new feature to an existing one, and are supposed to make the game more interesting. Whether the update is interesting or not is an opinion, and therefore not everyone can be satisfied with it. Great innovations came with mistakes, and it would be unfair to expect Jagex to get it all in a couple of tries.

[Hedgehog]

I don't think RuneScape will ever be perfect, but I don't think Jagex should worry about that. I think Jagex do a really good job of constantly updating the game to keep content fresh, and improve upon things that they didn't get quite right. Just because they're constantly fixing things doesn't mean they don't do a good job. It's very difficult to predict what exactly will work and what won't in a game the size of RuneScape. The fact that they're constantly improving upon things just shows that they really do care about the game.

[DaveC]

No game can ever be perfect. There are always improvements to be made and new content to be added. If a game was perfect then it would not be updated, and if it is not updated then it would not take long for the player base to get bored and quit, which is then lost money.

If you want a perfect game go and play Space Invaders ;)

[Hersch]

Nothing is perfect and a game is no exception. No matter how hard Jagex tries, Runescape will never be perfect. You can try to be perfect, but the fact of the matter is nothing is ever perfect. Jagex is doing the right thing by improving things that didn't work as planned. Would you rather they went along and just made new updates as to appear everything was perfect, or fix the hiccups that didn't work out?

Yes, we are playing a game that will never be perfect because, as mentioned, nothing is perfect.

e: I forgot to mention that humans happen to play this game and we're all different and thus like different things. Our ideas of perfection will differ and at least a few people will always complain about an update.

This post has been edited by Hersch: 01 November 2009 - 07:14 PM

[Sultan Useph]

The updates simply show that Jagex continues to add to the game.

The game will never be perfect, because people get bored. They want new things. Bug fixes are like finding typos in an essay. Updates, are additions to spice it up.

[Avicenna]

True perfection does not exist because it really is a matter of perspective. While something may be perfect to one, the same might not be even close to perfect to another. The continuous stream of updates for Runescape is what keeps the game going strong. Even if an update does not improve on anything, it plays a role in keeping the game going regardless. As long as Jagex has the motivation to continue to update Runescape, Runescape will not falter even though it will always be an imperfect game. In any case, even if true perfection did exist to the point that the game required no more updates: I don't think many people would stick around for long. Part of the excitement of Runescape is checking the updates weekly and watching the game evolve over time. What fun would it be if everything functioned perfectly?

[Teddy]

It really depends on how many people we're talking about. If we're looking at RuneScape's perfection rating based on the entire user base, it most likely wouldn't be as high compared to my perfection rating. But it also depends on how long the player has been a part of RuneScape. In fact, there was a time when almost all of us at one time thought RuneScape was perfect, and that was when we began the game as newbies in Lumbridge. However, as time went on, we eventually began to experience and become used to the various aspects of the game, and little began to surprise us or make us hungry to satisfy our curiosity compared to our very first days. As time goes on, it's tougher and tougher to make RuneScape a perfect game in the minds of each player. A few months ago, I really saw it as a perfect game once again and did not recall a time when I was happier to play it.

So perfection is possible in the minds of one player, but only in very rare circumstances and only at certain points in time (after a long break, the very beginning, after an incredible accomplishment, etc.) Large scale perfection? Impossible.

-Teddy

[theobymogre]

As I see it, perfection is motivation. True perfection will never be reached, and if it was there'd be nothing left to do. And more specifically to Runescape, of course its imperfect. With such a massive game, there's bound to be coding errors at least, somewhere. And Jagex will never make everyone happy, there's always plenty of complainers. Leading to this: perfection is based on context(not opinion. opinion is based on context), which is different for everyone in someway. There will always be improvement, but never perfection, whatever this means.
~The

[Bolshevik]

Simply put, pefection isn't attainable in any sense or form, or from what I have seen at the very least. No matter what you try to do in life, whether it be a job or a relationship, there will always be some faults along the way. And when you finally come to the internet, the epitome of perfection, finding it anywhere, is a challenge to say the least. Runescape is a very well-tuned game, having a lot of interesting facets to it, and making it very eye-appealing to the younger generations. However, with adding in certain ideas into the game, imperfections are going to pop up with each and every decision that they make to change it [the game]. I think that what it really comes down to is the fact that Jagex tries their very hardest to tune up the game, and add in certain aspects that they think that people will enjoy, but it never really comes to said ends. People will never agree one hundred percent with anything that happens, Runescape or in the real word; perfection is can never be attained in reality because with the human race, there will always be one who disagrees.

[Goyatuzo]

I also have a question. Do we really need a "perfect game?" Some people play games to find that little bug that can give players an advantage, some play for the content, some play because their friends do, and there are loads more reasons. The point is, if there is a perfect game, would it be an interesting one? Would it have a diverse selection of people? To me, a "perfect" game just means a game with no flaws in coding. In other words, it lacks imagination to take a risk into the unknown. The industry we know of and the economy we have right now has been achieved through numerous trial and errors. I would rather have a game with great imagination but with imperfect coding than a game with perfect coding but bland gameplay.

[blarburg]

The reason their always changing something is because they can never how much we will REALLY like it until they release it. Then they let us give our feedback and fix it accordingly. So technically, the game IS perfect, their just making it more perfect ;)

[Piratesyoho]

Well honestly, nothing in life can be perfect. That's the plain truth.

Not to mention Runescape will never be perfect because it can't fit all the players opinions and needs.

This post has been edited by Piratesyoho: 01 November 2009 - 09:41 PM

[Maxman]

Piratesyoho, on 01 November 2009 - 10:40 PM, said:

Well honestly, nothing in life can be perfect. That's the plain truth.

Not to mention Runescape will never be perfect because it can't fit all the players opinions and needs.

You, sir, summed it up in once sentence. No one can be happy with updates or the game in general. There are always going to be ranters in every single game out there.

RuneScape is an imperfect game. So are the other huge MMOs out there (yes, even WoW!). Every gaming company do try to provide every players' needs, but to be quite honest, they can't. Companies do try and try, but they sometimes can't put their full potential into every single player.

This post has been edited by Maxman: 01 November 2009 - 09:55 PM

[beefcake329]

What about perfect players ? Even if the game was indeed perfect it would be lost on everyone since none of us have the capability to be or perform perfectly.

[Maxman]

beefcake329, on 02 November 2009 - 11:33 AM, said:

What about perfect players ? Even if the game was indeed perfect it would be lost on everyone since none of us have the capability to be or perform perfectly.

The game's not perfect nor are we, the players. So, what's your point?

[Wriste13]

Runescape has fallen into the pit which many computer programs have fallen: whenever you find and fix a bug, there will always be another one. If you fix one bug, that will cause another bug to pop up. Imperfection is a hard thing to pull, and when opinions come into play, perfection will never appear.

I consider chocolate to be the perfect dessert, but I know at least two people who don't like chocolate. Unfortunately, "perfect" is something measurable, like a perfect square. We know a square is perfect because if it weren't, it wouldn't be a square. Runescape can't be measured in such a way that one can proclaim the game to be "perfect," because perfect to one person will not be perfect to another.

That said, Runescape is far from being considered perfect, as it has its flaws and always will have.

On the side, I don't really see anything wrong with most of the updates Jagex makes - I think that people are expecting a game-shaking update every update, and if it doesn't live up to that standard, they flame it. More content, unless it's so bad it lessens the quality of what already is, can't really make a game worse.

That's my two cents.