home world.

as in, the server you're partial to, depending mostly on geographical location and lengths of cables and such.

geographically, i do believe australia's the best bet. more often than not i'd be at 107. note use of the apostrophe d.

when i wasn't to familiar with the concept of world select though, i just hopped over to the most crowded world. great personal satisfaction in being surrounded by tons of white dots in varrock i suppose. you could well call that a phrase, it hardly lasted long at all.

mostly i frequent worlds with 1000+ people. it's the social bit that i like, but too much gets ... overwhelming. so axe the 107 idea.

now i mainly go wherever my mouse takes me. if world select had their way on which world was "best" for me, i'd be in the vicinity of 29 and 30.

the idea of servers as worlds is pretty cute.

the idea of home worlds even more so. some kind of loyalty, i guess. then again, to me it's just pixels, so it doesn't matter so much.

apparently it does to lots of people though. i choose worlds by number of players, mainly. other thing that factors in is the world number. world numbers with the number 7, numbers when the years were significant, numbers i just happen to take a fancy to. and on my friends list, all the worlds sound vaguely familiar. 91, 107, 109, 50, 30, 16...

helps me remember who they are, if nothing else.

only worlds i avoid're the dutch servers. can't understand what anyone's saying, and in random pms the person doesn't get me when i say i don't speak that language.

i appreciate the fact that jagex's a britan-based company. appreciate the german servers too, and the dutch, finnish, swedish worlds...

still. it's kind of weird that there aren't any asian servers. not that it's strictly necessary right now, but still...

dug up an old thread on the official forums, something to the effect of 'bring back the singapore servers!' if they did that'd almost definitely be the closest server to me. being the only asian one, after all. then i read the small print ("rule 5, paragraph 40, the asterix at the bottom...") "high cost of bandwidth... members' server..."

back to sqaure one.

bot names do have style, you know.

before we start, let's clear up that little misconception that all macros are chinese in origin.

so, a large percentage of them are. but some others're just riding on the back of that prejudice.

i can speak chinese. it's the only subject i failed in school, and it's the only subject i ha- eh, dislike with unparalleled intensity. but yes, i can speak the language. and i know for a fact that a fair few of the macro namers don't.

by the way. macros = bots = getting a programme to practice a skill for you = afk training = cheating

yay! so let's start. post-translation, some of the names aren't too creative, some're obscene. some're just cute...

xiao yu. xiao means small, yu means fish. small fish woodcutting...

wc ren. kind of apt, ren means person.

mei hao. mei means beautiful. hao means good. put it together and into a sentence, it's a bit like wishing some one, phrase that comes to mind: mei hao de shen huo. de's a conjunction, so basically, have a good, prosperous life...

jun yi. (bear in mind, all these translations mayn't be strictly accurate. each word (i.e. mei) can have four different sounds (- and / and V and / in the opposite direction). each sound for each word here (i.e. mei with a V above it) can have lots of characters with that pronounciation, with lots of meanings... ) so jun could mean soldier. yi could mean one. yi could mean clothes. soldier person or soldier clothes... a macro's begging for the drill demon??

more entertaining than the random letters at any rate. bbvvv. dfskd.

you don't need to trust me.

this is hope.

and this is what it's like to be humbled.

a guy goes "follow to win 10k", in the usual fashion. a low-leveled player, standing in the middle of lumby. not many pay him any mind, just two obviously inexperienced, and one slightly more savvy player. i tag along, hoping to catch him in the act.

"trade to win" isn't exactly incriminating. i wait. the first guy doesn't understand, he keeps asking questions. by now the third guy's left. he explains "trade. whoever's got the best items wins." after a few long rounds of deciding and stating who's leading, i trade him. i put up a power ammy, an addy pick. stuff i just happened to have in my inventory. apparently, after that, i'm leading...

it goes on. it's incredibly boring. the lure of more money than they've probably ever touched is what keeps them here.

he brushes off the second girl with "it's a tie. between..."

i trade him for the last time, apparently "you have to beat my items to win", which i do, only to decline the trade and talk about how trust games're such awful things.

so he obviously chooses the first guy, with whom i've been having a conversation about the evils of item scamming via pm the whole time. and over pm i get "he's for real."

it's excruciatingly embarrassing, and i do believe i made a larger fool of myself there than any other time in that capacity. still, it's too ever so heartening.

i explain myself, and apologise simply, "i'm sorry." he replies with "np" and i go on to talk about phrasing his alturistic intentions less suspiciously. he's patient, almost condescending in his monosyllabic placating, and i can't say i can blame him at all. either of them, really, the first guy takes a leaf out of his book and responds in pretty much the same manner "np", "same here lol", and after the demise of our awkwardly brief exchange, "you're nice." hey, he even uses "great", and "i can see why..." i apologise to him, too.

i refuse to wonder if he delivered only because i spoke too early. it'd do him no credit, it'll be like, crying sour grapes.

besides, i like to think that he just did it, out of the goodness of his heart.

like i said, that's hope.

routine.

i'm so bored. the nature of my routine:

