PC Gamer UK 01.2021 @InternationalPress75

I

n 2001 RuneScape
launched as a browser
game and never
stopped moving
forward, depositing
old versions along the way for
players who wanted to stay in the
past: RuneScape Classic, which no
longer exists, and then Old School
RuneScape in 2013. For everyone
else, the modern version is just
called RuneScape, and was recently
added to Steam. I’ve always had the
sense that RuneScape is a bit
esoteric (I’m sure I tried it back
when it launched, when I was into
MUDs and other relics of online
gaming), but I didn’t realise just
how weird the free-to-play MMO is
until I gave it a try. Nearly two
decades after it first released,
visiting RuneScape is like entering a
PC gaming pocket dimension that

split off from our own years ago,

perhaps accessed by passing

through the infinite loop of a

GeoCities webring.

Like any other MMO, RuneScape

begins with character creation, and I

design a bearded man with a

bald-on-top monk cut. I have no

name in mind for him, so I opt to let

RuneScape generate a random one.

I’m expecting it to hit me with

something fantasy-ish, like Illhard

Earling or Haglbar or Revvyn. It

suggests Deathlum1934. I hit the

randomise button again. 59Bork2396.

Again. Dingo2429. 44slender392.

Clearly, randomised names are not

RuneScape’s strength. No problem: I

type in the name of German author

WG Sebald. It tells me that someone

has already taken the name WG

Sebald. Who could possibly be

running around RuneScape as

German literary figure WG Sebald? I

don’t know, but the game’s been

around for nearly 20 years now, so I

should’ve figured that no niche

would be untouched. I type in Burrp

Bram and the name is accepted. I am

now Burrp Bram.

In the tutorial area, I learn there’s

a skill called Prayer and that burying

the bones of my slaughtered enemies

will increase my Prayer skill. Later,

those enemies include innocent

tutorial bunnies that I stab to death

with a dagger and make sandwiches

out of, innocent tutorial cows that I

pierce with arrows while they

helplessly bustle about a pen, trolls

who live in caves directly beneath

the town, gelatinous abominations,

and some skeletons, who were

presumably buried at one time, and

now need to be reburied. I bury all

their bones, even the bones of the

gelatinous abominations, which

RUNESCAPE

NEED TO KNOW

RELEASED

2001

PUBLISHER

In-house

DEVELOPER

Jagex

LINK

runescape.com

Nearly two decades old, it has never stopped growing. By Tyler Wilde

OLD GAMES, NEW PERSPECTIVES

REINSTALL

I defeated this boss by clicking on it once

and then eating rabbit sandwiches.