On RuneScape, and What it Has Spawned

I love RuneScape. I love its color-saturated, highly-detailed landscapes, constantly changing as the players act upon it and interact with each other. I love its layers of complexity. What's not to love? So it's really no surprise to me that RuneScape would further inspire other art forms, such as videos.

In case you're unfamiliar with RuneScape, it is a role-playing game like no other. Set in a mythical world called Gielinor, its iconography borrows liberally from the medieval era. The game enables the player to conquer opponents and steal their stuff, make food and weapons, barter items, and earn RuneScape "money," which can later be spent for other necessary items. (You can spend real money, too, if you want acquire a membership, which enables you to juice up your RuneScape experience and unlock new worlds, craft more items, wear better costumes ... you get the idea.) There have been many excellent articles written on RuneScape, and I have attached some of them as references for you to check out.

My son was the one who first called my attention to the slew of videos inspired by RuneScape. In fact, YouTube is crawling with them. If you want an exact number, I typed "RuneScape" into the YouTube search field, and turned up 331,000 videos! It is apparently quite easy to produce such a video. My son, who is the household cyber-wizard, tells me that all that's involved is downloading HyperCam from Google, and then using it to record a sequence of play from RuneScape. Then you can use Microsoft Movie Editor to create your new video sequence, including recording in new dialogue. (I have listed free download sources for both of these below.)

Moving on, some of my favorite RuneScape videos on YouTube include the "RuneScape TehNoobShow" (I think this is supposed to be "The Noob Show," but why criticize genius?). There are something like 12 "episodes" in this series, all of them funny. I have listed the "TehNoobShow Funniest Moments" for you below, in case you just want to cut to the chase. In case you were wondering, a "noob" on RuneScape is a new and inexperienced player. In Episode One of "TehNoobShow," "Bob" gives a tour of the game, saying things like, "basically, I just follow people around, and ask them for stuff, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't... and then I go to the wild, and call people noobs."

Another video that will change your life is the "Runescape - Bob Is a Gangsta" video, which basically features Bob making his way through the game in a most disruptive manner, shall we say, and there is copious gangsta dancing involved. I have listed this link as a reference as well.

I suspect that the majority of these videos were produced by players around the age of my son (13) or maybe just a smidge older, so be on the lookout for lots of adolescent humor. But they're instant mood-shifters, particularly if you watch them with someone around that age. And if you're familiar at all with RuneScape, they're brilliant send-ups of the game. If nothing else, viewing these videos will bring you up to speed on the awesome technological prowess of our kids. This generation is going to be a very interesting one!

www.runescape.com (Check it out for some addictive fun.)

http://www.hyperionics.com/ (for a free download of Hypercam, go here)

http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Movie-Maker-Windows-XP/3000-13631_4-10165075.html (for a free download of Windows Movie Maker)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WymG0YF2VVg (This is Runescape- TehNoobShow Funniest Moments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow07EoDIycs&feature=related "Runescape - Bob Is a Gangsta" video