[Roklykthat]

Deb/Stormys_Amazon and I were honored over this past weekend by being invited to Jagex for a tour and to visit with them, along with some of the high level players. Obviously we had to sign a non disclosure agreement, but there are some things we are allowed to share so we wanted to share it with everyone. I'll jump ahead right now and just say it was completely and totally epic and I am still excited!

I will not post names until I have talked to the players and made sure it is okay with them, however there were several high ranking members and free players. The other players were all really nice and we really enjoyed getting to spend the weekend with them.

We arrived at Jagex Thursday morning. Not only did we get there, but they actually let us in! (okay only because they had invited us, they do not let people in if they just show up). They took us into a break room area and offered us refreshments, and then we got through the formalities such as introducing ourselves, signing the Non Disclosure Agreement, giving us some information about the plans for the weekend, etc. After that Mark Gerhard and Andrew Gower joined us and we all went and had a nice lunch.

After lunch we went back to the magical mystery land that is Jagex where they proceeded to take us on a tour through every department. That was great. In each department a couple of people that worked in that area would take some time and explain what their department does and how or why they do it. In addition to what they showed us on the tour, we learned that it seems to be a great working environment where everyone loves what they do. We were encouraged to ask questions in each area, and at the end of the day we got to have a Q & A session with Mark and Andrew. They were completely laid back and just sat and talked with us. They answered our questions and elaborated as to why they answered the way they did.

I do wish to say that everyone we met, everyone who talked to us, actually everyone at Jagex, was just amazing. They were friendly and helpful with awesome personalities.

When our tour and Q & A session were over, they put us in cabs and had us taken to our hotel. We had free time that night and the following morning to do whatever we wanted to do. They even provided us with a map showing where food, entertainment, and pubs were within walking distance. Deb and I, being the wild party animals that we are, ordered room service and then went to sleep lol.

The next day a couple of cabs came to pick us up and take us to party with the good people at Jagex. I won't go into detail, but the food was great, the assorted games and rides were awesome, having a chance to talk to people in a more laid back setting was epic, although Mark might be just a little tiny bit competitive. I would love to go on at length about this day, but if I did I would probably end up saying too much, so I will stop here.

Saturday a few people from Jagex picked us up and took us to lunch. Mark Gerhard was able to have join us, but then domestic demands came up and he had to leave. After that most of the members of the group went punting with Paul M (look it up ) while a few of us stayed back to go pick up some souveniers and wait for Mod Poppy to show up. Discussion ensued to determine what we wanted to do for our last afternoon together. Did we want to go sightseeing? Maybe bowling or a movie? A bus tour of the city? All great ideas. We went for the best idea though - We went to Jagex and all got on computers and played RuneScape together!

That evening we had to split up and go to hotels that were closer to the airports we were leaving from the next morning. Water_is_Nat and another awesome player joined us for dinner. Then we exchanged contact information and it was time for bed because we all had to get up early and catch planes back to our life.

I am going to include special thanks to a few Jagex staff members. This list should actually be about 10 times longer than what it will be because everyone was amazing. So although only a few names are on here, I have much love and appreciation for everyone.

Mark Gerhard and Andrew Gower - Thank you so much for inviting us over. The trip was amazing. We appreciated you taking the time to answer our questions and were glad you were able to take the time out to join us for some meals. You are both easy to talk to and made us feel quite welcome. Thanks again!

Sarah Jane - You organized our trip, our itinerary, the party - You are amazing and I am so impressed that you managed to control the weather!

Mod Hohbein - You helped us physically get from one place to another and looked out for us throughout our visit. You are great!

Mod Paul M - You skipped out on us to go on a test drive?!?! - Just kidding, you made sure we all got together and had fun on Saturday and we were glad to get to hang out with you and get to know you a bit.

Mod Poppy - Wow, we just seemed to click. You spent your day off with us and that is so epic. I look forward to us being friends for years to come, and look forward to my next visit. Don't forget to send me those songs!


Also there are a couple of things we learned from Jagex that we feel you players should know in order to help you and Jagex.
1 - If you are hacking accounts, posting fake RS3 websites with the intention of stealing passwords, or in other ways breaking the DMCA laws - they will prosecute. Keep your game playing clean.
2 - If someone is calling you a noob or basically being annoying but not blatantly offensive - just ignore them, that is what that function is for. Most of the reports for that will not result in black marks anyway and ignoring them will make sure that you don't every have to deal with that person annoying you again lol.


