RuneScape is fundamentally better than World of Warcraft

Ah, the final round. I once again would like to thank my opponent for responding and addressing my points made in the previous round. Although I respectively disagree with many of his points. Since I defended my stance on the issues in round 1 and 2 and believe my arguments still hold up, I will make a few final points. I still argue that RuneScape is fundamentally better than World of Warcraft, I understand WoW has RS in graphics, there is no argument there, but I am talking about integrity, and time invested as well, especially for your money. I'm sure many people play WoW, just like many play RuneScape. RuneScape is cheaper than WoW, but I don't believe that is why it is the sole reason why it is better, as people are willing to spend money on things (especially if they are addicted to it) regardless of a price hike as long as they can afford it. I view WoW as a "shiny" object that some find it hard to take their eyes off of to see the truth of it's mechanics. Final Points: Gear: RS: The game isn't gear dependent, gear is a plus and increases your defense, attack, and sometimes gives you a small special ability, however gear only amplifies your effectiveness by about 10-15%. A higher level increases your effectiveness naturally by a good bit, however you aren't guaranteed to win no matter how high your level is. An opponent within 15 stat level difference, can still take you down, strategy plays a role in fights, as you should use their weakness against them, based on their gear, combat triangle, and type of weapon. Levels are hard to earn, yet play a large role in your effectiveness if it is dramatically higher than your opponent, yet the stats give little benefit in increments of one, a Level 3 can still kill a level 138 physically, but highly improbable. WoW: Levels matter significantly in WoW, despite how easy it is to obtain them, however even more then that. GEAR matters. Gear can effectively multiply the power any character has by 3 if done right. The game IS gear dependent, which is GROUP dependent. Also, a Level 1 CANNOT defeat a Level 30+, because Blizzard made it so that you can pretty much resist every attack after certain level difference. There is no fairness without at least giving people a chance, if you have better gear and levels you should have an advantage, but shouldn't be so unfair that if a character walks up to you, casts frostbolt on you 1,000 times that you resist every cast without even moving. Undercutting Achievements: RS: Jagex rarely undercut the previous achievements of previous work, improvements and updates to the game, may provide better ways to train, not change the XP rate of previous NPC's or the amount received from previous work. WoW: Has a tradition of undercutting the efforts of previous work. They halved the XP required to reach 70 and doubled the XP NPC's give in instances and weakened all NPC's in instances below 70. Effectively more than halving the time and effort required to achieve previous goals, most of the time you are better off just waiting for them to nerf something. WoW should just remove the leveling system all together, as it is a joke merely meant to inspire you in thinking you achieved something to gain a sense of false pride. Account Selling/Buying: (Now, I am a bit biased here, because I firmly believe in the EULA and rules you agree to when you play a game, if you break the rules you agreed to, effectively giving your word, then you out to be punished accordingly and strictly) RS: There is a ZERO tolerance for cheating in the game. If you break the rules that you AGREED to, you will be banned, RS constantly searches and bans account sellers and traders, and has a recored for being harder on rule breakers compared to most games as they are more concerned about the legitimacy of their game than easy revenue, Jagex has a philosophy that if a game is more legitimate that people won't feel they have wasted their time, or feel like account buyers are undercutting their achievements. Jagex also prosecutes more serious offenders. Source: http://www.casualgaming.biz... WoW: They do ban accounts that account sell and trade, but not often as Jagex. This isn't a biased assumption you can look at WoW reports, take a trip to Ebay, look at the hundreds of WoW account selling sites, or ...log into WoW and talk to guildies, visit Org (Horde Side) and look at the accounts spamming gold-selling sites. Once you play WoW long enough, you can spot them easy, they are the level 80's that can't find Outlands, or don't know how to do an instance. Even if you do get banned, you can appeal and more than likely be re-instated with a convincing enough story. (Granted some bans, such as macroing, tend to be permanent). However in comparison, Trial Accounts have restrictions on spamming capabilities, yet still manage to do it (even if they do it with dead bodies, or eventually subscribing). RuneScape has F2P (where it is essentially free to make more accounts to spam) yet Jagex does a better job of controlling them. Both games have anti-macro systems in place which auto-ban certain macros, yet I see and know people who continually buy gold for real life money and have done so for over 3 years. (Yes, I am ashamed I know this guy personally, he was even banned once, called Blizzard, gave them a sob story, and had his account unfrozen later that evening). My best friend played WoW, gave his account and password to someone online (yes, breaking the rules and stupid) contacted WoW and they reimbursed his items (2x) he had lost from being "hacked". However, some of the hacked items were BoP blues and purples, so he just sharded the extra and sold it for profit (from breaking the rules in the first place?) Again, this is just two incidents from people I know personally and have seen. Let's not get started on hearsay from college peers. RuneScape however does have permanent bans and mutes, this would never happen in RS. Botting (Kinda addressed it above): RS: It is near impossible to bot in RS and not get caught, Jagex has updated their anti-macro software yet again, and as someone who has seen behind the scenes things in Jagex, they ban thousands accounts for botting, which isn't easy, considering the fact they offer F2P as it is. WoW: Hunter bots are everywhere, because Hunters are an easy class to play. You can find them on any server that has a lot of high quality fur that they can skin. I've reported a bot, and seen them again 3 months later, they are almost never banned. Reason? Because as long as someone is paying the $15 a month...why would Blizzard ban them? If they ban a hundred bots, they just lost $1,500 revenue per month. -- Jagex also updates RuneScape every week and ADDS content at no additional cost (or expansion). Completing quest increase access to new areas, new abilities, new advantages, and unlike WoW, you only ever need to do a quest ONCE, never have to re-roll and do it again for the 6th time. RuneScape does have deeper lore than World of Warcraft (and I have played the RTS games). Jagex has pretty much eliminated Gold Selling from their game (including F2P!), in WoW you go to a major city like Org. and find the latest gold spammer to buy gold from. There are plenty of people who obviously break the rules, or buy gold and they go unpunished. Blizzard themselves have stated on forums that they considered selling gold for money as they could undercut 3rd party sites and profit off it it. Things like that shouldn't even be considered, real-life financial situations shouldn't play a direct role in how successful you are in a game, you shouldn't be able to just "buy" accounts, or wealth. Everything in life takes time. Work, College, Games, etc. If you are playing games, then you have time, the question is if you know how to make the most efficient use of your time in a game. As you can't play WoW or RS