Massively interviews Jagex on RuneScape's clan citadels

In July of this year, browser MMO RuneScape celebrated the launch of its latest blockbuster expansion, Clan Citadels. RuneScape has been home to clans for most of its current 10-year run, but until recently they've always been unofficial groups organised using external websites and mutual friend lists. In the absence of game mechanics to support competitive gameplay, clan leaders even organised wars and other competitive games with other clans.Rs Gold
The Clan Citadels update changed all that by introducing the infrastructure clans need to support their in-game endeavours. Clans can now build huge floating cities to be used as a place to meet, throw parties and discuss organisation. The expansion was sweetened by the addition of a completely new free-form battlefield creator, allowing players to develop custom minigames with hand-designed maps. Clans can even invite other players to their battlefields or challenge other clans to a match on their own terms.
Massively recently caught up with two of the developers behind the Clan Citadels expansion to find out how it has been received by players and what we can expect in the future. In this in-depth interview, Senior Content Developer Ashleigh Bridges delves into RuneScape's innovative battlefield creator and Senior Game Designer Chihiro Yamada gives us the lowdown on the future of clan content.Massively: What do you think about the uptake rate of Clan Citadels? Has it been a popular feature?Ashleigh Bridges: I saw on the internet clans posting videos of their tier 3 citadels to proudly show everyone else what they had achieved. Clearly there's been a decent uptake.RuneScape gold
What's the most creative thing players have made with the new battlefield creator?We're kind of going on what we find on YouTube, to be honest. I've certainly seen a lot of ice rinks, possibly because they're places where you can hang around with your clan without having to put any effort into fighting. After that I think the most common thing is a capture the flag arena where you're either running around after flags or running around after balls.The balls have a certain novelty factor because they're different to anything we've had in RuneScape lately. We first used the idea of players kicking balls around for a random holiday event a couple of years ago. It was quite well received at the time, and the players have often suggested we bring back balls for a minigame.
Does Jagex showcase the best battlefields players come up with?
It's certainly a natural way to go considering the things we've done in the past with clans before. It's not rocket science to say that if you're going to allow a way for players to generate their own content then they should have a way to show it off, advertise it and encourage other players to get involved.Runescape money