If anyone has any questions about our awesome visit, feel free to ask. We may not know the answer, and we will not say anything that would violate the Non Disclosure Agreement, but we will be happy to answer anything we can. We will try to have a get together on Vent soon if anyone is interested.


I have had a chance to talk to a couple of the other players who were there. Gertjaars/Gert and Lucipher6/Ian have both given me permission to include their names in this topic. They are great guys and I am glad we got a chance to get to know them!

I just spoke with another player who was present who also agreed that I could use his name. Gainage/Kevin - Now iKevin B was another player who attended, he was there with his friend the high level player Gemini Pro/Erwin - Now Erw_J. They were awesome and I wish we would have had more chance to get to know each other, but I'm sure we will stay in contact now. =)

I talked to D_Sweetheart/Yasmin, who is the sister of the #1 free player S_Diamant_Y/Sara and so now I have permission to include their names. The girls were very sweet and for me personally, I enjoyed seeing high level female players.

I have to say one more time how very awesome it was to meet everyone and make new friends!

[Bunny_Man]

That sounds AWESOME! I am so jealous of you and Deb, wife

[water_is_nat]

This weekend surely was one to remember!
Met some awesome people, got to know a lot about Jagex, had a fantastic time in Cambridge...
It's all been great and surprisingly educative.

I couldn't imagine that Mark MG, Andrew and all the other Jmods we met would be that friendly and kind to us. They helped us a lot to find our way through the weekend and have as much fun as possible.

I also want to thank them for this opportunity, it was great fun.

Was lovely to meet ya, Lisa & Debs.


~Greetings, Water_is_Nat~

This post has been edited by water_is_nat: 28 September 2009 - 11:05 AM

[Sccrluk9]

That sounds so cool!

[Stormys_Amazon]

water_is_nat, on Sep 28 2009, 12:48 AM, said:

This weekend surely was one to remember!
Met some awesome people, got to know a lot about Jagex, had a fantastic time in Cambridge...
It's all been great and surprisingly educative.

I couldn't think Mark MG, Andrew and all the other Jmods we met would be that friendly and kind to us. They helped us a lot to find our way through the weekend and have as much fun as possible.

I also want to thank them for this opportunity, it was great fun.

Was lovely to meet ya, Lisa & Debs.


~Greetings, Water_is_Nat~

For those of you who do did not figure it out - water_is_nat is one of the highest level free players on Runescape (number 4 to be exact). Lisa and I met him while we were at Jagex and invited him to join our forums. Hope all of you will welcome him to our forums and our family

[Boo]

Oh my GOSH!! Lisa, you didn't tell me you were THAT epic! It sounds like an amazing time, I can't wait to hear more about it!

[ONUBO]

Oh em gee, I want to do that too!

You guys are pretty lucky ones to actually meet them face-to-face.

Credits for you people!

[Shinigami]

How did they contact you? I presume that you lucky Admins got contacted via the forums, but what about the other players? I mean, flying to Cambridge (Depending where you live) is not the easiest thing to do, unless Jagex actually paid for ALL of the costs... Did they?

[Sccrluk9]

Jack the other players probably got contacted through the Jagex message system.

[Stormys_Amazon]

Jack_Sparrow, on Sep 28 2009, 05:23 AM, said:

How did they contact you? I presume that you lucky Admins got contacted via the forums, but what about the other players? I mean, flying to Cambridge (Depending where you live) is not the easiest thing to do, unless Jagex actually paid for ALL of the costs... Did they?

The players were contacted via the forums (that is the only way Jagex will contact you) unless....you are like Gene & I, who are in contact via email with them almost daily, so they contacted us via email.

As for costs - we wont discuss that...after all, does it really matter? The important thing is that WE GOT TO GO VISIT JAGEX The high level players along with Lisa and I were the first to ever be allowed inside the doors of Jagex studios. They told us that other players have showed up at their door, but were not allowed to go inside, so we were very honored to be given that privilege.

