Stellarstop Community Post #4
I would like to apologies for the two day lateness of this issue.
Another week gone by and we have experienced a few changes in Runescape. Of course we have the special new gnome look and quest; but we also have the Profanity Filter which is loved by some, and hated by others. I put my own view of this in the main article for this week. In community news we also have a new position filled and our regular member of the week.
Enjoy!
The Profanity FilterThe profanity filter was a rather support splitting update for JaGex to release. On one hand, it allows people to express what they really mean, without having obscure words being filtered into stars. On the other hand, some may argue that this update very much encourages the use of swearing in the game. I strongly oppose to this idea, for this update has done very little in terms of changing the socialisation of the game.
Before this update, the ability to curse or to say vulgar things was possible and in no way hard to do. All one had to do is add an apostrophe (
') to the start of a word, and any word inserted would not be filtered. Alternatively someone could purposely misspell a word in a particular so that it was unfiltered. The same goes with various acronyms; "wtf", "stfu", and "stroke my dragon" are all common swears which were used and will continued to be used over the course of time. This simple example demonstrates that the profanity filter has does not have much encouragement on the individuals that like to curse. Reversely, it removes the moral that one would gain by avoiding the filter, for it becomes void if they up straight have the ability to swear anyway. In my opinion, these people against the update are complaining against a messy chat box; that instead of a box full of proper letters (regardless if they are cursive or not), a box of asterix’s appear – rather the people “swearing more often” which they claim.
In addition to the pre-existence of bad language in Runescape, young people still have access to many more filthy words which are already seen on other websites, television AND in their own school or public environment. There is no escape, from swearing in a youth-culture that is built on vulgar language. No matter whom the person is, whether they are modern, intellectual, reasonable or nice, they have all used a curse before. You can argue, “I used to when I was younger, but now I am mature” but your argument is void when even in the casual day you will most often curse at something – such as injuring yourself or losing some form of gamble.
This is what the profanity filter was designed for, so that people aren’t restricted when trying to express something that has happened. I for one would not say “Oh, fiddlesticks, I just lost 30mill in a stake because this guy abused a glitch”; like many others I would be enraged, and if I did not verbally assault the individual, I would either vent to my friends in-game or to myself out loud in an array of colourfully dirty words.
The point trying to be made is that this update has done very little to the original chat system in Runescape. If you are one of the people seeing lots of stars in your chat box, be happy that you are not seeing any of the bad language that they are using, which prior to this update you would have seen in the form of filter avoiding. Just as my own standpoint, I see more stars from 3 people in my Clan Chat that swear than I do in every location I regularly visit in my home world. This game is for 13+ year olds in any case, which means they should have the ability to ignore these words and not do it themselves. If this really is a problem to you, there are two simple solutions, ones that have been in the game for many years; add the vulgar player to your ignore list, or if there are too many for you to ignore, change your chat filter (underneath your chat box) to “friends”. Unless you have some of those so-called ‘evil’ friends, you shouldn’t expect swearing very often at all.
Gnome Graphical ReworkI like quite a number of others have been waiting for the gnomes to be updated to a fresher, more modern “Runescape” look for quite a long time. My first thought that they had been changed was with the Hunter Sprite update; which when I first saw it, I thought the chat face of them had been updated. Now that I have seen the proper rework of them, I can say I am impressed. The new look is very painterly; it is one of the new updated models of NPC races, which outcasts previous model updates (similar to the
partial Troll Graphical update). The model has a few pieces of unique equipment which I find a nice addition to race - it gives them singularity. However, there are new (or at least I think they are new) gnome guards. These guards look like your regular knight, but of course, being a gnome they appear as brave children wearing fancy armour. What separates the child like features of a gnome to the children, are the fact that they are much more rounded, stubby and also have pointed ears. Overall, the new model vastly out ways the previous one and makes them look fresh once again.
