Old School Runescape Ep.171 - The Duel Arena and the Sand Casino
1Welcome one and all to a grand adventure of mines on what many Brits here consider to be a classic MMORPG that brings forth fond and fun memories, where I'll be showcasing all sorts of moments in this most exciting commentated series of videos of the world of Gielinor created by Cambridge's own Jagex!
Ahhh yes, the infamous and most notorious landmark of them all that has been an iconic part of Runescape for many years now, originating back in March of 2004 on the original game and thus immediately a part of OSRS's beginning heritage, and yet, in recent years, this once-popular place for fun and friendly duels between friends and rivals alike has become not only the shadiest place in Gielinor by far, tainting Al Kharid's name and all, but it's also brought about real life consequences to the 'other world' existing outside of it and all.
But first, let's discuss what the Duel Arena actually is and what it's meant to represent for the PvP community here. (Yes, not that malicious skull tricking Pk'ing lot that seeks to milk the living hell out of the wilderness for every last ill-gained GP they can suck out of it, making the vampyres in Morytania look more generous and civilized by comparison!)
So, with the old and archaic fashion of duelling any one person who had PvP enabled on their account during the Runescape Classic and very early RS2 days now gone and done away with, a solution was brought about to replace this somewhat-fun activity in the form of a colloseum-esque establishment that made it's home not too far off west from the tax-crazy gate that faces Lumbridge itself, where one can duel with any other willing contender in a plain arena or an obstacle maze, be it forced to fight next to each other or have free movement throughout the whole field!
This was supposed to bring about some proper safe PvP action for those too scared to fight in the wildy but wanted in some glorious action without the oddities that Castle Wars brings in how it's a team-based game that killing your enemies is not the main goal unlike Clan Wars, here it's one man pitted against another and it can either be done via any means necessary to bring him down or there can be very restrictive measures put in place to have a more interesting style of battle unfold before you!
Indeed, to be fair, this did last quite a while, back when the majority of the community was of a younger populace and generally didn't know jack-squat about the very weird and most sweaty concept of 'efficiency' for PvM'ing and Skilling alike, instead opting to 'xp waste' simply so they can pursue something most elusive and mythical in today's MMORPG scene, this most valuable essence here called 'Fun'.
However, despite my desires to initially cover this and Clan Wars alongside my three F2P commentaries, I was unable to cover those two as the traditional PvP scene was largely dying out and, as a result, could not record those videos even back in 2015!
Now whilst I did eventually get a good shot at it back in Episodes 142 & 143 for the Clan Wars scene, (be as it may it's in F2P and thus not the full scope of this team PvP minigame) I never got another fun duel again after one single duel with some Level 70-ish Mithril gal that I won 50,000 GP, thus talking over the Duel Arena with just a single battle to show off was ultimately not worth it for me.
Over five whole years later with Seth Scylla, however, we find that this little place has found a MASSIVE surge in popularity on the members worlds and all, World 302 in particular funnily enough, but it's now a far more sinister and disgraceful series of practices largely held in place here for duelling that involves the act of 'staking', whereby two people agree to a HUGE stake ranging from a measly 1m of GP up to well in excess of 100m for just ONE single duel! (The new de-facto name, 'Sand Casino', may begin to make sense as I go further in detail here)
Since this has become a large 'gambling' (Not endorsed by Jagex, just not bannable nor officially recognized as such, a business tactic of gaining money from bonds and membership from the activity here without the bad press or legal troubles linked to gambling) ring that has just about perfect 'odds' with the well-established Tentacle Whip duel wearing no armour, no food nor pots or prayers, only attack/defence styles to increase your odds of winning, it's led to a most troubling ecosystem here where the very rich stakers bring in a demand of bought gold FAR exceeding your average 'credit card warrior' that commands dozens or even HUNDREDS of Venezuelan/Egyptian gold farmers at their whim, doing their bidding of farming gold by the billions per day to satisfy their deep craving of gold to stake away with other similarly rich people, all so they can feed that intense, but oh so brief, Dopamine feeling in their brain that they crave so dearly.
It's sad really.
In any case, I hope you enjoyed the video and any constructive comments or criticism is appreciated!
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