Today I was chatting to a guy and then realised he was wearing Jagex-branded clothing. It turns out he had a placement at Jagex. He wouldn't reveal much about MechScape (apparently he was mostly working on RuneScape HD) but he did say that he felt like Jagex had learned the lessons of RuneScape, and that it had a much more sensible design in that it was planned from the ground-up and with the knowledge they had gained instead of RuneScape's "just stick more onto the end" development. He hadn't heard anything about ThirdScape or the FunOrb plans for going mobile. So not much to report besides him being generally optimistic about it, but still good to hear it straight from an employee that it seems to be pretty awesome. He didn't know when it'd be released, so either he didn't work on it enough to be told or maybe they are adopting a "its done when its done approach" with March as a best guess. Apparently (according to a different source) they were really heavy with the deadline on FunOrb and some employees got stressed over it and it didn't actually prove that productive, so maybe they are learning from their mistakes - after all, they have no publisher on their backs. If I chanced upon him again I doubt he'll reveal any more - I was hoping he'd spill more, but just the fact that he'd talk about MechScape at all is pretty awesome.

Awesome u were able to talk to a jagex employee but bad that u couldn't get much information about mechscape to improve our ability as a fansite..

Oo nice stuff there Ren.

Quite frankly its that sort of information that lifts my hopes for MechScape, especially the moving away from a 'sticking more onto the end' development style. In hindsight that's definitely held RuneScape back and becomes more apparent with each update that comes, although we wouldn't have the benefit of hindsight if the mistakes weren't made the first time around. I guess what I'm trying to say is hopefully MechScape will be good from the get go; no major changes required or hindrances from poorly thought out early game mechanics.

That's very interesting.

Why would a former Jagex employee be wearing Jagex brand clothing?
The whole topic sounds weird but I'll take your word for it..unlucky that he didn't say anything much about MS.

Its not a Jagex uniform since Jagex don't have a dress code. What they do is give all employees access to Jagex apparel, which they are free to keep afterwards as a souvenir. My College did some work with Atari and as part of that I got an Atari shirt (which you can also buy on the Internet, but I've not seen it in my specific colours), and I don't find it weird to still be wearing it now I'm no longer working on the project (because its always the case that I worked on it). If I worked for Jagex on placement I'd keep my keep my Jagex clothing as a sort of badge of honour.

http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~nhn/IndustrialPl...entInfo2007.pdf
"As an employee of Jagex you are entitled to a monthly clothing allowance, which includes t-shirts, hoodies and
sweatshirts, with your choice of the Jagex or Runescape logo."

Nicely done as always by Ren, maybe he will spill out some more next time ey

Ok fair enough just sounded weird but now it's more clarified.

Nothing wrong with being sceptical, and in fact I encourage people to think about things critically. I value my reputation so wouldn't lie on such matters, but obviously people will just have to make their own judgement on my trustworthiness and decide for themselves. If some people come to the conclusion that they can't believe something without proof then that is fine with me and I completely understand.

Amazing, once again! How did you manage to get in contact with him, or was it just a chance meeting?

It is pleasing to hear the JaGex have learnt from there mistakes, and hopefully it will be a game that will be even more successful than RuneScape is.

Not that Im skeptical, but can I just have some more clerification plz Ren. I think your an amazing researcher, I just would like to know where you met this guy? Was it in person? What was his name? How did you find him? Stuff like that...lol...ya know?

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You always seem to amaze me Ren. Most people are lucky to find a quarter, but Ren finds a ex-jagex employee. I am surprised he told you as much as he did. They usually don't talk much at all, or they talk alot and play dumb. I would like to see what jagex employees can buy since the stuff on runescape's store is pretty sad.

Oh, we also talked a little bit about the Investigation in the Community Unit. I was talking about the old days and how I remembered being able to talk to Andrew direct on IRC, and he was saying that such things were no longer feasible but that they did read the official forums. Then I said I know some employees read other forums such as tip.it. He said 'not officially', but that there was the ICU who visited all the sites. I mentioned how they were probably the only people with unfiltered access to the Internet, and he said that they could do that because they were on special computers on a separate network.


As some of you know I've just started as a 3rd year at University. He was waiting outside my seminar, and I asked him if he was on my course. He replied saying no, he was a 4th year because he was on a sandwich degree and had just come back from his placement. Apparently he wanted to speak the the lecturer who I was having for that lesson. I then noticed he had a Jagex logo on his sweatshirt and chatted with him while we both waited for the tutor (who funnily enough never turned up).


No - I asked him for his MSN but he said he said "I'd prefer to keep it private, if you understand" or something to that effect. I got his first name, but I'm going to respect his privacy and not reveal it. Knowing what I know I could probably track him down, but obviously if I contacted him he'd probably be non-plussed.

Well I'll take that for what its worth. Luck guy you are Ren. Knowledge is power. And with power comes great responsibility. ;) But ok. Thx.

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My Uncle Ben told me that once. Never really understood the saying until that fateful night. But enough about me.

Ren, Your so lucky your British (Or that Jagex is based and officed in Britain.). I would give up almost everything to share a coke with someone like him, and just see what's up.

Lucky you are, Ren.

I probably would have ended up getting in some debate about how the updates ruined the game; we would then share in discussions about how I believe they were unprepared and should have thought through their updates before "jumping to the guy."

But, enough about what I would have done Thanks for the post Ren, being in the right place at the right time can be very convenient.

You're saying it like everyone in Britain gets to see them

What a rare insight. Good to know that Jagex is going to take MechScape at a better angle.

Just got word from a fairly reliable online source. According to their connection progress on MechScape is at a reasonable pace but whatever the top brass say they wouldn't wager on a March/Spring launch. They are happy about being free to create a whole universe from scratch and are trying to push their 3D engine as far as possible within the technological constraints.

Nice to hear they're pushing the limits and going for perfection.
Not nice to hear that we could be waiting longer still.

Agreed. But, in the end, quality over quantity. I can wait.

I don't know, the one thing that JaGEx has, and i'm not saying this lightly, over all other big game companies, is that they release things on time, pretty much EVERY time.
Since I have been playing RuneScape, all the updates and what not they said they were releasing, were released, and on time, an exception being Construction that any veteran player will remember that whole... Thing.

So, i'm keeping my hope pinned around March or so, even if its just a beta.

Jagex may be getting better with release dates and they are by no means "Duke Nukem Forever", but construction isn't the only mis-estimation on their books:
* In February 2001 they said one of the next things to be released was clan support. It didn't come out until 2007.
* In 2001 Player Owned Houses were "coming soon". They weren't released until 2006.
* They intended to start work on MechScape in 2003 but didn't until 2005.
* One of their 2006 goals was "to launch in a further three languages" - Portuguese isn't out yet.
* They originally said "Our other multiplayer games will be returning soon in a new suite, but updated and improved with many new features" in January 2005. Later they hoped for a Summer 2007 release of FunOrb. It wasn't released until 2008.

Ren i got a suggestion for you. Next time you happen to bump into a jagex employee, clobber him over the head or tazer him so that you can drag him home and tie him to a chair, and then MAKE him spill the dirty little secrets of mechscape. It seems to always work in lethal weapon, you should try doing the same.

Ps. Might want to hit the gym 1st so that the tables does not turn

Pss. Good find

I have a great respect for Jagex and their employees so I'm not gonna clobber them... but maybe I could try hypnotism. Unlike in the RuneScape days of old when you are sleepy you don't have to find a bed and enter a CAPTCHA - they'll just have to tell me who the Pliigi are and how to get to Denaco Crater.

Glad to see you have a sense of humor, thought my post might be reported