Runescape - Third Ban and Alternate Account
Thanks to the overzealous bot detection methods of Jagex, my own compulsion to grind out levels, and the world of Gielinor seemingly plotting against me, I’ve been banned from Runescape for the third time. Hence, I made another alternate account that I actually plan on playing occasionally.
The Third Ban
Setting this goal for myself was where I messed up. I knew that if I got ahead early on, I would be able to give myself a buffer, and could get less xp per day later. On 2 April, I got from 5,167,121 strength xp to 5,666,562 strength xp. In a single day, I got almost 500k xp. I would definitely be able to get to level 99 during the event if I could keep that up. I stopped to eat dinner, and tried to log in again afterward for a little more grinding. Upon entering my password, I saw that unfortunately familiar ban notification.
At this point, seeing a ban didn’t even give me the panic of losing my account anymore. It didn’t cause any extreme stress. I was just disappointed and frustrated. I have only ever played legitimately. I would never cheat at this game, both for my own integrity, and the fear of losing an account that I’ve played numerous hours on. Why, then, did Jagex insist on banning me a third time?
Losing 3 days of gameplay because of the ban, and damper that it put on my morale, there was no way I would get reach 99 strength by the end of the event. Sure, I could make some decent progress, but why bother? It wasn’t worth the ban risk, and Jagex clearly has me pegged.
Alternate Account
Myst_Jake was unavailable for 3 days, that was certain. I contemplated the idea of making an alternate account that I might play from time to time. I made 2 alts before, but hadn’t played on either of them in years. One was Mario_Karter, an account that didn’t really have a firm direction. The other was Zezima_Pwn3r, which was intended to be a ranged pure that I was originally going to share with MrPickler. We both forgot the password for Zezima_Pwn3r long ago, so that account was lost for good. I did still remember the login information for Mario_Karter, hoever.
I tried logging in with Mario_Karter, just to see if the account still existed. I half expected it to have been deleted. It did still exist, but in one of the name recycles, that name was claimed by someone else. Alas, I should’ve figured as much. To keep it mostly the same, I renamed the account to Mario_Kart3r. A little leetspeak never hurt anyone. I went to Hans in Lumbridge to figure out how long I had actually played. Seems I had only put barely 6 hours into Mario_Karter. Honestly, I don’t expect it to get much higher than that.
For an extra challenge, I considered making a hardcore ironman account. After looking into them a bit, I decided that a standard ironman was more my speed. I originally thought that a hardcore ironman became a regular ironman on death automatically. Apparently that only happens if you’ve played long enough and purchased a specific item. Until then, the account just shuts down completely on death. Learning that, I decided a regular ironman account was enough for me.
When making the account, I already had a name in mind. What else would I use, but Acalania. It was my World of Warcraft character’s name, and my character on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn as well. It seemed the most fitting name for an account that I did plan to play, but would likely abandon eventually. I started it up, and went almost directly to the Runespan. That seemed to be the most logical place to begin, in a game mode that allows no trade with other players. I got up to 52 Runecrafting before the ban on Myst_Jake finally expired.
Mining at Spring Fayre
When Myst_Jake was able to play again, I decided against training strength much more. I got up to about 6,600,000 and level 92, but I figured halfway to 99 was adequate. Mining seemed to be the more popular option at the Spring Fayre, so I decided to try it out. It required less clicking, and I could make a point to talk every now and then in hopes to prove my humanity.
Originally, I didn’t really know what to set as a goal. I started at level 76 mining, with about 1,450,000 xp. Level 85 would be enough to unlock the ability to mine runite ore. At the time, that seemed like a reasonable goal. I reached level 85 without much trouble, and figured there was no sense in stopping then. Level 90 was probably attainable, and that was a nice, round, multiple of 10.
When I reached level 90, I still had a little time left before the Spring Fayre ended. Level 92 is nice, since it marks the halfway point for experience between level 1 and level 99. However, levels above 90 require much more experience between each level. With time counting down, I didn’t know if I would be able to reach level 92 by 23 April, but I decided there was no harm in trying.
Sure enough, I reached level 92 mining on 20 April. I guess that wasn’t such an unreasonable goal to begin with. I kept playing through until 23 April, when I expected the event to end. Per my understanding, it would run until 12:00 game time, or 8:00 EDT on 23 April. However, each time I logged on, the Spring Fayre was still going on. Players were speculating about when it might end, and eventually came to the consensus that Jagex had extended it by 1 week.
May as well take advantage of another week of easy mining xp. I learned that 95 mining gives access to harmonized runite ore once players can get into Prifddinas. Apparently, that’s where the real money is. Plus, level 95 could be boosted to 97, which would allow me to use any ancient effigies that require mining. Three mining levels seemed like a lot, but it would be easier during the event than with the normally available methods.
As with each previous goal, I reached level 95 far ahead of schedule, on 27 April. With just three days left (supposedly), I didn’t expect to reach another level. Any more xp would just be icing on the cake. I plan on eventually getting 99 mining, and any headway toward that goal should make it that much easier to reach later.