[Jasper]

Wow Deb and Lisa, I envy you

I bet it was great. Too bad you can't tell us everything ='(
Wonderfull to see the way Jagex acts towards the communities now. I really love how they're doing it

[DJ_Phox]

z0mg where is it located... i couldnt fly there neways i jst wanna see it on google maps lawl

lol jk i know you cant tell me tis my dream to work for em someday but thats long ways off as i live in USA.. would ahve to get a work visa, passport, etc then hope to get a job there... then if i enjoyed it id have to renouce my citizenship to usa and become one of england... boy would that be different lol

i wish i could go for a visit i really do

[Prof_L00ney]

Man.... I want to go there so bad. =/

[DJ_Mecha]

DJ_Phox, on Sep 28 2009, 06:30 PM, said:

id have to renouce my citizenship to usa and become one of england

Of the united kingdom >=(


And i have 2 questions of my own.

Why didn't you take meh? ;-;

And

If you weren't gonna take meh, why didn't you visit me or jim? ;-;
We were both right next door.

[Dan]

Well Cambridge isnt exactly next door to us in Wales Mecha

I am very jealous, lucky people! Cambridge is about an hour and a half away from me

[Thermal]

Quote

Also there are a couple of things we learned from Jagex that we feel you players should know in order to help you and Jagex.
1 - If you are hacking accounts, posting fake RS3 websites with the intention of stealing passwords, or in other ways breaking the DMCA laws - they will prosecute. Keep your game playing clean.

Okay, a couple of things on this point.

1. The DMCA is a revision to copyright law that was enacted in the United States. It doesn't actually apply outside the United States, though there are similar laws in other countries.
2. "Hacking" accounts does not fall under the DMCA. Phishing is illegal under various laws, and there may be laws about accessing data without permission (IE accounts) which I believe is an issue of privacy. Either way, it doesn't fall under the DMCA.
3. With regard to posting "fake RS3 websites" - Unless they are using JAGeX's intellectual property, there is nothing that can be done about this. Most of them do directly steal images and such, and using "RuneScape" is trademark infringement I guess, but this isn't really a DMCA issue. Even so - JAGeX won't prosecute, since (at least in the USA) under the DMCA they are required to send a take-down notice and give a chance for compliance before being able to take legal action, and people will simply destroy the phishing site they created and make a new one. JAGeX may, however, seek legal action outside of the DMCA as the sites do break other laws.

Just wanted to point that out, seeing as the statement while filled with good intentions, was incorrect.

~ B

This post has been edited by Thermal: 28 September 2009 - 03:27 PM

[Salvette]

Wait, Sarah Jane Smith? You had one of the Doctor's companions there to control the weather for you! Did you get to go inside the TARDIS? Is the Jagex building bigger on the inside than the outside?

Seriously though, that's very good for us. Very good indeed.

[Stormys_Amazon]

Thermal, on Sep 28 2009, 03:57 PM, said:

Quote

Also there are a couple of things we learned from Jagex that we feel you players should know in order to help you and Jagex.
1 - If you are hacking accounts, posting fake RS3 websites with the intention of stealing passwords, or in other ways breaking the DMCA laws - they will prosecute. Keep your game playing clean.

Okay, a couple of things on this point.

1. The DMCA is a revision to copyright law that was enacted in the United States. It doesn't actually apply outside the United States, though there are similar laws in other countries.
2. "Hacking" accounts does not fall under the DMCA. Phishing is illegal under various laws, and there may be laws about accessing data without permission (IE accounts) which I believe is an issue of privacy. Either way, it doesn't fall under the DMCA.
3. With regard to posting "fake RS3 websites" - Unless they are using JAGeX's intellectual property, there is nothing that can be done about this. Most of them do directly steal images and such, and using "RuneScape" is trademark infringement I guess, but this isn't really a DMCA issue. Even so - JAGeX won't prosecute, since (at least in the USA) under the DMCA they are required to send a take-down notice and give a chance for compliance before being able to take legal action, and people will simply destroy the phishing site they created and make a new one. JAGeX may, however, seek legal action outside of the DMCA as the sites do break other laws.

Just wanted to point that out, seeing as the statement while filled with good intentions, was incorrect.

