Wikipedia describes it as a "fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game." From a technical standpoint, that is an accurate description. But from an emotional and social aspect, Jagex's RuneScape is a game that acts as a gateway for players to enter a wondrous fantasy medieval world where things such as goblins, magic, and dragons are no longer considered myth or legend, but real. Lacking a linear story and set in an open world that is easy to traverse, the world of RuneScape encourages its players to do whatever their heart may desire—from nonchalant slice-of-life activities like fishing to bombastic and adrenaline-pumped quests like dragon-slaying, the amount of freedom the player is given is tremendous. And in the hands of an impressionable 10-year-old boy, it did wonders.
I first discovered RuneScape when I was 5th grade. Overhearing some friends talking about it, I went home that day to see what all the fuss was about. After designing my character, giving him a name (psydragon22), and completing the tutorial, my character was then teleported into the real world of RuneScape.
Beginning in the city of Lumbridge, one of the first things I noticed was the city's massive structure. With NPC (non-playable-character) townspeople and guards venturing around, I felt like I was in the middle of what seemed to be an authentic medieval city.
Venturing out shortly afterward without much idea of what to do, I discovered a nearby hut that was the home of a never-ending supply of low-level goblins. Seeing other players attack them to gain gold coins, I quickly decided to attack them as well. But, lacking a weapon and armor, I barely defeated a single goblin while a few hitpoints away from death. After that moment, I soon realized that in order to have a positive gaming experience, I needed to utilize the skills that I was given, and to hone them. With mining, smithing, woodcutting, cooking, and fletching to name a few of these skills, I continued my journey in the world of RuneScape with a better idea in mind of how to survive and prosper.
Over the course of the next few years, I explored many regions, became a player capable of slaying powerful monsters such as dragons, and trained many of my skills to very high levels. Along the way, I learned new words, new concepts, and new facets of medieval culture and history that I didn't know before my time playing RuneScape. And although there was a great deal of learning outside of the game as what I learned in-game led to me wanting to know more and pursuing further research elsewhere, I probably would not have been set on that path hadn't it been for RuneScape sparking my interest in medieval history and history in general.
From the day I joined to the day I quit in order to allocate more of my time on school and extracurricular activities such as theater and marching band, I loved RuneScape and I still do to this very day. After throwing me into a fantasy world with many aspects and elements that existed in the real middle ages such as castles, knights, chivalry, guilds, and religion, to say I was enraptured was an understatement. I learned more about medieval history in a year of playing than I did in all six years of elementary school. Granted, RuneScape's purpose was not to educate, but in their best efforts to create a world that was the most immersive and authentic it could be for its players, it ended up being something that was in fact, both entertaining and educational.