Looking back, it’s funny to see how much progress I made in mining. I play for over 10 years and get nearly 1.5M. I play for a few weeks and get over 7M. I guess that goes to show just how much easier it is to train skills now, especially during events.
The Spring Fayre
This story begins on Good Friday, 30 March. Runescape has typically hosted an Easter event each year, with some unlockable items. I hadn’t yet seen any details about one, but I did notice decorated eggs placed around the game, so clearly something was afoot. After doing some research, I learned that beginning in 2017, Jagex replaced the annual Easter event with a “Spring Fayre” event. It seems this trend was also repeated for 2018, with an event that started on 26 March. The decision made sense, what with religious tolerance and all that. Besides, we still got an event with unlockable rewards, so I didn’t really care how they phrased it. Plus, the quests for holiday events have traditionally been somewhat cumbersome and annoying, so I was admittedly glad to see that there was no quest for this event.
I went to the Lumbridge crater where the event was located and looked around. There were stations for various games, each of which was themed around a certain skill. Some were p2p exclusive, which obviously meant I couldn’t play them. A few seemed like too much work for not enough reward. The mining game was neat, but I didn’t really care much about mining. Then, I discovered the Test of strength machine.
As the name implies, the Test of strength machine gives experience in the strength skill. One click, anywhere on the machine, gave a chance to gain nearly 100 experience points per hit at my level. There was no cost to play, nothing to react to, and nothing to prevent me from spamming it with clicks. I wanted to level up my strength, and this was a way to do that without risking death in actual combat. Perfect.
As with most cheap/free and low-attention activities in Runescape, I started abusing this mini-game. Being able to casually tap anywhere on my phone screen while at work meant I could work on my strength while focusing on other things. I made every effort possible to show that I was a real person and not an auto-clicking bot. If I had to switch to another app on my phone, I first minimized the Runescape client so the mouse wouldn’t jump around erratically. Every now and then I would move around, or click on other places to prove that I was playing legitimately. I’d already been banned twice when trying to train Magic. I didn’t want to get banned again.
This training method was great. It was faster than actual combat, I didn’t have to pay attention, and it was free. I didn’t see a downside. It occurred to me that I might be able to reach level 99 strength using this method, if the event lasted long enough. The event was originally scheduled to end on 23 April (more on that later). I started with roughly 4,640,000 strength xp. Level 99 requires about 13,040,000 xp. If I could get 8.4 million xp, I would have level 99 strength with nearly no effort. To hit 99 before the end of the event, I would need somewhere between 300k and 400k xp per day. At my current pace, it was possible, but it would be difficult.
This story begins on Good Friday, 30 March. Runescape has typically hosted an Easter event each year, with some unlockable items. I hadn’t yet seen any details about one, but I did notice decorated eggs placed around the game, so clearly something was afoot. After doing some research, I learned that beginning in 2017, Jagex replaced the annual Easter event with a “Spring Fayre” event. It seems this trend was also repeated for 2018, with an event that started on 26 March. The decision made sense, what with religious tolerance and all that. Besides, we still got an event with unlockable rewards, so I didn’t really care how they phrased it. Plus, the quests for holiday events have traditionally been somewhat cumbersome and annoying, so I was admittedly glad to see that there was no quest for this event.
I went to the Lumbridge crater where the event was located and looked around. There were stations for various games, each of which was themed around a certain skill. Some were p2p exclusive, which obviously meant I couldn’t play them. A few seemed like too much work for not enough reward. The mining game was neat, but I didn’t really care much about mining. Then, I discovered the Test of strength machine.
As the name implies, the Test of strength machine gives experience in the strength skill. One click, anywhere on the machine, gave a chance to gain nearly 100 experience points per hit at my level. There was no cost to play, nothing to react to, and nothing to prevent me from spamming it with clicks. I wanted to level up my strength, and this was a way to do that without risking death in actual combat. Perfect.
As with most cheap/free and low-attention activities in Runescape, I started abusing this mini-game. Being able to casually tap anywhere on my phone screen while at work meant I could work on my strength while focusing on other things. I made every effort possible to show that I was a real person and not an auto-clicking bot. If I had to switch to another app on my phone, I first minimized the Runescape client so the mouse wouldn’t jump around erratically. Every now and then I would move around, or click on other places to prove that I was playing legitimately. I’d already been banned twice when trying to train Magic. I didn’t want to get banned again.
This training method was great. It was faster than actual combat, I didn’t have to pay attention, and it was free. I didn’t see a downside. It occurred to me that I might be able to reach level 99 strength using this method, if the event lasted long enough. The event was originally scheduled to end on 23 April (more on that later). I started with roughly 4,640,000 strength xp. Level 99 requires about 13,040,000 xp. If I could get 8.4 million xp, I would have level 99 strength with nearly no effort. To hit 99 before the end of the event, I would need somewhere between 300k and 400k xp per day. At my current pace, it was possible, but it would be difficult.
