RuneScape, in historical context
k, I guess you have already read the title. Some of you might even be totally shocked now, as you have just read the word "historical". Those who are shocked will probably think "AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! History! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO". Do not worry, it won't be that bad. I am not sure if I have chosen the title right, but it is a lot shorter than the title which I use on my top secret list with ideas for articles (it is on the D-Disk on my laptop, do not tell anyone). The original title was: "RuneScape and how life really was in the medievals, what are the differences?". So I guess the new title makes things a lot easier, right?
Now, I still have not told you what this article will be about, maybe the orignial title has given you a clue. Yes, indeed, I am now writing a boring article about how life really was in the medievals, and how that is shown in RuneScape. If I want to make this a real good article, I will have to go to various medieval cities and browse their archives for reports about people executed on various ways for various dumb reasons. And maybe I should start digging in various places; maybe my hometown would be good to start out? It's found about 1000 years ago so I'm sure I could find some old trash. But I am even too lazy to go to the local museum, so you will have to do it with information I learned in history class. Enjoy reading!
I think I will start out with some nice information about the overall look of RuneScape. Why not start out with the roads? The paths shaped by brave men to make travelling easier and safer, and to guide you to interesting towns without getting lost in scary forests where bears and unicorns hunt you? Well, the roads in RuneScape are actually shaped by programmers to make life easier for newbies so they might even become member some day. But the point is: these roads are not realistic at all! In the medievals, there were not many roads, most were just cart trails. Yes, cart trails, sand roads, small paths. Now those of you with few history knowledge might say "But that's bad for your car!", well, that does not matter as cars did not exists back then. Stone roads, as you can find anywhere in RuneScape, did not exist, well, maybe the main road in a city where the rich lived, but nowhere else.
Talking about cities... In RuneScape, those are far too clean! There was no sewer system, no water works, just some wells. People threw all waste on the streets, which were made out of sand. There were pigs walking around, and nobody drank water, they drank beer all day. Why did they drink beer, and not water, milk or anything else? Maybe fruit juice? Well, people soon found out that the dirty water was not very healthy, so they drank beer; every city had at least one brewery. Milk was too expensive for a lot of people, and it was used to make cheese and butter anyway. And people didn't eat fruit very often, they liked it, but they had to think about their health. They thought fruit was unhealthy, so they did only eat it at special occasions.
Now, compare that to RuneScape, with clean cities, beautiful stone roads and nice people. It is a fun game to play, but it is not very realistic. I will not discuss everything which does not exist but is in RuneScape, like various monsters, magic, and gnomes. But overall, you can say that RuneScape can't replace history classes about the medievals.
Feel free to post any comments, thoughts or ideas you might have in this topic!