Update:Newsletter 1

RuneScape Newsletter - Issue #1

Welcome to the first ever RuneScape newsletter. Firstly a big thank-you to everyone who's been playing, and has helped make RuneScape a great success. We only launched just over 2 weeks ago, and we already have over 28000 signed up players, and the game has been played for a total time of over 4.5 years!

Help keep RuneScape free
Renting a server to run RuneScape is expensive! I really want to avoid charging people to play, so please please help me keep it free by visiting the website below and signing up for a few *free* offers. Thanks! Want to win Free Cash every day? Try the newest Freebie site on the Internet today, FreebieClub.com. Of course it's loaded with free loot: great vacations, magazines and samples galore! 

What's new in Runescape
The RuneScape team has been working very hard over the past 2 weeks to improve the game and bring you new features. Major new features are:

New desert city Al-kharid with:

 * Scimitar shop: Buy and sell curvy swords
 * Furnace: Convenient for smelting ore from the desert
 * Silk trader: Buy silk here and sell it in Varrock for a profit.The amount you make depends on how many other people are silk trading.
 * General store: Another place to buy and sell your items
 * Platemail Legs shop: A full range of leg armour to spend your money on
 * Kebab shop: Eating kebabs has a random effect. They're normally good, but rumour has it that a few of them are a bit dodgy. They'll never kill you though

New Quest in Draynor Manor
Draynor Manor has been opened and there's spooky things inside! There's a vampire asleep in the cellar, and Professor Oddenstein who lives in the attic has accidently turned someone into a chicken! To make things worse gremlins have hidden the parts of his machine, so he can't turn the chicken back. Can you find the missing pieces to complete this quest?

Plus over the past 2 weeks we've also

 * Improved the map page to show the locations of useful shops
 * Added a 'who's playing' page so you can see if your friends are on
 * Made Lumbridge safe to give a place to hide from player killers
 * Improved the shops to reduce queueing
 * Reduced the network requirements so the game works over more connections
 * Fixed lots of little problems/bugs with the game to make it more reliable

What's planned
We are of course working on many more improvements to add to the game to make it even better. We have nearly finished work on the bank which will hopefully be added to Varrock city tomorrow. The bank is a safe place to store your money, such that even if you die it can't be lost. After that the magic system is due for a big overhaul with lots of new spells being added, plus we'll be adding some entirely new professions such as crafting and fishing to add even more variety to the game. The next planned quest is 'The vampire slayer quest' in which you must work out how to slay the evil vampire currently sleeping in Draynor Manor.

Runescape hiscores
Below are the top scores as they were at 3pm GMT on Sunday-21st. Only the top 25 players are shown, but I'm planning on adding a new page to the website soon which will allow you to search for the ranking of any player and see how you compare with everyone else.

The hiscores are currently in 4 categories. If there are more categories which you think should be included let me know and I'll consider putting them in the next newsletter.

Top 25 players - score is total of all skills

1: lightning - 506

2: Gugge - 436

3: Rab - 428

4: Sir - 415

5: ZAPTONE_Z - 352

5: hurkules - 352

7: Devil_Hunter - 329

8: merlin - 324

9: Rodrigo - 321

9: Hellbringer - 321

11: RattSabre - 320

12: The_Unknown - 319

13: stud690 - 317

14: Flex_10 - 312

15: Morfnak - 311

16: Day_Dream - 306

17: Lord_Soth - 305

18: TheReturnOfX - 302

19: Ashley - 301

20: Auxilus - 300

21: Sunjon - 288

22: terminator - 287

23: kancer - 283

23: Axebane_Hawk - 283

25: KingKong - 280

Top 25 fighters - score is total combat skill

1: lightning - 200

2: Gugge - 182

3: Rab - 178

4: Robin_Hood2 - 172

5: stud690 - 164

6: Sir - 163

7: Day_Dream - 160

8: terminator - 159

9: Ashley - 155

10: Morfnak - 149

11: merlin - 148

12: The_Unknown - 146

13: Flex_10 - 141

14: Lord_Soth - 138

15: hurkules - 136

16: ZAPTONE_Z - 134

17: LoneWolf_LD - 133

18: RattSabre - 131

18: TheReturnOfX - 131

18: constant - 131

21: SilencerLD - 130

22: Auxilus - 129

22: caramon - 129

24: Sir_Beachy - 128

24: Axebane_Hawk - 128

Top 25 player killers - score is number of kills

1: DaRk_RoCk - 100

2: SilencerLD - 95

3: Robin_Hood2 - 83

3: Mortis - 83

5: EndBringer - 80

6: Phadera - 69

7: bomboy2328 - 68

8: donk - 67

9: Windstick - 65

10: Yemen - 64

11: Yokomon - 61

11: RCCBrasil - 61

13: lancelot24 - 60

14: Samhill - 58

14: Samikaze - 58

14: DecIll - 58

17: koma - 55

18: robsimons - 53

18: Rankka - 53

20: ace2you - 52

20: adam2000 - 52

22: plumaglob - 51

22: Wolf - 51

24: God - 50

24: crazy_joe75 - 50

Top 25 smiths - score is mining + smithing

1: lightning - 88

2: dmonik - 87

3: The_Unknown - 84

4: KPOBb - 81

5: Lord_Soth - 80

6: Rodrigo - 74

6: TheReturnOfX - 74

6: Silverion - 74

9: hurkules - 73

9: Garbages - 73

9: Deckchair - 73

12: Sir - 70

12: Auxilus - 70

14: Bubba_bobba - 68

14: Lordrlz - 68

16: Flurble - 67

16: Flex_10 - 67

16: stud690 - 67

16: Tiney - 67

20: Gugge - 66

20: natslayer - 66

20: Vit - 66

20: Sgt_Savage - 66

20: STarlude - 66

25: Arcon - 65

Thanks for reading this newsletter, have fun playing the game! Andrew Gower (RuneScape creator)