The Third Ban
Setting this goal for myself was where I messed up. I knew that if I got ahead early on, I would be able to give myself a buffer, and could get less xp per day later. On 2 April, I got from 5,167,121 strength xp to 5,666,562 strength xp. In a single day, I got almost 500k xp. I would definitely be able to get to level 99 during the event if I could keep that up. I stopped to eat dinner, and tried to log in again afterward for a little more grinding. Upon entering my password, I saw that unfortunately familiar ban notification.
At this point, seeing a ban didn’t even give me the panic of losing my account anymore. It didn’t cause any extreme stress. I was just disappointed and frustrated. I have only ever played legitimately. I would never cheat at this game, both for my own integrity, and the fear of losing an account that I’ve played numerous hours on. Why, then, did Jagex insist on banning me a third time?
Losing 3 days of gameplay because of the ban, and damper that it put on my morale, there was no way I would get reach 99 strength by the end of the event. Sure, I could make some decent progress, but why bother? It wasn’t worth the ban risk, and Jagex clearly has me pegged.
Alternate Account
Myst_Jake was unavailable for 3 days, that was certain. I contemplated the idea of making an alternate account that I might play from time to time. I made 2 alts before, but hadn’t played on either of them in years. One was Mario_Karter, an account that didn’t really have a firm direction. The other was Zezima_Pwn3r, which was intended to be a ranged pure that I was originally going to share with MrPickler. We both forgot the password for Zezima_Pwn3r long ago, so that account was lost for good. I did still remember the login information for Mario_Karter, hoever.
 |
| Mario_Kart3r play time as of 2018-04-05 |
I tried logging in with Mario_Karter, just to see if the account still existed. I half expected it to have been deleted. It did still exist, but in one of the name recycles, that name was claimed by someone else. Alas, I should’ve figured as much. To keep it mostly the same, I renamed the account to Mario_Kart3r. A little leetspeak never hurt anyone. I went to Hans in Lumbridge to figure out how long I had actually played. Seems I had only put barely 6 hours into Mario_Karter. Honestly, I don’t expect it to get much higher than that.
For an extra challenge, I considered making a hardcore ironman account. After looking into them a bit, I decided that a standard ironman was more my speed. I originally thought that a hardcore ironman became a regular ironman on death automatically. Apparently that only happens if you’ve played long enough and purchased a specific item. Until then, the account just shuts down completely on death. Learning that, I decided a regular ironman account was enough for me.
When making the account, I already had a name in mind. What else would I use, but Acalania. It was my World of Warcraft character’s name, and my character on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn as well. It seemed the most fitting name for an account that I did plan to play, but would likely abandon eventually. I started it up, and went almost directly to the Runespan. That seemed to be the most logical place to begin, in a game mode that allows no trade with other players. I got up to 52 Runecrafting before the ban on Myst_Jake finally expired.
Mining at Spring Fayre
When Myst_Jake was able to play again, I decided against training strength much more. I got up to about 6,600,000 and level 92, but I figured halfway to 99 was adequate. Mining seemed to be the more popular option at the Spring Fayre, so I decided to try it out. It required less clicking, and I could make a point to talk every now and then in hopes to prove my humanity.
Originally, I didn’t really know what to set as a goal. I started at level 76 mining, with about 1,450,000 xp. Level 85 would be enough to unlock the ability to mine runite ore. At the time, that seemed like a reasonable goal. I reached level 85 without much trouble, and figured there was no sense in stopping then. Level 90 was probably attainable, and that was a nice, round, multiple of 10.
When I reached level 90, I still had a little time left before the Spring Fayre ended. Level 92 is nice, since it marks the halfway point for experience between level 1 and level 99. However, levels above 90 require much more experience between each level. With time counting down, I didn’t know if I would be able to reach level 92 by 23 April, but I decided there was no harm in trying.
 |
| Myst_Jake play time as of 2018-04-30 |
Sure enough, I reached level 92 mining on 20 April. I guess that wasn’t such an unreasonable goal to begin with. I kept playing through until 23 April, when I expected the event to end. Per my understanding, it would run until 12:00 game time, or 8:00 EDT on 23 April. However, each time I logged on, the Spring Fayre was still going on. Players were speculating about when it might end, and eventually came to the consensus that Jagex had extended it by 1 week.
May as well take advantage of another week of easy mining xp. I learned that 95 mining gives access to harmonized runite ore once players can get into Prifddinas. Apparently, that’s where the real money is. Plus, level 95 could be boosted to 97, which would allow me to use any ancient effigies that require mining. Three mining levels seemed like a lot, but it would be easier during the event than with the normally available methods.
As with each previous goal, I reached level 95 far ahead of schedule, on 27 April. With just three days left (supposedly), I didn’t expect to reach another level. Any more xp would just be icing on the cake. I plan on eventually getting 99 mining, and any headway toward that goal should make it that much easier to reach later.
Looking back, it’s funny to see how much progress I made in mining. I play for over 10 years and get nearly 1.5M. I play for a few weeks and get over 7M. I guess that goes to show just how much easier it is to train skills now, especially during events.
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