RuneScape/Getting Started

Welcome to the Introduction Guide! This guide can be very useful to new players of the massive online adventure game. First off, a little history lesson about the company that makes RuneScape and the game itself

Jagex
Jagex Limted is a company based in the United Kingdom. One of it's creators, Andrew Gower, says that Jagex stands for Java Gaming Experts.

Jagex Limited was created by three people. Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, and Constant Tedder founded Jagex in December 2001 to run their game RuneScape. Even before 2002, RuneScape already had over 1 million accounts.

Jagex has grown greatly since 2001. They now have two offices, one in Cambridge, and the other in London. Over 100 people are employed as staff. Many servers have been created across the globe and many are still planned.

RuneScape
RuneScape has gone through many stages to come to the great game it is currently.

RuneScape started out as a 2D game known as DeviousMUD. It was not released to the public and very few people saw it. Jagex later came up with what is now known as 'RS Classic' in the December of 2001. Just a few months later, on February 27, 2002, Jagex launched it's members. Before the member launch, RuneScape was a game that players could play for free. When players could become a member, they were able to subscribe and pay about $5US a month. Being a member allowed players more updates and a world at least twice as large as the free worlds.

RuneScape was completely re-written during the latter part of 2003 and early 2004 allowing 'RuneScape 2' to be launched in March 2004. Originally only a beta for members, it was quickly released to free players.

Since the launch of RS2, which is now RuneScape, Jagex has vastly increased the size of RuneScape. Over 150,000 players almost everyday. Over 5 million accounts have been created. Over 100 servers have been placed around the world. RuneScape has become one massive online adventure since it's small start.

Starting Out
RuneScape is a game available to all. However, if a player wants continual updates, then they're recommended to become a member.

To play the game, players have to go to RuneScape's homepage and make a new account (Or you can create a new account by click "Play Free Now". Once Runescape loads, you can make a new account or continue.

When players have logged in to RuneScape, they can then select what they want their character to look like. When they've finished creating their character, they will be given instructions on what to do next.

New players start out in a cave with Sir Vant. To complete the tutorial, players must follow the directions and help Sir Vant slay the dragon. After the tutorial is complete, the player will appear in Lumbridge.

RuneScape is played on a web browser. There are no programs that have to be downloaded other than Java. Java may have to be downloaded on new Window computers, but Java is a safe program and is needed for many games.