RUNESCAPE

Nearly two decades old, it has never stopped growing.

- Tyler Wilde

In 2001 RuneScape launched as a browser game and never stopped moving forward, depositing old versions along the way for players who wanted to stay in the past: RuneScape Classic, which no longer exists, and then Old School RuneScape in 2013. For everyone else, the modern version is just called RuneScape, and was recently added to Steam. I’ve always had the sense that RuneScape is a bit esoteric (I’m sure I tried it back when it launched, when I was into MUDs and other relics of online gaming), but I didn’t realise just how weird the free-to-play MMO is until I gave it a try. Nearly two decades after it first released, visiting RuneScape is like entering a PC gaming pocket dimension that split off from our own years ago, perhaps accessed by passing through the infinite loop of a GeoCities webring.

Like any other MMO, RuneScape begins with character creation, and I design a bearded man with a bald-on-top monk cut. I have no name in mind for him, so I opt to let RuneScape generate a random one. I’m expecting it to hit me with something fantasy-ish, like Illhard Earling or Haglbar or Revvyn. It suggests Deathlum1934. I hit the randomise button again. 59Bork2396. Again. Dingo2429. 44slender392.

Clearly, randomised names are not RuneScape’s strength. No problem: I type in the name of German author WG Sebald. It tells me that someone has already taken the name WG Sebald. Who could possibly be running around RuneScape as German literary figure WG Sebald? I don’t know, but the game’s been around for nearly 20 years now, so I should’ve figured that no niche would be untouched. I type in Burrp Bram and the name is accepted. I am now Burrp Bram.