W13 12 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 (edited) Hi, I’m W13. I founded Zybez, an early “fansite” for RuneScape in 2001. It expanded to a fairly large and useful resource for players and for a while, the largest discussion forums for the game. So, in January 2001 I got into RuneScape, a game which was lightyears ahead of anything else in its class: an entirely browser-based game, playable on any OS. I really liked RuneScape and really believed in it, but by 2009, I was convinced the game had had its peak and was stagnating: the game wasn’t ported over to mobile by that time and a golden opportunity had been thrown away. Jagex, the company running RuneScape, was increasingly hostile against fansites. Instead of seeing fansites as the glue that holds players to the game by building a sense of community around it, they decided that fansites are leeches that are somehow taking away from the success of the actual game. Rather than celebrating fansites for their innovation and supporting them (even verbally), they started ripping off popular features from fansites one-by-one and putting them up on RuneScape.com. Jagex was earning hundreds of millions of dollars from RuneScape, while fansites were getting nothing, despite adding a lot of value to the RuneScape community. Which was fine, but the disrespect and plagiarism was adding insult to injury. For all these reasons, I decided to step away. A company named Curse, which was trying to build up a portfolio of games-related internet properties (websites/apps) made an offer. I had limited resources compared to them. I was just a guy and they were a rapidly expanding start-up. I thought at the time that they’d pour resources into Zybez, making it better, and also use their weight to stop Jagex bullying us. In the end, it didn’t matter… RuneScape went into a downward spiral, all the while copying fansites’ features and making them obsolete, Wiki-style sites popped up (including one set up by Jagex themselves), and it spelled the end of fansites. Near the end, it was costing Curse more to keep Zybez online than whatever the ad-earnings brought in. And it slipped away into darkness. For nostalgia sake, I got permission from Curse to put up an old version of Zybez up online ( https://2007rshelp.com ) and the old forums ( https://runescapecommunity.com ). Who am I? My name is Waqqas. I grew up in Calgary, Canada. I’m a physician (thank you Zybez money!), epidemiologist, and scientist/researcher. Currently I work in California. I wake up and go to a 9-to-5. Life is pretty normal. I have friends, neighbours, and co-workers. I’m in my 30s now. No kids. RuneScape and Zybez feel like a distant dream. I sometimes smile on my birthdays remembering how I’d celebrate them in-game and have way more fun than whatever I did in real life back in my teens. And for everyone who supported me, all the players, and all the friends I made from RuneScape - I'm eternally thankful. It was an awesome childhood. AMA Edited January 1 by W13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@True 2k8 3,223 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 What were your thoughts on the Clan Discussion section? Did you ever keep up with clans actively? How much RS did you really play? I'm sure you can't tell us how much you made by selling Zybez to Curse, but what can you tell us about the deal? Do you have any funny stories about interactions with Jagex? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatebreeder 92 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 How do you feel about @Wee Manselling IPs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ 1,034 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 why did you pick the name w13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ 1,034 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 do you know anything about wee man and what are your thoughts on him if so? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Applerune 121 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 cool to see you around - can you disclose how much $ you made from Zybez (either thru ads or sale?) or is there still some sort of NDA involved etc? Thanks for doing an AMA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ 1,034 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 are you at all surprised that there isn't really a central forum hub the community let alone clans use anymore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J0ey 3 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 thoughts on other fan sites? sals tip it etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ 1,034 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 are you surprised that out of the few clans left, some don't actively use forums or even have them ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ 1,034 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 do you think you'll find your way back to playing rs / could you see yourself playing again realistically? and if yea, what do you think you'd do ingame? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lavigne 901 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Hey, I used to be a CL in clanning (MVP). I remember you trying to get me out of neg rating when really I should have been banned lmao. Only a couple of questions 1) Do you regret selling to Curse despite the financial gain 2) Why are they being spastics and not giving you the old forum DBs back so we can read old posts. Are the hosting costs really that shit? Grand Miracle Wizard of the Far-Right Sea Templar's Party | Bringing racism back into RS clanning since 2023. RSN: Knight Frank Leader of REIGN community since 2004 - Undisputably the best gaming community in history. An absolute shitload of rank ones/top10 rankings in multiple games. Now too busy. https://www.twitch.tv/Toffee_Latte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@The End 2,069 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Were you still involved in the day-to-day management of the site in any capacity after selling the site to Curse? In early OSRS, Zybez was basically defacto GE (with no GE in game) with people buying/selling using that exclusively. Did the site get record traffic then and make a fortune on ad revenue or were the numbers much lower than RS peak in the mid to late 2000s? How did the Zybez database breach (I believe in ~2011) occur? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@True 2k8 3,223 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 I vaguely remember you being banned from Runescape, is that true? Why were you banned? Was it a.. strategic hit from Jagex.....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W13 12 Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 1 minute ago, True 2k8 said: What were your thoughts on the Clan Discussion section? Did you ever keep up with clans actively? How much RS did you really play? I'm sure you can't tell us how much you made by selling Zybez to Curse, but what can you tell us about the deal? Do you have any funny stories about interactions with Jagex? Great Q's. I had an excellent team who ran the CD section and what i learned was that the LESS I try to interfere the better. I never got into clans because it was a big commitment. I really enjoyed the early clan war videos. And I loved all the drama and sarcastic remarks in the CD forums, and all the interesting personalities. So I was mostly a consumer of content in CD. Now, at my IRL work, I work with CD but it stands for communicable disease :'-) I played very actively from 2001 to 2005. Real life happened and I couldn't really play intensively after 2005. Also, it got way easier to level up and I felt I was left behind. I still did all the quests and tried the new content, etc. for many years after that. Then it was on and off until about 2011 when I got into med school. Signed an NDA 😄 but it was enough to pay for med school, and for my life for about 10 years. KInda funny to think that RuneScape players indirectly paid for my education. lol. Funny stories hmm... well, in early 2001, I complained to Andrew Gower, the founder of RuneScape via email. I said that his website sucks and there's no "help" guides available. I attached a text file of notes I had been keeping in Notepad. He replied saying that he can give me access to update the official website with my notes directly. I said ok. And then he got back to me and said that it's probably better that I put up my notes onto my own website where I can update them as I wished. I said fine and put them up, calling it "RuneScape Help". And then this got renamed to "Zybez RuneScape Help" just because I owned the silly domain name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ 1,034 Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 would you beat @True 2k8 ass if given a chance ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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