• i mine say 200 iron, 450 coal, 30 mith and 20 gold.
• i smelt it all in lumby.
• i teleport over to varrock and smith it all into steel plates and mith swords.
• i sell the plates and swords, world hopping once stock reaches 7 and 10, respectively.
• i splurge half of the money on runes.
• i go hunting stronghold of security creatures (graduated from catlepomb things to ankous) or ice giants in fally or moss giants in crandor. that's the only fun part.
• i teleport over to fally and get the pick out again...

it's so boring!

i waste so much time in lumby, purposely talking if only to be swamped by pms. other than the social aspect of it all, there's no fun to the game anymore.

that's why modship's so welcome. it's the only thing that keeps me playing.

it's kind of pathetic.

the dark side...

this is ridiculous.

i go fishing in karamja, and every other player is a bot. i count 11 of them. i don't get why they need to use chinese names. and frankly, i don't know what to do. every rune and every arrow shop i go to on vitually every world has a bot. in varrock, most crowded worlds have a bot, sometimes two, advertising real world trading sites. that's easier to deal with. they get muted. then a day later, they're at it again.

there's a level 3 player, obviously using an autotyper, selling 9k big bones.

why are people like this?

it's just, what's wrong with them?

it's so mercenary. more than that. it's plain selfish.

screw the 'it's only jaded adults' take. people spam the chat screen with "fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in cyan:, white:, red: flash:, wave2... they're answered with "selling fire!" in direct propotion. all levels, even 60, routinely beg for food.

and that's karamja, not even lumby.

i've solved the mystery of macros being levels 4 and 5. it's mainly autoretaliate on randoms.

i've seen whole macro families with level 70+ woodcutting.

i don't get it. they boast 1 million membership, but after taking macroers out of the mix...

it's not just the macroing bit. there're soo many throwaway accounts, i wonder at how easy it is to make one.

a guy, standing just outside lumby bank. "i break rules! report me! i account trade and share accounts and encourage others to break rules and [gets cut off by lack of space] report me! [censor kicks in]" that i wasn't too bothered about. then "everyone here has no life! people who play runescape are all [heh. censor strikes again]. wanna [overtly sexual advances and insults]." i pm him. he ignores me. "jagex is [you get the picture]. mods become mods by sleeping with [insert name of founders/staff of choice]."

seriously. all i can say is -.-

well. on the bright side and all. at least that's just an extreme. enough nice players yet to nullify that. or so i'd like to hope.

i mean, it's that kind of hope that keeps me playing.

take offense.

"offensive language" encompasses so much, really. i don't mind the swearing, or the spamming.

i mind the sexual advances.

the slightly misguided only serve to amuse. i've no idea where they get their ideas. "i need arrows."

i'm reeaally don't have time for this, so i go all non-committal. "i see."

player: do you have arrows?
me: no, i prefer to mage.
player: get me some arrows.
me: i'm sorry, i don't quite have the time for that.

*pause*

player: ha! reported.
me: okaay. what for?
player: offensive language.
me: lol?
player: you're not helping me. that's offensive!

me: -.-

then there's racism, against african americans and jews purely because they do to look, what, cool, good, in front of 'friends'. are they that desperate for friends that they'll settle for a lie?

and of course, the epitome of racism translated into action is all they have to provide direction for whatever it is they're trying to pull off. i don't know, most times it just doesn't seem like they mean it. they mean to be racist, but it's just the label on the act that they're looking for, not so much real prejudice behind the discrimination. as in, it's a game to them, and while it is, they think that's all there is too it.

i've seen racisim directed at chinese, not so often at all. and that's one of the few times it's really meant. the difference being that's kind of founded in the company-advocated war against macros. of course that never makes it right, never justifies it. and people usually agree with me when i use the word justify for other things, becuase they'd rather lie to save face in front of a girl, or a mod, than admit to themselves that what they've compromised is something as big as 'justice'.

not like that works any on people flaming. them i can deal with. i don't get angry, but i run out of witty comebacks way too soon for comfort.

and i hear their response, and i guess (since i can't really know, can i) and it's just, so ever so pitiful. it's just so belittling, what they're saying of themselves, how low they're showing themselves to go.

of course, i could hardly be the judge of all this. infact i could be so terribly disillusioned in my understanding of where, exactly, they're all coming from. so terribly disillusioned about everything.

i don't deny that possibility. i don't deny that a world view as limited as my own could make me come across as an idealistic, impressionable, uneducated...person, not deserving of attention, neither worthy of your time.

i don't deny that, really i don't. that's merely the world as i see it, coloured by perception, tainted by ignorance.

to what extent, is for you to say.

i write this in a public domain with some hope in mind. realise it, if you will.

forum (pro)pponents.

it's interesting to see how people argue when either way, they've got everything to lose.

on one hand, the respect of their opponent, and of the wider community.

on another, their own honour, and their ability to live with themselves.

it's interesting because i admire their ability to realise that fact. acknowledging your vulnerability to loss is in itself commendable. factoring that in as part of your argument is in itself a strength.

hiding behind the view of the wider body and their perception of your character to nullify what you judge to be the first threat is, as i see it, cowardience.

how you choose to argue can ultimately be as decisive to your arguement itself.

just as awareness of audience is imperative.

it takes a big person to back down from an argument with dignity, not discarding for that moment views that stand up to closer, and ethical, examination.

then again, most of them from are.

and i respect them for that, among other things.