Prisoner of GlouphrieQuest overview and ReviewSeeing as though the last quest in the gnome series was released over 3 years ago, this addition to the series was a warm welcome for myself. Just as a side-warning, this review of the quest will contain spoilers, so do not read ahead if you wish to find them out yourself. The quest continues with the theme of Illusions and devices to dispel these illusions. In the previous quest, using Yewnocks’ invention you were able to discover that Glouphrie had disguised his evil spies as cute pets. In this quest, you follow the life of a middle aged-gnome by the name of Blorie. He is the Grandfather of Glorie and the father of ex-adventurer Glorana. After finding an very old letter from Blorie in Glorie’s collection you soon find out that he is need of help. Eager, you and Glorie set off towards the elven lands through a new pathway just south of the ZMI alter.
After reaching Lletya, you learn some history on Blorie, how he had lived his life in the Elven lands and what he had been doing. As you find out, it was to dispel the illusion which Glouphrie had been using. Through years of research, he discovers that through the manipulation of shape and colours with Elven Crystal bowls, shaped crystals and light he can help create objects which under the right circumstances can dispel the illusion. With this, he creates the anti-illusion device. This is where the actual puzzle in the quest comes.
The puzzle is not one that is very hard, it is more so of maths and concentration. All that is required is to create the desired colour by mixing the correct colour (and the shape of them) coins. There are multiple ways to do this, so the second part of the puzzle comes with numbers and basic maths. Multiply the shape and colour by their corresponding numbers (e.g. circle=1, Hexagon=6; Red=1, Violet=7) to get the correct intensity.
After fixing the illusion you find a ventilation shaft that was not on the mountain before. After blindly traversing yourself through the pipes, you find a number of Gnome Warriors (they look like Ninjas) training under the control of what appears to be Glouphrie. With more investigation, you find miner tortoises and Agent terrorbirds (with the ability to talk). All of whom are much healthier versions of the ones found in the sewers. You soon find the prison cell where poor old Blorie has been held captive for many years. The number of years down there with the evil sorcery and shape shifting magic had made him lose all hope in rescue, so you are required to persuade him to follow you after answering a few trivia questions based on the happenings in the quest (so pay attention!). Before heading back up to the surface however you find out that these Warped Terrorbirds are converting their brethren (Regular terrorbirds) to their state with a faulty machine which has a limited amount of success. Alarms are soon raised and you are forced to leave.
When reaching the top, there is an emotional reunion of Father and Daughter which ends with Glorana sending in for transport (via gnome pods). You are then glided back to the Tree Gnome village where the king (and brother of Blorie) allows gliders to be sent to the Tree Gnome Village, where the quest finishes. After the quest, Glorana also acts as a Spirit Tree storage, but I am yet to see this as I have no Spirit seeds. Positively, the quest also grants the ability to plant two spirit trees at a time. Something suggested on the Runescape forums for a very, very long time. Interestingly however, this quest contains no combat at all. This is not to say it was all bad, for it is quite rare to see these quests, and I am happy that there was no combat. There are some parts of this quest which would make you expect some form of combat however, but as it seems so far, it is all anticipation.
This quest is rated as a “Master”, which like the last number of quests released by JaGex seems to be based purely on the skill level required. This quest is at most an intermediate quest, as the simplicity is too great. The majority of time spent on this quest is learning (and experiencing!) the life of Blorie the gnome. It is a shame to see JaGex rate quests as so, and makes you think if they will need to create some form of “Super” Grandmaster difficulty level in order to release anything to the vast extent in toughness and length to While Guthix Sleeps – arguably one of the hardest, current quests.
Community NewsFrom my experience in the clan chat, there are quite a number of very friendly people. One particular person however has made himself known to me, and his name is Johan Bol. He is quite a talented man with great enthusiasm for what he really wants to achieve, for this he is this week’s member of the week!
In event organising news, you will also have noticed Nathan’s continued effort to host regular events in place of ones that Kate or I might host. This has been our way of giving him proper experience in doing so. From what I’ve seen, he knows what he is doing; and with some help along the way he will make a really great event organiser. So in both recognition and appreciation, I am naming Nathan our new, official Runescape event organiser for Australian events!
Remember, if you would like to contribute to the Stellarstop Community Post, send a Private Message to myself (
Roanlo Zolo) with your completed article and/or work piece where it will be checked over and most likely be put in next week's issue.