~ B

While I will not argue with you Thermal, I will concede that perhaps the DMCA is not the correct law that they enforce. I will reinforce what Roklykthat stated in that Jagex WILL prosecute and it does not matter where in the world you are. They have proven it by taking down several sites already in multiple countries by working with specific authorities from the various countries to make the enforcement stick.

My advice, if anyone does not believe that Jagex will enforce any of the above problems, then by all means, keep on doing what you are doing. Just don't expect anything except an "I told you so" when you get caught.

[Thermal]

Stormys_Amazon, on Sep 28 2009, 04:57 PM, said:

While I will not argue with you Thermal, I will concede that perhaps the DMCA is not the correct law that they enforce. I will reinforce what Roklykthat stated in that Jagex WILL prosecute and it does not matter where in the world you are. They have proven it by taking down several sites already in multiple countries by working with specific authorities from the various countries to make the enforcement stick.

My advice, if anyone does not believe that Jagex will enforce any of the above problems, then by all means, keep on doing what you are doing. Just don't expect anything except an "I told you so" when you get caught.

I do not wish to encourage it, I just thought it should be stated. I mentioned a couple of times that while the DMCA doesn't really give them the chance to take legal action there /are/ other laws which do.

It does matter where in the world you are, simply because laws in various countries are different, and UK and USA law is /not/ enforced world-wide and in fact does not apply outside of the UK and the USA, respectively.

This being said, JAGeX will take whatever actions they have available to them, and unless you have a lawyer tell you otherwise, it is very likely that in your country of residence creating a phishing site that pretends to be the real thing for the purpose of stealing passwords is illegal, and if this is the case then you will probably be caught and there will almost definitely be consequences if you are.

This post has been edited by Thermal: 28 September 2009 - 08:03 PM

[Gainage]

It surely was a great time there in Cambridge.
Was awesome to meet Lisa, Deb and all the other players and Jagex employees.

All the events we've been doing were fun and I'm quite sure it will be some days which I'll always remember.

Take care,

Kevin

[senug5]

Aww you guys are lucky. Cambridge is like an hour away from me, I'm in London

[Varken9]

Thank you for writing this!!
Water is nat invited me to come, but I was too late . I hope someday there will be another opportunity for me. I would like to Congratulate Jagex with their amazing initiative!
I have a video about the ingame party, Saturday:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl6bnGLR9nU[/url]

[Clamball]

I also saw Runescape posted some images of the ingame party on their facebook last night. It is wonderful to be the first to do something and welcome all the new people to RuneHQ. Hope you all enjoy your stay here.

[KingOfSentinels]

Salvette said:

Wait, Sarah Jane Smith? You had one of the Doctor's companions there to control the weather for you! Did you get to go inside the TARDIS? Is the Jagex building bigger on the inside than the outside?

Nice Doctor Who referance

Anyway, visiting Jagex must have been pretty great Good going on you two. I enjoyed reading about it. =D

But I have a very important question. Life threatening, you could argue... what did you get with the room service? =o I would gotten cake...

[Roklykthat]

KingOfSentinels, on Sep 29 2009, 07:28 AM, said:

But I have a very important question. Life threatening, you could argue... what did you get with the room service? =o I would gotten cake...

Now that you mention it, we should have gotten cake. But we just got sandwiches. We had been up for about a day and a half and were just ready to eat and sleep

[Kate]

*jealous*

D:

[KingOfSentinels]

Yeah, I'm jealous too.

They sound like delicious sandwiches...

[lucipher6]

I'll jump on the bandwagon and make my first post on this topic too!

Should be more pics and stuff on the rs site itself coming out shortly, so keep looking@

[serty456]

One question.

Did they let you find anything out about incoming updates on the game or some Lores/History that will be released in future?

(I'm not asking what they were I'm asking if they let you guys/girls know)

Thanks Serty456

[DJ_Phox]

i too am ever so curious to know what all you guys did... ok so you met some people and had lunch twice... played some rs and had room service which from my experience on reading about it is quite epxensive

but the not 2-3 days of stuff... did you get to see Mod Emiley (i know i always spell her name wrong) what about mod ash... poopy is a cool mod but those other 2 are my favorites... i wont ever forget ash accidently messing up construction lv up messeges... and then jokeing about "accidently" deleteing mellee from the game... mod emiley is just cool... doesnt need a reason for it